Monday, February 28, 2011

Circus skirt finished, woo

One broken machine needle later, the stripey skirt is finished. It reminds me a little of the circus, ha ha. In a good way.

finished, if not ironed

And and extra picture of the full length. I'm standing on a chair because I was too lazy to find another place to set the camera.

the socks say "right foot" and "left foot"...

Stay tuned for what's next (as I haven't decided yet, ha ha.)

Tools!

Look what I got in the post today!

grommet setter and hole punch
Now I have no excuse not to continue with my corset making project... Not that my procrastinating is likely to be stopped by a lack of excuses, ha ha. The under-bust corset pattern I am in the middle of making is almost done (hopefully), but getting it to fit just right is so tedious that I had to take a little break.

most recent mock-up






No, the finished product isn't going to be orange (although maybe one day... Hmm...).

Teaser skirt-in-progress picture:

stripey
And now back to work, getting this sucker finished for work tomorrow, and the beginning of Me-Made-March.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

This should be interesting

As I was sitting here trolling sewing sites (well ok, lets be honest and say while I was procrastinating about doing actual work), I decided to take part in Me Made March. This may prove a little bit challenging, as I only have about 5 things each to put on the top and bottom parts of me. But hay, incentive to get with the sewing! My pledge:

'I, Sarah from http://sarahsewing.blogspot.com/, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-March '11. I endeavour to wear at least one self made piece of clothing each day for the duration of March 2011'

Wish me luck! Now off to start sewing myself more options, quick. Up next, I'm attempting to make a skirt along this line,

plaid formal wear!

out of this lovely heavy weight satiny material I found on etsy a month or so back.

cranberry and gold (swoon)

If my calculations are correct, I'll have plenty left over for a coordinating... something or other. We'll see what it wants to be when the time comes :).

...And the jacket

The sun-dress has a matching jacket, which I actually finished on wednesday night, but didn't get pictures of until right now.

I coordinate, fancy

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and the pattern was so simple (a few hours from start to finish, not bad at all) that I may have to make a few more in other colours. Cool summer nights, you shall not thwart my dress wearing! Ha ha.

bonus picture of the back
This dress and jacket where my first experiment with using french seams. Why did this take me so long?! So neat, so pretty, so much less work than encasing everything in bias tape. Thanks to Gertie for her great french seam tutorial, or I would still be doing straight seams the sucker way.

back jacket seam and darts

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Snow day = Productivity

Work told me not to bother coming in, as they will likely close early anyway because of the snow (eight inches and counting). Which gave me time to finish this lovely new sun-dress.

 
ooh, so summery
Made from a crisp light cotton from Hawaii (c.o. my step-mother, after many years in her stash) and some lightish cotton twill from the remainder bin. The bodice is lined with a white cotton broadcloth I had lying around. The pattern is a re-released vintage design I had been itching to try out.

love the original illustrations!

No real alterations needed, although I left out the neck strap interfacing and the featherlight boning in the bodice back.

The definition of poor timing...

Well, it's snowing...


And I'm making a sun-dress


*facepalm*


I can't help but feel that the amusing contradiction here is a perfect way to start off this new blogging experience. I'm Sarah, and I sew. Usually not things that are at all practical, but things that I wear none the less. And in the event that anyone ends up reading this, I thought you might like to come along for the ride, so to speak. And just in case you wanted to find out who I am...

I'm a twenty-something public Library worker, living with my amazing boyfriend and others, sewing not quite as much as I mean to, and wearing my sometimes ridiculous creations to work. Thank goodness for tolerant and amused co-workers.

I took up sewing again about a year ago, after giving it up in disgust after high school home ec. The clothing I was finding in stores didn't appeal, and having everything custom made was way out of my price range. Happily, the passing of a few years has given me the patience to do things properly this time around, and right now I'm working on a dream of having an entirely me-made wardrobe.

As my fashion interests are a combination of Victorian burlesque/carnival and thirties-to-fifties vintage, this could get interesting.