#adventures in sewing

[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.

[blurred-antics]

in an attempt to distract myself over the last couple days, i finally added my first patch (from here!) to my jacket :) thinking about doing some embroidery on top too, like a star in the eye and maybe outlining the letters

[allisonreader]

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

[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!

[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.

[allisonreader]

Back.

Front.

Close up to try and catch the little bit of sparkle.

Close up to see the stitches. (Chain stitch by a coverlock/cover-stitch machine.)

In the tub to wash out the stabilizer. (Looking lacy.)

[braidedribbon]

So. I randomly made a quilt block today.

[tuttle-4077]

Look at this cute little dirndl I made!

[sexshopshenanigans]

I’m glad I impulse-bought too much of this fabric when it was on sale four years ago because this is the third time I’ve got to dig it out to re-cut the bodice pieces for this fucking dress

It’s not even to get the fit right I just keep losing the fcking things