Category: Garments

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Amber Julia Cardigan

This is an absolutely lovely cardigan, and it has really changed my mind about a pattern.

But first some backstory…

I learned how to hold a grudge from my mother. Sometimes I still think she hates this one girl that was in my third grade class who screwed me over on a group project. (Over 10 years ago, mind you. Well over.)

Now, I’ve learned to form opinions on people and things rather quickly, and only change it with careful thought and lots of evidence (and I’ve got forgetfulness on my side… my mom doesn’t, so she needs lots of evidence).

So when I change my mind on a pattern due to a second try, something really has to win me over (I’m looking at you electric hand mixers. It’ll take a lot of work for me to give you a third chance). And the Julia cardigan from Mouse House Creations has done it.

Last time, I used a one way stretch jersey (which was admittedly a mistake) and the version of the pattern that has an unfinished collar, because I didn’t have enough fabric for two. I wear the cardi a lot, but it’s mostly because it’s a nice green color for my wardrobe, and not because it’s comfortable. It also rides up a lot, which bugged me a bit, and doesn’t like to stay on my shoulders. I think it’s mostly a fabric symptom, now that I’ve made another.

Part of the reason it worked better this time is definitely the fabric, and this rather weighty and drapey jersey is it. I got it from a mystery fabric warehouse, but it feels like a rayon lycra blend, and for the thickness its heavy and perfectly scrumptious. It also has terrible recovery.

I used the double collar version this time, since I had just enough fabric. I also made it long sleeved, which was nice. When I finished it, I immediately wore put it on (strings floating around and all), and I noticed a few things. For one, I forgot to cut the armscye out, since I never cut the bodice pieces, which would work for both sleeveless when uncut and sleeved when trimmed a bit. Also the sleeves were ginormous in both length and width at my wrists. But on the whole, the whole cardigan worked!

Before I wore it again, I unpicked the top of the sleeve, trimmed the bodice back and restitched the sleeve. I also skinned the sleeve and shortened it… And it grew once more in length. The new width is acceptable to me, because I often squish it up to my elbows, which works well with the sweater. The length bothered me though, so before I wore it a third time, I topstiched the cuff seam allowance down, and I created thumb holes! (And now a few weeks later, I re-attached the cuff even higher up the sleeve, and now the thumb holes are a bit short, but still doable, and nicer volume when I inevitably push up the sleeves to my elbow.)

And I’m in love!

It does help that this color is a good match to my wardrobe. I’ve noticed that my wardrobe is rather bimodal in color scheme. It’s either cool jewel tones or fall colors (and black which I’m not counting). And this cardigan works for both! I love it with bright indigo/royal blues, and I love it with olive green, and it’s just lovely overall.

Can you tell how much I love it?

Got a favorite sweater that works with almost all of your wardrobe?

(Oh, and if you’re reading this in December 2016, I’m about to write another progress post on my early winter sewing plan for this week… It’ll post tomorrow. With pictures this time!)

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Progress – WSP

It’s been nearly a week since I posted about my short term winter sewing plans, and so far I’ve completed about 2.25 of my goals. I’ll be creating real posts for all of these (once I get pictures), plus posting a bunch of the stuff I completed this year and forgot to share, before the new year, but I figure I’d keep you updated!

So I managed to serge and put together a sewn knit cardigan last Wednesday, when I had access to a serger at a makerspace on campus. It’s got a pretty bias tape pop of color! But the serger threads were white, and it doesn’t fit well with the navy color… I’m debating what to do.

And I got the jeans cut and serged last Wednesday as well. Putting it together, though… That didn’t happen until Sunday at 1pm when I realized I hadn’t left the couch yet that day. But I got them finished before 1am on Sunday night/Monday morning!

As for my coat, I roughly cut out the pieces, and dyed them using normal RIT dye, and some iDye Poly, and let them dry. I intended to actually cut and interface the pieces, but I’m still working on the muslin, and deciding if I need a different upper collar and cuffs fabric because the wool is kinda scratchy to me. But this seems quite doable in a week! (I may be delusional…

I’ll be parading around in my new jeans today, rather happily. Maybe parading is too much. Sashaying quietly? Scurrying quietly, or something like that! Have a lovely Monday!

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Weekend of Corsets

After I had completed the skirt for my Ariel costume, reality set in.

I knew I didn’t want to wimp out and not make a corset, and by this point I had already bought the fabric and the pattern and denim for the muslin. I used Laughing Moon’s 100 Victorian Underwear Dore Corset pattern, which I got from Truly Victorian here. This post by Truly Victorian helped me choose what size to start with and which corset to start with. (ETA This link seems to be broken, and I can’t find the article)

So here is the story of my weekend of corsets (embellished due to the fact that it was about 3 months ago and for artistic liberties):

The Friday before DragonCon I grabbed the cut out pieces of the corset pattern(I had clipped them a few days before when I was in the mood to cut, but not carefully), and I carefully traced out a size, and cut it out of the denim. Did I not figure out that I should alternate directions of the pattern pieces so each side of the corset was one color? No I did not. Do I care very much? Nope! Gotta love underwear for that reason…

I sewed it up with one layer, and at first used a zipper in place of the busk at the front. It ended up being taken in a lot for the denim version, and I think this was mostly a combo because I am rather squishy around the tummy, so it was able to compress/move rather easily, and because the denim has some give. Not a lot, mind you, but a bit more wiggle room than I’d thought. And realistically I’m happier to “remove” fabric later than need more of it there. It is a heavy weight 100% cotton denim from Joann Fabrics, with a surprising amount of drape post-wash, but it’s pretty stable and thick.

I hadn’t yet finished the denim corset yet, since I didn’t have the grommet setting kit by that point, but I was able to alter the pattern for the Ariel corset.

Then Saturday rolled around and I cut out the fabric for Ariel. I had gotten a yard of Yaya Han’s corset fabric from her line at Joann’s… By this point I was in Joann’s every other day or so. It’s a nice enough fabric. Lightweight but still strong and stable. Thin, though, very thin feeling. In the future I wouldn’t use it for corsets, since it did strain a bit under the pressure, causing some extra rippling in the already slight ripple sections, but it would be good as a tough non-stretch layer for support.

I had raised the top of the corset by two inches, and aimed for that round sweetheart shape, and I cut away some of the extra fabric from the bottom to give it a soft point at the bottom. Then I ended up altering this more once I had tested with just one layer of fabric, so I could try to get less of the stomach-fat-that-is-now-hip-fat look. (Spoiler alert: It only kinda worked.) I then sewed the second layers together for both corsets (each of self fabric), and inserted the busk to Ariel’s (I had forgotten to purchase another for Susan) and inserted a zipper for Susan’s.

The boning was tricky, and the next step. I got all the boning from Bias Bespoke’s etsy shop, as well as my busks. I used spiral steel in the sides, and spring steel in the straighter front and back areas. To “cap” the ends, I dipped the bones in Plasti-Dip I got from Lowes. I should’ve done an extra dip on the end of all of them, but I got lazy and frantic about finishing.

I cut all the boning for both corsets at once, using bolt cutters and wire cutters. And then I’m pretty sure my friend conned me into going line dancing (**shivers**). So when I got home that night I was exhausted and crashed. On Sunday, I inserted the boning, and stitched the bindings on by hand. I threaded a length of Sugar and Cream yarn through the top of Susan’s so I could draw it more closed if necessary.

The grommet setting tool had been delivered by this point, but I had forgotten to buy grommets with it, so when they arrived on Monday I inserted them into both corsets, after practicing on an old underbust corset that I used for my TARDIS costume.

Oh, I definitely bought and inserted a busk into Susan after the con, which is why its there in the pictures. The zipper I used split every time I’d wear the costume, with only the tie and hook and eyes to hold it in, so I knew that a real busk was in order.

And that was my weekend of corsets! I don’t intend to have another such weekend, but they were pretty quick once I got rolling!

Ever take on two intimidating things in a weekend?

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Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind

But, you know… In summer…

I love Miyazaki films so much, and one of my first introductions to his and Studio Ghibli’s works (other than My Neighbor Totoro which I rewatched over and over on VHS as a kid) was the Nausicaa graphic novels.

And then I was introduced to all the movies. But Nausicaa is still one of my favorites…

So when my friends and I decided to do a Miyazaki day, I jumped on the chance to make a Nausicaa outfit. For one thing, Nausicaa doesn’t wear heels, so I could get away without such silly shoewear, and also I could make her outfit out of knit fabrics.

Yay for knits!

And then I realized that her full outfit would be really hot, and way too much work with about a week free before the con. So I decided to remove some items. And by some, I mean a lot.

The first item I made was some leggings using Cake Patterns’ Espresso pattern. I got this white rayon spandex knit from Joann Fabric’s. It doesn’t have a lovely amount of recovery, and its definitely translucent, but it worked well enough at the time. They certainly are warm and comfy!

Then I made the belt, mostly because I was not really looking forward to making the tunic. I got out some wide navy blue elastic, and this belt buckle I got from a trimming shop in New York City, and made the belt for my natural waist.

At some point in the last week pre-DragonCon, I decided to just go for it, and I created this new Closet Case Nettie hack (I made a muslin first, I promise!).

The neckline was adjusted to swing upwards to create that cut-on collar look, which I estimated from the crew neck version of the pattern. Then I created a “slit” down the front for a few inches. This necessitated a lining or facing of some kind, which I ended up doing as a half lining (so a kind of glorified shelf bra without the elastic) to give it a clean finished edge.

The sleeves were one thing I debated over. I originally thought short sleeves because of summer, but if I ever wanted to reuse this costume for a more comprehensive Nausicaa outfit, the sleeves needed to be longer, so I went with elbow-3/4 sleeves.

You might remember (from a long time ago) that I wasn’t sure which version of Nausicaa I wanted to create. I ended up going with “normal,” where she has ammo holders where shirt pockets would normally be, rather than trying to applique a bird emblem, for which I just took rectangles of fabric and sewed them to the proper places with spaces for three tubes on either side.

When I realized that I needed to make ammo to put in the ammo holders, I stalled. The night before I left I pulled out some dowels that I had bought with other projects in mind, cut some pieces about chapstick size in length, and then glued three together at a time. When they were dry to the touch I mixed together some cheap red and yellow acrylic to create a nice orange and I painted all of them. I made six, but when I wore the costume I used an orange chapstick in one place, which is what is sticking out a bit… It was handy but also slippy and kept slipping out of place.

Teto completed the look!

I’ve worn the tunic a few times now without costumes in mind, and I think it’ll get a lot of wear in winter. The leggings have gotten a few less wearings, but I am not the biggest fan of white clothing so it isn’t surprising. And Teto has been looking down on me from a bookcase, keeping me company!

Stay tuned for more on my Ariel costume, as well as some more TARDIS stuff! And some of those regular clothes things too. Lots of that.

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Second Blue Skirt of the Summer

This skirt was produced in August, in the heat of my “Crap I’m not ready for DragonCon” frenzy, but in July I had raided the Hancock going out of business sale and gotten some blue seersucker…

It became a skirt, but really, it’s never going to be worn out of the house. Cute, mostly comfy, way too clingy.

This skirt unfortunately shares a bit of those adjectives, but not the right ones.

But first the background.

The fabric is a rayon from Joann’s that’s pretty opaque, but can be a bit transparent in certain lights. The one thing I didn’t take into account is that it’s more of a shirt weight, and is too drapey to be flattering in a skirt this long.

I created a pattern based off of the fabric I had (just over 2 yards), and made it as circle skirt-like as I possibly could. I drafted side seam pockets that also inserted into the waistband, which was magnificent foresight, since the fabric definitely would not have held side seam pockets on its own. And it has a side seam zipper as well, to add to the confusion.

Sewing it together was pretty quick, but the hem. I hemmed it by hand. which I think took 2.5 hours. I waited the requisite 2 ish days between sewing an hemming, but I still haven’t gotten it quite right…

Ankle length was what I was going for, because I wanted to show off my adorable heels, but I accidentally got it a little short, and now its a slightly awkward length…

The waistband is also a little too big, which currently is held together with a skirt hook and a safety pin, and the pockets ended up too low, in order to keep the skirt at a near ankle length…

So in short, it’s clingy, and comfy, but not terribly cute…

It definitely worked for DragonCon, with the corset over it (as shown in all these pictures), but when I wear it with normal shirts and stuff, I have to be careful not to show my lower stomach bump. It’s one of the reasons I don’t wear tight around the hips skirts much, and it shows a lot in this skirt.

So, now that I’ve regaled you with all the info on this skirt… I should tell you that I’m going to make this into something else. I’m thinking a shirt. I don’t think I can squeeze out an Archer, but I’m going to try!

ariel

I’m going to need to make another Ariel skirt, since I love this outfit in general, but I have to find a better fabric, and I’ll want to make as full a circle skirt as I can, for the floof factor.

Hope you all had a lovely Halloween/October!

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Tale of Three Plushies

Not only are my two bestest buddies joining me on my DragonCon adventure, but we’re doing two group cosplays, and a couple of weeks ago I had the most adorable idea…

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Nausicaa is not exactly the most recognizeable character, and because I’m really not a wig person, and I didn’t have time or cash to learn, I wanted to have at least one real prop for her. So I wanted to make a Teto plush. And then I realized that my two friends (going as Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle, and Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service) could also have plushes! And that I could make them! Because I’m insane like that.

I worked on the Jiji plush first. Jiji is Kiki’s companion, a sarcastic black cat that travels with Kiki when she moves away from home. I asked if my friend wanted to hold him, or if she wanted him to sit on her shoulder, and she chose the first option. So I made him a little oversized. It’s hard to tell from the reference pics I was using, since I don’t own the movie, but I think he’s technically a rather small cat, but the plush I made was more of a large cat. He’s the biggest of the three plushes, but since he’s black against a navy dress, I wanted to make sure he could stand out. The plush also looks much more like the toy cat in the movie, but I think the point gets across well. Plus mouths are hard…

In fact I avoided the mouth completely… I ended up embroidering the eyes and nose, which took much longer than I expected, and then free forming the plush. Take it in a little here, and out a little there, add some more stuffing there and not here, etc. And I ended up with a loveable Jiji… until I realized I forgot the tail. And then once I remembered and added it, I ended up with a loveable Jiji!

The second plush was Calcifer, since I wanted to get the plushes for friends out first… Calcifer is a fire demon that is under a contract with Howl, but really becomes best of friends with Sophie, so I thought he’d be better than Turnip Head, who I also briefly considered. I had this reddish wool coating ( I think) and attempted to make a 3D version. I intended to make the bottom perfectly round, using 4 panels, but it ended up a little boxier… I cut the top of the four panels to look like flames, and attempted to use a “facing” to make it a bit cleaner… and then had to hand sew the top shut.

Then I painted the plush with some acrylic paints. Mostly yellow, since it “melted” into the wool like orange… I gave it two layers, one that went around the majority of the plush, and then a second to give the appearance of the “core.” And then I let it dry for ages, before adding puffy paint eyes. Once the puffy paint dried, I painted on the mouth and the irises. Isn’t he adorable? He’s not particularly cuddly, but I don’t think fire should be cuddly… right?

So I then got started on Teto. He was the only one I actually bought fabric for, since I didn’t have fake fur or brown felty fleece, so I know for a fact that he’s made out of poly fleece. with poly fake fur. He’s an imaginary creature called a fox-squirrel, and has always been my favorite character in Nausicaa. I basically made tubes for the body and legs, and lightly shaped them into submission. Then I free handed the head and tail, and then shaped the ears. The ears are held up in part by cardboard inserts, and also by some clear fishing line attached to a hook and eye to the tail so the ears can either stick straight up or flop down when I want them to.

The darker brown on the body is stitched on, as is the faux fur belly. The bib-like structure is lightly stitched, but the bottom is mostly left free to hang and move. The eyes are some green knit interfaced and then hand sewn to the head. Then I drew and painted on some high and lowlights. He’s designed to sit over my shoulder, which he does pretty well, and I’m terribly pleased with how he came out…

And here ends the tale of three plushies! Do you have a favorite animated sidekick?

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Compression Coil

My backup costume is pretty much done!

Woot!

I figured I’d get the backup costume done as quickly as I could, but realistically this has been mulling around in my brain for awhile.

The flightsuit/jumpsuit got to me in April, I think. Maybe March, but a long time ago. I actually went to my local surplus/costume/knick-knack store, and the owner sized me up and said that I would probably fit well in the child’s extra large. Which worked out nearly perfectly!

Realistically though, when I found the adult flightsuits at the back of the store they were as tall as I was. So the child’s size made sense.

It’s a lightweight poly-cotton, and straight from the package it fit well in the shoulders, and the chest, etc. Even the length from the crotch to the hem was good. The problem was the four inches of extra torso length. Four inches!

It did take me three or four months to actually fix this. And to be perfectly honest, I might have gone a little too far, but it looks great when I’m standing. And I can deal with it pulling a bit when sitting. There aren’t sleeves to deal with after all.

The patches are wonderful! I got them from Ebay, and here’s the teddy bear, and the heart/flower combo. You can get the combo of all three here…

I sewed them on using a normal back stitch, but around the teddy bear I also added some fake blanket stitching. Then I took a normal marker to draw on some Chinese characters. Luck and love, if I remember correctly…

I made the top using the Nettie pattern from Closet Case Files, like I do all my t-shirts, and this weird stretchy fabric. It’s rather plastic-y even for polyester… But it is very Kaylee!

The sandals are not nearly the same as Kaylee’s but I did make them! There will be more on those later this week though.

Add in some pigtail buns and my parasol, and it makes a pretty smashing Kaylee!

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Plum Drop

If this was made out of a yellow fabric, I’d call it Lemon Drop, because it’s sweet in the front, and slightly sassy in back.

I modeled it after this dress I found on “The Stylish Geek” when I was searching for inspiration for the Monthly Stitch’s RTW Challenge that’s on next week.

And I decided to hack Nettie to do it!

So here’s what I did:

patternhack

1. Cut the front bodice pattern at the lengthen/shorten line. I think I cut it at the top one, since I’ve got a very short torso.

2. Trace out the full back, then draw new cut lines for the crossed back.

back

3. Cut out one front and two backs, and then the two sleeves. Also, I cut out a full circle skirt and two pockets.

4. Attach the bodice to the backs at the shoulder, attach bindings, sew in the sleeves, overlap and sew up side seams. Assemble the skirt and pockets.

front

5. Attach the skirt to the front bodice. Cut and sew elastic to the waist.

6. Decide not to hem the skirt because you’re already late for your weekend trip with your best friends.

The fabric is a lovely four way stretch jersey, which I believe is a rayon spandex blend, but there wasn’t a listed fabric content when I bought it, so I can’t be positive. I put it on immediately after finishing it, and refused to take it off, even though I’d be spending the next seven plus hours in a car. That’s how much I adore this fabric and dress.

back2

This plum version is actually the second try, since the first one was out of a two way stretch in a peachy color. Actually, I consider that my Hamilton Angelica tunic, since the color matches her dress. And I’m minorly obsessed. The two way stretch created more folds and wrinkles at the underarm to bust, so I made itty bitty darts, which look weird but it’s still wearable.

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And the obligatory pockets.

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The Shirtdress that I’ve Dreamed About

This post might also have an accurate subtitle of “Spot the Mosquito Bites!”

I love early summer, because it still gets cool at night, but I do not enjoy the mosquitoes that come with it. Especially since we’ve had a really rainy spring so far, which spells a very mosquito ridden summer.

I’m going to be miserable, i can just feel it.

This is my new shirtdress, and I love it and want five to ten more. Both the fabric and the pattern conspire to make this some amazing level of secret pajamas.

The fabric is Robert Kaufmann chambray, which I believe is rayon cotton blend. It’s lightweight, but has a large amount of body to it. I got it on sale last year for about 3 or 4 dollars a yard,  and I’ll definitely buy the bolt if I find  it for that price again.

The buttons and bias tape are from my vintage stash, and the buttons are probably from my grandmother, which  makes  them a little more special..

The pattern is s Sew Over It’s Vintage Shirtdress.  It’s so so lovely. As in, the design fits me perfectly (in my eyes)  right out of the package. I thought I’d have to use a size 12 at the bust and a 10 at the waist, but I decided to just stick with the 1o all around.

I used some goldenrod quilting cotton for the pockets, to match the buttons, and I kinda  french seamed them, at least to the skirt seams. I also used  bias tape to finish almost all off the seams. I missed the lower part of the skirt seams though.

This is my new  favorite  garment. As in, wear it every week favorite garment.

And I can’t wait to make more!

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Claudia Vest, Mark 2

There’s no snazzy quote associated with this post, since I’ve used a lot of the ear and eye catching ones already…

Plus I’m writing this before bedtime to post in the morning, so searching or listening to episodes from more is not exactly going to happen… Because of that bedtime thing…

front

So just imagine some Claudia Donovan sass, if you will!

The first trial of this vest was made three years ago out of a lab coat that I bought when I was abroad, perhaps the cheesiest and flimsiest lab coat around. When I pulled it out again recently, I realized that there were large obvious pit stains. And it didn’t fit. And it had a normal zipper, not a separating one, since that was always something I wanted to change but forgot to.

So I decided it was time to start over.

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This version is based off of the old one, out of linen this time with some redrafting since I know how to make a collar and facing now. It’s fully interfaced, since the linen was a bit shifty.  When I tried it on, it was still really big, despite my redrafting efforts, so I took it in on the fly, with pinning while I was wearing it, because separating zippers are magical!

It’s now a bit snug, but I like the way it fits, and I’m planning on actually doing that exercise thing, now that the semester and most of the craziness that goes with it are complete. So it might be a little less snug by the end of the summer, and that’ll be good too!

lining

I took the old lining since I adore the fabric, and I think Claudia would too, and slapped it onto the new version. I had to fish out my scraps to add some length to the top and bottom, but I had saved all of them for this exact purpose. I whipstitched the lining on carefully, hiding the ends under the facing for a clean line.

side

This new version makes me really happy, since I was so sure this costume was already finished barring pictures, but since I’ve remade the vest, not only am I feeling better about the costume as a whole, but I’m now actually pushing to make the next pair or two of Ginger jeans, since they’re potentially going to round off the costume.

In the next week or two, I’m going to be announcing an exciting costume/fangirl/crazy thing I’m doing, so stay tuned for that!

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