Christmas Recap: Clothing Projects

I know, I know. It's the new year and I should stop talking about Christmas. But I'm not done yet!

I have a few more clothing gifts (and food gifts) that I can catch you up on later, but I thought I'd give you a review of some of the clothing I made for other folks for Christmas. This is my first time actively coming up with refashions too, so you may have seen some of these lovelies over at ReFashion Co-op. I am pretty proud of how the skirts turned out, though the capes are just further proof that I should not be trusted to self-draft. ;)

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Lace Frankenstein Skirt

Posted at ReFashion Co-op here.

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Self-Drafted (read: hastily and poorly constructed) Dress-up Capes. 

Fortunately, for dress up, bling has more weight than exact hemming or seam construction.

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Felt Appliqued Hammer Tee

For my darlin' little cousin, who has a love of hammers. I may still write on the back, "I hava hamma for dat." Also, I have newfound respect for those who can sew around small applique details.

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And my favorite: 

Sweater Skirt and Matching Legwarmers.

Deets at Refashion Co-Op here.

Like I said earlier, there is at least one more clothing project I need to tweak before I can post it. Sometimes I forget that my family may wear very similar sizes as I do, but that they are constructed differently. So some fitting adjustments to do and then I'll share the last one!

Gift Making, 3

My sister was born 28 years ago Tuesday.

I also owe her a "Pay It Forward" handmade object (for those of you unfamiliar, I agreed to make five people something by hand within this year).


So, for her birthday, I've made her these yoga pants based off of Burda's Corinne yoga pant pattern.

By the way, finding decent yoga pants patterns and sports bra patterns for a reasonable price is not nearly as easy to find as I would have hoped. I was able to find some "draft-your-own from a pair you have" tutorials as well as "make some from a t-shirt" tutorials, but the official patterns were a little too pricey for my preference. Sewing Cafe does offer a nice, though perhaps too advanced option for me, tutorial on drafting one's own yoga patterns.

Sports bra patterns are even harder to find than yoga pants. But I digress.

I also made her a wrap cardigan based off of Megan Nielson's pattern, as I thought it'd be a little lame to only give my sister a gift that I'd already told her I'd give her. I had to cut down the measurements, as the fabric I'd used was not sufficient enough to do the measurements as given. And I added an extra insert of fabric on the sleeves, as I thought they were too tight for my arms, much less anyone else's. I'm not sure how well it'll fit, as I don't know her measurements. That's the one thing about sewing clothes for folks as gifts. I feel like I need to develop a measurements database for those I love, so I can just make clothes whenever I feel like it. They just have to stay the same size, and we're set!

Another cool thing about both of these pieces is that I made them from thrifted jersey sheets. Though a twin size fitted mattress may not be ideal for making a wrap cardigan according to pattern specfications, it is still a good $2 well spent.  And two UFOs off of my list for the week. I actually got a third one completed too, but I may add to it, and it's also a present that has yet to be given, so I don't want to spill the beans quite yet.

Here's to conquering the UFO mountain!

Gift Making, 2

 I do not have any children, and it's just as well, since I think I may be a neglectful mother. I only just did what I've been putting off for weeks, and sometimes years: transplanting. I received a beautiful container garden recently, and the plants looked amazing for quite some time. However, I did not break them out into their own pots and they were jockeying for resources at an alarming rate. I tried to take pictures of the poor things, but they didn't turn out. I suppose that may be a good thing, because they're really sorry looking plants.

I've also been putting off thinning out some day-lilies that I've had for about four years now. Or is it three? Either way, what was two or three large day-lilies have become multitudes of teeny ones in a medium sized flower pot.

So I finally replanted them. Which has resulted in me having three times as many pots of day lilies, but it still left a lot of teeny day lilies with no place to go. That would be a shame, as they're quite lovely and resilient flowers.

Which is where we come to the gift giving part. My coworkers often treat the office to treats of cupcakes and muffins and other desserts. Bagels are pretty popular too. I can't have any of these treats without worrying about physical reactions, but I don't want to bring any of my "treats", as I think most folks are hesitant with trying non-traditional foods, especially when their favorite ingredients, sugar and flour, are missing.

Since I can't feed them, why not at least share some Spring?

I also owe a particular coworker of mine a terrarium or a plant after she gave me her gift from the company gift exchange to help me with my holiday "shopping".

Enter Mr. Sweet Potato Head, funnily enough, not nearly as cheerful as his name may suggest:

 My coworker has pets, so I'd been trying to figure out what plants may be safe to have around overly curious, slightly munchy cats. When I had a leftover bit of inedible sweet potato, I did what any decent nerdy crafty girl would and decided to grow it like I was in grade school. I'm hoping that since he was edible as a root, perhaps the leaves will be safe for feline advances?

Either way, I think he's done quite well for himself, despite being so grumpy.

Instead of the usual terrarium I've made, I put him in a wide mouth hermetic jar, with little space actually inside the jar. As a sweet potato, he's going to wanna trail and lounge around all over the place. So, I put him close to the top and gave him some local (wild) moss to keep him company. Maybe it'll teach him how to loosen up?

I'm not sure he's really all that impressed with his new home. 

I hope my coworker is impressed with him, though!

Gift making

Before I make much more progress on the Crepe Sew-Along, I have some gifts I have to get done. In particular, I owe a birthday gift to my cousin. I had made her a wrap, but it didn't fit. She had requested an easy dress for her to wear on a trip to some tropical place. Easy to wear from the beach to dinner. Some flexibility in styling choices.

I've long had an American Apparel dress that both me and my cousins have enjoyed. It met all the right criteria for the dress requested, so I thought I'd try to use it to make my own version. It's a simple design, so I was able to trace it's general shape onto the fabric, cut some seam allowance around the tracing, and assemble it relatively quickly.

As I'd already treated myself to some sweet striped fabric recently, and because of the playful style of my cousin, the fabric choice was about as easy to decide upon as the dress "pattern".

This was my first time trying to sew with stripes, so  I had to take things like directionality and matching stripes into consideration. I foolishly cut out the second piece for the top with the stripes pinned wrong side facing the right side of the fabric. Fortunately, the seam allowance I added made it easy to readjust the stripes enough for a close to perfect match-up.

The skirt portion, I cut on the bias, in part to save fabric and in part because I thought it added to the fall of the fabric.

The end result (as kindly modeled by Libby from Stop Looking At Me Like That) looked pretty good, I don't mind saying.

Unfortunately, the seams were tight. If Libby, that slip of a girl, couldn't fit in the dress easily, then the recipient of the gift would not. She's got trapeze artist shoulders and broad back, so it won't work with the current draft. My current plan is the take some seam rippers to the deal and change the zig-zag stitches to account for more pull and stretch. When I get it back that is, as it's currently on its way to meet it's owner. Or future owner, once it fits her.