two skirt refashions

Once upon a time, two days ago, there was a men's shirt that wasn't being worn. Not anymore, y'all.

The shirt is Patagonia brand so it's very well made. Its content is 55% hemp and 45% organic cotton, basically my dream fabric. I love hemp fabric, I do. It lasts forever. I also respect Patagonia's environmentalism and the lengths they go to use sustainable textiles & responsible manufacturing processes. I think they'd appreciate my refashioning efforts.

There are a few tutorials around the sewing blogosphere on how to make a skirt from a men's shirt (see here, here and here). 

Here's my basic run-down:

- I kept the side seams, bottom hem and button placket intact. 

- I made the waistband from the shirt's yoke (top back), using a skirt pattern I have that I knew would fit.

- I cut off another piece of the remaining button placket to use on the waistband, and stitched it on the front center so it would align. 

- I gathered the top edge of the front and back pieces to fit the waistband.

- I used one of the sleeves to make belt loops.

The waistband facing is bright blue cotton scrap.

That's that one.

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And now for another...

This was a very large black corduroy jumper from the 1970s (or so they say). I got it for $5 from the "rough rack" at the local vintage thrift store. 

I used Simplicity 2152, view E. I added an inch to the overall length, but it's still a bit shorter than the model's.

I didn't lap the zipper in center back, and instead left the gold teeth exposed. What can I say, playas gonna play.

It's a nice simple pattern, and came together really quickly and easily. I'm just glad to have an office-appropriate black skirt now. My last attempt at making a corduroy skirt was an epic fail, too, so I'm glad this one worked out.

Apparently my hair is red today.

For the waistband facing I used a cotton print in my stash. The cord would have been too bulky.

During this time of major material consumption for the holidays, I hope you find some ways to reuse and repurpose as well. It's much more gratifying!

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sew country chick

posthorn blouse: tutorial

What happens when I mix posthorns and an overpriced Anthropologie blouse?

It's quite obvious, really. I get a posthorn blouse.

If you're confused, let me provide some definitions for you:


A posthorn (n.) is a "valveless cylindrical brass instrument with a cupped mouthpiece, used to signal the arrival or departure of a post rider or mail coach" in the 18th-19th centuries (source: Wikipedia). 

Anthropologie (n.) is an American retail chain owned by Urban Outfitters Inc., specializing in beautiful clothing, accessories and home decor items that can make a grown woman cry (source: personal experience). 


Sometimes I like to play the "Anthro-poor-logie" game, in which I look on their website to find basic items that cost more than my monthly rent. Like this $678 tote bag. See? Fun! Another part of the game is where I imitate their style using kitschy $6 thrift store fabric. That's what I did with their Antilles Tank (no longer available). See? More fun!

If you want to make your own, I'll do my best to show you how I did it. It's very simple and can be completed within a couple hours. The tutorial is after the jump:

copper penny tablecloth skirt

Before

After

Who uses tablecloths? Not me. Who wears skirts? Yeah, me.

This is Simplicity 2512, a Cynthia Rowley design, view B. For the material I used a large copper-colored tablecloth with herringbone weaving. Thrifted for $4. It's actually pure coincidence that the Sew Weekly theme this week is garments made from household fabrics (curtains, tablecloths, sheets). That's just how I roll almost every week.

The pattern's curvy sweetheart-like waistband reminded me of the Ginger skirt from Colette Patterns but I liked the gathers and shape of this skirt more (from the front, anyway).

I wish I had made the belt tie longer, as some other reviews of this pattern suggested, so it could be tied in a bow. I followed the pattern exactly but my ties look thinner than the envelope model's.

I made the pockets with thin beige lining from a deconstructed skirt in my scrap basket. I didn't want to use the tablecloth material for the pockets because of the bulk.

I wonder why pockets are so coveted in modern skirt/dress patterns. Does anyone actually carry stuff in there? I stopped carrying anything in my pockets after an unfortunate melting chapstick incident. Ain't stopping me from making them, though. They still look cute and have a cute name. Pocket.

But let's be real. This skirt's fine from the front but it's awfully bubbly in the back because of the way it's gathered and then curves in towards the hem. This is an exaggerated pose but you definitely get the point:

 

 Right??:

Yet another skirt for the "Wear only with long sweaters to avoid Teletubbiness" category. Yea, I have a couple of those now. Bummer.

Another reason this sewing story doesn't have a happy ending: while removing the skirt after I modeled it, the zipper pull decided to pop off one of its tracks. (Yes, zipper pulls make decisions, as ways to spite me). I fixed it, which was a painstaking process, but then it just did it again the next time I unzipped the skirt. I believe it's because this material is fairly thick, and the waistband, facing, ties and binding all layered upon each other at the top is too much for the invisible zipper to handle. Maybe I'll replace it with a regular zipper, or I don't know. Any suggestions??

:(

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linked to...

sew country chick

a couple cute skirts for a cute lil' kiddo

I took a break from selfish sewing (whoa) and made two skirts for a co-worker's 5-year-old daughter. She's smart, she deserves 'em. Also, her mom bribed me into it so I had no choice. (joke)

I made this using the Oliver + S free "Lazy Days Skirt" pattern found here. I added lining since the material was pretty thin, and applied the bottom ribbon a bit differently than instructed so I'd only have one line of visible stitching, instead of two, to worry about.

I also added a line of stitches at the top of the elastic to prevent rolling. I think it looks better that way anyway.

 

For the second skirt I used House on Hill Road's "Twirly Skirt Tutorial" found here. 

The instructions said to use two 40" wide pieces of fabric for the skirt, which became a skirt with a circumference of, yikes, 80 inches. I tried this, but by scrunching 80 inches of that thin waistband fabric over 1/2" elastic and a fabric tie, the waistband ended up being incredibly stiff and practically immobile. I thought this would be uncomfortable for a kid to wear all day, so I chopped off a significant amount of skirt fabric so the waistband could have more give. 

  

 Still twirly enough, I hope.

I hope she likes these!

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the 9-to-5 trench dress

I'm calling this my 9-to-5 dress because I'm not sure where else I'd wear it but to work. Technically my work hours are 8:45 to 5:15, but that's just too many syllables.

This is McCall's 6279, version C with the collar & lapels, elbow-length gathered sleeves, self-cuffs and a store-bought belt.

This chick thinks she's sassy but I bet she ain't.

I don't know why I'm always attracted to puff sleeves on garments when I see them on the hanger or pattern envelope. Maybe it's because I think it'll help balance out my hips, but my shoulders are fairly broad and that style can look pretty linebacker on me. I guess it's now obvious from the pattern envelope illustration, but these sleeves are supposed to be PUFFY. Here's a comparison of the width of this dress' sleeve (top) versus a normal set-in sleeve cut to the same size (bottom):

Totally fanned out, meant to be excessively gathered on the top and bottom. I wish I had known how to de-puff the sleeve pattern before I cut the fabric, but I had already sewn the seam and attached the sleeves to the cuffs when I realized just how much poof there would be. I took in some of the excess fabric by taking in the seam, then gathering the sleeve as normal on the top but attaching it to the dress well below the gathers. See the red dotted lines:

It worked okay. By shortening them this way, the cuffs flare out a bit but whatever. I think the sleeves still need tweaking overall, particularly the "gathers" on the right shoulder -- mess mess mess.

My iron hates this dress.

Things I learned while making this dress:
1) When applying fusible interfacing, PRESS it on, don't IRON it or else your fabric will stretch and ripple underneath it. Yup, Sewing 101. But hell, I get impatient. It looked so bad I ended up ripping off all the interfacing from the front except for on the lapels. It was too stiff anyway.


2) When you're ripping off interfacing and decide to speed up the process with scissors, BE CAREFUL. Guess what? Fabric is just as easy to slice with scissors as interfacing is. Thankfully my brutal mistake is hidden by a lapel. 


3) For darker fabrics, also use dark interfacing and dark lining. I used cotton broadcloth for this dress and it needed to be lined all the way around, though the dress pattern doesn't call for it. I used white interfacing and white lining, which is okay but I think grays out the wine color of my dress when it's back-lit.


4) Before you take 20 minutes to pin-baste your sleeves, for the love of God, make sure you have right sides together so your sleeve will not be inside-out when you finish. (This happened to me... twice).


4) 12 metal buttons can cost more than your pattern and dress fabric combined. Errr.

That's it. I don't love this dress which is disappointing. I hate putting time (and all that hand-stitching) into a garment that I don't end up appreciating. I also hate when I can't double-dip my dresses -- meaning, be able to wear them for work AND weekend fun time.


So, who rushed out to Joann's on Black Friday to snatch up some $1.79/yd. flannel or whatever?

scrap buster: no-slip corduroy coasters

Everything's cuter in corduroy, even coasters.

When I first moved in my apartment, I bought some cotton quilted coasters on Etsy that tied some of my decor colors together. However, these coasters find themselves on the floor more often than the tabletops because they slip around so easily. Solution? Non-slip rug pads.

I'm still mourning my red corduroy skirt that I botched a few weeks ago. I tried getting fancy with a self-designed waistband, then hastily cut into the back seam to take it in... whoops, way too tight. Can't part with the fabric, though, so now it's helping protect my living room furniture from beer bottle ring stains.

Cut two pieces of 4"x4" fabric per coaster.

Apply fusible interfacing to the wrong side of each piece.

Pin a 3"x3" piece of non-slip rug padding to the
 right side of one side of the coaster only.

Your sewing machine's presser foot will not want to 
slide over the rug pad, so do the minimal amount 
of sewing necessaryto secure it (I did corners).

With right sides together (the rug pad will be inside),
sew around the corners, leaving a gap to turn.

Clip corners and trim seams, but leave enough fabric
around the gap so that you can secure it by topstitching later.

Turn right side out, poking out corners. Press.
Topstitch close to the edge, all the way around, securing the gap.

You can only see the rug pad if you lean down and look for it.

Just TRY and scoot this thing across a wood table. This baby's going nowhere.

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