#adventures in sewing

[homunculus-argument]

Huh, neat. Apparently I can sew heavy chain onto fabric much easier by attaching a soda can tab on the other side of the fabric as a reinforcement, and sewing the tab and the link together through the cloth. Bears the weight much more evenly, stays sturdier, less worry about ripping since no singular point of the fabric is the load-bearing structure.

[throwing-roses-into-the-abyss]

My first ever victorian outfit is DONE! I made all these things!!

[asheninks]

Today on: "Adaptive sewing that looks stupid but works," we have this.

Can't hold your fabric taut because your fingers hate you today? No problem! Chip clip and a random bit of lacing to the rescue.

[allisonreader]

The project that I just started at work. A playing card holder, for card games where you can end up with 30 or more cards in your hand.

[greeneggssews]

Going into the office this week made me realize I wanted to make more shirts (the walk from my car to the building is just too cold for breezy floaty dresses XD 🥶). And I had some cute valentines day fabric. It wasn't enough to make a dress but a shirt? Perfect ❤️

Started with a super simple dress pattern that I cut roughly 13 inches below the arm hole. Honestly the hardest part of this pattern is the dang v-neck neckband. (I basted and swam ripped and basted and seam ripped and it ain't perfect, but it's better 👌)

I didn't realize until I had sewed the seams together that I had cut the pattern so these arrows pointed just so perfectly 😅

Then I just put on some sleeves a hem. I tried to add a lace ruffle, but I'm not sure if it was my machine being a pain or just me but the ruffle would not cooperate without sticked straight out in places. Oh we try and we seam rip sometimes

Then just threw a hem on it and it's good to go for tge next time I'm in office

... I suppose I should maybe iron it too buuuuut...

[lemonsharks]

Frog friend frog friend

I made a FROG out of SHARKS 🫠🐸

[tuttle-4077]

Another cute little dirndl! The colour of the bodice and apron match better in real life.

[thischapstickaddict]

Different workspace. Same cutie problem.

[irish-belle]

This is the skirt I made!

[obishenshenobi]

Spent the weekend dealing with urgent life admin and also organizing my fabric stash.

I sew too little to have so much fabric, seriously, it's an issue. But then I usually sew complicated things that mean they'll take looooong to finish, meaning I don't get to sew as much as I want to. But I think I'll change that, now that I feel much more confident about my sewing prowess :)

Anyway, I obviously compounded the problem today when I bought more fabric at the Dutch Fabric Market when it came to town 🙃 Not too much, but enough.

But my stash at home is starting to be more easily accessible and I now have a record of how much of which fabric I have. Or well, started on that 😀

[throwing-roses-into-the-abyss]

my quilt project is done! hopefully this'll stop some sunlight coming into my kitchen (and also my neighbour's peeking). it's incredibly wonky but also so cute <3

[brbsavinggotham]

in further moving news, i did the maths and i won't have a sewing space until mid august when we move into our new rental, which puts a dent in my winter coat making plans because by then i won't really need one as winter will practically be over. so predictably i've decided to just make it now, in between packing all my stuff, when the house is a mess and i'm already stressed about a million other things. why not put a time crunch on this project too!

[allisonreader]

Pinfora-ish style of apron I've been working on.

[writinginthesecrettrees]

There is exactly zero photographic evidence of the dress I made for my senior ball back in 2001, and honestly I'm kinda grateful for that.

It was a choice. I had a very distinct vision, and I did not execute it well, but I did come up with something wearable and all the "this is homemade by a person who has taken exactly one home ec course" weirdness was hidden.

It was a floor length princess-seamed yellow satin gown.

Yes, yellow. Like.

Sparkly golden yellow.

(like that gif? The fabric I got was exactly that color.)

Now. A yellow gown is not a bad thing. It was a very pretty color. But there were some odd choices made.

Ok, so first of all I had been struggling for 4 years to find formal gowns for various dances that I could wear a bra with. Because hello double Ds in freshman year, I was BUSTY. Strapless bras did not work for me (although I find myself wondering if bra tech has advanced since then). So what was my solution? I said "fuck it, I'm sewing a bra into this dress." And I did.

It worked really well, but then I had old tatty bra straps sticking out of my pretty satin dress.

So... trim to the rescue!

What did I use for trim? I'm so glad you asked.

I used a black feather boa for trim.

I whipstitched it all along the neckline, and made it into straps. Fluffy black feathers. On my pretty yellow dress. One like this:

Just so you have an idea.

And then. I put one around the hem, too. For balance. Look, I don't have a sane explanation, I just really liked the color combo for some reason. It was 2001, I lived in wide-leg overalls with pockets big enough to fit several paperbacks, my fashion sense was non-existent.

I paired this dress with black suede pumps and black satin opera gloves, by the way.

Because of course I did.

Um. I don't know if I've really painted the right picture here.

You gotta picture Kate Hudson's "How To Lose A Guy" dress

But like... cheaper fabric, poorly tailored, and trimmed with BLACK MARABOU FEATHER BOAS. I cannot emphasize that enough.

[braidedribbon]

So. I randomly made a quilt block today.

[tuttle-4077]

Look at this cute little dirndl I made!