Hemming time!

As of last Thursday, the outer hem of the dress is done. It ended up being a bit of a process, since as you can see here, I didn't do the greatest job of adding equal amounts of fabric to the skirt pieces. Fortunately, I had a little more seam allowance to work with than I'd originally thought, because I did end up getting talked into getting a different pair of shoes. Which are far more comfortable than the original silver ones, and have a lower heel. They're also dyeable, so I'm wondering what color I should turn them into after the wedding! It's not often my extra-wide feet will allow me the luxury of colorful shoes! I'm thinking maybe teal, because I do wear quite a bit of that.

I decided to use horsehair braid for a little extra body to the hem, and I also decided to use some lace on the inside to even up the hem allowance--it varied from about 1.25" to maybe 6"! And my horsehair is 2", so you can do the math. It didn't take too terribly long to add the lace, since I did use the machine to attach it the the hem allowance and only needed to hand-sew the actual hem. After all that and the extra bulk of the horsehair, it did end up being a little too narrow of a hem to encase it completely, but it was pretty close and it really just looks like an extension of the lace. Since this is basically functioning as hem tape, I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on the lace, so I was pleased to find this vaguely sunflowerish pattern at Joann's that was the same width as my horsehair.

After pressing, I concluded that I do need to do some tulle underlayering. The skirt does need a little poofiness--see how it caves in on that left side, which is actually the front? I also discovered that the seams do show through in the light, which means my legs will too, so hopefully that plus the lining will add enough opacity to counteract that.  Hopefully I can figure out how to sandwich it in without adding too much bulk in the waistband--I'm thinking maybe some tiers are in order. I also need to figure out how to make the waist stay, and what the best way is to deal with that and the lining.

Friday's project, other than pressing, was to pin the sunflower appliqués that I've cut out around the edge, about 3" from the hem. I was able to space them pretty evenly, but seriously overestimated how many I would need--I used 23 and cut out 40! But at least it gave me something to do during tv time. And it also means I can give you a sneak peek of what the final project will look like!

Ta-da! Please ignore the mess in the room, aka wedding planning central, and focus on the pretty dress, ok? The sunflowers can't be seen too well, but they're mostly only pinned on for now anyway.

I'm not sure how long it will take me to sew all of these on--as of the time I'm writing this, I have 4 done, and after the first one, I figured out a way to work on multiple flowers at the same time by doing it in rows. It's also easier, because I don't have to rotate the skirt and can work in vaguely straight lines. The difficulty is that I got called back to my garden shop job, starting tomorrow, so my sewing time has to cut way back after today. (I'm quite thankful I've had these 2+ months to get this far, or I'd be freaking out!) So I'm not sure when I'll have anything worth posting about again, until this part is done. In the meantime, I need to ponder what to do with the 3ish yards of this sunflower lace that I still have left! Any suggestions?

If I had $1000000, I'd buy you a green dress...

"....but not a real green dress, that's cruel..."

Yeah, I had that song stuck in my head quite a bit while working on this project! Which, in typical fashion for me when sewing anything that might get worn to a wedding, ended up being much more difficult than I'd anticipated. I've spent hours and hours working on it this week, and it's definitely got its issues. But the one and only dress I'd listed for the Fall Essentials Sew-Along is now done.

Last weekend, I was originally supposed to go camping with the friend I made the Anthropologie-esque aprons with. But we had to make a last-minute change of plans due to nasty weather forecasts--neither of us felt like camping in the rain and mud. So instead, she came here for a sewing day. The funny thing was, without planning it, we both ended up using the exact same fabric for our projects! We'd actually each bought some yardage of the same knit a couple of years ago when shopping at a Joann's together, and neither of us had figured out what to do with it until now. So she copied a dress she'd borrowed from a friend, and I worked on this. It's probably a good thing, too, because there's no way I would have finished the dress before this Saturday's wedding otherwise. I'm going to go ahead and do a full pattern review for this one, in hopes that it might help someone else down the line. (Especially since, as of when I wrote this review, this was the first one for this pattern on PR.)

Pattern Description: From the envelope: Lined, close-fitting dress has side front inseam pockets and attached petticoat with ruffles.

Pattern Sizing: 6-18. I (stupidly) made the 14.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Mostly.

Were the instructions easy to follow? The instructions were very well laid-out. The only confusion I had was finishing off the end of the zipper.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I like the style, and the clear directions. I did not like the sizing--the whole thing seemed to run very large, and it caused me quite a few issues.

Fabric Used: I used a 2-way stretch knit that I'm pretty sure is a rayon for the majority (it's been in the stash for awhile),  plus a tricot lining and polyester organza for the petticoat.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I ended up having to make quite a few fitting changes. I didn't make a muslin for this since I figured knits would be easier to tweak as I went. (Besides the aforementioned on-the-fly small-bust-adjustment that I NEVER have to make....) I also had to take about 4" total out of the back, at least a good 2-3" out of the back shoulder strap, and I spent several hours yesterday ripping out the side/back facings I'd sewed in earlier in the week so I could stay-tape those edges and hand-sew the facings back in. I didn't know until I tried it on to double-check where I'd pinned up the hem that adding that facing stretched the sides out an extra 3" each (!), and it was sagging out horribly under my arms. (See picture for how much I had to pin it in to get it to fit after machine-sewing the facings on!)

I also ended up having to gather up the fabric and tack it under the knot at the bustline, because the gathers were not falling right around the waistline. (It's still sagging there, as you can see, but it's definitely better than it was.) I also hand-picked the zipper topstitching, because I didn't think my machine would be too happy about all of the layers around the waist between the fabric, the lining, and the elastic.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I would not sew it again, since this is a rather unique style and I don't need two of these in my wardrobe. I would recommend it for more advanced seamstresses, with the caveat that you should probably take it down at least a full size from your usual pattern size. Possibly two. I'd also strongly recommend adding stay tape or interfacing before adding the back facings so it doesn't distort as badly as mine did the first time.

Conclusion: I think it looks ok overall, and I'm certainly going to wear this since it was the pattern I've been most excited about sewing this fall. I'm thinking that if I add a belt, it'll hide the slight wonkiness that is still around the waist seam. But I wish I'd gone with the thought I'd had about perhaps sewing size 12 instead. There's a LOT of fabric in this dress, and it makes it somewhat heavy for a knit dress, and everything gets stretched. 

Other notes: The elastic was a pain in the neck to get into this dress. I actually ended up having to rip a hole in the lining with my seam ripper so I could better distribute the elastic within the casing. Also, pressing the petticoat section is kind of helpful--it was too poofy under the skirt at first, but after I flattened it out, it seemed to lay better. Even though that put creases in the organza that probably shouldn't have been there. (The petticoat is still pretty poofy, but it is laying better now.)

I also kind of wish I'd hand-sewn in the entire zipper, because it isn't entirely lined up at the waist. Though it doesn't look that bad in this picture, to be honest--it seemed much more off to me in real life. And I couldn't do anything to fix it because by the time I'd noticed it, I'd already trimmed the seams, and this is what's holding the elastic "waist stay" in place.

So it's done, and just in time for the wedding....though apparently we have a cold front coming in later today or tomorrow, and it'll actually be feeling fallish on Saturday. So I hope I don't get cold in this basically sleeveless dress!

This is the other thing I've been working on this week-- I realized late last week that I didn't really have any shoes to wear to this or the second wedding I'll be attending in October. I'll be wearing the little black dress for the second since I'm also on musician duty for that one, but for Saturday's wedding in particular, I didn't want to go too casual for the shoes since it's basically a big ruched-up t-shirt of a dress. One rather frustrating trip to two different shoe stores later where absolutely nothing was even close to fitting and I learned that the trend for this season is 4" stiletto heels that I would undoubtedly break an ankle if I try to do anything resembling walking in, I decided to just do a non-permanent refashion to the basic heels I already have. So, with the help of some clip-on earrings and some pre-made flowers I found at Joann's, this is what I did to my brown shoe. (Singular, because I still have to do the second shoe, and that is on the agenda for today.) I did this at the beginning of the week, and I made a little tutorial for it over at Refashion Co-Op. And since the little flowers just clip on, I can easily go back to my basic brown shoe after. (If I want to. I actually like them much better with the flowers!) I'll be doing a second pair of clips later in the month for my black shoes, since it's a formal evening wedding and my shoes are, again, not quite fancy enough.

But first, once clip #2 is done, I think I am actually going to take a few days off from sewing. This dress left me feeling like I need a break before I dive into my next project, so I think the rest of my crafty free time this week will be taken up by knitting instead! (I do have things to show there, though none of them are finished, so I'll try to do an update for that in a day or so.)

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...

I can't help it. I see plaid, I get that Monty Python song stuck in my head. But I think my shirt looks way better than his. And since the fabric was called "Ayden", I'm going to go with that for the sidebar, because I'd much rather go with the boys' name than my "lumberjack shirt". (Besides, I like the way they spelled it.) So here's my extremely laid-back pattern review for Burda #110 of the May 2009 issue.

It's not perfect. If I was going to do it again, I think I'd have done some things differently. Like I think I'd make the back a bit wider, because it's a little snug across the shoulders despite my having let the back pleat out quite a bit for the same reason. And I'd take it in a bit more at the waist....I may still do that if I'm feeling up to it, actually. Depends on how self-conscious I end up feeling about it. I'd definitely make the buttonholes a little bigger, because some of the buttons are reaaaaaally hard to button, but I was having some issues with that anyway (more on that later). And I ended up taking something like 6" off the hem, because when I did the test version, I knew that with the plaid, it was going to hit in a really awful spot on my hips. I think maybe I took a little too much off. Maybe.

But I do think I did well with other things. I took a little of the fullness out of the sleeves, and they're perfectly non-gathered just like I wanted--and I added the right length, too! And I still like the way the pleats turned out! I like the double-buttoned cuffs even though I don't think the pattern called for that. (I have to admit that once I got to the buttonholes yesterday afternoon, I kind of ignored the magazine's instructions altogether and just stuck them where they'd look good. And no collar button that I'm never, ever going to use!) I think I did a pretty good job of matching up the stripes, too, at least to the extent that I could given the pattern. I'm still proud of myself for picking this fabric, because it's not in my color comfort zone at all-- no blue, green, black or brown anywhere, and I still like it.

I do like the pattern overall, and I think with a couple of tweaks to fix those fitting issues, I'd use it again.

So that issue I'm having with buttonholes... I think I may have broken the buttonhole foot on my machine. :-( I have this bad habit of setting it on the edge of the table--earlier this year or late last year I found a travel toiletry case at Goodwill and I've been using that as my "sewing box", which has worked really well, and had been keeping it in there. Which worked much better. Except that apparently I forgot to do that one time recently, and it got knocked onto the floor and into two pieces. It's back together now, but it doesn't quite slide around as well as it should, and still comes apart sometimes. I'm also not entirely convinced that because of that, it doesn't affect the length the buttonholes actually end up being in relation to each other--my machine has the ability to make one buttonhole and then go on auto to remember the length, but if the foot's not starting in the right place, I think it may be shortening a few of them. I'm not sure if I'll be able to replace it either, since I have an older model machine. :-( Guess I'll have to start checking eBay.

I also did a minor refashion recently, which I finished up on Friday night. I got this tank top awhile back because I liked the color and the length and overall shape of it. What I did not like was this embellishment. I was ok with the sequins, but those clusters of fake pearls were just nasty. Especially since I'm not a pearl fan anyway--too grandmotherly for my taste. So I took those off, as well as the sequins since they were coming off anyway. I wanted to take the lace off too, but I took a couple of stitches out and found that it was leaving visible holes in the fabric, so it had to stay. It was too plain with just the lace, so I ended up sewing beads on there.

Much better. (Except for the photo coloring.)

A couple of updates on previously mentioned things:
#1: I've decided for certain that I will be doing Self-Stitched September. My pledge is to wear at least one handmade or reconstructed article of clothing and/or accessory each day for the month. (Good thing I have my jewelry stash.)

#2: You remember that jeans muslin? The one that was just refusing to work? The class instructor did get it in the mail. (And is actually using it as an example in the jeans-fitting class she's teaching at a fashion school there, eep! I guess it's a good example of what not to do....or how many fitting issues one girl can have...) The nice thing is that she's going to make a pattern from the muslin (hopefully after fixing the crotch issues) and send that back to me. So that saves me a step, and then I don't have to worry about remembering the ridiculous amount of changes I ended up making. So maybe, just maybe, there is hope that someday I will be able to make a pair of jeans that really fit! (And don't fall apart after 3 wearings. Yes, I'm still a little bitter about that one.)

Next on the agenda: a new bag for fall. I broke down and bought a purse last fall because I didn't have time to sew one, and ended up hating it. At least, hating the straps, which had a tendency to constantly fall off my shoulder when I had to wear a coat. Especially this one, which is quite bulky due to all of the layers...stuff like that makes me wish I could wear wool.  (Also, for a pricey leather bag, which thankfully was on sale, it was kind of poorly constructed-- I had a tear in it before 2 months had passed!) So this year I'm going back to my funky printed cotton bag. And using up some stash to boot! Hoping to cut that out tonight, since I have reduced teaching and will be home earlier than usual. Ah, end of summer/beginning of marching band season.

Tutorial: Pleated knit trim

After my last post, Faye asked me if I could post a tutorial for how I did the trim for the Shakespeare On The Green top. So here you go, Faye...sorry it took me awhile to get to it!

1. We're going to pretend that the folded piece is the neckline of my shirt, and that the strip actually has edge finishing, ok? For the actual shirt, I had sewed it together in its entirety, including neckline facings. (Depending on the style, you might not need to sew it entirely, but since this one was more or less a raglan sleeve, I needed those sleeve parts for the neckline to be complete.) I also finished the edges of the fabric strip with a rolled hem on my serger. The strip is about 1.25" wide. I also cut it so that the grain was running vertical on the strip so that it wouldn't stretch much as I was pleating it. (For the sleeve trim, I cut the strips on the horizontal grain because I figured it might need a little more give there.)

2. Fold the strip width-wise, like this. I tried to keep the depth of the fold somewhere around 3/8" to 1/2"...don't think it always worked, but I didn't see any parts jumping out as ridiculously huge. So don't feel like you have to measure everything--I measured the ones that looked overly big, but I mostly just eyeballed it.

3. Pin this fold down on the neckline, so that one edge slightly overlaps the seam between the neckline and the facing. Then make a fold in the opposite direction, so that the folds underneath match up in the center.

4. Pin the new fold down. Then make a third pleat so that the folds on the upper part of the trim meet up in the middle.

5. Continue folding and pleating like this, alternating directions and pinning to the shirt as you go. (The "rectangles" showing at the top of the box pleats ended up being approximately 7/8"- 1" between the folds.) If you look at the trim from the side, it should have a bit of a zig-zaggy look, as seen in this post. (Though it won't be nearly as obvious as in the pic, since it's all pinned down.) If you run out of trim, you can just cut a new strip, fold the raw edge under, and pin that fold adjacent to the last fold of the old strip. (I trimmed away the excess to cut the bulk, too, when this happened to me.)

6. (No pic of this step, sorry!) Once you're done pinning it all the way around, sew a row of straight stitches down the center of the strip, all the way around. If you do a rounder neckline, you're probably done after this. Since I did a V-neck, I also had to add a little bit of the trim in the middle front in a new piece to cover up the ends. Then all you need to do is make sure all the pins are out, press it a bit, and voila!

I hope this was helpful--let me know if any steps were confusing and I'll clarify as soon as I get a chance.

Sadly, the pics for this tutorial are the closest I've gotten to sewing in about a week and a half. I've thought about it...just haven't had a chance to sit down at the machine, despite having a skirt cut out and ready to go. Things have just been super-busy lately, and with no sign of letting up too soon. (I've also thought about changing this blog's color scheme around a bit so that it's not so clashy, but no time to do that either! A good chunk of it has been work-related--the school I teach band at one day a week had a music competition this past Friday and I had to do some extra things in the evenings to get everything prepared, I had an all-day Saturday rehearsal and a concert on Sunday, I got home late from teaching today and had to deal with some music hunting and laundry, etc. Oh, yeah, and on top of all of this, some jerk decided to hack into my Facebook account about a week ago while I was at work and tell all of my friends that I had been mugged at gunpoint in London and needed cash wired to me so I could get home. So in the ensuing chaos, I had to make a new Facebook account, shut down my old one, and am in the process of re-friending everyone I actually wanted to stay in touch with and uploading my photos that I still wanted to keep up there. Doesn't look like it's going to let up for at least another week, either, though that's mostly due to social stuff. And the fact that I'll be out in the middle of the woods backpacking this weekend with no electricity, let alone outlets to plug a machine into! (My machine is waaaaaaaay too much weight to shove in my pack anyway!) And I've got church-related stuff going on for the next 3 days. And plans to have dinner with a friend next Monday night. And more plans for the next 3 weekends straight, although I may be able to cram some in on Mother's Day weekend depending on when my family does stuff and if my mom and I do end up working on her flower garden that weekend. Maybe, just maybe, I can sew some on next Tuesday night since I have less teaching than usual. As long as I get it in before Lost--that is one of the few shows I cannot sew during!

I did, however, make a necklace on Saturday night--my friend C. was over so we could watch the season premiere of Doctor Who together, and she'd asked me to fix a couple of necklaces for her, so I had the jewelry stuff out already anyway. It's the next necklace in my "Elements" series, for water, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. No earrings or pictures yet.

Shakespeare on the Green

That's what I've decided to call this top, anyway--getting inspiration from Anthropologie (and now ModCloth as well) always makes me want to give my garments cute names!

Anyway, it's finished as of about five minutes ago--I almost had it hemmed on Friday night, and then discovered that the bobbin thread (which is what was showing on the outside) was too blue of a green and it was showing very obviously. Not only that, but my machine had skipped several stitches. So I ripped it out last night after my killer 10-hour work day, and sewed it this morning since I don't have to get to church early for tech crew or anything.

This is the same Burda 6-09 pattern as the last shirt, so rather than do a whole pattern review, I'll just talk about the changes. I knew I wanted to make this one look rather different, particularly since they were two different shades of the same color. So instead of using the pleated front piece this time, I used the front lining piece that I decided was unnecessary in the original shirt (I had it cut out anyway, since this was the test version.) And then I extended the dart in a pintuck all the way to the shoulder to make a mock princess seam. Since I still had the problem of not having allowed enough for a hem on the sleeve, I extended the sleeve with the box-pleated trim. And then added some center-stitched box-pleated trim around the neck as well. (The edges of the trim are done with a rolled-hem stitch off of my serger.)

To give credit where it's due, the inspiration for the pleated trim came from the "Shakespeare In The Park" top at ModCloth.  So I'd already decided to give it this name before I finished it...the neckline trim ending up a bit more ruffly than I thought ended up being a bit of a happy accident in light of that! It's kind of reminiscent of those Elizabethan ruffs without being so literal. Also, I have to say that I'm really impressed with ModCloth's customer service--after commenting on the usual length of their dresses in a recent post, someone from their business took the time to comment on my post to point me to a page where they'd collected their longer dresses! I don't actually need to buy any dresses at the moment, but I think they just convinced me to go ahead and get this vest that I've been debating about...

And one more shot of the back. So now that this one's done, I'm hoping to maybe get the next sewing project cut out this afternoon--I'll be making this skirt in a solid black. The only hitch in the plan is that I seem to have misplaced my directions for using the skirt sloper pattern that I made in the Pattern Review class last fall to check the fitting of a different skirt pattern! I emailed them to see if I could get another copy of that particular lesson, since the pdfs won't save onto your hard drive-- I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen, but worth a shot, right? I'd better head to church now, though.

unexpected.

A detail view of the neckline of the shirt I'm making from my muslin for the seafoam top. This may end up falling under the category of a happy accident...I haven't pressed it yet, so I don't know if it will stay this ripply and poofy (I pleated and pinned the fabric strips directly onto the neckline without ironing), but I kind of like the poofy ruffly-ness. (Which is good, since even with ironing, it could revert to this after washing!)

More pics to come soon...all I have left to do on this is hem it and it'll be done. But I'm going to hold off on that till tomorrow, as we're supposed to go from this gorgeous summery weather we've been having back to regular ol' early April overnight. Which means the potential for massive thunderstorms starting as early as 9, which means if I want to exercise and shower before those hit, I'd better get my butt in gear. Literally!

I'm ahead of my time, apparently.

First off: Happy Easter! (What's left of it, anyway.)

Second: My apologies to everyone that I'm regularly in contact with through here, as I'm rather behind on reading and even more so on commenting on all of your blogs. Since going back to my third job, my computer time has been cut back quite a bit, but I am still lurking and following what you're doing and will comment as I can!

I was briefly browsing on Modcloth this evening, looking for a particular top that is serving as partial inspiration for my current sewing project so I could save the picture. While on there, I stumbled across this dress:

Their "Island In The Sun" dress.

I can't help it...something about the seaming detail with the midriff panel, the gathery waist, and the tie-dyed colors really, really makes me think of my Titania dress from about 2 1/2 years ago.

From sew and so

Though I have to admit that I like my version better. The wider straps and the longer skirt make it a lot more wearable for me (Modcloth has some cute stuff, but man, their dresses run short!) Plus mine has shiny stuff woven into the fabric. ;-)

Other than that, let's see... I made some paper yesterday, which still hasn't dried, and is partially a fail, but I'll blog about that more later. I finished some hand-sewing detail on my current shirt project tonight, and can therefore get back to actual construction. I also finally tried out the Kansashi In Bloom book this afternoon (a craft I could bring along to my grandparents' that wouldn't take very long and would still allow me to talk to relatives), and it was pretty fun.

Also, I decided to go back to the Blogger-sanctioned template....it won't be as pretty, but it's way more functional. I'll just need to work on a new banner for the top so I can at least customize from there. (I did figure out how to get the scrollbars back in, and edit the background, so that's something, right?)

And now, off to bed.

The Elements Jewelry Series, part 2: Earth (and an informal poll)

Let's do the informal poll first, to get it out of the way. I'm still having absolutely no luck with fixing the sidebars, and the creator of the template doesn't seem to be answering my blog comment to ask about it. So I wanted to ask those of you that are kind enough to read this blog in the first place what you think I should do about it. Are the ridiculously long link lists in the sidebars too annoying to deal with? Would this be more reader-friendly if I went back to a regular Blogger-created template and tried to customize it from there? Or, to keep the look, should I put a limit on the number of finished projects links, at least? I still like the look, but the sidebars are kind of bothering me. As is the fact that I have to double-space all paragraphs to get it to read right (at least on my computer.)

Ok, on to the crafty fun stuff. I finished this up last week, but didn't have a chance to take photos until today.

So this is my "Earth" set. I knew I wanted it to be kind of chunky-looking, and to use a lot of stone beads. I mixed in some copper, too (the "earthiest" looking of the metals I could have used, I thought), and some glass beads because it needed a bit more brown.

Isn't this pendant great? It's been in my stash for awhile--I think I was subconsciously saving it for something cooler than the fake suede cord that came with it in the kit. These chip beads were pretty much the perfect color scheme to go with--a mix of tans and browns and greens (hey, plants grow in the earth, it counts, right?) I did buy the copper beads, just because I didn't have any in the stash. And I'm particularly proud of that coiled bit of wire that holds the pendant on--I had to DIY it, because my original plan of stringing the beads on a very thin leather cord so I could knot it through the hold didn't work at all! The chip bead holes were just a little bit too small, and I was having to hand-drill them all out with a reamer to (mostly) get them to fit. And then I discovered that I'd rubbed the reamer smooth (and therefore useless) before getting a third of the way through the necklace! So it was time for a plan B.

I had to cannibalize a pair of earrings to go with. I'd bought these cool stone drops that were the same type of stone as the pendant--I'd thought that since there was a rather large hole in the middle of the teardrop, it would make them light enough. But when I tested one, that wasn't the case. Now I have to figure out what to do with four of those things...rats. Anyway, this was a pair I'd made to go with a necklace that I gave to my mom for Christmas one year. Since then, she's stopped wearing earrings altogether, so she gave her entire earring collection to me. I didn't change much--the beads at the bottom were originally smaller and black. But maybe now I'll actually get some use out of them!

I

I have been sewing, too. I got a pretty good chunk of the darker green previous test version of the Burda shirt serged together on Saturday. But I wanted to make this one look different somehow, so I wouldn't have two virtually identical shirts in two different shades of green. So this is part of how I'm (hopefully) going to make that happen. A bit tedious, doing all of this hand-pleating, but I'm hoping the results will be worth it!

Crafty progress!

I actually did get a couple of scrapbook pages done over the last couple of days--ones that I'd had pretty much ready to assemble since last February. I think that's the best way to go for me-- just have all the writing and such ready to go, and then I can just sit down and throw them together quickly. Anyway, here they are.

Both of these are catching up from 2008-- this first one is some nature-ish pictures from a park when I was hanging out with a friend. I had fun using the extra piece of the printed paper as embellishments.


And then this second was from a family trip to the beach, which was a little more time-consuming to get ready, mainly due to the little wood-printed paper frames that I made and the little crab sticker (barely visible in the corner.) The swirls were kind of a last-minute addition because it just needed something.

I've also managed to get the alterations done on both my dress that I'm wearing for next weekend's wedding, and C's bridesmaid dress. So here's my current project--I'm trying my hand at some screenprinting so I can make some fun baby gifts for a fellow Lord of the Rings-obsessed friend. I'm using the Threadbanger tutorial on how to do it inexpensively with recycled nylons and Mod Podge. So far I'm still in the screen-making stage. Believe it or not, this is the less intricate of the two designs I'm attempting to screenprint! And it looks a little funny right now since this was the in-progress pic and I went around the tree first, so by the time I got to the outer parts, that was mostly dry. Obviously it needs a second coat to fill in the rest of those holes, since trying to go over most of them while wet before was just pushing the glue out of other holes and leaving new holes. (And don't mind the blue smudge...I was experimenting with what to use to trace the designs onto the nylon with, and obviously it's a good thing I didn't go with that pen!) I guess now that I'm pretty much done eating lunch, I should get back to work--the natural light is being very helpful, and I'd like to utilize as much of that as possible while I'm doing the intricate outlining! But I'm looking forward to (and a little nervous about) seeing how these will turn out.

On a random note, new Project Runway! So far, it looks like this batch of designers is going to be way more interesting than last season's. And I did like the winning dress from this week.

Catching up, 3/4: Summer Wardobe 5 (the hippie top), and some redecoration stuff

It's about time I finished something else for this, since it's almost halfway through August! Anyway, this is my peasant-top-inspired shirt. (Please ignore how badly the duct-tape wrinkles on Donna the Dummy's chest shows through the gauze.)

Since I wanted the hippie look but a little more fitted, I went with one of my tried-and-true tops, Simplicity 5683.

I don't usually pay attention to the suggested trim details in patterns, but felt that this one needed a little something since it's just plain light blue cotton gauze. So I followed their lead and added this crocheted lace and ribbon trim. (I hope it doesn't make it look like something meant for a 5-year-old... I'm thinking the lines going down the front do help a lot there.)

I do wish the trim on the sleeves had gone better... I tried to follow the placement lines, even taking it up higher, but perhaps my trim was too wide because it was still a struggle to not let it hang past the edge of the elastic casing.

The really nice thing about this one, since I had it already cut out, is how fast it was to make, even with inside finishing. I sewed the trim onto the pattern pieces on Friday night. (I probably could have gone further, but Cassie was over at the time for one of our crafty tv-watching hangouts, and we got a little sidetracked by an urge to play Guitar Hero.) I sewed the rest of it together in its entirety on Saturday.

I haven't tried it with the skirt yet (and obviously not with my ill-fated jeans... I'm still trying to figure out if it's worth the effort to rip out and resew the back seam in an attempt to salvage them!) Looking at it now, I'm really not convinced that this top will go with the skirt either--I think the top is too light a blue and the skirt is too red a brown. I'll have to try it on to see for certain, of course, but I have to admit that I'm not feeling very hopeful about it. (And having a little trouble shaking the overall feeling that, even though I've finished most of the intended pieces, as far as mixing and matching goes this mini-wardrobe is kind of a bomb.)

On a non-related note, I stopped at a used-furniture place this afternoon, the type that does estate sales and such. After my brother gets married in October, I'm moving into his room (he got the larger one even though I'm older...mine used to be my mom's sewing room and so that was the first to go) and turning my current bedroom into a guest room/teaching studio for my flute lessons. (My parents are so cool about the musician income thing.) Since I still have the same furniture, sans bed, that I've had since I was oh, seven or so, one of the things I've really been hoping to do is replace some of the kid dressers. Really, hoping to go down from the three dressers I have in here (one long one, and two that used to sit under the loft bed I had when I was a kid, one of which is a really bad use of space) to two. But I've been having trouble figuring out how to get that to work without ditching half of my clothes, seeing as how my closet is also crammed full. (The hazards of sewing clothes/having costumes/having old recital dresses that need to be kept because in my line of work, I actually do use them sometimes!) So I've been hoping to get two dressers that are larger sizes than the ones I have now. Or maybe get one larger one and move one of my old ones over. Or something. I'm still sorting it out.

Anyway, the point of that ramble is that I did actually find something at the used furniture store today-- no pictures, because it's on my phone and I can't figure out how to get pictures off of it. :P But it's a little outside of the box, so part of me is excited about it and part of me is wondering if I made a $100 mistake!! I'll try to describe it-- they listed it as an arts-and-crafts hutch (though I don't know how old it actually is). So it's kind of this light oak-ish color, 3 drawers and two doors that open out. There's a shelf inside to split that into two parts, so it's not just a total waste of space like my armoire dresser. And then sitting on top of that, there's a little built-up part with 3 shelves. (I'll take pictures once I get it home-- I have to get my dad to help me pick it up, since he has access to vehicles that hold larger things than my Civic!) So I'm thinking the lower part can be used for clothes, though I'll have to play around with the shelved section to see if it would be better for smaller clothes, like underwear or rolled-up t-shirts (an excuse to make fabric storage boxes), or for a better way to store my jeans than rolled up and crammed into a too-shallow drawer in that waste-of-space armoire. (Can you tell I really don't like that dresser?) And then I can use the shelves for things like makeup/hair stuff/candleholders and such that I can't bear to get rid of. Or maybe my dvd collection, if the shelves are tall enough to accommodate them. I really hope this was a good move--in thinking ahead, this could be a piece of furniture that could work well in the long term, like if I can eventually afford my own place or if I actually can get married someday and therefore move out, because then I could just use it for another function. Like, say, craft/sewing room. ;) And I like the quirkiness of using a piece of furniture for a purpose other than its original intent. But I hope it works!! And then there's the question of refinishing it, since I do have to paint over my free computer desk... (Damaged section that had to get repaired= power-sanded down particle board. Not pretty.)

Someday my posts will have pictures again, I swear.

Just not yet, as I'm still not sure what's going on with my computer. It now has a new hard drive, but still crashes at least once a day. We suspect there may be virus trouble, in which case I still don't want to load pictures on this thing and then risk losing them when I inevitably have to wipe the hard drive and start from scratch with reloading Windows and all.

In any case, I've been keeping busy with non-computer-related craft stuff. On Tuesday, I finished up my print top for the mini-wardrobe, and will write up a pattern review for it once I can take pictures again. Spent a good bit of the last couple of days figuring out the pattern for the bedspread quilt I'm going to make for when I switch to the other bedroom, with a great deal of help from my quilter mom. Went to Joann's today to get the materials for that while they were on sale, and also got the paint for my furniture. I also cut out the stencil tonight for the Alabama Stitch-inspired skirt, and am hoping to get the prepwork for that started tomorrow afternoon--if the last remnants of the brown bamboo knit hat I've already made two tops out of are large enough to handle the applique, I'll need to get beads to match (while I have a ton of beads, seed/bugle beads aren't so much in there), and I have an AC Moore gift card that I've been hoarding so I can get them for free, hurrah!

So that's it for the moment, other than I'm getting rid of the Freecycle fabric tomorrow (hopefully-- she was supposed to pick up today but had transportation issues). Managed to get two trash bags full for her. So now I just need to mark them as gone in my fabric sample book, and then rejoice in stash reduction!

I think I might cry.

Seriously, I'm kind of devastated right now. I had determined to finish the embroidery for this shirt I'm making, since I've been working on and off on it for at least the last six months. And since I currently don't have work on Fridays, I actually got a huge chunk of it done today-- about 30-45 minutes' work would finish it.

I was out with some friends tonight, and just got home, and was clearing some stuff off my bed so I can sleep, only to discover that somehow, a bottle of lotion got left open enough on there that a big glob of it was able to spill out--entirely contained on one of the three embroidered pieces. I immediately washed as much as I could of it out with soap, and I currently have it soaking in detergent-and-Oxy-clean treated water. But I have no way of knowing how many hours it's been sitting there--at least 8, since I left here just after 4. And the stain is quite obviously yellow, right on my cream shirt. And, go figure, closer to the shoulder than the part that would overlap in the front, so there's no concealing it. So unless soaking it in all this stuff and maybe the Tide-to-Go pen can work a miracle, I'm seriously doubting I can salvage this. Which means I'm most likely going to have to embroider an entirely new piece.

I was so excited about finishing this embroidery tomorrow--if I did, I could probably sew the entire thing together on Sunday and then have it to wear for the rest of the cold season. I'm quite badly in need of a cream-colored shirt. But if I have to re-embroider this, there is no way I'm going to finish this even by the end of the month-- I'm so horribly slow at it!

ETA, 12:20 AM--And to top it all off, I just discovered that the pendant of the necklace that I was wearing (which happens to be one of my favorite necklaces at the moment since it goes with tons of stuff, and it's better suited to the season than the brown-and-cream seashell one I wear all the time in the summer) fell off again. And since it's not tangled in the scarf I was wearing, that means it could be anywhere between here and a random Starbucks in the middle of Philadelphia (the last place I know it was there, since the necklace got twisted off to the side and I had to fix that). Technically, I can make a new one, I do have leftover supplies from it, but after the shirt, I really don't need this tonight. So, yeah. I think I'm going to go cry now. :(

Saturday refashions

I'd been pulling a lot of late nights this past week, so I'd fully intended to go to bed shortly after seeing if Sanctuary was going to be any good, so I could try and catch up on a little lost sleep. (Yes, I am a geek, and proud of it!) But as I was removing my stack of recon-potentials from my bed, inspiration struck at around 11:30! So I was up past midnight (again) cutting, pinning and seam-ripping to turn these...




(one hoodie with a lame logo, passed down from my mom, plus one too-short tank top)









...into this.
I also shortened the sleeves to 3/4, because they were a bit too short on my long arms, and adding enough fabric to make them a good length after removing the cuffs would have been so wide that it would have looked really dumb. And I need a few 3/4 casual shirts for weekends, as well as long-sleeved.








I also took this skirt that my mom made for me several years ago, I think during one of my busier college periods when I couldn't sew as much...

From sew and so

...which was a little longer than mid-calf (which is a really bad length on me), and shortened it to this.

From sew and so

Now it hits just above my knee. Much better, don't you think? And I'm also proud of myself, because I taught myself to use the blind hem stitch/foot on my machine, using an old sewing book for reference. It worked pretty well, once I figured out which way I was supposed to fold everything. I don't think I'll use it on everything, because some fabrics just demand the slightly more invisible hand stitching, but for casual skirts, this is going to be a huge time-saver!

Costumes, embroidery, and recons, oh my!

First off... watching Project Runway as I write, and heehee, fashion inspired by music!! I'm cracking up that Korto has to dress like a country star. That is so not her!





Anyway.



Had a good weekend hanging out with N. She's an avid swing dancer, and enlisted my help for a costume for a Halloween dance.


This was mostly all her, but I thought it turned out really great, so hopefully if she ever finds this blog, she won't mind that I posted a picture! She wanted to do a swing dress inspired by Marie Antoinette (she looks a lot like Kirsten Dunst, and therefore likes to dress up as her characters-- she makes a mean MJ from the recent Spiderman movies!) So she got the 80s prom dress from the thrift store and made the decision to fold the ruffle down to make a better neckline. I helped her figure out what length to shorten it to. And then the next day we went to Walmart (because we couldn't find a Joanns), got the light blue fabric, the white lace and the flowers. She inserted the blue panel, I did the teal ruffle down the front and covered the buttons, and then we figured out where to put the white trim. She added some darker lace and the flowers later, and then the lighter neck ribbon to tie it all together. I think she did great, and I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures of her wearing it! Plus now she's thinking about a New Year's Eve costume party, and I hope she does, because I'm feeling bitten by the costume bug again!


I didn't spend the entire time working on the costume-- while she was working on machine stuff, I worked on my little embroidery project. One piece of three now done!







I wanted a quick project tonight, so decided to do a recon. Remember this skirt from my little dyefest?
Now it looks like this. I'm still not sure if it's done...still kind of feels like it needs something. But the border is a huge improvement over what it was. I spent the night with my serger, and the variagated thread really made it. Didn't really have to add trim at the top like I was originally going to do, but I'm glad I serged that edge.

I hope I don't need to add more fabric higher up... I really don't have much of that sheer left.

And now, since I haven't done it this season, PR runway show commentary!! I'm on commercial break now, and my personal opinion at the moment is that Kenley is going down in flames. Also, I think my brother owns Jerrell's boots that I borrowed for my fairy costume.

And now, on with the show!

Leanne: Wow, what did she do to Korto's hair? I can definitely see the country influence, though I'm not sure about the peacock feather earrings.

Jerrell: He definitely got the pop thing down. I hate that genre so much.

Kenley: last time I checked, Princess Leia buns were not hip hop.

Korto: The bleached jeans are pretty cool. And Suede has the personality for it!

Suede: Not really over the top enough.

Judging time! With LL Cool J as a judge, Kenley is so screwed.

Korto's up first. The chain lacing is a nice upgrade to the safety pins.

Suede's turn. The leather pants are so stereotypical rock. The vest is pretty cool. The shirt looks like every shirt Jerrell always wears though.

Jerrell's turn. Brave girl... I would never walk out on national tv dressed like that! But he did nail it.

Kenley's up. Isn't expensive in hip-hop usually in the form of massive amounts of bling? I know the judges aren't happy with Suede, but Kenley's arguing just might push them over the line.

Now that I'm looking at Leanne's outfit more closely, it doesn't look very well-made. At least the skirt doesn't. Though it definitely looks more country than Leanne looks hip-hop...

So it's basically between Suede and Kenley getting the chopping block, it seems. Which I wouldn't really be sorry to see either go. Suede's gotten described as boring for several challenges in a row, and that's pretty much the kiss of death. And Kenley really doesn't know how to do anything outside of the 50s.

Hurrah, Korto won! That makes me really happy, since she hasn't won in awhile and she is my favorite of the remaining designers. Plus Jarrell was being so cocky that I think he needed to be taken down a notch.

I wonder how long it takes Heidi to concoct these speeches? Turning up the volume and silence... nice metaphors.

And Suede is now out. Though I still believe that unless something drastic happens next week, there is no way Kenley's making final three.

I can't help but find it ironic that the auf'ed designer was wearing the winning designer's outfit. And wow, next week looks like the week of mental breakdowns on the runway!

Friday Favorites, Episode 21

Just one of those rushed days, so this is going to be a rush job.

Great stenciled skirt at Creative Kismet. She also did some fun painted cabinet hardware-- I would so steal this idea for my dressers if one of the drawer pulls wasn't missing!

The third Carnival of Green Crafts is up at Crafting a Green World. They also had some crafts to make from cassette tapes. (Which, incidentally, sort of inspired what I'm hoping will be my first guest writer post there... it's in the works.)

I had to link this tutorial from ThreadBanger... it's a vase decoupaged with sheet music!

This post from Crafty Daisies was fun. What can I say? I never grew up enough to stop playing with my food.

That's it for today. Next time (hopefully): impromptu social craftiness, and maybe some more jacket (provided I have time to work on it.)

Sadie (finally!) and my hippie craftstravaganza

It only took me what, 8 days to get the pics? But here is my lovely bamboo Sadie. I still love how soft this is. I need some more bamboo jersey.
And a closeup of the drape in the front...

...and also underneath the drape. I didn't quite follow the directions, which called for sewing the two pieces right sides together and then binding it. I wanted less bulk and a clean finish, so I sewed the wrong side of the drape to the right side of the shirt, hiding the seam underneath the drape.

And this is what I spent today doing...

It looked like a rug when I was getting started...

I had to improvise with the dye bottle...

...and this was the fun part! No pics of the final fabric yet, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Just some cotton muslin that I'm going to be using for an upcoming project.

I also spent some time on this:

This is a very comfortable skirt from the Dharma Trading Company. One of my favorite skirts is a black version of this that I embroidered the bottom of. This one was a dye job and fabric stamping. But I never wore it, because the skirt turned out much pinker than I liked, and after the stamping, I wasn't such a huge fan of the way it turned out. So I decided to overdye it and see what happened.

I used a deep purple. After rinsing it out, the color is kind of a darkish plum, which is much more to my liking. I also discovered that the paint could be mostly scraped off in spots. Unfortunately, in my attempt to speed this up with a popsicle stick, I ended up ripping a hole in the bottom of the skirt! (That's what I get for working on a concrete step...dummy me!) So this afternoon also included an impromptu trip to Joann's. I found some sheer in shades of purple that mostly covers up the gold, so I'm going to mend the hole and then layer that on top. Once I get that done, I'm going to add some ribbon to cover the seam. I also got some fabric to test out the BurdaStyle jacket I want to make-- didn't want muslin because I wanted something more jacket-weight, both for accuracy in fitting and just in case it works right away because then I can have two jackets. ;-) So there was this teal wide-wale corduroy on sale for about the same price per yard as muslin, so I went for that.