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!

May Day Long Weekend - Day 1

So here in Russia (and elsewhere in Europe and possibly the world, I guess) it's time to celebrate May Day, which means I do not have to work on Monday, which is awesome. So I'm dedicating this three-day weekend to sewing some stuff and spring cleaning. I did the kitchen today, which meant cleaning out the fridge (which had vacuum-sealed corn-on-the-cob from JULY OF LAST YEAR and a bunch of other things I'd rather not mention) and cleaning the windows (I'm amazed at this aspect; it's like I removed a whole layer of curtains). Speaking of curtains, I finally hemmed mine up, which has been a potential project since I got Ethel.

Here's the before (what you can see is that they almost touch the floor, what you can't see is how shoddily I had trimmed them when I hung them up)...

And here's the after (I trimmed them to just past the windowsill, which I think looks nice... however, they are uneven. Oops)...

I also made little ties to cinch them up but, combined with the new cleanliness of the windows, it makes me feel like I'm completely on display, which is unnerving when you're prancing around your flat in only a pair of knickers on May Day.

My second project of the day was to finish a cardigan refashion I had started two days ago. Here's my inspiration:

Yeah, the First Lady's Junya Watanabe cardigan (of which she owns two, by the by). I love that people were so polarized by this cardigan, and I think it's a cute idea, like a little cardi mash-up. So I took the other two sweaters I had bought in Vilnius:

...and I cut them down the middles, and then harvested the sleeves. What this means is I could, theoretically, make another cardigan out of this, which I think I will for my mom since she's so in love with the First Lady (and the president moreso, actually, but really, who isn't?).

I lined up the bodice bits and stitched them together along the back and stitched the sleeves on the opposite bodice bit. I was upset because the front part was kind of gape-y and I still haven't received my bias-tape maker (thank you, Russian Postal Service) but then I found this amazingness and I was able to make bias-tape from the remaining bits of one of the skirts I used from the apron project (they're kind of hard to see but they're perfect, I'm so happy).

I stitched them up the fronts of the cardigan, leaving quite a bit hanging off the top (which was lucky)...

...and then I added three of the buttons also from that skirt, so they match like a dream.

I decided at this point that I would leave the ends of the bias-esque-tape on and use them to tie the tops of the cardigan together because, it turns out, having used sweaters with different fabric contents and different lengths spawned some interesting fitting issues. Here's the final product:

And here I am wearing it buttoned-up. You can see that I've tied the ties off-centred, because I feel when they're tied too centrally they give a bit of a Pilgrim vibe (it's blurry, I know, but I've had a long day cleaning and was a bit self-conscious of my face so I tried a different approach). I do like how asymmetrical it is; it looks better when my arm's not raised taking a picture without my face.

Here's the cardigan not buttoned, which I also enjoy.

My goals for the rest of the weekend are to make this adorable Greco-Romanesque dress from an old sheet and to use bias-tape (yay!) to finish the infinity dress I made awhile ago. And anything else I have time for.

The Convertible Dress and the Reupholstered Slap-bracelets

So I've been back from Lithuania (where I got some "new" jumpers from a charity shop, so I'll be converting them shortly) for about five days now and feel super bad that I haven't updated in awhile; plus I noticed I've been taking fewer pictures while working on projects. I've got a project on the docket for today so I'm gonna definitely document that one better. Until I start on that, though, I thought I'd do some housekeeping and talk about the last two projects I finished.

Project: The Convertible Dress

Goals: Make a dress from information found on the internet

So I don't have many pictures of this because I kept throwing fits while making it so I'll just give you the tutorial and the final results from mine. I used the fabric I'd purchased at Season (the blue) and an old sheet from Auchan (the white with the print). I had so many problems with this dress but I think I'm going to try it again with this absolutely adorable fabric I saw at Season, and this time I'll do a better job. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and once I get my bias tape maker I'm gonna finish the edges up.

Project: The Reupholstered Slap-bracelets

Goal: To re-cover some slap-bracelets I bought in Lithuania

So I was wandering through a shopping centre in Vilnius and I found these light-reflective slap-bracelets made for children who bicycle at night (at least that's what the packaging led me to believe). I hadn't seen a slap-bracelet in years so I thought, awesome, I'm gonna get some and do something with them.

When I got home I looked through my fabric scrap stash and decided that the H&M top I'd used for the zipper-in-the-bag project would be perfect, so I cut out two strips.

I pressed the strips, inside-out, down the middle (so the bracelets would have one side in one colour and the other in the other).

Then I pinned the bracelets into the fabric...

...and stitched around two of the three open sides.

I then removed the bracelets and turned the covers right-side out.

Then I did a zigzag stitch at the last open end and trimmed away the fabric and voila! two newly re-covered slap-bracelets!

Yesterday Tasha came over and brought some old things she doesn't wear anymore, so I think my project for today will be to make something from two of the pieces (a dress and a skirt). I have high hopes for it.