Chemistry Couture

"My New Skirt" or "The One Where She Makes Something Out of a Book"

I really really want to make one of the dresses out of the new Alabama Studio Style book.  But I wanted to practice a little, so I made a skirt using the pattern from Alabama Stitch Book and combined techniques from both books to embellish it.

Please forgive my pale pale legs.  I don't tan well, and even when I do it disappears as soon as the weather gets cold . . . and it's been cold a looooong time.  Today, however, we have some pretty amazing weather so maybe I'll get some sun.

OK, back to the skirt.  I couldn't find organic cotton jersey that didn't cost an arm and a leg, so I got this cotton/lycra blend from Joanns on SALE (weeee!) for about $3 a yard, and I needed 2 yards for the skirt.  I already had all of the embellishments on hand, so my grand total for this project is $6.

I used the leaf pattern from the first book and stenciled a repeat of the leaves around the bottom of the skirt.  I used a gold paint pen that started out very gold and then kind of burnished into this bronze-y color as I handled the fabric more and more.  Thats fine by me, actually, because it matches my little bronze flats.  I chose to do reverse applique on the design, so I stitched around the outside of the leaves with a three-ply embroidery thread in cream and cut out the center of each shape.  Since I used two layers of this red jersey, the effect is kind of subtle.  I assembled the pieces using the embroidery thread, and finished it by creating side-felled seams with a simple running stitch.

When it came to embellishing with beads I was a little bit lost.  I started out with black bugle beads, but they looked to stark.  Then I tried a pale gold bugle bead, but that just wasn't doing it for me.  I tried beading around the outside of each leaf, then the inside, then random placement, and on and on.  What I finally decided on is what you see above.  I used a running stitch to run the beads in a line between the leaves to look like a stem.  Then I filled in a few leaves on each stalk to add some shimmer.  I used a combination of the pale gold bugle beads and a mixed bag of gold and brown beads that I used on another project a while back.  Overall I think it looks fun but not too overwhelming.

This took about a week to finish, working on it a little bit each evening.  I finally finished it up last night by adding some elastic to the waist.  Natalie Chanin reccomends using fold-over elastic, but as I had none on hand and couldn't find any at the store the last time I looked, I kind of improvised the waist.  I simple made a loop of 1/2 inch elastic and placed it against the inside top of the skirt.  I folded the top of the skirt over the elastic to cover it, and then stitched the folded fabric down with a stretchable herringbone stitch (from the Studio Style book) that encased the elastic, but did not stitch through it.  You can kind of see what I am talking about in the picture of the skirt above.  The herring bone stitch is visible on the inside of the waist-band, while the outside has two parallel lines of stitching.  The elastic fits in between those two parallel lilnes.

I am quite happy with the skirt.  I think when I make the dress I will shorten the length a tad so it hits just above my knees.  I've got the fabric all ready to go!  Have you guys ever made anything from the Alabama Stitch books?

I See London . . .

Be warned, you may see more of my legs than you ever wanted to see.  But I had to show you my Madeleine Mini Bloomers.  You can find the free pattern for these at the Colette Patterns blog.  I haven't tried any of her other patterns, but now I really want to.  The instructions were very clear and simple, and best of all her sizing was true.  I hate buying patterns from the store and having the sizing chart tell me I am one size when in reality I am two sizes smaller.  Am I the only one with that problem?  Her measurements and sizes were spot on, though.  Big plus in my book.

I wanted to make these becaues I LOVE pajamas and lounge clothes.  And Randy HATES it when I wear baggy t-shirts and sweat pants.  So this is a wonderful medium.  Cute comfy clothes.  I won't be wearing these outside, no way, but I have a feeling Randy won't mind a bit if I wear these around the house.  OK, last warning.  I have very pale legs.

I used a silky navy blue fabric that I had in my stash.  It only took a yard, and a yard is what I had.  I already had the 1/4 inch elastic I needed, and I went out and bought a spool of red ribbon for about fifty cents at Joann's, so I would like to think these shorts cost me mere pennies.  I would show you how cute the back is, but I couldn't take a picture that didn't reveal too much.  These are very short shorts. 

I've heard bad things about these print at home patterns, but I had no problems.  All of the lines on the paper matched up perfectly.  I didn't use a whole lot of tape (I only taped at the eges and one in the middle), and it only used about 24 pieces of paper, give or take I can't remember.  So keep that in mind before you go a-printing.  Maybe print at work if you won't get caught.  Also, remember to make sure that your printer isn't automatically resizing the images on the pdf file for printing by checking that the Auto-Scaling box is listed as "none."  You'll be able to check that when you click "print" and the print conformation box comes up.  Go make these, and have fun!  I will be making a couple more, myself.

Onesies Donesies

I will go ahead and start by apologizing for the title.  I just couldn't help myself.  I've been spending most of my sewing time working on things for my little niece or nephew who will be born in January.  I posted about these onesies a while back, but now that they are finished up I want to give an update.

All of the onesies, bibs, hats, and burp cloths are from Gerber, and they were all dyed with bright Rit dyes in purple, red, yellow, orange, and turquoise.  I dyed them a while back and then they just sat on my table while I thought about how I wanted to decorate them.  Since they are already very bright I didn't want to do anything too wild or clownish.  I wanted them to be cute but not necessarily baby cute, you know what I mean?  So this is what I came up with.

The fabric is from Joanns, its just an inexpensive natural colored cotton with little white stars scattered around.  I cut out little shapes (not seen in the picture: bunny head, bear head, leaf, moon, apple, the list goes on) and attached them to the clothing first with Wonder Under.  Then I machine stitched around the shapes with brown thread.  I went around a couple of times to give it a "sketched" look.  Randy approved of the first one I did so I just ran with it!  There are ten oneses, three hats, three bibs, and eight burp cloths (the burp cloths just have the same star fabric as a binding).  I can't wait to send them off to my sister, I hope she likes them!

The Dress is Finished!

I had a lot of last minute changes and corrections to do on my paper which took up a lot of my time, so unfortunately I was not able to finish the entire wardrobe I wanted to enter in the ASG contest.  But I did finish the Ink Blot dress!  So I entered it in a different category and sent it off today.  I'm so excited!

Randy was very sweet and insisted on taking photographs of the dress so they would be properly lit.  I just stood in front of my little sewing area and tried to smile without looking goofy.  I kind of dig the clutter and chaos going on behind me . . . makes me look like I'm a busy little sewing bee even though I haven't done much lately.  That will change soon, though.  Well, it should change soon.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

By the way, after my money saving post yesterday I looked at the Joann website and realized that they are currently having a sale on Vogue patterns.  Vogue publishes patterns from famous designers whose designs are usually a bit more detailed and involved than other patterns, and for that they are expensive.  These patterns typically range from $20 to $30 (eeeeek!).  This weekend they are on sale for $3.99 each.  Since I also have my handy little 10% discount card, I was able to get six patterns for just over $20.  I saved $146.00.  How insane is that?  I almost dropped my bag when the cashier told me!  I keep telling my lab mates about it, but they don't seem interested.  Maybe you guys will be :)

Finally!

I've been kind of MIA for a few weeks, haven't I?  I've been writing a very long paper, and then rewriting it, and teaching and grading and trying to get some sleep in between.  Yesterday I had to teach an 8 a.m. class and when it was over I decided to just GO HOME and sew and relax for the rest of the day.  So I worked on a dress.

And I took pictures of my progress.  I got a request from Clicky the Moose to give a little more detail about my design and sewing process, so here goes!

I didn't take a picture of my sketches.  Well, I did, but it just made me feel so . . . exposed!  I'm not a good sketcher.  It was embarassing.  So just believe me when I say that I have a sketch.  I keep a little Moleskine notebok in my bag in which I jot down ideas.  I have a larger sketch notebook at home that Randy bought for me, and I usually make a more detailed sketch in this book, complete with colors, fabric choices, details, etc.  It sounds fancy when I describe it, but it really isn't, I just like to pretend I'm organized.

I recently joined the American Sewing Guild, who is currently taking entries for a sewing contest.  They have a selection of patterns from Simplicity to choose from for the garment design.  I decided I'd shoot for the "best wardrobe" award, so I chose six pieces from the patterns to make as a wardrobe . . . you know, all mixy matchy with similar colors and themes.  I decided to start with the dress from pattern 2925.  But I know what works on my body and what doesn't, and this silhouette just wasn't going to cut it, so I decided to make some alterations.  And here we go!

This is what the dress pattern pieces look like whole.  I decided to go with a blue jersey fabric that would be comfortable and have some give.  Jersey is also very easy to work with, especially when you have a serger or a lightingbolt stitch on your sewing machine, designed for use with stretchy fabrics.  If you've never worked with jersey before and want to get started I recommend reading Built by Wendy's Home Stretch.  There is so much information, and it even includes some patterns to practice with.

As I said, though, this silhouette isn't going to look good on me.  I'm not blessed with natural curves, so I need to accentuate what I have.  I pinned the pattern together and pinned it to my dress form so I could mark cut lines and see where I'm going to need to lengthen or narrow, etc. etc.  If you don't want to hack up your own patterns you can trace them onto tissue paper and cut those up instead.

Back to the blue fabric!  I placed my "new" pattern down and pinned it in place.  If you look at the before and after you can see that I separated the front at the empire waist line, and took off the top of the back piece altogether.  And of course I added 2 inches to the waist line with my handy hand made spacer!  I'm basically turning a loose tube dress into a empire waisted sun dress. I tend not to use too many pins, as they can crinkle the pattern and throw it out of whack.  I've been trying to get the hang of using pattern weights too, but those don't work so well on carpet. 

Once the pieces were cut out I gave the front the Ink Blot treatment.  I thought this up in a daydream, though I'm sure plenty of people have done something similar before.  I just kind of splattered fabric paint around, folded the fabric in half and pressed really well.  I did the same thing to the bodice piece so the design would go all the way up the dress.

The assembly was not at all difficult.  I got rid of the directions that came with the pattern, since I changed the pattern pieces so much they were pretty useless.  I sewed the skirt and the bodice together with the serger and added elastic so the dress cinches in just under the bust.  I took the back piece and made a thin little pocket along the top and then added a piece of elastic to make the back stretchy as well.  Then I sewed the two pieces together!  The neck-line and straps were taken from another pattern, also approved by the ASG.  Right now they are just pinned on.  I worked on the dress for about 10 hours yesterday, and I was just too tired to finish it last night.  It'll get done tonight.

So there, kind of a "cheater" dress.  It was my design, but based on a printed pattern . . . and a lot of fun to make!  Just, you know, if you are going to mess around with paint, don't wear anything nice.  Paint always gets just where you DON'T want it to.  I also recommend you get some extra fabric so you can try a few different paint techniques.  I did three different skirts and ended up using the first one I made.  But it was still nice to have options.

I'm back, yeah!

Happy Birthday, Blog!

It's my Blogiversary!  I've been posting for a year, now.  It doesn't feel like it's been that long . . . time flies.  I made a dress to celebrate.  It's from Burda Magazine, 12/08.  I was going to call it the Blogiversary Dress, but because of the way it fits me, and the fact that I can't ever gain any weight if I want to wear it again, I might just call it the Straight Jacket Dress.  What do you think?

 

The top is a very festive, confetti-bedecked sheer synthetic that I picked up from Joann's.  I usually try not to do synthetics, but this one was so cute and felt nice so I just went for it.  The skirt is a very pretty shade of grey linen (suprise!), and fits me perfectly . . . just ignore the panty-lines.  Ignore them!  The only problem is that its ALL skirt and very little top.  It looks like I've been wrapped up in linen like a mummy.  I'm not sure if I love this dress.  I like it, and I really like the fact that I installed a black "invizible"zipper in the back that you can actually see.  It creates a cool line in the back that I find appealing.  I just look like a giant torso.  That always seems to be a problem for me. 

Looking back at my entries I realize I have a lot of stuff about me, and my quilts, and the things that I make for myself, but very little interesting information for the readers.  Yes, it's nice that I make my own clothes, but shouldn't I be sharing a few more tips and tricks that I come across?  Should I do a mini quilt along?  Maybe set up a virtual quilting bee?  Do enough people even read this blog to make it worth while?  If my beloved silent readers let me know what they want to see I will gladly oblige.  I'll do a headstand and whistle a tune if you think it will be entertaining :)

I have three songs stuck in my head right now that make quite an interesting mash-up.  They are:

1. Ce Jeu, by Yelle   
2. Love Letter to Japan, by The Bird and the Bee 
3. Somewhere Only We Know, by Keane

So click, watch, listen and enjoy :)  Have a wonderful day!

The Metamorph Dress

This dress wasn't even supposed to be a dress!  It started off as a nice linen tunic . . . a very large and unflattering linen tunic.  The tan linen fabric was purchased long ago from Hancock's when they were having a super duper sale.  I thought the little brown, green, and blue vines on it were so pretty (there is a close-up picture down below), and I have kind of developed a thing for linen recently, so I bought a yard and a half.  One of my Burda magazines had a pattern for a very cute, loose, summery tunic that I thought would be perfect for the fabric.  It may have been perfect for the fabric, but it was NOT perfect for me -- I was drowning in it!  So I ripped all the seams and started fresh.

This time I used a Project Runway by Simplicity pattern (no. 2724), and a yard of brown linen for the skirt.  The pattern is a dress that looks like a top and a skirt together.  There are a couple of different styles (as there always are with the project runway patterns, which I love), including a pencil skirt, and button up-style top, and sleeves, but I wanted something simple.  So I chose the sleeveless gathered shell and the A-line skirt. 

The dress was BORING.  It was AWEFUL.  It was a lot of beige and brown, and it was waaaaay too long, and it just did nothing for me.  So I shortened it a little too much and had to add fabric back onto the bottom hem of the skirt, which ended up looking kind of interesting.  Then I added blue cotton to the brown sash to perk it up a little.  And THEN I went to Joanns and bought some blue-green amazonite beads and just went to town sewing them onto the hem of the skrit and the neckline.  And now I love my dress.  I think it's adorable and an appropriate length and has just the right amount of color.  It also goes well with the gold shoes I bought from Target for Bianca's wedding.  Success! 

And here I thought making a dress from a pre-printed pattern would give me a quick fix without having to work through the pattern making myself.  I thought this one would only take two nights and it took a week.  Shows how much I know.

 

I've been working on the Papa quilts a lot lately, I'll sow you a little sneak peak tomorrow! 

My Chimera Dress

My beautiful friend Bianca got married last weekend in Eagle Pass, Texas, near the border.  Randy and I were supposed to attend and spend the night down there, but he got very very sick and we had to cancel the trip.  I made this dress to wear to the wedding, and had everything finished except for the hem when we realized we couldn't go (though Randy, in his fever induced state of confusion, did insist that we should go anyway and just leave him in the hotel room while I partied at the reception.  Sweet boy, but no.  Even if I was selfish enough to think that was a good idea, he was in no condition to travel). 

 

Randy made a full recovery by Tuesday, and the dress has been sitting, unhemmed, on my work table since last Friday.  I decided to go ahead and take a picture of it anyway, so you can see.  I'll finish it up soon, I'm just in no mood to do it at the moment.  I was busting my butt to get it done in time for our trip, so I'm just a little tired of working on it at the moment.

 

I call it a chimera dress because I used the pencil skirt pattern from my sailor skirt and the extended version of the bodice I used for my Valentine's Day dress and sewed them together to make a dress.  I added a sash over one shoulder using orange sari fabric, kinda Bollywood style, and made a braided belt out of the grey sateen (from my trip to Mood in NYC), the orange side of the sari fabric, and the reverse gold side of the sari fabric.

Working with the cotton sateen was interesting.  It was definitely more forgiving than a fancier fabric like satin, but was still kind of a pain in the butt to work with.  I learned quickly that I needed to use a pressing cloth when ironing.  I really like this dress.  The fist isn't perfect, but I think it's fun and interesting.  Actually, I thought I was pretty brilliant for coming up with the design all on my own, then I saw an advertisement in a magazine for a famous designer with a very very very similar dress.  He didn't have a braided belt, though, so I still get points for that. 

My Orange Valentine

Happy V-day, everyone!  Randy and I will be celebrating by cooking for each other and watching a boxing match on TV.  This is our third Valentine's Day together.  For the last two years we went to Flemmings for dinner and ate EVERYTHING on the menu.  We decided we would try and be little kinder on our wallets this year.  But man, does Flemmings make some good calamari.  I will miss that.

Using the orange fabric I picked up from Mood, I made my Valentine's dress from scratch . . . sorta. I wanted to use boning for the bodice, but didn't really know how to go about it properly, so I filtched some directions from a pattern I already had.  I shortened the bodice (the directions were for a full torso version) and took it in about an inch on each side so it would fit my *ahem* small frame. 

The pleated skirt is shorter in the front and longer in the back.  I don't know about you, but I like pleated skirts a lot more than gathered skirts, especially on home-made items. I added a brown chiffon trim to the bottom of the lining so it would peek out from under the orange.  I really like that you can see the back part of the cream colored lining from the front because it matches the buttons on the back!  I made the covered buttons with my favorite Liberty print that was also used in my New Years dress.  I also added a braid of leather trim to the very top of bodice and had plans to put leather braid on the waistband as well, but I didn't have enough left over.

I'm in LOVE with this dress.  It's a perfect fit, and it's the first strapless dress I've ever been able to wear.  Most manufacturers make dresses to fit women who are a bit curvier up top.  I have next to nothing up there, so it's hard to find a strapless dress that doesn't just fall off of me whenever I put it on.  All the details came out exactly as I had pictured them.  I got lucky with this one, too!  Hopefully Randy will be just as pleased with it as I am :)

For those of you who don't do Valentine's day, you can still find something to celebrate!  Today is my Dad and my Aunt Leanne's birthday!  They were born exactly nine years apart.  Happy birthday, and I love you both!

Happy New Year!

I wore this dress last night!  Randy and I went to McCrady's in Charleston, SC, for dinner and midnight celebrations.  I made this dress before we left for vacation.  It is my own design and my own pattern . . . my very first attempt at an original!  It turned out exactly they way I wanted it to.  The outer layer is silk charmeuse, the under skirt is my favorite Liberty print, and there is also a lining material underneath all of that. 

I think the most challenging thing about this dress was the bust.  I made the triangle-style cups off the top of my head.  I just cut out a shape, made a dart, and inserted a little shaping cup that I stole from an old bathing suit . . . and it worked!  I don't have a lot "up top" to keep covered, so I didn't have to make anything that would be supportive.  I really lucked out on this one, I think.  If I ever get a chance I want to take a pattern making class.  I'll put that on my list of things to do. 

I also added a beaded ribbon to the bust line, purchased at Joann's.  It was a splurge, but I saw it when I was buying the lining fabric and just HAD to have it.  I think it makes it very New Years appropriate.  I had to hand stitch it on and find a way to remove only some of the beads at the end of the strip so I could fold the ends under at the side zip, without loosing ALL of the beads.  It was easier than I thought it would be.  Like I said, I lucked out on this one. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful new year!