I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly

So my time as a contestant on Project:Sewn has come to an end.  I am disappointed to not get to share my other design ideas for the next couple of weeks, but I am so happy to have gotten to participate at all.  And now I have five new pieces added to my handmade wardrobe, all of which I really love.  

I so admire the other contestants Terra, Caroline, Jess, Andrea and Sophie.  Such talented women, I’m honored to have been grouped among them for this season.  And, though I would have liked to have stayed through to the end, it honestly is a bit of a relief to no longer have the pressure of competition.  I am so looking forward to what the remaining competitors have in store for us for the last two themes!

And just for fun, here are some pictures Christie took during the sundress photo shoot, when my daughter decided she wanted to swing with me.  I kind of love them.

   

Thank you Elizabeth and Liz for inviting me to be a part of Project:Sewn’s inaugural season.  And thank you all for your kind words, support, votes, and encouragement.  It’s been a lot of fun!

Knock it Off!

I’m so excited to be a part of Elegance & Elephants’ Knock it Off series!  This is quite possibly one of the most exciting kids’ sewing series around, with a month of amazing commercial looks knocked off for a fraction of the cost, and a lot of times with even more style than the original. 

For my Knock Off, I went with one of my favorite European women and kids’ clothiers, American Outfitters.  I love their relaxed, beachy designs.  I sat down with my ten-year old and let him go through their summer lookbook to choose his favorite look.  He went with a retro-screen printed tee and flag-print knit shorts.  AO cost?  A mere 101.80 Euros, or about $130.69.   
Yeah.

So with this look as my inspiration, I made my son a randomly-phrased screen printed tee and some flag printed knit shorts for just under $15, or about 11.65 Euro

   

I do wish I had gotten the flag print a bit more ragged looking, but other than that, I really love how our knock off turned out. 

   

The fabric is all from JoAnn, sweatshirt knit and jersey.  So this is one comfortable ensemble, perfect for a relaxed summer day


And yeah, his toenails are painted.  He’s cool like that. 

So, how I knocked it off…

First, the shirt. 

My oldest has always come up with his own superheroes and story characters.  One of my favorites is one he calls “Jellyfishman”.  For years, nearly all of his pretend play has in some way involved Jellyfishman.  At one point he added the suffix 108, and everything is now Jellyfishman 108.  So when I was trying to come up with some sort of random phrasing to put on his shirt, Jellyfishman seemed the most appropriate for him.  I don’t really know what Jellyfishman looks like, but I found a cool deep sea diver image online here and went with it.  I traced the image, and then traced the random phrase onto freezer paper

After cutting out my fabric pieces for the shirt (I used Ottobre 2/2013 Special Edition Tee), I used the cut freezer paper as a stencil on the unsewn pieces, making sure to keep things well away from seam allowances.


I kept the main graphic on the front, at an angle for a more funky feel.  And I added a 108 at the back shoulder.  After the paint dried, I sewed the shirt together


I seriously love the way the diver image turned out.  Like, so much I want to put it on everything now.  But when this kid saw the finished shirt, he shook his head and told me “Nice, but Jellyfishman never even goes in water. He lives in a landlocked area.” oops.

I used Made By Rae’s Parsley Pant pattern for my short knock offs.  First, I cut the shortened leg pieces out of grey sweatshirt fleece.  Because I wanted stripes to match when the inseam was sewn, I folded the legs to match up the crotch point, and then marked where I wanted my first stripe to be on both sides with masking tape.

  

After the first stripe was marked, I continued to add masking tape stripes at regular spacing.



Then I cut out stars from freezer paper, and ironed them on to the top area.
 

I applied fabric paint with bunched up cellophane to get an uneven, kind of splotchy-worn look.  Bonus points for using Halloween themed cellophane!


After things dry, remove the tape and paper


Add a patch pocket to the backside of the unpainted leg piece.



Then sew up the legs as normal.


For the thicker, threaded waistband, cut the waistband area of the original pattern off.  Then cut a 10 inch tall strip of fabric, about 2 inches shorter than your finished pant top, out of ribbed knit.  Mark the center of the knit strip about 2 inches above the bottom edge
 
Interface the wrong side at that point, about 2 inch square of interfacing.  Sew 1/2 inch long button holes 1/2 inch from that marked center point on the right side


Fold the ribbed knit in half with short sides matching, right sides together, sew the short side seam

   
Turn to right side, fold in half, match both raw edges of the rib knit to the raw edge of the shorts, right sides together. Sew all along the raw edge, stretching the rib knit as you go.



Fold up, press the seam allowance towards the legs, and top stitch. 


Then just thread some cording through the button holes and slap the shorts on a kid

 

A really simple knock off, but totally worth $15, if not $130

Check out all the other amazing looks in the Knock it Off series this month

And be sure to add your own knock offs to the Flickr Group



Thanks so much for letting me play along in the series, Heidi.  And I think my son thanks you, too!

 

Even if I did misrepresent Jellyfishman’s feelings towards water.

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Don’t forget to vote at Project:Sewn

Project: Sewn…Solar Flare Sundress

Project:Sewn Week Two is here, and the theme is “Sundress”I made a jersey knit maxi dress with bleached contrast-color detailing, and a simple layering tee


For the dress I started with a vintage lingerie pattern, Buttterick 6288.  I’ve had this pattern for a couple of years, with the intention of turning View C into a dress.  I kept mostly to pattern for my dress.  I did make some minor changes at the bodice, all centering around the bias tape striping I added. 

I wanted to bring that amazing salmon color the bleach drew from the grey fabric up to the top of the dress.  So I bleached some uncut fabric to achieve the color.  Then I used interfacing on the thin jersey knit fabric (JoAnn Fabrics) to reinforce and keep things stable enough to become straps and striping.  For the design on the skirt, I tie-dyed and painted with bleach around the bottom corner, radiating up, to create a stylized sun, making my dress a literal sun dress sundress.  Clever, right?!

  

The tee is just a very simple self-drafted layering tee.  The fabric, like that of the dress, is from JoAnn fabric, and a light jersey knit.  Rather than make actual sleeves, I extended the shoulders and brought out the underarms of the shirt body to create dolman-style sleeves.  I used a rolled hem at the neck, sleeves, and hem, resulting in a lettuce-leaf finish on all edges.

My goal in making this dress was something comfortable, easy to wear, and feminine.  I wanted something I could easily wear while playing with my kids this summer, but still be flattering and “put together” enough for a casual night out.  Basically, I wanted an all-purpose summer dress.  And I think I got it. 


The fabric keeps things cool and comfortable, easy to throw in an overnight bag for a weekend trip.  And I love the fit of the structured top going down to the skimming skirt.  I can wear it to the pool without the layering tee, or to the zoo with.  Add some jewelry and fun wedges and I’m good for date night.  And the flaring bleached “sun”? Well, obviously I’m mesmerized by it since every single picture I’m staring at it.  Seriously, every one, just can’t look away.

       

If you can break its hypnotic spell long enough, click on over to Project: Sewn to vote for your favorite look from Week Two!

 

Thanks again to:
Christie for taking the pictures. 
Camilla for making me up  pretty, and her mom for letting me use her backyard for the shoot.

I got my tight pants on!

Today’s the final day of voting for Week One’s Black and White over at PROJECT:sewn.  Thank you all so much for your support and kind words about my B&W look. 

 

As a thank you, please enjoy this little gem that I’d like to dedicate to my own white tight pants. 

warning: there is a swear at about 1:42, so watch with caution at work or around kids and stuff.

It’s possible I’ve been singing and dancing like this all week. My kids are super impressed.  To see my look, complete with tight pants, and vote for your favorite look, go HERE

Project:Sewn…black on white with birds all over

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Today’s the day!  Week One’s looks at Project:Sewn are live and up for the voting! 

This week’s theme was Black and White: “Design a look for yourself based on the current trend of combining black and white.”  So.  What I made.


Let’s start from the top down.  
The Jacket.

I started off with this XL black leather trench I’d thrifted a few months ago to use on for son’s letterman jacket (note the missing sleeves.)
I also used a thrifted black sweater.  I forgot to get a picture.  But it looked exactly like a black knit sweater.  Both of these items I used to cut my pattern pieces from.  I used McCall’s 4305, a junior’s dress pattern from 1974 as my design starting point.


You can best see this pattern’s influence on the jacket’s back, where the knit butts up to the leather showing the princess seaming I used from the pattern.  Also, I should point out that the back yoke of the jacket comes directly from the back yoke of the original coat. 


I also used princess seaming in the front, but exaggerated things to make for an asymmetrical, off-centered closure. 


The knit makes an appearance as the full sleeves, the waistband, and the back side panels of the jacket. Using the knit was born of necessity, as I didn’t have enough leather to make a full jacket. But I’m so happy things worked out that way. I love how the contrast of the leather against the knit, all in black, plays on hard and soft. 

I sewed the zipper down about three-four inches from the edge of the right front panel, at an angle so the zipper is closer to the edge at the top, and works it’s way over at the bottom.  The resulting “extra” fabric made a… fly?  I don’t really know what you’d call it, but it’s like a wind guard or something.  I don’t know.  But it looks cool, and that’s all that matters, right?! 

   
You can also see the original coat’s button holes inside the zipper fly-thing.  I was going to cut them off, but I ended up liking that reminder of where the jacket started.  The collar is a high-mandarin style with metal snaps to keep things closed up tight when I’m cruising down the road…on my bicycle with toddler trailer attached.  Hardcore.

The jacket’s body is lined with a funky polyester I picked up a few years ago.  I love how the orange floral print “girlies” up the jacket.

The Tee.

      

I needed something to complete the look.  After making a leather jacket and jeans, I wanted that something to be straightforward and simple, and, preferably, super comfortable.  I’ve had this great jersey knit with bird print from Girl Charlee for months.  I self-drafted the tee, using other tops I own as a general guide.  The sleeves are a dolman style finished with a thick band.  I carried the banded look down to the hem, too.  The neckline is draped in the front, with a facing so that it can fall forward and still look completely finished. I used some solid black knit to make a bias tape finish for the back of the neckline, and love how that turned out.  Really, I couldn’t be happier with this top.  I need to make, like, a dozen more for the summer.



Finally, the Jeans.

I used a white stretch denim from JoAnn, and Jalie 2908 for the pattern.  This is my second time making jeans from the Jalie pattern (first pair here).  I had much more success this second time, partly, I’m sure from my fabric choice.  I used a pair of RTW skinny jeans to help me narrow the legs of the pattern down, and shorten the rise.  I also cropped the pants off above the ankle.  I love these jeans.  A lot.  The Jalie pattern rocks and is such a great starting off point.  I did need to make a couple fit adjustments to the waist area, but nothing too major.  I just brought the back yoke in an inch on both sides, tapering it towards the top.  It got rid of the gap at the finished waist and keeps the waistband from slipping down.  I also made a couple of adjustments to the pockets.  I did my little cursive “S” design on the back pockets, and this time got the placement perfect.  Seriously, so happy about that.  I added a coin pocket to the front pockets.  I need somewhere to stash my Chapstick, especially since the front pockets are fakies.  I totally made real front pockets.  But when I tried the pants on, you could see the pocket lines through the white fabric.  It looked crazy tacky.  After consulting a friend who has a few pairs of RTW white jeans, I chopped the pocket bags off, sewed those pockets up over the topstitching, and now I have fauxets. 

And that’s my look. 
Black, white, birds.  Hard, soft, awesome.

                

Now go vote for your favorite look at Project: Sewn!

A few Thank Yous:
Christie for the awesome photography and the rockin’ heels
Camilla for doing my hair and makeup, and loaning me her jewelry
Char for the best look title (that I was too pansy to use):
“I'd Kick Your Ass in This Jacket, But I Don't Want to Get Dirt on These Pants.”