Cation Designs

Historical Sew Fortnightly: Literature

2013-05-19T19:36:00.003-07:00

One of the best things about having siblings is that they get you. Having presumably grown up with the same parenting, environment, and influential books, there's a great comfort in knowing that they understand where you're coming from. For Emily and I, one of those things we share is a borderline obsessive knowledge of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. I started Emily on these books pretty early, making her practice her reading skills in kindergarten by reading aloud to me while I washed dishes (it's like the poor man's audiobook). In the years since then, we've read those books so many times, the covers of our paperback editions (which I've had since a particularly gratifying fourth grade book fair day) are ready to fall off, and the pages have fruit juice stains from the many times that we've enjoyed apples/plums/grapes while reading (is there anything so glorious as a good book and a juicy piece of fruit?). Whenever we get together, we take delight in being able to work quotes from the books into everyday conversation at appropriate times. Somehow, Farmer Boy is the book that gets quoted the most. So when I saw that one of the HSF challenges was to recreate a something from a book, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. It's not as grand as some of the other garments I was considering (Mary Ingalls' going-to-college dress, Sara Crewe's rose-colored dancing gown, anything from Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Gone With the Wind, or all of Austen's works), but this was simple to make and actually fits multiple pieces of literature!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never specifically describes Sherlock Holmes as wearing a deerstalker hat, but he mentions at times that the detective wore a "close-fitting cloth cap" and a "ear-flapped travelling cap." Because of this description, Sidney Paget, the original illustrator, drew a deerstalker, as it was the only style of hat of the time that fit both descriptions.

Some of Sidney Paget's illustrations of Sherlock on the go. [source]

Like SH's hat, a deerstalker is never specifically mentioned in Farmer Boy, but Wilder twice describes a style of cap that might be a deerstalker. Almanzo's cousin Frank has one that he boasts is from New York and costs fifty cents, and he shows how the ear flaps can be buttoned around the chin, or flipped up to button on top. Almanzo and his brother are both jealous. Later in the book, Almanzo gets a similar hat for Christmas: "The plaid cloth was machine-woven. So was the lining. Even the sewing was machine-sewing. And the ear-muffs were buttoned over the top. Almanzo yelled. He had not even hoped for such a cap."

My ear flaps flipped up, and posing with my magnifying equipment.

This toy microscope was actually a freebie from a science teacher fair.

Side view of the hat...looks pretty real!

The button on the top is my favorite little bit!

It's like I'm some kind of weird headless mannequin.

I still had a bit of this brownish-gray plaid leftover from my Mad Men dress and Clovers, and it's definitely machine-woven, so it was perfect for this HSF literature-inspired project. The lining is just some IKEA cotton fabric, and the while my flaps don't button, they can be tied under the chin or over the top. And best of all, Almanzo's cap is specifically described as machine-sewn, so I don't even have to apologize for not stitching this by hand! However, given that my machine threw a fit about sewing through so many layers of fabric and interfacing, I might have done better to sew it by hand (or with pliers!).

This gray leaf print seemed like an appropriate fabric for an outdoorsy hat.

I may decide to cut the aglets off of the shoelace tips so that it's less obviously anachronistic, but for now it's nice not to worry about fraying.

Summary:
Pattern: I used Tanit-Isis' sunhat pattern to do the crown (with 1/3" seam allowances), then traced off a baseball cap for the brims. The ear flaps are just a shortened, rounded version of the crown pieces. While I just winged the construction, I later found these instructions for Simplicity 2517 online if you need more guidance on making your own deerstalker.
Fabric: less than 1/3 yard of plaid, even less of the cotton lining.
Notions: a shoelace, a 7/8" covered button, craft-weight interfacing for the brims (which could probably still stand to be heavier.
Hours: 4, sadly. I managed to botch the lining seam allowances so badly that I ended up cutting a seventh piece to make up the difference in circumference. Then I managed to very meticulously sew the lining the wrong side up, so I had to go back and unpick and repin everything. I also stitched in the ditch by hand to attach the lining to the hat at the seams so that it would stay put.
Will you make it again? Does one need more than one death frisbee? Yeah, I didn't think so.
How historically accurate is it? Polyester and shoelaces and craft-weight interfacing are definitely not historically accurate materials, but the general look is right, I think...deerstalkers haven't changed much since Victorian times, and mine wouldn't look terribly out of place in the late nineteenth century until someone saw the shoelace aglets. Since I'm not working for a museum and this is just an excuse to make fun things, I'm not bothered. I'm at theatrical costumer level at best.
Total cost: I'm going to count this as more or less free, since I used all stash materials.
Final thoughts: I suppose by making this hat at home, I sort of defeated the purpose of recreating Almanzo's Christmas cap, which is specifically store-bought. Still, this ridiculous hat makes me as happy as he was on that long ago Christmas morning. Will I ever wear it for anything other than a costume event? Probably not. But I can sleep knowing that should I ever want to have a coordinated 1960s secretary/detective outfit, I could do it!

And just because I love Benedict's Sherlock:

"What kind of hat is it anyway? Is it a cap? Why has it got two fronts?"

"How do you stalk a deer with a hat? What are you going to do, throw it?"

"Some sort of death frisbee?"

"It's got flaps. Ear flaps! It's an ear hat, John!"

Those Elusive Four-Leaf Clovers

2013-05-15T23:49:00.002-07:00

If this were a fashion blogger's outfit post, it'd be considered pretty boring: neutral-colored slim-fit trousers, countered with a more intense color near the face and a lace collar for interest. But I'm not a fashion blogger, and this standard work outfit is exciting because it's entirely me-made! Okay, I didn't crochet the lace collar, but still, it's exciting to have made some very sensible basics.

I need to make some new underthings that don't leave lines under my clothes!

Despite having made successful slim-fit pants before, it's been long enough that I've re-built up all my previous anxiety about fitting my bottom half. My orange trousers were wide-legged enough that I wasn't super concerned, and besides, there was no fly-front. Somehow, the combination of an unmodifiable center front seam and my weirdly shaped legs makes me lose all confidence. Oh, and let's throw in an untested pattern for good measure! Better yet, let's make it a pattern that's notorious for funky fit and requiring multiple muslins, the Colette Clovers. And the icing on the cake, of course, is messing with the pattern by throwing in a fly front.

Not that you can really tell it's a fly front, even close-up -- I did that good a job on thread-matching for the topstitching.

I've only ever made one Colette pattern before, and that was the free Sorbetto tank; that simple top required so many changes that I pretty much gave up on Colette patterns as being drafted for an entirely different body type, hence my refusal to buy the Laurel (plus I already had a shift dress pattern in the stash). Still, I figured pants might not be as bad, plus the pattern was free (generously gifted to me by Ms. McCall of Brown Paper Pattern)! In the end, I ended up not making as many changes as I was afraid I would need to. These pants aren't perfect, but they're not bad for a wearable muslin. Here's my list of alterations:

I made them fly-front instead of side zipper pants, using pattern pieces and directions from McCall's 6610.
Knowing how bubbly the darts would be in this unpressable mystery fabric, I omitted them and took out the difference from the center back seam instead. I think it worked pretty well, and I'm now pretty convinced that I don't ever need darts again.
I majorly smoothed out the hip curve, as they were slightly ridiculous. It was like bloomers or jodhpurs or something similar.
I also took out a bunch of width from the inseams, up to 1.5 inches on both the front and the back, tapering to nothing at the knee.
I took in the back side seams by about 1.5 inches at the mid thigh, tapering to nothing at the knees. Essentially, my back side seam is just a straight line down from the waist to the knee.
The curve of the waistband just didn't look right to me, plus it was made for the side zipper, so I subbed in the Sewaholic Thurlow trouser waistband. I felt slightly wrong, mixing my indie pattern company pieces, but the Thurlow waistband worked just beautifully. I faced it with a little bit of this nautical print Japanese cotton that I got in Birmingham on my UK trip a couple years ago, because it matched the seam binding so nicely.

Pretty insides!

I still think the back fit needs work, since there are all these wrinkles (fish-eye dart adjustment, maybe?), and the grainline is off on the front because of all my adjustments. The front under-crotch is slightly baggy too, but all in all it's not worse than any of my RTW pants. Hah! now there's a dubious compliment if there ever was one! I thought the whole point of sewing was to get better than RTW fit. Oh well. I guess the trick is to psych myself up for another pair before too much time goes by, that way I can really work on the fit while things are fresh in my mind.

Sometimes the back looks okay, depending on how I'm standing...

...and sometimes it's drag line city. Yikes.

At least the back waistband actually fits! No plumber's crack or gaping when I bend over.

As for the top, it's made from sweater knit rescued from my first failed Drape Drape top, simply re-cut into a cap-sleeve fitted top using my knit tee block. Since the sweater knit was so sproingy and unpressable, I decided against my standard knit neckband and instead finished it with some leftover rayon bias tape. It was looking pretty boring, though, so I added the lace collar at Mr. Cation's recommendation. I'm finally getting with the trend of collared everything!

I just now realized while looking at this picture that the cutouts on the collar are little stars!

Rayon bias tape made from the remnants of this dress' fabric, cotton crochet lace collar whipstitched on by hand.

Summary:
Fabric: The remaining 1.5 yards of this stretchy gray-brown plaid I had left after making my Mad Men dress. They work beautifully for these pants since they've got excellent stretch and recovery, while still being quite stable. I used As a result, these pants are uber comfortable. The sweater knit is probably acrylic, about a yard.
Notions: 3.5" metal jeans zipper, hooks and eyes and a metal snap for the fly front closure, lots of seam binding. The lace collar is from Wholeport.com. They don't seem to have this style anymore, but there are some other cute ones!
Hours: The top took about an hour, the pants were more like 10+. I lose track when things take more than a few days to make.
Will you make it again? I theoretically want to, in order to fix the fit! There's so much potential here, but after a certain point you can't change the wearable muslin anymore because you've run out of seam allowance and/or patience. And the knit tee block I've already used a gazillion times, so that's a for sure.
Total cost: The whole outfit was less than ten dollars ($2 for the collar, $2 for the sweater knit, $5 for the pants, and miscellaneous other notions)
Final thoughts: I can't think of anything else to say that I haven't already, but generally I like it? These are the kind of separates that are so basic that it's hard to drum up too much excitement. I'm pretty pleased to use up more stash fabric, though...the pants are even stretchy, so while they may not be knit, per se, they're still kind of in the vein of the month's challenge??

I have to remind myself that most people don't look at me and think about the crotch curve adjustments I should have made. Nope, that's just me, sneakily staring at people's nether regions while trying to figure out how their pants fit.

I think it's funny that these pants are called Clovers, since three-leafed versions abound (pretty good fit, definitely acceptable), but the four-leafed version (looks absolutely amazing and as drag-line free as the the modeled photos on the site) is pretty rare. Okay, that's a pretty belabored and cheesy metaphor. The question now is, do I keep working on this pattern, or try tracing my own from pants that already fit me? When I compared the crotch curve on the Clovers to my favorite RTW pants, they were pretty drastically different. The Clovers look more like the "official" crotch curve pictures in all the sewing books I own (less pronounced J in front, almost an L in the back), but I like the less-curved crotch curve fit of my RTW pants. Maybe I just don't know how pants should fit? Anyway, I bought myself the Craftsy Jeanius course to copy my favorite jeans since it was on sale last weekend, but I know myself and I don't think I have the patience/stamina/meticulousness required for Kenneth King's couturier directions. I think I'll give the haphazard pinpricking method a try first...

May Stashbusting: The Mint and Silver Dragee Tiramisu

2013-05-13T09:21:00.001-07:00

Five months between pattern purchase and finished garment is not really that long a time. I've got some patterns in my stash that have been lingering unmade for years, but considering how excited I was for Cake Patterns' first release, well, this dress is somewhat overdue.

I really wanted to take pictures wearing the Tira while eating actual tiramisu, but that didn't work out. Instead, you'll have to settle for this gorgeous house in Kensington in San Diego at sunset.

Since mint is a color that is also a food/flavor (and apparently there's at least one food blogger that's made a mint tiramisu), I ran with the concept and dubbed the gray sparkly stripes the silver dragees.

OH HEY GUESS WHAT IT'S A MAXI TIRA!

Isn't it gorgeously long and flowy?

The skirt just hits my instep in front, and skims the ground in the back.

I started sewing this dress with some of my earlier excitement tempered by the reviews from other sewing bloggers -- it seems that in the smaller sizes, there are more issues with getting a good fit in the bodice, and having to take in the side seams significantly seems common, too. Of course, the day after I finished the dress, Steph posted a list of corrections for the smaller sizes that will be in the second edition. I love that she actually took the time to read all the reviews and make those changes! However, they came too late for me...but I did end up making some of those changes myself, so I know I'm on the right track.

Even with all the changes, still no gaping!

Based on my measurements and some of the finished garments I saw floating around the blogiverse, I cut a 30 for the high bust, an A cup, and a 25 waist. While my waist isn't actually 25 inches, the instructions helpfully suggest going down a size for a tighter fit, which is what I wanted. I was also really pleased to have stripe guidelines on the pattern pieces; in the past, when I've made garments with chevrons, I had to be extra careful and think long and hard about which way the stripes were going to end up before cutting (and even so, I may have cut a few pieces backwards), so it was nice to have that thinking done for me already!

I am so proud of these chevrons!

Changes I made: Besides the obvious change of making a maxi (my skirt ended up being 38" long, instead of the prescribed 24"), I also ended up

omitting the bust gathers,
adjusting the center notch placement so that it didn't overlap quite so much in the middle,
bringing the side seams in by another inch on each side, but then my jersey was very stretchy and quite thin.
When I tried on my bodice without the skirt, there was some weird wrinkling/dragging at the shoulders, and even when I pulled the midriff down to mimic the weight of the skirt (make sure you do that!), there was still a weird bubbly dip. I realized that it was because of the slight convexity of the shoulder seam; my shoulders must be really wide since they didn't hit anywhere near the supposed shoulder location of the pattern! I just made the shoulder seam a straight line and that took care of most of the problem.
Because of the weight of the skirt, the zigzag stitching started pulling apart a bit at the center front and back and the side seams, so I actually went back and added an inch of regular straight stitch in those four locations. This doesn't seam to have affected the overall stretchiness of the waist much, as I can still pull it over my head just fine.
At the recommendation of many of the reviews, I added the sleeve band after sewing the side seams, as I think it looks neater that way.
I also didn't bother hemming the skirt, since, well, floor length circle skirt hem in jersey = slightly worse than sewing over beads and breaking needles.
Even though Cake Patterns prides itself on always having pockets, I left mine out since the jersey is quite thin and the skirt is already quite heavy.

It's hard to say what my favorite thing is about this dress -- I love the colors, the wide stripes, the chevrons, the silhouette, the twirliness of the circle skirt...this might be one of my favorite makes ever!

Mr. Cation: you look like a flamenco dancer! Me: Is that a good thing? Mr. Cation: I dunno, that's just what you look like.

Weeee!!!

Twirly pic spam!

Check out my impeccable stripe matching at the skirt side seams too! The bodice, not so much.

Summary:
Fabric: 4 yards of 60" jersey knit in mint/silver stripes. The silver stripes were annoying because they're actually woven through with tiny metallic tinsel threads which kept catching on my walking foot's upper feed dogs. I actually ended up abandoning the walking foot when it made stripe matching worse than my regular foot.
Notions: None! I'm toying with the idea of going back and adding elastic to the waist, but I don't have any of the correct size right now.
Hours: Four hours, with one devoted to cutting...spreading out that much fabric in our apartment had to happen in installments. Fitting the bodice and fiddling with the walking foot also took some time, but now that I have those issues figured out, future (non-maxi) makes should go much faster.
Will you make it again? Yes! Like I said, I'm a fan of the chevrons, the surplice bodice, and the cap sleeves. I even traced my size onto tissue paper so as to keep the pattern intact in case I want to make it for anyone else; I'm that enamored of how good it looks on a multitude of shapes and sizes. When I make this again, I do want to raise the underarm seam a smidge, though, since it pulls just a bit when I raise my arms.
Total cost: $4...gosh, I love Michael Levine Loft.
Final thoughts: In case you couldn't tell, I adore this dress. I've said before that the reason why I love maxi skirts is that they're the closest you can come to playing dress-up while still looking like a normal person, and the swooshiness of this dress is no exception! I love how the top is so sleek while the hem is so full, and the colors are just enough to be special without being over the top. The fabric is light enough that it almost hovers in the air around me as I walk, instead of getting tangled. Okay, enough gushing; I could go on for a while if I let myself. Thanks, Steph, for making such a fantastic pattern!

Okay, just one more whirling dervish picture to properly show my joy at this dress.

I've still got enough fabric leftover to make a top or a skirt -- but do I really need another dolman sleeve top? Probably not...but thankfully, EmSewCrazy and I have collected a bunch of project ideas for knits on our May Stashbusting board...check it out if you haven't already! And if you're scared of sewing with knits, consider this month's challenge a good reason to tackle them. Here are some good tutorials for starting on stretch fabric sewing. In the words of Thor, have at thee, stretch fabrics!

My Mother's Qipao

2013-05-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

I admire my mother for so many reasons, including but not limited to the fact that she supported her family as a teenager by working in a garment factory, that she taught me to use a sewing machine, and made the dress of my dreams for my elementary school graduation. She's a gorgeous, strong woman, and when I was a child I used to watch her get dressed up for banquets and hope that one day I would be old enough to wear her dresses. Unfortunately, now that I'm old enough, I've turned into a fashion snob and have no desire to wear 80s dresses. Somehow, they never seem to mention that part in those sentimental YA novels about mother-daughter relationships. Still, there are a couple dresses from before I was born (the 70s fashions are much more acceptable to me) that she's kept, and when I was home last, I came across a silk qipao that I've seen before in her old pictures.

I love how deliciously vintage that couch is.

These were taken back in Hong Kong.

The qipao is actually made from a very thin and delicate material and the snaps are starting to pull at the silk a bit, but is otherwise in very good condition. I'm not usually a fan of pink and purple together, but I tried it on anyway.

I tried for the whole standing near a window thing.

Also I didn't iron it beforehand.

And I don't have awesome silver stilettos.

So yeah, Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I celebrated by stealing your dress for some pictures.

I love that I'm actually old enough now to wear this dress (she also found her wedding reception dress, but it's too late for me to wear that to get married in!), but I'm still sad that my favorites of her old clothing are long gone. Which brings me to my next long-term project (and it's going to a looooong one, since I'm in no hurry, I just like the idea of it): making my own versions of my mom's wardrobe from the 70s! I've got the wide-legged trousers covered, and there are a couple of bohemian-ish dresses that I love. Good thing there's no shortage of 70s patterns in my stash...

DIY Anthropologie Fail!

2013-05-10T00:48:00.002-07:00

I've been wanting to join in the Spring Top Sewalong over at Made by Rae, so I started looking for some inspiration. I spotted Anthropologie's Spotted Peasant Blouse (ha! see what I did there?) while browsing Pinterest, and got all excited because I had a similar-ish spotted chiffon in my stash. I set out to whip up a top for myself, although I should have known that poly-chiffon does not lend itself to whipping. More like swearing, gnashing of teeth, rending of clothing, etc. Although, compared to the beaded and crinkled chiffon, this perfectly smooth stuff was a breeze. Of course, I had to complicate matters by deciding that I wanted to change the neckline and do a half-placket instead of fussing with binding that little keyhole detail and turning a tiny tube. I quickly sketched up a blouse shape, cut out my pieces, and went about French seaming everything. I was so confident, I went ahead and sewed everything without 1) making sure the top would fit based on my measurements, 2) trying it on as I sewed, or 3) stepping back to give myself some perspective.

You don't look particularly happy there.

Yes, I was addressing my photo self in the previous caption.

Okay fine, I'll fake a smile.

And like I said, chiffon tops do not whip up. After I'd more or less finished, I realized that my placket did not come out as neatly and professionally as I somehow imagined it was coming out while I was caught up in the sewing spree. Even starched within an inch of its life, it still came out looking decidedly Becky Home-Ecky. Even worse, when I tried the top on, I realized that it was way too tight in the shoulders. That's what I get for slapdash patterning.

Up close, the placket is messy, and it wants to flop open to accommodate my wide shoulders.

The only thing I could think of to widen the top was to cut a slit in the back and guess what -- bind that opening and make a tiny tube. I'm pretty sure that's a situation that belongs in Alanis Morisette's "Ironic" song, although possibly "it's like having to make 1/4" self-fabric bias binding and turn a narrow tube out of non-creasing poly-chiffon when you specifically set out to avoid such a situation" doesn't have quite the same ring as "it's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife."

Even when I sewed the tiny tube on, I made it too long, so I had to tie a tiny knot in it. *sigh* This top is just full of fail.

And worst part is, after all that fussing, I still don't like the blouse. It hangs funny even with all the modifications, I'm constantly readjusting it every time I raise my arms, it's an awkward color to match, and it's non-breathing polyester in a summer top. I know it looks okay to the casual observer, but I just feel uncomfortable in it. So, off to the donation pile it is! I guess that's one way to bust a stash...

Awkward face to go with the awkward arm-raising. See all the weird pulling? Yuck.

Stashbusting Vibrant Color Challenge Winner!

2013-05-08T18:55:00.002-07:00

I'm pretty sure if your blog handle is "The Amazing Taracat," it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. This goldfish appliqued Laurel dress was by far and away the winner of April's stashbusting challenge.

If you haven't checked out the details of this amazing dress (those sequin bubbles make me swoon), go take a gander and then see if you don't want to join me on the fainting couch. And I promise I didn't rig the vote just because her blog's named after a cat!

Even though the AP Exams are over (for me, at least...they're still going on for other subjects for another week and a half), I'm still busy getting things done for Elaine's wedding. I've been making good progress on the ketubah, though!

I haven't done any watercolor painting since freshmen year of high school, so needless to say, I was a little nervous doing this. I know, I know, it's just a basic wet-on-wet graduated wash, but controlling the colors got a little dicey since it's such a large area. Real painters may laugh, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! The Durin's Door design was drawn on with a gold marker pen, which went quickly since I was just tracing over the lines I transferred on before.

A closer look at the San Francisco cityscape that's hanging out between the trees: the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda, the Ferry Building, the Japantown thing, the Transamerica Building, the Coit Tower, and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge!

Since it didn't really make sense to have the emblems of Durin in the middle, I designed these two kissing elvish-style cats (Elaine and her fiance are cat people too, and have a couple of them!) and added an open book (they're also into reading and learning). I also subbed out the runes at the top for their actual initials.

Still to come: the most important calligraphy I've ever done before!

My color and font size experiments.

Historical Sew Fortnightly: Flora and Fauna

2013-05-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

While I like my feminine dresses as much as the next lady, never before have I sewn a frock that deserves so much to be called a confection. Between the chiffon overlay, the beading, the embroidery, and the lacy pink satin slip, this is definitely more frou-frou than anything I've ever sewn before!

I tried to follow American Duchess' 1920s makeup tutorial, but I don't think it worked so well...mostly because the idea of wearing that much eyeliner freaked me out. I don't usually wear any makeup, so when I came out of the bathroom, I think Mr. Cation was kind of shocked.

Extremely anachronistic Nine West silver stilettos, because I don't own any other light-colored shoes. These are actually from my wedding, and this is the first time I've worn them since then! The feather clip on my head sash is also from my wedding, originally purchased at Claire's, and then my necklace is from Forever 21. Hello, "flapper" look from the mall!

I love the way the bottom hem turned out, even if I accidentally broke three needles on beads while doing it. I was not wearing eye protection because it didn't occur to me, since, you know, I wasn't actually working with steel boning, and one needle tip actually flew up and hit my cheek. Yikes!

I used to think that 1920s fashions were the most unflattering styles ever, what with the straight bodices with little to no shaping and the dropped waists. But just like 19-teens era fashion, Downton Abbey has won me over and I just had to make an evening dress that would be appropriate for a party in West Egg. Besides, the Great Gatsby movie's coming out this week!

To get the ~~shapeless~~ gamine look, I wore a sports bra underneath the slip.

I actually used to hate The Great Gatsby as a novel, too, but a second reading, a decade after high school English class, really helps me to appreciate it a lot better. Something about not having to finish it, along with homework for other AP classes, and write an essay at the end...

It was so bright outside that the embroidery and beading got kind of lost. Here's a better picture of what it looks like in person. Much pinker than the outdoor photos!

I originally wanted to make an 1840s-ish gown for this HSF challenge, but decided that between Elaine's wedding preparations and the AP Exams, I should probably hold off on such a complicated project. I turned instead to this embroidered and beaded crinkle chiffon, which was originally purchased with the intention of making a Titanic evening dress when I was still in the middle of Season 1 of Downton Abbey. That never happened, but thanks to the progression of time in the Downton world, this is still appropriate for an evening dinner party there!

I decided that the sash tied at the side was totally a thing. For example, these extant gowns.

To start with, and to ease myself into slippery fraytastic fabric sewing, I made a pink satin slip to go under the very sheer chiffon. Thanks to Lauren, the American Duchess, for the very easy tutorial!

1920s slips are not flattering, but I did my best to pretty it up. I was inspired by these two extant slips, which are much more elaborate, of course. I figured that it was okay since the slip would be mostly hidden.

To make the overdress, I started by looking at the 1923-25 evening dress in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. It's got no shaping (side seams go straight down, no darts) and is essentially a giant tank-top. I went with that general shape (but graded down for my size) for the bodice, but I was afraid that a straight-down side seam for the entire dress would be more unflattering than necessary. Fortunately, there are plenty of examples (from both sewing patterns and extant gowns) of straight bodices with fuller skirts, either through the use of godets or gathered rectangles. I didn't want to deal with either of those options because of the fussiness of my fabric, so I opted for a fraction of a circle-ish skirt, like these sewing patterns or this dress. I put together the front and back bodice and skirt pieces, then sewed them together at the shoulder and sides by machine, and finally hand-overcast the seam allowances to make them as unobtrusive as possible. The worst part by far, though, was trying to finish the armscyes and neckline with self-fabric bias binding; crinkle chiffon is the worst fabric ever, and yet I persist in using it for some reason. Even with all of Andrea's tips, I couldn't get it to behave! Between the crinkles, the general chiffon shiftiness, and the beads on the fabric, I ended up with the wiggliest bindings ever. To camouflage some of the worst of it on the neckline, I added a couple rows of extremely ugly beading. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking.

You can see how crinkly the chiffon is here. Also my hand finished seam allowance, which almost turned into a rolled hem due to the lightness of the chiffon.

It's like I was drunk when I sewed on the beads, except I totally wasn't.

Summary:
HSF Challenge #9: Flora and Fauna...I've got the flora thing going on in the embroidery, and I guess the feather clip can be the fauna? I didn't make the clip, though.

Fabric: For the slip and sash, 2 yards of dusty-rose polyester satin; for the overdress, 3.5 yards of 45" wide polyester crinkle chiffon in cream, embroidered and beaded with a floral pattern. I didn't include these in my stashbusting pledge pile, but both have been in the stash since Oonaballoona and I ripped off the FIDM scholarship store, so I'm pretty pleased to have used it.
Notions: Cream-colored 1/2" polyester ribbon for the slip straps, cream-colored lace from last year's Vintage Fashion Expo, almost 300 silver bugle beads for the overdress neckline (which I've saved for six years...thereby rewarding my penchant for never throwing away any craft supply ever)
Techniques used: French seams on the slip, hand-overcast stitch on the overdress
Hours: About thirty? I don't even know anymore, I've been working on it so long. I managed to watch a good chunk of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, all of North and South, and listen to a whole bunch of Radiolab podcasts.
Will you make it again? Extremely unlikely. I'm pleased with the overall experience and dress, but I'm not in need of more 1920s evening dresses!
Total cost: Thanks to the FIDM's mistake and the LA Fabric District's prices, less than $15!
First worn: Just for pictures, but hopefully to see the movie when it comes out
Final thoughts: When I was walking out of the apartment to take pictures, I felt super glamorous, and as a bonus the whole thing is remarkably comfortable. I am incredibly pleased with this dress and how successfully I was able to get the general look of the era, despite the anachronistic materials and accessories! As for those who might turn up their noses at the polyester and less-than-stellar beading, well, all I can say is, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." In this case, that would be the advantage of beading lessons and a large enough pocketbook for authentic materials?

And because B&W automatically equals old-timey...I did my best to channel my inner Anna May Wong, despite the failings of my make-up application:

Do I Need to Design a Flag, Then?

2013-05-06T21:20:00.003-07:00

If I had a flag, I would plant it on this blog to claim it. "For Walnut and geekery!"
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In other news, congratulations to The Liveaboard, winner of the little shaving thingamajiggy! Send me an email at cationdesignsblog [at] gmail.com with your address so that I can send it your way.

Lastly, if you haven't voted on your favorite vibrantly-colored stashbusting project, you've still got a day to do so! Everyone gets one vote, and you need to click on the "vote" button above the project of your choice. Incidentally, don't vote for me! I only put my link in as an example.

And just so this post isn't totally pictureless, here's what my rough draft and transfer for Elaine's ketubah look like:

Apologies for the terrible lighting...it was a dark and stormy night.

May the Fourth

2013-05-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's Star Wars Day! Considering that that was the first geeky trilogy I fell in love with, I figured it was appropriate to dress Walnut up to celebrate the occasion (Walnut, on the other hand, may have disagreed). Since he's all brown and hairy and thinks with his stomach, well, it was pretty obvious who he had to cosplay as...

"Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?"

Walnut loves punching and attacking straws. They're like his mortal enemy or something. If he sees one in a glass or soda cup, he will go out of his way to seize it and chew it to death.

It's almost as if they had enslaved his ancestors or something, just like the Empire with the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk. I mean, look at that face of intense hatred!

What did I tell you?

A Wookiee in a berserker rage is a fearsome sight.

So into it, he doesn't care that his bandolier strap has fallen off.

So yeah, it's not wise to upset a Wookiee.

I made the strap out of some leftover 1" brown cotton webbing and fleece straps.

Step 1: Zigzag stitch two strips of webbing together to make a wider strap.

Step 2: Butt the ends of the strap together at a right angle and zigzag stitch it together. Cut out a bunch of white fleece rectangles and glue them on.

Step 3: Stitch a piece of brown ribbon down the center.

After all his exertions against the evil Straw Empire, Walnut is exhausted.

Cats and Wookiees -- both fiercely loyal and cuddly-looking, but let them win unless you want your arms torn off.

Bonus: Walnut does his best bantha pose.

Happy May the Fourth, everyone!

Polyester Pillage Getting You Down?

2013-05-01T22:40:00.002-07:00

Thank you for all of your sweet comments about yesterday's dinosaur dress! I don't know that they necessarily change Mr. Cation's mind about squiring me about town while I'm wearing it, but it's kind of comforting to know that Gingermakes' Man Friend feels the same. It's not just my guy that's put off by Jurassic Park on a dress that "needs" to be belted!

One thing you should know, though -- of all the sheets I've worked with (and I've worked with a lot!), these sheets were probably the worst when it came to polyester content. Usually, modern sheets are 100% cotton or 100% polyester, which makes it easy to tell content from the feel. Sheets from the 80s and before are usually 50/50 poly-cotton, which is not great but not bad either. This 1992 Jurassic Park sheet, though, was 70/30 poly-cotton, which meant that after years of wear by some little kid, it was pilling pretty badly.

I had to play around with the lighting so that you could see the pills, hence the shadowy-ness of the picture.

Seriously, sewasauruses, is there anything worse than low-quality polyester pillage? And by pillage I don't mean raiding a village and burning it to the ground after making off with the sheep and cattle.

To clean it up for actual wearing in public, Mr. Cation's opinions notwithstanding, I used this handy little machine.

See the blades and all the pills collected in the chamber?

I got this gadget from the Japanese dollar store (although everything there is actually more than a dollar, since it's imported from Japan), along with a bunch of other sewing goodies (I love that Japanese stores actually have a sewing and crafts section!). My mom had one of these when I was growing up for shaving sweaters with, and I used to love getting to use it. It's just satisfying to see all those little bits come off your clothing and gather up in the inner chamber, you know? Anyway, I figured that there must be other people out there who have pilly ~~sheets from the 90s~~ clothing, so I bought an extra to give away to one of you! Here's how you can enter:

Leave a comment saying that you're entering the shaving machine giveaway!
Answer the question: what's the worst fabric you've had to rehab in order to make it wearable? I'm imagining red wine vomit, the smell of thrift stores and moth balls, a black fabric after a white cat's slept on it...
You should probably be a follower of my blog to enter. I'm not going to check your credentials, but hey, how else will you know if you've won unless you actually read my blog?

I'll close the giveaway on Sunday night at 11:59 pm PST, and post a winner on Monday! Gaack, that's AP exam day!

So much better! All those colors look so much better when they're not covered with pills. Speaking of color, though, don't forget to enter the April Stashbusting link party!

Incidentally, if you didn't get to those vibrant colors this past month, that's okay, because May is here! May is all about using up the knits in your stash...go check out the details of the challenge over on EmSewCrazy's blog. She also posted some of the standouts from the Flickr Stashbusting group, so take a look and see if you're featured!

The Antisocial Behavior Dress

2013-04-30T10:32:00.001-07:00

If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do? We were talking about social influence and deindividuation last week in my AP Psych class, and when presented with the above question, 36% of college students responded with some kind of antisocial activity (e.g. criminal or spying behaviors, with most people actually saying "rob a bank"), 19% cited some other non-normative behavior, 36% neutral, and only 9% of the respondents named a prosocial behavior (Dodd, 1985). I'm pretty sure that of all the responses, 0% of them said "enter a sewing contest without using the official contest pattern."

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've probably heard that Colette Patterns recently released a new sewing pattern, the Laurel shift dress, and not only that, but they sponsored a huge contest with absolutely fabulous prizes. Who wouldn't love all that free money to buy fabric and notions with?! Unfortunately, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to buying sewing patterns. I love the sales at Joann's, but even those are a bit pricey when you can buy vintage patterns for $0.25 each at thrift stores. Which means that when it comes to having to pay over $10 for a pattern...well, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Especially for such a simple shift that I could probably make up on my own. I bid a sad goodbye to thoughts of free Spoonflower fabric of my own ($18/yd, even for my own design, is something I can't justify right now. I'll have to settle for drawing or printing my own), but somehow the idea of a simple shift wouldn't leave me alone! Even though I was pretty underwhelmed when I first saw the Laurel pattern announcement, Debi was right -- contests really do inspire me to rethink my initial assessments of a pattern (or in this case, a look) that I'd previously dismissed as unsuitable for my body type/personal style.

So...what did I finally make for my if-I-could-I-would contest entry? Well, let's just say that velociraptors, especially as depicted in Jurassic Park, are the ultimate in antisocial behavior:

Okay, I know, this isn't a velociraptor*, but it's still pretty awesome to find metal dinosaurs outside a random car wash in TCOCC.

A wash and wax for $9.95! They actually do a pretty good job, as Mr. Cation car can attest.

There was a ~~Sewasaurus~~ Tyrannosaurus Rex too!

I could also wear this on days that I'm feeling particularly introverted, because there's nothing more antisocial than a dress printed all over with ominous words/phrases like "Keep Out! Danger! Caution! Warning!"Also, Mr. Cation swears he will not walk next to me when I wear this in public, so that's even less social interaction...

You mean you don't want to be associated with me? At least Amanda will join me in making dinosaur poses!

When I first received this Jurassic Park sheet in the mail, I was so excited, but I couldn't figure out what to do with such an awesome (and large-scale, and multi-colored) print! Thanks to Brooke, who suggested that I make it into a shift dress with as few interrupting style lines as possible, I decided to make this not-a-Laurel. While I can't exactly enter it into the contest, I still think it would've been a pretty fabulous entry for the showing-off-a-print category.

I started with Simplicity 8722, which I've used in the past, but only with knits. In order to get the more fitted look that I wanted, I ended up making a whole bunch of modifications, taking in the side seams and back (at both the CB seam and by making larger back darts), almost totally redrafting the sleeve, and of course, axing the facings and replacing them with bias strips. Now that I've finally done the work of modifying the pattern, I'm surprised by how much I like the shift dress look! It's simple and classy (as long as you're not using dinosaur sheets from the 90s) and not nearly as awful on my body as I was expecting.

Summary:
Fabric: Just half of a 70/30 poly-cotton twin sheet. I love that shift dresses use so little fabric! This means I still have enough fabric left over to do something else, although I don't know what yet.
Notions: Bias tape for the neckline, seam binding on all the inside bits (there are no raw edges anywhere, because this fabric frayed like fraying was its only goal in life), a 20" zipper, and a hook and eye
Hours: Eight, for all the fiddly fitting and seam binding everything within an inch of its life.
Will you make it again? Now that I've figured out how to wear a shift dress well, you bet I'll be making more! Colette, I'm sorry for ever doubting the brilliance of the Laurel. However, I'm still not paying you $14 for it.
Total cost: Thanks to the generous NYC sewing bloggers, this was a free project! All the notions were in my stash already, but I guess if you had to count how much they originally cost me, I'll say it was $1.
Final thoughts: This might be one of the more ridiculous things I've made. And that's saying a lot, since I've made quite a few ridiculous things in the last couple of years! Unlike the other geeky dresses I've made, which were all a sort of uniform blue with a slightly more subtle print (you wouldn't think they'd be subtle, but I've hung out with people and had them not notice until several hours in that I've got Jedis or superheroes all over my dress), this dress boasts all the primary colors in a huge, blocky print. Dinosaurs just don't do subtle. Still, I think the colors and pattern actually add to the mod 60s look. Hah! Obviously I don't actually know anything about the mod 60s look. At any rate, the nicest thing Mr. Cation could think to say about it (actually, I'm not sure he was trying to be nice...he might have just been confused) was that it looked like a pediatric nurse's scrubs. You know, the kind with teddy bears all over to keep children calm. Well, watch out, children, these terrible lizards aren't even pretending that the shot won't hurt! They're all like caution danger warning this shot is going to hurt like a dinosaur bite. Still, despite all that, this dress makes me really happy because it's just SO WEIRD.

Even better, though? I'm not alone in my weirdness! Gingermakes, of Mood Sewing Network fame, and one of the NYC bloggers who was in on sending me this sheet, kept a JP sheet for herself...and she also made it into a shift dress (but she used the real Laurel...I guess I'm just the Chinese knock-off)! I'm pretty sure that when Andrea announced the S.O.S. challenge, she never thought it would be applied to such fabric. But there you have it, sister fabrics...go check out her make!

At this point, Mr. Cation was like, are we done yet?

*A true-to-life statue of a velociraptor wouldn't be very fun to take pictures with, though, since they're not nearly as scary as the Jurassic Park movie portrayal. As expressed so delightfully in one of my favorite nerdy songs, Hollywood Raptor, velociraptors should be feathered and more or less turkey-sized. Incidentally, The Doubleclicks are an absolutely brilliant pair of sisters who write awesome stuff -- if you're into D&D at all, you'll love This Fantasy World.

DIY Anthropologie: Edisto Wide-Leg Trousers

2013-04-29T17:21:00.001-07:00

When I first started sewing, one of my big motivators was wanting to make my own versions of Anthropologie clothes for much, much cheaper. In fact, that was a big theme of many of my earlier makes, but it's been over a year since I was inspired by anything in their catalogs. I don't know why they got so Bohemian for a while, but I was thrilled to pieces when their latest catalog was suddenly full of things I wanted to make. I love being inspired by their colors and prints, so even though my sewing queue has just doubled in length, I'm (not so) secretly pleased.

In the past, I've only tried to copy their dresses and skirts, so I decided that I should take on the challenge of pants. I mean, now that I've more or less successfully sewn pants and shorts, a whole new world is open to me and I should take advantage of it. Enter the Edisto Linen Wide-Legs in red, gloriously vibrant and with big contrasting buttons on the side. I've been cautiously entertaining the idea of brightly colored pants ever since seeing Erica B's gorgeous coral pair and Sunni's season opener, but wasn't sure if I could pull it off. There's nothing like a hey-look-at-me color on bottom to bring doubt into the mind of a pear-shaped lady, but I had the perfect fabric in my stash, and, well, it's the year of magical doings. If pulling off orange pants isn't magical, then I don't know what is. Also, it's only fabric -- if I don't like the final result, it's not like I was making pants out of baby penguins. So...how did they turn out?

ZOMG red-orange is a ridiculously difficult color to photograph.

I'm in love with these buttons.

My best attempt to mimic the Anthro picture. Not nearly as fun as the Japanese sewing books.

Boom! Butt!

If you look closely at the enlarged picture of the Edisto pants, you can see that besides the side-button feature, they also don't have a waistband or darts at the front -- there's only a line of stitching that gives the suggestion of a waistband, but is more likely just to tack down the facing on the inside. With that in mind, I used OOP Simplicity 4099 as my base pattern, which I won in Leah of Struggle Sews a Straight Seam's giveaway last summer. It has very similar features (no front dart or waistband, wide leg), minus the side buttons, but I figured it would be easy enough to make that part up.

To make the side-button placket, I cut two placketish-looking pieces, finished the edges, and sewed one to each side of the left side opening. On the front pants piece, I pressed the placket under and topstitched it down, then put in five buttonholes. On the back pants piece, I left the placket piece flopping out towards the front, understitched it, tacked on a piece of twill tape to act as a button stand (I recently read this blog post about button stands in historical tailoring, and it made so much sense that I elected to jury-rig one for these pants. It works marvelously and I don't have to worry about my fabric distorting or ripping, and the closure feels deliciously secure), then added my five lovely nautical buttons. I am seriously in love with how this closure looks, plus it puzzled Mr. Cation because he couldn't figure out how the pants came off.

Yaaaay I look eleven feet tall!

Summary:

Fabric: 2 yards of 60" wide, suiting-weight orange wool-blend twill, part of my stashbusting pledge pile. The lady who was cutting it for me at F&S said it had some polyester in it, and it certainly presses that way, and I suspect it's got a bit of Lycra in it as well, since it's slightly stretchy. While the original Anthro pants are a linen-tencel blend, I opted not to use a similar fabric because 1) reviews said that it got really wrinkly, and 2) who am I kidding, I didn't want to go out and buy new fabric. Hopefully the polyester means that these won't get too wrinkly!

Notions: 5 brass anchor buttons from Fabrix in SF, lots of seam binding, thrifted twill tape and 2" hem facing

Techniques used: My first time trying hem weights, thanks to the tip on Erica B's blog post! Seriously, best twenty cents I've ever spent...my pants looked ridiculous and horrible and I was ready to cry about all my wasted time, but then I tried adding in those four nickels and seriously guys, it was like magic. Suddenly everything was hanging a lot better, and these pants were saved from the UFO pile. If your wide leg swingy pants aren't hanging right, TRY IT.

Hours: Eight or so over this past weekend...because right after making and sending off a corset, I felt the need to start (and miraculously, finish) an untried pattern.

Will you make it again? Probably not. I don't think I need any more wide-leg trousers, although these are awfully comfy and swooshily fun in a way that I thought only skirts and dresses could be. I credit the hem weights for adding a certain gravitas when I stalk about purposefully.

Total cost: You're not going to believe this -- less than $4!!! I got the fabric for $1/yard when F&S was cleaning out old inventory, and the buttons were $0.10 each. Add in some seam binding and of course, my four nickels, and I've saved myself $94 off the original price of the Anthro pants. Sewing FTW!!

Final thoughts: When I first walked out of the sewing room to show my husband, he was speechless. I was already afraid that I looked like some negligent prison escapee who'd forgotten to change pants, but then he pronounced them interesting, and that the cut/style was fine, but the color was a little shocking. Finally we decided that I looked like a very stylish member of the Rogue Squadron. I do like them, though, resemblance to various jumpsuits aside, and even though the fit isn't perfect, I'm glad I gave it a try! I still need to work up the courage to wear them out for more than just pictures, though.

See, if I just stand normally, the back is all wrinkly. Not any worse than my RTW work pants, but still...it feels more egregious when it's orange. Also, I opted not to include welt pockets because let's face it, I'm still not mentally ready yet.

That's okay, though, because I'll just stand like this all the time.

I think these actually look pretty similar to 1930s trousers, so these could *almost* be a HSF entry too...I mean, check out these pictures:

Wide legs: check! Side buttons: check! No front darts or waistband: check! Darts on the back with no pockets, check! [source]

Oh hey, these are even orange! [source]

Pretty similar, right? I do find it interesting that the historical versions both end at about ankle-length, which I feel looks pretty weird. I hemmed these to just skim the ground, reasoning that my legs look longer that way. Since most of my height is from my long torso, I feel like the length of the pants + the high waist helps visually even out my proportions a bit.

On that note, it's time to close out Vibrant Color month in the Stashbusting Sewalong! I vowed to use the brightest fabric in my stash this month, and I did...what about you? Let's see your brightly-colored makes from April -- just add your link to the party below.

Also, in case you forgot, April was also a challenge month, which means that we'll be voting for our favorite project, and the lucky winner gets a small surprise in the mail! You've got until the end of the week to add your project, and then voting will start on Saturday, May 4, and end on Tuesday, May 7.

Because I Needed A Break

2013-04-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

After all the corset-making intensity of the last week, I needed a relatively quick, non-stressful project that wouldn't involve taxing my arms anymore. I still managed to prick myself a bit with the felting needle, but it's still much better than accidentally stabbing yourself with an awl.

Dawwww, look at that face!

He's rolling around on his back, hoping for a belly rub!

His big secret: that patch of white on his back is actually rabbit fur, from my friend Cindy's adorable bunny June!

There's not much to say about this addition to the felted cat hair family; it's still the same techniques, and of course, obligatory posing with the original!

Walnut cautiously inspects the new guy.

Poor neutered Walnut with the only progeny he will ever have.

Some people will be pleased to know that there is no longer enough hair in the stash for another felted cat. Of course, Walnut is always shedding more...

Oh what, I have to interrupt my morning lounging in the sun to take more pictures with this guy?

Fine, let's get this over with. Is this pose similar enough for you?

I can destroy you with one paw, tiny doppelganger. Come on and fight me if you dare!

Wedding Dress Progress Post #5

2013-04-27T14:41:00.003-07:00

I know it seems like it's just wedding dress posts all the time now, but you know what? That's all I've been working on, so...yeah. The good news is, it's almost done! I finished just about everything, and it's in the mail on its way to Elaine for a final try on before I tack on the appliques.

Can I just say that I never expected to be sore from corset-making? I woke up this morning feeling like I'd worked out, and I promise you, I haven't been. It's just that between cutting spiral steel, stuffing it into my very tight boning channels, inserting grommets, and extensive use of the hand-wheel on my machine for parts where I was sewing through eight layers of fabric, well, my hands and arms have been put to work.

This experience (and I'm more or less mentally/blogally wrapping up the experience since almost everything is done) has taught me that:

steel is sharp. I kept inadvertently jabbing or scratching myself while trying to cut and file the boning. Next time, gloves and not-shorts might be in order.
the people at Orchard Supply Hardware do not know what they're about. I wasted an hour being misdirected from aisle to aisle while looking for heat shrink tubing and grommet-setting tools. They also recommended aviation snips that were only barely sufficient for cutting the steel boning. I made it work, but my right arm did not thank me.
Steam Ingenious is seriously a genius for coming up with the heat-shrink tubing method of tipping steel boning. It was ridiculously fun watching the pieces of tubing shrink up around the bones. I want to heat shrink everything now!

when using the heat shrink tubing method, though, make sure to allot an extra eighth of an inch of length on either end for the extra tubing that has to stick out, or else you'll be a sad, sad person when it comes to binding the edges.
I hate making holes for grommets, especially through multiple thick layers -- they have to be just the right size to be tight, but not so tight you can't wiggle the grommet in. Also, if you've got the same fabric on both the outside and inside of the corset, it's a good idea to make sure that the grommet is going in the right way. One of my grommets ended up the wrong way; thankfully the right side and wrong side are fairly indistinguishable when inserted properly. I really don't think anyone at Elaine's wedding is going to notice...right? And don't even get me started on getting them all perfectly lined up.
those Clover bias tape makers are totally worth it. I actually don't have one for the size I needed for the corset binding, so I spent a good hour-plus cutting and pressing the misbehaving cream-colored poly-satin from the underskirt leftovers into 1/2" double-fold bias tape. Polyester just does not like holding a crease! I'm pretty pleased with how nice it looks in the end, though it would've been a lot faster and easier if I had the little doohicky.
there's a reason why real corsetiers use special brocade for the fashion fabric in corsets; it's just a lot more stable and tightly woven. This slippery poly-satin that I used was cheap, but it was a pain when it came to fraying, bubbling, and shifting. I think I made the best of it, but if I were to do this again, I'd underline it with some stable cotton. It's unfortunate that I still had to be learning as I went while making a wedding garment, but I guess that's what Elaine gets for trusting an amateur. At least I saved her a lot of money?

On that note, custom corsets are totally justified in costing hundreds of dollars. While I mostly enjoyed the learning and the experience of making this corset for Elaine, I'll be honest -- there's no way I would do this for anyone other than a very, very, incredibly close friend that I like a lot! I'm glad I got a chance to do this, and I'm glad to be able to save her several hundreds of dollars, but I'm not in a hurry to do it all again anytime soon. I'm so relieved that it's (mostly) done.

Now I just need to figure out the applique(s). What do you think?
(My greatest fear: that the appliques will look like a violin's f-holes.)

Like I said earlier, it's now in the mail to her in Tucson, and I'm trying to hold back the anxiety that it will 1) somehow spontaneously combust en route, 2) not fit, despite having done a muslin and extensive comparison to a corset she already has, and 3) fall apart in the middle of the wedding day.

Remember that tornado of fabric that spit up in my sewing room? Well, this has now been added to the floor.

Wedding Dress Progress Post #4

2013-04-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

Cat checks out the new lace trim.

Can you tell where I joined the two ends of the lace together? Am I awesome or what? Actually, it was just my luck that I didn't end in the middle of a scallop, because I certainly wasn't going to measure a seven yard hem that accurately.

Apologies for all the really yellow pictures...I've been working late into the nights!

I know it isn't Friday, but after a good fourteen hours of work over the last few days, I just had to share: Elaine's skirt is done, and the corset is somewhat assembled! I sewed on the 7+ yards of lace veeeerrry slowly, taking the entire two-hour Hobbit soundtrack to do so. And all the corset pieces are sewn together and boning channels have been created, and the busk was inserted with no little apprehension. Seriously you guys, I was hyperventilating a little when I sewing all these seams. Since the satin shows holes and the coutil is so tightly woven and my stitch length was so small, well, seam-ripping would have been a pain and everything felt awfully permanent. I knew that messing up wasn't an option (although I do have enough extra coutil and satin for another corset, I'd really rather not make a whole new one. Confession time: I actually cut and sewed half a "practice" corset so I could get a feel for how the fabrics handled and the seam allowances I needed to use. I even went to far as to insert a busk and then cut it back out), so I was extra careful and extra tense while I was sewing. I told Elaine afterwards that this is probably the most important thing I will ever sew, at least until I have a daughter get married, at which point I will have just forgotten how nerve-wracking making a wedding dress really is. Now I "just" need to:

purchase spiral steel boning, cut and tip it, and insert it all
wait for the front lace applique to arrive, then sew it on by hand
wait for the lace trim to arrive, then sew it on by hand
finish attaching the floating lining at the back, then insert all the grommets
bind the top and bottom

And then I'll be done! In the meantime, I'm eternally grateful for Steam Ingenious' tutorial on making a corset without having to be ultra nit-picky about everything matching up...I'm sorry, but I just can't do that perfect seam allowance thing. This way, I can just slap on a floating lining to hide my icky insides.

Look at all those raw edges! I added a couple pieces of twill tape in the middle of the largest panels for additional boning.

I used this gray IKEA cotton for the lining since I wanted there to be a natural (but also somewhat coordinating) fabric against the skin. For the pieces closest to the busk, I fused the satin to the cotton so there would be no chance of gray showing through at the front.

Steam Ingenious also has a tutorial about using heat-shrink plastic tubing to cap spiral steel bones, which I'm looking forward to trying. Thank goodness that Richard the Thread is not too far from me in TCOCC! It's tempting to stock up and buy all the hair canvas, coutil, batiste, and grommets I might ever need while I'm still so close, since I know most people don't have the luxury of having an endless supply of busks et al ten minutes away.

In the meantime, I'm still trying to squeeze out one more vibrantly-colored item before the end of the month; it's too bad that AP exam prep is kicking my butt. Good thing the exams I'm concerned about are all over on the first day (May 6), so I can spend the rest of the time in between then and Elaine's wedding working on painting and calligraphing her ketubah. Goodness gracious, does she trust me too much, or does she trust me too much?

My rough sketch: it's based on Durin's Door, because, you know, I'm so good at that imagery, with the hammer & anvil replaced with a pair of cats, and the San Francisco skyline at the bottom between the pillars. The runes at the top are her and her fiance's initials, and the obviously the words I scribbled in will be replaced with the real text. Man, I have not painted anything in several years, so this will be a challenge!

Not Really A Wedding Dress Progress Post

2013-04-20T12:29:00.001-07:00

I've got my work cut out for me. Literally. It's gonna be a hardcore work day!

Historical Sew Fortnightly: By the Sea

2013-04-18T18:17:00.001-07:00

As soon as I saw the "By the Sea" challenge, I knew that I wanted to make a Victorian/Edwardian bathing suit, i.e., the ubiquitous be-sailor-collared dress with the lines of trim all over the place. When I first started sewing "for real," I actually made a similarly-inspired nautical dress (coincidentally, also for a Sew Weekly challenge!) which is one of my favorite early makes, but it's quite dark and, being a 50/50 poly-cotton blend, is quite warm on sunny days. I knew it was time to give the sailor collar another chance, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Now, me being me, you already know my garment is going to fail the historical accuracy test on a couple of counts: 1) machine stitching instead of hand stitching, and 2) made from bedsheets. This dress is no exception, as it's actually made from a 1970s dress pattern, Simplicity 7439, which was gifted to me by Meg the Grand last summer. Still, the differences between the authentic historical look and this modern adaptation are pretty minimal, at least in my mind; the same elements get used over and over again in nautical-inspired dresses, which is probably why people can sell generic versions.

After looking through loads of extant garments on Pinterest and museum sites, as well as fashion plates from the era, I came away with:

1) Light colored bathing suits are rare, but still possible. They don't all have to be dark blue!

"Women on the beach," by Maud Stumm, 1904. [source]

Thanks to The Dreamstress for sharing these images from this 1906 Girl's Own Paper! Check out the girl on the right.

2) They were not afraid of red.

Edwardian bathing suit, c. 1910 [source]

3) The sailor collar can start higher up; it doesn't have to dominate the front bodice.

[source]

4) Yokes, tucks, petal sleeves, and a waist sash are all design options.

Petal sleeves galore! Also yokes and tucks/pleats. Lastly, note that they don't all have to be super-puffy in the bodice. c. 1883. [source]

On the very left: petal sleeves with trim, and a sash at the waist, c. 1873. [source]

5) Trim on the collar, sleeves, and skirt bottom are pretty common.

Two bands of trim at the bottom of the skirt, as well as a yoke and pleats. Also see #3.

6) Most bathing suits from the era are actually a jumpsuit-type deal with a bloomer bottom, and then a skirt is worn over the bloomers to create the "dress" look.

Buttons disappearing into the skirt! Also see the previous picture and picture #3. [source]

7) Bare feet is okay!

Well, I guess bare feet are only allowed if you're wearing full-length trousers too, but...ummm....yeah. c. 1868 [source]

So add up all of those elements, throw in a dash of 1970s, run it all through some old-timey filters, and this is what you get:

Okay, enough of the antique effects, here's what it really looks like:

It was ridiculously bright out.

The bodice with its non-functional buttons disappearing into the sash so as to look like the inspiration garments.

It was also way too windy for my hat to stay on.

Since I wanted to work only from stash, I had to settle for the lightest-colored sheet I had, hence the totally anachronistic print. I go back and forth between thinking it looks vaguely science-y and thinking it looks like a hospital gown. At any rate, the light blue was begging for some vibrant pop of color, and hey, guess what, April is Vibrant Color Challenge month! When I first started sewing, I bought, for some unknown reason, something like ten packs of bright red bias tape. I'm really not sure why. Three years later, I've still got two packs left, so I figured I would go ultra-preppy and do the light blue and red combo. I guess I'm all set for July 4th celebrations this year?

To make the petal sleeves, I started off with this helpful picture tutorial from A Sartorial Statement, but I ended up doing lots of basting and trying on and taking off and seam ripping to get the shape and size right. I'm really pleased with the final look, though, so it was worth it!

A better look at the petal sleeve.

The insides -- you can see the yoke and the elastic across the back. Also,
I used a tan-colored bias tape for the neck binding, the better to hide dirt from
wear. Hah! Actually, it was just because I wanted to use up that scrap.

Summary:
Fabric: 100% cotton twin flat sheet, thrifted (by Emily, then gifted to me), part of a white thrifted sheet for the collar.
Notions: Six yards of red bias tape and five buttons, both originally from Joann's. More bias tape for the sleeve and neck facings. Elastic for the back, and seam binding on all the insides.
Hours: At least twelve...all that trim took forever to apply, and those sleeves weren't helpful either!
How historically accurate is it? Kind of? I mean, minus the construction and materials, it's got all the right elements.
Will you make it again? Probably not. I've already got way too many nautical things in my wardrobe!
Total cost: less than $10? I don't know how much Emily spent on the sheet, but the notions were about $5.
First worn: To lunch with Mr. Cation on my day off, then for a walk along Venice Beach (possibly the most un-Victorian beach ever). It felt so incongruous to be taking pictures for the HSF while surfers were wandering around and hip hop music was blaring from the Muscle Beach Gym. Didn't Mr. Cation do a great job snapping photos at opportune moments so as to avoid too many obviously anachronistic elements?

Black and white, now, because that's really Victorian.
It's too bad I don't know how to photoshop those sunbathers out of the picture!

Although my materials weren't originally included in my stashbusting fabric list, the sheet and the notions have both been in my possession for over six months, if not more, so I'm counting it as a stashbusting project!

The Stylish Dress Book Review

2013-04-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

[source]

After the fiasco that was my Drape Drape experience, I'm honestly kind of surprised that Laurence King Publishing actually wanted to send me more Japanese sewing pattern books to review. They did promise, though, that this next book contained more practical patterns, even if it didn't have a fun name (my favorite suggestion from the giveaway post: a book of HP fashion called Snape Snape). Yoshiko Tsukiori's Stylish Dress Book: Simple Smocks, Dresses, and Tops promised to be a "fabulous homemade alternative to racks of identikit [sic] clothes in cheap fabrics." Flipping through the book, it's true that these clothes are more practical (read: you can actually wear them outside!), and they're certainly different from the cheap clothes you see mass produced at Forever 21 or H&M. On the other hand, they're not exactly what I think of when I think of stylish clothing. To me, these relatively shapeless smocks and boxy tops look more like maternity clothes, which is just perfect because...

...I'm totally not pregnant. Which meant that even though yes, these clothes are more wearable than the ones in Drape Drape, they still wouldn't be my first pick when it comes to trying new patterns. Still, in the interest of doing a fair review (i.e. one where I actually try out at least one pattern), I picked one of the two dresses in the book that actually looks like it has some waist definition going on: Dress R, which features several rows of elastic shirring at the waist.

Unfortunately, white on white doesn't photograph so well.

I decided I wanted to make this dress without the sleeves, and use different fabric for the yoke for some visual interest (and also because sheer yokes are totally in right now). Tracing the pattern was pretty easy, and since the dress is actually pretty basic, I didn't really bother much with the instructions. In case you were wondering, though, the instructions are very similar to Drape Drape: concise and clearly illustrated with well-done line drawings.

It's a cute peasant-ish look, especially with the decorative blanket stitching at the neckline.

How did it turn out? Judge for yourself.

Oh hey, that doesn't look anything like the dress in the book.

Yeah, sorry about that, but I made lots of modifications.

I love the white embroidered flowers on this fabric!

Maybe it was the embroidered cotton voile I was using, but the dress ended up looking very puffy around the shoulders, so I added several more rows of shirring at the shoulders in an attempt to tame some of the extra fabric. I also widened the neckline, took in the bodice side seams by about 1.5" at the underarm (tapering to nothing at the waist), recut the armholes to accommodate the new width, and shortened the hem by about five inches. I also ended up having to do huge seam allowances at the edges of the yoke in the back. For some reason, I didn't bother trimming and re-binding them, so they show through the back a little bit since the voile is so thin. Ah well, I don't have to see my own back, so I'm just going to pretend it didn't happen. And obviously I didn't do the decorative stitching at the neckline, opting instead to just bind everything with white bias tape. All in all, it was rather more fussing (and trying on and making adjustments and retrying) than I expected for a dress with such simple shapes. I wouldn't be scared off, though, as long as you like the style of dress in this book -- the pattern pieces are really very simple and the sizing is extremely generous. I cut the XS for this dress (despite the book recommending a M for my measurements) and I still had to take things in quite a bit. So if you think you can't make clothes from a Japanese sewing book because you're not standard-Japanese-person-sized (I always feel like a freakishly tall giant when I'm in Asia, and I'm not even that tall), don't be afraid!

Even though the shirring helps with the waist definition, I still like dresses best with a belt or sash, so I tried the super trendy turquoise + red combo. I quite like it!

How's that for vibrant color, eh?

Summary:
Fabric: a little over 1.5 yards of 100% cotton embroidered cotton voile. Even though it isn't part of my official stashbusting pledge pile, it's been in the stash for a couple years and it definitely fits the April theme of vibrant color. My only gripe with it is that the embroidered sections are quite puckery and won't flatten out even with ironing. I also used a minimal amount of this dotted white net that's also been in the stash for a while.
Notions: bias tape, elastic thread
Techniques used: Shirring! I haven't shirred since this dress (where I actually had to do a similar thing to tame shoulder puffiness), and this time I shirred the front and back pieces before I sewed them together, and let me tell you, it was much easier dealing with flat pieces! Also, sometimes when I haven't used a new technique for a while, I forget that it isn't that difficult, so I avoid it because I've built it up in my head as some big task involving lots of preparation. I was actually pleasantly surprised (again) by how easy and fast shirring was; even winding the bobbins by hand didn't take much time. Incidentally, this dress only required two bobbins' worth of elastic thread.

More or less even rows of shirring. Also, seam binding on all the insides.

Hours: Seven. What looked like a relatively simple project ended up taking a lot of time because of fussing with the fit at the top so that it didn't look so huge. Also, planning the cutting layout took not an insignificant amount of time because my yardage was so limited.
Will you make it again? No. And there's maybe only one other project in the book that I might actually make one day, but honestly, these patterns would probably be simpler for me to just improvise on my own, rather than modifying these patterns to get the look I want. I actually made a similar sheer-yoked dress last year that turned out to be much easier.
Total cost: I don't remember where I got this fabric, nor how much it was, but knowing my fabric shopping habits, it can't have been more than $5 total. [side note: The problem with fabric shopping in LA is that you start thinking that any more than $3/yd for fabric is exorbitant. I know, I know, some of you are probably all pshh, #LAsewistproblems...$10/yd for embroidered cotton voile is considered to be a good price. Don't hate, I'll be moving in a few months and then my idea of a good price for fabric will recalibrate.]
Final thoughts: I like that this is a fun summer dress that's easy to wear, and I especially love the bright colors. With the sash, it's actually fairly close to my wedding colors. All around, it's a good solid wardrobe piece, not especially groundbreaking, but nothing wrong with it either.

So, my conclusion? If you're pregnant, these are simple, relatively fast projects that would make for good belly coverage. Alternately, if you like the loose smock look, if you like uncomplicated pattern pieces with some cute details and embellishments thrown in, this is the book for you! According to the LK Publishing website, the book will be available in May. Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, this was a free copy provided to me for review purposes, although I'm not financially compensated in any way.

Last order of business: I wouldn't be me if I didn't at least try to mimic the models' poses. Whether it's holding a plate of flour while standing under a random sprig of flowers tacked to the wall, drinking from a ladle, or showing off freshly baked bread, well, let's just say that these Japanese sewing books provide me with no end of amusement.

I didn't have a sprig of flowers to tack to the wall, so I settled for Walnut's catnip mouse.

Yes, this soup tastes about right.

I didn't have real bread to pose with. At least my coordinating oven mitts are from a Japanese store?

Of course, IMHO, the best photo prop (even if it totally obscures the actual dress being modeled) is a cat.

Could there ever be any doubt?

Wedding Dress Progress Post #3

2013-04-12T23:15:00.004-07:00

Oh hey, it's Friday, which means it's time for another update on my progress with Elaine's wedding dress! Never mind that I missed a few Fridays in a row...anyway, here's what's happened:

Not too exciting, as it looks more or less
the same as it did before. But trust me,
it's a lot better.

1) I finished hemming the skirt after Elaine tried it, but boy was that a long ordeal! Besides my not-so-brilliant-after-all gathering ribbon issue, there was the fact that (floor-length circle skirt + train) x 2 = what seemed like endless yards of hem. Especially since baby hemming really means sewing each hem twice. The good news, though, is that after that, hemming an A-line dress for myself felt like nothing! I'd originally planned to have the lace trim applied to the skirt by now, too, but the new lace I purchased on eBay seems to have been sent to the wrong address, so now I'm waiting on a new shipment. Let's hope this package gets here soon!

2) I think I'm done fixing the lace overskirt -- the bustle/waterfall of lace in the back has all been tacked down and is more of less symmetrical, and closures have been attached in the form of two metal snaps. I'm not super worried about how the waistband looks, though, since it will be hidden under the corset. I also trimmed the cut edges to mimic the scalloped edge, cutting carefully around the floral elements to get a prettier edge. Thank goodness the net of the lace doesn't ravel.

3) As for the corset, I finally got up the courage to tackle covering the busk. Having done a couple of fake corsets before, I was pretty comfortable (but still a little nervous, since this is for a wedding!) with sewing the panels together, but the idea of inserting a busk scares me for some reason. Maybe it's the fact that it requires sewing so close to the metal, and the potential for eye injury...at any rate, I decided to cover the busk in muslin first for practice (and for added strength). I'm happy to say that I escaped unscathed -- no eyeballs popped, no needles broken. Phew.

So exciting! With many thanks to this helpful tutorial.

Oh, were you wondering what that weird background was? It's my Carol poster! Here I am posing with my safety goggles (which I actually wore while sewing...yes, I'm a dork) and the safely covered busk.

This isn't wedding dress related, but it's sewing-for-others related: my sister sent a picture of her wearing her lobster dress!

Doesn't she look great?? And in the spirit of honesty: she said the straps need to be shortened by about an inch, but that's an easy enough fix!

Lastly, many thanks to all of you who were so encouraging regarding the state of my sewing room! I'm glad I'm not the only one, because yes, those Pinterest boards of perfect cubbies and neatly folded and shelved fabrics can get really intimidating. In the interest of increased productivity (and being able to use my ironing board), I finally hung up the hats that had been living on the end of it. It took two minutes and I really should have done it long ago!

L-R: Fenxi painting, pirate tricorn, Regency bonnet, and generic Ren Faire straw hat.

Stop Blogging Your Perfect Sewing Life

2013-04-10T21:26:00.001-07:00

Recently, an article entitled "Stop Instagramming Your Perfect Life" has been making its rounds among my IRL friends (contrast this to you, my dear readers, who are the friends I never know how to describe -- "this lady I kind of feel like I know from the Internet because we read and comment on each others' sewing blogs, but I've never met her, and I only know her by her blog handle and I'm pretty sure that's not her real name"). The author discusses how social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) can not only make people dissatisfied with their "normal" life, but it can also keep people from connecting authentically because everything looks fine in their pictures, status updates, and tweets. Since I'm an introvert, I don't do well with having to connect with multiple people all the time, so I actually find these snippets from people's lives helpful. Also, maybe it's just my perfectionist tendencies and Asian "saving face" upbringing, but I find it difficult to let others in on my messes. Still, I do understand the sentiment behind the article. When all you're reading is posts about perfectly fitted pants and sleeves that didn't have any issues with being set in, it can get a little discouraging. (Incidentally, I'm not accusing anyone else of doing this -- most of the other bloggers I read are lovely in their real-ness, but my personal tendency is to just blog tra la la it's fun with sheets, all the time!)

So, in the interest of being honest, allow me to share some not-so-perfect bits of my life from this very week, as they specifically relate to my sewing.

1) Making a wedding dress for someone isn't all exhilaration about gorgeous satin. When I first put together the skirt for Elaine's wedding dress, I was pretty psyched about what I thought was a brilliant idea at the time: I would do flat-felled side seams, then thread a piece of ribbon through the inside of the seam to use for gathering up the skirt. That way, I wouldn't have to make a separate channel on top of the seam (and therefore stitch four whole extra lines). Killing two birds with one stone, so brilliant, right? Unfortunately, I neglected to think through the hemming...In order to hem the skirt, and still keep the ribbon free, I ended up ripping a tiny bit of the channel above the proposed hemline, carefully pulling the ribbon out of the hole, and then having to make a hand-worked eyelet around the rip to keep the edges from fraying. In the end, it didn't take too much extra time, but a bit of forethought might have been nice.

Pictures of this were too blurry, since 1) dark purple, 2) reflective satin, 3) the best thread-matching I've ever done, and 4) really tiny details. Instead, I settled for drawing a picture, with cats to illustrate my sentiments.

2) I left my phone at a Joann's Fabrics in San Leandro yesterday. I stopped there to get some more thread (thinking foolishly that it would be more convenient to pick it up there after work instead of the very-difficult-to-get-to Santa Monica location that's close to home), pulled out my phone to check something and set it down, neglected to pick it back up, and then left the store. I didn't realize that I'd lost it until after the store closed. To my relief, a quick call revealed that they had found the phone and would hold it for me, but the problem was that I was restricted to public transportation today. Of course, the store isn't located near any convenient stops; long story short, I would've either had to walk three miles or take buses for an hour and half to get it back. I'm just so grateful that my principal was able to stop by and pick it up for me! But so much for thinking I could be really efficient with my sewing errands...

3) I've got someone coming over to stay tomorrow night, and this is what the sewing/guest room looks like right now. This is about as real as it gets, yo. Sometimes, in a fit of manic creativity, you just move onto the next project without neatening up, right? Please tell me you do that too!

As you walk into the room, this is what you see. Yeah, that's a pile of scraps on the floor. And a piece of black fabric draped over the bookcase. And overflowing boxes and bags everywhere. And several shoeboxes of notions that just never manage to stay stacked.

In case you couldn't tell that that was an ironing board on the left in the first picture. I wouldn't blame you, though, as it's covered with hats that I don't know how to store (I need some hatboxes!) and fabric. And bags of unfinished projects underneath, and a teetering stack of vibrantly-colored fabrics for this month's stashbusting challenge. It's a wonder I can ever manage to press my seams.

At least the actual sewing area isn't as bad in comparison? At least my thread is organized by color? At least it's too dim under the chair for you all to see how many snipped threads are hanging out down there?

Mr. Cation is pretty gracious about ignoring the mess in there most of the time (although he occasionally, jokingly (but also kind of seriously), complains that he isn't allowed into a whole room in his own apartment), but that just means that when I do need to make it livable, things are that much worse.

So there you go -- if all of that isn't wonderfully imperfect, I don't know what is!

On the other hand, Walnut is always fabulous. Oh, except for that one time (not this week, thank goodness) that he got diarrhea and some of it stuck to his butt, and then he sat down on some of my fabric. Yuck. I'm just glad that it was only a yard of cheap poly-knit that I had no concrete plans for, so no real harm done. But it just goes to show, even sewing with cats can't always be fun and games!

What kind of sewing-related disasters don't make it onto your blog?

Not a Shellfish Seamstress Anymore

2013-04-06T11:55:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, I really couldn't resist the crustacean pun. I mean, it's not every day that one sews up a lobster dress! I hope you will excuse me.

My camera does NOT like photographing/monitors do NOT like displaying all these tiny stripes.

After the issues with my mom's machine in SF, I ended up taking my sister's lobster dress home to TCOCC with me to finish. Since I couldn't get it done during spring break, you'll have to settle for pictures of the dress on a hanger instead of a real live person. I'll bring it back with me the next time I travel up there for work.

Back, with a pin to hold the crisscrossing straps in the right place without a person to fill them out.

As I mentioned before, I used Simplicity 6926, a 70s sundress pattern. Since my pattern was a size 10, (my usual size), and Emily is a bit tinier than me, I used slightly larger seam allowances to sew what was probably a size 8 or so. I also did an SBA (so easy with princess seams!) and shortened it by a good five or six inches, which feels scandalously short to me, but looks excellent on her. It's funny how my legs look best when skirts end right about the knee, but for her, several inches above that is best. The things you learn when you sew for others!

The other cool thing I did (or at least I thought it was cool) was flip the facings to the outside. See, Emily really liked the look of the white band with the tiny navy blue stripe on the original sheet, and wanted that on her dress as well. To get that look, I cut the facings from a white pillowcase, added a strip of navy bias tape to the bottom edge, and instead of the sewing it on right sides together, I sewed the right side of the facing to the wrong side of the dress. Then I understitched as usual, flipped the facing out, and topstitched it from the right side. All the raw edges are enclosed, and it gives a nice, clean look on both sides.

Snaps!

Pocketses! And chevrons on the side seams!

Check out the pretty pretty insides!

My other modifications were adding pockets to the skirt and bringing the straps to the inside of the bodice. To keep the clean look of the front (and also because my machine makes messy buttonholes), I opted to have the straps attach with snaps. The finishing touch: covered (nonfunctional) buttons with the lobster motif!

I'm so psyched that I thought of this!

Also check out my almost perfectly matched lobsters on the back!

Summary:
Fabric: One twin flat sheet, 100% cotton, with blue and white stripes and red lobsters, by Tommy Hilfiger, thrifted, and one white king-size 100% cotton pillowcase, also thrifted
Notions: Two 7/8"covered buttons and metal snaps for the front, ten 5/8" navy blue buttons on the back, navy bias tape for the trim
Hours: A lot. Between cutting and sewing all the fiddly facings and straps, the fitting, finishing the insides nicely with seam binding, and all the buttons and buttonholes, I probably spent a good ten hours or more on this dress. It's more time than I would've spent on a dress for myself (especially when I re-sewed all the buttons 1/8" down because it looked better), but since this is for someone else, I wanted it to be as perfect as possible!
Will you make this again? I quite like this nautical look, but I doubt I'll make it for myself unless I find similarly awesome sheets.
Total cost: $5. The linens were $3, the buttons $1, and the bias tape $1. As Emily said when she saw the pictures I sent, "you could sell this for like $70 on Modcloth!" So that's a savings of $65, if you don't count labor...
Final thoughts: I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and at least based on the pictures, my sister likes it too! The whole thing looks so delightfully nautical, but obviously still inappropriate for the HSF's "By the Sea" challenge by about 40 years. Don't worry, though, I've got my own nautical outfit planned for that challenge!

This makes two garments that I've sewed this year for my sister, unasked for, just because I thought she would like the fabric. It would appear that I'm not following the Selfish Seamstress' rules anymore, except that Emily is one of those people whose talents you can exploit. If Selfish can exchange a dress for a painting, well, Emily gave me five paintings three years ago, so if anything I'm the one who's really late in the talent exchange.

Sad Crustacean and Football Fish

Fenxi: my first cat love.

Gummy, the derpy weirdo. What is it about orange cats?

And Walnut, of course! She did this painting of him as a dapper gentleman cat before she ever met him. And if you're wondering what to do with saved cat whiskers, well, obviously use them in cat paintings! Those are actually Fenxi's whiskers in the painting, though.

The three cat paintings are hanging in my sewing room to inspire me. I'd say I got the better end of the deal.

Look Away, It's Another Felted Cat!

2013-04-04T23:46:00.002-07:00

I'm so sorry, Sonja, but...well, I still had more hair left.

Sitting up this time.

I'm really pleased with how I was able to get in some shoulder and haunch definition. This is a muscular cat! Good thing, too, because...

...his homely face certainly isn't going to be bringing in the ladies.

Thankfully, he's already got a designated companion.

Mr. and Mrs. Cat took a honeymoon trip to the Argonath, one of the seven wonders of the geek world.

Obligatory comparison and introduction to the original:

Same pose!

"And what gift would a felted cat ask of a real cat?"
"None, Lord Walnut, for it is enough for me to have seen a real cat, and to have heard his majestic words."
Then the Lord Walnut shed three thousand of his hairs.
"These words shall go with the gift...I say to you, Felted Cat, that your paws will flow with hair, and yet over you hairballs shall have no dominion."

(The lighting on this picture was just so reminiscent of Lothlorien, I couldn't resist.)

With humblest apologies to JRR Tolkien, who does not deserve to have his brilliant and beautiful words co-opted by a feline-obsessed blogger.

April Stashbusting Commences!

2013-04-01T14:23:00.002-07:00

PSA: Ailurophobics (not sure what you're doing reading this blog, actually), clean freaks, and those with weak constitutions, look away! This post is not for the faint of heart.

There comes a time in every long-haired cat owner's life when one must bust a very different kind of stash:

With a AA battery for comparison.

See, two Christmases ago, my brother gave me this book on using cat hair to do needle felting. Excited (and slightly skeptical), I started collecting Walnut's hair, and over a year later I finally got myself a felting tool. Since it's a stashbusting kind of year, well, you may think this is an April Fools' Day joke (and it is a bit tongue-in-cheek), but this is a totally real cat that I felted!

I didn't take any pictures of the process, since I wasn't sure how it would work out. To be honest, it didn't really look like much until I added in the front legs and the head. I started out with a peanut shape for the body (at which point Mr. Cation thought it looked like a turd...and he was right), then added little rounds for the hindquarters, three little "logs" for the tail and front legs, and finally the head. The finishing touch was stitching on the facial features, so I guess it still counts as sewing?

Look at that adorable face!

The whole process took about an hour and change, and was pretty relaxing. Stabbing a needle into a ball of fur over and over again is quite cathartic, even if I occasionally stabbed my thumb. The good news is, I've still got plenty of fur left!

Yup, barely busted this stash.

When Walnut came over for a snack, he met his tiny doppelganger:

Okay, but in all seriousness, there is real fabric stashbusting going on over here in the month of April! The challenge this month is Vibrant Color, so I'm going to sew up one of the two orange fabrics in my stash. And since it's a challenge, it means you have a chance to win more bragging rights! The rules for challenge submissions are:

At least 75% of the item must be made from your stash supplies.
Item must be made within the month of April.
To enter, link your submission photo to the link party before the last day of the month. I'll put up the link party in the last week of April.

So if you're not totally turned off by the exorbitant amount of cat hair featured in this post, and if you haven't unsubscribed from my blog in disgust, I'll look forward to turning down the brightness settings on my screen at the end of the month!

Just a couple of cats, hanging out by the window...

Historical Sew Fortnightly: Accessorize

2013-03-31T19:23:00.002-07:00

Actually, this should probably be called the Historical Glue Fortnightly, as there was almost no sewing involved in this tricorn; it's mostly hot glue holding the trims on! The only sewing I did was to attach the feathers.

Awkward selfies with the iPhone.

For this challenge, I wanted to embellish a tricorn to go with the pirate costume I want to make one day. I already had a cheap tricorn from a costume store (originally marketed as a Pirates of the Caribbean costume piece), so it was just a matter of looking up historical engravings of pirates to see what kind of trims would be period-appropriate.

A pirate scrimshaw, from the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine. [source]

Frideric Guillaumlii Roi de Prusse, c. 1744, by Joh. Martin Will, Augsburg. [source]

Electeur de Brandenbourg, c. 1714. [source]

I boiled this down to gold lacy-looking trim on the edge, ribbon with a button on the right side, and a large bunch of ostrich feathers on the back left side.

Summary:
The Challenge: Accessorize! Granted, this is for a costume I haven't started yet, but it's still an accessory, right?
Fabric: None.
Notions: Gold metallic trim leftover from my Regency ball gown project, red-gold polyester ribbon from my stash, a large gold button that matches my steampunk gun, and four large red ostrich feathers.
Pattern: None, but I used the above engravings for reference.
Year: Early 18th century, the Golden Age of Piracy.
How historically accurate is it? My base tricorn (and the hot glue) is ridiculously anachronistic, and my trims aren't much better, but at least my placement of things is historically accurate!
Hours to complete: 1! Gosh, I love fast projects.
First worn: For pictures today, but I'm trying to figure out if I feel like making it out to the SoCal Ren Faire for Swashbuckling Day.
Total cost: $40...$10 for the tricorn, and the rest for the ostrich feathers. Those things are pricey! I'm counting the trims as free since they were all stash or leftover from other projects.

Serious pirate face.

Oh, you wanted a look at my fake pirate costume?

I wasn't sure we had enough light left to take pictures so I just threw everything on quickly, hence the improperly tightened corset. The dress is a thrift store find (only $15, and breathable rayon to boot! Possibly one of my favorite finds ever.), the belt is from Ross several years ago, and the thin belt/harness thing is from Cotton On.

March Stashbusting Link Party!

2013-03-28T22:21:00.002-07:00

I've been stalled on my own sewing projects this week after a machine breakdown, but before that happened, my sister was able to squeeze in a stashbusting project of her own. In lieu of sharing anything I've sewn, take a gander at her potholder made from fabric she's had stashed for a while:

All museums should use cats as showroom aides. The fabric is Robert Kaufman's Metro Cafe Toasters, originally purchased from Peapod Fabrics in San Francisco.

She only just started sewing with a machine last year, and this is only her third project (here's her first!). Way to go with tackling quilting with three super-tall layers of batting, Emily!

And now it's your turn to share! Once again, the link party is your chance to show off what you've made from your stash, and it doesn't need to fit the theme necessarily; as long as you used fabric you already own it counts. After all, potholders aren't necessarily spring-y...

Happy ending: I took my mom's machine in to the shop to get a tune-up (it hasn't been serviced since she got it years ago, I think), and now it's back to being functional. I don't know if I'll get the lobster dress finished before we go back down to TCOCC, but I'm going to try!