What didn't work, and what I did instead

Well, looking at the requirements for BurdaStyle's JJ, I thought I'd have enough for a sleeveless version in the pink hawaiian print.


Problem is, the fabric is only 45 inches wide! ARG! So I can't put all four body pieces side by side, and being only a meter long, there's not enough fabric to put the fourth piece below the others. So for now, JJ is scrapped until I have some other inspiration. I'm considering making an uber-trendy high-waisted tulip skirt (specifically BurdaStyle's Marie) out of the fabric. Thing is, I'm round on the bottom and I know full skirts (like the second one, from Target, no longer listed) tend to look horrid on me, although I've never tried out a HIGH-WAISTED full skirt. I don't want the effort (and the fabric!) to be wasted.

To feel like I accomplished something, I decided to make panties out of the aloha polo shirt.

I traced a pair of panties I own that are really comfy. Too bad that didn't work! They ended up too small. That's ok, though. I'll mail them to my best friend with her other birthday goodies, cuz she's smaller than me. I trimmed them in the ice blue I used on the Starfleet shirt. The front ended up too high, so I ruched it down and put a bow on the front. Yay bows!

I've also been working on a dress out of the sheer waves jersey.

It's a gorgeous fabric for another uber-trendy look: sheers over not much! Hehe! Seeing as how I'm pretty flubby as of late, I want to keep cool this summer without exposing my jiggly bits overly much. I went digging into my pattern stash, because I KNEW I had a dress pattern that was exactly the halter-necked a-line I had envisioned, and lo! My photographic memory has served me once again.


This happens to be exactly my size! Eyeball the yellow version. It's not a true halter, but it has the look I wanted. I don't know what I'll do about the collar. I was thinking a ruffle, but that's just added fabric to over-heat me, so I may just keep it simple with no collar at all. I had to frankenstein the pattern to get rid of the bust and waist darts (I can't seem to find the how-to to share), and I shortened it from at-the-knees for a glamazon to just-above-the-knees for my 5'5". I may cut the back as one piece instead of two, which would also make it more floaty I think. I've only cut the front so far. I'm also feeling slightly ambitious and considering using couture methods on all the seams and hems. It is sheer, after all. I want to hand-roll the hem, the arm-holes, the neck-hole and the inside seams. That would give it a gorgeous finish, but obviously take a lot of time. I think that if I machine sewed the edges, it'd stretch out too much because it's a delicate fabric (I had some issues with my victorian bibbed shirt). And me without a walking foot for my sewing machine... While we're at it, somebody buy me a ruffler foot and a roller foot!
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Another Grosgrain GIVEAWAY!!!!

Paper Crane Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

WOW! As if the last dress wasn't amazing enough!!!!!! Like I said before, if this is what she gives away, what amazing things does she SELL??? (Store STILL down for maintenance :( I really wanna see it!)

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Futuristic neo-victorian military shirt... say WHAT?

Well, that's what it is :P Shirt numero deux pour moi is not-kindly referred to as the Starfleet Academy shirt by Toddalicious's brother, although I did kinda "ha-ha" when he said that, so I guess it's ok :P

You see what I mean about Starfleet Academy, now, don't you? :P The second he said it I was like "OMG, you're a bastard, that's exactly what it looks like!" When I posted it to Craftster, someone said it looks very futuristic with those colours, so I guess Todd-Bro isn't the only one who sees Star Trek in it :P

It's got the same adorable pleated sleeves, except with long sleeves attached, and a turtleneck for the collar. The epaulets are piped, which was a pain in the neck, and the buttons are the same darker blue as the thread I used to do all the top-stitching. The grey is a double-knit, which is really really soft and warm! Too bad winter is almost over :(
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Neo-Victorian and I like it, too!

This isn't the FIRST shirt I made, but it's the first I made for me. Plus I happen to have good pictures that don't involve my stupid mirror. It's square mirror panels glued to the wall in the master bedroom of my rental unit in the corner of the only wall I could fit my huge-ass dresser, so I have kneel on the dresser to take pix of myself. Toddalicious took these photos for me.



Isn't it adorable!??! I used BurdaStyle's Lydia as the base pattern. I cut the semi-circular yoke on the pattern then added in new seam allowances. The puff sleeves are based on this how-to, with the bottom also expanded to take a bottom band. When I gathered them into the armscye, they looked like absolute crap. So I figured out that pleating looks adorable. The totally useless buttons weren't originally gonna be useless. I had tried making a button placket for the shoulder but that didn't work out. I tried a second time and that didn't work out, either. So, there ya have it: totally useless decorative buttons.


I was told the colour doesn't show up too well on some monitors, but it's a really rich and lustrous olive green with white polka-dots. The yoke is my awesome sheer waves fabric, which shows off my fabulous blue bra-strap. Woot.

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My very first refashion

I made this awhile ago, but seeing as it's what started my shirt-making binge, c'est voila:

All I did was take my beloved but crappily-made thrifted olive green tee and afix to it a hood and bottom band out of a lovely (too-large) floral shirt I'd thrifted ages and ages ago. I knew I would eventually do something with it, but in the mean time I wore it around the house cuz it was comfy.

Puss Ann Guest GIVEAWAY!!!!

Puss Ann Guest GIVEAWAY!!!!

Oh yes, MORE free stuff from Grosgrain! These are shoes from her new sponsor Puss Ann, who makes damn cute mary-jane style shoes out of vintage fabrics! I need new summer shoes...

Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

I love free stuff!!! I so love this dress!!!! And yet, the purpose of the blog as a whole kinda makes me head-scratch. I mean, most of this is "Oh look at who's sponsoring me!" (well, and a bunch of "here's free stuff!" which I can't argue with :P). If it's paying for bandwidth to host her store, I get that. What I don't get is that every single time I try to view her store (I've tried a half dozen times in the last few days), I'm told it's down for maintenance :( How am I sposed to oggle pretty things if I can't access them? Like I said, head-scratch. I really really wanna see the things she sells if this is the sort of stuff she gives away, ya know?

Fashion thoughts for the spring and up-coming craftage

Well I been peeking round here and there, trying to get ideas to update my wardrobe on the cheap. I have a few ideas already in progress (grumble grunt RAWR at one that is not working out as planned), and fabrics sitting at the ready.

I think this season I'd like to take advantage of the prevalence of ruffles the last couple seasons, as well as this spring's emphasis on punchy colours, florals, and sheer fabrics.

Pot-Grabbers

Also called pot-holders, hot-pots, hot-pads, and who knows what else. I wanted to write down my methodology for the pot-grabbers I made for Christmas cuz I'm just like that. I used the sew-and-flip method as seen here, via Sew, Mama, Sew! The things I did differently are few, but significant.

Firstly, I bought a strip of that quilted batting that has a silver heat-resistant side in a 10cm/4inch strip, which is the smallest length Fabricland sells anything. It was $34 a metre, I think, so after tax it was a whole 4 bucks or so. Being only 4 inches wide automatically set the size of my pot-grabbers.

Using pre-shrunk quilting cotton (I had bought a bunch of fat-quarters at a dollar each), I made one 4 inch square for the top side, a co-ordinating 4 inch square for the bottom, two 3 inch squares for the thumb/finger pockets plus a 2 by 3 inch strip out of yet another fabric, (that's a total of 3 different fabrics).

The 2x3 gets folded lengthwise in halves, and then each half folded in half, kinda like a bias-binding. That becomes the hangy loop. I stitched mine down the middle to hold the folds.Take the batting stuff and cut it into 4x4s. Put one silver-side down. Then put the "top" fabric face-up (aka printed/good side up) on top of that and pin it in place. Then you need to pin the hangy loop into a corner with the loop pointing to the middle. I machine basted it in place using a teeny 1/4 inch seam-allowance. The little 3x3s get folded into triangles with the wrong sides together and pinned into opposite corners with the fold pointing to the middle. I basted those, too.

Put the "bottom" fabric on top of everything, face-down (aka wrong side up). Pin in place, removing the first set of pins. Then stitch around the whole thing at 1/4 inch seam allowance, leaving about 1.5 inches un-sewn. Cut off the corners on an angle and flip it right-sides out through that hole you left. Hand sew the hole closed.

YAY! Now stick your thumb and fingers in the little pouches and pretend it's a duck puppet.

Christmas Times

I made all the stuff I gave as gifts this year. Todd's (my boyfriend) family got individual presents, (they make a big deal about Christmas gifts which gives me stress-ulcers, I swear). Both designs are from Urban Threads. I used photo-editing software to add the text. The knitting ninja was for Todd's mom as that is her preferred craftiness, and the martini glass was for his sister, who obviously loves a good party. They were pretty easy to make, but still, stress-ulcers. Thankfully, they both thought they were lovely.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of Todd's dad's and brother's gifts. Dad recieved a flannel shirt in an outdoorsman print (canoes, fishes, fishing equipment, various animals) and all the buttons up the front were different, in blue, green and beige. He wears it to sleep in cuz it's soft and fuzzy. The bro's gift is not even done!!!! He liked it (in a shrugging kind of way *rolls eyes*) but I still have to mount it in a frame, which is presenting difficulties because I didn't think ahead to make sure it would be a standard size. It's an embroidered picture of an FA-010S aka FAZZ from one of the Gundam series (it's his favourite mobile suit, and yes, he's a huge nerd).

The friend who introduced myself and Todd nigh on 3 years ago happens to live in the city I live in right now, so she and her fiance got a present, too:

She likes kitschy things and he's a computer-fixer-guy, so I present "HSH" in binary! LOL, I left it in their kitchen when they weren't home and it took them three phone calls to figure out who had left it for them! He figured out it was HSH but what in heavens does that stand for!?! Hehe, he laughed heartily when I told him it's for "Home, Sweet Home."

BACKSTORY: For my Christmas, being Ukrainian and never having put great store on the whole Giftmas thing (we care more about the food and the being-togetherness), I made a whole bunch of goodies for our potluck gifting that my Uncle Paul developed. We used to give little individual presents, but potluck gifting is so fun! Aunt Maria married Uncle Paul only 4 years ago, shortly after they bought a house together from a friend of his. What with 7 bedrooms and an indoor pool (despite being a serious fixer-upper), we do Christmas at their place. So, Uncle Paul sets out all the presents on the dining table while everyone is in the living room and then we draw numbers from a hat to decide the selection order. Each person gets 10 seconds to pick something from the table. It gets kinda kooky after that! Like Uncle Paul's son, Peter, wearing his new swimming goggles and hair barette with a drink-umbrella in his teeth!

Anyways, I had made some fabric mushroom ornaments which I don't have pictures of and some super-awesome multi-fabric pot-grabbers! Also called pot-holders, hot-pots, hot-pads, and who knows what else. Here's pictures of the ones I kept:My Mom took two, and my Uncle Wally took two, and my cousin Rissa's friend Paul took two, and I totally don't recall who else :P I know Mom and Uncle Wally absolutely love them because they're super easy to use with no burning of fingers.

The last gift was for a 3 year old girl, the daughter of Todd's good friend, "B." We all call him B, so that's his name. She's a hilarious little git, a totally persnickety toddler. She got the ultimate in awesome: THE TWIRLY DRESS!Unfortunately, the straps are a little long and it kept falling off when she wore it Christmas Day :P So now it sits in her closet til my next visit to B's house. The gathering was a total B1T(H, but overall not a difficult project. I did put the third row upside down, but after tearing off the second row (which had been inside out), I was done with my stitch-ripper. I am forever indebted to Vegbee on Craftster who has the tute on her special tutorials blog.