Another favor asked of a friend, another thing sewn as thanks (along with a thing baked as additional thanks, since friend's spouse also helped.)
I made it in a rush last night, and it definitely is, let's say, charmingly off-model (even aside from the squareness) But! There's no question that it's Gengar.
I cut sleeves from spiderweb lace for the snail shirt, but decided not to use them on that shirt. This left me with spiderweb sleeves to use elsewhere
I recently visited a different Walmart than usual, and of course I checked the mill end precut rolls. I limited my purchases to one three yard cut of a lovely double border eyelet, and one two yard roll of what seemed to be a sturdy navy cotton knit backed with a soft gray heather knit, which I thought would make a nice hoodie for Husband.
But.
When I opened and unrolled that knit, I discovered that, instead of two knits fused together, it was two pieces. (Expecting two pieces fused is not unreasonable, given other things I've seen and purchased from the mill end precut roll selection in the past.)
And the two pieces were both 24" long, instead of a full yard each. They were 70" wide, so I guess, by area, it's kinda the same.
And also, both pieces had, near a cut edge, the big ugly seams used to join pieces from separate rolls for continuous finishing processes. Which is surely why they ended up in the mill end precuts, but that didn't alleviate any of the disappointment.
The navy blue cotton turned out to be a technical fabric, which I might have a use for. But, the gray? In such a short length, with the seam making the contiguous usable area even shorter? Well...I was so irritated with it that I decided I needed to use it immediately.
(returning was not an option because I didn't want to be That Person walking in with two raggedly cut pieces of fabric and trying to explain that the label promised something different, so gimme back those $3.)
Because the length was so short, I decided to make a shirt for me (the kiddo is a lanky noodle.) I started with KwikSew 1650, cutting the front and back from that, and using some of the precious remaining spiderweb knit to make contrast sleeves.
After getting the neckband sewn, I realized that I absolutely would not ever wear the soft flowing cropped sweatshirt that it would be if I continued. So: New Look 6068 to make the torso more closely cut and the shoulders narrower, then use the adapted KwikSew 303 sleeve to squeeze out some tiny short sleeves, with the length limited by working with what was above the join seam, and add some contrast bits to eke out a bit more length.
It still seemed like it was going to be a bit bland, so...snail.
Just over a year ago, I made a cardigan with Simplicity 8951. I wasn't happy with it.
The first time I made Simplicity 8951, I deviated quite a bit from the instructions, and it turned out fun! But when I made the same deviations the second time, the fabric was just so much thicker that it didn't work as well.
That didn't, unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) stop me from trying to make it again with the same deviations, and, this time, from a thicker fabric. And with the peter pan collar option!
It...went badly
(spoiler: it got better)
I removed the ease from the sleeve caps of the previous iteration of Fake Burda 6401 and tried again
A few months a go, I finally made an 'official' Fake Burda 6401 pattern, instead of improvising it each time I wanted to make it, and yesterday I finally tried using the pattern.
It works pretty well!
Nearly two years ago, I took an old idea I'd used on a much earlier thrifted skirt and applied it to a freshly-made skirt. It turned out well, but...the waistband was, even then, too small to be comfortable.
Since that skirt was made from the sheath version of New Look 6843, it would have been cut in size 16. So my brain, after making the size 16 New Look 6843 sheath skirt in the previous post work, wondered if I could do something similar with this one.
The first thing I did was remove the waistband. I let out the back darts by stitching from the point to the edge, tapering to a presser-foot-width from the upper edges, on both the shell and lining darts. Then I picked out the original stitches. I couldn't let out the front darts, because one had been decoratively stitched over so it would have been some trouble to change, and I wanted to keep the front symmetrical so I didn't touch the other dart. Instead, I let out the upper side seams by sewing from the original stitching a few inches above the hem, tapering quickly to a presser-foot-width inside the edge of the serged seam finishing. Then I removed the original stitching in those areas and pressed everything.
I barely had enough of the wool blend fabric to make the original waist band (I had forgotten that it was pieced) so it was no problem deciding to use a different fabric for the replacement, larger waistband. I used the same black twill as another (A-line) 6843, but made it as wide as the waistband from Simplicity 9815. The shades of black of the twill and the wool blend aren't the same, but I don't generally dress in a way that exposes waistbands, so it gets a pass.
(If I ever get a proper belt, I might add belt loops.)
After I finished the blazer in the previous post, I looked at the remaining fabric and wondered if I could eke out a matching skirt.
And I could! Barely! And only on a technicality!
After I finished the Halloween patchwork blazer, I wanted to give Butterick 4610 another try--specifically to see if the sleeves eased into the armscyes easier with a more appropriate fabric.
And it seems they do!
After making the dress from the thrifted English chintz print cotton interlock, I had enough left to make a shirt. I mixed aspects of views A, B, and C/D from New Look 6068 plus the sleeves from KwikSew 303 and ended up here
So I thought about some of the things I've made randomly, and thought about putting them together
I never used Polyvore, but it definitely influenced the idea of making collages like this with things I've made
I have actively decided to sew a few simple things for a while, and all the better if they're items I'll wear as the weather cools, like the tights in the previous post.
Next to that gray fabric in the fabric stash, and purchased on the same visit to the craft thrift store, was a probably early 1990s English chintz print cotton interlock knit.
I have Simplicity 8072, an easy knit dress pattern from 1998
which is a few years later than the era of the knit print, but I wasn't aiming for historical accuracy, so here we are
The last visit to the craft thrift store brought some medium lightweight heathered gray four way stretch knit into my life. I had no idea what I was going to do with it--it just looked too useful to leave behind (optimistically hoping it has a decent amount of cotton.)
A few nights ago, when I was trying to fall asleep, my brain blipped out the realization that this fabric would be perfect for sewn tights.
So that's what I did! Two pairs, since there was enough fabric, and having multiple pairs of heavy gray tights seemed like a good idea (it was a bit chilly that day.)
I still don't know how to take a flattering photo of sewn tights, but, here they are, for the record
Their construction is straightforward, with the basic shape copied from a commercially-made pair of sewn tights I have--I added height to the center front and back seams, so the elastic can rest on top of my abdomen instead of cutting into it. I decided to use the lockstitch machine on a narrow zigzag instead of the serger, even though the serger should work perfectly well for this.
I did have a frustrating time when I started zigzagging through all of the layers at the waist elastic, and the bobbin tension went wildly bad--just...incredibly loose on the bottom. Conventional sewing wisdom says the tension problem source is on the opposite side of where the malformed stitches are, so I changed the top tension, to no effect; re-threaded the top, nothing; switched to a heavier (ballpoint) needle, no change. I finally took out the bobbin case and saw that the thread had somehow completely worked itself out of the tension assembly. I re-threaded the bobbin case and everything was fine.
Now that I have added these to my small assortment of cut and sewn tights, good for cool winter days, the temperature is climbing back into the 80s for a few days...until the next cold front sweeps in...
I made this doll print shirt in late June. The sleeves were too long.
It was the same problem I had with a shirt I made in September, but that time I noticed it and decided to do something about it.
Today, I finally made the same alteration to the doll print shirt.
I have two more shirts that can use the same alteration. Maybe someday...
I've wanted to try making an ita bag for a while. When I finished the patchwork jacket, I decided that my next project would be that bag.
I made a stack of the materials I had that seemed suitable--clear vinyl purpose bought from Joann, some glitter vinyl and several pieces of free-table cloth from the craft thrift store, leftover scraps of the glowworm green lining, bag zippers from Wawak, webbing and hardware salvaged from some baby thing from the kiddo's extreme youth, a stack of thrifted embroidery stabilizer, and a whole lot of Wonder Under and fusible webbing
I knew I didn't want to do a style with a heart-shaped window (I'm not a heart-shape person), and decided to rein myself in and not do anything complicated. The only odd thing was that the glitter vinyl sheets had been used a bit, so I had to figure out how to work around that.
I absolutely made up every part of this as I went along.
