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!

 

Dolly from Luxury Comedy

I’ve been watching a lot of Luxury Comedy recently, so my friend Alice the Insane and I decided to dress as Noel and Dolly.

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I made the dress and cut and styled the wig myself, too. The tights, shoes, and belt I found on Amazon and I already owned all of the jewelry and makeup.

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The dress was a weird thing to make. There’s one sleeve, a weird flap in the front, and shoulder pads. I patterned a shift dress and the sleeve using flat pattern drafting. To make the front flap, I cut out two shift dress fronts and sewed one to the back on both sides and the other on only one side. I then cut the top front (the one sewed in on one side) so that the free side slowly came in until it was about five inches from the side seam. Next, I folded over the side and sewed a hem using my machine. I also hand sewed the edge of the top of that side hem onto the side seam so that the flap would fall where I wanted it to.

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Instead of fully lining the dress, I made a facing to go around the neck and the left armhole.  It’s herringbone stitched in place to make sure it wouldn’t flip up or move around, and I used it to help keep the shoulder pads in place.

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I actually really like the dress and might wear it without the rest of the costume sometime. It’s a little dressy to wear to uni, and the shoulder pads are kind of a weird element, but I think I can find use for it somewhere.

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I think I made the exact same expression in every photo we took.

The makeup is still probably the funkiest part of this outfit. I spent a lot of time trying to get it just right, and I ended up needing some help with my eyebrows from my friend on the day of the con.

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Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween! ?

 

New Fabric Designs!

If you have a Spoonflower account and follow my account, you’ve probably noticed some new designs. I’ve been working on a fabric collection based on paint.

fabric photo bllue and black splatters

The first fabric, called Black and Blue Mirrors, is a simple black and blue repeating pattern. I created this design using acrylic paint and paper. I then scanned the painting into my computer and cleaned it up as much as I could before I ordered a yard of fabric from Spoonflower.

Why did I order a yard of fabric, you ask?
13235751_1279093012118230_1632974195_nFor a swap with Alice the Insane, of course! I gave her a yard of my design printed on cotton poplin ultra in trade for a super cute bag that she made to match our Kylo Ren and General Hux cosplays that we wore to MCM London. 

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I really like the bag she made, and I’ve been using it so much! It’s a really good size for everything I need with me on a daily basis.

13250474_1279092878784910_492591044_n I love the dress she decided to make from the fabric, I think she did an amazing job keeping the pattern intact and that having the design off center was fresh and different.

13249616_1279092972118234_616445597_nShe added bias binding to the neck edge, and the dress opens at the side with a zipper. Isn’t it lovely?

painted stripes fabric sample

This is the other fabric that I designed, also made using acrylic paint, paper, and a scanner. It’s only the second fabric in my ‘Paint’ fabric collection, and I’m hoping to add at least two more painted fabric designs over the summer.

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Be sure to check out Alice the Insane’s facebook page!

If you’re interested in purchasing either of these fabrics, they are available here.

Grandpa Vicki

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My friend’s friend Vicki asked me to make her a hat that said ‘Grandpa Vicki’ on it. I made this one the same way that I make all of the knitted slouchy beanies, but with the addition of a simple pom-pom. If anyone is interested in the basic ideas behind it, I can make a post about them.

grandpa vicki inside of hat

I designed these letters the same way as I did the ‘ANGEL’ hat, using this knitting graph stitch template. I also used the same method to write the letters, and remembered to take a picture of the inside this time!

If you haven’t liked my facebook page yet, you should! I’ve been writing about the cosplays I did for Bournemouth, and I will be posting about my costumes in detail next week!

Perry the Platypus Dress

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This pictures were taken in September…Oops.

The dress is another pattern from Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing. It’s the Sweetheart Sundress, although I modified it to better fit the idea that I had in my head. I changed the front of the dress so that it is no longer just two pieces (one on each side), but is now five (two on top, three on bottom), changed the back piece by separating the piece along the darts into three separate pieces, and changed the side zipper in order to make a more fitted dress.

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The skirt is a simple gathered skirt with a wide lace trim to add a bit of interest to the dress. The first time I applied the lace to the dress, I accidentally melted a segment of the lace with the iron and had to tear out the whole trim and replace it with new lace.

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This is the inside of the dress. Only the top is lined, and I hand sewed in bra cups for support. The zipper is on the left side, and I did not encase it in fabric on both sides because I was trying to avoid hand sewing as much as possible.

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I think I like the new lace much better.

I found this fabric at Joann’s while looking for a fabric I could use to make a comic book print dress. I think that the fabric fits the criteria I set, because it includes animated characters in a comic book print design. It’s a cotton blend printed with the Phineas and Ferb characters with a focus on Perry the Platypus.

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Whee!

The Zig-Zag Dress

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Oh man, look at that pattern matching on the princess seams!

I made the zig-zag dress a little over a year ago, sometime in the year 2013. It was part of my “Greyscale” Collection, which, as the name suggests, is a collection made from fabrics in shades of grey, black and white. The collection was inspired by the outfits in old black and white movies.

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The pattern is Vogue V8808 cut out in option B. I really like this dress style, especially the collar, shape, and length combination. I made the zig-zag dress before I had been told it is a much better idea to trace the pattern pieces, so all of the pieces are actually cut out of the original pattern paper.

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What happened to the pattern matching on the sides??

I’m really proud of the pattern matching on the princess seams (zig-zags AND curves? What was I thinking?!), but not of the pattern matching on the side seams. The reason for this is probably because I sewed and serged the side seams of the lining and the outside fabric at the same time.

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The inside of the zig-zag dress isn’t very pretty, but at least I serged all of my seams.

Because the zig-zag fabric was very lightweight and see-through, I did not make a full lining, and instead ended it above the knee with a terribly uneven hem. Luckily, it’s not obvious that the lining hem is uneven from the outside, and instead looks like it transitions smoothly from lined to unlined.

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Despite its flaws, I still really like the zig-zag dress – I mean look at those princess seams!

Winter Gifts! (Part One)

georgia with present with hat also hatI made this hat out of a very nice wool blend yarn for my friend Georgia. I modified my “Spark” Slouchy Hat pattern by adding a band and stopping the dome of the hat early so that it would be a closer fit.
I’m allergic to wool, but I did not have any difficulties working with the yarn, and the hat worked up fairly quickly. However, when I went to try the hat on, I discovered I was too allergic to wear it. Georgia had no problems with the yarn and was very excited to receive her gift.

kates slytherin hatThis hat I made for my friend Kate, who lives far enough away that I had to mail it to her. I originally wanted this hat to be an earflap hat, but I miscalculated how much grey yarn I had, and ran out very early on. I was able to fix the problem, and made a green brim for the hat instead of earflaps, adding the Hogwarts house name “Slytherin” to the brim in the remaining silver yarn.

Over the next few days/weeks I will be uploading pictures of the remaining gifts I have given to my friends, as well as one I received. I will also be taking pictures of older garments that I may not have mentioned before, and posting those.

Pink Zebra Print Fox

monkeymakesafoxMy sister Adelaide (9) made a fox today with just a little help from me. Here’s what she has to say about it:

“The tail was the hardest part because I had to hand-sew all the way around. He’s made of very soft pink and pink zebra fleece. I used two hand-stitch techniques. I used the ladder stitch to sew him together at the end, and a running stitch for everything else. He was very fun to make and his name is Darth Vader.”

When questioned about his name, Adelaide had this to say:

“I like Star Wars, and Darth Vader is my favorite character!”

This fox was made from a free fox pattern my sister found over at Katie Steuernagle‘s blog, Matsutake.

Dirk Strider Cosplay Skirt

Adelaide in Dirk Skirt (Glasses)
Here we see my sister modeling a skirt I made for my friend Genny’s birthday. It’s a reversible knit skirt with an elastic waistband. It’s based off of the character Dirk Strider from the webcomic Homestuck. I put an applique of Dirk’s glasses on the orange side and and one of his hat on the black side. Genny is planning to cosplay as Dirk later on in the year, and hopefully she’ll allow me to post a picture of her complete costume on my site!

Adelaide in Dirk Skirt (Hat)The applique on this skirt was difficult to attach because the threads wouldn’t catch during the stitching, and I’d take the skirt off the machine to find terrible seams. The issue might have been that I was trying to applique a knit to another knit. However, I was able to fix the applique in time for my friend’s birthday, and I am very pleased with the result!