Sheer & White

After cutting the pieces for the previous shirt, there was still a decent amount of fabric left, so I decided to see if I could eke out a short sleeve version of the same kind of shirt.

Yes, I could.

 

Sheer & Black

One of the fabrics I got in that Fabric Mart order was a low price nylon point d'espirit netting.  Something about the grungy dark olive ground, with pink-accented white flowers outlined in black, made me think it needed to be a peasant-style blouse, to layer under jumpers when the weather warms up.

Now, while the existence of (most of) these jumpers still remains theoretical, the shirt is a reality.

 

Cash Back

 I made a shirt for The Child in 2018, from a Robert Kaufman tossed money print.  The shirt has long since been outgrown, but still hangs in the closet.  I was going through all of the too-small clothes that The Child will not let go of, and, when I got to that one, a certain wistfulness was expressed by said Child.

I hopped on the Joann site and saw that they did still have it in stock!  And on deep sale! (This was in December, when everything is traditionally on deep sale.)  I ordered enough to make a long sleeve shirt in The Child's current size, and in two weeks, the order...got cancelled due to lack of stock.

The Child was disappointed, although it was mixed with the habitual sarcasm, so I didn't worry too much about not being able to get it.

I went to a Joann on Sunday for something else (which they did not have, despite the site saying they did), and checked the novelty print cottons--there was a little of the money print left in stock in the store!  Not much, though--1.6 yards, according to the cutting ticket.  It was at a slight discount, and I got another 10% off for finishing off the bolt, so that was nice.

I got home and serged the ends and added it to a load of laundry.  I set about cutting it that night, and was able to squeeze almost all of the pieces for a short sleeve version from it, needing only a bit of another fabric for the inside of the back yoke.

I sewed it completely Monday, and not in a rush.

...which is something I probably never thought I would be able to do, if asked around the time I made the first shirt from this print.

Moth Holes & Free Lace

A craft thrift store visit in 2022 saw me get, among other fabrics (most of which have been used!), a length of black and white glen plaid.  In the linked post, I noted that it had a spot of damage.  Further inspection found a lot of damage.  The moth babies feasted on this.

I did use a bit of it in the B&W wool patchwork vest--the cloth has two faces, so I used the darker side in the vest (it's the fabric mentioned as being from the larger yardage.)  Between the moth holes and the...general oddness of the fabric--the yarns aren't as fine as I envision when I think of glen plaid, giving it a sort of 1970s vibe--I had started feeling rather apathetic about this fabric.

However!  Ever since I made that long A-line skirt from the patchwork of heavier fabric, I had wanted to try making a whole cloth skirt, in a heavier fabric, using the same pattern (McCall's 7981, modified to omit the front band and insert a back zipper.)  Since I still think fondly of an A-line B&W glen plaid skirt I made in 2013, I decided to see if I could get the pattern pieces for this skirt to fit on the yardage I had, and if I could avoid the worst of the damage while doing so.  Yes on the first, no on the second.

However!  Another long-gone skirt of which I think fondly was a thrifted skirt that developed holes, and I covered them up with appliqués cut from various fabric prints.  (And I guess I didn't think that merited being posted here, because I can't find a post about it.)  Appliqués, I thought, would be a fun way to cover the moth damage, especially since it was mostly limited to one area of the fabric...which turned into two disconnected areas of the skirt, because I had to cut the pattern pieces in opposite orientation.

I spent a day sorting through potential fabrics--all cotton calicos--and trims, cutting out motifs and developing an aesthetic direction to tie the chaos together.  Then I remembered the bag of cut pieces of yardage lace that I had gotten from the free table at the craft thrift store, and started mixing those in.

But then...

I realized that the lace motifs alone would work very well.  I put all of the chaos choices into a box, to consider using on a future project.  The lace pieces got more carefully trimmed, and fused to Wonder Under, and then fused onto the partly-assembled skirt.  After that, zigzagging around the edges, and then finishing the rest of the skirt.

Behold:

 I  think it worked out pretty well.

Apple/Blossom Sweatshirt

When I was planning to make the loud hoodie and the dissonant cardigan, I showed pictures of the fabric to a friend, who agreed that both of the prints were fantastic.  So!  I decided to see if I could get what I had left of both of them (well, what was left of the apple print from the first order) into a single ridiculous sweatshirt for this friend.

 

 Task achieved.

Apple Cardigan The First

Gonna start right off with saying I'm not super thrilled with this, but that's fine.

I used Simplicity 8951 to make another cardigan

I should have gone up a size, and I should have used contrast ribbing for the bands.  It's fine.

Everything else about it is great!

One Tacky Jacket

Since my attempt to make the plain gray zip front hoodie more appealing didn't go over well (which is fine--in retrospect, I really don't know what I was thinking in making something for The Child in gray), I have been keeping an eye out for a more suitable fabric, to make another zip front hoodie that isn't so short, which is the problem with the one currently being chosen.

Nothing turned up in the last trip to the craft thrift store, and Walmart seems to have stopped carrying mill end precuts, but I planned to keep checking both places sporadically anyway, just in case.

Then I looked at Fabric Mart, and, oh, did they have some amazingly obnoxious print knits.  Cotton blend (I know that a pure cotton loud print medium weight knit is asking a lot from random find bargain fabric searches), and on deep discount, in the ever-changing reduction way of Fabric Mart.

I asked The Child's opinion, and got a snicker in return, which I took as approval, so I ordered it (along with...other deep discount obnoxious fabrics.  I have plans for everything.)

I didn't want to use New Look 6766 again, because I wasn't in the mood for raglan sleeves, so I turned to McCall's 7668 for the first time.  As given, M7668 has a rather Pokémon Trainer Style

I borrowed New Look 6766's cuffs and waistband and here we are

Before going on, I will say that this may not be finished--I think it would be fun with some sort of text across the chest, rendered in appliqué or freezer paper stencil.  The Child agrees, but hasn't yet thought of the perfect thing to put there. (I quickly nixed the suggestion for all of the lyrics of Pac-Man Fever.)

Two Doll Jackets

The first one isn't intended for dolls, though--it's a bit of a gag gift for someone who mentioned how much they like corduroy, but just don't find it much when shopping for clothes these days

 It's a modification of this coat pattern I shared a few years ago.

And the second happened after I was searching for buttons for the first, rediscovered my stash of small novelty buttons, and remembered how I have been saving them for years to put on doll clothes like pins.  Well.  I decided now was a good a time as any to do that.  I briefly considered making something for larger dolls, so the 'pins' would seem more properly scaled, but quickly went to the idea of making it (more or less) Barbie-size, because that's my default and would be more likely to get a lot of use.  The bad scale adds to the humor, right?

The pattern for this one came from my late 1990s experiments with scanning the pattern piece guides in pattern instructions and enlarging them to doll size.  Me Today is a bit irritated that Me Then didn't think it was important to note what pattern it was.

While working on the second, I got the idea that I should make a 'proper' denim jacket for dolls, too.

Just...some other time.

Making a Video Makes the Project Take 20 Times Longer

...if not more...

I sewed some doll jeans, and I know it took right around an hour start to finish because I made a video of the process, and then I procrastinated editing the video for a while

I sewed a shirt to go with the jeans, and, again, the shirt went together fast, but the video did not

And then I customized the doll who the shirt and pants were made for.  I took photos of the finished project three weeks ago.  I only just finished editing the video yesterday.

Here's a picture, so you don't have to watch the videos if you don't want to!

A Few Little Things, Much Procrastinated

I needed another zip bag to sort/store doll clothes, and decided to work on rerooting a doll who had been in the To Do Box for a very long time

I ended up making an extra, smaller bag just because, and the reroot had taken so long to get to that I had learned enough to realize the hair I'd originally chosen was polypropylene--since one of polypropylene's inherent properties is "disintegrates after UV exposure," it's a fiber that I now personally want to avoid on dolls, soooooo had to choose something else.  I ended up adding a weird random nylon fading rainbow gradient under the head's original black hair.  It's weird.

(I include doll reroots on this blog because I use an anchor thread method, so the hair is more or less sewn in.  With the understanding of how much I dislike hand sewing, you may also realize this is why I don't do reroots very often.)