The Long, Comfy, Reversible, Traveling, Skirt

For some reason, I very rarely wear sweatpants. I'm not sure why, I just don't. As far as lounge wear goes, in my opinion, there is nothing more comfortable than a long, soft, full, elastic-waist skirt. All of my skirts that fit this description are getting kind of. . .worn. (how many tears can a skirt have before it's officially worn out?) So, I decided an ultra-comfortable maxi skirt would be just the thing to make out of my remaining pretty grey knit fabric.

I folded my fabric in half and laid my brown taffeta button-front skirt on top of it to use as a pattern. I cut out the front and back of the skirt this way. For the waistband, I cut a strip of fabric a couple inches smaller than my waist measurement and 4x wider than my desired waistband width. Then I cut out 4 pockets, not 2, but 4. Why? Because this skirt was going to be reversible. 

On the (almost) solid grey side, I sewed on striped pockets. On the striped side, I sewed (almost) solid grey pockets. I sewed up the side and center back seams with french seams, which I then stitched down to look like flat-felled seams. (As that was easier with this fabric than normal flat-felled seams would have been.) 

I hemmed the skirt toward the striped side of the skirt, so when the skirt is worn with the striped side showing it looks like there is a grey band around the bottom of the skirt. 

For the waistband, I sewed my rectangle of fabric into a circle, then folded it over, grey side showing, and sewed it to the top of the skirt. When I'm wearing it, the waistband gets folded over again so it's not so wide. After about 3 hours, cut out to hemming, I had an incredibly comfy new skirt. The next day I was off on a mini road trip with my mom and fire-fighter brother.

This skirt was perfect for a 6-hour car trip. Day one, I wore it striped side out.

We drove to Indianapolis, ate supper, then settled into our hotel room for a night of board games. Day two, we explored Indianapolis, both by car and on foot down town.

We saw the Indiana State Capitol building.

And this really cool looking Civil War monument in a circle in the middle of the city.

We ate lunch sitting on the steps of it.

I wore my skirt grey side out.

It was just as comfy the second day.

Up close, the monument was even more impressive than it was from the street. Apparently,  underneath it there was a Civil War Museum. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to see that as my brother had to be somewhere to take a test (oh, yeah, the whole reason for our trip). So, my mom and I dropped him off, then hit a couple fabric stores (why not?). We picked him up a few hours later and then headed home. Spending time with my little brother, and fabric shopping with my mom, Yeah, it was a pretty good weekend.  

Pretty Grey Fabric, Turned into a Comfy Shirt

Remember this fabric?

I made someone else a dress out of it, and decided I wanted something made out of it to. So I went back to the fabric store. They were all out of the grey fabric, so I brought home this very similar black fabric instead.

I made a shirt out of it. The shirt turned out pretty well and I've worn it, and worn it, and worn it, but I still wanted a shirt from the gray fabric, so one day I just decided to order the grey fabric. I ordered (and paid for) 2 yards. They sent me 4 (hey, that was nice of them!) Once I got the fabric, I made my shirt, just like the other shirt but with a few improvements.

First, I made this shirt a few inches longer, the black one is a little short in the back. Then I slightly changed the cross-over back so that it would lay a bit better. 

And, one more thing, I decided to make this shirt a v-neck.

My first attempt at making the v-neck didn't turn out so great. The point was off-center and didn't lay quite right. So, I cut it off, and re-bound the neckline, this time the point was where it was supposed to be, but (due to me just chopping off the messed up neck binding rather than using a seam ripper) the neck wound up way to wide. Yeah, it falls off my shoulders now. Good thing I've got a large collection of colorful tank tops.

(Please excuse the hay on my shirt, I got my brother to take these during feeding time)

So, this shirt. Well, it's comfortable, really, really, extremely, comfortable. It just doesn't fit like I wanted it to. I figured I could fix a couple of minor issues with the black shirt in this one and have an amazing shirt, not one that just kinda hangs on me. So I may, at a later date, with different fabric, mess with my pattern some more and see if I can get it perfect. Meanwhile, I'm just gonna be extremely comfy wearing this shirt while watching my goats and waiting for kidding to start.

Everybody is fat and pregnant with some very promising udders appearing.

Kidding starts in a little over a week! I can't wait to have adorable little baby goats running around! I keep seeing pictures come across Facebook of other people's little goats, so I'm really, really wanting my own to hurry up and get here. (Well, don't hurry too much, no preemies please!) 

Well, to kill some time this week I still have a couple yards of my gray fabric left, and another very comfy garment in mind to turn it into. Hopefully this one comes out looking like the idea in my head! Well, I won't know until I get it done, so back to my sewing table I go...

The Spontaneous Black Daisy Dress

Last Friday I was struck by the urge to make myself a dress. To just pull out some fabric and a pattern and make a dress, no long planning and designing process, just sewing. I've been working on a lot of pre-planned projects lately, and I guess I just wanted a break from that, I wanted something spontaneous. I had some new patterns from a recent pattern sale, so I picked Simplicity 0169 from my new stash, just because it was different than anything else I had in my closet and that appealed to me. Last week I went thrift store shopping with a friend and picked up several different lengths of fabric. I decided this thin, drapey, black cotton with pretty white daisies on it would work great for this project.

Now the pattern envelope said that I needed 5 1/2 yards of fabric for the short version of this dress and I only had 5 yards of the daisy print fabric, but I figured it would work. And it did! I still had about 1/2 a yard of fabric left after everything was cut out (even the bodice lining, which was supposed to be cut from another fabric.)
Once the dress was cut out I hid away in my sewing room for the rest of the evening, listening to the Pride and Prejudice audio book (I recently discovered audio books are amazing to listen to while sewing!) and getting this dress sewn together. About 6 hours later (a bit longer than a modern dress typically takes me, I guess because this one was a bit different than the dresses I usually make?) I had a new dress.

I kind of love the long puffy sleeves on this dress, they are so much fun to wear! Most of my dresses don't have sleeves, those that do mostly have elbow-length sleeves. I have two with long straight sleeves, that don't get much wear. So these puffy long sleeves are very different than anything else I have, and I'm very glad I made them this way and didn't alter the sleeve shape at all!

One of my favorite features of this pattern is the cross-over bodice. Unfortunately, due to the printed fabric, that feature doesn't show up all that well, so maybe next time I make this pattern I ought to use a sold color fabric to showcase the wrap look.

The skirt feels a little long to me, so I might shorten it a couple inches to knee-length, rather than below the knee, but I haven't  decided yet. I actually kind of like how this skirt length looks with my boots, opinions?

Over all, I'm pretty darned happy with my spur of the moment dress! I absolutely love how full the skirt is and how puffy the sleeves are, it's great fun to wear and a real eye-catcher. I only wish the cross-over bodice showed up a bit better, but hey, I can't really complain. I got this dress done in one evening, didn't have to make any alterations to the pattern to make it fit me, and wound up with a dress I really like wearing!

I Finally Made It! A Regency Wrap Corset

A regency era dress. Something from the era of Jane Austen. A gown to make me look like I belong in the same room as the Bennett sisters. That's what I've wanted to make for at least the past year, but I keep putting it off.

 Why? The undergarments. Before I could make a regency dress I needed to make regency stays, and for some reason those have not been at the top of my to-do list. I love to sew dresses, but corsets and stays,ugghh! all the mock-ups and fittings that must go into a properly fitting corset. It's a little tedious and I have a hard time convincing myself to make more than one a year. (Strangely though, once I finish a corset I really want to make another. After about a month however, nope, not happening.)

Then Historical Sew Monthly's 2016 challenge schedule came out. January's Challenge, procrastination. Finish a garment you've been putting off. Perfect! I was going to make my regency stays happen!

I decided I wanted front lacing short stays, so that I could easily get in and out of them on my own. Back lacing long stays, I figured, would be quite a bit harder to get in and out of on my own. So I found this tutorial on how to draft your own short stays pattern and got to work.

Drafting the front of the stays according to my measurements went pretty quick, then came the back, my measurements didn't work with how she said to draft the back (thanks to my wide shoulders). I decided to look at pictures of original regency short stays to get an idea of how the back was supposed to look, so that I could finish my pattern. Well, I couldn't find any original front lacing short stays that resembled those I was wanting to make. Uh-oh, are front lacing short stays really accurate at all? I can't say for sure, but it did make me re-consider what sort of regency corset/stays I wanted to make. This regency wrap corset really intrigued me.

It looked easy to get in and out of, and appeared to give plenty of bust support (the goal of this era being to lift the bust line to make those empire waist gowns flattering). I decided I wanted to make a similar wrap corset, but where did I start? How did I make a pattern for this? Or where could I find one (preferably for free). Well a few google searches offered me this treasure. This blogger, Sabine, had gotten her hands on this regency wrap corset.

Then she had recreated it! And put the pattern on her blog to be downloaded by costumers who wanted to do the same! After reading her blog post I printed out the pattern, sized it to fit me, and got to work. The first mock-up was done in less than an hour. The only adjustment I had to make was to the bust gussets. (If you choose to use this pattern you make your own gusset pattern, so I used the gusset I'd drafted for the short stays I'd decided against making. This way my work on that pattern didn't entirely go to waste!) I ripped out the gussets, made a couple adjustments, then sewed them back in. The mock-up then fit perfectly and gave me the appropriate regency silhouette. 

Yes! Now I could get started on the real thing. I used two layers of a cotton/linen blend fabric, lots of twill tape for binding, linen lacing, and a cut-off paint stick for a busk. No boning was needed. (The busk supports the fabric so that the bust is held up. Boning was too flimsy to do this for me.)

My wrap corset is entirely hand sewn, not entirely by conscious choice. I knew I would need to hand sew the binding (that took for-ev-er) and I wanted to try my hand at hand working eyelets, but the basic construction I fully intended to do by machine. However, the weekend I got started on this, I wasn't home at all. So, not wanting to put this off now that I had finally started it, I took the corset, a pincushion, and thread everywhere with me. Four days later, it was done!

What the item is: A regency wrap corset

The Challenge: Procrastination, I've put off making this for about a year

Materials: Cotton/linen blend fabric

Pattern: http://kleidungum1800.blogspot.de/2014/05/short-stays-studies-schnurleib-studien.html

Year: 1800-1820

Notions: cotton thread, linen lacing, paint stick, lots and lots of twill tape

How historically accurate is it? Well it's all hand sewn, cotton and linen were both used for corsets at the time, but I'm not sure on the accuracy of a blend fabric. Also I constructed it in a manor that made sense in my mind, rather than researching it, so at least 80%. 

Hours to complete: About 10-12, at least 8 of that was sewing on the binding

First worn: Not yet, just for pictures

Total cost: about $10

Now this style of corset would have mostly just been worn for traveling (it's very comfortable) and very informal wear. Not all the time for everything, but as it gives me the correct silhouette, I will wear it with any regency outfit I make, until I for some reason decide to make another corset. I'm very excited to have this corset done and have started the mock-up for my regency dress!

I can't wait to have a complete regency ensemble!

Socks, Yep Socks, Wool Socks

For a while now I've wanted a pair of wool socks.   Tall wool socks that I could wear as stockings with my historical dresses, that would be even better. Unfortunately, I can be a bit of a cheapskate, and wasn't willing to pay for wool socks. Due to this recent cold snap my feet have been getting a little cold in my boots, and finally an idea popped into my head. I could sew socks out of an old wool sweater!

So I went to the thrift store, found a nice, soft, thin-ish, 100% wool sweater. I bought it, brought it home, and started cutting it up. (Yes, I forgot to get a picture of it before I started cutting, but I'm sure you can imagine it with both sleeves intact as it originally was.) 

Last summer I used the Dreamstress's  seamed stocking pattern to make a pair of Victorian-like stockings. Those had turned out great, so I decided to use the pattern again for my wool socks. I cut the socks from the sweater sleeves, intending to use the ribbing at the wrist to hold the socks up on my leg. Unfortunately, the sleeves were only so long, so the socks wound up a bit shorter than knee-length, like I wanted. 

I needed to make these socks a bit longer. So, I cut a couple of rectangles from the body of the sweater and sewed them into tubes.

Those tubes I folded over and sewed onto the top of the stockings, like cuffs.

Perfect! I then had wool socks, exactly the length I wanted and for quite a bit cheaper than they are in the stores.

My excitement however was short lived. Sadly, while extremely comfortable, the thin wool wasn't all that durable. Holes quickly started to form at the heels and toes. Nooooo! Not about to lose my new wool socks I decided to add patches from the left over material to the high stress areas, to extend the life of the socks.

The patches definitely add durability. No more holes! I'm hoping to get a couple winter's worth of wear out of these now. Unfortunately, due to the cabling in the knit, my socks don't look like historical stockings at all, oh well, I'll wear them plenty for every day winter stuff. My toes are now happy and toasty despite the snow!

Once my wool socks were done, I remembered a second pair of stockings I'd cut out last summer, but never got around to sewing together. So, I pulled them out, and sewed them up. Less than an hour later I had my second pair of historical stockings done. 

Rather than elastic at the top, as I did with my first pair of stockings, I made a cuff from a folded over pieces of fabric, just like I did with the wool socks. Very easy, holds the stockings up perfectly, and much more comfortable than the elastic in my first pair! Now why did I put off making these for so long?? Well since I put them off so long (7 months to be exact) I figure I can use them as my first entry for January's Historical Sew Monthly Challenge, Procrastination. 

What the item is: Stockings

The Challenge:  #1 Procrastination, I cut these out 7 months before finishing them

Materials: 98% cotton, 2% spandex blend ribbed knit

Pattern: The Dreamstress's seamed stocking pattern

Year: 19th century

Notions: thread

How historically accurate is it? Not great, the look is right though, so maybe 40 -50%

Hours to complete: Less than one! Why did I put these off so long?

First worn: Not yet, just to check fit and take pics

Total cost: I bought a yard of this fabric last summer for $5, this is the second pair of stockings from this fabric so I'll say $2.50

Since I was on a roll with this sock sewing thing I decided to turn what was left of the wool sweater into a pair of boot socks for my mom. 

Three pairs of socks in less than three hours, I was feeling pretty productive, and thinking, why would I buy socks when they're so easy to make? So I started cutting up my old (store-bought, holey) socks to turn them into something else. So now in my mind when I see sweaters I think socks, and when I see socks I think, well, I'll tell you about that later. Meanwhile, I might go make myself a couple more pairs of socks out of the sweaters I never wear.

A Cape and Muff

I, somewhat unintentionally, had a theme going with the Christmas presents I gave this year - outerwear. My youngest brother got his camo jacket. Remember the purple plaid wool capelet I made myself? I made 6 of those capelets from plaid fleece lined in flannel. Light weight and warm, they were great gifts for my girl cousins. Then there was my sister. What was I to give her? She often wears her historical dresses to church (and other places) under a flannel cloak I made her last year. That cloak, however, isn't very warm so I decided my sister needed another historical looking wrap. A short, fur-trimmed cape and a fur muff were an order.

A while back I was given some scraps of tan plaid suiting material, and there was just enough for a short cape. In my stash I had about a yard brown flannel, perfect for the lining. So, I bought 1/4 yard of tan faux fur and got to work.

Yikes! That fur got everywhere when it was cut! First I cut a square to make the muff from. The remaining fur I cut into strips to edge the cape with.

A couple hours of sewing (after Christmas eve service, no less), then the cape and muff were done, wrapped, and stuck under the tree to be unwrapped a few hours later. 

I'd never made a muff before, and I didn't have a pattern, so I wasn't sure how the muff would turn out. Well, I shouldn't have been worried. The muff was pretty easy. A tube of flannel, sewn at either end inside a tube of fur. It's not quite as fluffy looking as I'd like, so next time I'll probably add an insulating layer as well.

This cape has already gotten quite a bit of wear, and no complaints about it not being warm enough! However, I'm thinking my sister might need something to keep her head warm, so next up a wool hood. Hmm, I think I might need to make myself one of those as well, better get started!

Thread and Buttons, That's (supposed to be) all

Thread. That was the only reason I went to Joann's. I need thread, and they had thread on sale. Of course I may have browsed their fabric selection as well, but really, the only reason I went in was thread. I had grabbed my thread and was on my way to check out, when it caught my eye. This gorgeous, printed, swiss dot cotton.

It was in the clearance bin, marked down from $15 a yard to $3.50 a yard. How could I not get it?? Id been admiring this fabric for sometime, I just hadn't had any reason to get it. I decided the new price was definitely a reason to get some. So I picked up 3 yards.

Back in the truck, on my way to Hobby Lobby for buttons, yes just buttons (they were on sale), I started thinking about what sort of dress I would make from my pretty new fabric. Then I remembered another fabric I had in my stash. Well, actually a set of sheets I picked up at a thrift store a year ago. These green striped ones.

They somewhat reminded me of the fabric I had just bought. Eek! To justify the fabric I had just bought, in my mind atleast, I needed to figure out what the heck I was going to turn my green striped sheets into. So, in the truck, driving to Hobby Lobby, in my head I designed a dress for my little sister from the green striped sheets, and a dress for me from the new fabric.

But I wanted a dress from the green sheets too! I bought them because I really liked the fabric! Ahh, the conundrum.

I got to Hobby Lobby, and grabbed my buttons. Then I realised they had McCall's patterns on sale. Being a sucker for a pattern sale I sat down and looked through the pattern book.

I found a pattern for the perfect dress pattern for my new fabric, but it looked nothing like the dress I had designed in my head. I really liked the pattern though, so I got it. Then I found two patterns I really liked for my little sister, so I grabbed those too. Neither one looked anything like the dress design I had in my head for the green striped sheets, but that's ok. I have a huge stash of fabric, I'm sure I'll find something for these patterns

Once I got home I sketched out the dresses that had been in my mind all afternoon. The one on the left is for me, the right, for my sister.

I got to thinking about how much green sheet fabric I had and figured out there probably was enough to make both my dress and my sister's from the green striped sheets. Perfect! Now I can use McCalls M7317 for my new fabric. So, with in the next month or so I plan on making all three dresses.

Even though I came home with quite a bit more than just the thread and buttons I intended to get (any body else ever have this problem?), I'm still gonna call this shopping trip a success. I bought fabric that I didn't really need, but I figured out what I was going to do with it and came up with a plan for some of the fabric I've had in my stash a while! So, apparently, in order to use up all the fabric I have in my stash I just need to buy more fabric. Well, ok, so maybe that's not the best idea, but bit by bit I'll use up most of my stash.