Stellar Sailor Dickey

Recently I was lucky enough to be a test knitter for the Stellar Sailor Dickey pattern by Paul Haesemeyer. It’s definitely one I would recommend as a good weekend project – as long as you’re comfortable with charted cables, this is a pretty quick knit!

I worked mine up using my favorite yarn – Joann’s Big Twist. I did deviate just a touch by adding in some store bought pompoms instead of making my own, but the color was a perfect match! How could I resist?

in progress, just before joining front and back to work in the round

One of the things that I really like about this piece is that it tucks in really smoothly. Wearing it outside a coat or jacket really shows off the cables, but wearing it tucked in does an incredible job of shielding from wind and snow. I’ve actually already started on a second one in brown, which is going to go to my roommate.

If you haven’t already, be sure to head on over to Paul Haesemeyer’s ravelry page to check out his patterns!

Harry Potter Curtains

I’m back in the states which means I can go back to Joann’s! One thing I was particularly excited about getting my hands on was the Harry Potter fabric collection. I gave myself some rules, though. I wasn’t going to let myself get any fabric without having at least a rough idea of what I wanted to make with it.

empty windowThe thing is, I have this tiny window in my room (27.5″ by 18.5″) through which I get a huge amount of light at night. Curtains would definitely improve my sleeping experience, but what fabric to use?

overlocked hp fabric & black cottonOf course! Deathly Hallows fabric! This fabric is metallic and dark, but it is a little thin, so I added a second layer of black cotton. I knew I wanted to have two curtains in the window and just a small amount of gathering around the curtain rod. To get the sizes of the curtains, I took the width of the window (27.5″), divided it by two (13.75″), added two  inches for seam allowance (15.75″), and added four inches for gathering (9.75″). For the other side of the curtain, I simply added two inches to the height for seam allowance (20.5″). I cut two of these from the Harry Potter fabric and two from the black cotton.

hemmed hp fabricI overlocked all four edges of each piece of fabric. However, I only hemmed the sides and bottoms of each piece. After this, I matched up the black side of the curtains to the Harry Potter side, right sides together, and sewed along the top edge.  Flipping this right sides out, I topstitched along the edge of the top of the curtain, then added a row of stitching about an inch and a half below that. This creates a double sided curtain with a channel going between the two pieces of fabric.

hp curtain in windowWhen I went to put up the curtain, I realized the window was a bit odd in that it gets wider as it gets deeper. Luckily this wasn’t a problem because I’d added 4″ of extra fabric to either side for gathering, so it turned out fine. This serves as a warning to anyone else making curtains – be sure to measure the exact spot your curtains will go and don’t assume your window is the same size all the way through!

This curtain definitely did its job. The above picture and the first picture were both taken in daylight with the ceiling light on. I am very pleased with the end result and add a bit of personality to the room!

hp curtains in window with stuff

New Pansy Fabric!

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve released a new floral fabric on Spoonflower! Pansy Field is also available in a gift wrap and at a smaller scale.

front of pansy field fabric shirtI was inspired to make this fabric when I went to the garden center and saw all the different flowers they had there. The fabric pattern is made using my photos of some of my favorite pansies.

back of pansy field fabric shirtI had the fabric printed onto Sport Lycra in order to make my sister a crop top. I was a little worried about the print appearing faded or washing out, but these pictures were taken after the shirt had already been through the wash. The print is just as bright as when I got it! close up of pansy field fabric shirt

The shirt itself is simply two pieces of fabric zig zagged together at the sides and shoulders. The neck, armhole, and bottom hem are folded over and zig zagged in place.

If anyone ends up using my pansy fabric, please send mp pictures! I’d love to see what you make!

Lup from The Adventure Zone

I recently completed a cosplay of the character Lup from the podcast The Adventure Zone. The Adventure Zone is an adventure comedy D&D podcast hosted by the McElroys. Lup is an accomplished elf wizard and is one of the first inter planar explorers.

Photo taken by Kris

Since The Adventure Zone is solely audial, I based my costume on glowbat’s art of the character. The maroon shirt and ears I bought specifically for this costume, while the earrings and shoes are items I already owned. I didn’t have a sweatshirt that worked for this costume, but I did have a red pullover, so I cut it in half up the front and sewed the pockets closed. The gloves are just plain black gloves with the fingers cut off.

Photo taken by Kris

The wig and shorts were probably the most time intensive part of the wold project. I dip dyed the wig using sharpie ink and rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle, which I documented here. I made the shorts by cutting a pair of jeans at the knee, painting on the flames, and rolling up the raw edge of the shorts. The paint I used for the flames is a 50/50 mix of acrylic paint (for color) and acrylic fabric medium (to set the paint into the fabric). I actually really like these shorts, and have been wearing them out of cosplay quite a bit!

It was so bright the whole weekend, all the makeup I did didn’t show up an camera! Luckily I took this picture of my makeup inside, where all the freckles show up! Unfortunately, in this image the ears I bought are very obviously a different color than my skin. Whoops!

Lup (Alex Davies), Lup, Barry, Lup (Soph Price), Lup (Me!) – Photo taken by Kris

I wore Lup to London MCM May on both the Friday and Saturday. It was super cool to get to go to meet ups on both days and see everyone’s interpretations of the characters. I’m looking forward to changing pieces of this cosplay and wearing it again to a different convention!

Photo taken by Galactic Chief Photography

 

Floral Skirt, Bandana, and Pencil Case

Floral Skirt FrontOn Tuesday afternoon I headed out to Fabricland to purchase a zipper I needed for an upcoming project. While there, I spotted this floral fabric for £4.59 a meter and immediately knew I wanted to make myself a full length skirt.

Floral Skirt BackThe skirt is made from two quarter circle panels with an invisible zip on the side. I think this is the first time I’ve thought ahead when making a skirt and added two inches in length to the back before sewing the panels together. Usually when evening out the hem of a skirt I’ll have to trim down the sides and front, but not this time!

Floral Skirt Hem DetailThis skirt was the first time I’ve ever used a rolled hem sewing machine foot. It was so much easier to use than I thought it would be, and created such a neat hem! I want to use this foot for every single project I make from now on!

Floral Bandana Close UpI thought the skirt would use up almost all of the 3 meters of fabric I bought, but I was wrong. With about 70 centimeters of fabric remaining, I was able to make both a bandana and a pencil case. The bandana was pretty much just an excuse to use my rolled hem foot, as I hardly ever wear bandanas.

The pencil case was a bit fiddly to make. I needed one that would fit all my uni supplies in it, and I wanted it to be fully lined. I didn’t take any pictures of the making process, and it’s difficult to describe how I made it. However, if anyone is interested, I would be happy to make a tutorial on how to make your own.

Airborne Floral Pencil CaseI am extremely happy with everything I made, although I doubt I’ll wear the bandana with any other outfit. The pencil case has already proved very useful and hasn’t fallen apart yet. I want to make about a hundred more half circle skirts with rolled hems, they’re so simple and so comfy!

 

Phases of the Moon Skirt

side of moon skirt

I designed this fabric, Phases of the Moon, a couple years ago, with no real plan besides releasing it on Spoonflower.

phases of the moon dress unfinished

I bought myself two yards last year with the intent of making a dress. It didn’t work out and I can’t remember exactly what happened, but pieces of the fabric remained in my fabric box up until this Thursday.

When I pulled the fabric out, I found I’d already cut out the perfect base for a high/low hem skirt. I couldn’t find the top half of the dress anywhere. All that I did was sew a narrow casing and put a bit of elastic through it. Since it was a knit fabric, I didn’t even hem it. Ridiculously simple!

The fabric is amazing! My design looks great, and the fabric I chose was Modern Jersey. There are some small design details that do not show up on the fabric, but that’s my own fault. I had written the names of each moon phase under the corresponding moon in a light grey. The words were too tiny to show up against such a dark background.

I I’m kind of disappointed I wasn’t able to make the dress I wanted, but I’m happy with what I made. If I do ever find the rest of the moon fabric, I’ll probably make a matching crop top.

Icecream Crop Top

I’ve had this icecream fabric sitting in my fabric box for over a year, and I finally decided I needed to  make something with it.

please excuse the sunburn

Since I only had two fat quarters of this fabric, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make something very big, but I new I wanted to make something I could wear. I copied the the front and back of a tank top I liked the shape of and cut these out. This didn’t work as well as I had hoped, and I had to modify the front piece a lot in order to get it to look nice. I took out about 2 centimeters from the center front and added in bust darts that I angled towards the front seam. I folded over the sides of the front and back pieces and hemmed them. Next, I added small pieces of stretchy elastic these sides to add some stretch and interesting detail to the top.

When making this, I really wanted to showcase the icecream fabric. I think this top does a good job of this, despite having more seam detail than I wanted. The bust darts aren’t very visible, but I’m not happy with the center front seam. I do think this top will get some wear out of it, but it’s not my favorite. At least I was able to use a fabric I already had!

Purple Skirt

purple skirt front

As you may have noticed by now, I like making skirts. I believe I’ve made about five in the past six months. None of them have been very exciting, but they have all been just different enough to justify having their own blog post.

purple skirt side

This skirt is a half circle skirt with a plain waistband. It was pretty straightforward, but I did have trouble with the hem. The hem kept twisting while I stitched it, so instead of having a single line of stitching around the bottom, I chose to have three. The skirt opens and closes using a center back zipper.

purple skirt back

The shape of this skirt is really fun, and I plan on making many similar ones in the future. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may have noticed that the photo quality has changed. I recently purchased a new camera and I also got a remote clicker! This means that I no longer have to rely on a timer to take photos of myself. I’m hoping this will encourage me to always take photos of my work, and I’ll be sure to blog about them here!

 

Bee Skirt

bee skirt front

I made this skirt as part of a costume for a bee party I went to a few months ago. Since I haven’t been doing the best job of taking photos as soon as I make something, this post (as well as the next one) are quite late.

bee skirt back

I went on amazon and bought two meters of the cheapest black and yellow striped fabric I could find. Originally, I had intended to make a dress from Gertie’s Ultimate Dress Book, but I came across a problem when it came to the bodice. I cut the bodice out a size larger than it needed to be, but the armholes were so small I couldn’t fit my arms through them.

bee skirt side

Because I was a little pressed for time, I gave up on trying to fit the sleeves and bodice to myself and made a skirt instead. The skirt is simple, made from three rectangles: the front, back, and waistband. I zig zag stitched all the raw seams and included a side zipper.

I would like to eventually make this skirt into the dress I originally wanted. The bodice pieces only need small modifications in the shoulder and armpit area. While the pattern originally called for short sleeves, I probably won’t include them because I don’t have enough fabric left to recut them.

Jaws Skirt

I saw this teal Jaws fabric at Joann’s and fell in love immediately. I bought three yards, intending to make myself a matching short and shirt set.

Jaws Skirt side

Clearly, I did not end up with shorts or a shirt. Initially, I used about two yards of the fabric to attempt to make a pair of shorts that looked like a skirt, similar to short culottes but with a gathered waist.

Jaws Shorts attempt

This is how the shorts looked around my second attempt. The looked fine on the mannequin, but when I put them on there was a weird triangular gap in the lower center front and back. Not only that, but when I sat down, they pulled in weird places and were uncomfortable to sit in.

Jaws Skirt front

I left the shorts alone for about a week, trying to figure out what to make from them. Eventually, I just cut the shorts into 6 large isosceles trapezoids. I sewed the sides of the trapezoids together, leaving one side open, and gathered the top into a waistband.

Jaws Skirt zipper close up

On the side that was still open, I sewed in an invisible zipper and two hooks and eyes. I then folded over the waistband and top stitched across the bottom with a silver glittery thread.

Jaws Skirt hem close up

I had already hemmed the shorts with the glittery silver fabric, so I just made sure to line up the bottoms of the pieces carefully so I wouldn’t have to sew another hem.

Jaws Skirt Front 2

After I finished the skirt, I did not have enough fabric left to make myself a matching shirt. There might be enough left to make my little sister a skirt, so there may be another Jaws Skirt post in the future!

I really like how this skirt turned out and have already worn it twice. I will definitely be wearing this a lot more!