Vanelope Von Schweetz hoddie

so I made it to the fabric store and bought the underlining for the skirt, and my fleece for the hoodie. here is what I have done so far on the hoodie for my Vanelope costume. the color looked a lot greener in the store, but that’s alright I think its close enough and I’m not entering any contests or anything its just for fun. I could actually be done with this by now but unfortunately ran into a slight problem, one that is totally my own fault! I forgot my list when I went to the fabric store which led to me forgetting to buy lining for the hood. something I feel its needs. otherwise my not quite matching serging shows its a bit darker so I don‘t like the way it looks on the outside. plus a lining will give it a much more finished look, which I want. I went ahead and put as much of the hoodie together as could without the lining. so the hoodie is now on hold till I can make it back to the fabric store. and this is something I really want to buy in person, so as to match colors as best I can. the fabric store is an hour away though so I want to combine it into another trip. I’ll make a special trip if its something I have to now, or for a bigger purchase but I hate to go that far for less then a yard of fabric. when I have six weeks to complete this. and will probably be out that way before then. if not I will make a special trip, but I highly doubt that will be necessary. the other thing I am trying to decide is how I want to add the red ribbon stitching to the pocket. do I want to punch it through the fabric which is how its supposed to look, or do I want to sew it on top without going through the fabric. I’m just not sure I want to put a hole in the fabric for the ribbon. but since this is fleece it wouldn’t really hurt it to do so, I would just have a little hole. and if I poked it through with an awl it wouldn’t be too large. I’m going to think on that one. so far so good on this one, which makes me happy.

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bamboo shirt

so as mentioned in my last post I purchased a few new patterns. one of which was simplicity #1692.

so I got right down to it with a bamboo print polyester I had in my stash. its a light weight soft knit with little stretch, which is not in the fabric recommendations for this pattern but I thought would look nice anyway. the pattern calls for a side zipper but I figured with the stretch in the fabric I really didn’t need one and I was right. which made the whole thing go together a lot quicker. I originally put it together exactly as the pattern indicated (minus the zipper of course.) but realized because of the type of fabric I used the neck facing needed to be cut down. especially around the sleeves. the pattern had the facing going a good three inches past the placket and was squared off on the ends. which made the sleeve hang wonky. again I think this is just from the fabric I used. a cotton probably wouldn’t do that. I went ahead and cut the facing down to about an inch away from the end of the placket and rounded it up nicely since the square points stuck out funny.

you can't really see it in the photo but it stuck out really bad.
the other issue I had with the pattern which essentially changed the entire look of the shirt was its length. okay so this was my own stupidity I should have checked length before cutting the pattern. I knew I wanted to be able to wear the shirt with my modern jeans and that this was a vintage reproduction, that should have cued me in to the fact it would be shorter then I wanted. but I didn’t even give it a thought till it was finished. it hung only about a half an inch below the top of my waist band. which would be fine if I stood still and never moved. but yeah that’s not going to happen. plus I wanted to be able to wear it to work, where I definitely wouldn’t want it riding up. since I had a bit of left over fabric, I decided to add a band to the bottom. which I think actually gives it a slightly more finished look then the original hem I had in it. the buttons were also from my stash. as I was putting the shirt together I was thinking how nice red buttons would look on this shirt, but then I couldn’t find six matching red buttons in the right size, and didn’t want to buy any, so I went through the brown ones and really I love the ones I chose. the color is just perfect and once I held them up to the fabric I liked them better then I would have the red, so yea for not having the red.

I want to make this pattern again using view D and A, also using one of the recommended fabric types and lengthening it before I cut. I wonder if I can get away with not putting a zipper in it without stretch, or if I will not be so lucky next time. its not that I can’t do zippers. I put them in things all the time its just so much easier and more comfortable to wear something without a zipper.

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time for halloween already?

For Halloween this year I have decided on Vanellope Von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph. I found the perfect fabric on ebay for the skirt. its pre pleated which is a plus for me since pleats and I don’t seem to get along very well. they never stay put, or fall right. maybe I should try looking up a tutorial or something on how to make perfect pleats. I mean I see others do it so why have they eluded me thus far? that of course can wait till I need it. this fabric it ready for use, in all of its pleated goodness. I have seen this type of fabric used a lot in formal wear, but never in my local fabric stores, so I was unsure if I would be able to find it or not. but once again ebay saved the day. its amazing all the thing one can find on that site.

as for the leggings I’m going to try and buy some minty green ones and paint the stripes on. I found some paint that is supposed to be good for that and not make the fabric stiff. I’ll write more on that once I get the leggings and try it out. I also need to find some fleece for the hoodie. I looked at one fabric store but they didn’t have what I wanted, so I must look at another later. I did buy a hoodie pattern though, for 99 cents. I love when they put patterns on sale like that except I always end up getting to many. I bought four this time, and that was without looking through the entire pattern book. had I looked at the whole thing I probably would have bought the limit of ten. I worked a bit on the skirt today. which included vetoing the black fabric I had pulled from my stash to use as the under layer. though I had originally wanted to use a dark brown I was content with the black. that is until I tried to use it. the stuff was so full of static it popped and crackled as I tried to iron it out, and when I picked it up it made my hair stand straight up! and it was a good two feet away from my hair. I have enough trouble with static without choosing something like that. especially with leggings underneath and I don’t want to be pulling at my skirt all day. so now I need so get fabric for under skirt as well. I did go ahead and cut the lengths I need for the skirt, then did a rolled a hem on the serger. now I’m at a stand still, Halloween is about ten weeks away, so I have time but I need to make sure not to put it off to long these things somehow just creep up on me really fast.

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sonic purse

07/24/2013 I finished this purse for my sister about three weeks before her birthday. and the bad thing about finishing something so early is the fact that I then find the need to add to it. originally I had only put the outside pocket on the purse but then after thinking about it for a while I thought it needed one in the interior as well. I mean really a purse must have pockets! so I pulled out the lining and put in the two pockets inside. a inset zippered pocket like on the outside and a patch pocket for little things such as lip balm and anti bacterial gel, or other small things. I had never done a zippered pocket like that. I don’t do a whole of pocket putting in, and I don’t make a huge amount of bags. in fact this is my first purse I have ever made. I have made tote bags and such but never anything like this. and the zipper was one of confusion, I had no directions and kept assembling it inside out. tearing it back out, pinning, and repeat, finally though I got it. once I had it all put back together and thought I was happy with it I set it aside to finish waiting till her birthday only to decide that the purse must have D-rings! how else can one hook things like key chains and such on the outside of a bag if there is no where to hook it? so once more I took apart the lining, and added what I needed, which was some interfacing for reinforcement to the inside and then the D-rings themselves. once it was reassembled again I was happy with it and instead of keeping it where I could see it I promptly wrapped it in fear I might decide to add another addition it was still a week till her birthday and who knows what other crazy ideas I might have. I think she liked it when I gave it too her, but the comment was made that is was kind of small, which I found interesting because a few months ago she gave me the fabric and showed me a purse saying this fabric would make the cutest little purse like this one. and the one I made was the same size, so..... I don’t know..... next time I make one, if I do I will definitely put the inside pockets and D-rings in first!
here are some more pics. ☺










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sigh.....

so I made this dress and..... well I kind of hate it. which is sad because I love the fabric. I like the way the top turned out but the skirt part is not boding well with me. I still have some fabric left, maybe I can figure something out to save this dress. the pattern looked so cute(simplicity 9402 from 1971) , but the reality of it is not quite what I wanted. I’m gong to think on it a while. I have to do something though the fabric is cute to waste. and even though I have some left its not enough to make anything with all on its own. which is why I think sewist horde fabric. we love it, we love the idea of turning it into something we will adore but then something like this happens and its so depressing. because once its cut, its cut, and there is no going back.

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strawberry skirt.

I finished making the strawberry skirt for my sister. I had to take a break from it for various reasons. I still think the scallops should have been slightly more shallow, but it was the first attempt I ever did at making real scallops so I am content with them. the skirt is fully lined, and has an attached red ruffled with white swirly do’s appliqued on it. which took longer then I had anticipated. I have done appliques this way before on my 1860’s skirt. which was on a slightly larger scale, so I had figured this would not take nearly as long. I was wrong though. it did a little less time but nearly just as long, which surprised me. the skirt is gathered onto a red waist band encasing elastic for a bit of contrast. I also put in three pin tuck pleats on the skirt and lace to dress it up a bit, and to match the dress I made for my niece and the dress I made for me. sometime this summer if we get a full day without rain we’re going to go on a picnic all dressed alike in our strawberry outfits. how cute will that be? definitely something to look forward too, I do adore picnics.
and now for some detail pics.







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new skirt.

this is a super easy skit to make. it took me all of like forty five minutes. its made from sleeves cut off men’s dress shirts, and the bottom of a dress I had cut off. basically I took the cut off of four sleeves that had been cut originally to make long sleeve shirts into short sleeve., cut them in half, sewed them all together, making the waist as tight as I needed it, then sewed the yellow ruffle to the bottom of the skirt, and hemmed up the sleeve potion, so the ruffle looks like another layer. I have made skirts like this in the past and have inserted a zipper on the side, but for this one I decided to just use the buttons on the cuff and placket for the opening. the green sleeve didn't have any buttons on them so I just sewed them up. the blue has two buttons on each cuff, which actually makes the waist a bit adjustable. I don’t know that I will need that function but hey why not have it? its easy enough. and really you can be as big or as small you want to wear a skirt like this. if your smaller you can use less sleeves if your bigger you can use more. and to make it more fun you can use all different panels if you like. length is personal too, you can make something like this as long or as short as you want depending on how much sleeve you have to start with, and how much layering you put into it. really you could put several layers on it to make it longer. or just whatever you want too do as long you have fun and love it.


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