A Sewing Space of My Own Again

We spent the first few weeks of this year sorting, de-stashing, rearranging and I once again have a sewing / creating space ...

It is cozy rather than spacious but I've natural light and access to all my machines and a little ironing space / cutting table ...  Also ... I can now find things again.

So far I've made 6yr old grand-daughter a Sun-dress

Had fun with the 2 sizes of this print and the pale green really suits my GD.  

However, I was really glad I checked the bodice before I sewed it up - it would've nearly fitted me!  Added some tucks (had to remove 7cm - 2.8" in width)  then we went to All Buttons Great & Small (love that shop!) and got buttons to match the fabric.
The pattern looks recent though I found it 2nd hand - Simplicity 2994.

Grandson loves buttons too ... he really liked the bow-tie buttons and we decided one would look OK on the hat I made him last year (a fabric 'spy' hat or Humphrey Bogart hat) - especially if we also put some feathers there ...








 Back home we got out the box of feathers and he chose this collection ... a partial red-dyed chicken feather, a tuft of white ostrich, a tan brown chicken feather that curves the wrong way and a spotty guinea fowl feather ....  I must say that all together they look really cool.

I'm also making daughter a race-day hat -

 

 Well it isn't going to look like that - though I really like that wind-swept look.  I blocked that very old felt (a failed hat) it'll be the base / the foundation ... covered with fabric and lots of frou-frou.

 And here is the collection of fabric & flowers & frou-frou sitting on the dress

Now, this might be one of the cheapest hats ever - the felt & wire were an old millinery failure, the fabrics & veiling were 'gleaned' from the rubbish bins at Tafe, some of the flowers were gifted, some bought about 30yrs ago.  The only 'new-buy' for this hat was the blue bell shaped flowers ($2.50 for the bunch). 

So happy to be able to make something from all the stash that I can now find with ease following the great big tidy-up.  And perhaps an advert for never throwing stuff out ???   though 30yrs maturation in stash could be seen as a little excessive.
Of course, when 'gleaning' from bins you find that trash sometimes needs a little TLC to restore to 'Treasure'. 
 

A bit of steam will restore a battered silk rose -




Careful ironing can restore old veiling -



The finished hat (shown on an old 'head' shape that has no hair!)

Christmas Time Teaser

I've been busy this weekend - can you guess what I've been making?

Now with those colours it is obviously something Christmassy ... and yes, the white organza ribbon gets to be frilly on the edges ...

 Nah - sorry, but this is not correct, I'm not making fancy little Christmas trees ...

If you are a Blythe doll person - keep an eye on my Etsy shop BlytheStar  to find out what these really are :-)

Animal BackPacks & a fur-sewing tutorial

In a previous post I mentioned that I was being some animal back-packs ...
using an old Butterick pattern that I've used several times before. 

Here they are - all finished.  A mauve bunny for my granddaughter, the brown puppy for my grandson and the bunny with his eyes placed rather too high and startled looking ... well that one is mine! 

Bunny backpack for granddaughter

Puppy backpack for my grandson

 Here is a bunny in situ on my mannequin - they slump when there is nothing in their tummies.  They are working back-packs - the zip to access the 'bag' is behind their heads.

And now I thought I'd do a little tutorial on working with fake fur.  Faux Fur 101

Take care with your cutting out - work with the 'nap', the lay the fur lies (down the length of the fur fabric).  Lay out the pattern pieces so that the fur will brush down the body, limbs and ears of a toy.   Often the fur lies going away from the nose of a toy - but I decided to make these animals with the fur on their faces going the other way.  This is cheap fake fur and the backing is a very loose 'weave' that I thought would look rather ugly if it showed around their noses.  Always think about the direction of the fur when laying out the pattern pieces.

All that is very important but for this tute I thought I would concentrate on another aspect of working with fur.  Because sewn furry things (toys, collars, whatever ...) always look better if the seams are not made too obvious by being either 'bald' or having the fur caught in the seam. 

Firstly - be careful when cutting out fur fabric to cut the backing fabric but not the fur.  Slide the blade of your scissors along the fabric, lifting the furriness. 

If you look closely at this photo - the lower, horizontal edge looks furry (the fabric was cut but not the fur) whereas the vertical edge looks blunt because the furriness was cut along with the fabric.



When you sew the fur pieces together the seams often look like this ...



However, if you take the time (and it is fiddly work) to pluck the fur out of the seams, you can get that seam to look like this - practically invisible!

 

 I like to use something blunt so I don't cut the fur or hurt my fingers!  Be careful not to pull out the threads of the backing fabric, especially if it is a loose weave like this.

 Two things that will help with this fiddly job - use a longer stitch length than usual, but not so long that your work gathers.


 And - when pinning the pieces together, sometimes you can persuade most of the furriness to lie inwards like this.  You might need to use more pins than normal to help the fur to stay there.

I hope these hints are helpful.

Update a Pattern Workshop

This coming Saturday (20th April) I'm going to facilitate another UpCycling Workshop at the Green Living Centre on King Street Newtown.  I think it is fully booked but there is a wait-list and if this workshop is successful, the centre will probably run it again.   Here is a link to more info and the wait-list. 

This workshop will be all about updating commercial sewing patterns. 

There is nothing quite as dated and out-of-style as something that has recently been very fashionable. 

Out of date & out of style sewing patterns are really cheap in Op Shops and they lurk in the cupboards of most home dress-makers.  What to do with them?  I mean apart from laugh at those enormous shoulders & that dreadful styling - or go all nostalgic because mum used to wear something just like that  ...

Well - let's look at one of those patterns again.

The flipped-out Farrah Fawcett hairstyles effectively date this to the late 70s and look at the price - $3.50!

Another good reason to re-use old sewing patterns is the cost of new ones!

But these styles are old enough to be fashionable again.  Paper-bag waists are totally in fashion once more and that little cap-sleeve top is quite cute esp. if done in a plain fabric.  However, this pattern is a size 8 and that is a 1970s size 8 ! Some basic grading can bring this pattern up to a modern size 10  or 12.

What about some of the more extreme styles like this -

The skirt is a basic straight style with a little split at the back - a classic.  But the top is a different matter - massive shoulders, close plain neck-line, a long peplum & buttons makes this a very dated 80s look.

But - here is a quick idea - badly sketched (sorry). 

Scoop out the neck, make the shoulder line more natural, delete the buttons & peplum and we could use this pattern to make a nice batwing sleeved top.  Very now!



Here is another 80s pattern - a rather Princess Diana inspired look here - all pretty and demure with the lace collar, thin belt and long skirt length.  The shoulders are big but a cross over dress is always flattering and easy to wear.

Again, my quick sketching is not very skillful but if we reduce those shoulders, give the dress slimmer sleeves,  add flair to the skirt and make it a better length - we could make the dress button up and instead of lace put on a floaty bias fabric collar / frill.  Far more wearable.  

This is the sort of thing we'll be doing this Saturday - how to look at our out-of-date sewing patterns with fresh eyes and how to make some alterations to the patterns so we can make fashionable garments that fit.

Busy Sewing with Lovely Fabrics

This last week I've been busy sewing some yummy fabrics - mostly soft silk & rayon velvets, some of them with devore or burn out designs.













I've been making more of my 1930's style Kimono Cocoon Wraps - I never know quite what to call them but they are rather lovely as a throw it on, instant touch of glamour. 

I've kept one in this mauve / grey colour and wear it all the time.

The 7 I've just finished making are all for my Etsy Shop.

Dark Blue Florentine Devore

Lt Blue Florentine Devore

Mauve with Black printed Devore

Lovely Rich Ruby Red

Plain Velvet in a Smoky Brown / Grey colour

 And - because I've been asked so many times - I've made some very Bridal ones too.  One in ivory lace -

The other in lovely soft rayon / silk velvet ... most of these Kimono Wraps have beads strategically placed for their weight (as did the original vintage 1930's wrap that I have copied).  I put a fall (or 3) of beads on the centre back point and groups of beads on the front corners.   Here are the pearls I sewed on the bridal velvet Kimono - it is a lovely buttery soft velvet.

 

Once were Sarongs

At the very beginning of this year I was gifted some wonderful, unused cotton sarongs that were bought in Malaysia over 20yrs ago.  This bright purple one was still wrapped and labeled.

Hot stuff indeed - the photo doesn't do the strong bright colours justice.  Well, I never wear sarongs but I do enjoy working with them & sewing them into something.  Sarongs and Saris are often great fun with their border prints and panels of different designs - working with all those elements and making the most of them makes the cutting out quite a challenge.














I decided to make my granddaughter a dress from the purple sarong - with such bright & busy fabric a simple design is best and I found this in my collection of vintage patterns. 

Made some adaptations - a gathered skirt rather than pleats that would need ironing after every wash, also made the longer sleeves but with elastic cuffs.

Border around the hem of the skirt and the big flowers 'grow' up the front.







I should've placed the butterflies better - though these 2 seem to be talking to each other!









The 2nd sarong was black&white - and I forgot to take photos before I sewed it up.  Quite a busy print with borders and panels of zig-zag design and lush bouquets etc.

It is a lovely cool cotton fabric so I made myself a summer shirt - loose fitting with elbow length sleeves and a mandarin collar.  

Placed the strong zig zags up the fronts either side of the buttons, put a bouquet on the back and the borders round the hem again.

It looks quite good on too  :-)

Things ...

Time for a Catch-Up post?  To show you some Things I've been making and some of the other Things that have interested me - perhaps they will interest you.

Earlier this year I finally bought myself an overlocker.  I've been a seamstress for 3 decades but until this year I had avoided owning an overlocker.  So now I have an "entry level" machine (as in the cheapest one the brand makes) and it is making some garments a possibility ...

Very stretchy, fine, mesh fabric - with neat hems and edges.  Without an overlocker this would be a nightmare and / or impossible.



And it is making some sewing much easier.  This is the inside of a Blythe doll's dress.





But enough about Blythe dolls ... I'll show you all the things I've been making for the dolls in the next post...

Let's see more sewing.
I've been making some of my 1930's inspired Kimono / Cocoons  for my Etsy shop (see above for a link).  They are very Glam evening wraps - I've made one in this lovely black lace, the others are in some all-over sequin fabric - one is rose gold, the other is a brighter (9carat) gold.



The sequin Kimono / Cocoons are really Old-Style Hollywood Glamour.







Now for some knitting.
Also for the Etsy shop, some of my slouchy beanies - too warm for an Australian Christmas but Etsy is on the www and somewhere in the world they will be having a white Christmas.

This beanie is very toasty - it is my own hand-spun yarn - un-dyed, naturally coloured sheep and alpaca fleece. 








Did someone mention Christmas?
Last year I made knitted snowflakes as little pressies for family and friends ... seemed like a good idea at the time!   This year the little knitted Christmas decoration / pressie is going to be .... guess!  


I've a bit of a production line of them ... thankfully I don't have many friends.







Now this is also too warm a garment for this time of the year - it can wait till next winter - a poncho for my granddaughter.   A mohair blend from Bendigo Woollen Mills that I dyed myself - the stripes are a cheap chenille acrylic yarn. 





This is my favourite method of making a poncho - 2 rectangles stitched together ... add a neck-band and some fringe.  Fringe is mandatory for ponchos I reckon :-)

Have also finished this scarf - made from Habu yarns packaged as a kit from Dairing.   You work 2 fine yarns together and one of them is a blend of silk and stainless steel.  The steel means that it'll hold a frilly edge like this.











Now for something completely different - I love flat shoes, the freedom and mobility, the independence, the comfort of them.  Towering heels / tottering platforms are not for me - I walk everywhere, don't have a limousine so no limousine shoes for me thank you.  I live in Ballerina Flats (the French call them "Ballerines") and the ones I love most are, appropriately enough, from Blochs.  The black leather version is my shoe staple but I also love the white satin ones - I think they are meant as bridal wear.  


But the ones I buy don't stay white for long ...

This pair are now a nice dark emerald green.



Fabric dye, painted on.  Now I just have to decide if I'm going to put gold beads on them or not ...









Enough of things I've been making ...
Was delighted by this historical old advertising recently revealed by a demolition following a fire on King Street Newtown.

It was once a garage with "Cars for Hire"  and that was "Waratah Motor Spirit"...

This link will take you to another blog with more information (and a lot of advertising!)   Unfortunately, less than a week later the other end of the wall with "Perdriau Tyres" was covered with some unattractive tagging / graffiti.

Now for some nature.
Summer time means crickets - no not cricket the sport of flanneled fools but insects like this ... she hitched a ride into the house on the washing and had to be escorted outside again.

Lovely long antennas !

A few weeks ago on a very hot day I spotted this young kookaburra in some jacaranda trees.  Poor thing was trying to cool down - beak open and wings held away from the body.

I'll leave you with something pretty - another surprise from my garden because I planted this lily bulb at least 8yrs ago and this is the first time it has flowered.  A small arum lily it is a sweet blush pink colour.