As usual I’m about a month behind on my posts, nearing a month and a half any day now…
(Sorry for those curious about what I made for Christmas… Check in closer to February… I hope)
So in the beginning of October, Heather from Closet Case Files and Kelli from True Bias put on a challenge to bring frosting back to the online sewing community.
Basically frosting is the stuff like party dresses and bright green coats and silk pajamas and stuff. Cake, on the other hand, is black t-shirts and jeans and workwear.
On a side note, frosting is so much more fun to post about… its pretty, the details are memorable, and you don’t have to blow out the picture to see any design details on your black on black on denim garment… Whew, I did not know I had that many feelings about the three or four black t-shirts I’ve made.
This came around about the same time that I told myself that I was definitely this time going to finish my latest costume… Which was also a long tabled costume. And I did! Not by the deadline, but eh… Only like two days afterwards?
I’m hoping to get a post on my Cinderella dress sometime in the next month or so…
So I knew that I had a whole bolt of tulle that I wasn’t going to use, and then I made a plan, in theory to help motivate myself to finish the Cinderella dress… It didn’t help.
I would use the tulle to make an awesome poufy skirt, then either make a woven T-shirt out of a gorgeous fabric or a camisole out of something pretty, and then a lace shirt on top!
Knowing this, I got around to finishing up my Cinderella dress, then nearly immediately got to cutting out the tulle circle skirts… I got up to about 15 before I was happy with the opacity. Now, I didn’t finish the skirt… I just left it out on my dress form for about the next 3.5 weeks…
At some point in early November I made a trip to my local fabric store and picked up a yard of this lovely (and practically neon) lime green silk cotton twill. And proceeded to use it for an unintended purpose, and made a camisole out of it.
This was definitely after I’d written a post about not making Ogdens out of anything very stiff… Maybe not posted, but definitely written. So I made one out of twill. Not my finest moment.
Overall the camisole turned out nice. It’s not one I’d wear on its own in summer, but when worn with a black sweater, or with an overshirt, it looks quite pretty. I lined it with scraps of some undyed rayon lawn from these projects.
But then I remembered it was winter, and I had been making most of these pieces while completely covered in blankets… at my sewing machine.
So I decided to continue on and make the lace shirt? When I really wore this outfit in the real world, I definitely wore a sweater.
I used my trusty Onyx top as the pattern, and used up the very last of this lace. I did have to piece the lace together on the back (and maybe the sleeve?) in order to complete the top.
Basically I laid one scrap on top of the other, lined up the pattern so it matched on the top and the bottom, pinned them until they wouldn’t shift in an earthquake, and then carefully sewed the pieces together.
Then I finally realized that I’d not finished up the skirt, so I cut out the waistband from some old stone colored mystery fabric (on the Sunday I used in my previous post) and the next week I sewed up the waistband and attached it to the skirt.
I had a quick photoshoot before work one day (though I only wore the camisole with a sweater to work… Not the skirt), and froze while I was trying to show off the garments. So there wasn’t a lot of smiling, because I was cold and rushing, but I do love the garments.
The next week I wore this entire outfit to a ballroom dance, and though I looked and felt cute, I discovered one incredibly important thing.
The skirt is ridiculously itchy and uncomfortable. So itchy, even over top of a slip. My refrain for the night was “So itchy!!!” and I also found that it takes up the entire seat area in the car and spills over into part of the console… But can I repeat, itchy?
It’s possible I’ll make some kind of underskirt, but it’ll be in time out for now…
The other two pieces are awesome, and I’m enjoying pulling them into my wardrobe.
So that’s my #sewfrosting outfit! It’s very bright, and not something I’d wear regularly, but it also is quite a cute little gumdrop ensemble! I’m glad I have pieces that I can wear in real life that’ll remind me fondly of this challenge.
Sometimes you need a little frosting to make you appreciate cake!