Knockoff

Have you ever heard of the pattern company Your Style Rocks?

It was a collaboration between fans/designers and patternmakers to create patterns created by the people! But it’s been dormant for a few years now. Some of the designs look great and some are not my cup of tea. The two I gravitated towards were the Eva Dress and the Our Own Pretty Ways shrug.

Back in the beginning of July I walked into a Hancock Fabrics and walked out with the remaining fabrics for my TARDIS costume, as well as some lovely turquoise rib knit. Or at least I call it turquoise… I’ve learned that the concepts behind blue based colors often vary between people.

I knew at that point that I wanted that shrug. Now, my fabric was obviously not sweatshirt material, being a rib knit, but now that I’m in the South I may not need heavier materials as much. So that wasn’t going to be a problem.

The real problem is that I don’t have easy access to a printer. And it costs 15 cents a page at the library. At least until I find a cheaper option or buy a printer, pdf patterns will be of little use to me. Which sucks cause there’s so many great ones.

So instead of printing out the pattern I decided to mod something I already owned.

I took the Plaintain pattern from Deer and Doe and copied it onto newspaper. I didn’t initially change the back, though later on I added darts when I experienced lower back gappage.

But for the front I raised the neckline to a crew neck style, and cut away the most of the bottom edges in an s-curve shape, to recreate the just over bust hugging style. Then I used a fabric band for the bottom hem.

The sleeves were as patterned, and I hemmed them by doing a simple foldover hem.

The hood was frankensteined from some scraps and more of the fabric (AKA I hoped to use just scraps then ran out of usable ones). I had a pattern piece for it, but it’s gone missing. I’ve cleaned my room several times since then, and it probably went the way of the trash can.

I sewed the hood on, and attached some hooks and eyes, and voila! Nice knockoff shrug!

And my first not in-my-living-space photoshoot! I took my new tripod out for a spin. With my simple point and shoot camera, though, I have to use the self timer. My options are 10 seconds and 2 seconds, neither of which are convenient, but I’m working with what I’ve got… And a DSLR and camera remote is going on my dream wishlist… and my to-scour-Ebay list.