White – Page 4 – Hopefully Creative

Oven Mitts

Making some dinosaur oven mitts to replace the old raggedy ones.

During the big supply haul of 2021, I also bought a meter of something they called ‘Non-Woven Arachne’, some sort of interlining for oven gloves. Not because I’m particularly convinced I can make oven mitts better or cheaper than any store, but because I wanted to be able to fully choose the fabric for them. I’d recently acquired some dinosaur printed cotton with details in the same colour as my kitchen wall, which seemed the perfect combination. Also, dinosaurs in top hats.. who can say no?!

As for the mitts, the plan was to have a lining, a layer of the interlining and then the cotton on the outside. Quilt those together, cut out the mitt shape and sew it into the final shape. After making a quilt sandwich with only one layer of interlining, I was a bit scared that it wouldn’t be enough heat protection, so I tried again with two layers. I’d traced around one of my old mitts and added some seam allowance and cut those pieces out of my sandwich. Sewed them together, including a hanging loop, then zigzagged the edges, bound the bottom edge and decided this order of operations was not ideal. Trying to wrestle several layers of quilted oven glove under the machine to bind the bottom edge is not pleasant.

So for the second mitt, I decided to use some of the scraps of the first mitt and cut out a second layer of interlining for the finger and thumb part of the mitt. I zigzagged the edges of the interlining and the sandwich, then quilted the extra part on top. I sewed it down along the ‘mid-hand’ edge too. I put in the hanging loop, bound the two bottom edges separately (much easier) and then sewed the two parts together. This is the order of operations that seemed to be much smoother and easier to handle. All in all, I hope these will serve a good long time as I recently had to retire some of my gloves for either being a bit too burnt or for accidentally getting a lot of dye on them.. Those are no longer anywhere close to food safe. I also still have more of the interlining and the cotton, so I can make more if they turn out to work well.

Paper Dinosaur

Just spending a day cutting and gluing a dinosaur

While scrolling aimlessly through Facebook the other day, someone posted an image of a dinosaur cookie jar on ‘Dinovember Community’. Apart from the gold, that shape of dinosaur was extremely appealing to me. Since the original seems to be composed of geometric shapes, it reminded me a lot of papercraft objects. I made a papercraft Idefix before and it was an interesting experience and with another week of holidays, I had the time for a new papercraft project. So I proceeded to google for any (free) papercraft dinosaurs. There are definitely a lot around, but I settled on one from Polyfish that required an account on some Korean site (google translate for the win), as it reminded me of the cookie jar.

Since there were no instructions, I didn’t know if the pattern needed to be printed on regular printer paper or cardstock. So I decided to try both and started with cardstock. When I tried to glue it together though, it didn’t really fit as it was too thick, so I settled on regular printer paper. The pattern has numbers that I assumed indicate in which order to stick them together. The difficulty of using regular printer paper is that those numbers are still quite visible even on the wrong side of the paper. However, that didn’t stop me from starting on the project.

It started from the top of the head and sort of worked its way down. Then at some point the first foot got attached, then the second one, then continued with the body. It was all fine up to until number 230-ish, as I could still reach inside before that time. However, those last 30-odd steps were very difficult to reach, so the pins and wooden skewers came out to play. I really enjoyed most of it though, it’s meditative in a nice way. It also took just about my entire Sunday, but I didn’t mind that at all either because it resulted in a super cute paper dinosaur. I just kept laughing at the thing as it slowly but surely came together. I love it so. Now to find a place for it to live…

Toothy Shark

Because a shark can never have small teeth.

While finishing up the hamster, I also finished up the shark. The shark is again a free pattern from Sew Desu Ne / CholyKnight. This mighty sea creature was an even easier sew than most other plushies, just sew two darts, stitch together three fins, align them in place, and sew 4 seams (back, two belly and a tail) and it’s done.

The only thing that caused a little bit of trouble was his giant mouth. The iron on teeth are formed from a moon shaped piece with triangle sewing. I wanted to stitch the teeth before I put the mouth piece on, but at the first try the thread managed to catch and pull. So I switched tactics and put some paper under the mouth so I could sew beyond the edge without difficulties. This solved the problem and the mouth was soon affixed to his underside.

In the end, it was very easy to create the shark and I do like him a lot. You can’t necessarily see his teeth when he’s just laying down, but that just means he’s got a fun surprise when you pick him up, right?

German Triangles Blouse

Getting my head around a German bluse.

I’ve been looking for a long sleeve button up pattern for ages. Then one day, someone posted a picture of their just completed button up shirt on a Facebook group I’m in. The pattern was the Julia hemdbluse from Pattydoo. Pros: long sleeves, only 3 euro, I’ve worked with her patterns before for my coat and a sweater, has video instructions. Cons: German, basically shaping through the body. The pros weighed up against the cons and I purchased the pattern. As for the fabric, is was in my hoard from when I was preparing to make the dress form and bought a bunch of fabrics. It’s a white cotton with yellow and black triangles.

This seemed to be a perfect fabric for this project. It was stable, crisp and would be able to hold poppers without difficulty. I was going poppers all the way, since there were too many buttonholes for my liking otherwise. The pattern has roll-up loops included so I decided to make those. This was also the first time in my life I actually used the ‘burrito-method’ of shirt making, so I’m very happy to scratch that off my to-sew list. I only deviated from the pattern at one point, and that was to add a smaller size popper to the collar stand. I chose a yellow one from my baby-poppers set for a little bit of contrast and because the normal size looked simply too big on the tiny stand.

Burrito in the middle with sleeves on the side

In conclusion, the pattern went together wonderfully. The video guide is super helpful and I definitely know two German word combinations now (umbügeln – pressing and knappkantig absteppen – topstitching). I don’t like the body shape and length of the pattern, so I will probably substitute the Simplicity 2255 modified body shape for a future project. I also already know what fabric I will use for that project, since it has been in my stash for .. a long time now. We’ll see when I’ll get around to it.

Second Combinations

Always good to finish a project that has been hanging out in the sewing box since last year.

In my first post about Edwardian combinations, I talked about a pattern drafted from the American System of Dressmaking that I hadn’t gotten to work for me. It’s been hiding in my box of projects since that time and I recently decided to finally get it done. Main reason being that I want to empty the project box, with added benefit of ending up with combinations with wider straps. The other combinations have straps that keep slipping off my shoulders which is quite annoying. So I set to work.

I had the top mostly finished and was mainly stuck with attaching the leg pieces. To start, I added some buttons and buttonholes to the top.Then I sewed down the facings that I’d already made for the legs. I grabbed Tropical and started pinning some pleats into the legs that I already had. In the end, I cut a 15 cm high triangle of the top of the back leg pieces because it just wouldn’t work as drafted. Then I needed to finish the bottom of the legs and decided to grab all the cut offs from the first set of combinations and a bit of lace. I wouldn’t be able to use those for anything else and I didn’t want to throw them away. The length of the bottom ruffle was determined by the length of the bottom lace. The transitions between different sections of fabric were made using some more of the triangle insertion lace.

This thing was effectively one big problem solving mess. I needed to add insertion lace to the top because it was just too small, so that’s why there is some on an angle and in the back. The original pattern for the drawers created such a weird shape that I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted at all, so I had to cut bits off. I would normally gather those legs to the top, but it was easier to do pleating as I wasn’t sure where the end of the legs would even go. It took some head scratching, but I’m very glad I finally got it finished and my project box that little bit more empty.

Corset Cover

The corset cover with mistakes at every turn. Luckily you can’t see those on the outside.

Sometimes simple projects take for ever to finish. I’m not sure what my issue with this one was, but it took me many a day and many a night to get myself into gear enough to get this little cover finished. I seemed to make it difficult for myself at absolutely every turn.

It of course started with deciding on a pattern. This took weeks, maybe even months, depending on how you count. I’d been sort of looking ever since I finally chose the blouse pattern. In the end I settled on the Wearing History E-pattern of a 1910’s Camisole or Corset Cover. I want to stay in the 1900-1908 with my Edwardian project, but this thing claimed it could work for before 1910’s so I decided it would do. Printed it out, taped it up and cut out the size 28 waist.

For fabric, I chose a white fabric with tiny leaves that I also used as the lining for my plaid jumpsuit (I still love that jumpsuit). I didn’t have a lot of that fabric so I figured that corset covers didn’t need much and it was a good way to use up scraps. I chose to cut it with peplum but without sleeves. So far so good. Now came the bad choices. It started when I sewed the bodice together and only then determined that I needed to finish the seams. I agonized over that and in the end decided to double fold the seam allowances (that were quite large) over and stitch them down. Ok, that turned out well.

Then, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to only sew the row of gathering stitches along the edge of the body and forget the one about an inch above. This was a problem because sewing gathering stitches evenly is much easier when the fabric is flat. However, I skipped that step and went to gather the bottom and attach the peplum to the inside of the waist. Next, I stitched a line at the seam allowance of the outside of the peplum and folded it over using the iron. However, sewing single layer had shortened the peplum so it wouldn’t fit into the waist anymore. I had to take my thread back out again. Luckily it stayed nicely folded over. Then I positioned the lace on top of the outside peplum on top of the regular peplum seam and sewed that down. Because this meant invisible sewing, it’s not neat on the inside, but it’s sewn down and that’s all that matters right? The top of the lace still needed to be attached, so I had to hand sew gathering stitches as there was no way to do that by machine anymore. I did manage to get it done.

Next I needed to figure out how to finish the armholes and neckline. The pattern called for beading lace, so I went to get some and didn’t get enough. I also didn’t love it enough to go back. So I gave up, cut 3 cm wide bias tape from some scraps and folded one edge in by a centimeter. I then attached the bias to the outside of the armholes and neck edge, stitched it down and turned it all inside and stitched it down again – effectively creating tunnels. I sewed little eyelets in the top of the neck for a drawstring and once completed, figured out I made them in the wrong spot. With an overlapping button band, you cannot put two exits on the same side where they overlap. It won’t work. So I made another eyelet at the back of the overlap. I’m calling the useless one a Design Choice.

Now the cover was mostly done, just the buttons and buttonholes to do. Cue days of staring at the thing as if it had done something wrong. Eventually I came up with another solution. I grabbed some of the tiny bit of ladder tape that I had left and created an ‘invisible’ placket. In built buttonholes, so no fiddling about with that. Adding the buttons to the other side went fine. They are spaced 5 cm apart. Then I tried it on and it gaped at the bottom. Solution, attach two ribbons so you can tie the bottom together. It might not be pattern but it works.

If you choose to make this, please don’t use my terrible construction as a guide. Think ahead and choose one of the countless methods that are faster and actually nice. I may have to make another just to prove that to myself..

Ducky!

Imitating nature with a white duck.

Back to regular programming with wellness fleece, felt features and CholyKnight free patterns. This time it was the (Turtle) Duck pattern. On the front it had an example with a white duck, which I thought was lovely. I have seen white ducks around, so I figured I’d stay pretty close to the original.

It’s got an ochre beak and orange feet. I don’t own any wellness fleece that is more yellow than this ochre, so this is what I use. I’m of course still a little on the lookout for yellow fleece, but I’m also not in a hurry. Shouldn’t add to the stash if this whole thing is supposed to be a stash-busting exercise, right. Anyway, it came together easily and has a pellet pouch located near its rear. That’s to keep him upright as his head would otherwise completely ruin the center of gravity and he’d be on his face the whole time.

I think he’s cute, even if his eyes are a little demonic, and I really like him. Ducks are always awesome.

Next up will be this guy’s very close relative, mr. Turtle Duck.

A Spare Butt

To get the look ‘right’, so you sometimes need some unnatural enhancements..

I never thought I had a super small butt, but apparently the ‘fashionable silhouette’ of the turn of the previous century had a much different waist to hips ratio than I possess. This needed to be remedied. The pattern from the purple skirt also included a bustle pad. Effectively a flat-ish pillow that you tie around your waist to make your butt look bigger. So in addition to making a petticoat for the purple skirt, I also made myself a spare butt. I used the same fabric as the petticoat and 2 layers of 1cm padding and 1 half layer of 2 cm padding.

If I look at the images, it really does make a difference to add the pad. It feels a little bulky so I’m wondering if I should make a smaller one too. These pictures where taken way back when I first posted the white shirtwaist. The bustle pad was mostly completed at that time, it just needed eyelets. The pattern calls for metal eyelets to be inserted, but I really didn’t feel like doing that, so I handmade some eyelets after taking literal weeks to get round to it. I think it’ll work perfectly fine like this.

Only the corset cover (and a hat?) to go until I have a full outfit. Maybe socks? Who knows what I’ll end up doing.

Very White Blouse

Part of the Edwardian plan was a plain shirtwaist. This back-buttoning blouse is the result of the plan.

The Edwardian Endeavour is still going on. I’m not aiming for true historical accuracy and am slowly making all of the parts of the full outfit. This means that I also required some clothing to cover the top half of me. Off to the google I went and eventually discovered the Beatrix Shirt Waist Pattern from Sense & Sensibility Patterns. I purchased it, got to work on the printing and started with some white fabric. I chose to make a size 14, back closing, front gathered, long-sleeved shirtwaist. Fiddling with the front top edge took about 15 centuries, because I originally wanted to pleat it to this example. However, I couldn’t get it to work without having to recut the pattern, so I decided to leave that until next time. Took it in along the side seams and shoulders and figure that I should make a size 12 next time.

I looked at my stash of buttons and decided on a small yellowish button. Added two along the bottom edge of the sleeves and 18 along the back. I had 20 in total so that worked out perfectly well. The buttonholes are all hand-worked, which took absolutely forever, as you can imagine.

Next to the buttons there are two straps to tie the blouse in front, allowing some blousing to happen over the skirt. I actually really like it. I did place the straps about 2 centimeters further down than the pattern indicated. The pattern seems to work pretty well, it has lots of options, of which I’ve only tried this one. I do expect to make another version of this – front closing this time. Reason being that back closing means that I need to do an actual workout when trying to put it on. I need to undo four buttons to get it over my head and then trying to do them up slightly out of reach while wearing a corset and other associated layers is difficult!

The things left for this outfit include making a corset cover and a hat (maybe), however next up, a cycling skirt!

Leftovers Petticoat

Using the bits discarded from a previous project to make a quick and easy petticoat turned out to work quite well.

The Edwardian Adventure (previously here, here and here) continues with the petticoat. There is no real reference for this petticoat. It’s literally just the lining that was cut out of the purple skirt, with an added bit along the bottom. The waistband is some made up weird construction of two bits to tape sewn together along the top. There’s a hook and eye at the end, and there’s a little bit of overlap. I think I had a brilliant idea about that at the time, but I have forgotten what it was, so it might not have been that brilliant.

The bottom is finished with a very long strip of the same fabric, gathered down to make a ruffle of sorts. I pressed it, stupidly, which means that it is not nearly as ruffly as I would have liked it to be. However, it does do its job.

A while ago, I was feeling eccentric and decided to walk to the supermarket while wearing the purple skirt, those low heels from the pictures, my red coat, and the dragon. While walking there, I kept hearing some strange noises. Turns out that the hem was actually hitting the pavement.. With the petticoat underneath, I no longer hear noises when I walk about. I call it a success!

Next up, a blouse to go with it all.

Tag: White