01 02 03 Miss Smartie's Sewing 04 05 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 24 21 24 21 24 21 24 25 26 27 28 29

Miss Smartie's Sewing

30 31 32 36 32 36 32 36 32 36 37 38 body { background:#aba; margin:0; padding:20px 10px; text-align:center; font:x-small/1.5em "Trebuchet MS",Verdana,Arial,Sans-serif; color:#333; font-size/* */:/**/small; font-size: /**/small; } /* Page Structure ----------------------------------------------- */ /* The images which help create rounded corners depend on the following widths and measurements. If you want to change these measurements, the images will also need to change. */ @media all { #content { width:740px; margin:0 auto; text-align:left; } #main { width:485px; float:left; background:#fff url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_main_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; margin:15px 0 0; padding:0 0 10px; color:#000; font-size:97%; line-height:1.5em; } #main2 { float:left; width:100%; background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_main_top.gif") no-repeat left top; padding:10px 0 0; } #main3 { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/rails_main.gif") repeat-y; padding:0; } #sidebar { width:240px; float:right; margin:15px 0 0; font-size:97%; line-height:1.5em; } } @media handheld { #content { width:90%; } #main { width:100%; float:none; background:#fff; } #main2 { float:none; background:none; } #main3 { background:none; padding:0; } #sidebar { width:100%; float:none; } } /* Links ----------------------------------------------- */ a:link { color:#258; } a:visited { color:#666; } a:hover { color:#c63; } a img { border-width:0; } /* Blog Header ----------------------------------------------- */ @media all { #header { background:#456 url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_top.gif") no-repeat left top; margin:0 0 0; padding:8px 0 0; color:#fff; } #header div { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; padding:0 15px 8px; } } @media handheld { #header { background:#456; } #header div { background:none; } } #blog-title { margin:0; padding:10px 30px 5px; font-size:200%; line-height:1.2em; } #blog-title a { text-decoration:none; color:#fff; } #description { margin:0; padding:5px 30px 10px; font-size:94%; line-height:1.5em; } /* Posts ----------------------------------------------- */ .date-header { margin:0 28px 0 43px; font-size:85%; line-height:2em; text-transform:uppercase; letter-spacing:.2em; color:#357; } .post { margin:.3em 0 25px; padding:0 13px; border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:1px 0; } .post-title { margin:0; font-size:135%; line-height:1.5em; background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_arrow.gif") no-repeat 10px .5em; display:block; border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:0 1px 1px; padding:2px 14px 2px 29px; color:#333; } a.title-link, .post-title strong { text-decoration:none; display:block; } a.title-link:hover { background-color:#ded; color:#000; } .post-body { border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:0 1px 1px; border-bottom-color:#fff; padding:10px 14px 1px 29px; } html>body .post-body { border-bottom-width:0; } .post p { margin:0 0 .75em; } p.post-footer { background:#ded; margin:0; padding:2px 14px 2px 29px; border:1px dotted #bbb; border-width:1px; border-bottom:1px solid #eee; font-size:100%; line-height:1.5em; color:#666; text-align:right; } html>body p.post-footer { border-bottom-color:transparent; } p.post-footer em { display:block; float:left; text-align:left; font-style:normal; } a.comment-link { /* IE5.0/Win doesn't apply padding to inline elements, so we hide these two declarations from it */ background/* */:/**/url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 0 45%; padding-left:14px; } html>body a.comment-link { /* Respecified, for IE5/Mac's benefit */ background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 0 45%; padding-left:14px; } .post img { margin:0 0 5px 0; padding:4px; border:1px solid #ccc; } blockquote { margin:.75em 0; border:1px dotted #ccc; border-width:1px 0; padding:5px 15px; color:#666; } .post blockquote p { margin:.5em 0; } /* Comments ----------------------------------------------- */ #comments { margin:-25px 13px 0; border:1px dotted #ccc; border-width:0 1px 1px; padding:20px 0 15px 0; } #comments h4 { margin:0 0 10px; padding:0 14px 2px 29px; border-bottom:1px dotted #ccc; font-size:120%; line-height:1.4em; color:#333; } #comments-block { margin:0 15px 0 9px; } .comment-data { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 2px .3em; margin:.5em 0; padding:0 0 0 20px; color:#666; } .comment-poster { font-weight:bold; } .comment-body { margin:0 0 1.25em; padding:0 0 0 20px; } .comment-body p { margin:0 0 .5em; } .comment-timestamp { margin:0 0 .5em; padding:0 0 .75em 20px; color:#666; } .comment-timestamp a:link { color:#666; } .deleted-comment { font-style:italic; color:gray; } .paging-control-container { float: right; margin: 0px 6px 0px 0px; font-size: 80%; } .unneeded-paging-control { visibility: hidden; } /* Profile ----------------------------------------------- */ @media all { #profile-container { background:#cdc url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_prof_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; margin:0 0 15px; padding:0 0 10px; color:#345; } #profile-container h2 { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_prof_top.gif") no-repeat left top; padding:10px 15px .2em; margin:0; border-width:0; font-size:115%; line-height:1.5em; color:#234; } } @media handheld { #profile-container { background:#cdc; } #profile-container h2 { background:none; } } .profile-datablock { margin:0 15px .5em; border-top:1px dotted #aba; padding-top:8px; } .profile-img {display:inline;} .profile-img img { float:left; margin:0 10px 5px 0; border:4px solid #fff; } .profile-data strong { display:block; } #profile-container p { margin:0 15px .5em; } #profile-container .profile-textblock { clear:left; } #profile-container a { color:#258; } .profile-link a { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_profile.gif") no-repeat 0 .1em; padding-left:15px; font-weight:bold; } ul.profile-datablock { list-style-type:none; } /* Sidebar Boxes ----------------------------------------------- */ @media all { .box { background:#fff url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_side_top.gif") no-repeat left top; margin:0 0 15px; padding:10px 0 0; color:#666; } .box2 { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_side_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; padding:0 13px 8px; } } @media handheld { .box { background:#fff; } .box2 { background:none; } } .sidebar-title { margin:0; padding:0 0 .2em; border-bottom:1px dotted #9b9; font-size:115%; line-height:1.5em; color:#333; } .box ul { margin:.5em 0 1.25em; padding:0 0px; list-style:none; } .box ul li { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/icon_arrow_sm.gif") no-repeat 2px .25em; margin:0; padding:0 0 3px 16px; margin-bottom:3px; border-bottom:1px dotted #eee; line-height:1.4em; } .box p { margin:0 0 .6em; } /* Footer ----------------------------------------------- */ #footer { clear:both; margin:0; padding:15px 0 0; } @media all { #footer div { background:#456 url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_top.gif") no-repeat left top; padding:8px 0 0; color:#fff; } #footer div div { background:url("https://resources.blogblog.com/blogblog/data/rounders/corners_cap_bot.gif") no-repeat left bottom; padding:0 15px 8px; } } @media handheld { #footer div { background:#456; } #footer div div { background:none; } } #footer hr {display:none;} #footer p {margin:0;} #footer a {color:#fff;} /* Feeds ----------------------------------------------- */ #blogfeeds { } #postfeeds { padding:0 15px 0; }

Friday, 4 April 2014

Past projects part 3: the dinosaur dress

I picked up this cute and amazing fabric over a year ago on the fabric fair. It features cute dinosaurs in all colours and shapes. Soon after arriving home I realised that the pattern I planned doing in it would not do at all. It had lots of pleats and I loved the fabric to much to let that happen. Since I originally planed to do a sheath dress in this I didn't purchase a lot of fabric.

Butterick 5603 pattern illustration
I went looking for a pattern with big panels wherethe small and very busy print  wouldn't be overcrowding and I would be able to  make the dinosaurs shine. After surfing the Internet, my eye fell on Butterick 5603. A pattern I've seen incarnated a lot both in stylishly retro fashion and with awesome novelty prints. It were these projects that convinced me because the butterick version looks slightly horrendous. I realised I needed that pattern. Now!! So I bought it as my first PDF printable pattern, since I did not know where I would be able to pick up Butterick patterns here in Belgium.

That turned out to be a mistake. I found the printing facilities a bit weird. (you only get to print it 3 times ever in the same year you purchased it) this got me all worked up and worried since I tried to print it on my laptop, realised I had selected the wrong printer and ended up almost immediately ruining the times I could print. Eventually it worked, and I might just purchase a pattern like that again if I'm really in a hurry.

Taping up all of the pattern pieces isn't that difficult, but it takes some extra time. I'm pretty conflicted about printed patterns since they are usually on normal (stiff) paper. this makes them more durable, but can be anoying when you want to store (the original) pattern pieces away. I spend all of my allotted sewing time preparing the pattern and lost interest in it for a whole while, due to school and real live stuff.

After being on my to do list for more than a year I decided to start work on the dress again. In the middle of my exams, witch is usually the time when I get all sewing obsessed and start watching you tube technique videos. I started doodling design options for the dress. I quickly worked out that I did not want to make the dress plainly as it was, and I feared I didn't have enough of the Dino fabric to make a full skirt as it was anyway. (The first pattern I planned on making had a pencil skirt.)

I put together some of my stash fabrics with the Dino fabric and really liked how a bright green went with the Dino's. I paired this with a slightly stretchy black I had lying around for ages. I thought that it would look good to have some design accents in green and maybe some panels in black because the dress would otherwise look to crowded. I decided I wanted black side panels and I wanted them to continue into the bodice of the dress. The only problem was that the dress there are only six panels in the original dress and the bodice is made up out of one piece. I daringly set out to make my first design related pattern adjustments on an existing pattern.

I ended up drawing my own wide dramatic collar and added a wide strip of green to the hem of the dress to balance this out. I split up the side panels into halves at the darts in the front and the same distance in the back. One part would be black the other Dino! I had to redraw the font and back bodice pieces. The back was pretty easy. I just marked the line I wanted and cut it off. I then added seam allowance and notches. The front was a little bit more difficult. I had  decided on a princess seam and if possible I wanted to eliminate the front bodice gathers, so they would not disturb my dinosaurs. I drew the design line I wanted and then added 2 cm extra ease to the curve in the side. This made shure the dress would curve nicely. I walked the distance of the seam multiple times to make sure the fit would be correct. It all turned out pretty well, but I think I overdid the ease since the bodice fits a bit loosley.

I did do a muslin for this project, but nothing much surprising happened so I happily started sewing. The design lines didn't allign perfectly, but I thought I would be able to fix that later on in the real thing. A dangerous assumption.

While constructing the garment I realised the dino fabric was to sheer and would be see through. I added the green fabric as interfacing. this looked awesome and neat on the table, but the combined stiffness of these fabrics really made my dress a tad wild and poofy.

I used (my first) french seams on the seams in the skirt and lined the bodice. I added some bias band to the hem, but this added even more stiffness and made the dress look a bit weird. after wearing it a wile it the skirt usually settles down a bit so I decided to leave it as it was.

I love the inside of the dress.
Those polkadots and french seams always make me smile.
It was also my first time trying to match up a novelty fabric. I read about it on the Internet and decided to try to match the horizontal seams. I apparently did something wrong there, I think I didn't take the seam allowance of the seams on the sides into account. the dress ended up looking good, so I didn't really mind. Didn't have enough fabric for a second try either.

The most difficult part of the construction was the matching up of the horizontal seam between bodice and skirt. I ended up shifting the fabric around quite a bit. I had to take in some fabric in the black part of the dress, witch was unfortunate because it nearly eliminated all of the wearing ease I needed there, but fortunate since the black fabric turned out to be stretchy enough to accommodate movement and even a lot of eating.

In the end I'm really proud of this dress. I learnt tons of new techniques like french seams and tried out others like matching novelty fabrics at the seams. I used my first printable pattern and my first pattern with seam allowance included. (I can tell you what a revelation!!). I feel like I've learnt ton's (also first time to use interfacing, and invisible zip, purchased bias band) and I cannot wait to learn more.

I went to the (Antwerp) Zoo yesterday and my boyfriend took these absolutly adorable pictures. Thank you so much!



Labels: , , , ,

posted by Copy Cat Craziness @ 20:44   1 Comments

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

The Joan dress



















It's finished!! I did a crazy day of deadline sewing today and made the dress all in one go. Unfortunately that did not leave a lot of room for tweaking and unpicking for better adjustments. I'm so happy with my dress! To bad it's nighttime now and I cannot make awesome sunlit pictures in the garden.














I think the dress turned out fairly all right. It's the first woven fabric pattern I made from scratch and it's totally wearable! I can move! hurray! I really like the sunburst pleating I did in the back in hindsight and I love how the collar turned out. I did three muslins to get it that close so I'll stick with this result. The only thing I don't like all that much are the sleeves, I didn't really plan them to come out this way, and they don't fit 100 procent right. There is too much room on top and to little at the bottom. No idea weather this is because of the pattern or the sloper I made. I'll try to tweak them later on. I also added an extra belt. I felt that the waistband of the dress was not giving enough definition on it's own. Probably because I'm not Christina Hendricks. Too bad...

Full details on how I made this pattern and a tutorial to make your own can be found here construction drawing and design choises and here how to adjust a sloper to this pattern.

I love the fabric, it may be a bit bleak but it has a really nice texture and drape to it. I went looking for a fabric that looked warm and coat like but was fit to be worn as a dress. This was rather difficult since they mainly had summer fabrics at the fabric fair when I went and bought the fabric. I chose a natural looking green becouse it's still close in spirit to the rusty brown of the original dress but suits my wardrobe better. remains in the  I thought it would be hellishly difficult to sew since it was very slippery while cutting out the pieces but it came out alright. The real dealbraker today was the tread, it kept on breaking without any apparent reason!

I styled the dress with an awesome swarovski spider pin from my mom. The stone fell out just before the photo (nothing unfixable however), but I think it still looks nice. And red boots because red shoes are awesome.

The dress features French seams where possible and bias binding where it was not. The hem is finished with a blind hem machine stich.










 


Labels: , , , ,

posted by Copy Cat Craziness @ 00:10   1 Comments

Saturday, 15 March 2014

Past projects part 2: the pretty petticoat


My best friend is crazy about the 50'ies and she has wanted a petticoat for years. A while back we got adventurous and decided to make one of our own. We went and bought 8 m of tulle and some satin (I think 1.5 m for the both of us). In the end I would recommend more fabric for the lining, since we ran a bit short (my bad for forgetting the wearing ease mostley). We chose a bright neon green since we really were feeling adventurous, and I do like the way it turned out. It's pretty lively and looks pretty peeking out of your dress.

I had been searching the web for the perfect petticoat pattern for ages and hadn't found anything that I really liked, so I made the pattern for this petticoat myself with tips and tricks I picked up from loads of other tutorials. Drafting this pattern isn't difficult at all, but since there are so many options it can get confusing.

I do love the possibility's of petticoats, especially for bridal and evening wear. You can really make any shape you like to enhance the shap you have. I think I might like a mermaid one as well, one day. I do recommend tackling this project with two people since that really came in handy while cutting the fabric. We ended up spending  a day on the cutting alone. But in the end, it's quit cheap to make, compared to a purchased one. I think we spend 6 euro on the tulle and 3 on the satin (per person) and 3 for thread, and yes you will need a lot of that. Compared to prices asked for petticoats in stores, that's saving bundles.

The construction turned out to be slightly trickier than I antisipated. But it's still fairley straightforward if you've ever used a sewing machine before. It does involve lots of gathering and pinning and that can be a bit tricky if you've never done that before. If you are teaming up for this project it's easiest to have one person pin and the other person gathering. The last reason why I would recommend teaming up for this particular project is that gathering and pinning yards and yards of fabric can get a little boring without propper company.

The Petticoat underneath a dress. 

Since we only had limited time to finish this project it got a little stressy resulting in me making a lot of beginners mistakes that only slowed the proces down even more. I for example forgot the wearing ease while cutting out the inner skirt. I ended up having to insert a strip of fabric, since the leftovers weren't large enough for a new piece.
I also should have used two different pieces of fabric for the waistband and the lining since now the good side of the lining is facing inwards, but since the petticoat is see through it looks a bit weird.
I regret not making the lining in a stretchier fabric that would make walking a tad easier.
I ironed the lining separately since you cannot iron tulle (it will melt). This gave me the crisp crease I wanted in the hem and the waistband.

Conclusion: I'm really happy with how this project turned out. the petticoat is very versatile and cheap compared to a bought one. It did take quite some time to make but I feel it was totally worth it. Although I made some mistakes in the pattern, I've got a good idea how i'll fix them next time around. Since It's an undergarment no-one will notice anyway so I cant be botherd unpicking it all.

I will make an in depth tutorial on how to make this or any other petticoat in my next post.




Labels: , , ,

posted by Copy Cat Craziness @ 17:39   0 Comments

Thursday, 13 March 2014

Past projects part 1: the sunburst skirt

I fell in love with this skirt the moment I saw it. Simple jet elegant. I knew I had to make one for my own.

Pattern Description:

The pattern description told me that the look accentuates the silhouette, because of it's length and the pleating at the hip.

Pattern sizing:

I made a size 34, but I think you should let the stretchiness of your fabric decide on the sizing.

Did it look like the model photo?

It did! Except that I made the separate facing piece and then decided that I liked the stripes in the opposite direction that much that I left it turned out.




Where the instructions clear enough?

The instructions where pretty clear, but I did get confused as to witch direction the pleats should be sewn down in. I made this skirt three times this far and I got confused every single time. I made it both ways and think both turned out looking OK, so in the end it doesn't matter that much.

What did you particularly like or dislike?

I really like the silhouette of this skirt and the way the pleats make it look as if I've actually got some hips going on. I dislike the fact that you either have to use very stretchy fabric (that will become saggy after washing and wearing) or you cannot get the pattern on. I recommend using a zipper with less stretchy fabrics. The pleats take up a lot of room and are very bulky in the design. I end up with a strange bump on my hip, which is less apparent with thicker fabrics.


Fabric used



I got the crazy idea to make a striped version, since i do love stripes... I didn't really think of how the stripes would turn out on the skirt, but I was mightily pleased with the result. I really love how the skirt makes my hips look fuller and accentuates my trim waist. I think this is largely down to the stripes.

I used a lightweight jersey nit fabric, this is a lot thinner than the original fabric. Although it did stretch pretty well as the pattern instructions demanded I still had difficulty getting the skirt on. I did a second version in a leftover black winter knit (because who doesn't love black skirts?) and couldn't even get it on! Well I could, but it broke my back, I ended up sewing a zipper into it. I recommend two way stretch fabrics for this skirt (since that will eliminate the problem where the grain changes so much due to the pleats that the top isn't stretchy enough anymore, or using an invisible zipper.) If you want to hide a tummy a thicker knit is probably the way to go.

Will you sew it again? recommend to others?

I already did sew it three times, twice for me and once for my friend. I loved all of the results. My friend is a lot curvier than I am around the hips and the skirt really flattered her as well. I really recommend this skirt since it's so easy to whip up, pretty versatile and so classy.


Me being all retro with an army hat


Labels: , ,

posted by Copy Cat Craziness @ 18:35   0 Comments