Garments Archives • Page 9 of 11 • Jessica Smith Creates

September 8, 2014August 19, 2018

Insanity

** Full disclosure: This insane night was in reality in June… I’m just slow on the picture front**

You know how the night before something big, say prom or job interviews or the first day of school or the last day of school (please stop me now), you immediately rethink the status of your closet? Please tell me I’m not alone here…

I’ve noticed that since I’ve moved towards the equator within the northern hemisphere I’ve been wearing skirts more. Perhaps its the fact that I’m dying from the heat, although I’m quite a weakling when it comes to heat shtuff. Perhaps its that I’m not at home, and that when I leave the house it’s pretty much just for actual reasons, like food shopping and getting a new drivers license and and being an adult is difficult. Needless to say, for all I’m a jeans and t-shirt girl, jeans are just not wearable in heat. Skirts are, though shorts come in as the close second.

So now I’m rambling. But what I am trying to do here is stall a bit. Because tonight I’m endeavoring to document my insanity and give you all the play by play of tonights “entertainment.” I am planning to make three skirts tonight, in the hopes that one will satisfy me tomorrow.

7:30 – The planning… and 8:00 – The time I realistically started this blog post.

I’ve had the deep purple fabric the longest out of all of these, but in reality it’s been just over a year. I got it while abroad in a remnants bin of the only fabric store that I visited there. It’s really only a half meter, so I’ve been debating what to do, since I wanted to make a blouse. There isn’t really enough for a blouse though, so swishy skirt it is! This is going to be my *fingers crossed* easy one. I’m thinking simple gathered skirt with a black waistband… Now I need to find a zipper.

The black interlock in the middle is meant for an A-line skirt… Or that’s what I’ve been telling myself. It’s going to have a waistband, since I realize that I pretty much only wear things with waistband (sorry culottes).

The gold, which happens to be the same gold as I used for my Belle dress, would also be for an A-line skirt. Maybe I should start with this one.

8:20 – The setting up of supplies

Now’s the time to get out the iron and the ironing board, the scissors and the rotary cutter, and realizing that I haven’t eaten dinner. It’s been a long day, and I shall now pause to reconsider my life as I make mac and cheese… or maybe some leftovers. Leftovers sounds easier.

8:45 – Back on track: ironing

That purple fabric… grr. I hate ironing non-quilting cotton items. I think I suffer a bit from i-learned-to-sew with-the-most-maneagable-fabric-itis. Put I shall press on! Hee hee… I’ll shut up now.

9:00 – Cutting out

For the purple skirt I’ll be gathering all of the fabric in, but I still need a waistband! Need to cut that. Also, cutting out the gold A-line… need to do some measuring there I guess!

10:00 – Sewing of the gold skirt

The internet is distracting. All I wanted to do was find out the basics of knit A-line skirt construction, but no, the internet was much too exciting… Perhaps an episode of Criminal Minds involving twins contributed. It’s hard to keep storylines straight when the same actor plays a set of twins…

But I did find a post from ikat bag which discusses precisely what I was interested in! And it shows pockets! I’ve definitely told you of my love for pockets, right?

11:15 – Sewing of the purple skirt

The gold skirt took a while, and its not hemmed, and honestly the waistband needs to be shortened and reattached, but all in all, not bad. I very much dislike unpicking, so I’ll fix it in the morning. It’s easier then.

The purple fabric is off kilter, though. I don’t think it was the end of the bolt, as both sides are very weirdly off grain. And its fraying a lot…

11:55 – Finally got one side of the purple fabric cut straight, and without further ado I am going to start the waistband process! I figure I’ll worry about the other side (aka hem) when I’ve finished the entire skirt.

12:15 – I managed to sew the one side of the waistband down, and ironed the folded bit in place. I’ll start sewing soon, but have I mentioned that the purple fabric when hot smells like warm almonds?

12:45 – Finished the waistband and put in the zipper… Time for bed.

I hemmed it in the morning, and was all ready for the interview.

Never did get around to the third skirt, but it was since made into my black dress

I have learned that while A-line knit skirts are comfy, there is a greater risk of panty-lines, and it’s not good for sprawling when you want to take a nap… not that I have experience with that or anything…

But never fear, I’ve gotten pictures of the two finished skirts now. So, that was one crazy night!

September 3, 2014August 19, 2018

Swingy Circle Skirt

My friends, this is my first full circle skirt. A lovely grey suiting (maybe wool?) circle skirt!

Up until now, I’ve been worried that I would move too quickly or be in a blast of wind, and then my underwear would show.

This kind of malfunction is quite common in my life… Remember my culottes? I’m going to need to make another pair, because I wore these today, and… um… I’m pretty sure my fellow busriders who were lucky enough to get a seat could see somewhere quite private. And keep in mind I’m short. At very nearly 5’3″, no one except toddlers should be able to see up my skirt. I blame my lack of pre-washing (due to my inability at the time of make, and my obliviousness. There were signs. But it is an opportunity to make a better pair.

This post isn’t about culottes though. It’s about a wonderful circle skirt.

The fabric for this is medium weight. Definitely autumn or winterwear, not summer. And possibly wool. I’m just too chicken to try to burn test it. Comfy wool, not super itchy, if it is in fact wool.

Weight is the key factor for me here, the weight of the fabric keeps this from being indecent. Look at this spinning picture. If we get over the fact that my bangs are creating a hilariously funny blur, I’ll tell you that this is me spinning pretty quickly. East coast swing dance quickly, though not quite jive or quickstep. There is no reason for me to spin quicker. And it’s still got some nice conical-ness to it! I did manage to spin quick enough for indecency, but not on camera and it took too much effort. Never happening again!

What else can I say?

It’s got a pocket? Big surprise there. I’m currently courting the title Princess of Pockets.

I interfaced the waistband for the first time? That was nice. Very necessary with the weight of the skirt too.

I’m very proud of my closure? The invisible zip isn’t very invisible, but for a first-try, I think it’s alright. And if I don’t care, no one else should. And the hooks and eyes. Perfection for me. Granted, I had to use black thread on a grey skirt, so its a bit visible, but four years in the costume shop have taught me my way around hooks and eyes!

That’s all for now, but you’ll be seeing it again tomorrow for a new potential series installation!

August 26, 2014August 19, 2018

Burgundy Bliss?

I should not be in charge of titles. They rarely work out well… ie see the title for this post.

Anyways, I finally finished one of my knitted shrug plans though it is not in any way the shrug it was intended to be.

Remember last year how I said I was going to make a Cardilero?

That didn’t happen.

Did I tell you last spring that I frogged it?

I cast on early on in the summer, and honestly that one didn’t make it far either.

But then I got a library card. And visited the knitting section. And found this book. It intrigued me, as I very much dislike seaming and finishing knits.

The cable was actually from a shrug pattern, Serenity Shrug… but how often do I actually follow patterns?

Especially knitted ones.

So I took the lovely cable and followed nearly the entire instructions for the back… Maybe mixing up which size I was making. That happens a bunch. And then I got close to the sleeves.

Now I was making this in the heat of July. Yes I was indoors, and yes I had air conditioning, but anytime its super exhausting outside, you can feel it inside too, right? So why was I making a fall-weight shrug thing in July?

Don’t expect an answer for that.

I don’t know why I couldn’t understand what the pattern was asking me, but it just wasn’t working for me, so I decided to take out some circular needles and zip away on my own.

The cap sleeves were accomplished by short rows, though they looked terrible the first time around. I had to frog pretty much all the short rows of my first attempt, mainly because then (and realistically now) I had difficulties understanding how short rows were meant to work, and I was also attempting to correct the imbalance of the back of the arcscye being too far back on my shoulders. The second time around I ignored it. I’m never going to see it!

The second attempt was also created with the intention of almost creating an as-you-go-sleevehead.

After completing the cap sleeves on both sides, I decided that I probably would wear it even less if I continued to fiddle and make the sleeves longer. So I stopped and edged the sleeves and main body opening with my fuzzy German souvenir yarn and called it a day.

If it looks a little puffy from the back, well… I don’t have to look at it! And its warm, which resolves many looks related issues. It also doesn’t help that my tripod is short, even for me, so the views are all from below, adding natural puffyness (and the fact that my tiny bow on the back of my Nettie got in the way).

And there you have it!

P.S. In the pictures it does seem to blend well with my chocolate Nettie, don’t you think?

August 20, 2014August 19, 2018

Simple Staples

Looking at my wardrobe, I realized that there were some items that would be really helpful to fill out the holes. For instance, I had a few casual dresses that just didn’t fit, so I cut them down into shirts. I saved the cut edges, and one of these is coming up in a project. But this leaves a gap or two.

For instance, as much as I don’t like the idea that every woman should have a “little black dress” in their wardrobe, it does come in handy. Especially because for me it’ll fill in the gap between the casual running around dress and the slightly dressy option. So I took some black interlock that I had saved to make a skirt, and I made a dress instead.

What I really needed was a sleeveless dress, one with straps to make it summer appropriate, but because its interlock it’ll still be good for fall and spring. And simple. Something that doesn’t scream special, so I can wear sweaters or jewelry that outshine it without clashing.

So I brought out the trusty bodice block that I made the final Belle dress from and started cutting. I only used one layer for the bodice, keeping it cooler, and I’ve now noticed that the princess seams aren’t perfectly where they should be, and I had to take it in on the sides. Time to draft a new one!

I used a fabric band to finish the neckline, and created a simple waistband. I made up a half circle skirt, and added pockets. Who doesn’t love pockets?

Now I’ve got a question. Do you ever make yourself something that works perfectly with one specific bra? Not that it won’t work with others, but that it is meant for one? Because I placed the straps of this dress specifically to hide this one bra, knowing that I’m too lazy to always wear a strapless bra whenever I wear this dress. And after wearing it a day, I know that the straps need to be taken in!

It’s a super comfy dress, and filling in a wardrobe gap is always a good thing.

August 11, 2014August 19, 2018

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.

June 13, 2014August 19, 2018

Peanut Butter Cups and Chocolate Bars

I thought I’d be cute and pose with candy, related to my new garments. But then I’d have to buy some candy. I’m currently on a Starburst kick, and they just wouldn’t fit the bill.

Plus, gas is expensive, and that whole I don’t currently have… employment, thing.

So anyway, here are my two new creations!

Netties!

So my first one, Chocolate Bar as I like to think, is a lovely cotton-lycra (probably) simple version. I made it up just like the sewalong says to, except for the snaps… I finished it hours before the snaps sewalong post was uploaded.

It fits like a dream, and is comfy and cute, and though there is some room in the butt, I find that weight for me likes to transfer between stomach and butt… So I believe that when it’s the butt’s turn, that extra room will be helpful.

To add some drama, I made a cute little bow and attached it to the center back. I’m not sure if you can see it… I promise it’s cute up close, and even a little off kilter, which matches with my personality!

Ahem. I love making excuses for minor mistakes, I’m sorry I got carried away!

My second Nettie is a deep chocolate brown with peanut butter dots that’s a polyester lycra blend. It was too good to pass up, even though it was polyester! The only problem, it was not exactly 4 way stretch. It only has a bit of stretch in the opposite direction.

So I thought to myself, how would I fix such a problem… ooh, add in extra fabric periodically through, to account for the lack of stretch! Well, it looks like I shouldn’t have exactly bothered, because I ended up cutting that much off, but I like to think it helped in the bustage region. A little extra space to account for the drop underneath.

I love my Netties, if only because they’re comfy to wear on their own when I’m alone in my home… which is a lot since the whole, you know, unemployment. But I’m sure when I do venture into the world they will get a lot of use too!

How many people do you hear say they can’t wait for school to start?

Perhaps I can waste time getting better patternweights…

And for my costuming fellows, never fear, I’m working on some stuff to show you soon!

May 14, 2014August 19, 2018

First Time in Forever

So I volunteered at the movie theater on campus, and a few weeks ago we showed Frozen.

May I start by saying that I love the movie? There are many flaws, I know, but the songs are so catchy!

And when I saw it I really was looking at the outfits. I think I finally hit the point where I not only admire the costumes of movies and shows and stuff, but that I want to make and have all of it. I’m not 100% sure that’s a bad thing, but I know its not necessarily good either…

For our showing of Frozen, though, I definitely thought it would be fun to subtly cosplay Anna.

I knew I wanted a circle skirt that wasn’t already attached to a dress, specifically one that wasn’t black. I’ve got a flowy RTW black skirt, that honestly I don’t wear often (perhaps due to the fact that I stick out enough on campus that it isn’t worth the weird looks), so my plans for the upcoming black skirt will lead to a shorter and less flowy skirt, more A-line.

But I really like the freedom and comfort of a circle skirt. And now that its been warm, I appreciate the flow and minimum fabric involved.

The fabric for the skirt is a blue crepe. It’s kinda heavy but surprisingly cool, and though I don’t know the fabric content at this point I don’t entirely care. It’s comfy, especially for around the house when I don’t have to care if people see the bike shorts I’m wearing underneath. I do think I need to angle the waistband a bit, but that will happen later, and I need to finish my skinny hem, but I’m thinking embroidery and it’s a long hem. And I needed something to wear yesterday.

On another topic I started on my drapey cardigan objective! Knowing I wanted to do this subtle cosplay gave me a great direction, and a reason to get started. This is a super lightweight rayon fabric that squishes into the size of about a child’s shoe, when given opportunity. Its really so soft and squishy, and comfy.

I’m not done with it though. It will gain sleeves at some point, but I didn’t feel like drafting them at the time, so that will be for after I’m done moving for the summer. Give me a month or so… and then maybe some.

But for now I’ll be frolicking through the summer heat in my Anna subtle cosplay!

April 14, 2014August 19, 2018

Spring Green Almost Jeans

So I made jeans… almost.

There was a time when making these that I thought they would end up jeans. That changed.

When I’m unable to let out my creativity for a few weeks, in more than just super tiny projects, I plan super extravagant ones. Like basically making up jeans in a few hours.

Remember I cut these out a few weeks ago? The “pattern” was an old pair of very loved jeans, that despite the heavy fabric never seemed to bind anywhere but the stomach. I had sewed up the side seams of my trial before cutting out pockets and stuff, and when I tried them on, they didn’t really fit.

But on Saturday, I had a couple of hours where I didn’t need to do anything productive towards school, so I sewed up trousers instead.

Trial and error ruled over this project, but I know how to do it again, and what not to do.

I didn’t include the fly zipper, or any fastening at all, quite yet at least. I can just barely get these over the butt-tummy region, and once on they stay up just fine. The waistband is loose then, but it doesn’t bother me. I imagine that might change later.

The pockets were made from scraps of the graduation dress fabric! Yay for stashbusting!

I made it up with a contrast yoke, aka the underside of the fabric, and I’ve cuffed the bottoms. Eventually I’ll sew the cuffs down.

I love the green denim! It’s very thin though… you can see my school id outline really easily through the fabric, but I’m short enough that people probably aren’t looking for that.

Back pockets, though. I need those. A note for the next time, when I actually make them jeans instead of just trousers!

April 7, 2014August 19, 2018

Vintage Lace and Velvet

At long last, ufo 2 has been found and can finally be shown off!

This dress was given to me by my boss when it really began to fall apart.

Someone used it in a short-run production that featured zombies, which made this a perfect dress at the time, but after that it was really unusable as a costume. Once it can’t be washed or dry-cleaned, it loses usability.

I’m not sure whether its a real 20s dress, but I’m pretty sure that’s the era it was supposed to be from.

Alas, I can’t show you it in its complete form, as I tried to work on this dress previous to starting this blog.

But here are the parts of the dress, and what I’ll be using to fix it up.

First up is the main part of the dress, made of a deep, deep blue velvet. It’s a very lightweight velvet, which is soft and nice ad well worn.

Personally, I don’t find this dress flattering.

You see, I have this thing called a stomach, and my stomach likes to be fed, and simultaneously doesn’t like crunches. Trust me, I’m working on talking to it about this.

But I like wide skirts, the twirly effect! This dress is more like a sheath, with a little bit of swing at the bottom.

It also comes too low at the top, when I had tried it on with the original lace top, and it is a very long dress on me.

I’m contemplating options, if you couldn’t tell.

Here is the original top, made of what looks to me like a cotton lace. It had aged to such a lovely yellow-brown color, but I assume the original color was a yellow-beige.

But it nearly fell away as I cut it from its hold on the velvet body. It was ready for relief.

Finally, this is the top I’m planning to use to rework this dress. It’s a very white polyester lace top.

Remember my Belle mock 2? That was the original shirt I was going to use, but I snapped it up for that project when I couldn’t at all find this one. But a recent discovery brought this one back to the light!

I’ll probably not end up working on this for awhile, but I thought it was high time to show it to you guys!

March 10, 2014August 19, 2018

Pink Graduation Dress

Since I’m a big fan of planning ahead, especially when it allows me to procrastinate on projects in life due sooner, I have begun work on my dress for graduation.

See, I’m thinking about doing Me Made May, but I’m also graduating from college in May. So what am I to do but make a dress to wear?

I’ve attended graduation at my college once before, and it was quite warm. Like almost uncomfortable warm.

So it was time to make a nice warm weather dress.

This fabric is special, though.

My mother, when she was a teenager, made her own clothes, but stopped later, as she had continual fights with her sewing machine. But she kept all of her fabric.

Including this lovely polyester georgette pink beauty! So when I raided her stash last year, we both agreed that it would make a lovely sundress.

So in following that, I decided it would make the perfect dress for graduation! A bit of old before I venture on to something new!

I redrafted my strapless bodice, which somehow was still too big when I tried it on! I took in the bodice as I went, leaving plenty in the back for attaching the zipper.

When I had been planning to make a ballroom dress, I had already cut the fabric into two parts, a bodice part, and a skirt part. I made the waistband and attached it to the bodice, then pleated the skirt to the under waistband, then I took the needle to the over waistband.

I put in the zipper by hand, which was an adventure… I didn’t want to cut into the dress fabric, in case I went too far, so I ended up folding over the triangle of fabric.

Then a month went by.

I tacked this extra fabric down, tacked the neckline down instead of figuring out a facing (since I’ve never made a facing), and then doing my version of a rolled hem. I’m not sure if it is the right way to do a rolled hem, but it worked for me.

It turned out better than I had hoped! Having that much fabric in the skirt gives it automatic volume! No petticoat or alternate puffyness needed.

I love the silhouette of this dress, nipped in at the waist and puffy, but still knee length, which is snazzy.

I already picked my shoes out, so I finally have an excuse to wear them! I got them abroad and they’ll be perfect for this!

I am all ready for May, then! Maybe can we just skip forward a month? Just until midterms craziness ends?