Is it science fiction

I have sewn a few human-size things since the last post, but I probably won't blog about them because they all made me grumpy for various reasons.  So.

My weekly thrift store visit last week didn't find any interesting toys or any interesting yard goods, and this combined to focus my attention on the big box (like, 4'x4'x4' big) bearing a sign that indicated it was filled with linens that were to be purchased by filling a big bag for $9.99.

Well.

I dug around and stuffed a bag very full and ended up with 34 items, handkerchiefs and cloth napkins and place mats and pillow cases and curtains and tablecloths and bed sheets and a few small blankets.  Everything was chosen with the idea of using it to make other things, starting with the sheets, because I've been pondering making patchwork blanket tops again, and sheets are great for backing on the quilts I'll probably never actually finish making from those.

The first thing I made, though, involved the roughly quilted shiny purple bit seen here

which was a small blanket and just enough to make this

because sometimes you just need to make something that would look right on a background character in a generic sci fi setting, y'know?

T-shirt Weekend, Part 2

...which was two weekends ago now, and I sewed on the intervening weekend, too, so I need to work a little faster on posting (there are two more shirts from that weekend...)

After the wavy patchwork t-shirt worked out well enough, I decided I'd make another patchwork t-shirt, but this time for the kiddo.  The pile of t-shirts that had been being re-used was getting to the point of not having really large pieces left, so I tried to make the patch pieces as large as possible, and I ended up with this

Details--and how it ultimately changed--beyond the cut.

T-shirt Weekend, Part 1

So, after the successes of the quick t-shirts I made for the kiddo...and...after realizing that "comfortably baggy fit on a nearly-nine-year-old-kid" = "slim fit on that kid's mom," I decided to try making a few shirts for me from the same pattern.

Well...more or less "the same pattern" because...y'know...it's me...

sserD neewollaH ysaE

I recently received a very generous box of doll and sewing items (thanks again, Susan!), which included some Halloween print cloth--hot pink Halloween print!  With happy little bats!  And neon green letter outlines!  Outlining the word Halloween!  The word Halloween that was printed backwards!

Wait what.

Yep yep, the word Halloween was printed backwards on the entirety of the cloth, while everything on the selvedge was not printed backwards.  Huh...OK...so...um...

My first thought was to use it to make a skirt (there was a meter of it, having come from metric-wielding Canada) and take mirror selfies so the print would be seen in the right direction, but that would still leave it backwards in real life.  Hmm.

Then I remembered the shirt(s) Peter of Male Pattern Boldness made with the print on the inside, and I decided to follow that example.  Yes, the colors are muted, but, given how bright the print was, it's still not exactly pastel...

A shirt you can hear

I made another very lout t-shirt for the kiddo, and from cloth left over from doll sewing from things sent by a friend, and here it is

 The cloth was originally an adult t-shirt, but I had previously used the sleeves to make doll clothes.  As small as the kiddo is, I still couldn't wrangle enough cloth for the sleeves from what was left, so I used bits of another of the previously-used-for-something-else t-shirts that had also been sent.  But I didn't use the sleeves, because...those had already been used for something else...  Cutting these sleeves from the hemline of the black t-shirt worked just fine and allowed me to use the existing coverstitched hems, which I also kept from the loud t-shirt for the hems of the finished shirt.  (This was supposed to be a fast project, and it was, just...with a day or so pause between each step...)

And here you can see how I handled the fact that the existing hems would be meeting at the side seams, so I tacked down the seam allowances, after trimming them away from the edge, with reasonably matching top stitching.  The...uh...the other side didn't line up quite as well...but with the print this loud, I really didn't stress over it.

I also applied a contrast pocket, to bring a bit more black to it.  I realized a while ago, when dressing dolls, that I like to have three areas of a contrasting color, and I guess that applies to clothing items like this, too.  Anyway.  I used another bit of the black t-shirt hem for the top of the pocket and folded over the sides before edge stitching, then top stitching a presser-foot-width away.  I didn't turn one corner correctly, but, again--quick project *shrugs*

I realized after I took this photo that the print direction is reversed from the front, but that's the way it was on the original shirt, and it hadn't occurred to me that it would be flipped.  S'OK.  And the collar lays much flatter after the whole thing was washed--I probably should have taken it in to be a bit smaller, but it was a seamless circle and I didn't want to make a seam in it, y'know?

The kiddo has already worn it to school, which restarted last week.  I wonder what kind of impression it made on his new teacher...

Hacks

In April, a friend sent me a bunch of cloth, both in the form of yardages and also clothing items that had already been salvaged to varying degrees for craft purposes (like t-shirts with the graphics cut out) or had rips and holes, so still more than suitable for re-using for doll sewing.  Several of the yardage pieces are large enough to use for human-size stuff, including a bit of knit with a tie dye print.

My first thought was "Make a hoodie for the kiddo!" which he greeted with "Another hoodie, seriously?"  He does like hoodies, just...yeah, he has a lot of them...  So I asked what else I could make, and we ended up with 'long sleeve t-shirt.'

OK!  I can do that!  I mean...well...hmm.  I don't have a kids' t-shirt pattern, but I could probably use his existing commercially made shirts to draft a pattern...although...most of those are getting a bit small for him...  And I do have Simplicity 8027, which I bought for the kid size motorcycle jacket, but it also has a t-shirt-ish pattern, for a fitted 3/4 sleeve knit shirt.  I could flatten out the curves, maybe use a larger size than measurements would call for, but what about sleeve length and neckline rise and ribbing and...well, there's the KwikSew 1650 that was acquired in the giant thrift bag o'patterns last year, maybe I could use it for a bit of guidance?

...and I did measure the kiddo...a little bit...especially when I realized I wouldn't have quite enough cloth to cut things as-drafted...

And first I made a sample-y shirt, although it needed some hacks of its own to work with the cloth I had--it was made from a somewhat worn polo shirt and a previously-upcycled t-shirt...

Spider Bomber

So, a few months ago, I had a dream that lace bomber jackets were The Big Thing, and, in that dream, I had to be different and make one from one of the spiderweb laces I have.  I woke up and thought that seemed like an interesting idea, and furthermore decided that, since (at that time) the only other bomber jacket I'd made had used a foiled synthetic Halloween novelty fabric, I should use the foiled synthetic mock lace net Halloween novelty fabric that was in my stash.  (I also dd a search on "lace bomber jacket" and discovered that they were indeed A Thing, just not A Big Thing.  I'll call my dream idea 'convergent fashion evolution.')

I filed the idea into the "someday I'll sew it" realm and then kinda forgot about it.  Then a friend's birthday came along and I decided I wanted to sew something for them, but what?  What should I sew for my friend...the friend who loves Halloween...the friend with the big tarantula tattoo...hmmm...  Well.  As obvious as it seems now, it took a while to let the thoughts percolate past the initial "sew doll things!" default.

And I'm glad I did.