Spring Bolero finished & Next Projects

The Spring Bolero turned out quite nice. It is bolero number five in my growing collection. I did a ballpark calculation as to how many hours it took for me to bead the binding, and figured around five, give or take. It is very relaxing for me, as I listen to books on tape as I sew/bead. But the hours it takes to bead one just reinforces the notion that trying to  make them to sell would be a waste of my time and energy. Besides, as stated before, I do these for fun, and because I like wearing them.

Spring Bolero = Made from two Goodwill find women's knit shirts, and beads and embroidery thread from my own stash.

My next project is to turn this large, faux-silk (Rayon) beaded top into a kimono jacket. There are already gold bugle beads sew on it, very badly, and many are coming off. I will secure the loose ones, and probably add more. The idea is to cut it up the front, then add some kind of fringe/lace/trim to the bottom edge and to the ends of the sleeves, to make them hang nicely. This thing is kinda warped from, I suspect, lots of washing and is very baggy, but I liked the boho design and the slouchy feel of it, and thought, once the remodel is done, it would look great with a black tank top and jeans. For a mere $2.99 from the Goodwill, if it fails, I'm not out much.

Lastly are the gigantic man's t-shirts I got, again, from the Goodwill. I got two, one this dark blue, and the other is charcoal gray, for $2.99 each. They are Fruit of the Loom brand, and the cotton is a good weight, so I couldn't resist, even though the colors aren't very snazzy. I can fix that with embellishments. But wow, can't imagine the size some poor guy would have had to be for these babies to fit. However, it makes lots of material for me to play with. I just hope these shirts ended up in the Goodwill because whoever owned them lost all that weight and didn't need them anymore.

That's my lineup so far. Not sure what I will do with the two HUGE shirts, but a tunic might be one choice. I have a pattern for a simple one, if that's what I decide. Also, I recently bought a new stash of stencils, and these shirts are big blank canvasses begging for decoration. With that much fabric to play with, the possibilities are endless.

So that's me, making a happy wardrobe, one upcycled piece at a time.

Meet Inara

Over the years I have often wished for a dress form to make my sewing life easier. Years ago (early 90s, I think) I picked one up at a garage sale, but it was too big, and was so wonky it couldn't be adjusted. I ended up giving it to a friend, who put male clothing on it and stood it in front of her living room window so people would always think there was someone home. Not sure what she used as a head for it, or maybe she just left it headless as a warning to potential burglars. Then I had about a two year hiatus from sewing, mainly because my old White sewing machine finally died, and I couldn't afford a new machine. But also because I had become a bit burnt-out doing costumes, and just didn't want to sew anything...at all.

Now I have a new machine, and lots of ideas for sewing projects. I am also back into making costumes, so I really did need a dress form. My husband is wonderful and willing to help, but his knowledge of how to make garment adjustments on my body are pretty much zilch, and he's gone a lot, so I was really pining for a body double.

I knew I didn't have a big budget for this, so would have to settle for something pretty mundane. That was okay, since I wasn't going to be doing anything super complicated, that would require absolute to the fraction of an inch, exact measurements. But it did have to be sturdy enough to carry the weight of multiple layers of cloth, since some of the costumes I will be doing will be quite heavy.

So, a week ago my Mom and I went through the local Joann's Fabric store and I checked out what they had. The medium quality dress form was between $230 and $260 dollars. Still over my budget. A few days later my Mom called me and said that Joann's had put the dress forms on sale for $100 off. Shazam! I headed back over there, and sure enough, the form I had looked at was now down to $135. Sold! However, I kept the receipt so I could take it back in case the thing turned out to be a piece of junk.

Putting together and adjusting a dress form is kinda weird. You are essentially creating a double of yourself. At one point, when I was standing boob to boob with it, I burst out laughing. Once it was all adjusted and done, I stood back and thought, "Sheesh, is that what I really look like?" At that point, I dug out my Chinese red camisole and put that on "her" along with one of my necklaces.  After all, "she" couldn't just stand there all naked. The thought crossed my mind that "she" looked better in the sexy camisole than I did. Ah well.

Next "she" needed a name. At first I kept referring to her as "That Other Woman." When I posted a picture on Facebook, someone suggested I call her Ruby, but I wasn't too crazy about that one. Then it occurred to me that, with the racy, Chinese camisole and flashy jewelry, she resembled a character on the old TV series Firefly. The character's name was Inara, and she was a beautiful, professional "companion" who always wore lovely, sexy dresses and expensive jewelry. Since the dress form doesn't have my face, or any face, I decided the name would fit without insulting the stunning woman who had played the part in the series. It also crossed my mind that if I named her Inara, she might have a more glamorous life than I do.

So here she is. Meet Inara, wearing my Chinese camisole and leaf necklace. But I still have her receipt, so can send her back if she misbehaves. 

Riding Costume...Shirt

This is the first piece of the riding costume to be almost complete. Only thing left to do is add elastic at the wrists. I tried very hard to use the design of the vintage linen tablecloth to the best advantage, and to waste as little of the cloth as possible. I think I did a pretty good job. I still have two center medallions, and two small scrolls, left to play with or to add to something else.

In the photos, the shirt has been ironed, so looks all nice a smooth. Once worn and washed, it will be wrinkled...and will stay that way, as I have no intention of ironing it every time I wash it. Besides, it's meant to look a bit "rough."

This old linen feels lovely against my skin, and hangs beautifully. When you pick the garment up, it feels a bit heavy, but once on, you don't notice it at all. I am really sold on this whole recycling of old linen, so will be looking for more at the Goodwill and antique/thrift stores. I need another big one to make the skirt for the costume, so the hunt is on!


Here is the front of the shirt. The sleeves are waiting for the elastic at the wrist. Also, I positioned the pattern pieces so that the hand-crocheted edging of the cloth got used on the hem and sleeve edges. What I didn't use, I have kept for use on other garments. It's just too precious to toss away.

Front close up.

Back view.

Detail of back. I especially like the way I got the scroll to fit on the collar piece.

This is a detail of the sleeve. In order to get the design to work best, I had to cut the sleeves in two separate pieces, rather than place the pattern on the fold. In doing so, I ended up with a seam down the top of each sleeve, but that doesn't really bother me, since the design was too nice to lose. You can just see the casing for the elastic on the left side of the sleeve. That will give me a wrist ruffle of about two inches.

Next in line after the shirt will probably be the jacket, or the waist chincher. I'm really having a lot of fun putting this costume together.

The Riding Costume Project

A week ago, while trolling Pinterest looking at costume sites (a very dangerous pastime for a costume junkie), I came across an outfit that literally knocked my socks off — or would have, if I had been wearing socks. The original designer, Brielle's Costumes,  called it a pirate costume, but my first inner vision was of a Highwayman shouting "Stand and deliver!" I got really fired up, and wanted that vision to be me, on my horse. So, my brain went into hyper-drive. I wanted to make that outfit, and adapt it to riding. Minor setback? I had no sewing machine. My 30 yr old White had finally died about six months ago. So, there I was, raring to go...and basically dead in the water.

Flash forward a week. I bought a sewing machnie ( I really needed one anyway, even if this costume hadn't turned up to excite me), dug through my stash of fabric and discovered I had a lot of what I needed already, then headed to the fabric store to buy what I didn't have. Luck was still with me, as the linen I liked was on sale (as had been the sewing machine). Another minor set back? My iron had been packed away in storage, and only Robert knew where the box was, buried in our storage unit. He is on the road, which means I won't get my iron until Saturday. However, in the meantime, I can cut out the shirt pattern, and work on altering the jacket pattern I have into the jacket design I need.

I have no desire to copy this outfit exactly, which would be cheating and an insult to the original designer. I will use it as inspiration, changing things, and adapting it for use in riding. The only thing I wish I could have changed was the color, as I really wanted to do it in dark green. However, the choices of green linen at JoAnn's Fabrics were all pretty icky, so I went with brown.

The jacket in the picture is made of leather. I can't do that, nor did I want to. If I was going to be wearing it around horses, and during the summer, I wanted something that would breath, and that could be washed. Linen is perfect. I also had some dark green linen left over from the pirate frock coat I made about 5 yrs ago. I will use that for contrasting collar and cuffs on the jacket. I already had the mid-weight muslin for the shirt, and the vintage lace. I wanted to add a bit of pattern to the outfit, so the cincher will be made out of one of the brocades shown. They are fabric sample squares, of which I have four big bins full, since where I used to work they would throw them away when the pattern was discontinued. I had six stores sending them to me, until they wised up and started selling them for $2 a piece. Now I think they sell for almost $5 each. Did I mention I have four big Rubbermaid tubs full of these things? Yes, I think I did. SCORE!

So, that's the plan. I absolutely love this costume, and with a few alterations I can make it rider-friendly and totally washable, except for the cincher, which will be lightly boned and couldn't be washed anyway. I will also make a pair of pants to go with this, or wear my black riding pants, since riding in a skirt is a pain in the butt, but I really like the look of the skirt, so will have to have both.

 After all, this outfit is just too damned cool to only wear while on a horse.

Another Project...Really?

I need another project like I need a hole in my head, but after seeing Rice's numerous and amazing experiments with hand sewing and beading over on her Voodoo Cafe blog, and after purchasing the book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design by Natalie Chanin, I had to jump in and play.

It has been a long, long time since I did any kind of hand sewing or embroidery, so the first thing I decided to do before diving in with wearable items, was to experiment with the fabric on small sample projects. All of the embroidery I had done previously had been on cotton or denim, material that didn't stretch, and that I could put in an embroidery hoop to keep it flat and smooth. I had never done anything on knit fabric, so was unsure how that would work. How would I keep even thread tension if the fabric was moving around?

First I dug through my husband's T-shirt drawer. He gets tons of the things for free through where he works. All of them have pet food logos on them somewhere, so I will have to work around those. To start, I picked out a black one and a grey one, and cut off the sleeves. Then I made a simple paper pattern and cut out two pocket-sized pieces from the sleeve material.

On the grey piece, which would be the top color, I stenciled a star with alternate wavy and straight arms, using some pale rose fabric paint I already had, dabbed on with a small makeup sponge. After it was dry, I pinned the two pieces together using two of my grandmother's long, pearl-headed straight pins. Using dark grey embroidery floss, I back stitched all around the star stencil. Then I back stitched around the border of the two pieces, about a half inch from the edge. Lastly, using some old rose colored beads I'd had for decades, I did a beaded back stitch next to the original back stitch around the star. Final act was to cut away the painted stencil to reveal the black under-fabric, and trim the grey away from the border to give the piece a black frame. Then I added three rose beads to the center of the star. Done.

Notes to self for future reference:

In the Alabama Studio book, they use paint mixed with water and spray it on the fabric to make the stencil pattern. Now I see why. Using straight paint made the fabric very stiff when it came time to cut it out. Also, dabbing at the fabric caused the material to pull up in the middle of the stencil, as it kinda stuck to the makeup sponge. Once the design was cut out, it left a stiff edge rather than a softer one, which makes the reverse applique look kinda spiky.

Use a simpler, slightly larger stencil next time, at least for the reverse applique. When it was all finished, I couldn't really tell that the arms of the star were different shapes. It ended up looking like an amoeba rather than a star.

My embroidery scissors are still too blunt-nosed to get in the sharp corners of a cut-out design, so I need to find sharper ones.

I need lots more practice with my embroidery. This first piece is pretty crude in that respect.

The beads I picked, although a good color, were too big and clunky for the design.

I very much like the feel/weight of the doubled fabric. Since where I live there are more cold days than warm ones, I think I will be doing more work with two layers rather than one.

One lucky break was that I already had in my personal library the embroidery book Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano, which is the book the Alabama Studio author recommended.

 Conclusion:

Am I hooked? Oh yeah. Embroidering on the T-shirt material was easy and relaxing. After more practice with small pieces, I will attempt an article of clothing—probably a tank top. Will I have an entire wardrobe of hand sewn clothing? Probably not. I just don't have the time.  But I will enjoy embellishing articles of clothing I already have, using the techniques shown in the Alabama book. They are very inspiring.

The most fun for me, I think, will be adapting the techniques and embroidery into designs more in keeping with my personal style of dressing. I have no idea what I'll end up with, but, as always, the journey is the most exciting part of the process.