It's past my bedtime but the neighborhood is already exploding with New Year's Eve fireworks (there's nearly an hour left until midnight) so I might as well make this post now, huh
Behold, the first thing made from the as-is sequins: a super simple mock turtleneck...that I still managed to miscalculate
Not enough of a miscalculation to regret, though!
There was enough fabric left from making the cat patch jacket to make a matching miniskirt, using good ol' New Look 6843.
The process of making this was as straightforward as always, even though I once again added lining--in fact, that worked out better than usual.
There were sewing-related things I'd been thinking about ordering for months, but kept putting them off.
The first try of McCall's 8121, complicated by a perhaps excessive amount of purpose-made cat appliqués, is finished
Yayyyy
So. The patches I mentioned in the previous post. I am very much still working on making them.
I started with three (one of which I had made years before) and have made 17 more. The photographing thereof is inconsistent (and not great quality), because it didn't occur to me that documenting the progress would be worthwhile, if only to show that I have been sewing.
I don't usually post projects in progress, but I started my first try at a McCall's 8121
and decided early in the process that I wanted to add decorative patches--I had a specific style from my patch stash in mind, but, when I got them out, I quickly realized that a completely different type of patch would suit this project better
but
I had only three of those, and my Sense of Overdoing Things did not find that acceptable, so I'm pausing the jacket construction to make some more patches, which I will machine sew to the jacket shell while it's still able to be laid out relatively flat, and without having to avoid accidentally stitching through the lining.
And what a lining!
This was very much not a sewing project, but it did use (heavy, waxed) thread and it used up time that probably would have been otherwise spent sewing, so why not include it on this, my sewing blog?
Behold, a ghostly and green necklace!
The kiddo still adores Puyo Puyo Carbuncle (the older, unstarred version), as featured on half of the split shirt I made for him a few months ago. About a week ago, I impulsively started sculpting a little Carby from Aves Apoxie epoxy putty, which is a drawn-out process because I have to let the putty cure between steps (and some of those steps are [ugh] sanding), and also I am not strong at sculpting, so I have no idea how long that will take to finish.
This, though, took about an hour (minus glue drying time)
And, yes, that is hand stitching. I love my kid enough for hand stitching (a little bit.)
I probably should have tried to figure out how to stitch on the pompoms, but I went with glue instead. E6000 doesn't seem to want to stick to so much polyester, but I think everything's firmly in place now that it's drying.
And the pompom tail works as a tripod with the feet so he can stand.
(When I gave this Carbuncle to the kiddo, he was very confused because he thought it was the Carbuncle I'm sculpting, and he was wondering, without wanting to seem rude, how it got so inaccurate. He absolutely had not expected me to make another Carbuncle. I won't mention to him my plan to maybe make a larger, fluffier version, constructed like a proper plush, from what I still have of the high pile felt I used for the collar on this coat. That one, at least, should be obviously not the sculpted version. I hope.)
Sometimes the doll is so small that I don't have anything good for them to wear, so I have to sew something
with, of course, as little effort as possible
I thrifted some blanket weight wool flannel a while ago--the original owner had probably gotten a discount, because it had that big ugly seam that finishers use to connect yardages for processing. It was pretty close to one edge, though, so when I cut it apart, there was still about 40" of 60" wide fabric left. Not enough, alas, for my dream of a circle skirt (not at a decent length, at least), but I was still able to use Simplicity 2666 for a somewhat authentically vintage shape
I started optimistically thinking I could make it the full shorter length, but, no, there wasn't enough for that, either
So the result is more "Vintage 1970s", but that works, too
I did sew this doll dress quickly today
It's made from a silk blend and was lovely to sew. I still messed up and made the darts too deep, so it didn't at all fit the intended doll, but it works very nicely on this Momoko and that's more than acceptable.
This is an easy project that took forever to get through making and even longer to blog about
I started with Simplicity 8951, view B
and extended the sleeves using Kwik Sew 303. Roughly.
And after a lot of "sew a seam, go do something else for a half or or so...or wait until the next day," I did finish
I spent a nice day sorting out my sequins and spangles
And then spent a while the next day hammering more holes into some of them as needed (I have a 1mm hole punch, which creates a slightly more elegant opening than just shoving a heavy needle through the plastic) then hooking those together with jump rings (which was not as much fun as it was to sort them out)
I still have plenty more to work with when the urge strikes.
Ooh shiny ✨
I also messed around with letter beads
I pushed myself to get this video of the making of the Halloween patchwork vest edited and posted for Halloween, then promptly forgot to post it here, too
Last year, I made a Halloween-themed patchwork jumper from Kwik Sew 4138 McCall's It's Sew Simple 9603 (they're the same pattern.) Since it was a new-to-me pattern, I chose a waist size that ended up larger than needed
and only got around to fixing that this week
(inadvertently spooky photo?)
I tried it on and pinched out the waistband so it felt comfortable on my waist, instead of falling generously below it--ended up being 3"
I picked out a few inches of top stitching around the waistband side seams, four times for each side, plus several structural seams, to free the skirt and expose the seams. It was annoying work.
Then I cut off the seam allowances at those waistband side seams and sewed new seams at ¾", followed by gathering the skirt a bit more to fit the new waist band width between the untouched stitching, then sewed everything back together.
I do not care that there are now thick lumps of back tacking on the top stitching. No-one's going to be getting close enough to my waist to see.
Now, maybe I'll finally wear this! ...mostly next year, since this year's Halloween is only a few days away.
I have spent the last few days working on a doll pattern...that I'd originally started nearly a year ago, then...kinda...did other things instead.
I present: Three Variations on Little Barbie Shorts
Curvy, High Waist Original, and Original
I register my usual grumble about how that body was created in 2016 and is most definitely not original. Which is what prompted me to try a pair made with High Waist Original on an actual first Barbie body
along with another pair of High Waist Original on a slim waist early 2000s articulated Ken body (wearing a Mod Ken head and completely different hands.) There's plenty of room for Barbie to tuck in the somewhat bulky shirt, while Ken doesn't have that luxury. I don't think he minds.
The non-high-waist Original shorts fit the Rainbow High/Shadow High body fairly well, too, although the waist becomes super high in that situation.
You should be able to right click and save the pattern and instructions, and there's a 1"/1cm scale to double check that the size prints correctly.
Suitable fabrics include quilting cotton, chambray, pinwale/baby corduroy, lightweight denim, and any similar sturdy, but still doll scale, woven fabrics
When I made the Halloween Varsity Jacket, I combined New Look 6120 and Simplicity 8175 on the fly
I liked the result so much I wanted to trace off properly-merged pattern pieces for the front and front facing. And I did! This project was to test the merger.
The merger was a success! I'm still not so sure about the actual garment.
When I visited the craft thrift store in May, one of the 10¢ patterns I grabbed was Simplicity 9757 from 1996
Which I had back in the late 90s, too. I attempted to make it once, in I believe view B, using a light pink knit with a faux quilted texture and a simple black outline, somewhat crudely-drawn Ancient Egyptian print. My skills weren't up to that combination of fabric and pattern (or getting a correct pattern size by grading between a smaller bust size versus hip size) and I may even have tried to use bias tape to finish the neckline and arm openings? I'm not sure if I ever even finished it, because it was going so bad.
Things went better this time.
The previous post, showing what I got from last Sunday's visit to the creative re-use thrift store, included a small length of a lightweight light green woven (which the burn test suggested might be a cotton silk blend? maybe short staple noil-y kinda silk?) and a copy of Simplicity 8085 from 1987
which I did not purchase with intent to use together, but the combination suggested itself very quickly. Having thread and buttons that matched (somewhat) prompted me to go ahead and try it.
I did not have any suitable lace, and I ignored other aspects of the instructions, too. As I usually do.
I was very good, after dropping off the many many bags of mostly fabric to donate to the creative re-use thrift store, at not choosing a comparable amount of fabric to bring back home.
I got: 1¼ yard of black tubular rib knit that at least feels cottony; 1¼ yard 44" minty(?) green cotton; 2 3/8 yards 45" ivory that I'm now doubting is pure cotton. Edit: Did a burn test on the ivory, it very thoroughly melted. So. And, since I had the candle lit, I went ahead and did a burn test on the green, and it...skeletonized? Does it contain silk??
I was hoping to get some solid cottons in good weights for shirts, and the heavy ribbing was a nice additional find.
This place usually has a little box of vinyl samples, and I found several that should be good for doll purses. Someday.
The red one is technically not vinyl--the plastic layer is polyurethane instead of PVC. I just thought that was neat.
I also grabbed a small package of aida cloth remnants, for whenever I finally try punch embroidery.
The bulk of my purchase, however, were 10¢ patterns. So many 10¢ patterns.
My friend and I had been planning for weeks to go back to the creative re-use thrift store, and I wanted to donate as much as I could--I largely turned a critical eye on yardage fabric I probably never would use, and similar odds and ends of lace and trim, and craft stuff I hadn't touched for years (if ever.) I emptied some storage boxes/areas and made space in more, which, yes, would allow me to acquire new stuff, but the real intent was just to...generally eliminate things. I get a lot of satisfaction, at this stage of life, from honing my craft and hobby stashes. (It's not exactly the Konmari approach, but it's similar.) I made enough space that I could move some things, which had been in an annoying storage situation, into a concealed storage spot, and now it makes me happy to look at where the stuff used to be and not see it sticking out anymore. (I will never be a minimalist, but clutter doesn't sit well with me, either.)
The creative re-use store's website says they don't accept fabric donations under a yard--I know they do accept calico in quarter yards/fat quarters, so I did donate some of those (and a quick chat with the register lady said they accept smaller cotton pieces that can be used for doll clothes--she tried to sell me some bags of those, but, heh, nope, I have so many I could donate to them...) I have two big bags of scraps--one of calicos and one of everything else. My storage concerns need to figure out what to do with them, as well as leave space to keep filling future bags, because I will always generate a lot of scraps I'm not personally prepared to use for doll clothes or patchwork.
ANYWAY.
One of the remnants of fabric I didn't want to keep but I thought was too small to donate, leftover from a skirt I made last year, I decided to sew into a Thanks item for the friend, who is the one who drives to the place (friend has a Prius, so there's less...uh...ecoguilt about driving a long distance to a thrift store.)
Vintage metal zipper, too.
Unfortunately, my brain had apparently decided that these six die roll projects were in reality One Very Large Project, and getting to this last one was like getting to buttons on a shirt (or vest) in that it was accompanied by the feeling of "I just want this done so the whole thing will be finished" and things got...rushed.
I will say, it does work for proof of concept!
Rolled a 4: Patch Vest! (at this point I want to mention, with great amusement, that I didn't have to re-roll any of these.)
Patch here means patchwork, just like the previous project, and vest is view B of New Look 6514.
The vest pattern is completely straightforward and reminds me that I do want to make more vests
just
without cutting a lot of 2" squares from scrap fabric and taking over a day to assemble them into panels just a bit bigger than the pattern pieces first.
Once that was done, though, zip zoom and the vest was finished
Patch Waist B: Waist once again means a waist cincher-y thing derived from Simplicity 5006. This time "patch'' means "patchwork" and B means "from the scrap Bag" (yeah I know it's a reach.)
The scrap bag in question is filled with bits of pink, red, turquoise, blue, and green. (I have other scrap bags with other themes, yes.) A slight issue is that a lot of the scraps were saved with the idea I'd use them for doll patchwork, but I wanted to keep this project from skewing toward pieces that were really small, so it took extra time to tease out larger scraps.
The process of choosing pieces, squaring them up, roughly arranging them against the pattern pieces, and sewing them together into approximate shapes (using an extremely small stitch length so the seams could be cut without unraveling much) took about 4 hours (with breaks.)
The next morning, I pressed everything and cut the panels with the pattern pieces, then constructed the waist cincher/fancy belt as usual.
There were no surprises in making these, especially since the strength layer/underlining worked to make smooth boning channels, no need to fight with the patchwork seam allowances.
I used the same calico for lining as the previous patch waist project--not for any symbolic reasons connecting these two projects, but just because there was enough of it and the faded areas meant I didn't really want to use it for anything visible. I made the bias tape randomly when I got my first bias tape maker--I really like the color combination in the print, and the drawing style of the graphics, but it's an incredibly dated (and random fabric grab bag thrifted) Eiffel Tower print, so I like how turning it into bias tape obscures that.
