2015 Archives • Page 5 of 5 • Jessica Smith Creates

February 17, 2015August 19, 2018

My Own Thread Holder!

Over the break I inherited a large quantity of thread.

Now, this may be the best thing ever, since I almost never remember thread, and often the seams of my clothes end up in black or white, depending on the color of the material.

So now I have colors… but I had nowhere to put them. They were holed up in bags stuffed up next to other sewing notions.

There are so many cool thread holder tutorials on the internet, and plenty more without for inspiration. I needed a low profile one, so I could hang it on a wall, regardless of whether there was a table underneath, and one that I could customize for different sized yarns.

So I bookmarked a few tutorials and said, once I get my paycheck I’ll go out and get supplies.

This Saturday I did! A few paychecks later, of course. Because procrastination is my middle name.

All in all, the wood, sandpaper, and nails came to about $15. I already had E600, and then I spent $2.50 on acrylic paints, which left plenty over. I also got a piece of foam board from the dollar store to make a back, and I need another to cover up the top shelf. Home Depot has a cutting station, so I asked them to cut the furring boards into two foot pieces. (For materials and a word-walk through, see here!)

Saturday afternoon and evening I put together the frame. It took me much longer than I had to, partially because I don’t have clamps, and partially because I had to cut an inch off of two of the boards.

Be warned that when the cutting station has a sign that says they can’t guarantee exact measurements, it’s probably there for a reason. Like they don’t always get even cuts.

So I got out the dinky hack saw that my dad insisted I put into my toolbox, and sawed. Pretty badly too, but I got it done, and managed to sand away the worst of my mistakes.

A few of the pieces were a bit warped, which I think adds to the charm, and so I didn’t care at all about getting perfect right angles, as long as the pieces fit okay.

The next morning I rescued the frame from the cold outside and hammered nails into each shelf to keep the entire thing together and then set to work on hammering in millions of nails for the bobbins. I wasn’t terribly successful, but I managed to get about 23 in per shelf, spaced one inch apart. It’s probably best to not look at my thumb for another couple of days… It was hit too many times.

Because so many of the nails were very crooked, I decided to paint them blue just like the rest of the insides as an attempt to cover up. I think it worked out pretty well!

The aqua and the white match it up well to the rest of my decor.

For the first woodworking project since I was in middle school in shop class, I think I did alright!

A tip though, get the size nails they suggest. Substituting longer and thicker ones was not much fun.

All in all, for about $20 I have a nice little functional bit of thready fun!

February 11, 2015

WOMN – Shawl, Basket, and Scarf

I started two new projects in the quest for a proper bus yarn project, before I discovered that the best one of all was the shawl that I was working on anyway!

February 10, 2015August 19, 2018

Tardis Corset Belt

I had already told you a few months ago now that I wanted to work on something new with leather, which is why I needed to finish the quiver so desperately.

It really was the need to make my Tardis belt.

As I’ve told you before, I wanted to wear at least part of my costume for Halloween, and a big part of the costume for me at least was the corset-belt, since it was supposed to represent a good portion of the Tardis. Before starting it, I had planned for it to represent the console, but upon further reflection (and me forgetting that was my plan) it all changed.

First up was the “muslin”, in order to see if my design would even work. I used the same cardboard from my quiver, and cut out a pattern that would fit around my hips, go up a bit in the back, and not impede any future bustle arrangements. It took some wiggling and some cutting down before I hit the right shape, but it was worth it.

I took a leather belly and lined up my pattern pieces to fit on it efficiently. My goal with leather is to always keep as much as possible, and since there isn’t exactly a grain this is totally possible, unlike fabric.

I used this funky tool that I had found in a scrap drawer to draw my pattern, and cut it out with a swivel knife very carefully to keep the circles as circular as possible.

I then got to the tooling, which ended up being more strenuous than I thought. I had run into the quandary of how much of this should be in relief, and how much raised. I ended up deciding that the round things should be raised, so I had to tamp down the entire background. Love the round things! A sore wrist later, the tooling was done.

Lacing was kind of required, though, since this was destined to be a corset. But how? I tested a few methods and lacing cords, but punching holes ended up being the best option.

At that point I considered it done… until Halloween morning. Then I decided that sparkles were necessary, and I painted the borders gold and glued on sequins to the round things.

And finally it was truly done, at least enough for Halloween! I may end up painting some more, but I’m pretty pleased with it!

February 4, 2015

What’s on My Needles Wednesday – New Socks and Shawl

I’ve been working with yarn more this year than ever before, and not just because 2/3 of the Christmas presents I gave were knitted.

So I’m going to be sharing pics of what I’m working on. Most of the posts will have minimal wording, unless I’ve finished something.

For instance these orange socks are done, made up with the Water to Sky Anklet pattern, which worked up beautifully in this alarmingly bright orange sock yarn. And look at the cool pattern they left on my feet (likely due to a snug shoe, so don’t be alarmed)!

The wrap has a long way to go…

February 3, 2015August 19, 2018

TARDIS Cape

My homage to the phone box. The only part of my costume that screams Tardis…

This was the next thing I made after the jacket, since I knew that I would just be able to hook into the jacket and not need to worry about it afterward.

I bought this satin backed with twill, I think, last year with the side purpose of using it for this cape.

I had also bought a roll of the really wide black ribbon.

But I just couldn’t get myself to put it together. After my issues of the Belle cape not really fitting over my head, I had just started procrastinating.

So once I had the jacket made up, I finally decided that it was time. I cut out a half circle, I believe, and a hood from my royal blue fabric. I made sure that the hood was larger than the last time.

Then I took the ribbon and attached it to the edge of the hood. I had thought about adding it to the edge of the cape, but it wouldn’t have worked out with the circular edge.

I sewed it all up, included a gold lining to the hood, but not the length, and used a rolled hem for the length of the hem. It all sewed up smoothly.

But of course I didn’t work on the lettering until the morning of Halloween. One of my classes had been canceled on the fateful Friday, but I still had to go in for the second, where I was leading a discussion. So I decked myself out in a light version of Belle, and got to work on lettering and sparklies on other costume parts. I used puffy paint to write out the letters, but I tried to get them as block-y as possible, as well as even, which I may have sacrificed a bit. I centered the Public Call segment, but then Police and Box weren’t even.

When I got back from class, though, the puffy paint was still wet! I ended up carrying the cape very carefully and separately from the rest of my costume until we were almost ready to leave for the festivities.

It worked out, though, for the most part.

The hood is not comfortable to wear when attached to the jacket, so I’m considering added a thread loop, so I can wear the cape on the jacket or around my neck.

Decisions, decisions.

See you next week!

January 27, 2015August 19, 2018

TARDIS Tuesday – Cropped Jacket

I’ve determined that Tuesdays are going to be TARDIS themed here in my little corner of the internet.

You see, I decided the week before Halloween that I wanted to wear my Tardis costume, if I finished it in time. But at that point I had completed less than half of it.

It’s time to share my trials in completing these four pieces of my costume, and maybe by then I’ll have worked a bit on the skirt!

The first part of the total costume I made was a bolero jacket. I had just completed my Sorbetto and figured that would be a good pattern to build off of for this jacket. It was actually almost a month before Halloween, but my momentum stalled after I finished it… that does seem to happen a bit.

I knew it was going to end up over a button up shirt, so it couldn’t be skintight, and it had to be comfortable as well. Remember me telling you about this weird shirting fabric that I used to line my graduation dress? It made another appearance as a muslin and subsequent underlining here! It provides a good amount of weight to the jacket which really makes it lay beautifully.

For the pattern, I just folded the pattern at the pleat and traced the shape off. I rounded the front up to the center and added some darts at the back. Then I realized that in order to use the button that I’ve been saving for over a year I would either need to overlap the front or create a button tab. My buttonhole ended up a bit screwy, and I don’t have matching thread, so I’ll probably redo it, but it worked in a pinch.

Some bars were added on in order to attach the cape, and some beads… the beads. I wanted to incorporate these lovely pendants that I repurposed from vintage earrings, and when I saw Journey to the Center of the Tardis I thought they would be perfect in that context, but I still wanted to use gold fake pearls… until I ran out of them. So I added some silver ones. And then a strand of them fell off during Halloween night. So I need to do some fixing.

The strand that fell off is discreetly on the other side of the jacket in these pictures. Because I was feeling a bit shameful.

But there’s my jacket!

(When I can get pictures of me actually wearing it, I’ll update the post!)

January 15, 2015August 19, 2018

Hudson River Blues

Its been rainy here.

Cold too, though that doesn’t bother me. The rainy part isn’t even that bad, but the combo means I can’t take good pictures!

Bonus fun fact: I’m a descendent of Henry Hudson. A few generations back a Hudson gal married into another family, so we lost the name, but sometimes its nice to know where we came from anyway!

So I’m here to show you my Hudson pants… Nice intro, right?

I got the Hudson Pants pattern from one of the Perfect Pattern Parcels, which I bought mainly because of the Bronte Top and the Hudson Pants… Yeah, there’s a Bronte or two coming up.

Once I had it printed, I had a marathon cutting and gluing session with three or four patterns.

I treated myself to some fabric shopping, and I found this nice thermal fabric in a dark grey. Comfy, but as I found out later, no recovery.

The pattern came together rather quickly, even with the pockets. They were something I was concerned about, but the only thing I’ll have to do better next time is make deeper notches. Once or twice I got confused because I couldn’t see them, but I think that was because of the type of fabric and my tiny notches.

Can I say that these are the most comfortable lounging pants ever? Because its true!

I never want to take them off. Ever.

January 12, 2015August 19, 2018

New Years Dress… A Little Late

Remember my velvet and lace dress?

I finally got around to starting, and finishing it, a few weeks before Christmas.

About time! I had already had the project for over 3 years!

Since its been awhile, I’ll recap.

I got this dress from my boss at the costume shop where I worked during college. It had been falling apart for a while, which made it perfect for the zombie thesis it was last in, but not for actual wear as a costume. So my boss gave it to me to play around with.

I ended up taking off the lace top since it was a bit too fragile to stay together on its own, and then let it sit around for forever.

So in December I finally made an approximate pattern for the lace top out of this polyester lace, I sewed it up, and I carefully sewed it to the velvet. At this point it was still very much below knee length, which I never wear, especially in a party context. Instead of cutting off at the bottom, though, I decided to bring the skirt up at the waist, in order to give it a waistline, which i liked, but also to show off the cool detailing of the skirt, which is a subtle seaming of the velvet that might even be too subtle to show in pictures.

It got its first outing on New Year’s Eve when I went to a party for maybe an hour… I stayed up to watch the ball drop though, so I still feel like I’m not a party pooper!

I even got a few compliments, by people who didn’t even know I make clothing, so I count that as a definite win!

January 5, 2015August 19, 2018

Running a Teashop

A few months ago I laid out a small sewing plan, and though I’ve worked on all of the projects, I’ve yet to post on most of them. But the time has come!

My first project, which is really my latest one, is a shirt for a small Hatter costume (who runs a “teashop,” by the way).

AliceHatter-hands link

I fell in love with Syfy’s version of Alice in wonderland, which was a mini series that aired in 2009. It’s a perfect way of turning an old fashioned story around, and a story of family and love… now it just sounds like a romance. It’s more of a drama with a slight comedic undertone. The Mad Hatter is played by Andrew Lee Potts, and is not terribly nice or mean, but understandably complicated. He wears this awesome hat, go figure, which is the main part of the costume that I’m lacking, but his shirt is the craziest part.

Definitely vintage inspired, and oddly colourful, but rather simple otherwise.

I had always thought that Archer would be a great pattern for this, a good go to dress shirt pattern.

The only changes I made to it was the hem, where I chose to use the hem that was already sewn into my fabric, so I ignored any hemming instructions, and I shortened the sleeves to elbow length, without a cuff. Oh, and I only cut out one yoke piece, so I french seamed the entire thing. So I guess that’s more than a minimum of changes.

Other than that, a simple make. I thought I had lost my buttonhole foot though, and after searching my room, I found it where it most definitely should have been… in my makeup container. But then I got clicking away, sewed it up, and here it is! It’s fairly comfy for a swishy polyester shirt. Maybe soon I’ll have a full cosplay!