Category Archives: Uncategorized

the paper doll project

05/07/2013 11:11 am \ 13 Comments \

(I’ve pledged to wear only clothes handmade by me this year and to sketch my daily outfits in my Fashionary.  I’m calling this the paper doll project)

17th-22nd June
from left:
dyed corduroy skirt, white drape-y top, new-old hoodie, black tights
dyed sludge-y little skirt, chocolate cardigan, raspberry Tshirt, raspberry jersey scarf, paprika tights
denim dress, denim shirt, swirly tights
purple jeans, olive wool jacket/cardigan, white Tshirt, green knitted scarf, hand-knit socks
bell-sleeved denim top, purple Tshirt, ombred red skirt, red tights, hand-knit scarlet socks
oo-la-la dress, hand-knit socks

23rd-28th June
from left:
white Tshirt, strawberry jeans, chocolate knitted cardigan, hand-knitted socks, raincoat
teal dress, calico knitted cardigan, black woollen tights
drape-y little top, PM clipped wings top, little grey skirt, charcoal spiral leggings
grey top, little charcoal skirt, old brown knitted cardigan, brown/charcoal cable scarf, paprika tights
grey LS Tshirt, white Tshirt, PM gathered hole dress, beige scrumpled leggings, hand-knit socks
white Tshirt, ivory jeans, chocolate knitted cardigan, hand-knit socks

29th June – 3rd July
from left:
raspberry Tshirt, ivory jeans, chocolate cardigan, hand-knitted socks
white Tshirt, strawberry jeans, olive felt cardigan/jacket, hand-knitted socks
(to Supernova) Servalan dress
white Tshirt, emerald skirt, calico cardigan, hand-knitted socks
ivory Pattern Magic twist top, ivory curtaining skirt, swirly leggings
black Tshirt, chocolate cardigan, raspberry scarf, red ombre skirt, red leggings, hand-knitted socks, raincoat

It’s roughly half-way through the year of wearing exclusively my own handmade clothing! – barring shoes! so this is a good time for a progress report, yes?
Well, it hasn’t been difficult since I’ve been at it for years and as a result have plenty of handmade clothes!  It’s been really really cold lately, so I am super glad for my healthy collection of cosy tights and toasty warm hand-knit woolly socks.  I haven’t felt like there is anything missing from my winter wardrobe at all!  Oh OK then, not my summer wardrobe either (sigh)
I’ve been taking photos of my daily outfits a coupla times a week, not to publish here, but for me to assess whether my clothes are still looking reasonably fresh and presentable.  It can be a drag setting up the tripod and everything, but I still think that taking your own photo regularly is the best way.  Because, you know what? I think the mirror does lie, but the camera does not!  Last week I did a bit of a cull and got rid of some really worn and daggy things.  This felt like a huge load off my mind.  NO, I am not going to show those awful photos here!  and while I can’t say the cull has led to any actual holes that desperately need filling (dammit!) at least I have a few weaker areas that I am looking forward to addressing, tout suite.  From stash, I promise!  ;D
A few commenters have asked whether I will ever wear clothes NOT made by me, ever again…  well, I have kept a few treasured RTW items, some things of sentimental value like souvenirs from trips overseas, some gifts from family and friends, and some things that I bought years ago just because I really liked them!  All of which I have tucked away out of temptation’s way for this year.  Some of these have been commandeered by Cassie for her own use and I haven’t decided yet whether I will reclaim those at the end of the year.  I’m thinking probably not!
I am really enjoying wearing only my own clothes, it’s been as rewarding and as satisfying as you can imagine.  And drawing my outfits is great fun and hasn’t gotten old yet, for me at least!

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

Supreme Commander Servalan

29/06/2013 8:25 am \ 63 Comments \
Put him on the fastest scout ship available and send him here. No flight plan is to be filed.
 That’s against Bureau standing orders, Commissioner.
 Who do you think wrote those orders, Borr? I did. So do as I say, and do it now.
(source)

So, what on earth, or should I say … off earth, is going on here?
Well, we are going to a Sci-fi party, and it’s been a while since I made something ridiculously glamorous so I decided to embrace my inner superbitch, and go as Supreme Commander Servalan.  This requires some mega-fabulous frocking up and I get to behave like an obnoxious vamp all evening.
DOUBLE WIN!  I can hardly wait!  😀

source

“I find unsophisticated clothes quite amusing.  Like unsophisticated people.  Obvious, but amusing.” (Servalan)

It’s been a while since I clapped eyes on Servalan doing her evil thang on the small screen… I checked out this video and also this one for a trip down memory lane, and to re-acquaint myself with her style.  She has the most amazing and dramatic wardrobe.  I chose this dress above from out of the plentiful fabulosity.  It’s winter here.  It’s cold.  I want to be covered up!
I bought some cheap and rather temperamental silver-foiled, slightly stretchy stuff from Spotlight and two packets of crystal beads in different sizes and got drafting.  I drafted the pattern myself and have provided more extensive details below, if anyone is interested in all that technical mumbo jumbo  ðŸ™‚ but basically I used the idea behind the gathered hole design from Pattern Magic.

Speaking of Pattern Magic, I received an email from Anna-Brit, who is curating The Pattern Magic Index.  This site is aiming to bring together makers and enthusiasts of the series with images of people’s creations and link-backs.  If you have used any of the books in the Pattern Magic series to make things and would like to be included on the site, then send her an email at thepatternmagicindex(at)gmail(dot)com.

Details:
Silver sandals from Zu, from donkey’s years ago

Drafting and construction details:
I started out with my custom fit Tshirt pattern and  spliced it with my plain little skirt pattern, and lengthened; to get a front and back.  Then cut out a portion from the side front to be the flat beaded section at the waist.  The remaining portion is cut and splayed out as per the gathered hole instructions in Pattern Magic 1.

The back is quite plain and featureless, basically a fitted Tshirt dress. Like Servalan’s dress, the skirt has a long slit in one side, for walking ease.  Unlike Servalan’s, which has a centre back zip, mine has enough stretch for it to be a pull-over the head affair. 
The sleeves are based on my plain Tshirt sleeve, with the side seams tapered out in a gentle arc to a wide wrist, in a bell shape.  
The neckband is a plain rectangle, cut to fit the neckline measurement, and sewn on using this method.  It is interlined with a piece of old cotton towelling, cut from a (clean) old towel.  Sounds deeply unglamorous, right?! but I didn’t have any batting on hand which, yes, would have been ideal, and didn’t want to spend money on invisible things like that in a costume and the towelling was the perfect thickness and stiffness for the job.  It is securely stitched to the neckband facing around all its edges on the inside.
The beaded section is done on two layers of the fabric for stability, and then with a layer of plain woven white cotton sewn underneath, to contain all the threads and for extra strength.
Being so shiny it’s hard to tell, but the fabric is actually almost sheer! so I made a little attached slip/liner dress as well, using the same pattern pieces, shortened and the front without the gathered feature, obviously.  This is attached to  the shell of the dress at the armscyes and the neckline, and conceals those gathering edges and that white bead-backing fabric inside.

I didn’t hem the sleeves or the hemline.  The fabric is blessedly not frayable, and anyway, it’s a costume!!  I will be lucky if I get to wear it more than a handful of times, really.

I have a little anecdote about this fabric too… we have a History.  About twelve years ago I put up my hand to make half of about fifty costumes for little girls, including Cassie, performing an Abba number in a dance recital, and this was the exact same fabric I was given to work with along with the breezy advice to “just run them up on the overlocker”.  I didn’t have an overlocker back then, so borrowed my sister-in-law’s brand new overlocker.
Man!
That experience nearly put me off overlockers for life!  There is just something about this fabric … I destroyed almost one whole costume’s worth of fabric, just trying to get the settings for this fabric right on the overlocker.  Nothing seemed to work.  Either the seam was too loose and looked wobbly, bobbly and like a messy nest of loose and tangled threads; or too tight and threads were snapping left, right and centre.  I re-threaded that machine countless times.  Luckily it was not my own machine, if it had been mine I might even have heaved it into the bin in a rage….  When I finally hit on a setting that gave me a nice neat looking seam with no bobbly bits anywhere; the seam would just pull quite wide apart when any pressure was put on it.  I was tearing my hair out.  Finally, I hit upon a plan of attack; I overlocked using the setting that “looked” real nice but pulled apart under pressure, which was for “looks” only, then went back over every seam with my regular sewing machine using a straight stitch, which was actually holding the seam together. 
Finally, success!  
Just before the dance recital, I surreptitiously checked out the costumes made by the other lady … and they all had the pulling-wide-apart seams!  I was new and didn’t want to rock any boats so just kept quiet and hoped for the best.  Luckily no little girls’ costumes fell apart on stage!
Obviously, I sewed this dress using the described double-sewing method  ðŸ˜‰

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , ,

Future Grrrrl!

22/06/2013 1:10 pm \ 65 Comments \

Whoa!  who is that babe?
It’s FUTURE GRRL!
So; Cassie was going to a Futuristic party… and had a firm idea of how she wanted to look.  To make this sartorial vision a reality she wanted a flamboyant and luxuriously textured coat.   
Mission accomplished!
She took her inspiration from an Alexander McQueen outfit, and looks kinda Blade Runner I reckon.  We bought the fabric and pattern together. Wait, wait what am I saying? I bought the fabric and pattern.  She buys her own clothes now, but I do pay for her fabric when we’re out together… I’m hoping to encourage that creativity and DIY spirit.  Well, that’s the theory, anyway!

below: Alexander McQueen Fall 2010 RTW

Fast forward a coupla weeks and Cassie having spent hours and hours and hours of her free time on meticulously hand-sewing another friend’s costume for him to wear to the same party (he looked very cool too, btw) suddenly realises the night before the party that she has to work the next day, and so there is absolutely NO WAY she can get her own costume finished on time.  Daughterly pleading with promises of chocolate followed.  *sigh*  Mum to the rescue.  I did not want that fabric and pattern to just sit there and not even get to the party!

Hehe, I’m joking of course, I was very happy to step in and take over the making of this ultra glamorous jacket.  Isn’t it rather gorgeous??  And, she did construct most of the shell herself.  Probably we each did about half the work involved.
btw, this is NOT the fab, self-indulgent, frivolous thing for myself I mentioned in my previous post… I had to abandon that for a while to make this!  That is yet to come!
The pattern is Butterick 5144, a reproduction 1948 pattern.  My, but this is a wonderful silhouette, isn’t it?  Fortunately I’m allowed to wear it too if I want  ðŸ˜‰
The fabric is a heavy Chinese brocade from Spotlight; emerald green and gold and black, with dragons writhing all over, and lined with black polyacetate lining fabric.

Cassie made her own “sunnies” too.  Aren’t they amazing?  She tells me there was another girl at the party with homemade mesh sunnies on.  They met up and were like: 
Hey cool sunnies!  
Hey, yours too!  
Can you see anything?  
Nup!  Can you? 
No!
cue massive rofl…. in that way that girls at a party have…

Details:
Jacket; Butterick 5144, Chinese … silk? (can’t remember for sure) brocade
Sunnies; made by Cassie
Cami; Country Road
Skirt; Manning Cartell
Stompin’ boots; bought in Japan  

Pattern
Description:
Very loose-fitting lined jacket has shaped front and flared back, shawl collar, side seam pockets, two piece sleeves with turn-back cuffs and shoulder pads
Pattern
Sizing:
16-24, unfortunately the only size the shop had.  I graded it down to a 10.
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
Very!  This is rated easy, and it is!
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
Oh My Gosh, you guys. I was doubtful at first when my daughter chose it, but now I could not possibly love it more. It could be the most glamorous thing in the house! The shaped hemline is chic and looks quite high-end, the draped back is elegant, the long and very wide sleeves look lovely. It has pockets! and is overall a surprisingly simple make. 
I have no dislikes.
Fabric Used:
Chinese brocade (I think silk? but am not 100% sure of that)
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
Unfortunately the only size in the store was a 16-24, and my daughter had her heart set on it. However I did not find it difficult to grade it down to a 10; there are 11 pattern pieces which are quite basic and the instructions are simplistic and straightforward. No fiddly or difficult bits at all.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
My daughter and I made this one together for her, and I think I would like to make one for me now! And, yes!
Conclusion: 
Very very cool. This is a 1948 reproduction pattern, so at first glance it might appear a bit costume-y but in this unexpected fabric it manages to fit beautifully into a funky modern wardrobe. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. This one is for my daughter, and me? I’m dreaming of one in lightweight camel wool… or maybe in black or chocolate coloured velvet… (sigh)
pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , ,

Gemini

19/06/2013 11:09 am \ 40 Comments \

Gemini, the twins.  
Of course my boys are not twins obviously, they are separated by several years and have one sister in between them too.  But they are both Geminis!  That picture cracks me up btw… so brotherly…  ðŸ˜€

So, of course the other shirt was for Tim, our eldest son!  He had a birthday recently too  ðŸ™‚
The fabric for his shirt is the same that I used for Sam’s but in a different colourway; a medium weight striped cotton drill in black and cream stripes from Spotlight.  The cream background is a touch deeper in colour than the slightly lighter ivory colour that is on Sam’s navy blue and ivory shirt.
I went with an on-grain pocket this time, just for one different visual detail between the two shirts.
The other details are all almost identical: epaulettes, a smaller, slightly rounded collar, 

sleeve plackets cut on the bias.  The same buttons.

The yoke cut in two halves on the bias, with the yoke facing cut as one piece for stability reasons.  Close up, you might notice that on Tim’s shirt the black “arrow” is centred on a black stripe, whereas with Sam’s the negative space white arrow was centred on the negative space white stripe.  Little details like that tickle my fancy  ðŸ™‚

Sam’s

Flat-felled armscye seam allowance as described here; flat-felled sleeve and side seams with a split hem, as detailed in the previous post.

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, black and white striped cotton, my review of this pattern here

So, two more shirts.  Phew.  I feel like I could just about make these in my sleep now! but two in a row is just about my limit; toward the end of the second one I am getting a little shirted out and need to cleanse my palate by making something completely different before thinking about any more shirts.  Variety (in projects) is the spice of life, non?
Fortunately, my next, er make that, current project is super frivolous and super fun and I am having a ball with it.  Very very very silly and self-indulgent.  I’m having so much fun with it, that I have already roared roughly halfway through and I only bought the fabric on Saturday!  And I don’t even need it for several more weeks!!  I absolutely must slow down.  But eeeee!  It’s such a crazy and ridiculous thing, and I cannot wait to wear it and show it!

And I’m totally embarrassed that I mixed up Gemini and Cancer… when I did Cancer last month, honestly I didn’t even realise I had got it wrong until yesterday when I was browsing through birthday cards in the newsagent.  I think I got confused because my boys both have birthdays in June and are Gemini, and I just thought to myself, well that is going to work out nicely and then made a mental leap that ok then May must be Cancer and didn’t twig that Cancer came after.  You can tell I’m not too crash hot on horoscopes.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , ,

One way to sew a flat-felled and split seam

19/06/2013 12:41 am \ 28 Comments \

A split side seam is a nice feature that adds a bit of visual interest as well as some wearing ease to a straight-hemmed garment, and flat-felling is a smooth and clean finishing technique for seams; but how to manage the awkward joining point between the two?
Marie Coffin and knj09705 both asked about the transition between the flat-felled seam and the split side seam on Sam’s shirt…  thanks for showing an interest!  and since I happened to making another shirt hot on the heels of the previous one I snapped a few pictures to demonstrate how I did it…
btw: I’ve checked out some of the better rtw menswear shirts and there’s a choice of finishing methods.  So the following is not the only way to construct this feature, but this is the way I chose this time.  I wonder… is there even a “right” way?
Stitch the seam down to the point at which the slit is to start.  I left an unfinished length of 10cm for the side seam splits on both of these shirts…

Press the seam open, and and the seam allowances of the split.

So in this case, the flat felled seam of this shirt is continuing from the split, right up the side seam and continuing right down the length of the sleeve to the wrist opening.  The rather weird picture below is attempting to show the side seam and sleeve seam allowances pressed open all in one continuous length; correspondingly, the seam allowance will be flat-felled all the way along this seam as one continuous length.

Decide which side of the seam allowance the seam will be flat-felled onto; again, after checking out rtw menswear shirts I’ve noticed there doesn’t seem to be an accepted convention here.  I’ve randomly decided for the seam allowances to lie against the shirt back.  
Trim this seam allowance to half its current width, with the trimming tapering off for the last couple of centimetres to the level of the slit.  Also, snip into the seam allowance of the other side to the endpoint of the side seam (pictured below).  Leave both slit seam allowances untrimmed.  

Now press the untrimmed seam allowance back over the trimmed seam allowance.
Turn the top allowance under, tucking it below the trimmed seam allowance underneath to encase it, and press.  Also, turn under the seam allowances of the split seam on both sides, and press.  Pin.
Stitch the seam allowances down, close to the pressed edge.  Stitch the short split seam allowance down separately.  
For flat-felling the sleeve seam allowance: while stitching longitudinally along a tube-like structure such as a sleeve; ALWAYS stitch from INSIDE the tube.  This eliminates the possibility of inadvertently catching down the other side of the tube by mistake.  And yes, with my machine I always have to stitch a tube seam in two stages, from the middle, out to each end!
Lastly, stitch across the top of the split seam to stabilise and strengthen the top of the split.  You could stitch a bar tack by narrow zig-zagging, or alternatively run a few forward-and-reverse passes of stitching.
Attempting to show the finished flat-felled sleeve and side seam in entirety.  Not much to see at all, really … but that’s the whole idea!  Nice and neat and tidy  ðŸ™‚

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

I dye…

17/06/2013 6:02 am \ 30 Comments \

…  literally.  I’m dyeing heaps of stuff lately.
My ultramarine corduroy skirt.  I was bored with it, and didn’t wear it at all during me-made May even though it was season appropriate.  That is A Sign.  I dunno, I’d gone off the colour; the brightness of it felt a bit passe, a bit garish, not serious enough for winter.
So…. to the dye pot!   Plunging your clothes into a pot of dye feels so adventurous, and a little bit dangerous.  Like a thrilling, reckless and risky thing to do.  Yeah?  Man, I need to get out more.
This was dyed with iDye in Chestnut.
It did come out a lot less brown than I thought it would.  I thought, bright blue mixed with orange-y brown would maybe beget a chocolate-y offspring, or a deeper version of the corduroy in my hoodie jacket I am wearing above.  The new colour reads like deep dark petrol, a dirty midnight blue and I like it all over again now.  I’m super happy with the nuovo neutral-ness of it.  Feels like an actual new skirt, yay.

Then I turned to my ombre-d red velveteen skirt.  I did this only last week, but when I compared it to my original version, I realised that my re-ombre-ing efforts had been pretty darn pathetic.  So I re-ombred the re-ombred skirt in iDye in Brown.  So now it has been re-re-ombred.  Ha!
And my sludgy little skirt had lost some of its sludge, so it got a fresh dunking and a soaking in the leftovers.
Re-sludge-ing, accomplished.

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1170, blue corduroy dyed chestnut, original details here and my review of this pattern here
Top (under); the loose drape top from drape drape, white cotton, details here
Hoodie; self-drafted, made from a pair of old corduroy jeans and long sleeved Tshirt, details here
Tights; self-drafted, black merino wool fabric, details here
Boots; nylon, from Zomp shoes

Red skirt; Vogue 1247, red cotton velveteen ombre dyed brown at the top, details here

Brown skirt; Vogue 1247, purple denim dyed brown, details and my review of this pattern here.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , ,

the paper doll project

17/06/2013 5:52 am \ 7 Comments \
(I’ve pledged to wear only clothes handmade by me this year and to sketch my daily outfits in my Fashionary.  I’m calling this the paper doll project)

30th May-4th June
from left:
ivory jeans, black Tshirt, Chanel style jacket, handknit socks
f-leather jacket, white drape-y Tshirt, purple jeans, hand-knit socks
white Tshirt, bell-sleeved top, little grey skirt, denim-look tights
blue denim shirt, strawberry jeans, hand-knit socks, ambrosial hoodie
blue denim dress, wearing a triangle cardigan, paprika tights
oo-la-la dress, hand-knit socks

5th-10th June
from left:

11th-16th June
from left:
white Tshirt, strawberry jeans, hand-knit socks, peppercorn cardigan, hand-knit socks
ivory skirt, striped Tshirt, grey hoodie, scrumply leggings
black Tshirt, sludge-y little skirt, chocolate cardigan, swirly leggings, hand-knit socks
white blouse, calico cardigan, burnt orange skirt, paprika tights
drape-y white top, petrol corduroy skirt, new-old hoodie, red leggings, hand-knit socks
purple Tshirt, purple jeans, olive felt jacket/cardigan
pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

Navy stripes

13/06/2013 1:20 pm \ 53 Comments \

It was Sam’s birthday a few days back and I made a shirt for him. 

The fabric is from Spotlight, a medium-weight cotton twill in a heavy cream colour with navy blue stripes.  Ahem, stripes again, I know; but hey.  It’s so hard to find different and nice mens’ shirting fabric.  Seriously hard.  Fortunately, Sam loves stripes, so our quest to stockpile the world’s largest, handmade, striped men’s shirt collection is going great guns, thanks.

Buttons; a light bone colour, also from Spotlight.  Y’know, Spotlight gets a lot of flack for the hit and miss nature of their stuff.  And then every now and again, just when you’re about to throw up your hands in despair, you find some gems.  So I’m eating my words right now.  These buttons, and this fabric?  Awesome-sauce!
So, do I have any new revelations about tailoring a man’s shirt?  No.  Am I being mind-numbingly repetitive.  Um, probably!  I used the same ol’ pattern too.  I reeeeeeally should get some new patterns, honestly.  And no; it wasn’t really a huge birthday surprise, since for one, he did actually request it.  But I still wrapped it up so he could unwrap it on the day!
It’s made to his fit preference; loose and boxy enough to wear open over Tshirts and hoodies, if he so desires, which he frequently does. 
Features…  Epaulettes.  

There are one or two bias details, for some visual interest.  Pocket on the bias, with a pen compartment.  Sleeve plackets cut on the bias, and I loooove how this looks!  Plus, it was heaps easier having no stripe matching to worry about here  ðŸ˜‰

Straight hem, with split side seams.
ETA: at right, showing the inside view where the flat-felled seam allowance meets the split side seam… (I will do a small tute on how I do my take on this, if anyone is interested?)

The collar is cut with much smaller, less pointy wings than the pattern piece.

I’ve been accustomed lately to flat-felling the armscye seam allowances, and French-seaming the sleeve and side seams.  Then I read an opinion somewhere that French seams were “feminine” and not suitable for a men’s shirt at all… that flat-felled seaming throughout is the only acceptable finish to a man’s shirt.  O rly??  Well, that burst my bubble.
So I felt sufficiently shamed into going with flat felled seams throughout.  Doing this up inside the sleeves of a shirt is not exactly easy.  I got a pretty nice finish, but it was fiddly business.

The yoke.  
Drastic fabric shortages   an inspired creative decision dictated that I cut it as two halves on the bias.  The yoke facing is a regular, on-grain, single piece of fabric for stability, cut from plain white cotton.

Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, navy and cream striped cotton twill.  My review of this pattern is here, and my previous Burda 7767 makes are here and here.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,
Switch to mobile version
↓