1990 Academia

 

Vest

Shirt

Skirt

And Then Those Prompted A Shirt I'd Been Thinking About For A While

I had a few yards of a dark green cotton that I thought would make a good basic button up shirt, but I had a lot of other shirts I'd rather have made first.

Until I decided to make the vest and skirt in the previous two posts.  At that point, I thought it would be very funny to go ahead and make that shirt as a coordinate for those two items, and in the spirit of  "Is this something I would have worn in high school in 1990, or is it modern Dark Academia?"

Green Plaid A-line Skirt

As I was sorting the fabrics I got from the craft thrift store last Thursday, I realized that the "plaid medallions on dark blue" jacquard coordinated nicely with the "dark green with blue, yellow, and red accents" brushed twill plaid I had also picked up that day, so I decided I would make a skirt to go with the vest.

Ideally, the skirt would have been pleated, but one yard of 58" is not enough to get pleats around my body. The second most stereotypical idea would be cut on the bias, but, even if there had been enough fabric to eke that out, it turned out the plaid was very subtly uneven, so wouldn't have worked well on the bias. So!  Good ol' New Look 6843 it is, view E.

Another Vest for Teen Me

 Five days ago, I went to the craft thrift store again, and ended up grabbing these jacquard 'tapestry' samples out of the free bins

I was hoping there would be enough of each of them to use as the front of a Very Early 1990s style vest.  And there is!

 

Craft Thrift Store: August 2023

My friend had specific goals for visiting the craft thrift store this time, and did find suitable things.  I, of course, bought cloth.

Gengar-inspired Thanks

 Went with the friend to the craft thrift store again today--I wanted to bake something as thanks, but the forecast was for Ridiculously Hot today, and I worried that any food stored in the car would essentially be an incubator for any untoward pathogens that might have found their way onto it.  So I decided to sew something instead.

Friend is a Gengar fan, and we had also recently been discussing the relative lack of sequins in this friend's wardrobe, so this was a given.

Double Knit Cloak

 Although, it's not a cloak--a cloak is, as I have discovered, a cape, but long.  A cloak doesn't have arms.  Vogue 9340 has arms; the pattern envelope calls it a coat, but that doesn't feel right.  Neither does 'robe,' because, when someone sews a robe, the connotation is usually going to be "item to be worn around the house"

Not that I'm sure when I might wear this, but it will be 'out of the house'

 

Just-Post-Mid Project Pause

 I'm sewing more doll dresses to sell--these were all sewn with the thread already in my sewing machine and serger

I have two more of the high waist dresses, and two more of the A-line dresses, cut out and ready to go, but I need to change the thread in the sewing machine and the serger for those, so I'm making a few other projects before doing that.

The A-line dresses are a shortened version of an original Blythe-size pattern I made, so they fit Rainbow High bodies like this

As much as I am not the target market for the overall Rainbow/Shadow High Aesthetic, I do appreciate that I can use Blythe patterns for their clothes.

Mixed Knits

 I had a little bit of flocked swiss dot fabric left from this, bits'n'pieces left over from this shirt and tights, the remnant of floral knit from the free bin at the craft thrift store, and more of the fabric than I'd need for the intended project, so I could use a bit of it here, from the same visit to the craft thrift store, and I put them all together to make a silly dress.

Surfluorescent

 I have made only T-shirts and sweatshirts for the kiddo over the last few years, to the point where I wasn't even sure if he would like the feeling of wearing a button-up woven shirt, but, oh, the tacky loud possibilities available in printed cotton broadcloth, right? 

So I showed him this

and asked if he'd like a shirt made from it. Of course he would.

So I grabbed McCall's 6613 and finagled out just about everything needed to make a short sleeve small

He's wearing it now.

Pastel Pipers

 Years ago, I thrifted an amazing piece of yardage: silk, with a stylized pastel print, on a black ground, featuring flowers birds, castles, and bagpipers.

There were a few print flaws--which probably meant that whoever bought it initially, then donated it, had probably gotten it for a good price...probably a price that convinced them to buy it, even though they knew they'd probably never use it. (It's fun to make up stories about thrifted items.)

And it sat in my stash for a long time, treasured, but no clear idea for use.  Until!   I finally decided that view B of McCall's 5675, with the big bow option, would probably be just right.

And it was!

Quick Cat Kick

Years ago, I made a simple kick toy for my cats, and none of them had any interest in it.  I eventually realized that Neighborcat Tyler--this guy

had a very "grab and kick" play style, so I gave the kick toy to him, and he did very much play with it.

Until it disappeared off the front porch.  No clue what happened to it.  Possibly raccoon activity.

Bats in Phrase

 I was planning to move on from modified Burda 7831 button up shirts, but I got into my fabric stash and realized this Halloween print cotton was a nice shirt weight, so: time for another hacked Burda

Cats in Space

 I got this cloth from Joann probably 8 years ago, at a time when the kiddo would still wear button up shirts and I had not yet realized that making something that complicated, that would be outgrown so quickly, was not an enjoyable application of my time.  So, I had several single yards of fabric he'd picked out for possible shirts, languishing in the fabric stash.  I destashed most of them earlier this year, but held on to a space cat print.

I  just finished using it to make a button up shirt for me.

On the one hand, I'm surprised I could eke out most of the pieces in me-size from a single yard with a "directional enough for me to want to treat as one way" print--I cut only two pieces from a contrast gingham.  On the other hand, the way I eked out some of it was, in retrospect, not optimal.

Sewing Room Tour Video

 Someone asked me about sewing productively, and I deflected with the promise of a room tour video, which I finally got together this week