Car Shift: Change of Gear

So!  The first time I wore the dress in the previous post, I ended up getting a blob of something on the chest!  That I didn't notice for a while!  So it had time to get nice'n'stained!  And then when I noticed it and tried to scrub it out, I was too aggressive and made a faded spot!

But it honestly worked out fine because I had actually made the original neckline too high, so it's a more relaxed scoop now. 

 

I picked out the stitching on the original front facing, picked the facings apart at the shoulders, and picked out the ends of the stitching on the back facing.  This allowed the front to lay flat enough to fold in half and cut the lower, shame-eliminating neckline.  The new front facing was sewn to the mostly-still-in-place back facing, then I re-stitched everything.  This facing went in smoother than the previous facing, too.

The higher neckline is good for wearing brooches, and this neckline is good for necklaces, so it all works out.

Repair and Update

 The Découpage Dress once again needed repair--I saw that the underarm seam on one side was open, and I initially thought the fabric had ripped.  But!  It turned out that the stitching had just come undone, so I was able to easily re-sew that....and then deal with an area next to the seam that was worn through.

Since I still have the  fabric I cut off of the bottom of the original configuration, I cut a square of that, folded over the edges, and zigzagged it in place.

 

It's not elegant, but it's in the underarm, so it's fine.

Then I sewed over the stitching under the other arm, just in case. 

For the updated dress, I realized that I could use the same approach of adding another layer of ruffle under the existing ruffle to lengthen the Sew It dress, which I do like, but I never wore because it was very short.

I cut pieces 5" wide, to add 3" beyond the dress's existing 2" ruffle.  I cut both of them selvedge to selvedge, which made it a little wider than the seam I'd be sewing it to (oh, and, I had top stitched the ruffle seam, so I did buckle down and pick out allllll that top stitching.)   I just pinned it thoroughly and let it bunch up naturally gather between the pins.

Then I added a row of wide black cluny lace, to make the black of the ruffle extension possibly make more sense.

This print is still so delightfully weird and mildly creepy. 

Well.

That patchwork dress I made last week?

It looks like this now. 

And I just sorted the fabrics and put them away in the small yardage storage...which means there's now more fabric in there than when I started, because I used some fabric from pieces in the large yardage storage.  This makes me grumpy, but not as grumpy as that dress, so it's fine.

Two Too Short No More

After the annoyance of the last dress (I'm still considering my options for what to do with it--I like too many of the fabrics to want to just donate it like I usually do with dud projects), I was happy to have the idea of adding length to some dresses that I liked, but were a bit too short for comfort.  That seemed like something that would be quick, easy, and greatly improve the wearability of the dresses in question.

And it worked! 

First was a dress I made a few months ago, which was limited in length by the amount of fabric I had.  I thought I'd added enough of the accent fabric to make it long enough, and, at first, it seemed like I had, but, no--even with my short legs, the dress was a bit too...youthful...for me.

After I had ripped up a lot of what remained of that accent fabric, for the failed patchwork dress, I realized I could have used it to add another layer of ruffle on the previous, much-liked dress.  Fortunately, I had, in the efforts to find fabrics that seemed suitable for that failed project, unearthed some forgotten light blue gingham that could work instead.

 

The light blue gingham that was on the dress already was a smaller scale, but I didn't let that deter me.

I made it the same width as the upper skirt, so there was no gathering necessary.  Side seams were done french, because I didn't want to change the brown serger thread.  The hem was sewn with the quarter inch hem roller.  I sewed the new layer at the same seam where the previous two had been attached.  Fast, easy, and the dress doesn't feel quite so aggressively like a 1990s riot grrrl babydoll dress revival attempt.

The other rehabilitated dress is from late 2023.  Note that the write up blithely talks about shortening it by six inches, and that being fine because I'm also short.  It was not fine, although I do suspect that, even though I'm pretty sure I pre-laundered the fabric, it may have continued to shrink for a few washes.  For whatever reason, it felt more like a generous tunic length than a short dress length.  I did wear other things under it, but I wanted it to be a dress.

When I found the fabric at the thrift store a few weeks ago, I decided to get the floral interlock even though it wasn't perfectly my aesthetic, and it inspired this project because I thought it would be highly amusing to use it to extend this dress, because both fabrics have a very distinct Early 1990s Aesthetic.

They went together even better than I expected.

 

I had drawn the 6"-shorter lines directly on the pattern tissue, so I used that to cut the additional pieces, with the front piece on the fold and the back with a center seam.  I cut the hem off of the dress, right at the stitch line, before sewing the new part on with a 5/8" seam allowance, and it also got a 5/8" hem.  The total length is now 35"--since I absolutely know that I did prewash the additional fabric, I hope it will stay at 35".  I'll find out whenever it gets cold enough to make a long sleeve knit dress practical again, whenever in the unforeseeable future that may be...

Miss, Corrected

In late October, I made this dress and was very unhappy with it.  I removed the velvet and lace and still didn't like it, so folded it and put it aside in here.  I didn't plan to do anything with it but donate, but I didn't have anything else to donate, so I ignored it.

This morning, however, I decided that No!  I would try to save it!  So I carefully picked out the waist stitching, cut a wide band of ribbing, and got a spool of elastic and made it into a shirt

 

 and a skirt

 

 They're still not great, but they are significantly better.

House Purse Renovation

 Well, not a big renovation--I used the grommet press to add spring snaps to the patchwork and appliqué house purse I made in February.

Since these were added after the purse was finished, there's no extra interfacing or other reinforcement inside where the snaps are, but there is some, since I interfaced everything for general body and to withstand the appliqué process.

I really like these snaps, and I am resisting acquiring ALL THE DIES for the grommet press.  I have plenty of things I can make with what I already have.

Carbuncle Again...Again

 So last night I picked apart the second Carbuncle's face and tried changing some things.

Structurally, I cut the upper piece in half to make a seam so the forehead would be narrower when it was sewn, then changed the lower center front seam to be the same width to match.

I pressed the knit used for the mouth, then used fusible webbing to attach heavy embroidery stabilizer to the back.  I trimmed the curved edges, both because I realized the mouth should be smaller and also  because the original edge was in rough shape after having the zigzagging removed.

It was very awkward to sew the mouth back on, since the overall body was still sewn.  The first round of zigzagging went badly; I left that in place, so I wouldn't need to deal with straight pins again, while I went around the mouth edge more carefully.

There are still a lot of problems--as well as some new problems, caused largely by not even thinking about the possibility of the replaced mouth not aligning with the "can't move them, there're holes in the fabric" eyes--but I think the little changes helped a lot

Playtime Brights Revisited

 Just over a year ago, I made a shirt with a vintage pattern I'd used about nine years before.

When I first finished the shirt, I was so distracted by the way my overall sewing improvements, in the nearly-decade since making it before, meant that was now aware of how much the pattern itself is...not the most advanced.  And that distracted me from noticing how the bust darts were way too high.

I put the shirt in the sewing room to work on, but I didn't want to calculate how much to lower the darts. Today I finally picked out the darts and the side seam a distance about twice the unfolded end of the darts.  I gathered the front to fit the back, fiddled around with attempting to press out at least some of the fullness, then sewed everything back together.

I wasn't able to shrink out all of the fullness, so some gathers did get stitched in place

It's far from perfect, but that applies to the whole shirt,and, as always: it's fine/nobody better get close enough to notice.

 

End of the Green, Revisited

 So, last year I made this skirt, and I was not happy with it.  I thought, though, that it would feel like wearing a nice warm blanket in winter, so I hung it in my closet.

And didn't touch it all winter.

I did a closet clear out recently, and decided that skirt was just so bad that I didn't feel it was appropriate for donating.

However.

There is a skirt in Animal Crossing New Horizons, called the sporty skirt, and available in a green variation.

 

 My character wears it a lot, and, while the pockets are absolutely not the same,  felt like the overall vibe was close enough, so I shortened the skirt I made and have already worn it more than I did all winter (which is to say I've worn it once since I altered it the other day.)

Stripe Shirt

 This project for the kiddo really was quick, in large part because I had cut out the pieces...um...a while ago (honestly? I probably intended it to be a shirt for me, so, yeah. a while.)  So all I had to do was sew.

Yep, just sew.  Not even a hint of using the iron.

Quick Vest Revisited

 So.  That vest I posted about a week ago.  That floppy floppy vest.

I used the finished opening edge to cut the appropriate shapes from some heavy stabilizer (which has been used in...several of my recent projects, huh)

Then I picked open the lining side seams

maneuvered the stabilizer to the floppy appropriate areas

pinned everything in place

sewed on line of trim

sewed on another line of trim

sewed on another line of trim

re-sewed the lining side seams (including finishing with hand stitched matching thread instead of the "bleh I just want this project done" folded edge machine stitching in black thread I had done before)

and then I took pictures

Grayyyyyyyy, revisited

 So about a year ago, I made this

with the intent of wearing it as a layering piece.  However, I immediately realized that it was just too long, and I didn't wanna deal with shortening the skirt.

So.