sewing Archives • Page 2 of 4 • Jessica Smith Creates

August 6, 2014

Catching up!

Last time we spoke, I was making socks.

Scratch that, I succeeded at socks. And actually right now I’m working on another pair.

I’ve been working on stuff since then, but slowly. And at the same time quickly. I seem to have made a lot of stuff, but for some reason it just seemed to come out of nowhere. Blog posts, however, did not.

Individual posts should be coming up soon for these, but here’s a snapshot of what I’ve got:

teaser

And a few more that aren’t quite completed or photographed yet.

I’ve also begun Christmas presents early… as in the aforementioned socks. I know that most people say that and then promptly fall off the wagon, but I’m a woman on a mission… Objective: finish gifts before November, or at least before December. That really means before finals season. I wish I could show you what I’m working on, but then I run the risk of ruining what little surprise they’ll have left.

Cooking has also come up recently as a thing. I’ll admit, I love to cook and bake and candy-make, but rarely do my concoctions turn out pretty, or appetizing to people other than me, or at all. For instance, the last bit of bread I made turned out tasty, I guess, but dense… Having now watched the video on how to actually make a round bread loaf, I think I’ll do better next time.

Knowing that I’m not a food blogger, and that I have no interest in becoming one, I think I’m going to start occasionally highlighting recipes that I’ve used or want to use. Making food can be cheaper than making clothing and yarn stuffs. And therefore I’ve been doing quite a bit of that this summer, so I’ve already got plenty of fodder for these posts.

Well then… talk to you soon! Err… sooner than the last time I posted.

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!

April 25, 2014

Me Made May 2014

I’m writing this as I’m waiting for something related to my senior thesis to render.

It’s already been ten minutes, and I can only think it’ll take quite a bit more.

But on to the main purpose of this post!

(It’s finally spring time, so time for culottes!)

I believe I’m participating in Me Made May this year, or at least I’m going to try!

Looking at the makes I’ve created, it’ll be a challenge definitely, but I have some more that I’ll be working on soon, not specifically for the challenge, but in reality for my wardrobe. If you missed it, I had a little heart to heart with the internet on Monday about what I actually wear.

So here is my pledge:

I, Annabelle of Annabelle’s Project Overload, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’14. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made garment each day (for at least 2 hours) for the duration of May 2014.

There it is, my pledge of fealty to the Me Made Kingdom!

I put in that stipulation of for at least 2 hours, because honestly there will be some days that I’ll stick in pajamas all day, so I’ll use a cardigan to complete the challenge. May is finals period, and I’ll be packing for moving in June. This generally equals days of laziness, and I’m very good at laziness! Also, in my Me Mades, I’m counting things that were both made from fabric, and those made from some other type of garment that is drastically changed… For example, a long dress to a tunic or top. Also, I’m adding a clause that if I can’t wear me made garments, I need to wear at least two pieces of me made jewelry.

In case you’re interested in what I’ve got in my Me Made Wardrobe, read on for lists and lists! In reality, the following is mostly for me… And I’ve divided it into what I’ve got with me at college, which is double checked for accuracy, having it nearby. I can’t actually remember what I’ve got at home.

Tops: 4, Vests: 2, Cardigans: 3 (and 3 to make), Shoes: 1, Dress: 4, Skirts: 2 (and 2 to make), Shorts: 1, Pants: 1.

And that is it! Whew. This’ll be a challenge.

April 21, 2014

Universal Truths About My Style

I’m lazy. My defining feature that affects my personal style is my laziness.

I think its about choices. I love having choices, but I don’t like making decisions.

So if I only have certain types of clothing items, it’s easier to decide.

Really meaning jeans, t shirt, cardigan.

This is the exact reason why I read through Coletterie’s Wardrobe Architect series, and read a lot of the articles from Into Mind here.

Personally, the latter articles were better for me, minimalism calling to me as a soon-to-be college graduate who will be moving from home. The less I own, the less I move!

But Into Mind’s technique is really meant for people not making their own wardrobes.

So I’m adapting her rules and procedure here:

Define my personal style
Try for small amounts of high quality, in workmanship and materials
Own up to what you typically wear, and create a strong backbone of these pieces
Don’t plan/buy anything that you don’t love, especially for fit or material
Spend as much time as necessary to make and find materials for each required item… or finding it if I can’t make it
Own only items that I wear a lot, have worn a lot and will wear a lot, and anything I won’t miss when its gone, and if I make it, that it will last for a number of years.
I’ll donate/sell items that don’t work.
Care well for my clothes, as soon as I’m no longer in a dorm with awful facilities… These washers and dryers are killer monsters that steal id cards, and there is no place to really hang clothes up, or lay them out.

Well, first I’ll explain my rule 4. This in particular is the reason why I’m lifting my fabric buying moratorium (~~Please don’t hit me!~~). With limits. Every piece of fabric I buy will be for a reason, for a particular garment, and will be a fabric that I will wear. Meaning no polyester. I sweat too much for polyester. Trust me. And fit will be variable as I’m learning. But hopefully good, since each piece will be in my wardrobe for a reason.

So I’ve realized over the past few months that I pretty much wear jeans, t-shirt, and a cardigan every day. On occasion, I’ll wear dresses with tights, but unless its the dead of summer I get quite cold in dresses. They always have a cardigan too. I wear cardigans all year round. I will admit to wearing shorts in summer, but when I know I’m traveling from one heavily air conditioned building to another, I’ll often wear jeans anyway. Scarves, very important in winter.

But one point I have to consider is that I’m moving south this summer. So number one summer, and number two, warmer summer than I have experienced barring Texas. And Texas was brutal. It was lovely, don’t get me wrong, but my heat quota was fulfilled 400 times over. So I also need to keep in mind that the climate will change, and perhaps so will my wardrobe.

When I was working out this wardrobe planning thing, I kept all of this in mind, as well as my tiny student budget, and the tinier amount of fun money that I’ll have in the near future. Because of this, I chose to keep most of what I have, knowing that when it dies, I’ll not have to replace it. But I also am only really working with what I have up at college. I’ve got quite a few clothes back home that, well… I leave at home.

At this point, I’m only making a black skirt and three cardigans. And some socks. My socks have been eaten by that washer and dryer I mentioned. I think the dryer has an irrational vendetta against me.

link

I have a black wrap skirt that goes past my knees, but me being short, well, I don’t get that lovely feeling from it. I used to have a black fluffy mini type skirt, but I had to leave it behind on my return trip from study abroad. There were just too many great clothes there! I might also make a just over knee length royal blue skirt. Can you smell an Anna from Frozen cosplay in the air?

link

Did I mention cardigans? My favorite for spring and summer is this navy blue drapey one I got from an Express outlet during one of those season-closing sales. These ones above are super similar…

I’m making three drapey cardigans, one of which will be a little heftier and warmer, I hope. Beige, magenta, and plum.

In fact… beige…

…magenta, with added sleeves…

link

…and plum. I wish I had links for all of these. But I’m lacking in links for the first two.

I will do research on this… but I’m currently all researched out for my mini-thesis in order to graduate. Cause I want to do that graduating thing…

So, two skirts and a few cardigans. Totally doable.

Did I tell you I like cardigans?

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!

January 26, 2014August 19, 2018

July in January

I caught the Archer bug.

Partially because I had some fabrics that I really wanted to make shirts from, but mostly because I was impressed with the fit of my first.

Neither of the fabrics were long enough to include sleeves, though. So I set about using the alterations suggested by Grainline for sleeveless versions, and I made two up! My main alterations at this point were to shorten the body, mostly because I don’t need the length, but also because I had a limited amount of fabric.

Remember how I said I was going to use a crisper iron-able fabric for my next version?

That didn’t happen. I started by using this green fabric, with a neat flower design. The flower has a raised velveteen pattern, as well, which occasionally proved tricky in that I couldn’t iron seams open. I also had to use a pink and brown fabric with a similar weight for the inside yolk and collarstand, since I barely had enough of the green to make the pattern work.

I used yellow bias binding on the sleeves, and white on the hem.

My hem is also very very tilted. I kinda like it though! If I was to wear it in a situation that doesn’t involve casual attire, I’d likely tuck it in to hide this fact.

All in all, it turned out better than I expected, since I was more using this for practice than for actual wearing. I don’t have lots of practice with such lightweight fabrics, but I love wearing them, so if I want to work with them in the future I might as well work on it with free to me fabrics now!

And then to my second sleeveless version.

This one was made out of real shirt-weight fabric. I should have started with this one, but I honestly wasn’t thinking about it when I got to work that day. It’s a nice cream and brown floral print that feels absolutely wonderful. The construction was easier, and there were no changes from the green one.

I think I finished the construction, from cutting to sewing, in two hours. Another forty five minutes for the red bias binding (though I’ve still got a minor fix on that), and then another hour plus for the buttons. I added more buttons to this one, for no real reason other than to torture my hands in sewing them in.

I’m glad I used the red binding and red buttons. It gives it a bit of flair. And adds some color. I like surreptitiously adding color to my wardrobe. It’s like I’m tricking myself into actually wearing color!

January Projects 3 and 4

Stashbusting – 4 fabrics used

January 9, 2014August 19, 2018

Waterfall Archer

So I finished my first version of Grainline’s Archer Button Up.

And I love it!

It’s comfy and cozy, and fits me.

I don’t love long sleeve shirts in the first place, since I almost always just roll up the sleeves to my elbows, but I wanted a thick one, like the plaid flannel shirts. But for one, I don’t actually like wearing plaid, and two flannel is often a bit too warm for me.

So when I was gifted this neat geometric blue fabric, I thought I’d give it a try. In retrospect, it’s a bit too thick for a first time through on this pattern. It certainly is a thick as a nice flannel, but without the fuzz and some of the warmth. But it worked out nicely.

I love that the only exposed seams are the side seams and the armscye. I definitely have no qualms about putting this in the wash, which is more than I can say about most of my projects.

It’s a little baggy, which is what I was going through for this one, but I may cut some of the bagginess on my next one.

Because I will be making another.

I also had to cut the sleeve down a bit. Because the shoulder seams drop off the shoulder a bit, the sleeves were incredibly long, but I did notice that when I moved up the seam, the sleeve length was a bit better. For proof on the enormous length on petite little me, see the picture above. The length was past my palm!

But all in all, I loved the pattern. After using a Simplicity pattern right before, I appreciated that all notches matched up easily. I will admit, though, that I used the sew along online, instead of the booklet instructions. I admire pictures, and it’s easier for me to understand better with full color pics.

January Project #1

Stashbusting – 1 fabric used

December 20, 2013

Getting Back on Track

If nothing else, December so far has been busy.

Busy busy busy.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted a thing since Thanksgiving…

You may not have. That’s good too.

(I’m going to whine for a bit, just to let you know.)

Being a college senior is tough. Can I mention real life is on the horizon?

I’m trying at all costs to avoid such a thing. I’m applying for graduate schools, and hopefully it’ll work out for me.

Please cross your fingers for me.

But my applications are pretty much in, and that makes me terribly happy.

(I’m now done whining, I think.)

I’m back at home, so I’ve brought a number of projects to do while I’m here, to supplement the ones I’ve already got here.

Here’s all the beads I’ve got, since I’ve tasked myself to make my Belle and Claudia beadwork while I’m home. I also brought home other beading projects, but there’s less of a push for those.

I’ve also got a jacket in the works. Years ago, I got this pattern, along with some dark purple bottomweight from Joann’s, and I think it’s high time to make it up. I’m planning on view F, the vaguely military view. I’ve got this really neat quilting fabric that I’m going to make a lining from, as well as using it for the contrasts. The fabric is pastel – rainbow with gold crackle running around.

link

There were a number of ready to wear items that I’m still planning on fixing up, I just didn’t get to them this summer while I was home. Here’s one, a shirt that is just a little too tight around the arms, so I’m thinking of removing the fabric loop and adding an elastic one.

I had a little war with myself, a few weeks ago, on whether or not to buy the Archer pattern. I told myself that I didn’t need a button up shirt pattern, because I never wear them, especially a long sleeve one. But then I thought, maybe I don’t wear them because I’ve never gotten one that fit. So the second voice one, and I’ve got the pattern cut out. Just need to cut this awesome (and free) fabric, and to sew it all up!

I keep telling myself to finish up my crochet sweater, so that’s on the roster, as well as a sundress out of lovely pink fabric from my mom, and a ballroom dress, and a corset, and maybe a t-shirt, etc. So lots of stuff. We’ll see how far I get!

Hope you all have wonderful holidays, if I don’t talk to you before then! It’s quick approaching the new year!

(real life!)

October 31, 2013August 19, 2018

Everything’s shiny, Cap’n!

I love my captain!

And my new Kaylee inspired dress!

Both The Patchwork Pirate and Dianne from Dianne’s Costumes and Research have wonderful recreations of Kaylee’s Prairie Harpy dress.

Dianne had found this fabric from Fabric Tales that matches the original very nearly.

But I don’t have that fabric, or the money to obtain it at the steep price.

I do, however, have this fabric! Not perfect, but I think Kaylee would have definitely worn this fabric if she had the chance. It’s playful and colorful enough. Or maybe that’s just me.

And I have a lot of it. It being the same fabric I used for my culottes. And I have some left over still.

It also wrinkles all over the place. It’ll crease just by lightly folding, even without ironing or pressing it.

I draped the bodice on a borrowed dress form, though it seems I’m a bit chestier than then form is.

At that point I didn’t care much about the direction of the grain of the fabric, since I was using scraps for all of it.

Aren’t scraps lovely?

So then I let it sit around awhile as I was thinking on a skirt plan. Or rather, while I was doing that homework and classes thing…

I lined it in the meantime, which brought about it’s own challenges, but worked out well in the end.

And then I got to work on the skirt. I knew it needed to be at least a little bit full, and I knew that my dress needed to be lined.

In the end I cut out a few rectangles and sewed it all up.

And then it was too tight. Pencil skirt tight.

So I unpicked all of that and added another identically sized rectangle, which brought the fullness I had wanted.

Sewed the waistband to the bodice, and tried it on.

At this point I realized that the bodice was big around my actual waist, in order to get it over my head.

Looking at the inspiration photos of Jewel Staite as Kaylee, I saw that she had an attached belt. So I set about making some belt-like strips. I didn’t want to make one that would actually tie around me, as I often find them uncomfortable, so I had them attach with hooks and eyes.

And finally success!

It matches really well with the jacket I made for my Halloween costume, since the blue is mirrored in the dress fabric.

So all in all, a happy Halloween!

October 25, 2013August 19, 2018

Ever sail in a Firefly

So I’ve been hard at work on my Halloween costume.

I’ve told you that I was planning on making a version of Kaylee’s dress from Out of Gas, one of my favorite episodes in Firefly. It also shows up in the The Message.

And I have! I promise! However, I haven’t exactly taken pictures in it yet. The post is upcoming, I promise!

I had decided while I was working on the dress that I should be Kaylee for Halloween!

Halloween where I live, though, is quite cold, so I always build in temperature ready ideas into my costume.

So I decided that my next project was going to be Kaylee’s blue oriental jacket.

Because I could.

I ordered my brocade from ebay, and it turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for. (I’ve had mixed results with finding fabric on ebay).

I made a muslin, which I had to hack up and maneuver to get it to fit. I had started with my bodice block, since I knew it was rather fitting, but I took out a bunch of the shaping on the bottom. The jacket in the show is oversized and shapeless, so I didn’t feel bad about taking some liberties.

I cut out the fabric, and had just enough to do so. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pattern match as much as I wanted, but I at least had everything set up in the right direction.

Starting out, I wanted to have a double breasted front for warmth. In the end it didn’t work out. The front closes about evenly matched with each other, and I can’t button the top button, because I have a thing about close fitting necks.

Looking back at past projects, I’ve never quite drafted sleeves correctly. One of these days I’ll figure it out, but that day wasn’t my cutting day. I ended up easing the remaining sleeve head fabric into pleats in the back, which gave a very cute tailored look.

The back is a bit tight, which at least keeps me in better posture, having to stand up straight instead of my usual slumping. I don’t have the best movement range because of this and the kinda tight sleeve caps.

But I love my new jacket! And I’m going to wear it forever and ever.

I will leave you with a picture of my subtle cosplay for the day. Kaylee’s hairbuns and jacket!