Does this count as 'upcycling' ?

Behold! Old jersey sheets! Tattered and stained and not really suitable for use anymore, so, what are they now? my dress! The only really problem is the over the fullness of time, the bottom sheet got washed more often than the the top, leaving them slightly different colors.... However, me thinks if this ends up fitting, I will pop it in dye, and no one will be the wiser. Except for the fact that I am posting this on the internet....

anyhow.. a few minor modifications to come. I didn't get the shoulder right, and the skirt really isn't as full as I'd like it to be. Once I get all the primary pieces cut out, I will see how much I can turn into godets. I do enjoy experimenting.


Now, for the MMM finale: The dress that started it all!!!! This is not to say this was my first project, nor even my first wearable garment. I've been sewing ever since I could hold a needle, and when I was seven I made a skirt that I wore around. I made clothes and costumes (as in full on Elizabethan gowns) in high school, but this dress, made right after I graduated from college, was the first thing that was a real day-to-day garment that didn't look homemade. (I'm drawing a distinction between homemade and handmade, i.e. that random strangers can't tell sewing is my hobby.) (thinking back, it may have something to do with the fact that I FINALLY read the directions for the invisible zipper and put in it properly. Also... interfacing..) Its also a batik, and a fabric I bought the summer I was working at G-Street. (New Look 6557)

And as you may wonder how I, who has complained about the weather every day for weeks pulled off a sun dress... I will share my secret.. yoga pants.Fold them up over your knee, and no one will ever know. Since they, like the skirt are cotton, there was some major static, so today was actually a two-fer, with my choir skirt (me made!) acting as a slip.

The best laid plans...

No sooner do I announce my grand intentions, then I get inspired by something else... Thus, last night was spent drafting my own version of Alabama Chanin's tank dress. I think her work is just lovely, but I don't have 3K to drop on one.

I'd been getting bored of the seersucker, which usually means I'll play with something else for a few days, until I can get myself excited about the primary project again. So, out I pulled my rarely used dummy (it manages to be both too small and too large, depending on how tightly the tape was pulled) but I felt that its fitting issues wouldn't be a problem for knits, popped on a pillow case, basted it to fit, drew on the bodice pattern I wanted, and cut it out.

I then transferred it to butchers paper (which I forgot to get pictures of) andadded the trapezoids for the skirt.  BUT THEN!!! (bum bum BUUUM)

When I went to lay it out, I found I was about a yard short of my lovely red knit. So, crash, bang, boom and shot to smithereens were my plans to sew it up tonight and wear it as a final hurrah for MMM on Thursday. (I very nearly broke down and bought fabric for it this afternoon -- as in walked around the store clutching a bolt of royal blue knit, as I picked up the bias tape and tailors chalk I actually went there to buy. However, I was good, and decided that if I can't have it for Thursday, then I ought to at least pretend I'm going to respect my own arbitary limits and NOT buy new fabric until I've finished stash busting.) (Other than that green viscose from the other day.....) (Also, I thought it might be a good idea to muslin it, to make sure the skirt is as flowy as I'd like -- although I can always add godets if need be.) Ahh well. So much for my plans. (bah and a great big humbug)


Now, MMM update:
Another cotton top - also, for all I was talking about having bunch, there are really only three, and the third is somewhat inappropriate for even the loose standards of my office, so something different tomorrow...

(I felt the need to share Goshu and I looking like crazed psychopaths) Anyhow -- this is yet another frankenpattern. From the bust line down, in the front, its is the same as yesterday's sunflower shirt. The bust and back are from Simplicity 0595, and the band across the back is all me. (shaping and lizard buttons too!)

Also, for anyone who is curious, I added a picture of the back of the sunflower shirt to yesterday's post.

Sunflowers!

Posting about all my unworn cotton tops the other day made me realize I ought to just suck it up and wear them. Then, this morning it was just slightly above freezing, which I took as a sign to get my act together, so here we have the sunflower shirt. What you can't see is how the ribbons come together in the back and a four-piece sash, as I forgot to get a picture, and frankly standing around without a sweater is chilly.

It is yet another of my batik quilting cottons, aquired during the summer I worked at G-Street Fabrics. (So not only was I in a fabric store, with an employee discount, I was in the calico section, i.e. quilting cottons. Its a miracle my entire salary didn't go right back to the store. However, this was right before starting grad school, so I had to be good.)

Anyhow, its a self drafted pattern. (but based off a shirt I owned)





EDIT: Here is the back, with the four ribbon 'bow'.

planning, plotting and an accidental break-fast

My stash-busting goal was to make at least ten items with stash fabric before buying anything new... and I have failed. (bum bum BUUUUUUM) Friday I was on one of my organizational kicks, and decided I needed a shoe rack, so off to the home store, where I spotted king-sized pillow cases, in green, on massive clearance. And not just any pillow cases, from the brand of sheets I love and have to restrain myself from cutting up and turning into dresses. (Its viscose, which you wouldn't think would be that special, but I just love these...) I got all the way to the cash register before I remembered I wasn't supposed to be buying fabric, and then decided to hell with it. I'm still going to make up the stash things, and ever since I saw Very Prairie's version of Vouge 1152 as a shirt, I've been lusting after my own, and here was the very clearance pillow case for me.












Then! digging through my pattern stash (hmm -- does pattern stash busting count?) I came upon Butterick 4790, which I always liked, but never quite enough to make up. It always seemed a little to 'here-is-my-chest' -- but then I realized, if I do it without piping and all in one fabric, it will just be a quick dress with nice shaping. (you'd think I'd figure this out earlier, considering how much I tend to stray from the recommended ideas patterns come with.) (In my head its a dark green batik with nifty buttons. I know. How very unusual for me.)

Then, unrelated to both, I have been formulating plans for the lovely black dress, which I think I want in the same leaf green as the pillow case. Its not really very different from McCalls 5292, which I already use as a frankenpattern basis fairly often. The current plan calls for it to be ready for a wedding at the end of May, so I'm also thinking of holding actual construction until the first so I can participate in the Pattern Review Knock-off contest. This is the first one that actually fits with something I was planning to do anyway -- so I think April will be for muslins and calculating the yardage of all those pleats.....























MMM Update: Tuxedo jeans again. Someday it will be warm again, and I will wear pretty things and post them because this is getting just too boring for words. And in case you were curious, today's socks feature potatoes wearing sunglasses.

chugging away.

MMM: Same old jeans

Actual Sewing: finished the darts in the scrappy triangles, and am now putting in the zipper.

I need to get some kind of binding to put around the edges, and then figure out what I want to do for the straps... and it will be done.... hopefully before April. (but then, I have a number of cotton tops I've made and have not worn, as they are simply aren't warm enough for the office... so... hrm. yeah. I know, I'm a huge bum, but a warm and comfy one, so hey, whatever.)

Sock Chickens and Sock Monkeys

Yesterday was another two outfits sort of day -- the first was the standard jeans (also seen today, below) followed by this. It is the same frankenpattern combo described here. I wore it to a student showcase at my dance school (I did waltz). I'd hoped to post exciting action shots, but the people running it forgot to take pictures, as they were prepping for their own secret skit. (which was in fact quite funny) However, c'est la vie. It went well, and my dress is pretty, with that, I can be content.

Anyhow, I think the chicken socks add a certain je ne sais quoi to the whole outfit.

As for today -- the jeans again. It was well below freezing today, and it going to get worse over the next few days. I'd really hoped to get some warm weather so I could show off some of my lighter weight things (i.e. more sundresses) But its looking like its just going to be layers upon layers for the foreseeable future. Anyhow, I cannot take credit for the sock monkey slippers -- but I felt they needed to be shared with the world.

Coming back out of hibernation....

it got COLD here.. (there was snow this morning!) do NOT approve. Anyhow, being cold-blooded in the manner of a lizard, I shut down. But here I am again with at least some MMM updates. (I didn't document Wednesday, despite TWO MM outfits -- I was late for dance class and had to change quickly (goodbye outfit one) , and then came back gross and tired (sianora outfit two). The first was the standard jeans, so nothing new there. The second is a dress I haven't yet posted, but will get a picture of Friday when we do the performance thinger.

Anyhow..................................

Here is Tuesday and Thursday.



If you think today's looks awfully similar to one last week, you would be correct. different accessories today, but they don't show up in the picture. you can however, see my ever so snazzy rain boots.

Tuesday's is a self drafted pencil skirt made from a single piece of border print eyelet that I lined with white to make the pattern pop.







the lining (backing?) is tacked onto the eyelet by hand all the way around -- to attach it to the skirt without altering the hang I sewed it to the top selvedge opposite the border print, and then folded it down the meet the edge. (then, darts, waistband, hemming, etc...)