The last six months, part 2

Ok, lets bump off the rest of my show and tell backlog! First, tutus!

happy tutu face, haha

I actually made this while still at the old house, so almost a year ago, but it needed re-hemming for most of that time, and didn't get worn much. It's a full circle of nasty shiny black stuff for lining, and quarter circles of alternating black and purple tulle over the top. Eight of each, I believe, but I'm too lazy to get up and check :P. Tulle doesn't need to hang, but the lining did, and wasn't, so it stuck out from under the netting in places and looked icky. I wanted to wear it to my birthday picnic last year, so I ended up putting it on Lenore, trimming the lining (but not the tulle), and then making shiny purple bias tape to encase the edge. So much easier than hemming a circle! And added bonus purple, you can't loose :).   (yet another free Zo pattern top, this time blue check with black fold-over elastic and more bows)

And then I needed another one! For this one, the lining is done the same way, only with nice rayon bemberg (it feels so silky and yummy). Instead of one layer of tulle gethered at the waist, this one is three layers of net circles, each slightly shorter than the one below. In my head, this looked really cool, but in real life you can't really tell, and it just makes the lining look too long, even though it is indeed covered by the lower layer of tulle. Next time I might try making it several layers of double circles gathered at the top, and all the same length. Eventually I will have the perfect tutu! Oh yeah, both have super wide coloured elastic as the waist, the one part I wouldn't change.  

(this top I made from two rectangles of scrap lace, folded in the middle for the shoulders, and sewn together half way up all the sides. The front is the same as the back, but I didn't get any good front pictures. It is very see-through, haha.)

I made a Hollyburn, and it rocks. (As soon as this pattern was released, I knew it had to be made from this fabric, with button tabs and pink buttons. In my head they were hot pink, but I had two big pink heart buttons in my stash, and didn't want to go to the store, haha. The fabric is eyelet, so I underlined it with lime green cotton, also from my stash. This is officially the only thing I own with functional pockets! I have yet to use them, having no idea what to put in a pocket, but the idea is nice, haha. Can I go on the record saying this pattern is lovely to work with, well constructed, and full enough to go over my massive hips without grading, woo! I have at least one more planned already, and probably many more in the future.

I actually love the alternating green and pink buttons on the top, even if they are only there to keep it from being unwearable.

The shirt is part of an ongoing project to perfect the fit of this pattern. I love the neckline, and sleeveless tops in general, and the pin tucks are a great detail. It is giving me some grief, but this one is better than my first attempt, so I haven't lost hope yet! This version ended up rather too tight (so much that I added a second set of buttons in between the first batch, to keep it from gaping terribly), but that can be fixed with smaller SA and narrower pin tucks next time. And I think I need to lower the armhole to compensate for the adjusted shoulder seams. Luckily the pattern uses less than a meter of fabric, so I can make a bunch from odds and ends until it is perfect!

I made the pleated trim myself, because I'm awesome like that.

Fun fact: the shirt fabric was originally white, but I pre-washed it with something red (face-palm), and dying it properly pink was easier than trying to bleach it properly white again. I had so much fun, I've been dying everything!

And that's it! All caught up, hell yeah! I have a (hopefully) awesome dress on the go right now, and a four day weekend *happy dance*, but I feel like finally making an apron today instead, so the dress will have to wait at least a few hours. Here's a preview/tease:

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!

There is a new sewing challenge going on over at Cation Designs, and the sewasaurus button ( --->) was so cute I just had to join. Also, you know, it went along with my sewing resolutions anyway, so why not. Yay for feeling like part of a community, even if I have to go online to do so.

(I don't mean that to sound as sad as it ended up, I have people in my IRL life who seem to like me and want to do things together. It's more me, really. In person socialising is just so stressful and tiring that even when I adore my friends, I can only handle seeing them every couple of weeks. And not for each one, I mean every couple of weeks I can face the thought of doing one sociable thing, so if a family dinner happens to be going on one weekend, I likely won't be seeing friends that month. I used to feel like this meant there was something wrong with me, but I'm starting to realise that we all have our own levels of personal time needed, mine just happens to be very high, and that's ok. And now that I have ranted completely off topic for a giant paragraph, back to our irregularly scheduled sewing post.)

I, Sarah, commit to using stash fabric for at least 50% of my sewing projects in 2013.

It doesn't sound too hard when put like that, since everything currently in my closet counts as stash, and by now it has quite a selection of both fabrics and colours. Even if my fashion mood changed during the year (bound to happen at least once), there has to be something in there I can use! I mean, look at all this crap:

yes, I'm insanely lucky to have a closet just for fabric

Although it's a huge disorganised mess, I know that doesn't look like too too much, really. And then you turn 180* and see all the stuff that never made it to the closet.

And that doesn't even count all my notions and stuff, those have their own closet, so I can't pretend that some of it is just "in stock" supplies.

Most importantly, most of it I absolutely love! It needs to be awesome wearable things on me, not languishing in storage, all flat and boring. Luckily, right now I'm all full of inspiration and drive, so hopefully a bunch of things will get made before I get distracted by another hobby :).

In the new year

Seeing as everypony and their dog is doing either a 2012 roundup or a 2013 goals post, I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. Since I didn't even blog most of my makes this last year (yet, I still mean to eventually, I swear!), a goal list it is! This year (and by year, I mean hopefully in the next few months, before my interests/taste toggles again to something completely different), I want to:

- make clothing in lime green/hot pink/turquoise blue. I love these colours together, in any combination, and I like having a wardrobe that can mix and match. Also purple, cause purple is awesome.

man I love this! only you know, not in belt length...

- finally use this fabric,

and it falls within the first goal too!

I love it, it's a nice summery cotton, and polka dots, and a great colour. There's enough for a dress. And I like it so much that I've been afraid to make it into something that doesn't turn out right. But my construction skills are solid now, and I'm figuring out more with each project how to get the right fit, I think it's time to just pick a pattern already and do it!

- bust out my corset making box and give another go at an underbust. This time more of a bustier, instead of the 4" reduction monstrosity I made before that I can't eat in. I want something that will squish down my full skirts so my figure shows through, without impeding my ability to work, breath, or digest. If I can get a pattern worked out, I have a whole box full of fabric that's been waiting years to be made into this kind of thing! Ridiculous, wonderful fabrics!

not like this at all, but how awesome are these?!

- and not sewing related, but any day now I need to get around to finding a keyboard that doesn't have a sticky "s", haha. Four months of hammering on it to get results is quite enough!

not related to anything, I just love BoaSaS

I've intentionally kept my goals pretty vague, because I don't want to feel like a failure if I don't get X amount of Y things finished "in time". This is about realizing what I want to get done, and trying to actually do it, not pressuring myself into doing things just so they can be checked off a list.

There are also half a dozen non-sewing crafts I suddenly can't wait to try, so there may be a lot of the (etc) part in the next little while. Or whenever my supplies show up in the post :).

(I rather want to try making a quilt for our bed too, but I'm not putting that in officially because then it becomes even more intimidating! But I got a rotary cutter (so sharp!) and a HUGE mat for x-mass, so cutting the pieces something resembling square is an actual possibility now, I now longer have an excuse to put it off, haha.)

one day, I will have this printed on a shirt

And on that note, Happy New Year to all!

I finally got my handmade Christmas gifts finished today! And I remembered to get pictures of the good bits, even if they are weird night-time shots, haha. I think at this point, poorly lit shots just have to be accepted as the norm around here, as night is the only time I remember to take pictures, and really, this time of year it's dark all the time anyway. And I live in a basement. (every time I start a sentence with "and", I remember my 12th grade English teacher saying that you can only get away with doing that if you're Margaret Atwood. And then I do it anyway :)).

Archie is wondering why Headless Sarah is in the middle of the room

I made this apron for my man's sister, who I adore, shares (if not surpasses) my love of tacky things, and who's favourite colour is green. It took me ages to find a fabric awful and wonderful enough, but when I saw this one, it was the clear winner! I helped a friend make this pattern up for herself ages ago, and liked the weight of hers after we added a backing fabric to the main body, so this one is lined with...

not lime zest green, more the colour of limeade from concentrate, haha

Lime green eyelet! I didn't know anyone made such a thing, and given the large bold of it on the clearance wall, nobody but myself wanted anything to do with it, but at 4$/m I couldn't resist. Ok, lets be honest, I probably would have paid full price for it; but not having to meant that I got a whole bunch, and have grand plans to make the rest into Tasia's new Hollyburn skirt pattern, in view B, with hot pink buttons on the waist tabs (rubs hands together schemishly).

I would also like to make this apron pattern up for myself before returning it to my friend, but so far the right fabric hasn't jumped out of my stash. A serious sewing closet tidy is in store after the holidays though, perhaps something will be unearthed.

so much photo manipulation to get close to irl colour...

And for my man's mom (who I also love to bits. Seriously, I have the coolest in-laws), a chain mail bracelet and earring set just like the one I made for myself, only in a lovely violet anodized Niobium. May I just say, chain mail is a bitch to photograph in low light, so the picture is messed about with something fierce, but that is basically the colour it looks in reality. Also, only leaving myself two days to make the bracelet was not the best planning, and my still-weak-even-18-months-after-having-tendonitis wrist is pretty sore, but I will call it a learning-what-not-to-do experience.

I wanted to do the bracelet in full persian weave, instead of byzantine like the earrings, but upon trying it out, I discovered that the aspect ratio of these rings just can't do it. Or possibly I just couldn't figure out the confusing instructions, but trying something new when the end result is a gift probably isn't the best idea anyway. You win this round, persian 6-in-1.

These are being added into holiday patterned tins, filled with home-canned apple sauce, cranberry jam, mason jar cookie mixes, and various odds and ends. I would try to get pictures of those too, but my camera batteries are charging, and I haven't wrapped anything yet. Tomorrow, festive baking and a very non-traditional holiday dinner with my mom, a present wrapping extravaganza, and the Garfield christmas special with my man and a fuzzy blanket. I can't wait!

Though I would pop in to show off my first set of chainmail jewellery :).

Byzantine weave bracelet and earrings

made from 20 g 2.77mm ID bright aluminum

Not the best pictures, but you get the idea, haha. Besides, any clearer and you would be able to tell that I'm very much still learning how to close the rings smoothly! Actually, you can see how much I improved by the end of the bracelet compared to the start, so I'm feeling pretty pleased. I got the prettiest violet anodised Niobium rings to make a similar set for my boyfriend's mom for xmas, I hope she likes them!

Normally I'm a big christmas grinch, how silly to be forced by social convention to celebrate a religious holiday I don't believe in bah humbug and all that, but this year it seems kind of fun. Maybe I'm just falling into my man's habit of every-other-year holiday spirit :). I've tracked down festive movies from my childhood, everyone is getting handmade gifts, and I'm quite looking forward to christmas baking with my mom. I'll try to remember to get pictures of everything!

I've made loads of stuff in the last while, but haven't managed to get pictures of most of it yet. Here is what I whipped off in the last couple of days though, a selection of tops using Zoe's free camisole pattern:

can you tell I like pink and black?

There's pink with black/white polka dot elastic, pink/black check with black elastic and (lots of) bows, blue/black check with black elastic and slightly fewer bows, and black lace w/ black lace straps.

excuse the crappy night time pics on my bedspread

I just got two bags of bows in the post a few days ago, and apparently they are going to be on everything now. Zoe's pattern is perfect, and I can see that I might very well end up with more of this top than is entirely necessary, especially since it takes about half an hour to make! The only thing I would change about it is the size chart: instead of being in bust size, it's in dress size, so I had to do a little research (ie. googled it) to see how that translated. Although if you actually buy clothing, this probably isn't an issue! I ended up using a size 12, and it fits like a glove. The only change I made was chopping 4 or 5 inches off the bottom, since I like shorter tops. I'll try to get some action shots of these when I photograph all my other new makes, but until then, enjoy a preview of my entirely me-made halloween costume :)

with co-workers cropped out for discretion