Tag: Black

Letter Blouse

This blouse is literally ‘Made with Love’ if you read across the letters. Based on a heavily modified Simplicity pattern, it wears and coordinates wonderfully.

I’d found this fabric on the fabric market (pre-pandemic) and thought it was wonderful. It’s got letters on it! Only after quite a while of puzzling with my pattern layout did I figure out that it actually says Made With Love if you look across the rows.

Now the first attempt at using this fabric is lingering in the Corner of Shame. I originally chose the free button down jacket from Bootstrap Fashion to make a long sleeved blouse. However, I couldn’t get it to fit at all, so I chucked it i the CoS. The leftover bits of original fabric were used to create something out of little. I used my tried and true short sleeve blouse pattern (also used here and here and here). This is a heavily modified version of Simplicity 2255.

It worked well. The fabric coordinates with a lot of my clothing, even if I may become a bit of a walking pattern clash. In all honesty, I think I like being non-standard in my clothing choices, so this isn’t something negative to me. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a long sleeve blouse pattern that does fit me…

Taking a Dragon on a Walk

Now that I’m working from home, I need to see more friends on a daily basis. So I decided to make a friend who wouldn’t be influenced by quarantine. I bought the dragon backpack pattern from CholyKnight in December and never dared to actually start. It took until the stay-home-order and throwing the budget out the window to get going.

Getting the fabric was the biggest mental hurdle. Initially I wanted minky, which was what the pattern make advised. However, I was only able to find flat minky in Chinese webshops and not in any local-ish ones. There was some that had raised bumps, and I didn’t think a bumpy dragon would look good. In the end, I settled on something called wellness fleece and got a meter each of bright red, dark grey and black. Where the colours would go was to be the next hurdle. After some deliberation, the back was going to be grey, the belly red and the nails and horns black.

The pattern pieces were taped and cut from the fabric. My floor was COMPLETELY covered in fluff. Fluff everywhere. I only made two changes to the pattern and the first was to change the shape of the wings. There are four types of wings included in the pattern but none of them tickled my fancy. So I googled toothless wings and drafted a pattern based on that. I also decided that I wanted the wing-spine to be a different colour, so I cut that and figured out the order of operations. I was amazed that my sewing machine managed to get through 6 layers of fleece and a layer of foam.

I didn’t have many problems when sewing this new friend, although there were some. According to the pattern, an ‘advanced skill’ was to install a hidden tail pocket with an invisible zipper. This posed no problems. For some reason however, just basting on the bottom straps was the thing I had to rip out multiple times. Very frustrating.

The second change I made was to change the straps. The original pattern includes straps that are just webbing, but that isn’t very comfortable if you ask me. Therefore, I decided to draft some curved straps, based on the straps on my larp backpack. I even used the same fabric as I used for the bottom of those straps. The plan was originally to use back webbing and strap adjusters, but the local sewing shop only had 2 cm and 3 cm wide webbing and 2.5 cm adjusters so that wasn’t going to work. I was very happy to find 2.5 cm wide red webbing in some deep dark recesses of my hoard. That was sewn on top of the straps with some dense zigzag.

Finally, I managed to put the remainer of my new friend together – taking some extra care around the straps to make sure they weren’t sewn into the seam. Cursing a little here and there when there were lots of layers and finally handsewing the last details in place. Once he was done, I took him on an outing to the supermarket to show him life outside my house. He’s probably going to be quite useful since his main pocket is quite large, I can fit most of my underarm in there.

So far, he’s wonderful and I hope that I can show him around to more people.

 

Fun Summer Tees

I’ve been throwing out a number of t-shirts due to stains etc, and therefore decided I needed some more tops. I’d also discovered an interesting free shirt pattern on pinterest that I wanted to try out. So a match made in heaven, right? (Actually, it was.)

The pattern I used was the ‘fun summer tee’ pattern by iCandy handmade. It only came in one size, M, so I grabbed some weird jersey stuff that I think I may have made something out before, but I cannot remember what. I cut out the pattern as it was and sewed it up. I liked the pattern, but it needed some adjustment to make it a perfect top for me. It was a little big, I didn’t sew the armhole shut enough and it was too long. It’s since been gifted to a friend.

So in the same afternoon, I started a new version. This one used leftover fabric from the flower-power-pantsuit and some black mesh that was destined for some form of sportswear.

I decreased the width of the shirt by a few centimeters and decreased the length too. Since the flowers were a limited width, I only cut the middle of the front out of that. The sides and back were cut from the mesh. Sewed together and added a neckband from a strip of the flower stuff. The corners are mitered which is a much better finish.

It’s been worn a lot, I really like it. It doesn’t go with my thin skorts so I will need to remedy that in the future.

Skorting On!

I mentioned it during Me Made May 19, but I’ve been wearing a white flower skort to skating practice regularly. This particular skort isn’t actually officially finished yet, although I do not see it becoming actually finished ever. This has not stopped me from wearing it. The thing that makes it incomplete is that the waistband is a single unfinished layer made of two pieces that were supposed to become a double layer finished waistband. I even wore it during our most recent roller derby tournament.

 

Last weekend, I was very productive and made another skort from some scuba type stuff that has been in the stash since I finished this item. Said dress is no longer in the collection but a square leftover piece was. So I cut out another of the straight skorts from those remains. This version has additional panels in the back and a thinner front piece to move the pockets further to the front. It also has a self waistband on the outside. On the inside is a thin mesh knit that also form the shorts.

For the first time, I hemmed the shorts, so we’ll see what that does. This skort is finished with some twin-needling on the pockets and waistband. When I wore it around the house on Sunday it was very comfortable.

It seems that I’ll be skorting all day long again. – I’m still amazed that the addition of some shorts under a skirt can totally remove my reluctance to wear that skirt. Skorts are the best!

Wheels for Days

Roller derby is played on all kinds of floors. We skate on a wooden floor that has qualities that shift with the weather. What this means is that we tend to skate on different wheels in the different seasons. Harder wheels (ranges 90+) allow for more speed and slide and less grip, softer wheels have more grip but may feel slower at times (78-88). I’m currently skating on 92 (summer, so the floor has grip of its own), but in winter I skate on a mix of 84 and 88. If we play on a soft sport court floor elsewhere, we go up in wheel hardness, last weekend, I skated on 98. What this means is that I have accumulated an almost uncomfortably large amount of wheels.

I used to store all my wheels in ziplock bags and tried to stack those, but they always rolled everywhere. So a little while ago, I went on the hunt for patterns for wheel bags. In the end I resorted to an adapted version of a zippered box pouch. There wasn’t a ‘right size’ pattern online that I could quickly find, so I resorted to making a scale version from paper to determine how it worked exactly.

After the scaled version was completed, I drew it out in the right measurements, added seam allowance and got on with it. The considerations where the the bottom should be flat for the bag to stand on, there should be enough zipper to allow the two stacks of wheels to enter and exit the bag, it should not be so large that the wheels slide around and it needed a carry strap. I cut out the first iteration and sewed it together. My wheels are also different sizes, I have one set of 38 x 59 mm (S), one set of 38 x 65 mm (L) and 3.5 sets of 38 x 62 mm (M).

The first bag (black mushrooms) was too large for the medium wheels, it needed about a cm in width reduction, but the large wheels fit in fine. For the second iteration (yellow mushrooms) I removed a cm along the width sides but I made a mistake in making the bottom smaller, so that one has an additional pleat. It again didn’t fit the M wheels, but the S wheels fit in fine. Next attempt, I reduced the width by .5 cm and made the correct adjustment on the bottom. This version fit the M wheels, so I cut out another and found that I didn’t have the right length zipper anymore. So I shortened the height by 8 cm on my paper pattern (which was a little too much in hindsight) for the half set and cut it out. I did have a zipper long enough for that one, so it was sewn together quickly. At night, I went to the sewing supplied shop and got more zippers – luckily it was the one night a week where the sewing shop was open until 21:00.

All of these bags are made from waterproof tablecloth fabric. The first and second fabric have also been used for the EDC, the pineapple fabric was already in the hoard for pouches, but I never got around to it. All pouches have a carry strap from a bit of fabric left over from some part of pouch making. I specifically gave the pineapple pouches different coloured zippers and carry straps to be able to differentiate the wheels inside with a single look. I will also add labels to the outside. For some non-deliberate reason, all my harder wheels (88+) are black. All the softer wheels (84-) are green. Happy coincidence? Anyway, my wheel pouches are now nicely stacked two high in the closet with less chance of them falling over and rolling everywhere. So far, this project feels successful.

Warm Birdies

A while ago, I found a bit of fabric that was black and green with birds, reversed on both sides. The black side was somewhat more fluffy and felted, the green side looked more like threads. At some point, again, a while ago, I was cold and wanted to make something warm. This fabric seemed to fit the bill. I chose a pattern from Simplicity Naaimode 31 – patterns 1-4 (also known as New Look 6474). I chose the smallest size, shortened it by a lot to make sure it fit on my limited piece of fabric and started sewing.

Once the basic shape was finished, I put it on and it looked horrible on me. I can’t even describe my feelings about it. Still, I liked the fabric and wasn’t sure what to do at that point. Then I thought of something, perhaps it would fit my mother better. She’s also generally cold and likes colourful things. So wearing something green with birds on, shouldn’t be an issue.

I brought the thing to my parents and asked her if she liked it. She did, so I decided to finish the seams. All seams were folded inwards and sewn down, so it now looks quite nice on the inside. This means that it can be worn with the black side out.

The outside edge and sleeve edges have been finished with bias tape, this also looks neat on the side. I made a little loop at the outside neckline edge, so which ever way it is turned, it can still be put on a hanger. There are also pockets on the green side, which can be used when worn.

I hope she’ll get some joy out of it, and if not, someone else might. I’m just happy it did not end up in my corner of shame…

Even More

I went skiing in February, fell after about an hour and hurt my shoulder. The vacation still was nice, skied for two and a half more days and enjoyed the sun and the snow. However, this meant that I needed to ban myself from knitting until my shoulder didn’t hurt any more. I had no intention of getting another over-worked arm and dealing with that for two years. So no yarn-stuff for me. I have been working on things though, almost finished a pant suit that I will wear for graduation in June. It only needs hemming and elastic shortening, so I hope to finish it way before June. I also started an enormous cover top, which even in size 32/34 did not fit me at all, so that’s going to my mother.

Green scarf

This post, however, is about even more infinity scarves. I got to work for an hour and a half and made two this morning. One was dotted green with white stripes on the other side, the other black with sunflowers and red plaid on the reverse. As usual, I failed the first time and sewed the first one up such that it didn’t turn out to be a scarf. Three seams, and I manage to mess up 33%…

Sunflower scarf

Still, one ripped seam and an hour later, I finished up my two scarves, just in time for summer. Although it’s still extremely cold in the mornings and decently warm in the afternoons. That’s why I continue to wear scarves every morning and at work. These should see some action in the future.

Caps

I wanted more stuff to put on some people’s heads, so I made some!

It started with a knitted hat for a friend of mine. I used the same pattern as I did for the Watermelon Hat, because it’s very easy and very quick. The yarn I used was the few bits that were left over from the Grey Scale Sweater. All knit in one day, which I really shouldn’t do anymore, because my arm does not like that!

The next was made from the left overs of the Plaid Jumpsuit. I wanted to make another cap. I remembered that I had some sort of stiff plastic stuff that was supposed to be used for the bottom of bags. I figured it would also work as a cap. After searching around pinterest for a free pattern, I came across one from Blue Marguerite. I added a little bit of seam allowance, and it since it turned out too small, I needed to incorporate a band to make sure the thing stays on my head. I quite like this one. The lining is of cats, which I also enjoy.

The last one was a beret pattern that I found while browsing for the second hat. I found some black stuff in my stash, sewed up the size 56 hat in little to no time. Unfortunately it’s a little too big, so I need to add some more elastic to the rim to keep it on my head. I still think it’s cute though.

I’ve been busy with finishing some other knitting and sewing, so you may see that soon.

Plaid Sparkle Trousers

The plan was to create a pair of pants with some gentleman’s old style details. While most of the details are there, they aren’t visible due to the choice of fabric. I will probably be attempting this again in the future with a fabric that is somewhat solid in colour. The details I wanted to include were triangular pocket tabs (here), double closure tabs (here) which did not end up in the final product and fish tail back (here and here) of which a minimized version was included.

The basis was again the Swordfish Pants pattern, which at one point started as Helena Culottes. It has since been heavily modified for all kinds of pants. For this iteration, I increased the back height to get a fish tail back. While I was aware that I needed to have darts, I did not expect to need to take in as much as I did, so the fish tail is much less pronounced than I wanted. I also made the pocket tab change on the pattern which did work, although you cannot see it very well. The double closure tabs did not work at all, because the pants are not mirrored on the same center line, so the tabs I cut on did not match. Another solution to close the thing was chosen and implemented.

The fabric is again a plaid fabric with silver threads through it. There’s horizontal matching along the side seams, front and back and it’s mirrored. I’m quite proud of all the matching that is going on. This means that the details are invisible, but it gives me a sense of accomplishment that I can actually plan stuff.

It’s been worn for the first time yesterday and it was quite enjoyable all around. No terrible scratching yet, so that’s terrific!

The Day of Three Shirts (part 1)

So, today started of snotty – I have a cold, during my vacation – but I managed to get myself into action. I’d started planning a shirt yesterday night but I couldn’t get my brain around the limited amount of fabric. This morning, I started again. Initially I was debating between the shirt pattern with attached sleeves and the one with separate sleeves. After trying to fit them on the small piece of fabric I had left, it had to be the one with separate sleeves. I even had to shorten those to a previously used shorten line because they wouldn’t fit otherwise.

The fabric I used, was left over from the Forgotten Graduation Dress. After ironing the fabric flat again to get the most advantageous pattern placement, I cut out the pieces. The bottoms were not even, but I figured that I would find a solution for that at some other point in the process. I’ve now decided that whatever leftovers there were, they are destined for the bin. One more fabric ‘completed’.

I hemmed the sleeves first with a twin-needle, then sewed the shoulder seams. Next came the sleeves and then the sleeve and side seams in one fell swoop. I found a piece of fabric that was just long enough to bind the neckline edge. Lastly, I decided that I mostly liked the shape of the hem, the back was straight with a small diagonal edge and the front was completely at an angle with a bit of fabric added at the shortest side. I cut of the weird extra bit, which effectively made the shirt’s front and back on that side the same length. Yay, for happy accidents. Hemmed the bottom with the twin needle and called it a day! Or no, I decided to tackle the other difficult placement problem fabric I had in the hoard too. You’ll see about that later!