summer already?
March 1, 2015
Okay, it doesn’t really get cold here…but it also doesn’t get particularly hot. I am in a little bit of a holding pattern, waiting around for summer. These two pieces remind me of hot, humid weather. A shirt or dress that you can wear all day, and into the warm night.
They made out of thin cotton shirting. Each one is double layered, lined with more of the same plaid. I simply sewed the neck and sleeves together, turned the garment around, and sewed the shoulder and side seams. The whole thing, turned right side out, made an inner and outer dress layer.
The shoulders and sleeves are cut a little bit on the bias, and are meant to be worn loose, drapey, and possibly folded over.
The shirt was initially meant to be the top of a dress. I didn’t have much luck with the skirt, the fabric was just too thin to lay right, so I turned the top into a shirt. It was a little bit too short, so I added a strip of fabric at the bottom.
The shirt and dress have different necklines. I was having fun cutting out shapes and curves.
And here is the finished neck. Simple symmetry of curves, lines, and plaid.
baby alpaca meets knitting machine
February 10, 2015
I have been wanting to combine a specific baby alpaca yarn with a knitting machine for a long time. This past month, I finally got around to doing it! The yarn is thin, super soft, and knits so quickly in stockinette stitch on my machine. The finishing is what takes time. And also figuring out what exactly is going to be the shape, gauge, etc of the project.
The poncho is knit slightly looser, on half step larger gauge on the knitting machine, and has a little more drape. It is a rectangle with a hole for the neck, and ribbing around the bottom.
The shape creates an asymmetrical drape, with the direction of the knitting stretching across the body diagonally. The ribbing at the bottom gathers the fabric very gently, and gives it a little weight and drape.
The tunic idea popped into my head part way through my progress on the poncho. I was playing with the fabric, and decided that I would like to make a garment that draped differently (a more straightforward up and down knit).
The sleeves are short, but allow for lots of movement of the arms. And the length of the vest contributes a lot to the overall warmth of the garment.
The tunic material is a tiny bit more firm than the poncho material, and more suitable for the shape. The tunic was knit in 4 pieces and then sewn together. The seams help to define the garment, and give it structure. The reversible seam down the middle of one side can be worn either on the front or the back of the garment.
Both the tunic and the poncho are available on my etsy site.
goodmorning tunic!
January 15, 2015
This tunic shape is one of my new favorites. I ended up creating a mini series to study the shape, and how it changed with different fabrics, combinations, and directions. These are the results.
The above two are opposites. The fabric is the same, reversible double layer cotton, but the tunics were made with different right sides. On the left, with the checks as the right side, and on the right with the plaid. It was fun for me to see how the different materials looked, fit, and felt. Some people look better in small prints, and some better in large prints. It is interesting to see the same shape, with different prints, colors, etc, tried on different people. They are both mostly reversible, although the inside seams aren’t quite as nice as the outside ones.
Above is the desert tunic. To be worn in a dry, sunny climate. The sleeves can be unrolled for more sun protection. It is the thinnest fabric of the bunch, and while double layer, it is the same on both sides.
The sparkle plaid is one of my favorites. The little bit of glitter goes so well with the black and white check on the reverse! Again, it is two layers of thin fabric, magically attached together. It is a delightful combination, that still cheers me, even after working with it quite a bit.
Each tunic s hand finished around the neck, with homemade bias tape. Every one is finished a little bit differently, to keep me entertained.
All of these tunics are available for sale in my etsy shop here.
another bedspread dress
May 8, 2012
It is delightful to me how two different pieces of fabric, with the same general format can inspire two different designs. By general format, I mean size, color scheme, etc. The difference in these two pieces of fabric was the geometric pattern printed in black. One piece of fabric seemed to be based more on squares, and the other on circles. From that difference came the two different dresses.
Circular vs square neckline, and on and on.
The second dress is also a tunic shape. A bit on the large size. Again, the patterning creates an illusion of shaping!
The sleeves are a little bit more interesting. I added little pleats on the cuffs, and they pouf out a little bit.
The sides of the dress match up nicely, with circles being created at the seams. I love how geometric this fabric is. The cutting and sewing are easy because of the patterns.
The rest of the dress is pretty much straight down. I am thinking that it would look good with a belt, but I don’t have one yet to try it with.
bedspread dress..
April 19, 2012
I have a sewing machine, fabric, and time to sew! I got this piece of fabric from India, and was going to save it for a tablecloth or something like that, but I held it up as a dress, and loved it!
First thing was to cut the neck, square to match the pattern. The dress is rather shapeless, and almost more of a tunic. There is so much complexity in the pattern on the material that I didn’t think that it was necessary to shape the dress itself.
I decided on gathering the sleeves to add a little finishing detail. Because there is so little shaping, it needed a little something to add dimension.
I tried belting the dress, but the fabric pattern didn’t lend itself to the shape created, and the dress ended up looking a little bit top heavy.
The length is a little shorter than I would have liked, but I wanted to end the skirt at the end of the pattern on the fabric, so no choice there…
The border is really beautiful, and I experimented with my new machine to sew the border by machine instead of by hand. (I got to my room this morning, armed with all my supplies, carefully collected and selected, only to realize that I didn’t have a sewing needle…)
The machine stitch worked well though, and I am excited to have learned how to do it.
I think that the fabric was tie dyed somehow, and there is a strong band of white going around the dress. I am considering dying the fabric a little with some coffee to darken the band. I think that I will have to wear the dress a little first to decide if I like the band or not.
The material might end up being a little rough for a dress, but I am going to give it a try, and wash and wear it a bit. I noticed a tag saying that it was a bed sheet a little bit after I had cut the hole in the top for the head…
living in the woods and making stuff 