Surprise! March 5, 2011

I’ve been silent for way too long!  That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been making things… more that I haven’t been able to convince my hubster to take great pictures of the things I have made.  Really, I should just use the self-timer more.

So, since I last posted, I’ve made myself a burgandy stretch velvet skirt, an awesome pair of jeans (which I then grew out of, I must do something about that) and most recently a pair of dress pants for work.

For the latter, I started with a Burda pattern (Vol 8/04, adapted from style 105).  For length, I cut to the line for style 104, I didn’t make cuffs, and I didn’t add the front pocket flap either.  The back features faux pocket flaps – I wanted the detail without the fuss.  Because I’m carrying a little extra weight at the moment, I also made some changes to the actual pattern pieces.  The style went up to 42, which was fine for the waist (in fact, I had to remove some material from the back waist), but I have chunkier hips and thighs.  Instead of playing with the outside leg seams, I made the adjustments on the crotch and inner leg seams, effectively scaling them to a 44 from my wider bits.  In the past I’ve done this using the marked pattern lines, and just rejoining them, but as this style didn’t go up quite big enough, in this case I actually had to do the measuring and drafting work myself on those seams.  So I can tick off a new skill!

Do these pants make me look short?

Full length rear view

 

Here, Kitty Kitty!

And the all important question: Does my butt look good in these?

I think these pants are a success.  I don’t have a pic to prove it, but the fly is very nicely done.

Purple silk top from Veronica Main, shoes from Hannahs, handmade earrings by zippitydoodah.

Kitty model is M from next door.  Hobbes was hiding (and I needed to distract M from stealing his food).

My new “floaty clouds” top! October 14, 2010

Is this thing on?

Sorry for the absence! My sewing machine died and then life got in the way, you know how it is

I’m back to show you this:

I’m so pleased with it! I used a plain T-shirt in one of my favourite colours, cut of the neck and arms and embroidered the clouds on… simples. If you want to make one I’ve written up the tutorial on my blog.

I think I’ll probably be posting here more often now. My money situation is dismal and the people in charge of England are making it worse, hehe. But I love me some cute clothes! So lots of DIYs for me  xxx

I’ve been making things… (just nothing for myself) June 15, 2010

I just wanted to pop up with a quick apology for being a bit quiet recently.  I had a really big craft fair on Saturday just gone, and so my energies recently have been going into that.  Now that that’s been and gone, I’m starting to make plans for Take 2 of the Great Jeans Experiment, thinking of a new skirt or two, and maybe a merino top (or three.  I never stop planning what to make next.  Maybe that’s what prevents me from actually getting started on the next thing).

There has been rather a cool handmade makeover project going on in my town recently, and I thought I’d link you through to have a gander at it.  By day, Knitsch is a local yarn dyer.  She is also behind the odd bit of knit graffiti that you might see around Wellington.  A little while ago, she came up with the idea of transforming a couple of the metal lampposts outside of the Dowse Museum in Lower Hutt.  And so the call went out for knitted, crocheted, and felted flora and fauna suitable for adding to It’s a tree! Installation started in mid-May, and a couple of weeks ago several local crafters, myself included, went along to help Knitsch with installing a plethora of leaves, flowers and creatures (Owls! Tuis! Gnomes!).  Especially exciting that night were the LED flowers that SmartCrafting designed and taught us how to make.  I reckon you should head on over to the Outdoor Knit blog to check out what it looked like that night.

PS.  That’s me in the second photo, all rugged up.  We were very fortunate that evening to have the ONLY clear evening in about a 3 week stretch of almost constant rain.

Finally introducing myself! May 31, 2010

Hey, I’m Shell!  I’m not new to the world of sewing, but I find out about so many fantastic things all the time that I feel as if I am.  I actually started sewing when I was a kid, thanks to my mom.  She used to make outfits for my Cabbage Patch doll (and I think some for me to match!) and I got interested, so she taught me the basics.  My best friend in grade school’s mom was a seamstress and I took one introductory class from her.  I still have the bag I made!  After that it was all learning-by-doing (still with mom’s help for a while).

When I was in college my interest sparked again and my parents got me a sewing machine for my birthday.  I used the sewing lab with the help of a friend who was in a class there, and had my first shot with an overlocker (I’d end up with one of those some years later).

One day, when I was totally bored with my wardrobe, I started looking online for ways to spice up my extensive t-shirt collection, because I used to wear them several sizes too large (yay bad teenager fashion sense) and I wanted to make them fitted and cute.  It was then I found the massive online crafting community that exists and I started pursuing sewing and crafting with renewed enthusiasm.

These days, with a regular job and other obligations for my personal time, finding time to sew and create is hard, but I manage to cram it in there.  I still look for fun ways to reinvent my own wardrobe, and my t-shirt collection is still too huge.  Sometimes the lack of formal training is frustrating, but thanks to that fabulous crafting community, I can always find a way to solve any problems I come up against.  Each new project I take on teaches me something, and once in a while mom will still come out to help, too.

I conquered my confusion May 22, 2010

I have long struggled with trying to work out how on earth a fully lined neckline and armholes work.  Wanting to make myself work-suitable dresses meant that I really needed to get over this.

So when one of my colleagues gave me some black and white houndstooth crimpolene(!) that her mother was clearing out of her stash, I decided it was time to face this conceptual block once and for all.  This dress made up like a dream – apart from a few weeks in the middle of making it when I got a bit busy with other stuff…

Houndstooth Dress

I had to alter the pattern (Burda issue 01/04, style 111) somewhat, as it is quite fitted through the skirt, and while my top half might fit a Burda 38 well, the lower half is something more like a 42.  There are no side seams on this dress, rather princess seams front and back, and long underarm darts for shaping.  I didn’t get the adjustment quite right on front panel, so I had to take those darts in a little more.  I’ve still got a little too much fabric across the front waist, but nothing that I can’t cover up with a belt or cardie.

Is it possible to be coy while wearing houndstooth?

The seaming through the back on this style is really nice.  I realised as I was cutting that the darts had slightly different shaping on each side, so I marked them carefully with chalk and basted by hand, matching up the lines before stitching.  I’m sure this helped with the overall fit and finish, especially for the side darts.  You can’t really tell from this image, but the invisible zip is near perfect .  I love how they are so much easier to insert and I especially love that you don’t have to handstitch the lining to them in the back.  Because you don’t topstitch like you do with a normal lapped zip opening, you can just flip the lining over so you have the right sides facing, and then stitch the lining into the seam allowance along the teeth of the zip.

And it turns out I had nothing to be worried about with the neck and arm edges.  I followed the directions in the Burda magazine for pushing and pulling, and got a really neat finish, even without using a wooden spoon!

I think I nailed the neckline and arm edges!