Categotry Archives: sewing

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biased blouse and black pants

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I LOVE this blouse! This is the first time I’ve cut a garment on the bias. I drafted the pattern myself, the only way I make things nowadays. When I did the neckline and the hem I was somewhere in the lovely grey area between tipsy and drunk, so that’s my favorite part. Gots to have my rum.

in the alley the back of the blouse

RUM + SEWING MACHINE = ADVENTURE ON THE SEWIN’ SEAS

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All the fabric is 100% cotton. The floral fabric is pretty thin, and if I were to wear anything dark under the shirt it would be visible. Like I said, it’s cut on the bias, and there are darts in the front and the back that give it a fit that I love. One of my favorite things about this blouse is that it was all made of scrap fabric. The only thing I bought for this project was the cording that went into the green piping, so I spent about $.75 on my new favorite shirt. Incidentally, the green floral is leftover from the first garment I made without a pattern, a dress way back in early 2006.

the neckline underarm piping the fabric detail of the keyhole neck

Working with the bias definitely presented its own special set of challenges. Making the front and back darts even took a surprising amount of time. The original sketches for this shirt included sleeves, but once I attached them I wasn’t wild about the look, plus is made the body of the blouse fit very differently than it had without sleeves. I love the way the armholes came out and impressed myself with how neat the piping and red trim came out.

my black pants black pants

I made the black pants too, and no pattern for that either. I can’t remember ever having owned black pants before. I wish I’d been able to find some heavy weight fabric with a bit of stretch in it for these. Hopefully in LA I will find some awesome material to cover my butt in.

i am also a monster

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luxe patchwork chair

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This project is actually from last summer! I came across Squint furniture, and who could help but be inspired? My mom bought me this cute slipper chair and I knew exactly what I was going to do.

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I bought a million small pieces of some gorgeous upholstery fabrics. Even at lengths 1/4 yd and less, and with a 40% sale, it still cost around $50.

It’s technically a slipcover, although the zipper is tacked closed. Still, it is possible to remove the fabric for cleaning if absolutely necessary. I made the base of the slipcover out of an old sheet. Then I pinned and topstitched the “patches.” I used 1,500 yds of thread for the satin stitching! It was a very time consuming project, but not too difficult. I’m thinking about using the same process on my sewing chair.

I love all the covered buttons! I got these fabrics as swatches for free, and the fleurs de lis and bees are my favorite.

I gave the chair to my mom when I started traveling, but here’s how it used to look in my living room. I also upholstered the violet sateen sofa, made the pillows, painted the two tables, and made the wax screen behind!

This chair was selected as a Craftster featured project in January 2010!

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my stylishly snuggly jersey jacket

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taken from my Craftster post

The inspiration: Last February I found myself sleeping in a car in the Austrian Alps, with the snow 2′ deep, and I was cold… and uncomfortable, and frumpy! So even though this winter I am in mostly warm places, where I have snuggly beds to sleep in, I wanted to have something that would be comfortable enough to sleep in that I would feel confident in when walking around fancy cities.

So I made this jacket out of dark grey sweatshirt jersey. It is stretchy, wears well with no wrinkles, and looks pretty damn good.

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I really like how the princess seams line up with the shoulder seams at the neck.

The lining is a fancy printed fleece (I made sure the pattern was centered on the inside), so my jacket is sooooo warm!

The pockets are lined with fleece and big enough to hold a honey’s hand in. There are also pockets on the inside to keep my goodies safe.

I didn’t use any patterns for this, and I’m not sure how many hours went into it (maybe 7?). The total cost wound up around $35, which was way more than I wanted to spend, but I am so happy with this jacket that I don’t mind. Whenever I wear it around my boyfriend he makes a point of telling everyone around that I made it myself. And I did wind up wearing it in to sleep in the car at the Grand Canyon, where the temperature at night was 17.

My jacket was selected as a “Technical Beauty” on the Craftster clothing forum in December 2009!

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