Saturday, January 19, 2013

the last six months, part 1

I finally took pictures! Yay for being home during daylight, haha. It was too cold (read: I'm a big wimp this year) to go outside, and we live in a basement surrounded by trees, so they're still a little dark, but whatev!

Let's start with the coolest: my batman dress!

Na na Na na Na na Na na, BATMAN!

It's made from the sewaholic cambie pattern, narrow skirt of view A, but with the pockets eliminated. I took the idea from Cindy at Cation Designs, and used a thrifted (via etsy) bedsheet for my fabric source. It took me forever to cut this out, mostly because I was determined to get one of each batman designs clearly visible, so layout was a bitch. But look at the pattern matching!

notice the back bodice seam? me either, hardly!

The sheet was starting to show it's age, so I'm keeping this as a special occation dress in fear of it falling apart on me too quickly. It was also suprisingly slinky and shifty, so there are some bits, like the darts and sleeve/straps that aren't as crisp as they could be, but really, it's feaking batman, nobody is going to be looking at my darts. The Cambie pattern is lovely, and I'm looking forward to making a nice full skirted version sometime soon.

Halloween!

I got so excited when the halloween quilting cottons went on clearance, that I got a load of the purple stuff and made a ruffly skirt :). You can't really see here, but the main fabric has not-quite-spiderwebs that spell out "happy halloween", and the contrasting ruffle has yellow stars and black cat and witch-on-broomstick silhouettes.

I like this picture because it shows off my giant bum, haha

I used all the lace I had in stock on this, and I'm glad I did! As outrageous as it would be in a lot of wardrobes, this has quickly turned into my go-to everyday skirt for when I can't be bothered making up an outfit, a definite win. I went back for the orange colour-way of the main fabric, and a different orange contrast fabric, and will be making a slightly different, even more obviously halloweeny skirt one of these days. (oh, and this is my lace version of Zo's free camisole pattern, which you will see many of today, haha).

this is where I got bored and started making funny faces

This shirt is this simplicity pattern, in the same lace as the camisole above, lined with red knit lining. It was ridiculously low cut, so I added some wide stretch lace behind the point of the V to make it decent for work. It turned out pretty well, but being all cheep poly fabric, it's very warm. I would like to make another with a higher v neck out of some nice cotton jersey, no lining, and decorative elastic around the neck and arms.


The skirt I drafted myself/draped on Lenore (aka headless Sarah, my dressmaker's dummy) until it looked right. The underskirt is weird red poly satin stuff with white polka-dots, "hemmed" with black and white polka-dot bias tape and trimmed with black lace. The overskirt is thin black lace cut in a triangle, with the long side forming the waist and back seam, so it has two points. The lace is edged in black satin ribbon, just to tidy it up. The waistband is just black twill tape, with long ties left at the opening edges for a big bow. Here's a closeup of the ties and chunky exposed zipper.







This next one took me forever to finished, mostly because it was so boring to sew that it spent a lot of time sitting half finished on my bookcase. The pattern was from a Japanese gothic and lolita pattern book, and it looked cool, but maybe isn't so much me after all.



that's my dubious face

The idea was cool, an A symetrical skirt that's hightest over one leg in the front, and longest behind that same leg in the back. And I'm always a fan of a giant ruffle. (oh, and this is another Zo cami, with added bows for kicks)

the wrinkles are it riding up against my tights, sigh

Even though I lengthened the whole thing about 4 inches, it still ended up so short in the front that I'm not comfortable wearing it without tights. The problem is, it's very thin, soft, almost fuzzy fabric, without lining, and it sticks to the tights and rides up even shorter. I have only worn this out once, and doubt it will see much use, but at least it's not on my UFO pile any more. Maybe inspiration will strike one day for how to fix it...

That's it for now! I still have a bunch of new things to show you, but I have to skedaddle for an evening of dinner with my honey and pool with my co-workers, so they'll have to wait :). Have a great night!

4 comments:

  1. I really like the asymmetrical skirt- especially the contrasting stripes! If it doesn't have lining, wearing a slip should stop it from riding up. It's really a pain when you make something that seems like it will be really useful but never gets worn, pretty much all the skirts I've made have ended up like that >.>

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    1. I had contemplated that, although I'm not sure if it would still stick to the back leg of tights, given how short the slip would have to be to not be seen in the front. Perhaps I will try that out if I end up with extra lining fabric at some point though :).

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  2. Followed the link over to see the Batman dress, and lady, I am ultra-impressed with that pattern matching! I had to think back to the Cambie pattern and try to remember if it had a CB zipper -- that's how perfect your Batman looks. Also, I love the twill tape waistband tie idea!

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    1. Thank you! I'm quite pleased with it myself :). It's all from your inspiration, my dear!

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