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.

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. 

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.