New Years Casual Shirt

So after much time spent trying to shove random fabric into any nook and cranny it would fit in my apartment, I decided to go through it all and get rid of some. Now it all fits nicely in one drawer (well, two, but it fits nicely and that's the important part).

It's very cleansing going through and making the decision that 'no, you won't ever make that sweater so stop holding onto that fabric you don't even really like it' which gives your brain a whole new open slot for ideas. One of which ended up being this shirt.

I took all the measurements, sketched it out onto wrapping paper (now I know why I'll hold onto all my extra paper this year, it's big enough for patterns!), and it ended up working perfectly!

Now I have a fall back tshirt pattern that is simple, looks good, and can be changed up easily with a different curve of the neckline. Sweet!

It was also my first time trying a double needle, and let me tell you: total game changer. No more zig zag stitch finishing for me!

Another first? Sequins. Also a last. This shirt was a labour of love! Having to remove all the sequins from the seam allowance not only took so much time, but my apt was covered in little silver slivers of glitter afterwards. I vacuumed. Still there. There's one stuck to the wall. Never again.

It's really the perfect shirt for the holidays, casual enough being essentially a tshirt, but the flattering fit and the pattern of sequins really makes it do-able for an evening out.

Another one, with cuffs on the sleeves and bottom this time.

The pattern. 

More comics

I found some tiles, which is making my life substantially easier with making my comic necklaces. Takes a lot less time and a lot less resin per piece. Although some of these pieces have some serious resin staining, it's all in the learning process :).

This one got pretty wrecked :( Too bad.

My coat is coming along, though I thought that I had fixed my serger, when I was testing tensions it sewed fine, as soon as I started with the real pieces of fabric it jammed up on me right away. I wonder if it has something to do with the speed I was using it at.. Hmm.. I also need a seam ripper cause I made a bit of a boo boo.. Will have to wait until tomorrow to get that fixed up!

Tutorial: Square Scarf Shirt

Make a fun and simple shirt out of a square scarf and not much else!

Materials:
Square scarf. (choose one that fits around your ribs)
Rope, chain, or lace.
Grommets and grommet punch.

How to:

Hold the scarf up to your body. Pin where you want the straps to sit (either use your bra straps for reference, or eyeball it) I accidentally spaced mine a bit further apart than I wanted, but I didn't notice until it was too late. Oh well :).

Poke a hole and put a grommet in each side. 

Tie a piece of lace through the grommet, around the back of your neck and to the other side. Make sure it fits comfy. (Not pictured, sorry)

Grab the sides of the scarf and pull it around to your back. Take note of how high and low you want the closures to go to.

Measure and mark one inch spaces along each side of the scarf where you want the closure to go and add grommets along the way.

Before I decided to add more grommets to the top.

Lace everything up and you're ready!

Notes: I found since the scarf isn't stretchy its easier to lace up the back, turn it around, then tie the neck. I also didn't take care to make proper holes for the grommets to go (nor did I make them even) and just stretched holes in the scarf. It's old, the fabric is thin and I pulled the threads doing this but I don't care. Just keep in mind if you're going to use a scarf you really like, take more care in how you install the grommets. Or close it some other way. Next time I make this (with a better quality scarf) I'm going to close the back with a short zipper and do over the shoulder straps. Its your shirt, do with it what you want!

I told you it had potential!

MMM Post #4

So I just noticed that I had forgotten to schedule this post to go out so it's been sitting as a draft for much longer than intended. Keeping with MMM (though a few days it was just pajamas that got the homemade treatment) I'm happy to see there's only a few days left. I miss wearing my other clothes. Not that I haven't enjoyed wearing my clothes this whole time, but I'm sick of wearing some things so frequently. 

I've realized that I can wear things I made every day, and I intend to put my homemade clothing into circulation more often. Here's the most recent thing I've finished..

The only problem with making an adorable new sweater for MMM is the fact that it's sweltering outside!

I'm off tomorrow, and I fully intend to work on the pile of unfinished things: resizing and recycling a favourite tshirt of mine, a skirt getting made out of a sarong that the Mr's mom got me from the Dominican last year, and a few other things I'm not sure how they'll turn out exactly...

I hope the rest of you who have been participating have had as much fun as I have! 

MMM Post #3

Hello everyone! It feels like it's been forever since my last post, shame on me! I'll have everyone proudly know that I'm still following the MMM challenge without falling off the wagon at all, though most things have been repeats. Here's a few of the non repeats for you though :).

From yesterday, it was far too hot in our apartment so this lightweight knit jersey skirt did just the trick.

 

I finally, finally made something out of this fabric. I've had it for so many years it's not even funny. Probably close to 6 years. I forced myself to make something out of it after having half made several things and gave up on all of them, for some reason.

Aaaand because I went to see The Avengers on Saturday with my brother and the Mr, I thought this shirt was an apt choice. Also, holy hell was the Avengers amazing or what?! God I love comic book movies.

That's all my new stuff for now! I have a cake in the oven and a newly drafted pattern beside me, once I the cake is finished (I accidentally had the stove on 50 degrees too low the whole cooking time!! So I had to turn it up and leave it in extra) I'll start working on a shirt that's guaranteed to be comfy, I think :).

MMM Post #2

I decided to change it from weekly posts to a couple days at a time. That way it's not a huge post at the end of the week with nothing in between :).


May 6:

(I couldn't seem to get a good picture this day of my outfit so I put it on a hanger after work :P.)
Made by me: grey tanktop, resized/refashioned hoodie. For once I'm wearing a necklace not made by me, but one my aunt gave me. It's honestly one of the coolest necklaces I own! She was going to sell it at a flea market once and I told her I would buy it before it got on the table. Haha. I'll have to get a better picture of it sometime but this will give you the idea.

It makes an awesome jingly noise when I walk and is the perfect long necklace to spruce up shirts. I really should try my hand at making one similar to it so I can have it in other colors. :)

May 7:

Made by me: shredded shirt and the dino necklace :). One thing I've learned about these shirts is the more you wear them the longer they get! This is the oldest one I have (the 2nd I made, the first I didn't like and I got rid of) and it hangs past my knees in the back. Its kind of amazing, actually! I feel bad though, I went for quite the walk this day (to the mall to get new headphones) and I ended up breaking my poor dinos arms off. I figured it would happen eventually cause my purse strap sits right where he does but still.. Poor little guy! I'll have to make him some more.

May 8:

It was a super rainy day here and I was running out of clothes to wear before doing repeats so I used the weather as an excuse to wear my super snug spider web hoodie. A couple years ago Value Village was selling a whole bunch of stretchy fleece throw blankets in halloween patterns (spider webs, skulls, candy corn, etc). I used 2 blankets for the hoodie since the fabric only stretched one day and I regret to this day not buying more. ($5 a blanket, roughly a meter by a meter and a half, not bad!). I still have one blanket in the skull and crossbones fabric left and have a list of things it will be to decide between. I didn't get the chance to take a picture so here's an old one from my craftster account.

This is comfier than anything I've ever made.

May 9:

Today is my day off, finally! And my only one.. Boo! I got around to cutting and pinning the sleeves for a shirt (which I'll sew when I finish this post :P), and then I'll get my butt moving on the next thing. Since I'm just sitting inside all day I'm repeating my shirt from the first day, the grey tshirt.

I threw out a lot of things I made that I didn't really wear before the move to reduce the sheer amount of stuff that I have, but I'm really starting to regret it. Not only because of this challenge, but because I don't feel like I documented their existence well enough. And some things that I think are amazing! Why didn't I fix the little things and give them the love they deserve?? Oh well.. I can only hope that someone out there is loving them now.

MMM Week #1

May 1st:
Made by me: 'The Used' hoodie (recycled from a tshirt), grey and silver damask tshirt (which can't really be seen, but I showed it here), and my sewing machine necklace. Also: Def Leppard record purse to be listed on etsy. It went with the outfit ;P.

May 2nd:
Made by me: brown jersey hoodie (that used to be covered in gold micro glitter but many washes left the fabric plain brown, boo), pink tshirt that I didn't make but drew all over (shown here), fun. necklace and a button bobby pin.

The Mr. got a new road bike to take to work since the car is gone (new to us, the bike is actually from '85) that is so big I need to use the door frame to climb up onto it. Hahaha. Mad skillz.

May 3rd:
Made by me: Revamped an XL shirt I found at Value Village cause of how cool the straps are, and it's a little rockabilly what with the polka dots, wrap over front, side tie and all. Plus the gold puzzle piece necklace. Also: A cute zombie octopus plushie I got during a craft swap. I loves him so :3.

May 4th:
Made by me: One of the comfiest sweaters I've made. Plus the necklace :).

Thats a picture of my bass there, most of the stickers on it are of bands I don't listen to any more, but I find it has a lot of character and lots of memories attached to them so I doubt I'll be peeling them off any time soon.

May 5th:
The shrug from my tutorial here. I just noticed I'm wearing the same shirt with it from that tutorial as well.. I really need more plain black tshirts apparently!! Hahaha.

The weather seems to be getting nicer, which is good if I want to actually get through a whole month of self made clothing cause damn, this is tricky already! I've lots of dresses and skirts but if its chilly I won't want to wear them (in all honesty, I don't want to wear them now! I'm not a dress kinda gal, especially not when I have to sit on the bus for 2 hours a day. :P). I hope with this month I'll get through a lot of the things that I've been meaning to finish.

So that's the first week (as I plan to go from Sunday-Saturday). What do you think? How are you doing, if you're doing this challenge??? I've got a shirt half finished, another revamp that shouldn't take too long after that, and some gorgeous sweater fabric I want to get started on sooner than later. (A sweater? Sweater-dress? Comfy skirt? I don't know. I bought quite a bit of it though so I'll hopefully get a few things out of it).

On a last note, oh my god. Do I look tired in some of these pictures or what? It's cause I am. I don't know how fashion bloggers do it, constantly taking pictures of themselves. I don't have the time to take these pictures at normal hours so I end up doing it after work and looking all sleepy and gross. Off to bed with me!

Business in the Front, Party in the Back

No, I'm not talking about mullets ;). I'm talking all the great shirts and dresses coming out now that look normal in the front, and for the back there's mesh, lace, bows and cut outs galore. This look seems to be popping up a lot in stores and fashion lately, and once I get some time to sew I plan on making quite a few shirts like this for summer. Until then, my inspiration! The best part of these shirts is how easy some of them are to make with only a little bit of time and effort. Trust me, once I make them I'll show you what I mean.

From nastygal.com

From charlotterusse.com

From Cupcakes and Cashmere, one of the first blogs I started following :)

Sorry I can't source a lot of these. I'm trying to track them down but unfortunately I used to save lots of inspirational pictures on my computer without any info on where they came from.. I never planned on having a blog ;).