blue Archives • Jessica Smith Creates

April 13, 2020April 2, 2020

Jasika Blazer – Take 2

Now that it’s been nearly a year, I think I’ve finally processed making this blazer.

Last year after the Jasika Blazer was released I jumped on the bandwagon and made a “wearable” muslin. As in, it was wearable, but not particularly professional in real life, and at the time I had an interview scheduled, and I really wanted to wear a blazer, and I didn’t want to try to go and purchase one if I knew I could make one myself.

So the second one was made in just about a week, and I’m super proud. Also, I haven’t worn it since. More on that later.

fabric options

The fabric for the main body of the blazer is a lightweight cotton from IKEA (Main fabric). Honestly too lightweight for it. Hindsight. The lapel is made with a brocade from Joann Fabrics (Option 1). Also not my favorite. When I moved, something must have caught on it, because there’s a big pull of thread on one side. And the lining is from stash.

Looking back at my Instagram posts that I made during this period, it seems to have been pulled together smoothly, and sure, it seems like I took a day off after I saw Avenger’s Endgame, but I didn’t announce to the world that anything went wrong, at least?

vest phase

I remember wearing it made me feel both like a powerhouse, and self conscious when it buckled in weird places.

The first one was made from a true medium weight fabric, and so it stayed solid in areas that caved in this second one.

I also think I should have shortened it a bit further, and maybe used a different cup size, as when it’s buttoned I get some weird gaping between button and bust.

So you are seeing it unbuttoned, as that’s where I’m most comfy photograph-wise.

meinit

If it seems like I’m feeling down about it, I’m not. I’m proud of this blazer. I’m proud of the journey that both of them took me on, because I’m definitely more comfortable with speed-tailoring.

But I just don’t wear blazers in real life, I did not get the job that I interviewed for right after making this blazer, and that’s hard. The job that I’m currently working was possibly my next interview after the blazer one, and it involved an online interview, so I ended up wearing a nice sweater instead.

Plus, I just now tried on both blazers a year later, and they’re more snug at the waist than I’d prefer. We’ll see what happens when the world has reached an equilibrium again, but I think these might be destined for a thrift store.

I think it’s also that I’m really enjoying a more cropped silhouette for my upper body garments. And these blazers are full length, which hit me (in my eyes) at a weird place and makes me feel and look shorter.

But I learned so much, especially with this one, and the next time I make a blazer (that’s more my style) I’ll have the confidence to make it! Now that I’m up north, and I found a store that sells reasonably priced wool, I might even try to make a tweedy one! Not anytime soon, but you never know!

November 1, 2016August 22, 2022

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!

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!

August 3, 2015August 19, 2018

Tote of Wonderful IKEA Goodness

My former roommate brought me this fabric one day last year and said, “I bought this cause I was thinking of something like curtains for my house and then our color scheme changed. Would you like it?”

Of course!

It’s a decorator weight fabric, definitely. Strangely, I made a dress out of this stuff once. Much too stiff.

But it’s the perfect weight for a bag!

I recently came into temporary possession of a second laptop, for work. I’m trying my best not to do anything personal on it, which is moderately working, so often I bring in my personal laptop for lunchtime and when MATLAB is taking its good old time.

But if I shoved both laptops, both power cords, a lunch, a snack, my purse, a notebook, and other little bits into any bag I own then I would never be able to find anything.

I’m not a big bag person, but this thing is massive.

It’s a rectangular prism shape, with nice thick straps. There are individual pockets for each laptop, and each powercord. In height, it’s about two inches taller than my bigger laptop is wide. There’s two bento-box shaped pockets in the remaining area inside, one roughly the shape of each of my bento boxes. That way, either box would fit for lunch, and the second pocket holds the purse, snack, etc. And on one of these inner pockets, I

The entire bag is lined, since the lining is where I constructed the pocket frame.

All of these pockets are free floating, though, except one that is sewn down. I didn’t have the patience to continue after the pain that one caused me.

In hindsight, it would have been better to shape the sides as trapezoids (or trapeziums if that’s your fancy), but I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. To keep the sides from gaping open uncontrollably I attached two lines of a thin elastic across the long side. This thing holds everything I need to survive a day at the office. Or two days on occasion.

Super duper handy.

July 1, 2015August 19, 2018

Miter by the Sea

To end the old backlog, I’ve come to show you my awesome shell.

In March, about a week before Spring Break, I was on Facebook well past my bedtime, and I saw that Cake Patterns was looking for testers for some of their new tops. I jumped at the chance, especially because I knew I’d have some built in sewing time. I jumped on board with their Miter Shell.

Of course, then the envelope with the pattern arrived and I sat there staring at it.

Firstly, I was facing the fact that my perfect week off had to include a Chemical Oceanography take home midterm, as well as a math program in Matlab that I had been already putting off for a week.

So of course, after putting off all of these things until the end of the week, I spent the Friday before school started back up not doing homework, but instead working on this new pattern.

I made the Espresso leggings a few years ago, and it was lovely. I’m not a leggings person… at least not unless their a pajama replacement. Or a replacement for tights in winter. But I still wear these leggings, and as soon as the inspiration strikes, I’ll take the pattern out again.

This means I was already familiar with the type of pattern, with the sizing and the connecting the dots loveliness.

I connected the appropriate dots, pulled out my roll of IKEA drawing paper that I use for patterns, and I traced and cut to my heart’s delight.

First I made it up in this orange mystery athletic wear knit that I had just received in a mystery fabric bundle thing. To be honest, the stuff had very little recovery, I used a stitch that was waaaaaay to small, and I found the back “laces” too large, so along with the lack of recovery, they were sagging (and they felt even more saggy). Also, with the square neckline, and my arguably large bra cup size, and therefore high “cut” of a bra, there was an inch of bra showing at the corners.

At that point, I kinda hated my creation. In a Frankenstein sort of way. Let’s start with the fact that it was bright neon orange. I’m not a bright orange kind of person. So I had very little interest in making this draft work, especially fiddling with it all day. (Also my day probably started at 11am. So all day may be misleading).

I went back to my homework until Sunday.

After spending all that time musing, in between chem and math, I realized that the only thing that I really needed to do to fix this was raise the neckline. I did that a little bit in the drafting, but mostly by taking up the shoulder seams. After that I shortened the neckline and arm binding to match, and cut the fabric. (I cut this one, the top of my Nettie dress, and my Nettie top all at once, so I knew for a fact that I didn’t have enough for the back weave, since I was eeking out everything I could just to get all three). I still needed something for the back weave, so I pulled out my collection of vintage notions, and found these lovely seam binding laces in the perfect colors. Of course, I didn’t have enough of either color, but I did have enough for a cool looking pattern!

This is such a comfy shirt. In reality, the weave rarely sees the light of day, mostly due to my cardigan obsession no matter what the outside temperature, but I think its such a nice touch. In the future, I might take in the back a smidge, to reduce the draping a bit. It’s nice when I’m not standing straight, which if I truly face it is most of the time, but it looks so loose in pictures. And the shoulders are quite wide on my uber narrow ones, so I might skinny those up too. Who knows, though. I might forget!

I’ve been waiting to share this with you for over three months, but I can now share that all of the Tidepool Collection, including this one, the Miter Shell, is up for sale on SewingCake.com. I’m definitely getting the Endeavor Trousers soon.

**I’d like to reiterate that all of these opinions are based on the testing copy, and I am unable to make remarks on the final product. But I’m sure its fabulous!