Sewing Season is upon us.

 Happy New Year all. It's day 11 and I've been doing sewing or sewing adjacent things:

• Traced off the Summit Dress pattern from Scroop. I have lipstick red linen and Italian linen black background with traditional Mexican hearts printed all over it for the godets. But the execution is being delayed for a while
• I've rehomed my small collection of A0 patterns to see through document wallets, all clearly labelled. Previously in rolls standing up in a laundry basket, I could never find the one I wanted and even paid to have one printed twice! I've also culled the collection of several that I think other people will be more likely to use.
• David cut up thin MDF saved from a collapsed kitset desk, to make shelves for my cubby stack. They're held in by pushpins! The level of DIY hackery in this makes me so very happy! And it works a treat
• I MADE a linen shift and sheer curtains and a whole dress! 
• I'm making my friend Joy a dress so she came over for a toile fitting and also rethreaded the @$#$%#$@ overlocker so I could finish the seams of said dress - purple linen. No photos of it yet.

Cubbies with shelves!

Boring linen shift but a very satisfying make nonetheless!

My oppressively sundrenched studio now has some sun quenching sheer curtains. they're cream so do an extra good job. No more working with the curtains completely closed needed!

Bonus smashed spuds content - my favourite holiday food. The perla potatoes are so yellow inside they look even more delicious when cooked! 100% recommend smashing your spuds hehe.

That's pretty much it so far - apart from a LOT of admin for my biggest project ever, but more on that some other time <3

Up to my old costuming tricks!!

 People, my new costuming tricks are all about dressing my alter ego. But my old ones were costuming for theatre shows. 

So, recently I've done a tiny bit of costuming. Basically I am a sort of shadowy resource who has tried, and sadly failed, to remain anonymous at a local community theatre. 

My contributions are generally millinery, but a couple times I've busted out something more. Here's a breakdown:

Pride and Prejudice:

This is how it all began. I got wind of a production and offered to insert headgear, as it always gets overlooked but I think it is more important than dresses for setting the scene and tone. (grr, looking at you, Bridgerton)

All of these hats are made from a range of cheap hat types - bowling fedoras, bowlers, molded plastic "top hats" you name it. I now keep a supply on hand just in case. They are useful as they have the crown to brim join already made.

Full bonnets are no good in the Gryphon theatre which has steep lighting lines so they'd cast shadows on faces. So these are all back of head types.

Lady Catherine de Burgh's extravagant tall hat. She was wearing purple and orange so I figured, get in there and lean in on the crazy! It won an award for the best showstopper of the year!

A wee ruched velvet hat, and a shallow bonnet. That was the only straw hat I could find, hence the other solutions I found to the hat making process.

I think this is my favourite. No idea what I based it on! It has a lovely pleated lining though.

Another ruched hat with turban vibes and ostrich feathers.

A little cutie based on a very cheap white top hat. Silk taffeta with organza and fake flowers. It also has a gorgeous pleated lining.

Gabriel

Set in the Channel Islands during WW2 occupation, Gabriel the play needed a period credible brassiere. Trouble is, the wearer would have worn a binder style bra, not the dainty peach and lace ones we love to think of, so I decided stuff it, and built a pretty one on top of a modern skin tone bra.

For the 4 seconds it is on display, I think it would have gotten the idea across. Lightweight silk I overdyed with food colouring as it was a bit wishy washy, and chantilly lace from my stash also dyed with food gels.

 Persuasion

Persuasion just closed after a sell out season. A mammoth effort that was costumed from scratch. I was asked to make a bicorne,and  also ended up making a second, not shown.

This is made from a black $12 sombrero - I reduced the crown down, steamed it into shape, covered it in felt using Steamaseam, bound it with black bias then glued on authentic metallic trims. The metallic trim is too heavy for a machine and I knew the stitches would be super obvious from the back row. And no way was I sewing this on through all that nasty synthetic.

So, it turns out my lovely friend Janet was also cast in it and so I undertook to make her overcostume too. She doubled as Lady Russell and Mrs Musgrove. The show wasn't trying to be super authentic, but it definitely captured the vibe, I feel. Sadly my pleas to incorporate shawls and bonnets weren't taken up due to the seamless style of it all, no time for transitions - but I DID get headwear onto my friend.

The only thing I made in this image is the cap Janet is wearing (second from right) but don't you love the puppets for the annoying Musgrove Children! The rest were made by a local lady who is incredibly clever, and had a month to do nothing else. The things people do for community theatre...Anyway cap made from self stripe silk organza and a couple of other laces. The Dreamstress donated some lacy offcuts for this, thank you as always!

Funny, Janet is in the same position in this pic as the last, but this time as Lady Russell. I made her red overdress and turban. The fabrics are velvet and a heavy Indian cotton with metallic crewel embroidery. Everything Janet wore has come back to me and that dress is going to become a jacket at some stage!

And that's my foray into theatre costuming! I did assist with another professional production but I'm not spilling the beans on that one!

Sewing small projects

 I'm working on a couple of garments that need slow sewing, so to give myself satisfaction, I'm also doing some quick win projects too.

OK so with NZ in semi lockdown and mandatory mask wearing, the shop is selling them almost as fast as four of us can make them. I've made at least 25 for the shop, but I'm also making some for me and for friends who have specific tastes.

My friend who shares a love of Frida and Mary is getting three masks, these are just cut out so far but I love the so much!

As for me, I've made a couple with plastic stays going across and up/down, to try and create space to breathe. They are a bit beaky but I don't care. I LOVE this rose fabric

This one is a gorgeous ombre of fizzy bubbles and I love how it reads different colours on either side.

As well as masks, I've been feeling the cold footwise and find that socks bite into my ankles and slippers are all so synthetic they feel yicky.

So, I made some! Using the Twig and Tale Wayfarer Shoe pattern, I made these cuties. Outer is a pair of old jeans, lined with some Liberty cord, and the sole is suede. All out of what was in the house. They're just enough warm for the house in this early spring weather. They were so easy, I think I'll make some warmer ones for winter.

So there you go, small wins. 

I went back to the office on Monday, quite eerie with only about 20% of our team coming in. But it really has helped me to get my head back in the game. Swapping slipper for masks.

Another UFP Finished

Another UFP (unfinished project) lurking in my house is a footstool I bought a couple of years ago in a junk shop in Taihape as discussed here. But to save you jumping around, here is the photo I took of it when I got it home. Sadly the beautifully executed tapestry top was so badly faded, there was no hope for it. I did try washing it to see if it was just dirt but nope, munted. I binned it and the naked, flock covered inset has been sitting balance on a chair in the lounge while the frame skulked behind the dining room table. This all had to stop today!

Its original magnificence -mine for $23.

 The components. 

 A close up of the fascinating flock stuffing, clearly made from shredded rags. It's revoltingly dusty, over a straw sub layer, but I am reusing it because I can't be bothered spending hours recreating this part from scratch.

To contain it all, I put a layer of the thin non woven stuff we call pattern cloth over it. This also gave me a chance to vacuum it without sucking the whole lot up the cleaner!

Next up, my fabric. It was an upholstery fabric sample from goodness knows where, and I fiddled about for a bit to get the right part of the pattern on top.

The big flower and leaf were the best option, and I am happy with them. I've fiddled with the colour to try and recreate the richness of the fabric but even here it isn't really showing how fabulous it is!

This is the top cut out with just enough underlap. Or so I thought. When I was pressing it I saw that there are holes along one short end from where the sample was pinned to its header. I could have easily cut it a bit longer had I seen, GAH!

See the holes? I managed to just make it fit at both ends by putting the holes here. As the inset is well and truly fitted into the frame I think these will last just fine in their trapped state. But you can see below how short I had to make it at the other end.

After gun-stapling all the way around. I distribute the fullness at the corners into a series of pleats. I think we could have stretched the fabric a wee bit more but it is firm enough. This is the big rookie mistake with upholstery - either not stretching the fabric firmly enough, and/or pulling it into the corners too tightly so the bias distorts and the corners eventually wear through ahead of schedule. Ask me how I know...

And here it is! I decided I wasn't going to chalk paint it because the oak is in such lovely condition and it goes with our house really well as it is. Also, this means it's now DONE.

No more weird bits of furniture in my lounge, but  a lovely foot stool and extra seat for visitors!

I am so not caring that I didn't line the bottom with some pattern cloth to hide the raw edges. I would have, had the sides not been deep enough to well and truly hide it.

What do you think; pretty?

A Sequin Free Sewing Post!

Don’t we just love old jeans! All that fading and distressing; it seems such a waste to turf them out just because they’ve worn through on the knees or thighs. This tutorial shows you how to make a gorgeous summer skirt using the bit that never seems to fall apart – the “body”. (You could make this for a child too, you just need a lot less fabric and narrower tiers).
I own a few of these skirts but this one is far too teeny for me.

To make this skirt I used:

• an old pair of jeans
• three summer cotton fabrics, 2.3m in total (0.4m for the top, 0.7m for the second and 1.2 for the bottom)
• ric-rac trim and buttons
• thread

I cut the legs right off the jeans (saving the useable bits for patching other projects), making sure you don’t cut the front pocket bags! If possible save the back pockets. If not, just cut the bottom of them off like I did. (you’ll have to take my word for that!)
Now fold your jeans sideways so the fly is at one end and the centre back at the other. Line up the two layers of waist band and pin evenly.

 

Work out how deep you want the denim basque of your new skirt to be – I made ours 22cm deep. Measure from the waist band to that line and pin every 5cm or so. Then you can cut off any excess carefully along the pinned line through both layers, making sure you don’t cut the front pocket bags again! I did this with pinking shears.

When that’s all done, unpick the curved seam at the front below the fly.   

Lap the original outside over the other side flat, then top stitch through all the layers over the original stitching lines.

Work out what order you want your fabrics to go in – I liked the yellow Amy Butler print breaking up the more blue based other ones. I cut my tiers: 2 widths x 18cm for the top, 3 widths x 23cm for the middle and 4 widths x 28cm for the bottom one. Increasing the tiers towards the bottom like this makes the skirt balance better visually.

 

Now the trick to sewing the three tiers together is to not “over-gather” the fabric or the skirt grows enormous! To get around this, and to avoid the unspeakable horror of the whole gathering stitches, pulling up and pinning, this is what I do:

Join the strips for each layer together, pressing the seams open, so each is a continuous flat strip. Don’t sew the ends of this strip together. The top tier doesn’t want to be two whole widths around, so cut about 55cm off the end for a size 10-16, less for larger sizes.
Starting with the top and middle tiers, I put them right sides together both at the beginning of the strips with the middle (yellow) tier on the top, and I pleat it straight in under the machine foot. In the photo above I pinned the next pleat to show you how deep I make them but in reality I just form the pleat with my fingers and feed it under the foot. Not too deep and not too close together, that’s the trick. Remember you’re just pleating the fabric on top, not the one underneath.
Just keep pleating until you get to the end of the underneath strip. As you can see in the photo, I ran out of top tier just after a seam in the middle tier, but it doesn’t matter, no one notices. Just trim the middle tier so it is “flush” with the top tier.

  

Here’s a pic of the right side showing these two tiers sewn together

 Use the same process to join the last tier to the middle tier. Remember not to pleat too close together or too deeply. Cut any overhang at the end of the final tier.

To make the skirt,  bring the two edges of the skirt together, right sides together, line up the tier seams, pin and sew straight through.

 

 Press the seam open. You may notice that I haven’t neatened any of my raw edges with an overlocker or zig zag. That’s because these kinds of cottons really don’t fray much so there’s no real need to, unless you wish to. To each their own!

I then joined the skirt to the denim basque. In this case, I did use two rows of gathering, and eased it in a little so it just fit, with the one seam down the centre back. Instead of sewing right sides together, I lapped the raw edge of the top of the skirt under the bottom of the basque and sewed them through in two rows. This leaves the raw pinked denim edge on the top layer, which will fluff up with washing like the bottom of cut off jeans.

Cost of project: jeans $5 from an op shop, fabrics $36.80 from the shop's $16m range. Ric-rac was $2m and I used 1m. Buttons were $5, total: $44.80. Not bad!

The Midas Touch...

Upcycling doesn't always have to be about clothes. I really enjoy overhauling old bits of furniture picked up because it is somehow not deemed sexy enough to be pricey. I have a chair bought off TradeMe (NZ's eBay alternative) that is super pretty but was painted by some dumb ass, thus reducing its value considerably, as stripping it back would be an excruciating process.
This is where Rub'n'Buff comes in. Rub'n'Buff is a permanent paint that is a bit like shoe polish for solid surfaces like wood. It comes in a little tube, has the consistency of toothpaste,and you just squeeze it out and rub it in with a cloth. Then you buff it, it gets shinier, and it dries like paint, no rubbing off. Hence the name! And it means that instead of stripping the chair back, I can apply the gold to the bad paint job and transform it.

Here's my pretty chair. With ugly brown paint and ugly weird upholstery. I've left this on for now, to protect what is underneath from the Rub'n'Buff.

Here's one leg done and one leg to go. It is so easy, just squeeze some of the creamy stuff onto an old cloth, and rub it on. I feel like Midas!

Here's the back all done - showing how it has a nice old looking patina and leaving the grooves in the design still dark. I like that.

Stage one complete!

 The whole chair only took one little bitty tube. The one on the right, in case you were wondering! The colour I used is European Gold.

Midas' rubber gloves and cloth in the aftermath.

Next step - a jolly good buffing to bring up the shine, and a reupholstering. This chair is not for us so I shall consult with the intended owner on fabric.

How easy is this! I've got my eye on some lampshades and other bits and pieces, with the other tube. I've also got my eye on the composite gold leaf in the shop. This gilding business is quite addictive...

This is also about trying out the products we sell. I remember Rub'n'Buff from the 1970s so it is not a new discovery, but nothing has replaced it in simplicity, affordability and effectiveness. Yes, I am a fan!

From Table cloth to Table Lamp

It's my sister's birthday next week, and I promised her a pair of bedside table lampshades. I wanted to use the opportunity to try something new - not just a groovy fabric but some extra stuff too. Sister Jo is pretty artsy in her own right and appreciates a bit of bling
So, after rootling around in my stash of stuff, I unearthed an old tablecloth bought at the Sallies and popped off to Global-that-was to pick up some light green silk, and this is what I did:

 Making the lampshade using the pale green silk. Goes with my nails ;-)

The tablecloth. I think I paid $4 at the Sallies in Kilbirnie. 

Cutting a strip of the cloth slightly wider than the barrel of the shade.

A liberal coating of adhesive spray. I loathe the stinky stuff, I much prefer Mod Podge, but working with silk it gets tricky as white glues can mark it so easily.

 Erk, the sticky keeps sticking to itself...

 ...finally in business. I'm wrapping it around the green shade

keeping it nice and taut, and lapping the finished edge from the corner of the tablecloth over the cut edge.

After stretching and sticking it all down, I cut around the pattern as much as I could on the cut side, and left the 15mm extra needed for roll under where I couldn't do that. The other side I deliberately let under and overlap the edge.

 Rinse and repeat...

This what they look like with light coming through. "I have to be honest with you, I loves it. Tidy*".

*Blame reruns of Gavin and Stacey, Ness is my hero! Even more than Miranda!