Tag: dyeing

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A Sunny Dress

Remember how I make something each year, and I call it my birthday (insert garment name here)? (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)

I fully realize this is arbitrary, that I don’t make party dresses (with the potential exception of 2016) and for the most part these are purely descriptive and meaningless to anyone except me.

With that said… Welcome to Birthday Dress 2020. And here is my novel.

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Normally I make these garments prior to the day, and then parade around in them on the day.

We went into what I over-exaggerate to a lockdown maybe a week before my birthday, can’t quite remember. (It was voluntary but strongly suggested stay at home… You could have left the house for a walk, past Jess. It would’ve been fine). Wasn’t that three years ago?

So I was less motivated to make ahead, and instead made it on the day. And the next day. And the day after that. I was a little scattered, but also made so many noms. If I couldn’t celebrate my birthday out, I was going to over-celebrate in. Also, Marvel movies.

I can’t get into the first day until we talk about the fabric, though… I think I had a good dose of panic when the college I work out announced it’s decision to do online learning, and no, I did not buy large quantities of toilet paper. (I’m not an animal. Also it was all gone by that point. I’m not getting desperate). No, I decided to go craft supply shopping. I bought altogether too much fabric (I have plans, I promise), some foam for some props, a mystery yarn bag from my local yarn shop, pins for more intricate lace making (oh yeah, I’m making lace now. This is something I do now), and too much snack food.

When I got home from that massive shopping trip, I was still amped and antsy, so I ended up doing a ton of random crafty research, probably Pinterest fueled, and then decided to do some ice dyeing. I still had a lot of linen/rayon from a purchase last year, the same stuff I used for my green Flints, so I decided to use that. It’s been cut down into 2 about-2-yard lengths, and the first one I dyed was in the color scheme that I have called “Van Gogh” for awhile now. Think the sunflowers and the cafe terrace and the many of the famous self portraits. Light aquas and blues, soft greens, rich golds and light oranges. That’s what I aimed for here.

I followed the general directions from Dharma Trading Co, which is where I’ve gotten all my dyes, and I think it turned out pretty well. I love the flow of the shapes that come out of it. It doesn’t look quite like tie dye, nor painting. It’s unique, and I love it.

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Back in November, I bought two new sewing patterns, and this one is the Hannah Dress from Victory Patterns. After a muslin from a bed sheet, I was ready to go, knowing that I had to shorten it by a couple inches. For the main body fabric, I used a sunny linen/rayon blend from Joann’s, and for the side panels I used the ice dyed linen/rayon.

Sewing it up went well, and I tried to keep the process as calm and level as possible, which was mostly successful. And I know this because I filmed the whole thing. (Cue the nervous laughter). It’s hard to remember how much ironing there is in sewing until you edit a video about sewing a garment… Please enjoy!

This was a great first project in this crazy time, and it’s been a great thing to put on when I need a bit more pep in my stay at home step. In the future I’ll definitely lower the neckline. It hits right at or above the collarbone, and will hang awkwardly when seated, and I also get a little claustrophobic with a high neck. But otherwise I love it!

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See you next time!

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Year 3 with Ariel

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Well guys, it’s my 3rd year of making costumes and actually wearing them (as opposed to year 8 of making long term costumes and not wearing them maybe ever… Because that does still happen… This one’s cheerier), and it’s also my 3rd round of updates to my Ariel costume.

Year 1 was my Ariel with a deep blue rayon skirt, matching bow, and hair extensions.

Year 2 was the Ariel with a pair of light blue rayon lawn culottes, along with Year 1’s bow and hair extensions.

Year 3, or this year, is the year that I made linen-cotton culottes and ditched the hair extenions. I kept the bow though!

New version (quite wrinkled)
Old version

Last year’s culottes were awesome! Except, well, except for the hole in the butt. So this round, I decided to keep with the culottes idea, and ditch the way too lightweight rayon. Plus I wanted them to be wearable in real life.

Again, like last year, I dyed the fabric myself. This year it’s this linen/cotton blend as the substrate, though. I dyed it with the same royal blue fiber reactive procion dye, in my trusty five gallon bucket. I’m not sure how much fabric is actually was in there, but it was waaaaaay too much for that bucket.

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I think it was about 4 yards of fabric, though. Those legs are wide…

The fabric is reasonably stiff with almost no drape, which does mean that these culottes come with their own volume. But, since I didn’t bring an iron with me, only a steamer, I didn’t get a sharp front crease at the pleat, so some illusion was lost.

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It also made problems in the back. See, I wanted to avoid the zipper and corset problem I found last year, and installed an elastic back… But I was a bit willy nilly in the altering, and didn’t think about the large quantity of fabric that’d be gathered on the back, so I trudged through. (I used this tutorial, if you’re interested.)

This was right after Megan Nielsen released pockets as an add on/update to the pattern, so I was lucky to get the huge pockets that I so love about her patterns. They’re fantastic!

Sewing up went quick, and I installed the elastic and tried it on. In hemming I probably cut off at least two inches, and the hem is about an inch and a half deep. But then I discovered that the elastic (two rows of elastic, mind) was not strong enough to keep the skirt up.

So I took off the elastic, cut it down, and then reattached it, and it worked fine enough.

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When I walk, sometimes the extra fabric “walks” awkwardly in front of me, but I did raise the inseam by about two inches after I noticed that, so fingers crossed that fixed it.

I’m considering unpicking the back and making “artistic darts” to reduce that waistband bulk, but that month is not this month. Maybe next month.

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My hair was super long this year (comparatively), so I nixed the hair extensions on the day. They always get stuck on stuff and drag my scalp with them, and then I take them off midday anyway.

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But the bow and necklace have held strong! This year, I did stick on some fake earrings, meaning pearly cabochans with eyelash glue. They were cute, and did last all day!

So that’s year 3 of Ariel! I dunno if she’ll make it another year… I had to do some repairs to the corset this year, due to the really cheap “coutil” that I used, but I hope that next year it’ll be around!

 

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Defense Dress

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As I mentioned in my 2017 wrap up post, I defended my master’s and now I’m a free woman! Otherwise known as a member of the semi-normal work force.

But because I can’t help myself, even in the stress of preparing for my defense, I made a special dress to wear for the defense. It ended up being a small amount of stress relief and a chance to slow my brain down between turning in my manuscript and giving the oral defense.

To make my degree a bit full circle, I used the same pattern as when I had my very first grad school presentation… This is the Dandelion Dress pattern from Seamster Patterns, which is unfortunately no longer available. It’s essentially a very uniquely seamed shift dress/shirt, and I’ve made it a couple times now. I still wear my first version a lot, and I was hoping to recreate that magic.

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Because I can’t stop myself, I had to make it more complicated… The fabric I bought from Fabric.com was not what I was expecting. I bought this printed boucle which I thought would be printed so that the boucle direction matched what looked like the print direction… That wasn’t true. The print was also much bigger than I expected and it was blaringly large in the original colors of navy and white. So I dyed it with some emerald procion green dye, and it turned out to be in my perfect color scheme! My accent fabric is a brushed navy twill that is sooooooo soft. A bit lighter weight than expected, but I’m not used to figuring out what 6oz feels like. I know for now though!

I used the twill on the front and back center and the sleeves, and the boucle for the large side pieces. The fit is okay. I don’t know whether it shrunk after the first wearing, or whether my first feels larger due to the slight stretch in the fabric. Neither of the fabrics for this version have any more than mechanical stretch, and I can feel it. About a year later now, and I’ve lost some of the “bad choices preceding defense” weight, it feels less tight, but now that I see how the back looks at least in pictures it’ll be relegated to job interviews and sweater days, since it doesn’t (easily) fit into my daily life until it gets cooler outside (it’s fall, but the weather isn’t complying).

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For the pattern choices, I went with the rounded neckline, and I omitted the zipper again. This one is harder to wiggle into, but I still can… I do have to wear it over a slip or tights and slip shorts, because the boucle is just wiggly enough that you can tell whether there’s anything under it, and I really didn’t want to line it.

I love this dress, and it made me feel great wearing it on the day. I passed (with some flying colors if I do say so myself)! And I’ve worn it a few times since. The sleeves are a little tight when I bring my arms forward, but not cut off circulation, just uncomfortable and unflattering… So with sweater, yes! Without sweater, maybe. Also there aren’t pockets, so a sweater with pockets is ideal.

When editing the pictures I saw how crummy the back looks, but I can say that at least 25% of the wrinkles are from wearing it all day, and I’d guess that 50% is that the swayback doesn’t match my body curve (but without a zipper I can’t do better) and that the final 25% is that I tend to underestimate the amount of backfat/bulk that my back carries. I’m no football lineman, but I definitely have to make back adjustments on tight patterns,  and I never did on this one.

I’m no longer working in an office environment, so this will end up relegated to the job interview/special event part of my wardrobe, but the memories that I have with this dress are something I’ll never stop believing in…

Too cheesy?

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Also, I found this picture and now I’m super curious what caused this expression…