Sew sew
So, a sewing update. No Eowyn, sadly - it's surprisingly hard to find good fabric! Sigh. (Admittedly, I'm picky, too.) So instead, I sewed a skirt.
At least, I tried to.
A couple of months ago, I made a Miette skirt. It's a wrap-around skirt, pretty simple really. I had the 'brilliant' idea to make it reversible - two skirts in one! I tried to find the lightest denim and cotton I could find, so I could make one side dark blue denim and the other side a dark blue cotton with gold polkadots (... yeah). The problem was, of course, that if you combine two light-weight cotton fabrics, it becomes a medium to heavy... which meant the skirt could just about stand up on it's own. And it was generally just... not a good look. Also because it turned out the Miette pattern wasn't just really for my and my body type. Too boxy or something, I dunno.
Anyway, so I decided to cannibalise the Miette and make it into two separate a-line skirts! Of course, this was the one time where I had finished all the seams perfectly... so it was quite a trial unpicking all the seams. Sigh. But I did it. I separated the two skirts...
The blue cotton.
Close-up. (With bonus white Dorian cat hair.)
Lovely finished seam... sigh.
The denim skirt. I decided to unpick the denim skirt first, as a sort of trial-run.
Unpicking the pockets... Notice how I carefully lined them with the blue cotton. Argh!
Denim skirt 2.0. Again with patch pockets - so useful! I hate having to do the 'where am I going to keep my phone this time' thing. Plus it's useful on vacations - I wore a self-made denim skirt with three pockets on my trip to Prague, and it was so useful to keep my phone, camera and map in the pockets! Especially when it's way too warm to wear a coat.
/pocketses fangirling
Look at that beautiful invisible zipper! I love putting in invisible zips, it feels like a magic trick every time. This project is going great!
... and then it didn't. Turns out I could do with a liiiitle more foresight - and a measuring tape.
The upside of sewing your own clothes is that you are very aware of what your measurements are, not in terms of a size in a store but in straight centimeters/inches. I've been the same size for literally years. But in the past few months, I've been gaining weight... and my sewing brain apparently hadn't caught up yet.
Yep, I made the skirt too small. So small, in fact, that I couldn't get it over my hips, and then when I put it on over my head (hey, there's more than one way to put on a skirt!) I almost couldn't get it off again! I was afraid I was going to have to cut myself out of it... x_x Sadly, that wasn't necessary. But geez.
So denim skirt 2.0... was headed for the trash can. :(
Undaunted, and because I REALLY wanted a cotton skirt with gold polkadots, I set out and bought new, plus fabric for a lining. Enough to make another a-line skirt with pockets! Yay! I measured properly this time, adding a full centimeter to the standard pattern I always use for my skirts - including the skirt I'd made for Prague (which I had upsized, too, so there's really no excuse for not measuring this time!). I laid out everything on the table, cut out the front, for which I had to do some creative folding of the fabric (which should have been my first clue), then laid the back of the pattern on the fabric... and found out I didn't have enough for it.
ARGH.
Thank GOD I still had some left from when I made the Miette, so with some creative puzzling I managed to get the back, too, although I did end up having to put in a back seam. Sigh. Guess I'll put the zipper there instead of in the left side seam.
At least my pockets came out nice...
I keep my fabric stash (and winter clothes) hidden in my couch. When I went to take out the left-over fabric from the Miette, Dorian saw a golden opportunity. He slept there for about half an hour. Sigh.
Skirt (+ lining) and pockets, finally.
And now what am I going to do with THIS? About 1 meter, in scraps, of blue cotton with golden polkadots...
Maybe I should take up quilting. At least it'll be good measuring practice!
At least, I tried to.
A couple of months ago, I made a Miette skirt. It's a wrap-around skirt, pretty simple really. I had the 'brilliant' idea to make it reversible - two skirts in one! I tried to find the lightest denim and cotton I could find, so I could make one side dark blue denim and the other side a dark blue cotton with gold polkadots (... yeah). The problem was, of course, that if you combine two light-weight cotton fabrics, it becomes a medium to heavy... which meant the skirt could just about stand up on it's own. And it was generally just... not a good look. Also because it turned out the Miette pattern wasn't just really for my and my body type. Too boxy or something, I dunno.
Anyway, so I decided to cannibalise the Miette and make it into two separate a-line skirts! Of course, this was the one time where I had finished all the seams perfectly... so it was quite a trial unpicking all the seams. Sigh. But I did it. I separated the two skirts...
The blue cotton.
Close-up. (With bonus white Dorian cat hair.)
Lovely finished seam... sigh.
The denim skirt. I decided to unpick the denim skirt first, as a sort of trial-run.
Unpicking the pockets... Notice how I carefully lined them with the blue cotton. Argh!
Denim skirt 2.0. Again with patch pockets - so useful! I hate having to do the 'where am I going to keep my phone this time' thing. Plus it's useful on vacations - I wore a self-made denim skirt with three pockets on my trip to Prague, and it was so useful to keep my phone, camera and map in the pockets! Especially when it's way too warm to wear a coat.
/pocketses fangirling
Look at that beautiful invisible zipper! I love putting in invisible zips, it feels like a magic trick every time. This project is going great!
... and then it didn't. Turns out I could do with a liiiitle more foresight - and a measuring tape.
The upside of sewing your own clothes is that you are very aware of what your measurements are, not in terms of a size in a store but in straight centimeters/inches. I've been the same size for literally years. But in the past few months, I've been gaining weight... and my sewing brain apparently hadn't caught up yet.
Yep, I made the skirt too small. So small, in fact, that I couldn't get it over my hips, and then when I put it on over my head (hey, there's more than one way to put on a skirt!) I almost couldn't get it off again! I was afraid I was going to have to cut myself out of it... x_x Sadly, that wasn't necessary. But geez.
So denim skirt 2.0... was headed for the trash can. :(
Undaunted, and because I REALLY wanted a cotton skirt with gold polkadots, I set out and bought new, plus fabric for a lining. Enough to make another a-line skirt with pockets! Yay! I measured properly this time, adding a full centimeter to the standard pattern I always use for my skirts - including the skirt I'd made for Prague (which I had upsized, too, so there's really no excuse for not measuring this time!). I laid out everything on the table, cut out the front, for which I had to do some creative folding of the fabric (which should have been my first clue), then laid the back of the pattern on the fabric... and found out I didn't have enough for it.
ARGH.
Thank GOD I still had some left from when I made the Miette, so with some creative puzzling I managed to get the back, too, although I did end up having to put in a back seam. Sigh. Guess I'll put the zipper there instead of in the left side seam.
At least my pockets came out nice...
I keep my fabric stash (and winter clothes) hidden in my couch. When I went to take out the left-over fabric from the Miette, Dorian saw a golden opportunity. He slept there for about half an hour. Sigh.
Skirt (+ lining) and pockets, finally.
And now what am I going to do with THIS? About 1 meter, in scraps, of blue cotton with golden polkadots...
Maybe I should take up quilting. At least it'll be good measuring practice!