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June 20th, 2009
03:16 pm - Graduation Quilt
Last month, I asked my sister if she wanted a high school graduation gift. She said, "I dunno, make me something." So I asked for her three favorite colors (blue, green, silver-gray) and started sketching.
( This is the story of 2.5 weeks of intensive quiltmaking. )
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June 19th, 2009
08:40 pm - covering my butt
Now I have more than 2 pairs of pants in rotation! (Scary, I know. Nobody cares when you work in a lab.)
1 pair black linen/cotton blend with subtle textural vertical weave pattern (like pinstripes in 3d), perfect for the Houston summer. It's been in the 90s for a few weeks now, with no sign of rain. Not that rain would do anything except make things more humid, but change is welcome, right? I think I need to make more linen pants to round out my summer wardrobe.
Now with squirmy toes and 50% more cat.
( back of pants )
1 pair army-green thick cotton twill, to replace the ones that shrank which I then gave to a smaller friend. Thankfully, these did not shrink.
I'm not sure if my base pants pattern needs more tweaking, or if I'm simply unused to the looser look of non-stretch woven pants (i.e. not vacuum-sealed to thighs). Might try grainline correction using darts on the back pieces to get it to hang better.
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March 21st, 2009
05:24 pm - Dr. Duro: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love polyester jersey.
I made this yesterday night. The "Duro" dress is on its way out, trend-wise, but I don't really care. I have an emerald-green Pucci-esque printed version I bought two years ago, but I rarely wear it because the kimono sleeves are too wide for my taste and the neckline is cut super-low. This one is relatively utilitarian.
I had ordered the fabric because I really liked the graphic print, not so much the colors. After considering my color options, I bought a yard of black jersey to use as banding around the neckline and possibly cuffs and hems. The cuff & hem bands were nixed when I realized that alas, I am 5'4" and too short to pull off multiple bold horizontal lines in a garment. But you bet your ass if I were 5'8" I'd be all over that shit.
Anyway, the solid-contrast band worked to keep that muddy tan color away from my face, and as a result I now have an easy pull-on jersey dress for spring. I also made an identical tunic-length top out of the scraps.
Pattern: Bodice self-drafted from a basic t-shirt pattern, skirt eyeballed using a basic straight skirt pattern piece.
Materials: Main body is 95% polyester 5% spandex ITY jersey. Contrast bands are 100% polyester matte jersey. I normally don't do synthetics, but I ordered a few poly/spandex jerseys and they seem nice so far. I think the loose cut of this garment helps with breatheability issues. I still prefer natural fibers, but in the future I may be willing to make an exception for poly/spandex jersey in particular.
Notes: The neckline band on the dress wound up a bit wonky on one side due to easing-in issues. It didn't happen when I re-made the pattern as a tunic, so I think maybe ripping the bands out multiple times on the dress was not the best thing. It's not super-noticeable and it will probably only bother me because I know about it.
The weather's warmed up around here and spring is most definitely in the air, so I may give myself permission to abandon the fall wardrobe project for now, as I am in no mood to sew jackets or warm things.
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March 8th, 2009
03:24 am - Cyclical, integral
Out of idle curiosity, looked up instructions on how to make a backstrap loom. As I searched, I dimly remembered having made one out of cardboard when I was about 12, using instructions in a school library book. I'm sure my mother still has the resulting woven swatch somewhere.
I dabbled in a lot of crafts as a kid, all self-taught from books, using whatever I could find. Now I find myself returning to them one at a time, now with more resources and research on hand. It feels oddly comforting and familiar, like visiting old friends who have grown and changed in my absence (and I have grown and changed as well).
Things I did once, in the distant past:
- 2-d art
- ceramics
- weaving
- rubber stamping/papercrafts
- origami
- polymer clay sculpting
- latch hook rugs
- embroidery
Things I have done twice:
- knitting
- sewing
- jewelrymaking
Recent endeavors:
- crocheting
- spinning
- dyeing
- machine-knitting
- quilting
I rearranged the studio some more today, making room for a serger setup. I don't have a serger yet, but it's in the plans. The knitting machine has been put into storage, the beads no longer have their own table (they now reside in a set of plastic storage drawers and tackle boxes). Everything's becoming more sewing-oriented, but at the same time it isn't, because...
I received a copy of Printing By Hand over the holidays. It's a great book, a primer on all the major printmaking methods and how to start doing them. I want to print lots of things (mostly fabric), a permutation of my long-ago obsession with rubber stamping on paper.
And in addition to wanting to print on fabric, I also want to bead it, embroider it, and add knitted/crocheted pieces to it, and dye it, and quilt it (although not all at the same time). Every old skillset is new again. I am restless inside my own head, always switching media and trying the next new thing, becoming the proverbial jack of all trades.
But everything eventually cycles back around and resurfaces, which is sort of useful in my unending quest to make stuff.
Wish I could do this for a living.
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February 28th, 2009
06:21 pm - Trying to
rearrange the studio.
make keep/toss piles for materials.
make an inspiration board/wall thing.
figure out where my design sense is going.
Things I have learned thus far:
- I do most of my jewelrymaking activities sprawled on the floor. The little table I got off Craigslist two years ago has served only to collect detritus. It's going away now.
- I need to figure out a scrap-storing methodology if I am to keep all these fabric scraps. Organized by weave and then by color, I think, but where to store?
- There are way too many cardboard boxes in here.
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February 20th, 2009
09:31 pm - Small problem
The cat may be glaring at me because I bought too much fabric.
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February 18th, 2009
05:48 pm - A productive weekend
Wore this to work today. Those are the same pants I just finished, and I made the orange mock wrap on Sunday.
( Other things I made )
( What I will be making next )
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February 15th, 2009
07:39 pm - Laying it all out
I'm two garments in on the wardrobe I designed back in November (see the check marks?). It's warming up around here, but I still want to finish this set before I start sewing the other wardrobe (a spring/summer one) I drew out over the holidays.
I know I wrote "4 bottoms/6 tops/1 jacket" on the paper, but I have no idea what jacket I would make to go with this. Maybe a trench, since I've had a nice pattern hiding in my filing cabinet for a year now, but I haven't gotten up the nerve to trace it off yet.
The fabric stash is still growing. Maybe in the course of sewing this wardrobe I can outstrip my rate of fabric accumulation (oh who am I kidding?).
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03:36 pm - Ridiculous
Found the fabric on sale on Friday. Made these for the boyfriend today.
"I thought you meant camouflage fabric and dinosaur fabric."
"No, it's camouflage dinosaur fabric."
"Oh hell yes!"
Also, I've completed the first item in the wardrobe I've planned (from all those sketches)...
( details follow )
Pattern: Heavily modified from Simplicity 4135
Fabric: 100% cotton cream/black herringbone, reads as a brownish gray. I adore herringbone and all manner of menswear fabrics.
I'm quite happy with the angular front pockets. Picked that off a pair of ready-to-wear pants I saw somewhere (probably Anthropologie, my favorite inspiration mine). I hemmed these pants at a longer length, so that I can wear them with heels and look like an adult.
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February 4th, 2009
11:09 pm - classing it up
I needed a light sweater-type thing, and this style has been everywhere lately. Long, drapey jersey with a wide-banded open front. My machine is awful at hems on lightweight knits, so I left the edges raw. Now I don't have to schlump around in an old hoodie if I don't want to.
Fabric: Mystery synthetic jersey from a warehouse in SF
Pattern: On-the-fly modified from my basic tee pattern, which I customized from the basic tee at Burdastyle.
I banged it out on Sunday afternoon, then started on a pair of pants in cream and black cotton herringbone. I'd have finished them by now if I weren't coming down with what I suspect is the flu.
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January 31st, 2009
04:29 pm - I hate winter
Well, maybe not hate, but there are many reasons I dislike winter: it's cold, tomatoes and basil aren't in season, and I usually come down with a nasty head cold every year. But the best reason is this: The days are shorter. I haven't gotten anything done sewing-wise for a good two months because it's always dark and/or overcast when I get home from work.
I finally finished this paisley shift dress today. It had been lounging on the back of my sewing chair since mid-December. The plan was to finish it in time for the winter festivities, but I got caught up in gift-shopping and cookie-baking and friends-visiting and food-consuming.
The weather finally turned nice and sunny today, so I put in the zipper and hemmed the thing. Yeah, I was two steps away from finishing this dress and it languished for weeks. Oh well, it's done now.
The color is closer to true in this last photo:
It's kind of a medium-gray background and the woven paisley design is a shiny darker gray. The fabric was reversible so I spent a few days trying to decide which face to use. I went for the less-shiny side.
Pattern: Heavily modified from a basic Big 4 dress shell
Fabric: Jacket weight cotton/poly jacquard with some stretch, charcoal heathered woven cotton for facings, and matching Bemberg rayon lining.
Now all I want to do is make summer dresses, but first I should sew stuff to augment my work wardrobe...
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January 25th, 2009
10:30 am - amuse-bouche
Faced with my ever-growing fabric stash, I've begun sketching. Mini-collections, grouped by color scheme and season (you know it's bad when you can visualize everything in your stash from memory). Lately there's been a meme of sorts going around, called SWAP: Sewing With a Plan. I'm hoping that with a plan, I can start using up some more fabric and also wind up with a coherent wardrobe in the end.
( pile of sketches. )
Also, we've started a food blog: 28 oz. wine glass
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November 17th, 2008
09:57 pm - It's finally cold enough
Cracked open the yarn vault tonight and damn, do I have a lot of unfinished bits and pieces in there (also, tons of yarn). Resolved to either rip/store or complete everything in that pile this winter.
The nice thing about taking a hiatus is that abandoned half-realized ideas now look fresh and new. One item in particular, once reworked, could be the seed concept for a small series/collection...
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November 9th, 2008
01:41 pm - resurfacing
Work's been busy and I haven't really sewn anything in a month or so. I did make some jeans last month and I've been wearing the crap outta those, but they're in the wash right now.
First thing I did today was make something to wear.
Fabric is a thick cotton tricot knit that's navy on one side, silvery gray on the other. The silver threads peek through on front which yields a heathered/denim effect.
Pattern is modified Lydia from Burdastyle. This was originally going to be a hoodie sweater dress, as I was testing the fit for a future hoodie, but I decided upon the structured tube/collar instead while playing with fabric scraps.
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September 6th, 2008
02:57 pm - impetus
Bright turquoise baby sweater, for a coworker's little girl:
( Details )
Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss, 12-24 month size. Free pattern available here.
Yarn: Knitpicks Totem, a 50/50 wool/modal blend. Feels cottony, nicely drapey, but not saggy thanks to the 50% wool content. Sad this yarn's not available anymore, it was a test-run that was sold off at deep discount about 2 years back.
I knit the body of the sweater on my LK-150 knitting machine in an evening, then spent another evening knitting the ribbed neckband by hand. Very quick, as far as handknits go, and very satisfying to finish a knit garment in 2 days. Sewing has spoiled me so much, in that it is instant-gratification compared to knitting.
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August 31st, 2008
01:11 pm - All hail IKEA
Skirt made from IKEA table runner fabric and scraps of matching blue linen. Self-drafted pattern.
You can still see the foldlines from where the fabric was pre-hemmed; hopefully they'll come out in the wash.
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August 23rd, 2008
10:32 pm
One of the downsides of living in a city visited by the International Gem & Jewelry Show 4 times a year is that I now have a terrifyingly large stash of beads.
Am desperately trying to store these in a logical fashion...ack.
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July 31st, 2008
11:30 pm - 90% handmade
The shirt was slapped together tonight, and the pants were sewn (more carefully) about a month ago; the belt is thrifted.
I am unconsciously approaching a state of wearing head-to-toe handmade clothing. It's kind of weird, but I've reached a point where handmade garments have become wardrobe staples, and wearing them has nearly become a mundane act. But not entirely.
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May 11th, 2008
12:46 pm - Graphite skirt
What I made last weekend:
Fabric: 100% cotton novelty denim, upholstery weight, from the JoAnns clearance bin.
Pattern: New Look 6345. I bought this pattern about 3 years ago as a beginner to sewing, and the process of tracing off the pattern pieces (there seemed to be so many at the time) put me off trying the construction until I returned to it last week as a more seasoned sewer. Now it's easy!
Modifications: Pockets! I turned the front-side panels into pocket panels, and left off the button tabs for the waistband because it felt like that would be too much. Also I shortened the hem to make it knee-length for me.
This is a great basic tulip skirt pattern. I intend to make the straight skirt version as well, and modify it every-which-way for endless variations.
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May 7th, 2008
11:13 pm - surreal.
Since becoming mildly obsessed with sewing, I've mostly forgotten to check Ravelry for the latest in knitting trends and pattern publications, preferring instead to haunt BurdaStyle for sewing resources.
But I still do occasionally log in to Ravelry to take a look, and in the few months that I've been a member, two complete strangers have messaged me with their "Fishfish Designs inspired me to learn knitting" stories. It's surreal, that people could find my work so inspirational that it affects how they spend their free time. I guess I don't know my own strength. Weirdness aside, I like my newfound "compel others to take up handicrafts" powers. Experiencing fulfillment from working with one's hands is increasingly rare in our consumer society, so it gives me joy to know that I can help guide people toward a meaningful path.
***
In other news, I've been sewing something every weekend for the past 3 weeks. It feels good, in fact it feels wrong if I don't. I am still drowning in fabric, which still feels okay but gets kind of messy because it gets strewn across the floor while I work.
This is what I do: I fixate on learning a new skill, throw myself into research and self-teaching, and once I'm well-versed in it, I begin to integrate it into my existing skillset. I can trace the years of my childhood and adolescence by whatever crafts I was practicing intensively at the time. I was distressed (perhaps irrationally, in hindsight) when I lost interest in knitting in favor of sewing, but I guess that's the natural progression of who I am as an artist/designer/crafter/person-who-makes-things. Maybe someday the pattern will stabilize and I won't be so fickle, but for now I like it, it's exciting.
As you can tell, the store has become extremely lasseiz-faire as a result of my artisanal infidelities. Oh well.
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