Halloween mystery number three

It's that time of year again. Time for the third annual "here's a picture of some fabric, guess what I'm going to be for Halloween" shindig. The first year my sister-in-law guessed that I was going to be Marie Antoinette right away and last year my best friend guessed Snow White correctly, but only after seeing all the fabric together (cheating! ;)). This year? Any guesses? I'll give you a hint, it's not something scary. Or Dolores Umbridge. Although that would be a fantastic costume.

I am incredibly stoked to make this costume. This fabric you guys. I've got tulle, chiffon, shantung, and taffeta happening here. I mean, a kid at Christmas or what? Picking these fabrics out was so much fun. I love picking out fabric. Can I do that for a living? And I have been waiting my whole life for an excuse to use taffeta. It's just not practical for normal clothing, but a costume? Heck yeah. I am in love with the way the light hits it and this dusty rose color is perfection. I paid out the nose for it, but gosh it's so pretty.

I'm winging it big time with this baby. I have a pattern but I am altering it, a lot. I guessed my way through the fabric lengths and am planning on drafting my own pattern pieces for some of it. The pattern will be a good starting point, but I plan on my costume looking quite different. Or I hope so at least. Wish me luck you guys. This fabric is real pretty and I'd hate to ruin it.

Dirndl 2.0

The Halloween costume is finished! Can't wait to share it with everyone! Next up on the sewing agenda is a new dirndl. Wurstfest is quickly approaching!

One of the best parts about starting a new sewing project is picking out your materials. It always takes me forever because there are a gazillion color/texture/fabric options and I can never chose. For instance, I had in mind navy blue fabric for the dirndl and red for the apron as I went into the fabric store today. Obviously I changed my mind.

I found this leafy grey cotton and dropped the navy I had in my arms at once. I immediately thought of yellow for the apron, and found this really great sheer flower embroidered yellow fabric on clearance. There isn't quite enough (always the challenge with clearance fabric), but I'm going to try to make it work. And then as I was walking to the door I found some adorable salmon rickrack and decided to throw it into the mix as a trim. These colors are much more springy than fall, but oh well. Navy blue is my favorite color to wear and I think I sport it a little too often. It's good to mix it up.

The dress pattern I'm using is different from the traditional pattern I used last year. In fact it's not even a dirndl pattern. But it's close enough and I plan on altering it quite a bit to suit my Bavarian needs. And I remember struggling quite a bit through that last dirndl pattern, and it's half German instructions, and I'm not looking to relive all that. Happy sewing!

Insta-Sunday

Happy April y'all! Did you fool anyone good yesterday? I don't think we participated at all. I'm okay with that. 

Yesterday was a good day. Both Brendon and I had the day off, and even though he spent a good deal of it studying, we squeezed in some quality time. And because carrying your phone around is so much easier than carrying a camera around, I documented everything instagram-style.

We went on a little dinner date for happy hour sushi and some delish banana tempura at this little place called Umi we love. So good and such a good deal. I could eat sushi all day.

We also did some work with our plants and gained a few new flora members of our family! I feel like we've crossed into a weird early middle-aged-ness when a trip to Lowe's is fun and exciting.

My new basil plant! Fresh basil growing on my window sill? Yes please.

This little guy arrived this week all the way from California as a gift from Brendon's momma. It's a money tree (lets hope it brings us good fortune)! We named him Benjamin, I think it's appropriate.

We also planted some potatoes, not sure how successful that will be. We named our future potato plant Samwise just in case we're lucky and something sprouts up.

Puttin Brendon to work! 

We also planted some Lilly of the Valley bulbs.. seeds... roots? We named her Lily Potter, clever eh? You can also see Herbert back there, he got transferred to a big boy pot and is living outside now instead of on our window sill. Wish him luck.

The new window sill arrangement, it's quite crowded. Spike, Benjamin, some little forget-me-not seedlings (yet to be been named), my new basil plant (also not named yet), Teasley, and Norbert.

Yes, I realize we are crazy plant people. Whatever. 

I also baked some banana muffins! I used my banana bread recipe and just poured them into muffin cups instead of a bread pan. I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar on top and hoped for the best. They turned out pretty dang good!

Pretty fabric I'm turning into clothes. Pretty fabric makes me so happy.

It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday off. A perfect mixture of relaxation, productivity, and lots of time with my husband. Even if he is glued to his computer, cramming for a test tomorrow. Send him lots of smarty pants vibes y'all!

Step by Step Sewing Part 2 - Pattern and Fabric Cutting

Okay so I am finally getting to the rest of this little sewing project tutorial thing. Check out the first part here. My apologies for it taking forever, life has been busy lately! Also cutting the patterns and fabric is easily the lamest part of all this, and I always drag my feet when it comes to getting around to it.

We looked a little bit at the pattern sheets last time, but here's what they look like unfolded:

There are usually two of these giant tissue paper style pattern sheets with a bunch of patterns on each. Also, if you're lucky, your pattern comes with a free cat.

Each pattern piece is made to be cut into different sizes, you just follow the line with your size number on it. There are tons of pattern pieces on these sheets and unless you are making every piece that the pattern includes (in this case, a shirt, dress, and skirt), you wont need them all. Each piece is numbered and each number goes to a different part (shirt, dress, skirt).

For the dress, I only needed pattern pieces 1-8 (there are 18 pieces total). I cut all the other patterns out as well, although I don't cut them to a certain size yet (in case my judgement on my size proves wrong). I set the pieces I wont need aside, fold them up, and put them back in the envelope so they're ready to roll whenever I decide to use them.

Above are the pieces I will need in order by number, top to bottom, left to right; 1-bodice front, 2-bodice back, 3-front interfacing, 4-back interfacing, 5-skirt front, 6-skirt back, 7-pocket, and 8-buttonhole guide. The last piece is not actually anything you cut out of fabric, just a placement guide for your button holes. As far as patterns go, this is a pretty small amount of pieces for a dress.

Next up, cutting the fabric! I washed both my fabric and lining so I wouldn't have to worry about my dress shrinking post-construction.

You have a cutting layout guide in your instructions that tells you how to lay out the patterns on the fabric. Some pieces are cut on folded fabric (so you get two pieces), some on the fold (so it opens up as one big mirrored piece), and some on single thicknesses. This is a "guide", I often find a more efficient way to cut my fabric, leaving me with a bit of extra. However, sometimes, you have to do it their way or it wont all fit.

These are my last two pieces, the front and back of the skirt, and as you can see I have quite a bit of extra left. This is almost always the case, but extra fabric is not a bad thing. I save everything for projects later on and in case you have a little sewing mishap and need to re-cut a pattern piece.

I also cut out fabric for the lining of the bodice and pockets:

And for the interfacing:

I thought I might explain what interfacing is. Interfacing is a kind of gauzy material that stiffens/backs your fabric in places you might need more weight. In this case I believe it is around the neckline and where the button holes will be. There are all kinds of interfacing, both fusible and not, in various thicknesses. This is lightweight fusible interfacing, usually if you're sewing clothing this is what you'll use. It's "fusible" meaning that you just press it (iron it) on to your fabric. Super easy and it works wonders.

And we're done! I pin everything together for each piece (pattern, fabric, lining) to try to stay organized. There are all kinds of guides on these patterns that you can either mark with a pencil onto your fabric or mark with pins. For example, dart or pleating lines. I pencil in the circles that mark the dart lines, but I use pins to mark my pleat guides. It's all up to you really, whatever works well for you. Just remember if you're working on fabric that's lighter in color, you probably want to make very light marks. Darker fabric is different, I either use a felt tipped marker or a white pencil.

So that's it for cutting patterns and fabric! Woohoo, we survived the lamest part. Next up is the fun part, we sew this bad boy together. I'm still debating on how to document that. Obviously I can't do every step, or your eyes would fall and you'd die of boredom. We'll see. I have a busy weekend ahead of me (yay for friends visiting!), so we will continue this project next week.

Also, totally unrelated but I must vent: how can I be breaking out and finding grey hairs at the same time? That's just unfair.

Hello March, and Step by Step Sewing Part 1!

Can you believe it? It is March already. Two months of this new year already gone. Jeeze!

March is always a good month. The weather is usually awesome (time to turn the ac back on, I woke up sweating this morning), there are birthdays to celebrate, and spring break! Oh wait I'm not in school. But spring break for Brendon! And after a little schedule switcheroo last month, Kristy is coming to visit next weekend! And maybe Z too! I have high hopes for this lovely month.

Alrighty, so I've had a couple questions about how exactly I make these things I sew so I thought I'd document my next sewing project to show you how I roll. Or sew.

First and foremost, I use patterns. I wish I was talented enough to just make things on my own, however I am not. Eventually I'd love to be able to just whip something together out of an idea in my head, but until then, patterns are my bread and butter. So I guess the first step in sewing anything, my way anyway, is to pick out a pattern. I'm using this Simplicity pattern I got a while back.

Every pattern usually comes with multiple pieces or variations. In this pattern's case it comes with a skirt, dress, and shirt pattern with a variation on each. Each piece gets a letter. I am doing A, which is just the dress pattern with no variation, the grey dress in the top left corner. I plan on eventually making the shirt (D) and maybe the skirt (C) as well.

The back of the pattern tells you all the info on what kind of fabric to get, how much, and what kind of notions (thread, zippers, buttons, etc) you'll need depending on what part or version you're making:

I apologize for the terrible quality of these photos, I was rushing, bad blogger! There is always usually a pdf of the back of the pattern envelope online, for example here. I suggest checking that out (click the link!), it's way easier to read. Sometimes I'll print that out to take with me to the fabric store instead of the whole pattern. Deciphering these things takes practice and even then it still gets confusing. They break it down for you by parts of the pattern by letter and then by size. I usually highlight or circle the parts I need and in what size.

Sizing for patterns is different than your usual dress/pant size. I am usually a 2 at most stores, but when sewing I use a size 8 or 10. They give you body measurements to help you figure out your size, as well as finished garment measurements, but even then it's weird. Some patterns run big, some small. It's good to just eye it and try it on as you go. And it's always better to err on a size bigger, you can take things in but it's usually impossible to make things bigger.

The pattern gives you lengths of fabric for both 45" and 60" widths. Most fabrics, unless you're at a fancy specialty store or are buying home decor fabric, are sold in 45" widths. So, for this particular dress I needed 2 and 1/8 yards of fabric, 1 yard of lining, 3/4 of lightweight fusible interfacing, thread, a 12" inch zipper (it calls for an invisible zipper, but long story short, I just got a regular one), and four 7/8" buttons. They always give you suggestions for good fabrics to use at the top of the list. Very helpful, it gives you an idea of the texture/weight of fabric you're looking for. I chose to get some pink seersucker for my dress, which is made of cotton. You should always wash your fabrics if you're using something like cotton or a knit that might shrink. I am extra guilty of not doing this, but post-sewing-shrinkage can seriously ruin a dress (I found out the hard way) so I'm making an effort to do so from here on out.

Here are my materials for this little dress: I've got my seersucker fabric, some broadcloth lining (I always just get extra cheap stuff for lining), buttons, matching thread, and a zipper. I got all this stuff today at Hancock Fabrics for under $20, a pretty good deal. The seersucker was the bulk of the price. Not pictured is my interfacing, I always keep a few yards on hand because you use it for everything.

Here's a little peek into what's inside that little envelope:

On the left are the actual patterns that you will cut out. They're printed on super thin tissue-like paper, there are A LOT of them. There are usually at least 2-3 sheets folded up that unfold to be about 5'x5'. On the right are your cutting and sewing instructions. These tell you how to lay out the patterns on the fabric when cutting them. Crucial info. Also, of course, it tells you how to put the whole thing together.

So next up, after washing and drying my fabric and lining, I'll show you the pattern and fabric cutting process. Really exciting stuff! Hopefully this info is helpful. Feel free to ask any questions if I wasn't clear about something or didn't cover something you'd like to know. Sew on y'all!

Pattern prices

I know a few people who read this blog are actually interested in sewing so I wanted to share some tips of the trade! Not that this is a secret, just something I wasn't aware of at first. Maybe everyone knew this but me, and I'm just over stating the obvious. Who knows, hopefully this is helpful!

Here's the deal, don't ever buy patterns (or fabric for that matter) full price. The marked price on most Simplicity patterns (I'm not sure about other brands, but I'm sure the same goes for them) is usually $16.95 which is absolutely insane. Most fabric and craft stores always sell them at 40% off which brings them to about $10, which is still crazy. Online you can get them for about that price, sometimes a little cheaper. BUT, the way to do it is to wait for sales. I know Hancock Fabrics and Hobby Lobby do this, I'm sure Joann's does as well, but every few weeks the patterns will go on sale. And by on sale I mean they are $1-$2 each. The best is when they are 99 cents. NINETY-NINE CENTS Y'ALL. There is usually a limit of how many patterns you can purchase, I think it's like 10, but you can get 10 for the price you'd usually pay for one! Worth waiting for, I promise. Hobby Lobby, Hancock Fabrics, and Joann's post their sales ads online, it's a good way to find deals on other things you might need too (like fabric!). Usually it's different brands of patterns at different times, I'm partial to Simplicity patterns. Today at Hancock Fabrics Simplicity patterns were on sale for $1.99. I got five. After I paid and was waltzing out the door, super pleased with my purchases, I glanced at the sales ad the cashier handed me and saw that this weekend they'll be 99 cents. I was a little irked but still, $1.99 is still legit and these will keep me busy for a while.

My purchases! Obviously I am partial to dresses. I am super stoked about that second one there. RETRO AS HELL Y'ALL! Look at that cute ass bow on that shirt! It also has a cardigan pattern! I LOVE cardigans! But I mean, who doesn't? My main goal was to get a pattern for a holiday dress I want to make with the leftover red plaid I have from Ren Fest. I think I'll be using the second to last for that. The others are just for future use. There are like at least 4 options for each pattern, think of the dresses I could make! And the Walmart by us just started carrying fabric again and it is SUPER cheap, although I'm a little concerned about the quality... I'll have to investigate further. The price of fabric is the limiting factor here, it gets pricey very quickly! Especially for pretty/good quality fabric. But for now I've got a bunch of scraps to put to use and I am excited to get to work on this holiday dress! Sew on!