Weekend Projects

Even though I had to train on Saturday and I had to examine and help out with the open house on Sunday, I still managed to make three (count 'em: three) new things this weekend.

First I took this H&M dress I bought in Stockholm, which I adore. 

The problem is the shirring on the bodice: it slips right between bits of flesh that do not need to be highlighted in hot pink with white polka dots. So I cut the top off:

Then I pinned down a casing for belting...

...which I stitched closed...

...then fed a black belt-like thing from another skirt through. Ta-da! Cute new skirt with none of the roll-enhancing qualities of the dress!

The next thing I made was a sandwich wrap, which I took from Sewing Green.  I used the two raincoat fabrics I'd bought last week at Season.

This is the bread I usually make my sandwiches out of, which I needed to use as a template.

I had forgotten to bring in the book into the office to photocopy the pattern, so I winged it a little while cutting the pieces out.

I hemmed up the bits...

...and connected them all, creating a maxi-pad looking thing.

Then I stitched on two bits of velcro...

...and wrapped up a sandwich! Supercute, right?

Of course it matches my lunch tote to a T. The last thing I made this weekend was another project from Sewing Green; a little girls' dress from an old pillowcase. I still had the pillowcase which matches the duvet cover I used to make the flamingo skirt so I thought I'd make a little dress for my darling niece Lorelei. Here are my materials:

First I cut off the top of the pillowcase and cut out the armholes...

...then I found my old stash of leftovers from the flamingo skirt to use as bias tape to bind said armholes...

...which I did.

Next came making the casing for the ribbon ties at the shoulders...

...and then threading the ribbon through. I think working with ribbon is my favourite thing in the world.

Then I sewed the rickrack along the bottom, to keep the flap used to cover the pillow flush against the dress and, voila, a little girl's dress! I love it.

Summery Tank Top and Lunch Tote

I was supposed to examine today but, after waiting 40 minutes for my partner to show up, she finally answered her phone and informed the organizer that she wouldn't be coming. Which sucked a little for my pocket book but was actually okay for my sewing. The place where I was supposed to examine is just down the road from Season, so I plodded over there (I was wearing my new H&M gladiator-esque sandals, which, while having excellent heel support, are causing blisters on the balls of my feet) and went a little nuts. But it was awesome and I ended up spending about 800 rubles (about 27 dollars), which is way less than I used to spend on "I have nothing else to do" shopping sprees. Here's my take:

I got some fabric for the lunch tote project in Sewing Green, which I had with me in my purse and made me feel like I was ordering things from a catalog (the swirly purple and yellow will be the outside of the tote, the yellow raincoat material [which I'm quite pleased with] will be the lining and I'll make sandwich wraps, another project from Sewing Green, out of the pink and the yellow). I also got some fusibile interfacing and fleece, to insulate the bag, some grossgrain ribbon for the handle, some rickrack for a pillow case dress I plan on making for my niece and some pink ribbon also for the dress. I finally purchased some pink thread because I realized it's mildly embarrassing that I don't have any and pink is my most-used colour. OH! And I bought a super-huge bias tape maker because I can't use the needle-and-ironing board trick for that thickness. Awesome.

First I worked on the summery tank top, which I made from the skirt I took the elastic out of for the Ikea Fox Skirt.

I cut the skirt along one of the seams (which it turns out I didn't need to do) and trimmed off the bottom two blocks of colour. Then I folded over the top strip to create the top of the bodice.

Then I used the same colour from the bottom of the skirt to make the straps, which I then attached using one of my new shades of pink thread.

Then I used the lighter pink to add some detail to the top bit:

...and made a bow out of the rest of the light pink bit. I fitted this while wearing my strapless bra and I must say it's quite cute.

Here I am in it:

I think it'll look really cute with a high-waisted skirt (probably my white one, which I have to fix the zipper on).  The bow looks a bit unfinished but I don't mind too much.

Then I started working on the lunch tote. I cut all the bits out and then fused the fleece to the outside of the bag. This was when I ruined one of my irons (thank god I had two). Apparently you can't directly iron on fleece because it's melt-y. Lesson learned.

So after that mild debacle, this is what I had:

I sewed them, right-side to right-side, then boxed the corners (like I had done with Vaskova's birthday bag).

Super cute, right? Then I did the same with the lining...

...which I stitched into the bag. I folded over the excess to bind the top of the bag's edges.

I trimmed the excess and then added two bits of the grosgrain ribbon so I can pull the tote open (they're uneven, I know)...

...and then I added the velcro and the strap for the handle. Ta-da!

I adore it, I think it's super cute. Now I just have to go grocery shopping so I can start bringing my lunch in this bag. Yay!

The Ikea Fabric Swedish Fairy Tale Skirt

So this skirt was a bit of a problem. I'm still not 100% convinced of my novice-ness in sewing so I get a little too easily convinced I can do things that are either not possible or not flattering.

I bought this fabric at Ikea when they didn't have the number fabric I am currently obsessed with:

Yesterday I started working on it. Part of my problem was I only bought one meter of the fabric, so I didn't have much to work with and I had a very small margin of error. My initial plan was to simply use elastic from an old skirt I have and use that to gather the top. It didn't take long for me to enact this plan:

This is the skirt I was using as a template (and from which I took the elastic band). I think I'll turn it into a flow-y strappy top at some point, summer-style. One advantage of making my own clothes is that I can account for the fact that I'll probably be wearing a bra, so I can make the straps perfectly. Anyway, back to the skirt.

I cut the fabric to the length I wanted, cutting two strips (one from the top and one from the bottom) which would then become the casing for the hem. I used my new tailor's chalk which was awesome.

I stitched the two sides together to form what would become the side seam.

Then I attached the top and bottom panels (to cover the hems) and threaded the elastic through the top one. Here is where my big problem happened: There was just way too much fabric at the top for the amount of gather I needed at the elastic, so it got very thick and bunchy.

In this picture you can see just how thick and bunchy it was. 

I thought I'd take some of the stress off of the top by making the skirt a bit better fitted, so I took it in as demonstrated above. This didn't actually help the waistband so I was superfrustrated. The only place the skirt looked somewhat decent was right on my hips, which isn't really my style. During the day at work though I had time to think about it and I decided I didn't mind that much, I love the fabric just too excessively and I'd wear it anyway I could.

This morning I decided to just completely retry the top of the skirt, this time directly attaching the elastic to help with the gathering and so I wouldn't have such a chunky waistband. So I had a fun time using my stitch remover, then I attached the elastic. You can also see that I started to reattach the waistband cover at this stage too.

Ta-da! It looks much better now, the waistband is not nearly so chunky and weird. The only problem is that, since there's no gather to the waistband cover at all, there's no give from the elastic. It's like the elastic isn't in there at all. Which I discovered when I tried to pull the thing over my hips. No dice. So I have to squeeze in it by pulling it over my head. I think I'll put a button or something on it, to give it more give for easier getting into.

Here's the back of the skirt, or the front if that's how I want to roll.

 

I also made this new pin cushion from a wooden doll thing I got at Ikea. Not sure how I feel about it, though. I think it's a bit creepy.

And here I am in the skirt. Luckily it fits perfectly just under my breasts, which is a little frustrating because I had finally managed to convince myself yesterday that I didn't need to only wear high-waisted skirts. Oh well.