velvet and satin

I was feeling a definite lack of knee length black skirts, so I used the black duchess satin originally bought to make some fourties style trousers and made myself a cute little skirt. And of course it needed a ruffle. And a bustle. And now I wear it every other day because who doesn't love a ruffly bustled satin skirt for day wear, haha.

For christmas my mom took me fabric shopping, and I've been feeling gothish lately, so everything I bought ended up being red or black. Being a sucker for velvet, I pounced on a bright red piece when I realized it was both stretchy and machine washable. When my boss called this morning to say it was a snow day and not to come in, some sewing was inevitable, so I finished off a nice red top. It's even fairly warm, so I actually have a vaguely season appropriate piece of clothing now!

Both pattern I made myself, although I did reuse the neckline and armsyths from my red plaid dress. The skirt is six panels, with an extra three slightly shorter over the top in the back. the overskirt has ribbon sewn into channels in the center seams and pulled up to create the bustled effect.

The gathering on the front of the shirt was actually a last minute addition, after trying it on and deciding the neckline could be more awesome. Now it makes me thing of disney princesses for some reason, hahaha.

I will probably do another swayback adjustment on the top pattern before I use it again, there is still a little bit of fabric gathering there, although not enough to bother me on this piece. I think the pattern would be cute with lace sleeves, don't you?

Dresses and skirts

Frolicked about in my yard last week taking pictures while it wasn't raining or cloudy :)

red plaid dress and a silly face

yellow gingham chantilly

can't really see the dress, but I'm cute, haha

relatively normal skirt in the front...

fancy lace up bustle in the back!

the ivory lace skirt i never wear cause my slip is too tight

more red plaid, half circle skirt and jacket

the stripe are horizontal in front and vertical in back :)

I'm back!

I may have been absent from this site for a while now, but I swear I've still been making things. I hope to get better picture of some of them at a later date, but for now, this is what I have to show:

Self drafted skirt made out of ivory coloured eyelet. The weird picture of it hanging in my kitchen doorway is because, being completely devoid of slips, I can't actually wear this yet (stupid eyelet and it's being full of holes, haha). I used the scalloped salvage edges for the hem, so cute.

It has twelve pieces that are sort of right triangles. My original idea was that this would make the hem line lower and pointy at every other seam (does that make sense?) but my triangles ended up being to small for that to really work. That's ok, maybe in the future I will try to make this idea again. In the mean time, I'm quite happy with this one, althought I have yet to see what it's like to wear. There is a vintage half slip in the mail to me though, so soon we shall see :).

I got bored one day, realised I had been sewing for over a year without a pin cushion, and decided to do something about it. I used these instructions, found through the lovely Jo from Bridges on the Body, and whipped this baby up in a couple of hours of hand sewing. Then came the fun part of cramming torn up quilt batting scraps into it and then trying to sew the last side closed without them popping out, lol. I can't believe I waited this long, it's very nice to have something to stab when I get frustrated with unruly pattern pieces somewhere to keep my pins. ;)

In sudden impending need of having something better to lounge around the house in than undies and a tank top, I went on a pajama making spree. Above, we have a nightdress made out of some weird slinky knit stuff I found in the clearance bin of my local fabric shop (100% unknown fibres, haha). The pattern was a ?forties? slip pattern that wouldn't normally have fit without alteration, but this stuff is so stretchy it was fine as it came :). It also pulls on instead of zippering as per instructions. Who would want pjs with a zipper? psha. After some frustrations with skipped stitches, and subsequently discovering that one truly does need to use ballpoint needles for knits, it went together pretty painlessly.

But sometimes a girl need seperates, so I threw together some pj pants as well.

Love the pink check :). So much so, in fact, that I used the leftovers to try out Colette's free madeleine mini bloomer pattern. No, I'm not modeling that one :P. But aren't they cute?

I still have some of both the pj fabrics left over, so look out for more coordinating pieces still to come.

I have another skirt and Colette's new sorbetto top pattern to show off too, but those will have to wait for daylight so I can get good pictures.

decisions, decisions

I desperately need more blouses. Skirts are so tempting to make, and then I end up with nothing but lovely fancy skirts paired with t-shirts, not good. In my stash is this pretty pink/black/grey plaid, just calling out to be made into something while the weather is still cold enough to  wear it.

wouldn't this be great with a black pencil skirt?

This is definitely up next on the cutting table, I'm just having trouble deciding which of these shirts it wants to be. The Smooth Sailing blouse from the ever talented Lauren at Wearing History?

very Katharine Hepburn

Or the short sleeved version of this Simplicity pattern I got from my grandmother?

c. 1969

On the one hand, if I use the first one, it will give me the chance to work any kinks out of the pattern before I make it up in a fancy gold fabric I have waiting in the wings. On the other hand, my grandmother's notes on the second one indicate that it won't need much tweaking (it evidently fit her, and we're pretty much the same size and shape), and as this is my first try at either inset sleeves or a collar, not having to worry about the rest of it too much would be nice. I had meant to pick one and start cutting it out this morning, but too much procrastinating (and watching Muppets Tonight on my computer) has left me with no time, so it looks like I have till tonight to decide. In the meantime, here are my outfits for the first two days of me-made-march:

top adapted from butterick 3906, self drafted corduroy jumper

the circus skirt, new look 6599 blouse

Circus skirt finished, woo

One broken machine needle later, the stripey skirt is finished. It reminds me a little of the circus, ha ha. In a good way.

finished, if not ironed

And and extra picture of the full length. I'm standing on a chair because I was too lazy to find another place to set the camera.

the socks say "right foot" and "left foot"...

Stay tuned for what's next (as I haven't decided yet, ha ha.)

This should be interesting

As I was sitting here trolling sewing sites (well ok, lets be honest and say while I was procrastinating about doing actual work), I decided to take part in Me Made March. This may prove a little bit challenging, as I only have about 5 things each to put on the top and bottom parts of me. But hay, incentive to get with the sewing! My pledge:

'I, Sarah from http://sarahsewing.blogspot.com/, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-March '11. I endeavour to wear at least one self made piece of clothing each day for the duration of March 2011'

Wish me luck! Now off to start sewing myself more options, quick. Up next, I'm attempting to make a skirt along this line,

plaid formal wear!

out of this lovely heavy weight satiny material I found on etsy a month or so back.

cranberry and gold (swoon)

If my calculations are correct, I'll have plenty left over for a coordinating... something or other. We'll see what it wants to be when the time comes :).