Floral Skirt, Bandana, and Pencil Case
On Tuesday afternoon I headed out to Fabricland to purchase a zipper I needed for an upcoming project. While there, I spotted this floral fabric for £4.59 a meter and immediately knew I wanted to make myself a full length skirt.
The skirt is made from two quarter circle panels with an invisible zip on the side. I think this is the first time I've thought ahead when making a skirt and added two inches in length to the back before sewing the panels together. Usually when evening out the hem of a skirt I'll have to trim down the sides and front, but not this time!
This skirt was the first time I've ever used a rolled hem sewing machine foot. It was so much easier to use than I thought it would be, and created such a neat hem! I want to use this foot for every single project I make from now on!
I thought the skirt would use up almost all of the 3 meters of fabric I bought, but I was wrong. With about 70 centimeters of fabric remaining, I was able to make both a bandana and a pencil case. The bandana was pretty much just an excuse to use my rolled hem foot, as I hardly ever wear bandanas.
The pencil case was a bit fiddly to make. I needed one that would fit all my uni supplies in it, and I wanted it to be fully lined. I didn't take any pictures of the making process, and it's difficult to describe how I made it. However, if anyone is interested, I would be happy to make a tutorial on how to make your own.
I am extremely happy with everything I made, although I doubt I'll wear the bandana with any other outfit. The pencil case has already proved very useful and hasn't fallen apart yet. I want to make about a hundred more half circle skirts with rolled hems, they're so simple and so comfy!
Phases of the Moon Skirt
I designed this fabric, Phases of the Moon, a couple years ago, with no real plan besides releasing it on Spoonflower.
I bought myself two yards last year with the intent of making a dress. It didn't work out and I can't remember exactly what happened, but pieces of the fabric remained in my fabric box up until this Thursday.
When I pulled the fabric out, I found I'd already cut out the perfect base for a high/low hem skirt. I couldn't find the top half of the dress anywhere. All that I did was sew a narrow casing and put a bit of elastic through it. Since it was a knit fabric, I didn't even hem it. Ridiculously simple!
The fabric is amazing! My design looks great, and the fabric I chose was Modern Jersey. There are some small design details that do not show up on the fabric, but that's my own fault. I had written the names of each moon phase under the corresponding moon in a light grey. The words were too tiny to show up against such a dark background.
I I'm kind of disappointed I wasn't able to make the dress I wanted, but I'm happy with what I made. If I do ever find the rest of the moon fabric, I'll probably make a matching crop top.
Doctor Who - The Fourth Doctor
Last weekend was London MCM 2017! I went all three days and had a fantastic time. I didn't cosplay the first day, but I wore my french fry dress and got a surprising amount of complements as well as a photo request! If I am able to track down the photo, I'll be sure to share it here!
On the second day of MCM, I dressed as the fourth regeneration of the Doctor from Doctor Who.
Most of the outfit is store bought, but I made both the scarf and the skirt. I knitted the scarf in fifty hours over the course of 5 months, starting on the first of January and finishing just last week on the 6th. My research for the scarf design was a combination of this site and meticulous combing through yarn websites. The scarf is a replica of the scarf worn by Tom Baker in the first half of season 12 of Doctor Who. I think I was able to find a very good color match with the yarn. It took a bit longer to make than I thought it would, and I made a few tiny mistakes, but I am very happy with it. I made it using US size 8 knitting needles.
The skirt is actually one I made for my costume course at uni. It's an Edwardian skirt with center back snaps and hook and eyes. I did a very good job of pattern matching each seam, which is especially evident in the back panel. The synthetic plaid fabric is backed on a black cotton, and every seam is piped with the same black cotton.
I met many lovely people at the Doctor Who meet up, but unfortunately I didn't take many pictures. I'm not really sure who took the above photo or who some of the people are in it, so please tell me if you know!
If I end up going to LFCC this year, I'll be wearing this cosplay on one of the days. I plan on adding a waistcoat and possibly some nice shoes to the costume before then.
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!
Dirk Strider Cosplay Skirt
Here we see my sister modeling a skirt I made for my friend Genny's birthday. It's a reversible knit skirt with an elastic waistband. It's based off of the character Dirk Strider from the webcomic Homestuck. I put an applique of Dirk's glasses on the orange side and and one of his hat on the black side. Genny is planning to cosplay as Dirk later on in the year, and hopefully she'll allow me to post a picture of her complete costume on my site!
The applique on this skirt was difficult to attach because the threads wouldn't catch during the stitching, and I'd take the skirt off the machine to find terrible seams. The issue might have been that I was trying to applique a knit to another knit. However, I was able to fix the applique in time for my friend's birthday, and I am very pleased with the result!
Pop Tab Outfit
