The Passport Cover and The Pencil Dress

It's been an inordinately long amount of time since I last posted; I've been a bit busy. Not so busy as to not be able to sew, but, you know.

A couple of weeks ago I whipped together a couple of things; my goal right now is to play along with Project Runway so I've made two things so far (going to make the third today). I'll just quickly update you on the two I finished before PR started.

First, I made a cover for my passport. I started with this dress I bought a few years ago from M&S which (1) is too short and (2) doesn't provide enough cover over the bust. I love the fabric, though, and thought it would make an adorable passport cover.

I cut it up and used some of the ribbon I had left over from the ribbon rosette to make the flaps and a bow-tie closure; here's the final result!

It's a bit uneven because my cutting skills are still subpar but, whatever. I love it.

I also made an elasticated tube dress from some hilarious coloured pencil fabric I found at Season.

It ended up a bit short and the fabric has no stretch whatsoever, but I like it. It's all wrinkly because I took this picture after wearing it (foolish). I think it's superfun.

The Teaching Bag and The Physics Skirt

I made a bag for taking my books and things from my office to the classroom (excessive, maybe, since my office is maximum 30 seconds away from any classroom in the school). That said, I needed to find a use for my Dick and Jane fabric and I thought a bag would be great. Plus I could customize it with pockets! Full disclosure: I only made one pocket. But it's useful!

I decided to use this ribbon with the fabric:

Anyway, I cut it out based on a manila folder I had lying around, then I attached the pocket (shown in the first picture empty, and in the second picture with my phone and cigarettes, exactly what I designed it for!).

I used the straps from this bag (which I hope to recycle into something else)...

And then used the ribbon as a semi-border and bow.

I boxed the bottom so it's quite deep, which is great. I love it, now I can't wait for the internship to start so I can start hauling papers and books from my office!

Now onto the physics skirt... when I was in Season I figured I'd have a look through the patterns and maybe pick one out to make the skirt out of. I looked through the plus sized patterns, figuring there'd be SOMETHING there, but there were only 2 skirts to choose from! Can you imagine? I chose a very easy, circle-skirt-y type thing and went to the counter to ask for it. The woman looked at me (not knowing I had chosen a plus size pattern) and was like "Are you sure about sizing?"

Now there are two problems with the implication of this question. One, she's implying that I don't know how to read sizes (which I do in European, UK and US, thank you very much) and Two, I don't know my own size. You'd think that she'd know that seamstresses, especially seamstresses that MAKE CLOTHES FOR THEMSELVES would have some idea of what they were looking for. When she finally pulled out the pattern I was like, yes, that's right and she looked at me AGAIN until she glanced down and saw the big bold letters spelling "PLUS." Then she decided it was okay to sell it to me. Another problem, I just realized, with her question is that it was assuming that even if I wasn't purchasing PLUS I could've been buying a pattern to make a smaller lady something. I was very annoyed. Then, when I was picking out ribbon and thread, the girl behind the counter wouldn't let me touch any of them or rifle through the Tupperware containers they keep them in. I'm a very tactile-shopper and it's very frustrating for me not to be able to handle the goods. JoAnn Fabrics, I miss you.

Anyway, I'm pleased with the physics skirt, which is lucky because if I wasn't it would've been a waste of 75$. I think I might add belt loops so I can ensure it stays up, but that will have to wait for another day.

I'd post a picture of me in it but I just cannot be bothered to get dressed right now. Too lazy and hot.

sencha complete!

So I went to Season again yesterday and got some fabric to make the final version of the Sencha blouse; I got this lovely purple satin. Here are my problems with the lovely purple satin:

• it is very slippery, which equals difficult to cut
• it's very hot here right now and I kept leaving little sweat trails on the fabric
• I can't wear it any time soon

Other than that I adore it! Once it cools down I think that it'll be fine; I"m not such a sweaty beast when it's not constantly edging towards 40 Celsius. 

Here's the final result:

I usually wear that skirt cinched up higher but I think with the darts of the blouse it actually works quite well. I added the bow too. I think this blouse will look absolutely super with a cardigan as well, but there is no way in hell I'm trying it out right now. Too damned hot. Oh well! 

At Season yesterday I also bought notions for the physics skirt (finally!) and matching ribbon to make bows and flowers; very exciting! I also got an easy pattern from BurdaStyle so I think I might have a new style of skirt in my repertoire. I want to get as much done as possible before the interns arrive; I also want to make this dress; I think I can harvest the elastic from other sources in my wardrobe, and I might use an old sheet or something too. Plus, again, this is a dress that could be paired with a cardigan, assuming it ever cools down here.

Here's another shot of the Sencha!

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.

T-Shirt to Shrug conversion AND Satin Ribbon Flower

Today after examining I stopped by Season and bought some white fabric for a skirt refashion I'm a little nervous about and some pretty ribbons, one thin white one and one thick pink one. I used this thin white one for this t-shirt refashion:

I'm going to give it to a friend for her birthday, but if it turns out it's too big I think it's super-cute. It's very breast-centric, which is always a plus. I got the idea here.

The flower was a bit trickier; first of all, I'm super in love with this ribbon. At first I bought a meter of it for this flower and then, as I was walking around Season I thought more about it and fell more in love with it so went back and bought two more meters. All for less then the equivalent of a dollar! Genius!

So first I cut the strips I would need...

...then I pinched them halfway through, put the base on Ethel that doesn't make the fabric advance and stitched six sections for the petals.

Then I folded them and stitched the bottoms to make petal shapes...

... and then attached them to each other.

Then I handstitched a swirly rosebud in the middle to cover that mess of stitching. I hate handstitching but it really was the only way to go for this one. Then I stuck a safety pin through the back and voila I've got a new fake-flower brooch (as though I don't have enough already). It turned out a bit wonky but I love the colour so I don't really care.

I got the idea from here.

Time to get to work on that skirt refashion... not sure if how I've planned it in my head will work out or not. We'll see!