Archive for the ‘handmade’ Category

Sewing: Colorblock V-Neck Tee

January 31st, 2013
7 Comments

I have this favorite tee – I bought it at Walmart, and I tailored it to fit. It fits me perfectly: not too tight, not too loose. The material wasn’t the best in the world, so I decided to cut it up and use the fit to draft a pattern for myself. I haven’t made a real teeshirt with inset sleeves using knit fabric before, and it’s so much easier than with wovens. I’ll be making a lot more knit tees from here on out.

melissaesplin-sewing-colorblock-v-neck-tee-2

Here you can see how it looked at the mini parties at Alt. Not too shabby for my first v-neck?

melissaesplin-sewing-colorblock-v-neck-tee-3

You can see that I properly mitered the inside of the v, that was the hardest part of constructing this tee. I didn’t want it to pull or pucker, and honestly, I can’t really remember how I set in the ribbing, I just remember going so slowly and sewing it first with a straight stitch on my sewing machine, then going through with the serger afterwards. Here’s a youtube video that uses a much easier method for the v, and overlaps the neck band pieces as opposed to mitering them.

melissaesplin-sewing-colorblock-v-neck-tee-4

I used a very similar technique for creating the color blocked panels on the front as I used in my gold-backed wiggle skirt tutorial. It was pretty easy to do that, but thinking back, it would’ve been pretty cool to add the same color blocked detail to the back. I used the same fabric from my stash as in this dress refashion.

It was really important to press every seam and to top stitch as much as possible. I don’t have a coverlock machine, so I used double needles and wooly nylon thread for finishing the hems. This project took about an hour to complete.

melissaesplin-sewing-colorblock-v-neck-tee-1

I’ll definitely have this in tight rotation with my other tees. I now want to make one with a slightly deeper V (how hipster am i?) and long sleeves.

It was fun to brag about making both my top and skirt at Alt Summit (proud much?). Pretty sure most people were surprised when I told them my entire outfit was handmade (minus the shoes – I should work on that).

Tutorial: Color Blocked Wiggle Skirt

January 14th, 2013
16 Comments

This post is part of the Stretch Yourself Series hosted by Miriam of Mad Mim and Miranda of One Little Minute. You should check out their series if you haven’t already. It’s a very thorough series on the ins and outs of sewing with knits.

Today Heather and I are sharing how to color block with knits. It’s really so easy. Promise.

When asked to participate in Mim and Miranda’s knit series (specifically the color block part), I immediately thought of these shoes. They’ve been circulating the interwebs recently, and I haven’t been able to get them out of my head. So I thought I would translate those shoes to a skirt.

I told Chris this was my business in front, party in back skirt.

We’re only doing it on one side, and we’re doing it with stretchy knit so it’s a lot more forgiving than you might think. Here’s how you can make your own:

You’ll need a stretchy base knit, something that has 40-60% stretch. The gold knit you’ll just grab some gold lame or swim material. It’s got good structure and stretch. You’ll also need pencil, large paper, scissors, seam ripper, pins, ruler and a sewing machine.

Make your measurements. Measure where you want your skirt to sit along your waist, measure your rise (distance between waist and hips), hips and skirt length.

Draft up a quick pattern using the above measurements. This is for 1/4th of your skirt. Since you’re using a stretchy material, we won’t worry about seam allowance.

Now we’ll cut out the material. It’s best to lay it out on the ground and weigh the pattern down on the fabric with bowls, cups and other weighty objects. Cut out with scissors or rotary cutter. Cut your gold piece just a little bit bigger than the bottom of your skirt.

Take one skirt piece aside and lay it on the ground right side up. Lay the gold fabric right side up about 3/4 inches below the hem. Grab your ruler, lay it down and cut through both layers.

Now you have your two pattern pieces cut at the exact same angle! Ready for piecing.

Lay the pieces right sides together, and stitch. Iron seam flat with a cool iron.

Line up front and back pieces right sides together and sew, using a 1/2 – 5/8 inch seam allowance.

Finish the hems: Roll hem with a serger, cover stitch, zig zag or double-stitch your top and bottom hems. Be sure to use a stitch that allows for stretch!!

Outfit details:

  • top, earrings and necklace: H&M
  • skirt: handmade
  • shoes: c/o Blowfish

Now rock and roll!

Handmade: Girly Christmas Gifts

November 28th, 2012
10 Comments

I love making leather crafts and accessories, as you may know (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19). It’s a great material for long-lasting goods that look better with wear. It’s not terribly expensive, and especially affordable if you’re picking up scraps from a local upholstery shop (doing that is also very environmentally friendly – keeping good scraps from the trash).

But there’s no way to cut out leather quickly or perfectly without a few tools in your arsenal. I’ve found that cutting it with nice scissors, nice-side down gives a much nicer edge than cutting it regularly.

I was curious to see how the Epic 6/L Letterpress would handle leather, so I gave it a try using their knotty and nice kit. It’s pretty good. You need to work with 1.5 ounce leather or thinner, but that kind of leather isn’t too hard to come by. You’ll want to search for garment weight. Here are some suggestions:

pig splits | economy suede | gold lambskin | minelli sides | sheepskin

You’ll also want to remove the squishy padding from the die and add a piece of cardstock on top of the leather. It helps cut the leather all the way through. Even if it didn’t cut the leather all the way through, it was easy to finish my job with scissors. At least the die left a nice embossed edge along the top.

The top leather is a lambskin and the bottom is a cheap decorative suede that I found for 99¢ per square foot. It’s pretty ugly as a hide, but after making it into a bow, I’m liking this a lot more. I love how the gold peeks out of the inside of the bow.

With the one die cut I made a pin, a hair clip, a fascinator and a pony holder. I’m pretty stoked about using these. Penelope is, too.

I was unsure how a necklace would work or if the bow would stay in place, but because it’s made out of a heavier leather, it lays quite nicely. I made 7 bow-related accessories in about an hour. A great bang for your time/buck if you’re doing gift swaps this year, or planning out a bunch of girlfriend gifts.

I couldn’t resist putting this bow in Penelope’s hair this morning. She loves it. She also loves her new thrifted “saved by the bell” glasses.

Or is that an Erkel reference? I can’t quite remember. But they’re hilarious and awesome.

Now to figure out how to make my own custom dies.

*This post is not sponsored. Product provided by Lifestyle crafts.

Style: Teal and Cobalt Duds

November 20th, 2012
3 Comments

I’m going for a monochrome vibe here. I can’t get enough of deep teal and cobalt blue. I think this combo is the new pink and red.

This top is my new favorite, it’s pleated with a peterpan colar and bishop sleeve. If it’s not on my body, it’s in the laundry.

I got these shoes on super sale at Target. They don’t match much in my wardrobe, but they’re darling!

I made this bracelet at CRAFT night. I love the metallic finish. Make one with this tutorial.

Outfit details:

  • top: Forever 21
  • necklace: Ann Taylor Loft
  • pants: Ross
  • shoes: Target
  • Bracelet: handmade

Handmade Plaid Shift

November 2nd, 2012
6 Comments

I successfully made something this week. A shift dress. I got the pattern (Indygo Junction IJ908) at Sewing Summit, and to be quite honest I was about to give it away. The cover samples definitely weren’t my style but I kept remembering hearing this advice from Sewing Summit (can’t remember who said it): If you only look at cover art, you’ll miss out on some great patterns. Look at the technical drawings, you’ll find a lot more great patterns that way.

I nixed the pocket, nixed the cowl, shortened the sleeves, took in the bust and lengthened the skirt. I also sewed the drawstring on the outside, I thought showcasing the plaid on the bias was cool.

It took just over 3 hours to make, going slowly. It was a pretty easy pattern; nice not to think and just sew.

The plaid and yellow is a bit sweet, but it’s all about styling. I’ll be adding a chunky grandpa sweater with boots for fall/winter and gladiator flats in the summer.

I used twill tape for the waistband, but my tape was a bit too small for the casing, so I doubled it up with a zig zag stitch. I thought I was being so clever.

It’s a fun new dress to add to my stash of dresses. It’s very lightweight and because it was a structured woven it was really easy to sew with. I’ve been sewing with some really difficult textiles recently (slinky rayons and polyesters), so that was a nice break.

mobile site