Yet another new dress...

Honestly, I just love making summer dresses.  They're surprisingly adorable and easy to make.  And I will wear them, I wear a lot of skirts in the summer time to work because I can't wear my shorts that are my usual summer clothes.  Also I really really really really really really really want it to be summer.  And I really really really really really really really want to go shopping and buy summer clothes which I really really really really really really don't need to do.  So I'm working with what I already have.  This time I'm working from this tutorial: 

http://fashioncuts.i8.com/Sara_Berman_Style_Dress.html

It's an adorable style.  And I have a fairly large amount of this brown and black striped jersey that I got forever ago with the intention of making striped leggings to go with my steampunk stuff, which I've never gotten around to.  I still have plenty left after doing this to do that still.  Here's mine:

hahahhhaaaa... Those are kind of terrible pictures.  I swear it's cute.  I'm very happy with it.  It looks much better on me than it does on Tipsy.  It's not a very exciting color, I wouldn't normally go for that, but it's what I had.  I didn't really follow the tutorial, I mostly just took the dress design as inspiration.  The skirt is your basic circle skirt (with no need to hem cuz yay jersey!)   The band around the ribs is just a strip sewn around the top of the skirt.  I had to gather the skirt a bit cuz I cut the waist in the skirt a bit too big.  But it was an easy fix.  For the top part, I measured the distance underneath my bust from the center of my chest to my side seam.  I added 2 inches to that to account for the overlap.  Then I kind of guessed how high up over my chest I wanted it to go and cut 4 triangles where the bottom width was my first measurement, and the height was the guess I'd made.  I cut 4, because then I could sew two together and then turn them inside out to have nice neat finished edges on the top.  Plus this fabric was just a teensy bit thin, and I worried about it being see through on the chest.  So I made the two triangles, pinned them to the front, overlapping a bit, and sewed them on.  After that was done I realized the back was too far down for me to wear a bra, and I'm just not able to work with the whole no-bra thing.  So I cut a small rectangular strip and sewed it across the back from one triangle to the other.  That covered my bra band perfectly.  I sewed ribbon to the points of the triangles for straps, so I can tie a big pretty bow behind my neck.

I though the color would be a problem for me, but the style turned out so cute that it really doesn't bother me.  Plus I just love circle skirts.  They're so twirly!

In Which I Have a Shit Ton of New Clothes

So, I haven't felt much like posting.  I would be so bad at running a blog for a living.....  Which is why I don't. But I have had a few projects I've been working on.  After working on those infinity dresses- I did get a second one, a solid baby blue one that I haven't taken pictures of- I really wanted to see how much of my fabric stash I could work through.  My tub that holds my fabric is overflowing and I really needed to make some room.  So I got out a pattern for a simple princess seamed dress I'd had for a while, and some magenta stretch satin and went to work.

The godets were optional, but I can't resist adding extra twirl to a skirt. I didn't have enough pink to make the dress solid, so I went with a contrasting color.  Added a black band around the top, a black contrasting zipper, cut off the original sleeves, cuz I hated them, and went with a ribbon halter around the neck.  It's shiny and twirly and fun.  I'm pleased with it.  Before I decided to cut the sleeves off I was really worried it was gonna be a failure.  I REALLY hated the sleeves.  Well, more like straps, it was a sleeveless pattern.  But for some reason the straps made it all wrong.  So I cut the bitches off.  All better!

I also came across a tutorial that I just had to try: http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/dramatic-blouse

It was an easy, not too costumy peasant blouse!  I love the look of it, especially with a corset, and I am always on the lookout for more options to wear my corsets in my every day wardrobe.  So I hit Goodwill.

And of course I can't stop at just one.  They work by themselves, with a corset, a corset belt, or even one of my normal wide belts.  I wish I had some before pics.  They were all XL mens button ups.  I may do one more just so I can have a before shot.  I can't wait for weather to be warm enough to wear them!

And, if you're paying attention, you'll notice that I'm wearing a new corset over the white one.

Just a plain black one.  I had thought to embellish it with some rivets, but I'm so afraid to!  I can make anything simple and basic, but decorating just scares the hell out of me.

As for next projects, I have one busk left, I think I want to make a mesh corset, one specifically meant to go under clothing but will be cooler than a normal one because of the mesh.  Good for summertime.  And I STILL need to narrow the hips on my corset pattern.  I don't understand, the single layer one was perfect, and this one's a bit loose in the hips again.  Sigh.  

Also, this is my next big project: 

I'm so in love with that I don't even have the words to explain.  And since it's got a flat front, I don't need another busk, just boning and grommets, which I have plenty of.  I can't wait for this one.

hell yeah, bitches.

Just took a "Color Vision" test to see how well you see colors.  And would ya look at that. Apparently I'm perfect. :D

Is it spring yet?

I'm so bad at waiting for winter to be over.  I just hate it so much. I can deal with it at the beginning, because I'm excited to wear my sweaters and boots, and I love the holidays, but by January there's no good holidays left and I'm tired of my winter clothes.  I just want my shorts and tank tops and flip flops back.  It makes me really want to go shopping for summer clothes.  Which is silly, because I have so many clothes that my closet literally cannot fit any more.  And that's not a superfluous use of the word literally.  I'm not kidding. I've jammed as much as I can in there.

SO.  To keep me from shopping, I decided to do some sewing.  I have recently fallen in love with the infinity dress, the cute little dress that can be styled a million different ways and is apparently stupidly easy to make. Tutorial for the basic thing here: http://www.soyouthinkyourecrafty.com/little-red-infinity-dress-tutorial/ And here it is!

This is actually the third version.  It's not a complicated dress, but I did some experimenting and learned some things.  First of all, I knew I wanted a tube top underneath. (Adding in the tube top is super simple, it's basically just widening the waistband, but the tutorial I looked at for that is here: http://sewlikemymom.com/infinity-dress-with-bandeau-top/) There is no way I can wear something without a bra, and I didn't want to get a special bra so I don't have the band going around my back.  The tube top added in is a simple fit.  I also learned that the tube top should be the same color as the ties, not the skirt. If it's the same color as the skirt you have to be very careful to cover all the different colored fabric  just right with the ties or it looks weird. I have another version of this dress I made that illustrates this issue.  If it's wrapped right it looks fine, but it can be a pain.  For the ties, I cut them about 12" wide and then folded them over and sewed along the long sides and one end, basically making a long tube with one end closed.  I love the light green fabric, you can't tell in the picture, but it's actually sheer. I also know that any stretching on an unfinished edge leads to running and shredding.  The tube sealed up all the raw edges.  I did not finish the hem of the skirt though.  The dark green fabric is just jersey and doesn't have that problem.  The tube top is a layer of the sheer light green over a layer of the dark green.  I thought I might need to put elastic around the top of it to hold it up, but I managed to sew it tight enough to fit.  I have a slight problem with my stitches not wanting to stretch as much as the fabric, even though I did zigzag, so I have to be very careful when I put it on.  I just know I'm going to rip the stitches at some point and I'll have to try something else so I don't keep having that issue.

Anyways, the dress is super fun to wear, circle skirts are so twirly! And the fabric is soft and comfy and drapey.  I also have a theory that since the tube top only goes down to the edge of my ribs, I'd probably be really cute pregnant in this dress.  I was thinking about cutting the skirt a little shorter, but I don't know if I will.  I like it the way it is. Now I just need to go learn different ways to wrap it.

Christmas Projects!

 First of all, my niece Eloise asked for a stuffed Bell. (her cat) So I found a pattern, and, through lots of trial and error, came up with a cat that looked like her.

She's a little awkward looking, but Eloise didn't care.

Next, my first attempt at a corset for someone other than myself:

I feel I did pretty good.

Gatomon!

so, I recently introduced Shannon to Digimon, and with her current obsession with pets, Gatomon is her favorite. I happened to locate a pattern for a crochet one, and made it for her for Christmas.

The pattern is here: http://milayou.deviantart.com/art/Gatomon-Plushie-288628972

I made a few modifications.  first, she's made with super bulky yarn and an 8mm hook, cuz I wanted her to be huge.  I'm not unhappy with how that worked, but I don't think I'll do it again because of the size of the gaps between the stitches.

eyes are cut out of felt, which took some time to get right. They are very important to make sure she looks right.  And I know she should have whiskers, but nothing I could do could make them look good, so I gave up.

The biggest change is the shape of her nose and chin.  I crocheted a circle for her nose-
             6 sc in a magic circle
             6 sc around
             inc 6 times (12 sts)
            12 sc around
            *inc, sc* rpt around (18)
sewed that on with the nose attached, and stuffed lightly before sewing closed.  That left almost no chin shape though, so I made another triangular piece:
           ch 2
           sc twice in the second chain from hook, turn (2)
         ch 1, inc in both sts, turn (4)
         ch 1, inc, sc, sc, inc, turn (6)
         ch 1, inc, sc, sc, sc, sc, inc (8)
         finish off
               (I'm pretty sure I only went to 8. I didn't take notes and I can't remember.  If this looks too small, just add another row following the same pattern, inc on first and last st.  I was making this up as I went along anyways.  There's probably an easier way to shape her face, this is just what I did.)

I sewed this on where her chin would be.  it just added a little more shape, so that she didn't have a sunken in chin.

the pink in the ears is pink felt glued to a stiffer white felt and hot glued to the ears to make them stand up.

the claws are just cones of black felt sewn on.  I tried to crochet something, I normally hate to use felt for details, but I just couldn't make anything that looked good.

her tail ring is a tube 10 sts around and three rows tall, with a row of sts done through the front loops of the top and bottom round, and then curled outward slightly and stitched down to make the raised edge.  It's just stitched to the tail.  I also added another repeat of the purple and white rows to the tail, just cuz I wanted it a little longer.

There she is.  I think Shannon will be excited.

Shut up, I'm hilarious.

AHAHAHAHAHaHaaaaaa.... I'm so clever.

I should be ashamed of myself.



Anyways, the point of my ultra lame reference making is: I rescued the 5th corset!  I'm so glad!  I really didn't want that one to fail since the image of a brown leather underbust with swing hooks is what started me on my steampunk and corset making path.

Here it is:

yeah, I know the plaid pajama pants kinda ruin the effect.  oh well.  It's after midnight and I didn't care enough to change.
Here's an upclose of the fabric so you can see the pattern:

I'm very fond of it.  and now I have a brown corset with cliche swing hook closures.  I don't care if every steampunk corset uses swing hooks, I think they look awesome.

I managed to rescue the front panels from the original corset, although I did have to add a small strip to the edge to have enough fabric for boning channels.  And I saved about half of the back panels with the grommets in them.  I just barely managed to scrape together enough fabric for the rest of it.  I had to redo panels 2, 3, and 4 to correct the fit issue.  I had to resize most of the bones, but that wasn't a big deal.  I found it was nice to have the front and back closures already done as I was assembling it so I could actually try it on and know it was going to fit before it was finished.  I had to use commercial bias tape, since there was barely any scraps of the fabric left, and on the tops of the front panels it's actually only glued down because the bones in front go up too high for me to sew it down.

However, the liner looks great, the inside is very pretty.  My best work yet, considering it's a salvaged failure.

Yay!