I owe lots of updates on Halloween...

And here we go!

Dress came out great and fit well.  Here's the only pic I have of me in it for now:

Why am I standing this way?

I dunno...must have been feeling like a furry superhero :)

More pics of the dress coming together:

More later on the furry accessories!

-Kathleen, in Oakland

More progress: bodice and skirt

Bodice pcs are stitched together.  Now I'm leveling out the skirt shape:

Halloweiner costume: prepping the bodice pieces

Hey Y'all!

More progress:  Flatlining and prepping the pieces for assembly.

After cutting, each piece of fashion fabric and muslin are layered together, then sealed together by stitching the edges.  

First, a straight stitch on the sides to stabilize the layers from moving around.

I use the longest stitch length on my machine, 3/8" from the edge with no back-tacking.  This acts as a running stitch or tailors tacks, and tension can be easily adjusted later to ease fullness and get pcs to join smoothly.  

Next, they are finished with a zig zag stitch on a long setting to encase the raw    edge. This can be done with a serger, if you have one.  

I used random neon thread on the top side of the zig zag for a little pizazz on the inside:

CF Pcs: note the fullness at the bust curve has already been eased up a bit with the straight stitch for good cup depth and fit:

Side Front Pcs:

Side Back Pcs: (that puckering will go away when assembled)

Center Back Pcs:

-Kathleen, In Oakland

Halloweiner costume progress: Part the First

J'excuse dat Miller Lite in the background...

My bustier block, cut from scraps of black printed stripe and checker cotton with a white ground, flatlined in scraps of muslin.  

-Kathleen, in Oakland

Back To WOOORK! 9-29-14

Sup! 

It's Monday! 

I made this. 

It went to Burning Man and didn't fall apart. 

Enjoy!

-Kathleen, In Oakland

Back to WOOOOORK!

Huzzah, Bitches!

It's Monday!

Let's look at some purdy shit!

I made this.  Just a lil crop peasant blouse for all my Oktoberfest needs.  Such as the stein holding contest, which is the only kind of sport I have ever placed in. 

Kathleen, in Oakland

OMG, Ponies!!!

Hi Everyone!

Another finished project to share today!
 

This one is great, because it was almost a total failure, then it became something better than the original plan!
 

This project involved Frankenstein-ing a couple of shirts together to make one really awesome shirt ...WITH PONIES ON IT!

Did I mention there were ponies?

And glitter? And tiny blue rhinestones? And NO pink??

Yeah.  

Found this shirt in the Girls dept. at Old Navy. I bought the biggest size (XL) but it was still too small.

I tried cutting it up to re-work the fit...still, nothing wearable.  

Defeated, I put the shirt away in hopes of figuring something out, one day.

Months went by...

Then, I was doing some spring cleaning and found a basic men's size M tee in my stash that happened to be the same shade of blue as the pony print! A vibrant violet blue!

So, I turned the mens Medium tee into a Women's 8 Size Size 10 peasant top! 
Here's a lil' sketch of what I did:

 

Red line indicates the changes:  Crew neck was cut out and changed to "peasant" style with adjustable ribbon drawstring.  Side seams were added to reduce the waist and add curves in the right places.

 After that, I simply cut out the pony print, and machine appliqued the image on top of the shirt, using a 2 rows of straight stitches, 1/8" apart, approx. 3/8" away from the raw edge.
The finished product looks like THIS:

En Voila!  After the scoop neck & keyhole are cut, all edges are finished with a zig-zag.  Keyhole edge is turned back approx. 1/4" then sewn with a straight stitch about 1/4" from the folded edge.  Next, neckline is turned back approx 5/8" and sewn with a straight stitch about 1/2" from the folded edge.  This forms the channel for the drawstring, which is threaded through and ties at the CF keyhole.  Approx. 4" total was removed at the waist area through the side seams to give a bust-waist-hip ratio instead of one big tube shape.

And THEN...I gave the shirt to my "baby" sister, Mary...she loves ponies too...tee-hee!
As you can see, it fits her great, and she is very happy:

Another project....DONE!!!!

I will do another post on converting Man-Tees into Girl-Tees in the near future :)



-Kathleen, In Oakland



 

Let's have a Kiki, with thread!

Hi Everyone!

Lots going on...lots of projects to share!

Today's post is something small:  Making patches from fabric scraps.



3 Paches created on the sewing machine with various neon threads.  The patch at the top is made from a scrap of black corset coutil.   The 2 at the bottom are made from denim scraps.  All are edged with a zig-zag stitch to encase the raw edges.

I doodle and sketch ALL THE TIME. 

 

Fun Fact: If I'm in a meeting and appear to be taking detailed notes, there's a 90% chance that I'm probably sketching up a new project or doodling something cute, like this....Yay, Kitties!

 If I want a tiny project to work on & finish quickly, I turn some of my sketches into patches.
Simply copying the image to a square of sturdy woven fabric, and embroider by hand or machine.

I doodled this on a manila folder at work, allegedly:

This doodle became a patch, which was later used to mend a motorcycle jacket for a friend, who's nickname is "Moose"

I usually sew BIG projects with one color of thread (black, white or natural) so making these patches are a nice change of pace, and COLOR.

I love working all the bright color threads against the dark background, and this is a great way to flex the stitching skills.

I have never "embroidered" by hand before, and was just sort of freestyling here...
First, I sewed the image using a backstitch, with about 3 different shades of yellow thread together:

 

Then, went back over everything again to fill out the spaces, using some other stitch I may have made up, linking the backstitches together:


This patch is for my sister.  Her nickname her whole life has been "Kiki"  Ain't she LUCKY!?

 -Kathleen, In Oakland

We're baaaaaaaack!!

Stay Tuned...finished project upates ahead!

Back to WOOOK!! 11/28/11

            I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgivings!  I spent the entire weekend building Ikea furniture and setting up my Black Friday purchases around the house (we only bought interior type stuffs).  We did take breaks every now and again... 7 - 40 minute breaks in fact.  This was the perfect amount of time to fully take in the glorious show that is "Downton Abbey."  We watched the entire first season over the weekend.

            I'm not going to bore you with details about the show or how much I loved it (WHICH I TOTALLY DID!)  I will however let the pictures do the talking!  Look at all this workness!

Philip - In Brooklyn