Knocking Off

Retail 'seasons' are so misleading. We're getting in tons of sandals at work, and it's got me all excited about spring clothing, despite knowing I've got a few months before it's really going to warm up. A brief two days of 50 degree weather also helped to fool me! But we've got snow in the forecast tomorrow, so it's back to reality. Oh well, doesn't stop me from making some new things to tuck away for warmer days.

 I've been seeing in a lot of stores a sort of 'jogger style' jeans, like these:

 Which in theory sounds awesome and comfortable. I decided to see if I liked the look with a pair of old jeans I had which weren't getting much wear.

I just popped an elastic cuff on these 511s. It sort of worked, but the pants are pretty tight and close to the ankle so it wasn't quite the look (not that I won't wear these still)

 

 So attempt #2, I bought a pair of size 42/30 weird acid washed old lady jeans. I recut them to my "loose short" pattern, widening it at the waist a bit. Ripped off the pockets, put new ones on, then an elastic waistband.

 I originally tried to put elastic cuffs on the bottom, but it just wouldn't come out quite right. I think part of the reason is that my calves are pretty large and the elastic gets caught up on it, it doesn't look right. Anyway, I just did a curved hem, a bit like athletic shorts.

So still not quite the look I want, but closer. I think I'm going to have to scout out some yardage, this sort of thing is hard to remake from other clothing because you need to start with a very big garment to squeeze the recut out of. They sort of look like these shorts, which were also on my 'rip off' list, although I think they are knit:

And lastly,

Not exactly an impressive reconstruction, but I did resize that gold lame shirt. Now I have a pretty perfect gold t-shirt. I managed to re-cut the shoulder area so it was less of a boat neck and more of a crew neck. One downside though--the fabric is weirdly warm to wear.

Now I'm back on a Dear Jane kick. Didn't get much done this weekend because it was filled with pro-wrestling, but I have a good schedule this week and my shoulder's bugging me again, so my workouts are cut a bit short, so I should be getting in some good sewing time.

New Materials

So my tacky baroque print shirt is nearly done. All that's left is buttons and button holes...which I've been known to put off for weeks and weeks. Hopefully it won't be that long. At least it's a short sleeve shirt, so I probably won't be yearning to wear it any time soon. Pretty pleased with the fit overall, and my 'fussy cutting' of the pattern worked pretty well.

 A month or so ago, I found a very 70's polyester button down with this amazing print. It was in kinda rough shape, one of the button holes was torn and the cuffs were frayed but it was $2 so I bought it anyway and it's been sitting on my fabric rack since. I decided to try and make a tank top out of it. The two front pieces were sewn together to form the back , and the large back piece (There was no yoke on this, you can see it's a one piece collar too) became the front. Despite no serger access I think it came out pretty well.  It's a little bit of squeeze getting my head through the neck though.

Now that I've got some respectable guns I feel like it's going to be a summer full of tank tops. Well, that and the fact that I'm hot all the time.

 I also got some materials from the thrift store the other day. The gold lame shirt I think will just get sized down, I've always wanted a gold t-shirt! The elastic mom jeans are hopefully destined to become something like the comfy jean/sweatpant hybrids I've been seeing around.

 The bottom picture is, from top left- white sheeting, bird-and-flower sheeting, some misc. fabric I already had in the middle, then two XL collared shirts, a mint and a gray to be cut up for fabric. Hoping out of this assortment I get 3-4 summer shirts. Didn't find any heavier weight fabric for shorts/pants this time around.

Gathering Mode

I'm back in that gathering mood. Back to scouring the thrift stores for big chunks of certain things with only a vague idea of what they'll eventually become.

Blue bathing suit bits? Watching too much wrestling has gotten me into a mood to work with spandex and garish patterns. Not that I can really do much without a serger/coverstitcher, but these things might be in my future, I think, and I'm getting supplies ready. 

And for my class, terrible thrift store garments to transform. The theme this years seems to be 'terrible patterns and embellishments.'

Been knitting away at what I think will be a hat, if I've planned right. I'm sort of making a pattern up on the fly--I couldn't find a flat-topped flapped hat design that I liked, so we'll see how this goes. 

Close up. Loving the fair isle so far, should really work more with it, I enjoy the process a lot. Maybe time to break out my graph paper book and work out some designs. These were mostly just chosen at random from a book. 

And what post would be complete without a couple Dear Jane blocks? G-6 through G-10. Nothing too tricky in this batch. Don't know why people find y-seams tricky, I never have a tough time with them. Then again, after doing an enormous bit of hexagon patchwork by hand, I've got lots of practice with them. The pink and blue one here was probably the worst, but it was just tedious, not difficult. 

Short and Square

So I finished my test-run floral shorts with my new altered pattern, and I'm quite happy with them. I think this cut is a little more flattering on me and my big thighs/quads, without looking like a big bro-esque cargo short. I think I'll actually wear these quite a bit (yes, probably with that shirt, or a plain blue one)

The only snag I hit was, as you can see here, I placed the pockets way, waaaay too low. Don't know what I was thinking! But an easy fix for the next go around, which will probably be with the camo twill I posted a picture of last time. Thinking of making that pair longer and tapered at the calf maybe. Also had a little bit of a stretching issue with the waistband, that'll teach me to interface it next time. 

Also happening this week: experimenting with crocheting granny squares for a secret-possible-future project. Not something I've had a lot of experience with, so it's a whole new world for me. This website has been a great starting place for tutorials. 

Work it Out!

So the Randomly Selected Winner of my 200th post give away was Lety R-Z, whose adorable needlefelted creations you should absolutely go check out! Congrats to you, and for everyone else, well, I love to get rid of all the junk in my sewing room, so don't be surprised if I do another contest soon!

Not really crafting related, but he's just so cute I had to share. We got another kitty (two is it, I swear) because we were feeling bad about leaving Barry home alone so much, he's a very active, playful cat, and he got lonely. So meet Wharton, his new pal. Wharton is *huge* and he looks like some kind of wild cat, but he's very lazy and docile and sweet (unlike Barry) Poor guy's missing half of an ear too. Both cats were originally street kitties, taken in by PAWS and fostered by our neighbor. After a rocky start, they are beginning to get along really well. 

Okay, on to craft stuff.

So, as I may have mentioned in the previous post that I've begun to get serious about working out again. And while I love my Phillies shorts, I needed another pair or two so I don't have to constantly wash them. And I'm cheap, so making them was the best solution. 

Patterning them out was a little challenging because of the elastic waist band. I ended up pinning it all stretched out to my ironing board and tracing from there. I did two variations, one with the side contrast detail, and one without. For the first pair I decided to go simple. 

I used the weird poly crepe that I posted about last time, and it was actually a great choice. Sewed up super quick and is actually really comfy and cool (I get hot very easily) It probably only took about 2 hours from start to finish. I'll definitely be making more, might get fancy and put some piping on the next ones. 

With my new New Balance Minimus sneakers (which are awesome and comfy by the way, we just got them in the store and I had to get them right away) I'm well on my way to having the most obnoxious work out gear ever. With my increased interest in sports wear, and my tax return check already arrived, I'm starting to get an itch to buy a serger and coverstitcher. I hate serger use on wovens (lazy!!) so I never really wanted one, but if I'm going to start working with knits and stretch, that's a whole different story. I'm in research mode right now. 

Speaking of knits, another thrift store purchase is this lovely 4-way stretch knit. It's that sort of cotton-spandex that they made leggings out of in the 80's. Not quite sure yet what it's destined to become. 

Using Things Up

Studio time this week has been scarce. The first cool weekend means the shoe store was insanely busy, and I'm getting ready to start teaching on Saturday. But I did manage to keep working on the braid-coat and use up some of the thrifted fabric I recently acquired.

I finally cut into the table cloth I bought a few weeks back. It's gotta be the nicest material for a table cloth I've ever seen, a nice thick soft cotton. Making a shirt/jacket was a good way to test out my new basic collared shirt pattern, and it was fun to use the border design like this. Don't have any buttons that I like with it, so that'll have to wait. There was also enough extra that I made a scarf for myself. No picture because it's just a big rectangle, nothing exciting. 

Braid coat continues to not look like I'm making progress at all, but I promise I am! Last double-ended braid finished, just two short ones left, although I'm re-thinking the shape a bit. 

And this one's a bit silly, but the cushion that I sit on in my studio was positively ragged, and ugly to boot. So I covered it with a bit of the weird animal mystery fabric, and added ties so it'll stop sliding off my chair as I work. 

Replication

It looked like Philly Aids Thrift got a big donation of fabric, there was quite a bit when I last went, and I ended up buying a few pieces. I'm determined this fall to buy less, and make more of my clothing. The top piece feels like upholstery fabric, burn test seems to indicate cotton. The bottom is a pretty amazing woven pattern with animals, it seems to be cotton or rayon maybe--might eventually become a vest. 

I think this was originally a tablecloth, it's a nice thick cotton. It's a huge pieces of fabric, I'm hoping to get a scarf and a shirt out of it. 

Definitely going to incorporate the border print into the shirt. 

I've had this jean jacket for a year or so, and I wear it all the time, with sweaters shoved under it when it's gotten too cold to wear it on it's own. And I thought the very first fabric I got from the thrift store would be great to make a replica of my jean jacket with. First, of course, I traced out the pattern from the jean jacket. I omitted the bottom pockets, they've always been sort of tiny and useless. 

I forgot (like usual) to take pictures while I was working, but here's the finished replica with the original! The fabric was sort of a disaster to work with, it liked to warp and bend, and frayed everywhere. But I'm still pretty happy with the outcome.

I'm making a terrible face because it's too hot in my un-airconditioned studio to put a jacket on. The pockets a sticking out a bit funny, I'm hoping when I put the snaps on them, they'll lie flat. This fabric would definitely not do well with buttonholes, so snaps it is, I found some decorative silver domed ones I like. 

And the braids are starting to get joined together. I haven't quite gotten the trick of laying the tape so it's right in the center of both sides. I've been pinning one side, flipping over, they basting all the way through to hold them in place while I stitch on both edges. It takes forever! I'm hoping to figure out a better way. 

Failure/Success

So do you want the good news or the bad news?

Good News: I finally got crystalzation. Pictures will be forthcoming tomorrow when I'm more lucid. Turns out that while suspending string in a glass with the mixture generally doesn't do much, pouring it in a shallow pan and placing the string in that works very well. The colors you can get are fascinating, the food coloring doesn't really mix if you make the batches seperate, so you can acheive ombre and tie-dye effects.

Bad news? I am so bad at printing fabric. So bad. So bad.

It's partially because we were using paper stencils for this one, but my registration was awful and I got a lot of fisheggs and white gaps. Picture also to follow on that. On the bright side, I mixed my colors really well--we were using transparent base and pigments, not pre-made plastisol or speedball inks, and it was tricky.

And since I don't want this to be text only, I think I found my inspiration for my next Projects Project. The theme is loose, spontaneous workmanship contrasted with very tight, controlled work.

I want to take this sort of idea from the Fall 08 Marc Jacobs and really expand upon it. I'm planning to do a high-waisted skirt with really tight, controlled embroidery on the top, then bring out the last stitch around the whole thing--like the strings coming out of the patterns here, but across the whole top band. Then take these and loosely net them together into a web of color over gathered fabric that will fill it up, and bring it all in at the bottom.

That is, if I convince my teachers of the idea, we'll see.