Finally a use for the tiniest fabric scraps

After making the Gibbous inspired bustle skirt, I wanted to make more items in the same style. To start, I put together a matching distressed cuff.

This was a pretty fun and quick project. I made a base rectangle a bit shorter than the distance around my wrist, then layered scraps over it until I liked how it looked. I added some ribbons, beads and buttons by hand to finish it off.

Originally I planned to have the cuff tie on with this ribbon, but I didn't consider how difficult it would be to tie a bow with one hand. I added a piece of elastic on the underside to hold the cuff on while typing the bow. This works, but isn't the prettiest. Next time I make one of these, I plan to use a button and loop to fasten it.

You can see here the base is another piece of the denim I used for the skirt and an outside layer made out of a leftover scrap.

I bought these buttons for a different project but they ended up being the wrong color. I still think they're nice, so I'm glad I found another use for them.

I hope to make some more of these cuffs for sale, but I've really been slacking lately with sewing. I need to work on that!

What's easy, girly, and spotted all over?

If this was a crude joke, it would be some sort of female celebrity probably.

The actual answer is this skirt!

Fabrics so bright, they're glowing!

A long time ago, I bought some of this neon vinyl planning to make skirts, but it turned out to be too thick. I did incorporate it into a skirt once, so you can see that here. I made pretty much everything in these photos, but while searching for links to other posts, I couldn't find one for the skirt and fluffies. This was going to be about the shrugs and utility belt, but hey, let's toss the skirt and fluffies in too! For the one-shoulder top, check out this post.

A skirt of shirts

I probably found out about Gibbous clothing more than six years ago, and kept telling myself I would try to make something in the style since then. I even had a box set aside to collect color coordinated fabric scraps and clothes I didn't need anymore so I had materials when I finally got around to it.

During this past winter, I saw a girl dancing in a similarly styled skirt at a party and I kept thinking about it. Dammit I was going to make one!

I pulled out that box of fabric, then spent a night doing a lot of pinning, sewing, and twirling, and here's the resulting skirt!

This skirt makes me feel like a ballerina

I've been wanting to try doing a fishing line hem on something for a while, and since I've gotten comfortable using a serger over the past year I thought I'd give it a shot. I looked at a bunch of tutorials but none of them seemed to agree how heavy the fishing line should be, so I didn't really follow any one set of instructions. You can also do this kind of hem on a regular machine with a zig-zag stitch, which I might try next time just to see how it works.

This skirt was pretty easy to put together. I had some leftover organza from other projects, which I pieced into two full circles (one about 3 inches shorter than the other) with french seams. I then hemmed each circle with the rolled hem settings on my serger, carefully feeding the fishing line into the seam. It was a bit of a pain in the butt because occasionally the line would slip out of the hem and I'd have to go back a couple inches to cover it up. These spots aren't noticeable in the finished skirt, though after wearing it to a party I've noticed a couple places where the rolled hem is pulling away. the organza frays pretty easily, and I'm not sure how to keep this from happening. I've noticed it on my store bought clothes as well. Once both layers were hemmed, I added a simple elastic waist made of matching cotton.

Just a quick post for a quick project.

I've been hiding all winter but it's finally nice enough out to take some photos. This means I'll have a lot of new stuff to talk about in the next couple weeks!

I also haven't been sewing much because I've been sick, so I wanted to do a small satisfying project to get back into the grove. My watch band was completely destroyed and I've been meaning to make a few replacements. (Okay, the whole watch is pretty destroyed, but I really like it! I tried to get a new one, but there's always something that bothers me about the ones I've tried).

I re-used the D-rings from my old bands, but didn't have enough, so I tried one with velcro. It's not as strong as the D-rings but should be fine unless I'm being really active.

There's no interfacing in these, but I folded the fabric so it was 4 layers for a little extra stiffness. I didn't make a tube and flip it right side out. Instead, I folded the rectangle and top-stitched all the way around.

Here's what one looks like on my tiny wrist. If you remember, this fabric matches the kitty dress I posted about last year.

I had a sudden urge to make a tutorial, so here's a quick guide for a comfy summer dress

A couple weeks ago, someone on Reddit's sewing sub asked about making this dress, which is available from Threadsence:

Photo doesn't belong to me - it's from the Threadsence site

(Here's the original discussion for the curious)

This dress seems crazy simple to make, and (full disclosure) I haven't made it but drew up this guide for how I would go about sewing something similar. It's also some insight into how I figure out how to make something in my head/on paper before actually doing it.

"I am the darkness of space"

I mean, not really, these projects are pretty bright and colorful. It's just something I say sometimes...

Anyways, I finally got around to making those space suits!

The Care Bears taught me how to touch my toes

I used to love watching the Care Bears when I was a kid, and I'm not a fan of their new slimmed down reincarnations. When I saw this curtain panel with the chubby bears at a thrift store, I knew I had to make a skirt out of it.

Yes, this is another circle skirt.

One of the stores I go to regularly has a large selection of this shiny spandex that I keep using. I've posted 5 projects with this fabric already, and can tell you there's at least one other I didn't get pictures of. (For the curious: these skirts, this fitted dress, and these two circle skirt dresses.)

Recently, they had this variant of it that has dots cut out. I know I make a ton of circle skirts, but I really wanted to make something I would definitely wear with this awesome fabric. I had some trouble deciding what color to line it with, and eventually went with this bright yellow/green.

How many times have I said I'm not making another hat?

Every time I make a new type of hat I tell myself, "never again." I've even started telling my friends to stop me. It's always a crazy fiddly mess.

No matter how many times I say it, I inevitably make another hat. Half way through this one my serger just quit. It was also my first time working with PUL fabric. Great!

One of my friends asked for a warm, waterproof winter hat and sent me a bunch of pictures of helmets (the armor type) and some knit hats. From that we came up with an actually technically possible design for a sewn knight helmet hat with a movable visor.

(I asked Bria to help model again since she was available)

Starry starry skirt ~

As you might recall, I posted about a ruffled star print chiffon skirt a little while ago here and also on Reddit. One of the commenters there mentioned using a sparkly fabric under the chiffon for a different effect. I've done something similar with other clothes, and I had the same fabric in some other colors, so I figured I'd try it out! For the lining, I used the same holographic print fabric as in this top from earlier in the year.

This chiffon fabric sat in a pile on my floor for months.

I knew I wanted to make a ruffly skirt out of it as soon as I got it, but it's a pretty intimidating project because of all the hemming and gathering.

I took a while to figure out the easiest way to hem the chiffon. Eventually I settled on a serged rolled hem with wooly nylon thread. Wooly nylon thread is not twisted, so it spreads out and fills in some of the space between stitches. I hadn't done this before, but thought it would make a nice little border (and it's fast!) Once I decided on this, the skirt seemed less intimidating.

I didn't have a pattern (this type of skirt really doesn't need one since it's all rectangles) though I based the measurements on another skirt I own. They ended up as follows:

waistband 38" (with elastic 28")
first ruffle 54" (one width of the fabric)
second ruffle 108" (2 widths)
third ruffle 216" (4 widths)

each ruffle is 7" long and the overlap between them is  about 2".

I used a white base fabric for the ruffles. Since the chiffon is sheer, it creates light and dark stripes, which I really like.

The waistband is a simple elastic waistband.

"What's a good way to get some tentacles without making too much of a production of it?"

One of my friends recently had a "crazy" idea to dress up in tentacles. She drew me a picture, suggesting that this is probably a weird thing that won't work out the way it looks in the picture.

It really didn't seem all that unreasonable to me, so I offered to make them. I looked around at "squid plushies" to get ideas for construction and we picked out some fleece and minky fabric based on what I'd seen. The house got pretty thoroughly coated in minky fluff (if you've never worked with it, it sheds like crazy when cut) but the tentacles came together nicely.

As you can see in the drawing and in the final costume images, the outfit consists of a tentacle belt or skirt (whatever you want to call it), sleeves/arm warmers, and a collar.

"You have to wear a bell so I can find you if you run away and hide under a car"

You know, like a cat would.

Since I put together this witch outfit for myself for a Halloween party, and my boyfriend likes it when I dress him up, I wanted to make some sort of matching "costume" for him. We decided on kitty ears and a tail (he also has a collar with a bell on it, so he doesn't get lost of course.)

This isn't my boyfriend, clearly, but he wasn't available when I took the photos and Bria here agreed to help (thanks Bria!).

I used the same pattern for the ears as I use for my animal hats, for example these or this one. They are a layer of fleece, interfacing, and faux fur, sewn together then attached to a headband. For this set I also added little bows. We have a bit of a joke going about having bows on everything.

I free-handed the tail. It's a rectangle with rounded ends, about 24" by 7". There's a belt loop on the end that can also be safety pinned on if you're not wearing a belt.

iPad Quiver 2.0

This is really like the 8th version of the "iPad Quiver" because it took a lot of figuring out last time I made one. Somehow even with the previous one to use as an example, I still had a hell of a time getting this to go together the way I wanted it to. I think maybe I have it now... At least I hope so.

What is an iPad Quiver you ask? It's a pocket that hangs off your belt, lined in a soft suede-like material and large enough to hold a tablet (originally the iPad Mini, as shown in the post linked above). The idea comes from my friend Kelly, who uses his iPad as a phone and therefore needs to carry it around all the time.

He's gotten stopped several times by people interested in knowing where he bought his iPad case, so I decided to make up a version for the Etsy store. I used black twill for the outside and something like micro-suede in gray for the lining.

I didn't have an iPad mini on hand so the above picture shows a Nexus 7. It's slightly smaller, but not so much so that this case doesn't work. I'm planning to use one just as an extra pocket for my wallet/keys/whatever when I don't want to carry a purse.

On the original, I had three belt loops. I don't think this is really necessary so I did two instead and made them out of a stronger webbing.

I could go for a taco right about now.

A couple months ago, some of my friends came to me and asked if I would make them into a taco for Halloween. Well, that's an opportunity that's hard to pass up! (They get super bonus points for asking far enough in advance). I think this is a super cute couple's costume. Sam here is playing our taco shell/tortilla, and Eloise is the lovely bunch of fillings.

For the shell, I cut a large circle of 1/2" upholstery foam (technically two half circles I had to sew together because I couldn't get a piece large enough) and made a cover for it out of fabric that has sort of a speckled yellow/orange pattern. I added loops for the shoulders, hands, and legs so it doesn't flap around behind him. In retrospect, it could have been a bit bigger. I was too concerned with making it hard to move around and sit. Sam found a perfect yellow shirt to go with it, and I can only assume he already had these gold pants.

For the dress, Eloise gave me a simple black dress that fit her well to use as a base. I sewed fleece shapes over that to simulate the layers of fillings that would go in the taco. A bit more on that later.

I got really excited to make this little hat for some reason. It's a small foam base covered with brown fleece (for meat) with other fillings sewn over that. The whole thing is sewn to a headband. 

Holy hell I actually finished the Victorian project.

Alright! So, earlier this year I was hired to do some art for a card game, Moriarty's Machinations. Part of my involvement with the game was dressing up in character as Irene Adler to advertise at a couple conventions, including the Boston Festival of Indie Games. (We won the award for best indie tabletop game by the way, which was super exciting!)

It has been a long time since I posted about my Victorian costume. Check out the project's tag for all the related posts. I started it back in 2011, as an independent study course in college, and then didn't finish it after the class was done. There was only a couple things left to do by the time I got this job that required me to have a period costume, so it finally motivated me to finish.

Here's my original rendering. I think I got pretty close.

The fabric isn't authentic at all. I used a striped velveteen synthetic (it feels luxurious at least) and a heavy plum sateen (probably poly). I also didn't stick very closely to one part of the Victorian Era. The anachronisms aren't so strong that a casual observer would notice them.