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.

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!

Productive Weekend

Project: make a skirt
Goal: I need a white skirt to match the sweater I made last weekend

So I couldn't wear the sweater I made last weekend last week because it doesn't match any skirts I already have, which was a bit of a surprise since I have a ton of skirts. So I decided to make a white skirt out of the remaining fabric from the sheet I used in previous projects.

I wanted to use one of the patterns in my Burda magazine (to practice with patterns) but I don't have a perforating wheel-cutter so I couldn't. Instead I followed the same basic ideas as the flamingo skirt (this time from memory). I ran into the same problem as last time: the waistband is too big. I just can't figure out how to make it fit better. Luckily I have tons of belts to cinch the skirt up but still.

Also, since the sheet was not the newest of sheets it had some problems (slight staining and some rips) but I think I worked around them alright. I'm particularly proud of the button and zipper, and I did a very careful job on the hem. If only I could get the waistband right I'd be superhappy.

I also decided yesterday morning to turn this purple dress I bought from Kohl's a few years ago into a skirt; the problem I had with the dress was the bodice part never fit right and the dress was quite short. I didn't want the skirt to have the same problems (surprise, surprise, though; it did, in terms of length).

I took the elastic I had used to make the Morsbag and stitched it into a pouch at the top of the skirt. I like the way this turned out, even though, for silhouette- and modesty's-sake I'll have to wear it layered under a longer top. And it was superfast. Plus I elasticized something, so that's another skill I've learned. So here are the two finished pieces:

Not bad for a weekend's work, I don't think.