Sewing – Hopefully Creative

Blue Bird Dress

Two versions, one winner!

As usual around this time of year, there was a large event looming and I wanted a new outfit. My recent Simplicity sewing magazines had asymmetrical dress patterns and they spoke to me. They were Simplicity Naaimode 72, model 24-26, which is the equivalent of Simplicity 9886 (and the plus size version: Simplicity Naaimode 74, model 28-30, aka Simplicity 9887). They also spoke to my stash of 10 lengths of 1 meter of Scuba Crepe Jersey Fabrics that came in a Surprise Box in 2022. Since I hoped I could combine three of those fabrics to make a nice dress.

Asymmetric dress with dark gray, medium gray and light blue sections

I started by copying the pattern and cutting it out in a dark grey, lighter grey and light blue fabric. I made two alterations to the original version. 1) I didn’t put in a zipper, since this is all stretch fabric. 2) I cut the light grey back pieces in one since I didn’t have to accommodate the zipper. As you can see, this one was just too big, especially in the back. I pinched out around four centimeters on the side and that was a lot better, but the pockets were also way too low, the colours seemed a bit muted for a fun occasion and I was just unhappy with it.

Asymmetric dress with black, blue with birds and light blue sections

Then came the most complex alteration I’ve ever done in my life. Trying to make this thing smaller along strategic points instead of just the side seams. In the end: I took out 2 cm along center front and center back, tapered the side seams in from 1-ish cm to nothing in the waist, removed the pointy bit around the center back because there was still no zipper, took in the darts and princess seams by a cm, raised the pockets by about 5 cm and made them bigger, shortened the sleeves and scooped out the neckline. I made adjustments to every paper pattern piece there was, and some are a little bit fudged, but it fits so much better!

These pockets are at a much more comfortable height and the back fits so much smoother than the original version. I just turned the neckline under once and stitched it down, and same with the hem. The hem was with coordinating thread colours and I’m quite proud of it. It looks very neat. I also added some belt loops to the sides that almost disappear into the fabric, which is nice.

While working on the pockets, they gaped a little bit more than I would have liked, so the inside of the fully blue pocket was visible on that side. This bugged me so much that I ripped part of it out, added a patch of the light blue, and sewed it all back together again. So much better! The pockets also really wanted to just float around anywhere, so I anchored them with little straps to the approximate center front of the dress. Now they never end up on the back of my hips and I can put stuff in there, it’s supported and basically invisible.

I like this dress, it’s appropriately swooshy and has pockets and this colour combination is so much better for me than the original. I felt I learnt a lot with the alteration and now I’ve at least used some of that mystery box fabric!

Cat Suit – Sorta

Cat printed dungarees for the summer.

I made another iteration of the Ophelia Overalls from Decades of Style (previous versions here and here). This time, I used a ‘fine rib cord with cat print’ from a shop called babystofjes.nl (baby fabrics). I am not a baby, but I thought it was cute so I decided to go for it.

I made some changes to the pattern; I eliminated the buttons and flaps along the side, added an extra d-ring to the front pocket and the side, fully lined the front bib and made some adjustments to the facings of the back, and I cut it a little longer. Then I started thinking about wearing it with the straps down and what to do with them. The ochre version has shown me that it’s a little tight if I keep them attached to the bib. So, I improvised some ‘stap holders’ that attach with snaps at the pockets. This seems to work quite well.

The one down side I’ve experienced so far is that the side straps are a bit slippy, so I tends to loosen a bit over time. If it turns out to be a massive problem, I’ll figure out a solution in due course. Probably more snaps..

I do think these are adorable though. The fabric is quite soft, doesn’t fray and is very light weight. Other people also seem to like them, so that’s fun. They are mostly for the hotter months though, I think a breeze would blow straight through.

EDC v2

A nice new pouch for all the stuff I lug around on the daily.

Every Day Carry – the amount of stuff you just bring with you daily ‘just in case’. Mine used to be in a pouch I made in 2018, but recently I wanted to downsize. I had managed to remove some items from the original pouch and it just looked sad and floppy. I went on the internet and looked around for nice pouch patterns that I could make and stumbled upon the ‘Pencil case with layer‘, which is also a YouTube video.

So I wandered back upstairs for the bin with pouch materials and came down with exactly the same fabrics as the originals were made of. I liked the idea of the pocket on the top even if I didn’t want the extra layer for pen(cil)s. I also wanted a carrier strap. I made an estimated guess of how big the thing needed to be and made myself a ‘pattern’ in Microsoft Word-shapes based on the original.

I skipped all the interfacing steps, since the original held up for 8 years (and still isn’t breaking), I figured it was fine as is. I grabbed a fun length of zipper and got to work. Since I had a tiny bit of the black shrooms leftover, I made two parts out of that. I also opted out of finishing everything super nicely, this stuff doesn’t fray. I ended up with a nice little pouch with a pocket in the top for pens and my spoon, and enough space in the main compartment for anything else. I love that it’s flatter and shorter and so far, it’s been doing well!

Ps. for those who looked back at the original post. I did not, in fact, make a cover for my scooter in a reasonable timeframe…

Black Earflap Hat

Warm but neutral ear coverings to get me through the end of winter.

I’ve been wearing my plaid earflap hat a lot this winter. It’s been cold and my ears seem to want to freeze without earflaps. The coat I’m currently wearing is red, and it all .. doesn’t really go together. So I set out to make a new, slightly more neutral hat. I grabbed the leftovers from a larp cape project and a scarf and got to work.

For this version I used the Whitney Sews pattern for a newsboy hat with some modifications. There were still some brim inserts in the hoard, so I traced that shape and used it as the brim. Then I took the original earflap pattern from the first hat add added those too. I did decide to cut a wedge off the top so they would fit better.

Close up of the point where 6 seams in a black hat intersect.

I’m quite proud of the point matching of the top of the hat and the lining. It turned out very neat, but made the hat also look a bit naked. So after faffing about with my button press, I managed to make a nice covered button for the top, to finish it off. I hope this one becomes a firm favourite even if the amount of poof in the hat is less than I hoped for.

Ophelia..Pants?

Some denim no-longer-overall-pants.

When I made the original Ochre Ophelia Overalls (Decades of Style 108), I immediately became interested in making some pants out of the pattern too. It took some time, but I finally got around to it. I chose a dark denim-y fabric of which the origins are unclear to me. From the original Ophelia I knew that I didn’t need the button plackets, so I left those off. The only pattern changes to make were to cut down the back pieces so that there was no strap section. I just left off the front bib pieces. There might have been more minor adjustments to the height of the top edge, but I don’t recall.

Front view of dark pants with big pockets and side ties.

Side view of dark pants with big pockets and side ties.

After putting all the pieces on my fabric and cutting them out, I set to work. I followed the instructions apart from installing the plackets, the sides were just sewn shut. For the topstitching, I wanted to have a contrasting thread along the major seams. Although, I didn’t feel like rethreading my machine every time, so I grabbed the hand crank from 1901 and threaded that one. The width of the foot on that on made for a lovely distance for the top stitching.

Detail of side of dark pants with big pockets and side ties.

To finish the waistband, I added a wide bias tape and stitched that down with my topstitch. I added the straps with d-rings and an extra one to hang my keys from. These pockets are again large and on the side and I love them. These pants are a lot stiffer than the Overalls, so they wear a little bit differently. I’ve also needed to develop a different technique for quick undoing of the sides, since these straps are stiffer too. All in all, I still like these and plan to wear them when the weather is nicer.

Pockets!

Tales of the Tundra

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif.

While deciding what to do over the winter break, I was browsing Ravelry to see if there was a fun Mystery Knit along. As we’ve discovered, I like mystery anything-alongs and knitting fits in too. The last mystery knit along that I participated in is still not done, the clues had too many stitches to keep up with in the last three sections, so it’s now a travel project. But that wouldn’t hold me back.

There’s a forum called Upcoming MKAL/MCAL Calendar that lists MKALs that are going to start. There I found Tales of the Tundra Cowl (Knit) by Mary P. Hunt. The MKAL was set to start on the 25th of December, promised daily clues and 12 installments. I figured cowls aren’t enormous, and the other patterns that Mary P. Hunt has made are very cool, so this was setting up to be a good one.

It required three yarns in DK weight with good contrast between A (main) and C (background) and some contrast with B too. I didn’t really feel like dyeing, so I dove into the hoard to find some yarn. I settled on Ultra DK in turquoise dyed in August 2023 for the main colour, Ultra DK with yellow spots dyed in September 2023 as the background and some DK 115 in orange from February 2025 as the contrast.

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 1

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 2

The pattern included some links to tutorials on colour dominance and jogless rounds and basically set us up for the project. This was super useful to just have in the document itself to refer back to.

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 4

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 5

Then the first clue dropped and we started knitting. The first section is corrugated ribbing, something I don’t recall having done before. However, it’s quite fun once you get into it. I got to use my relatively newly acquired skills with knitting left-handed to keep the yarns from tangling.

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 7

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 9

The second and third clue involved some pattern work where we made a cute design – it felt Scandivian inspired to me? And once clue three was done, we broke the B colour and continued with only two. I kept the blue in the left hand and the yellow in the right. I didn’t really see what was appearing as I was knitting it. I discovered the mountains from clue 4 and 5 only once I saw them in other people’s pictures on the forum.

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 10

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Clue 11

I was also convinced for a while that the snout was from a bear, although it became clear along the way that it was actually a wolf. I guess the pattern image was a good hint towards that. Many people decided to duplicate stitch the eyes in a different colour, but I think that would make mine demonic looking, so I left that off. At some point, a paw print appeared in the sky too. Once the ears were done, the last three clues were almost mirrors of the first three.

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Blocking.

Cowl in blues, yellows and oranges with wolf, mountains and paw print motif. Inside.

This project was great. I had a lot of fun discovering the pictures every day and most of the time there were only 7 rows to complete, which is totally doable. I did have to pay attention and count (not my strong suit), but with the help of the line tool in Adobe Reader, I managed to keep track of which row I was on. I’m definitely planning on joining more MKALs if they seem as doable as this one.

Doggy Bag

Adding some embroidery to a double handle tote bag.

I was browsing Etsy (always a bad idea for the bank account) and found a bunch of super cool cross stitch patterns. This galaxy animal paw from OhMyStitchesShop spoke to me. My brother’s partner is graduating as a vet and they own dogs, so I thought this would be fun for her. There are so many stitches in this, I highly underestimated how much time 5552 stitches would take, even in eight different colours.

Cross stitch of incomplete dog and cat in a dog paw in purple galaxy hues

Cross stitch of dog and cat in a dog paw in purple galaxy hues

I started with the big pad and finished it fully apart from the little stars. I did a part of those in white, before I decided that I wanted to use glow in the dark thread for those, to be extra appropriate. So I took the white out and went on to stitch the small pads and then added the glow in the dark.

Purple bag with cross stitch of dog and cat in a dog paw in purple galaxy hues

To make this a useful(ish) gift, I decided on making the embroidery the front pocket of a tote bag. I stitched some white cotton to the back of the embroidery and attached that to the purple fabric that I used for my Edwardian skirt. Since I am short and I know how annoying it is to have bags drag on the floor, I added a double handle. On the inside are short straps, and there are long ones for over the shoulder too. If I ever make myself a tote, I’m totally doing this again.

Inside of purple bag with double handles

The project was finished and mailed. I hope she gets some use out of it and I had a lot of fun making it. And have thus since learnt that I prefer my projects either smaller, or coming in bite sized pieces, more on that later!

Cape Coat

I finished a coat but I don’t like it.

I want a coat with a cape(let).

That’s how this started. I found a fun pattern online that I bought and printed and taped together and tried to figure out. And then I wasn’t convinced by my mock-up. So I chucked that in the corner and let it be. I restarted the project by buying the Tsubaki coat from Waffle Patterns. I was so enamoured with the Dinosaur Momiji that I hoped that this would also do well.

The pattern comes with options: hood or collar, several different pockets to mix and match, and some options for cuffs too. I opted for the hood, one zippered pocket, two welt pockets, one inside pocket and knit cuffs but detachable. I also widened the bottom of most of the pattern pieces to make it more a-line and I drafted a capelet.

Inside view of blue coat with yellow-leaf lining

Inside view of zipper pocket of blue coat

For the lining, I chose a brownish stretch cotton with Monstera leaves. I really like the look of this fabric. For some reason, the lining was shorter than expected, so I think I probably made a mistake there. The buttons came from the hoard and were all different, so I made pairs and arranged them in an (to me) aesthetically pleasing order. Unfortunately the welt pockets are too low, so I cannot comfortably reach the bottom, but I do like the look of the zippered pocket.

I don’t like wearing the end result. The look is great, the functionality not so much. I tested it when it was raining and the hood doesn’t stay on my head, the front blows open in the rain so my legs still got wet and my knit cuffs are not long enough so they are too cold. Most of those things are probably my fault but I’m not sure how to fix them yet. So for now, this thing is just hanging on my coat rack waiting for my inspiration to hit.

The thing I do like is the capelet that I drafted. I quite like the detachable nature of it. It buttons onto the already existing buttons on the coat and a hook on the back. I made two straps so that it is theoretically wearable by itself too. I think I probably made it too wide, so if I make one again, I’ll narrow it more. For now, I don’t think either the coat or the capelet will see much wear, but who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind.

Duck and Slobber

Two baby gifts, a stuffed duck and some spit bibs.

Some time in the past, I was asked by a friend if I could reproduce her sister’s stuffed duck that had seen some wear. So I looked around, found the Crazy Duck Sewing Pattern and thought I could make it work. She was very happy and asked me to make another for a new family member that should be arriving. So I asked for preferred colours and we settled on yellow with orange details. Since it’s for a young baby, I didn’t use safety eyes but embroidery to create his face.

Bottom of yellow duck with orange feet and beak

Top of yellow duck with orange feet and beak

I also found some precut slobber cloths or spit bibs in my hoard when I was reorganizing. I figured I should put them together and they could make a nice set. So I located some white terry cloth that I had no idea existed and cut out the triangles. They were sew together and the snaps were added. I had some leftover triangular terry cloth, so I also made the mice one. That one I’ll keep for future additions. I love these, such quick and fun projects.

Two white, triangular spit bibs one showing the front and one showing the back.

Orange dinosaur wearing a white, triangular spit bib with a pattern of orange girls jump roping and yellow boys on skateboards.

I hope babies necks are about the same size as my dinosaur’s..

Quick Leftover Poppy

After five years, this leftover has become a thing and the hoard is now organized and slightly more empty.

At the start of September, I bought a whole load of new plastic bins to reorganize my hoard. While checking every single bit of fabric, and deciding whether I wanted to keep them, I found some scraps of the red plaid fabric that I used for these linings. I thought, ‘I need to use these or chuck these. They are not staying here for five more years’. So I made another poppy. I think he’s very cute and it’s always good to have some of those in stash for when I murder my own or have someone to gift one too.

I am still exceedingly happy with the way the hoard looks now. 12 boxes of fabric, two of yarn (in this room), a stack of small boxes with lace and haberdashery items and the remainder of the craft supplies in the top row of boxes.

Category: Sewing