Garments Archives • Page 11 of 11 • Jessica Smith Creates

October 10, 2013August 19, 2018

Pouf

I told you that I was going to make a petticoat, and that will happen eventually.

However I was confused on terminology.
I knew what fabric I was going to use, and I knew generally how to make the garment.

But apparently I had forgotten the name.
I used a bright yellow nylon netting and a light gold lining fabric, which might have been to lightweight for the project, but ended up working well.

It’s not the biggest petticoat in the end, but it will certainly be what I need.

For instance:

Without the crinoline…

And with the crinoline.

This is my heaviest knit dress, the one that gave me the idea for the Belle dress.

It’s a bit heavier of a skirt than what I’m hoping to use for my dress, but it’s good to know that the crinoline still gives some oomph!

September 27, 2013August 19, 2018

Mint and Navy

I definitely told you about the fabric I’ve been buying. Like this:

I’ve been challenging myself to work on projects bit by bit on nights without much homework, which recently has been quite a few. Might as well take advantage while it still happens.

So I took out my Singer Tiny Tailor, a $15 score from Ebay, and grabbed my fabric pile and made up a small cardigan pattern.

It’s cold here already. It fluctuated for a while, but I’m ready for heavy sweaters and such. That’s why I’m knitting up the Cardilero, which I’ll post progress of soon. But in the meantime, I’ll stick to long sleeved close fit sweaters, which can be quite warm.

Here’s what I ended up with after the first set of sewing!

It’s a little rough, and honestly a bit tight. Not impossible, just odd. The mint lace knit fabric is lovely. Not lovely to work with, mind you. It unravels and pulls like crazy. Soon I’m going to have to overlock it and also finish both the bottom back and and top back, as well as the sleeves.

The sleeve and armscye are also a little funky, but I kinda like it. No uncomfortable enormous underarm seam.

It’s warm and comfy. Exactly what I wanted! I’d call this one a success!

September 23, 2013August 19, 2018

We are not the B-Team fool, we are the second A-Team.

So. I have finally finished the vest for my Claudia costume. And today I’m subtle cosplaying her.

I know I told you I was done before, but I found that wonderfully neon fabric I told you about, so I did create a lining.

There’s nothing like handsewing a lining into a garment that makes you miss your sewing machine.

After an additional eight or so hours of sewing, my vest is absolutely complete!

And now I’m off to class!

September 15, 2013August 19, 2018

Trial and Error Part 2

I love my culottes.

I love my culottes dearly.

However my culottes didn’t fit… quite right. Even right after I made them. I just wasn’t able to admit it.

You may remember that I thought my fashion fabric was knit.

Haha.

I can hear some of you laughing at me right now.

It was not my brightest moment.

I had added a zipper into the left side seam, so I could actually get in and out of them, which certainly helped. I just couldn’t add anything to my stomach while wearing them.

But I do like to eat at some point in the day.

So my fixes:

First I added a double layer of hem facing into the side seams, since it would be better than cutting out and attempting to sew more of the fashion fabric in. That would require some ironing, which I was not in the mood for, having already ironed the whole pair of culottes. There’s an awful lot of fabric in those things. These inserts make the skirt hang a little differently, but not drastically.

After this I tried them on, and saw that the inseam hung out from below the hem. It’s important to have a full length mirror when you’re sewing. Or at least one that you can move around without having to stand on a chair to see into it.

So… second I got to work unpicking the seams, and hemmed it up a bit higher.

And now I’m much happier!

Next up, my vest lining!

July 29, 2013August 19, 2018

Trial and error – Or the magical world of culottes

This project has been brought to you by the power of positive reinforcement.

Every time I took a picture of a step in the process I got a bit of a cookie.

Only three cookies were harmed during this experiment.

I made culottes!

Aren’t they purdy?

And I can spin! And the windy days won’t completely ruin my day! And I can be comfy!

It wasn’t without some trial, though.

A few weeks ago I found this tutorial, which explains how to pattern these culottes.

I’d never heard of culottes, skorts being the only alternative skirt option I knew.

I kinda miss skorts, and there may be a pair in the works… Some thoughts need to be worked out.

So, I did some research. At least, I searched Pinterest, and I attempted some google searches, but most of those patterns looked, well, ugly.

I did find this lovely pattern, which I loved the idea of, except it was sold out… And a little out of my price range at the moment.

And I found Lladybird’s culottes, which inspired me to buy some fabric, and I decided to use that first link above to go ahead and pattern the culottes.

I’m new to knits, being primarily a quilter before last year, but I love to wear them, so it was a logical progression. I’ve made a skirt or two before, but I really like the idea of a bike-approved option.

I got this fabric off of ebay, and there’s a lot of it. This is also the fabric I’m planning to make my Kaylee-inspired dress with.

But before I cut into it I made a muslin like a good little pattern-making newbie.

And I’m glad I did! Except it got fuzzy stuff all over my scissors!

I found that I needed to lower the rise, in order to get into the culottes, and have a comfortable placement of the shorts on my body. I also needed to lengthen the skirt from the bottom, to make the skirt more to my liking.

First I made myself a new pattern, but this time I cut out the real fabric, because I was tired of muslins already, and the knit muslin fabric I have currently is all much heavier than the actual fabric. I wanted to know how the actual fabric draped before changing anything else.

And during this process I found out that my fashion fabric isn’t a knit. Zipper to the rescue! I really should double check these things.

Because I didn’t add seam allowances, because I forgot it wasn’t a knit, it’s a tight squeeze on me up top, but that was helped a bit by my waist finishing process.

Both of the above pictures were taken before hemming, but it seemed like a good length, and with the exception of the tightness around the waist, an all around good fit. I could always remove the seams and add something in later, but I’m on limited supplies and time at the moment, so that will have to wait.

Then came the hemming and I was done!

Next time, though: definitely need to add seam allowances, and perhaps make them a little longer,

July 26, 2013August 19, 2018

New guy gets to fix the fish.

Edit: I wrote this post a few weeks ago, while waiting to take a picture of the vest… Then forgot to take a picture until now. But I liked the post as it was… So here you go!

I got my serger! And it’s even kind of working!

Time to get to work on the vest.

As I had mentioned last time, I have seam ripped my muslin, and prepared the lab coat I planned to use for the fabric.

For my labs last semester I was required to buy a lab coat, but at my normal college, it isn’t standard practice to wear one unless you are doing a messy experiment, in which case you borrow one of the lab coats from the office.

So I am putting this lab coat to good use!

I’ve cut out my pattern pieces from the back and the sleeve pieces, as the front had too many pockets and sleeves.

The serger is up and running. I’m hesitant to run it for too long until I get it completely worked out, which may be a while. I’m still planning on using it, just carefully.

I’ve overlocked around each pattern piece, and used a different serger stitch to sew up the seams. I’m getting really good at threading this machine.

I sewed up the seams, turned over and topstitched the armscye, and then hand picked a zipper. I’m going to need to replace it with a separating zipper at some point…

However, my camera battery died in the middle of the resulting steps.

I’ve got a photo of the finished project though!

Here it is! Until I get it lined and pressed!

July 24, 2013August 19, 2018

No one decides my fate

But me.

So I had my skirt.

I then thought about a bodice.

First, though, I decided I would make one of those bodice slopers that I’ve heard so much about.

Burdastyle.com has a nice tutorial on how to make one to your measurements here. I used that one successfully, with the results shown above, in my lovely yellow polyester doubleknit. I didn’t add any seam allowance to my pattern pieces, because I forgot, but also so I could see how close fitting the bodice really was. As far as I can tell it fits quite nicely around my chest, which is the major purpose of the current experiment. I didn’t sew up the underarm seam or the corresponding shoulder seam. If I had I never would have gotten the blasted thing on to check out the fit.

The bodice needed to be changed over to a sweetheart neckline anyway, which disregards the need for the shoulder seam, and the underarm seam seems to fit close enough anyway, and I can always take it in later if its too much, or add in something if it doesn’t.

So I made up my new pattern, and cut out the pieces, adding a little length to it, and put it together.

I hand picked a zipper in, which went pretty well, I think, for my second hand picked zipper.

Then the handsewing the skirt into the bodice. Oh how I miss my sewing machine. If only the serger had a larger neck…

And my completed dress!

Because this was meant to be a wearable muslin, I knew it wouldn’t be perfect, but I had fun learning about it.

I’m planning on adding a strip of tan fabric to the bottom of the skirt, to lengthen it, but because its 120 inches around the bottom, I’m going to need to do some planning. Which also means some procrastinating. In my real version of the dress the skirt won’t be a full circle skirt, and will be longer anyway, so there will definitely be changes there.

There is also a big fold in the back of the bodice when I stand up straight, which I’ll be needing to understand and fix for the future. It’s not just because the back isn’t straight in the pictures, I promise. I’m also planning to move the waistband of the skirt up an inch in future versions. It needed to be lower for modesty for this one, but with a longer skirt, I’d like a higher waist point.

link

And I even know how I can wear this dress! From season 2 episode 11 of Once Upon a Time. Technically she’s wearing a long sleeved sheer shirt under the jacket, but I’ve got to have some creative liberties with my subtle cosplaying!

July 20, 2013August 19, 2018

A chipped cup.

There’s no way to have a serger and not test it out with some nice fabric! On a lot of nice fabric!

Since the fabric I happened to have on hand already was woven and not at all stretchy, I wanted to buy some knits, so I could test it on some fabric that needs some of the stretch that a serger gives.

I was going for cheap knits, at first, so I bought remnants of some polyester double knit. The tan, blue, and yellow ones are all pretty scratchy, but I bought them mostly for practice, and to use as muslins for heavier knit projects. The gold dotted one is the one I really wanted. It’s a gorgeous fall gold, and if I wanted to be poetical I would say it reminds me of New England in autumn.

The minute the auction closed on my serger I thought that maybe this machine could give me a chance to try out some ideas for my Belle outfit. I’ve not had much luck with my regular sewing machine with stretchy fabrics, and though I’m working to change that the serger will overall come in handy.

For my real dress, I want a sweetheart necked bodice with a lace overlay, some sleeves, and a skater (circle) skirt.

The lace top to the real bodice is something I am planning to figure out another time, potentially with a coupon and really cheap stretch lace. I’ll be willing to shell out a little more money for better lace once I know how it will fit together.

But for now, I’d like to work on the skirt, see how and where I’d like it to fit, and then the bodice in turn, so that I know how I’d like to make the real dress.

Whenever I actually get around to that.

I started out with this fabric, which I knew I wanted as a skirt anyway, and I definitely wanted to try out a full circle skirt.

So I had folded a piece into a small square, with two folds, and cut out the waist. I then trimmed the hemline, knowing that I probably wouldn’t actually hem it. It is a lovely knit, but I knew that the skirt would already be a bit short on me. When possible, I prefer to give myself a higher waisted skirt. My smallest point around my midsection is pretty high up (as is my natural waist though that’s not quite as high), and I like to emphasize that when I can, which then requires longer skirts.

Then a waistband went on, though I didn’t quite plan it well enough and it came up short in the back. It was really at this point where I decided to think about putting on a bodice. I’m more willing to add extra work to my plate than come up with a simple quick fix for a skirt waistband.

I’ll talk about the bodice in my next post on this project!

May 31, 2013August 19, 2018

A’collaring we go!

So it’s been a while since I’ve given you an update on my crocheted sweater. It’s moving along, but I took a break during exams and the past week.

Two weeks and a half a week of extra study time was loads of time to procrastinate. I’m an equal opportunity procrastinator, to be honest. Actually studying and crocheting the sweater.

So here’s what I’ve got so far! I’ve finished the vest part of the sweater, and I sewed up the shoulder seams after blocking. It fits well enough around the arms, so I moved on to creating the collar.

I’ve completed 21 whole blocks out of 36, and I’ll then have 10 triangles to make.

I’m hoping to add at least two blocks a day for a while. Then it’ll just be waist ribbing, and arm and collar edging, and then the sweater will be done! Still a lot, but progress is important nevertheless!

April 26, 2013August 19, 2018

UFO #1 About Half Done

Look! Look! Look!

I’m about halfway done with the main structures of the sweater, with creating the base portion of the sweater. The next part to do is the shawl collar, after fitting the base.

In case you aren’t up on your yarn-based crafts, I’ll remind both of us about the proceedings.

To fit the base, I first need to block the base. Because I don’t have all of the supplies I would prefer to do this, ie an ironing board and a spray bottle, I’ll be working with a towel. I have some safety pins, and I’ll find a ruler.

I’ll be pinning the project to the wet towel, in the dimensions dictated by the pattern. Make that, as close to those dimensions as is possible…

Once its dry, I’ll be sewing up the arm seams, making sure I have the proper room to move.

I tend to find that even with careful measuring and blocking, I still rarely get a garment that really fits without me fixing it somehow, normally enlarging certain portions, so I’m doing it right this time. By checking for fit early on, I’m hoping to arrest this problem well before the end of the project, before I can decide that I’m not going to wear the project that I spent so much time on.

After any fixes, I’ll be making appropriate fixes to the pattern for the shawl collar, and then I’ll be working on finishing up that one!

Edging, and then finishing the garment with a waistband, and then I’ll have myself a sweater!