Purple Skirt
As you may have noticed by now, I like making skirts. I believe I've made about five in the past six months. None of them have been very exciting, but they have all been just different enough to justify having their own blog post.
This skirt is a half circle skirt with a plain waistband. It was pretty straightforward, but I did have trouble with the hem. The hem kept twisting while I stitched it, so instead of having a single line of stitching around the bottom, I chose to have three. The skirt opens and closes using a center back zipper.
The shape of this skirt is really fun, and I plan on making many similar ones in the future. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may have noticed that the photo quality has changed. I recently purchased a new camera and I also got a remote clicker! This means that I no longer have to rely on a timer to take photos of myself. I'm hoping this will encourage me to always take photos of my work, and I'll be sure to blog about them here!
Bee Skirt
I made this skirt as part of a costume for a bee party I went to a few months ago. Since I haven't been doing the best job of taking photos as soon as I make something, this post (as well as the next one) are quite late.
I went on amazon and bought two meters of the cheapest black and yellow striped fabric I could find. Originally, I had intended to make a dress from Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book, but I came across a problem when it came to the bodice. I cut the bodice out a size larger than it needed to be, but the armholes were so small I couldn't fit my arms through them.
Because I was a little pressed for time, I gave up on trying to fit the sleeves and bodice to myself and made a skirt instead. The skirt is simple, made from three rectangles: the front, back, and waistband. I zig zag stitched all the raw seams and included a side zipper.I would like to eventually make this skirt into the dress I originally wanted. The bodice pieces only need small modifications in the shoulder and armpit area. While the pattern originally called for short sleeves, I probably won't include them because I don't have enough fabric left to recut them.
Jaws Skirt
I saw this teal Jaws fabric at Joann's and fell in love immediately. I bought three yards, intending to make myself a matching short and shirt set.
Clearly, I did not end up with shorts or a shirt. Initially, I used about two yards of the fabric to attempt to make a pair of shorts that looked like a skirt, similar to short culottes but with a gathered waist.
This is how the shorts looked around my second attempt. The looked fine on the mannequin, but when I put them on there was a weird triangular gap in the lower center front and back. Not only that, but when I sat down, they pulled in weird places and were uncomfortable to sit in.
I left the shorts alone for about a week, trying to figure out what to make from them. Eventually, I just cut the shorts into 6 large isosceles trapezoids. I sewed the sides of the trapezoids together, leaving one side open, and gathered the top into a waistband.
On the side that was still open, I sewed in an invisible zipper and two hooks and eyes. I then folded over the waistband and top stitched across the bottom with a silver glittery thread.
I had already hemmed the shorts with the glittery silver fabric, so I just made sure to line up the bottoms of the pieces carefully so I wouldn't have to sew another hem.
After I finished the skirt, I did not have enough fabric left to make myself a matching shirt. There might be enough left to make my little sister a skirt, so there may be another Jaws Skirt post in the future!I really like how this skirt turned out and have already worn it twice. I will definitely be wearing this a lot more!
Pleated Plaid Skirt
I made this skirt using just a little over a yard of plaid flannel fabric and about 18 gold buttons. The flannel had been purchased so that I could make a nightshirt for my dad. However, when I had finished making him a nightshirt, I had just enough fabric left to make myself a skirt.
The skirt was pretty simple, made from just two rectangles pleated in the front and the back. I didn't even make a waistband!
The most difficult part of the skirt was probably trying to get all of the buttonholes to line up properly. I would have used a simple side zipper, but I did not have one and I had just been to the fabric store. Since the skirt is made from flannel, it is very warm, which will be great for the fall and winter.
Laughing Cat Skirt
About a year ago, I bought a yard of my Laughing Cat fabric on Cotton Poplin. It sat in my room, almost 4,000 miles from where I go to school, until I came back for summer break and pulled it out, determined to use it for SOMETHING.A yard of this fabric wasn't enough to make anything for me, so I made my sister a skirt!
I made her a simple gathered skirt with an elastic waist. It's probably one of the easiest things I've ever made, but it shows the pattern well.
If you want to make one, you just need to take two rectangles of fabric, sew them together on the sides, zigzag stitch one side to a loop of elastic, and then hem the other end. Super simple!
New Fabric Designs!
If you have a Spoonflower account and follow my account, you've probably noticed some new designs. I've been working on a fabric collection based on paint.
The first fabric, called Black and Blue Mirrors, is a simple black and blue repeating pattern. I created this design using acrylic paint and paper. I then scanned the painting into my computer and cleaned it up as much as I could before I ordered a yard of fabric from Spoonflower.Why did I order a yard of fabric, you ask? 
For a swap with Alice the Insane, of course! I gave her a yard of my design printed on cotton poplin ultra in trade for a super cute bag that she made to match our Kylo Ren and General Hux cosplays that we wore to MCM London. 
I really like the bag she made, and I've been using it so much! It's a really good size for everything I need with me on a daily basis.
I love the dress she decided to make from the fabric, I think she did an amazing job keeping the pattern intact and that having the design off center was fresh and different.
She added bias binding to the neck edge, and the dress opens at the side with a zipper. Isn't it lovely?
This is the other fabric that I designed, also made using acrylic paint, paper, and a scanner. It's only the second fabric in my 'Paint' fabric collection, and I'm hoping to add at least two more painted fabric designs over the summer.
Be sure to check out Alice the Insane's facebook page!If you're interested in purchasing either of these fabrics, they are available here.
Raspberry Hood
I made this hood using the Bobble Hood with Tassels pattern.
It was easy and straightforward to make,but I did have a little trouble with the borders. I somehow messed up the back post single crochet so that it was on the wrong side of the piece, and had to match that when I made the second portion of the edging stitch.
Looking back at the pattern, my hood appears to be a bit smaller than the original, and the bobbles are in slightly different places. I'm not entirely sure what I did to cause this.
I am happy with the hood I ended up with, but I'm not sure it was the one that I was trying to make. I've received a lot of compliments on it, and might make another one. Next time I'll pay closer attention to the pattern to figure out what I did wrong.
Pink Cable Knit
I made knit this hat from a pink yarn so bright it looks like it's glowing. It was super difficult to photograph and I apologize for the grainy photos. I made up the pattern as I went along, and although it isn't perfect, I can type up a version of the pattern if anyone wants to make this hat. Let me know if you're interested!Make sure to check out my facebook page if you haven't already!
All Grown Up Slouched Hat
I made this hat using the All Grown Up Striped Slouched Hat pattern. The pattern calls for the hat to be made using an aran yarn, but I used a double knit (a double knit is thinner than an aran). In order to be able to make the hat to fit my head, I only needed to change the length off the hat. I used a 5.5 mm (I) crochet hook and made the small adult size. I crocheted about 6 more rows in the stripe pattern than the pattern asked for.
Devil or Angle?
Why yes, that is a Kylo Ren mask! I made this combination hood and scarf using this scoodie pattern. From my calculations, I thought the scoodie would take about two balls of yarn to make, but it ended up taking six.
Hats for Trade
I am very happy with the pom pom.
Christmas Presents for Relatives
Hats!
Yes! Another Star Wars hat! This one is BB-8, a character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I used a BB-8 Droid Hat Pattern, and modified the circles to be smaller, and looking at the robot in order to judge where to put them.
A New School Year
Sorry, it's been quite a while since I've last posted. Since then, I have moved to England and started my first year studying costume design and construction at a university level. I've been working very hard in class, and so kept forgetting to post. (oops!)During winter break, I went to Austria with my friend Ruth and stayed with her family. While in Austria, Ruth and I visited her photographer friend, Bildersanatorium, who was kind enough to take photographs of the many pieces I have made since September.
This hat was the second thing I made after moving to England. It's a very simple earflap hat made from double crochet and single crochet, with braided tassels and a pom-pom.
This dress is made from a very nice stretch velvet I picked up from BSP Haberdashery. I felt it, and I just had to take it home with me. I made up the dress pattern as I went along, copying one of my tank tops for the bodice, and gathering two rectangles for the skirt. The dress is so simple that I was able to hand sew the entire dress in one night.
This is my friend Ruth in cosplay as Mavis from Hotel Transylvania. She is modeling a knit hat and a crocheted scarf. The hat is a super simple pattern, I just altered knit and purl stitches until it reached the length I wanted, and then decreased. The scarf is made from the basic tunisian crochet stitch, which ended up making the fabric very thick and warm, but also caused a strange drape. I started making the scarf in red, but switched to black when I ran out of red.
I made this hat for Ruth's dad for Christmas. It's a plain knit hat with a ribbed cuff.
This hat is made for Ruth's mom using the Kitkat Hat Pattern. The pattern was super easy to make, and I love the result!
This is my favorite hat. It was my first time working with cables in a pattern and I love it so much! I used the Traveling Cable Hat Pattern and I found the instructions very easy to follow, although I did get confused while I was making the ribbing and messed up a bit. If you want to see in progress pictures of my hat, please click this link.
This dress is actually a project from spring of last year. It's made from the same pattern as the French Fry Dress out of a soft woven plaid fabric. I did not match the plaid because it is a very small print, and I lined the bodice with the same fabric used in the rest of the dress.I am planning on posting more often this year, and hopefully I'll stick to that promise!
Rainbows and Scarves and Hats (Oh my!)
I've made a lot of stuff in the past few months, so I'm going to try and separate it all into manageable posts.In February, I was comissioned to make a rainbow scarf for my friend Marzena.
I accidentally crocheted the scarf a few feet longer than I had meant to, mostly due to the chain stitch stretching.
It's pretty simple, made only with double crochet, each color being three rows wide. This was probably one of the biggest projects I've crocheted.
Then, one of my other friends asked me to make a rainbow cowl.
The first one I made in February, (pictured above) but it was too small, so I made another one that was longer in March.
I forgot to take pictures of the second one, however. My apologies!More recently, (last week!), my friend Claire, who also knits, asked me to knit a hat!
Claire outlined a pattern for me verbally, saying I should start the hat with 54 stitches, and then decrease by six once it was the desired length.
I forgot Claire's instructions, and instead started the hat with 64 stitches, on needles that were two sizes too big.
Luckily, I knit extremely tightly, so the hat fit just fine!That just about sums up all the rainbow stuff I've made since February. Look out for more posts containing more recent makes!
February and March
February
This dc slouchy hat is worked in three colors of yarn, the majority in grey and black held together, with yellow as the brim. The waves on the edge were made using sc, hdc, and dc.
This is another simple dc slouchy hat, but this time it has a detail in sc around the edge, as well as a pom pom at the top.
This hat is made from one of my own patterns which is available for free on Ravelry.March
Sadly, this is the only picture I have of this slouchy hat. It is very simple, worked only in double crochet with four colors of acrylic yarn.
This octopus was something I worked up quickly during class at school using this pattern. I believe I gave him away to one of my friends in Japanese class. I have made a lot more things since then (as well as a few more during those two months), so look out for some more posts in the near future!
Uchi-Con
I shared a table with the Mangaka club from our school. They took up most of the table and sold buttons, prints, and commissions. I sold the hats that I had made over the past couple weeks, and I worked on crocheting more items while sitting behind the table.
I completed a total of five hats before the convention, and then I completed another hat at the beginning of the convention, making for a total of six hats up for sale. All of the hats were patterns that I free-handed, meaning I didn't use a pattern and just made to fit my head. Three hats were pokéballs, one had cat ears, one had earflaps and bear ears, and the last one had a brim and a pom-pom at the top.
Our table was pretty busy, and we often had big groups of people around our table. Many people stopped by to complement my work and to buy buttons.
Overall, Uchi-Con was really fun and I loved seeing all of the cosplays and the work that the tables had on display. I would definitely suggest going next year!
Perry the Platypus Dress
The dress is another pattern from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. It's the Sweetheart Sundress, although I modified it to better fit the idea that I had in my head. I changed the front of the dress so that it is no longer just two pieces (one on each side), but is now five (two on top, three on bottom), changed the back piece by separating the piece along the darts into three separate pieces, and changed the side zipper in order to make a more fitted dress.
The skirt is a simple gathered skirt with a wide lace trim to add a bit of interest to the dress. The first time I applied the lace to the dress, I accidentally melted a segment of the lace with the iron and had to tear out the whole trim and replace it with new lace.
This is the inside of the dress. Only the top is lined, and I hand sewed in bra cups for support. The zipper is on the left side, and I did not encase it in fabric on both sides because I was trying to avoid hand sewing as much as possible.
I found this fabric at Joann's while looking for a fabric I could use to make a comic book print dress. I think that the fabric fits the criteria I set, because it includes animated characters in a comic book print design. It's a cotton blend printed with the Phineas and Ferb characters with a focus on Perry the Platypus.
The Zig-Zag Dress
I made the zig-zag dress a little over a year ago, sometime in the year 2013. It was part of my "Greyscale" Collection, which, as the name suggests, is a collection made from fabrics in shades of grey, black and white. The collection was inspired by the outfits in old black and white movies.
The pattern is Vogue V8808 cut out in option B. I really like this dress style, especially the collar, shape, and length combination. I made the zig-zag dress before I had been told it is a much better idea to trace the pattern pieces, so all of the pieces are actually cut out of the original pattern paper.
I'm really proud of the pattern matching on the princess seams (zig-zags AND curves? What was I thinking?!), but not of the pattern matching on the side seams. The reason for this is probably because I sewed and serged the side seams of the lining and the outside fabric at the same time.
Because the zig-zag fabric was very lightweight and see-through, I did not make a full lining, and instead ended it above the knee with a terribly uneven hem. Luckily, it's not obvious that the lining hem is uneven from the outside, and instead looks like it transitions smoothly from lined to unlined.
Despite its flaws, I still really like the zig-zag dress - I mean look at those princess seams!
French Fry Dress!
This is the dress that I briefly mentioned in this post. I finally got outside and took some pictures of the dress! (Seven months after I made it-Oops!)
The pattern I used for this dress is the Seersuker Sundress from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing and I used two yards of French Fry fabric. Since both the book and the fabric were Christmas gifts, I found myself with two yards of fabric and a pattern that called for three. Luckily, when I went to lay out my pattern pieces, there was easily enough space for all of them.
Pictured above is the muslin I made for the dress. I only made one muslin, and I only needed to adjust the front and back by taking them in by about 5/8 of an inch. I fully lined the dress with the muslin.
I put in an invisible zipper instead of a lapped zipper, and this is the best invisible zipper I have ever done. The secret is to hand sew the whole zipper. I also took my time on the gathered skirt in order to make sure the gathers were perfectly even. Instead of gathering by sewing over a thread and pulling it, I pinned every gather out individually.In fact, this garment is probably the best I have ever made. My only regret is that I didn't take more time with the four darts in the front of the bodice - I could have adjusted them to fit better. Despite this, the French Fry Dress has been worn a few times already, (It was too cold to wear when I made it) and will definitely be worn over and over again in the future.