Wait--I didn't post the Chicken Dress???

I took the finished photos of this on July 29, and shared some of them on social medial but apparently completely forgot to record them here

Basically, I took the "add the peter pan collar to the cut-on sleeve pullover dress" idea that I tested here, made it from a less graphically-bold print, and added appliqué 

It is very silly.

Découpage Dress Update

A little over six years ago, I made this dress.

 

It was one of the dresses I made when I was first starting to figure out sewing after weight gain, and I liked it enough that I kept it once I got things worked out.  The gray floral fabric, however, was starting to show loads of wear at the neckline and sleeve/skirt hems.  (I had thrifted a large quantity of it, and it was, perhaps, not the highest quality.)  I still like the appliqués, so I decided to figure out what I could do to replace all of the threadbare edges. 

That these may not have been the best options is irrelevant.  What's done is done.

Madras and Roses in the Cards

The last shirt I made involved some madras, and this project used the rest of it (scraps aside.)

It started as a simple Fake Burda 6401/Mock McCall's 8197.

But.

I have recently been exposed to Magnolia Pearl, and while, honestly, I recoil from the shapeless post-apocalyptic whimsy of the brand, it did remind me that I can put appliqués on dresses (as opposed to the project idea I've had for an appliquéd jacket, fabrics for which I've been squirreling away already.)  It seems to have been six years since I last added appliqués to a dress.

So, I dug around for my largest chintz motifs, and anything else I might add, and, after taking way too long to sew the basic, simple dress itself, I ended up with this 

 

Were these the best decisions?  Doesn't matter! Those appliqués aren't going anywhere now!

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.

Gengar Square

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.

Skull Slip

 After my last go-round with trying to make a slip dress jumper from McCall's 6696, I wanted to try it again, but this time not over-complicate it

well

not over-complicate it as much

because apparently I've turned into one of those middle-aged-lady sewing types who puts appliqués on everything.

House Purse

 I saw a post a few weeks ago that had pictures of a few different simple little purses that had appliqué details of windows and doors, so they looked like houses.  They were very cute!  Ans also very uncredited.  I looked for sources, and quickly discovered that most of them had been re-posted without credit for so long that the originals were lost, or at least extremely obscured, but I found enough of them to further discover that making purses like that seemed to have been fairly popular among non-English-language craft bloggers 10-15 years ago. Here's my Tumblr post of the sources I could find, plus a few others.

As with most craft things, spending that much time looking at this craft made me want to try this craft.  I dug into my scrap stash--the same stash I used for the patchwork waist cincher-not-really project, so it's the same pink-blue-green color scheme

And possibly even less planning.

Strawberry Shirt

After finishing the reroots, I wanted to get back to sewing with a quick project, and New Look 6068 (and the ways I vary it) is one of the quickest.

I also decided to use up a bit of dark red cotton interlock, the origin of which...I have no idea, and there wasn't enough for sleeves.  I really wanted sleeves.  So! Contrast sleeves it is.  And I would use the same contrast fabric for the neckband ribbing modification I use on that pattern.  The pink rib knit I've used many times seemed like a good candidate...but...I didn't have enough of that for long sleeves.

Since I need to replenish my "t-shirts for layering" supply, I decided against using the flared/elastic sleeves included with New Look 6068 and once again borrowed the sleeves from Kwik Sew 303, which is definitely my standard combo now, so I took an official photo of them together

That brought me to the point of cutting things out and getting ready to sew and thinking...hmm.  Dark red and gray-heathered pink aren't exactly summery short sleeve colors.  Maybe I could add...appliqué?  I'm certainly no stranger to that.  So...what shape?  Heart(s)?  Red and pink in February certainly suggest hearts, but I'm not, in  general, a hearts kind of person.  So...strawberries, again?  I found some muted pink calico with scattered white dots in the small yardage stash, and still had more than enough green broadcloth with Wonder Under already fused to the back, so, yes.  Strawberries.

Herding Cats

 The first try of McCall's 8121, complicated by a perhaps excessive amount of purpose-made cat appliqués, is finished

Yayyyy

Patch Notes Update

 Continuing on: eight more patches

Patch Notes

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.

Roll the Die: Varsity

Rolled a 6: Varsity

Which meant combining these patterns--the bomber jacket from New Look 6120 from 1999, and the "loose-fitting unlined baseball jacket" of Simplicity 8175 from 1987

and using up the fabrics left over from the two pairs of pants and the Carbuncle Gonk Split shirt I made for the kiddo.

It took a few improvised changes as I was cutting things out, but I made it work

Roll the Die: Nummer

 The die roll:

So!  The project: Use some Ikea "Britten Nummer" fabric to make another Burda 6800

And this time I made it right!

Shimmer Satin Bomber Jacket

 So.  New Look 6120.  I had forgotten how fast it could be to make it without getting excessive with the fabric.  I decided I would make it "straight," and I almost did, but couldn't help complicating it just a bit.

I had a few pieces of satin and coordinating ribbing and waffled over which color to make first.  Eventually decided on black, then immediately decided not to use black ribbing for the cuffs/waistband/collar, instead going for a bit of turquoise and purple mylar shot novelty knit, which made me decide to go with a dark blue zipper and lining

Pretty straightforward from the front...

Skirt-to-Dress Conversion #2: Strawberry

In May of 2014 (eep!), I made this dress

And then not long after that, I ripped it along one of those sharp angles at the arm opening, patched it inelegantly, ripped it again, and gave up on it being a dress and turned the bodice into a waistband and made a side-zip skirt.  Then it got squirreled away in the "maybe I'll do something to make it fit again" pile after the weight gain.

And now I'm making this post...

Pastelloween

I realized, partway through sewing this, that the idea for it--even the very buying of the fabric that inspired it--was extremely influenced by PMS.  I'm still not sure if it was a good idea, but it's finished, so here it is.

At Bat

The dress I sewed a few months ago with elements from a different floral print appliquéd on has been worn a decent amount of times, and laundered enough to reveal some flaws in the print that I thought I could ignore..until I couldn't

So of course that called for more appliqué!  I really wanted a bee, or a moth, and would have settled for a butterfly, but I didn't have prints with any of those (at least not in a suitable size), so I went with this little bat

so now this dress is that much Halloweenier.

(on some distant future day, I will feel confident in my embroidery abilities...)

Découpage Dress

Once again with Simplicity 9153!  And again rounding the neckline and cutting the skirt much narrower and on the fold.

Not as colorful this time, though

I was aiming for a vaguely mori kei/Lagenlook/Japanese Sewing Book/granny chic style.  Not sure if I hit that nebulous target, but I did once again have to patch an area at the top of the skirt before gathering it, as I had to do with this earlier dress...onlyyy this time it wasn't an unnoticed cut that necessitated it, it was me accidentally ripping it when fiddling with the gathers, yay.  And I forgot to change the top thread to something better coordinated than the light gray I used for the rest of it.

Truth is, I hadn't remembered that was what I had done on the other dress until this one was finished.

So I decided it wasn't finished.

Bluebird of Friendliness

It is mid-January and actually almost cold outside so that's the perfect time to try out a pattern for a breezy loose caftan-y dress, right?

Simplicity 9153 from 1989 is illustrated like this

and my first inclination was to cringe, because I have always been a Sewing Snob who refused to even consider sewing something as simple *scoff* as an extended sleeve like this.  (I think they're technically a kind of kimono sleeve, but...that's not how real kimono sleeves are made, either, so that only redoubled the Snobbery.)  I had the idea, though, that I could use this to make stuff for friends who were larger pattern sizes than I was, so I went ahead and thrifted it.

Time passed and then I had the whole "accept that the size I am now is not the size I was three years ago and that probably won't ever be the size I am again, so eliminate all the things that don't fit including patterns and let's see what we have to start over with" epiphany and came to consider using this pattern to make something for me. (But without cutting any of original tissue pieces so the option is still absolutely there to use it to make stuff for other people.)  My current bust size is right between 16 and 18, and this pattern offers 14-16 Medium or 18-20 Large on that end of the size range.  I decided to go ahead and cut the bodice in the large, just to get an idea of fit.

I changed a few of aspects of the dress, of course--mostly making the neck line a bit  higher and a lot rounder, and also using a lot less fabric for the skirt, ending up with something shorter and considerably less full.

And you know what?  The only reason I won't flat-out say that it's too big is because there's no such thing as too loose in this kind of dress.  I probably would have been fine cutting the bodice in medium.

Flighty

So, OK:  I don't do New Year's resolutions  So when I realized that my desire to, like, just stop buying hobby materials (read: dolls and cloth) for a year might feel more possible if I broke it down into three-month chunks, and, at that time, it had already been two weeks since I'd bought dolls or cloth, I decided to go with it.   I have a bit over a month left before the first three month period is over.  And, if I do go back to my old...ah...excessive acquisition modalities, well at least there'll have been three months of not buying every quirky/shiny/interesting thing around.

I thought I'd Make So Much Stuff!!! during this time.  I didn't.  But I'm starting to?  A big hindrance was the fact that the weight I gained in 2017 is looking like it's here to stay--I'm (mostly) OK with my current shape

BUT

Everything I ever sewed, and all of the beloved patterns I had...nope.  And I'd look at all my fabulous me-made clothes hanging in my closet and mourn.  All the work, all the happiness I got from the finished items (the items that didn't make me so happy...those were already gone), and I'd never be able to wear them again.  I also felt like donating them was not the best idea, because...mmm, maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't think a lot of thrift store shoppers in this area are going to be interested in things like side-zip shirts made from vintage patterns and Halloween prints--and be the appropriate size.

I did consider cutting everything apart and re-using the cloth, likely for patchwork, but, honestly.  "More cloth" is not something I need. (see first paragraph.)  So I put out the word on social media: Huge Lot of Quirky Handmade Clothes, Yours For The Cost Of Shipping!  and the one mutual who has a big following reblogged it and hey I mailed them all off yesterday.

And now I can start the adventure of discovery, going through the thrifted patterns I'd accrued in sizes that used to be too large ("I can use these to sew for friends!"  I thought to myself and then never did--although I still might!) as well as re-examining the size ranges of patterns that I've had forever and...uh...and never used...  There hasn't been a Chain Fabric and Craft Store super duper pattern sale since I admitted my need for new patterns, so I haven't bought anything new and I'm not sure if I will?  Because I still have a whole lotta patterns.

And I have way more cloth.  So I need to get sewin'!  I have started a project, using a few yards that someone gave to me.  As usual, I'm deviating from the pattern-as-given on the fly, and tomorrow I hope to sew it all together to see if it works.  Today, though, I embellished

(and I obviously did not iron)

Will I sew a lot this year?  Dunno.  But at least I won't be held back by the idea that I don't need to, because I had all those cute things I already made...just need to lose about twenty pounds first... Well, I mailed off about 20 pounds of those cute me-made things.  So.  Let's go.