Christopher Kane Spring 2014 Inspired: Modification: Raglan Floral Shirt from a 70s Shirt and a Mini Dress

Sometimes you find something so gross and tacky at the thrift store that you can't not buy it. Case and point: The butterfly collared floral wonder below. I just couldn't pass it up. That's not just a painted or stamped floral pattern. Rather, it's a compiled photograph of flowers! How cool is that? Also, the shirt itself was handmade, which means not only was someone stylin' like it's 1979, but also she was doing it ON PURPOSE. 

I just felt I needed to buy it, if for no other reason than respect.

A year or so ago, I bought this dress for $6 on eBay. It's actually really well-made and lined. It has this neat little cape-let and epaulet details, and even though it looks repulsive on my body, I just couldn't part with it because of the color.

Do you smell a modification coming together?

Remember that one shoulder cut-out shirt I made here? Well, this new shirt is also an homage to that Christopher Kane Spring 2014 show with the florals and the nudes and the pinks. Skipping ahead a few hours:

I kept the "V" of the neckline as a keyhole detail as you can see above, but did away with the collar. It was a little too groovy for my scrawny neck.

I used some of the lining of the dress as the cuff of the sleeves because it was the same color only shinier. Just a little detail.

The End!

Valentine's Day Special: Gentleman's Robe/ Smoking Jacket

If you are like me, you have a problem trying to figure out what to get your man for Valentine's Day. I guess if you are the woman, you are allowed to skip this one every once in awhile since V-day is traditionally the time when the man buys stuff. Anyways, I just love my little baby and wanted to make him something. 

I was at the thrift store the other day and came across this pattern. It was kind of a ghetto deal where the paper patterns, in order to conserve paper on the part of the printers, were on the fronts AND BACKS of the same piece of paper! You were supposed to leave the "master" paper alone (as in not cut it), and then trace around the pieces you wanted using special pattern tracing paper. Um. . .I'm going to cut the patterns I need from the patterns in the package and DEFINITELY not buying more paper, thank you! Why do you think I bought the pattern! I did have to tape computer paper together to trace some of them. . .That was annoying. Oh well, the pattern was only a quarter.

Okay, rant over.

I went to another thrift store and found about 4 yards of this. . .I don't know what to call it. It's fleece on one side and shiny on the other. Anyways, it was bright royal blue and very soft and warm. I'd been looking on and off for the past few years for a classy "smoking jacket" for Billy to lounge in at home, but never found anything I liked. The stars aligned and I made the robe you see below:

I followed the pattern for the major parts, but as you can see my finished product is shorter and the pockets are different from the ones on the pattern packet. Actually, they are quite different as the ones you see in the picture above are really false pockets. Instead, I opted for side pockets at the seam rather than applied pockets. I just feel that side pockets are more comfortable. Plus, the robe looks classier this way.

(At one point I was trying to hurry, and I accidentally sewed a side pocket onto one of the sleeves! That's what happens when you make clothes for someone tall as a giant. You get lost in a sea of fabric.)

I used the sheen vs. fleece of the garment to make contrasts in the over-all aesthetics on the outside. In other words, most of the garment is shiny, but the false pockets, collar/band, waist chord, and sleeve cuffs are fleece. I did this to add interest to the look, but mostly I kept the fleece on the inside as functionality for warmth. Also, (I didn't take a picture of this, but. . .) I made the insides of the pockets fleece inside.

How I did the false pockets:

This part actually took the longest, because it was the hardest to plan. First, I had to determine where the tops of the pockets would fall in relation to the outer and inner seams on the front, how far below the belt they would be, and how wide they would be. This wasn't easy, but I won't bore you with specifics. After doing that, I put pins to mark where the top of the pocket should fall:

Leave it to Blogger to make my explanations even harder by putting my pictures in sideways. . .Anyways, if you turn your head to the right and pretend the right-hand side of this picture is the top, I laid my fake pocket on top of where the first pins were, but measured down halfway and pinned the pockets to the garment:

Okay, now the top is the top. See where I stitched? That was what those pins above were for.

Then I trimmed the top part off:

Then I folded the bottom part up to meet the first pins:

Then I stitched up the sides. If you look at sports jackets, this is what the tops of the pockets look like.

This really makes me crazy, because the false handkerchief was my favorite part and the picture is sideways no matter what I try. . .Anyways, if I can direct your attention to tipping your head to the left. . .

I also put in an internal tie to keep the whole jacket in place. This wasn't part of the pattern, but. . .it's a good idea if you make a robe. One side attaches to the waist of the left-hand side seam, and the other side attaches to the waist of the right-hand side seam of the collar/band.

If you see how I'm tugging at the waist chord in the back, you can see that I've attached the chord to the actual garment at the middle back of the waist (picture is sideways again). This keeps you from losing the chord in the wash. I learned that trick from a coat I own.

I also tacked the folded over cuffs of the sleeves so they stay in place, but still look folded and unattached.

He's cute, but he refused to model, so. . .Here is the finished product. . .modeled by the floor!

The End!

Modification: Update Your Trouser Jeans

I have about five pairs of the trouser jeans you see below. I love them, but they are sooooo 2005. I tried to sell two of them on eBay since they are really nice Uniqlo jeans that I bought in South Korea, but no one ever bought them. Then I got an idea. If you have any old 90s or early 2000s wide leg jeans, you can do this too. It takes about 10 minutes.

You can only do this well if you can find a seam down the outer seam or inseam of your pants that isn't top stitched. Usually, it will be the outer seam, and the inseam will be top stitched like below:

This is the outer seam. See the difference? See how you can see stitches over the seam above, but you can't below?

NOTE: If your jeans are top stitched on both sides, you are out of luck with this project. It's hard to explain why if it's not already apparent to you. Just trust me.

Then, turn the pants inside out and grab a pair of skinnier jeans. 

Align the inseams of both pairs of pants. 

You are only going to use the skinny jeans as a guide, not a pattern. Instead of cutting all the way close to them, you are going to allow for the grain of the trouser jeans' fabric. If you look at the lower leg in the picture below, I have denoted the grain of the fabric with yellow lines and then shown you where I actually cut with a red line. It's kind of hard to explain, but if you cut too much into the grain of the jeans from here, the outer seam is going to look weird because it will be cut on the bias which will make it stretch slightly compared to the inseam. Suffice to say, if you cut too much into the grain of the fabric, it will be a dead giveaway that these were "DIY" pants. (A potential way to fix this would be to even the cutting up along the inseam; however, if you do, you need to cut all the way up the inseam from the feet to the crotch and sew a brand new inseam yourself. Remember how I mentioned that inseams are usually top stitched? This is to add bulk for durability's sake, but  if you want to make really skinny jeans, it would be better to do away with the original top stitched inseam all together than to try to cut the inseam from the feet to the knee only. It's really hard to explain. If you do the latter "feet to knee" option, you will have a weird bulge from the bulk of the original top stitching. Just trust me.) Just try to follow the grain with your scissors on the outer seam as much as possible. Then, simply sew up your cut seams.

Before:

After:

What I made aren't really skinny jeans--more like straight leg or boyfriend cut.

I know I got super wordy up there trying to explain myself, so if I lost you, just follow these simple directions:

1. Find a seam that is not top stitched on your jeans (usually the outer seam).

2. Turn your jeans inside out and lay a skinnier pair on top of them.

3. Using the skinnier pair as a guide (rather than pattern), follow the grain of the fabric as you cut, and then sew up the seams.

4. (Optional for really skinny jeans: cut away the entire inseam, and then even up the grain of the fabric on the outer seam so the grain goes straight down the leg.)

Here's another "Before and After":

The End!

Green and Gold 1950s Style Butterick #6945 Dress

At Christmas, my mom gave me one of her old Longaberger picnic baskets full of old calico, muslin, and other cotton weaves. Anyways, I came across this really pretty emerald green fabric with little gold polka dots all over it. There was only this huge circle (folded into 1/4 in the picture below) and a little less than a yard of fabric. I think at one point my mom or somebody was planning on making a Christmas tree skirt with the big circle or something.

I recently read a book about 1950s fashion and the "seamless skirt," that so many women wore as poodle skirts, and really wanted to try it.

A few months ago, I bought a couple of SUPER cute 1950s dress patterns at the thrift store for $.30 each. This is one of them. I really like the notched collar detail and the cap sleeves.

Although the dresses in the picture above have buttons down the front, I just wanted to do a zipper in the back instead, so I went about figuring out how to piece the patterns in order to get the most out of the fabric. The piecing below seemed like the most viable option; however, when you are limited on fabric, you should always play with different piecings before cutting, because you may find a better way. . .

I soon discovered that the piecing below would give me two better options: (1) I could align the back seam with the finished edge of the fabric (the top edge in the picture). Putting the finished edge next to the zipper meant I wouldn't have to worry about folding that edge over twice, because the finished edge doesn't fray! If that doesn't make sense to you read this: It would save me time in the long-run. (2) Also, if you notice the left-hand edge left several inches available for use if I needed it. . .and, um, it ended up that I did need it later!

Okay, this is the truly horrific part. If I were a professional seamstress, I would measure my waist line, put that measurement as the circumference of a circle into a formula, figure out the radius, subtract 1/2 for seam allowance, cut a piece of string that length, attach one end to a pin and the other to a pen, find the middle of the circle with the pin and draw a circle around with the pen compass-style.

However, (and if you know anything about sewing, please skip this part, because you will be ashamed...) I just measured my waist and then ran around the house looking for a circle that was a little smaller!!! I found the lid to a pan, found the middle of the fabric folded like this, and cut! What??? That's really not how it should be done...

I do have to say, though, that it ended up being perfect dimensions to the bodice pattern! Very lucky, especially since I only had one chance at this. (Below is the bodice pinned to the skirt to show that it worked perfectly!)

Here's a trick that I learned from my aunt-in-law who is a long time sewer. I only have three bobbins that came with my Husqvarna Viking sewing machine (I think they are supposed to come with more, but I was a poor college student at the time and bought the display model.) Anyways, if you too are limited on bobbins, but need to change the color of your bobbin thread, you can just take an already loaded bobbin and add the second color on top of it. I can't believe I never heard this step before. It's brilliant!

Horrific Step Number Two: Putting in a zipper. Again, if you are an established sewer, avert your eyes! I know that people say that you need to baste your zipper in to keep the zipper from creeping up or down while you sew it in and throwing off your waistlines, but. . .I never do. Instead I just pin it in place (taking into account the "creepage" factor as I pin) and sew it all in one step! I just get really impatient, because I want to see what the dress will look like, so I skip as many steps as I can to get there. Listen, the dress is well-made, don't get me wrong. . .I just get impatient.

I promise that I ironed this fabric at least three times before posting it here. I think it will need to be steamed before I actually wear it somewhere!

Now for some details:

I happened to have some gold thread, so I did a little detailing around the collar and shoulders.

My green zipper was only 14", so to account for the difference, I added a hook to the top of the back collar. Notice how straight the zipper is! Also, notice the fabric around the zipper. See! It's the finished edge I told you about earlier. I didn't have to fold it under, because the finished edge is. . .well. . .already finished!

Okay, so. . .remember when I pointed out that extra fabric on the left-hand side of the "piecing" picture? This is where it came in handy. The way the dress pattern was, the torso ended up looking super short. I'm not a fan of emphasizing my already short torso, so to lengthen the waist, I added this belt area fabric. It actually looks more proportionate this way than the original pattern anyway, so that was fortunate.

Look at that straight zipper (especially at the waistline)!

The End!