A Quick Update

Hi everyone! I was recently featured in an article titled "Seven Reasons Why Sewing Is A Big Deal" as one of six of the best sewing blogs! Most of you are probably aware of this, since my bloglovin' follower number doubled in the week after the article was published :) Hello new readers! But if you haven't read the article yet, check it out, I was featured along side 5 amazing sewing bloggers (seriously, I thought they were going to link to me in a long list of blogs, I never thought I'd be featured next to some of my favorite sewing bloggers!).

Unfortunately I'm so busy at the moment, which is why this blog here is so quiet. I kind of stumbled into a job as assistant to the director of a local musical, and opening night is in two weeks! Yikes! So many rehearsals to plan, and emails to send and answer... I feel like I have about 5 excel files open at all times, but it's a great opportunity, and I like the challenge  (plus it's distracting me from some personal stuff I'm going through).

Also, I'm moving into a new apartment over the next month! It's really close to the art school I'm starting at, and my room is big with a beautiful "herringbone" wooden floor. My future roommate hasn't been in the apartment for too long, so there's still lots left to decorate and we love the same style! Decorating my own apartment is something I've been looking forward to for so long, and I'm really excited about it. So expect some home decor DIYs and sewing projects on here :) (I made a pinboard for all my decor inspo)

Oh, and I finally did what I've been afraid to try for two years:

I went white! Or nearly white :) I'm trying different shades of pastel purple and pink at the moment. I really like my natural dark brown hair, but I just had to finally try this! Some days I love it, some days I don't, but that's ok.

WANT: Kilim Shoes

Oh Lord. These shoes. I can't even - I mean, look at them!!

1 . 2 . 3 . 4

Made in Luxembourg from vintage hand-woven turkish rugs. I want a pair!! Y u no have my size??

Project Runway & Armor Jacket Update

I've been catching up on project runway in the last few weeks (i once started watching season 9 when it was on tv in 2011, and actually ran into a couple of the contestants while fabric shopping in new york!) and while watching last weeks episode I had such an "omg" moment when I saw Michelle's Dress:

I love that leather breast plate harness thingy! I personally would prefer normal leather to patent leather, but I really like the quilting detail. And she used wool for the dress! Like I'm using for my jacket! So weird.

The thing is, I've completed the wearable muslin for my jacket (I'll take photos where I'm wearing it soon), but I'm not satisfied with how my harness thing is turning out.

oh, hi mom! this is where I stand at the moment. as you can see I taped the harness "muslin" in place where I would like it to snap on to the jacket.

It just looks too boxy and costumey (seriously, I've been watching way too much PR, when I step back from my dressform to look at what I've made I can hear Michael Kors saying "I don't get it, where is she going? An S&M renaissance fair?") especially in the front, so I've been trying out different ways to manipulate the fabric (if you can call pleather "fabric"). The pleather I'm using to test different versions is somewhat stretchy, which makes it hard to tell what the real leather will behave like

In a way I kind of like all of these, but not for this project, it's not the look I'm going for with this. I want it to be sturdy and armor like, but without looking too costumey and without intricate details. I'm considering leaving more open spaces in the harness, as in, connecting planes of leather with strips of leather, for a "lighter" harness that shows more of the garment underneath. It's inspired by medieval armor, but I want it to be modern, futuristic almost, and just because it's supposed to read "armor", it doesn't have to actually cover up the entire upper body.

What important to me for the harness is that the shoulder and sleeve detail remain. I really like that triangular shape at the side. I originally wanted to piece that part into the sleeve of the jacket, but I was unsure if it would work and I liked the idea of it being removable. But the thing is that it sticks out at the shoulder area now, because it's just free hanging.
And I want the harness to cover up the accentuated bust. I'll see what I can come up with. There's so much harness inspiration out there on the internets, I might post some inspiration in the next few days.

Also, while wearing the jacket alone this weekend, I realized I kind of missed having pockets. I don't want to put pockets in the jacket itself (it would interfere with the design of the leather overlay on the peplum), but maybe I could incorporate some storage into the harness?

More to come!

Armor Jacket WIP I

Finally! After having "drafter's block" in March, I'm back to sewing and patternmaking! As I explained in my post from last sunday, I just felt the need to go in a different direction for the moment. The design I've been working on is one of the sketches in sunday's post, but I went and made a more precise sketch to help with drafting:

what's not pictured here is the leather harness-type overlay I want to make to go with this (but be removable - versatiliy, yay!)

I bought some wonderful fabrics on Wednesday, one of them for this jacket, a grey wool felt. But I'm not going to cut into that (59 swiss francs per meter!) until I'm completely sure of the fit. Also, I'd like to use real leather for the harness-overlay and part of the peplum, so yes, everything needs to be perfect before I cut the real fabrics! So I bought some pleather and a polyester woll imitation that is very similar in thickness and drape to my actual fabric! couldn't have asked for more! And it was on sale too :)

I did make a muslin-muslin to start though:

draped a basic raglan bodice to get the fitted shape I want, took it apart to make a pattern and made another muslin

And in the back I wanted a slightly open, inverted pleat (to accentuate the shoulder blades, and for ease of movement), so I draped it using my wearable-muslin fabric.

This is the first time I've really used draping to create a garment. I wish I had a nicer dressform, but this works ok.

Well, I spent a few hours sewing today, and it's looking good! I need to take the princess seam in a bit, but other than that I'm so happy with how this is turning out! Seriously, I haven't been this excited about something I'm making in a long time. Maybe because I wasn't sure if I could do it? Or because it has many details that show, compared to simple garments I make, where you can only see the hard work when you look very closely?

The midriff I'd like to do from two layers of grey ponte knit, I'll see what it looks like, but I think the decorative seaming would create more dimension on a knit fabric, which I'd like. Ideally you would look at the waist from straight ahead and see "ridges".

Next up: the peplum!

Felt Animals

For a DIY project I'm working on, I wanted to make a decorative bird from felt, similar to the ones below.

#1 . #2 . #3 . #4 - check out these sources, #3 for example has a huge amount of great patterns for different species!

I bought small rectangles of felt to work with, drew a pattern freehand (but I made sure the seams matched up in length) cut it out and stitched the pieces of felt together by hand using a blanket stitch.

I could scan and upload the pattern, let me know if you're interested.

It's actually the first time I used a blanket stitch but I love it! And I really like how it lookes on my birdie. As you may have noticed, my bird is without beak! And eyes! I'm not sure what color I want to make the beak, and I'm considering needle felting the beak and eyes. I've never felted anything before, but while looking for bird inspiration I found really beautiful, needle felted birds!

left . right

I'm not quite sure what I would use these for (decoration I guess? As gifts? Do you think I could get away with putting one on a hat or in my hair?) but they are just beautiful! It's probably the child in me. I loved stuffed animals, I had so many in my bed, I barely had room in it myself. I was definitely an animal girl, I never really got the point of barbies (they're not soft! They're not cute!? Her hair keeps getting in the way! Where am I supposed to hold her?!).

Do any of you have needle felting experience? Any tipps or advice for a beginner? What are the essential tools apart from the needle and that foam-mat-thingy? How long will I have to practice until I can make awesome stuff? (I'm impatient, can you tell?)

I'm also working on a humanoid kitty toy. As a child I disliked stuffed animals with clothes on (why is that donkey wearing a t-shirt? What's going on here?) but now I can appreciate their cuteness.