Handbags

I was recently sent a link to this CraftBits project that uses old silk ties to make a handbag. Since we have ties coming out of our ears from buying them by bag at the thrift store (which they don't always have, you have to be there at the right time I think). After we sorted the one's that Ed liked, which weren't many, I had a lot of ties left. So, I made this bag:

Front



Back


Top/Flap

I'm not completely happy with the way it gapes open at the top, and will try another to fix this issues, especially since we just got 2 more bags of ties this past weekend. The project does take a lot of ties, and you have about half of each tie leftover. So what to do with those pieces?

I also made myself a larger messenger bag that acts as my purse. I'm one of those people who have a lot to carry around, so a large bag is what suits my needs. Since I'm not into the fancier types of bags, this one is simple.

Front


Topstitching


Pocket and Lining

The outside is made with thrifted home dec weight fabric in a neat stripe and dot pattern. The inside is lined with simple quilters cotton, and I even went so fancy as to give myself a pocket. The first one I ever made, which was one of the first projects I ever made, had no pocket and was made of beige corduroy and lined in a white heavy weight canvas. Pretty boring! I needed a little more oomph, although this one is still pretty mild in comparison to others I see.

So, as I type this I'm sitting in my newly sewn jammie pants that I just made out of a thin knit that feels so soft! I probably won't post pictures about these since they are pretty standard and boring. Nothing cute or fancy about them, just plain blue but I tried to recreate a pair I wore and loved to death until the holes I sewed closed started to have their own holes. Yeah, they were pretty ratty, but they were so soft it was like wearing nothing and I just couldn't let them go until I wore every seam out. Ah, I still miss those jammie pants!

Small sewing slump

I've been in a small sewing slump. I think I burned myself out a bit with the huge Halloween costume projects. I've been doing some other stuff lately and am in an ornament swap that I need to start working on since the deadline is approaching. Not sewing related, but something to keep myself occupied. I did make a couple handbags that I have yet to upload the pictures on, but rest assured, another post is coming soon!

And speaking of handbags, a friend sent me this link to an adorable (free) pattern for a bag that I hope to make soon, by Oh Fransson called the Margaret Sling Bag. I love the fabric she uses, and it really just showcases the cuteness of the bag even more!

A Word About Thread

Image by Edward Ellsworth

I never have said yet, how I feel about thread. I started out with the cheapo stuff and constantly had problems with thread breaking, or bunching up at the needle hole because of a slub and then breaking. It's extremely frustrating to a beginner to have thread break constantly, even though you know the tension is correct and it's the right needle for the job. You start to second guess your abilities and think maybe you suck at sewing.

Don't think that. I swear, it's the thread!

But, lately I've been taking advantage of the 50% off thread sales at JoAnns.

Yes, I know some hate JoAnns, but when you are sewing on a budget you don't really have a choice of ordering good thread on the internet as opposed to a 50% off sale. The sale is just too good.

So, as I was saying, lately I've been using the better stuff like Gutermann for the plain thread, top stitching and such. Boy can I tell a difference! It's like night and day. Coats and Clark Dual Duty XP is better than the Dual Duty Plus (found at Walmart often), but I am just blown away with how Gutermann handles. I haven't yet tried the fun metallics and specialty threads, although I do eye them often, but those will be my next step when I'm confident that I won't waste my money because I am not skilled enough to work with those thread types.

There comes a time, when on a budget when the cheapest isn't always the best. You might save a pocketful of money buying a lesser brand, but in terms of ease of use, and quality, stepping up to the "little more expensive" item can be a better choice. I think that I will still use the lesser brands for my practice pieces and muslins, but for the final piece I will be going with the good stuff, provided I can afford it and...it stays within the budget I allow myself.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 4 - The Accessories

While not technically sewing, I am dying to show off the cool little accessories that we made for the halloween costumes. People got quite a kick out of them!

First, the man accessories, one of which I already gave a sneak peek of before anything else:

The top hat

Top Hat Accessory on the Band

And to show you that this isn't a fancy, store bought hat, I will show the insides of it and give you and idea as to how it was created:

Inside the Top Hat, Construction Details

The other major man accessory, for any Victorian gentleman is the cane:

The cane

The cane was made out of a large copper painted wooden dowel, a copper painted wooden door knob for the head and was studded with copper upholstery nails that were outlined in permanent marker. The end was one of those feet you put on the legs of chairs to keep them from skidding across the floor.

Copper Painted Wooden Door Knob


Cane Details: Copper Nails Outlined in Black Marker

Now, the ladies accessories, which are a lot more of, so if you bore easily you may want to step away. We'll start from the top down.

While I don't have the greatest picture of how my hair was done, on the opposite side I had a hair fascinator that I made out of feathers, a gear, a vintage ruby colored glass gem, and a brass floral stamping that I got from the hardware store that is used for a decorative touch in the hardware for holding up a mirror. Also in my hair was a hair clip that I made with gears, a washer, a vintage brass stamping and swarovski crystals. Unfortunately by the time I got home and took it out, the rush glue job I did stopped holding and it's now in two pieces, but you get the idea:

Hair Fascinator


Hair Clip

The earrings I accumulated somehow, probably something my grandmother or mother gave me at one point, long ago:

Earrings of Unknown Origin

Next is a vintage rhinestone necklace from the 1930's that came all the way from England that an old friend sent me ages ago:

Vintage Rhinestone Necklace, circa 1930


Vintage Rhinestone Necklace, circa 1930, detail

The next item down was a brooch that I made to coordinate with the hair fascinator, using again the floral brass stamping, a gear and a vintage ruby colored glass gem. Nesting the gem is another vintage brass stamping that I just adore, of a flower. The gem rests so perfectly in there:

Feminine Gear Brooch

The last on my body was a gorgeous bracelet that I got from Carol of Beaded Baubles. She does absolutely amazing chain maille. This is in copper which went fabulously well with my whole attire.

Copper Chain Maille Bracelet by Carol of BeadedBaubles.com

And that completes the costumes! The accessories are the last part and I must say that we had a blast creating these babies, in addition to the party that gave us the ideas for everything. Once given a theme we just ran with it.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 3 - The Vogue Vest

Vogue Vest 7488

The Vogue vest 7488, version B. I made mine out of a home dec weight velvet, or velour (I'm ignorant of the differences). The fabric was pretty thick at the seams and gave me a couple problems. One was that the instructions want you to line the vest and pull it through the shoulder seams and then fold over the lining and stitch it closed by hand. Since my seams were so thick, I didn't have enough lining fabric to do this. So, what I did instead was to sew the seams as normal and then trim them down. I then covered them with ribbon to hide the exposed seams.

Shoulder seam covering

The double breast is supposed to have buttons for the closure but I found a very cool washer "thing" at the hardware store that I painted copper that I wanted to use instead. So since I couldn't make buttons or buttonholes I decided to use snaps as the closure. Each washer had a single stitch on each side to hold it on, using the matching topstitching thread. It matched perfectly was was very hard to tell that it was stitched on. Behind each washer I stitched a snap that corresponded with the opposite side.

Front of vest

Copper painted washer

Snaps

And finally instead of using a buckle for the back, I ended up using a large hook and eye, leftover from another project, stitched on with the matching topstitching thread.

Back closure

The vest, is a rather involved pattern, but the result is wonderful. I will make this again, for another Steampunk event, or just for a fancy shindig.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 2 - The Vest and Shirt

The Vest

The vest is a vintage 1979 McCalls 5297. It came in a smaller size than what I am, but being the industrious gal I am, I decided to try grading it. Scary eh? It was to me at first as well. But, following a few online tutorials, I was able to find that I needed to add more to the bust (since a woman's body has the most area there) rather than the back and/or sides. Doing so brought it up to my size, but I still had to do a full bust adjustment to it for it to fit right. It took even more pinning after I sewed the FBA to get it just right, since it had to be pretty much a perfect fit because of how fitted it actually needed to be. The vest is unlined, but does have a facing around the whole edge. I did make a muslin first to see where I needed to take in seams or add them and found that I had mismeasured somewhere in the grading for the bottom facing. I had to re-draft the bottom facing to fit, but it wasn't a terrible setback. Just an extra few hours.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the vest was made out of some $1 fabric. Now that I think about it, I may have gotten it from a thrift store rather than Wal-Mart since I found a piece that is identical a few weeks ago in a thift store. Sometimes I don't know where all this fabric comes from! But anyways, it's made from the wrong side of some lovely twill. I chose the wrong side because it was a shade darker than the right side and I wasn't too worried about doing things the "right way" for a costume.

The black lace on the bottom edge was actually one of the most expensive items I bought for the outfit. I did use a coupon for it, but it was still pretty expensive for my way of life. But, I do think it was worth every penny and am very happy that I chose to add it. I think it lent an air of "old time" to it that was perfect for a Victorian aristocrat.

The Shirt

The shirt is made from Simplicity 3990 and is the version that the model is wearing. This was one of the very cool B, C, D cup options that Simplicity has come out with. The fitting wasn't even an issue in the bust area and other than the pleating (which did take a while), this shirt was quick to make up since I didn't have to do an FBA on it. There are some minor fitting issues that I will tweak in future garments made from this pattern, but it's nothing I can't fiddle with and try and change.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 1 - The Skirt

So, as promised here are some detail pictures.

The Skirt

This is made from these instructions. There are measurements on there, but to get my own waist size I took my own waist measurement and divided it between all of the pieces. I then made a pattern out of plastic sheeting since I really don't like tissue paper for pattern making. It's cheap, and you can cut it as huge as you want. The only drawback is that you can't iron it and all you can really do is run your hands over it to get the wrinkles out. I also made myself a large graph board with 1 inch increments marked on it to help with accuracy, which I pinned the pattern to as I created it.

The front is one large piece cut on the fold and the back has 4 gores (I think!) to make it sweeping and froofy. I measured from hip to hip to start the construction and then divided the remaining inches into the gores, since it really didn't matter to me where those ended up in relation to my body.

The pattern doesn't include a waist, so what I used was some black fabric and interfacing cut in a rectangle to my waist size, doubled it over lenghtwise and sewed it to the skirt. I left one seam open for a zipper which is on my side since the skirt doesn't have a back seam.

I winged the lining. I really had no idea what to do with the lining since I had never lined a skirt (or dress) with a zipper before. My attire doesn't tend towards lined skirts, so I haven't ever made one. The skirt is lined with a thrifted sateen bedsheet, which is thick and luxurious and which also added a lot of weight.

The skirt had some serious body and weight to it from all the layers and the thickness of both fabrics.

The hem took me over 3 hours to do! The skirt itself took a few weeks working on it on and off, although I didn't time myself. It was a large job considering the amount of fabric I had to work with and I don't envy those thrifty Victorian women that had to sew skirts and clothes either by hand or with a treadle.

The Halloween Costumes

And we have pictures!

A Victorian Steampunk Halloween Costume

The details of the costume will come later. For now, I'll tell you what each piece is. Ed's vest is Vogue 7488, view B the double-breasted version, and his shirt and pants are store bought and something he already owned. My shirt is Simplicity 3990 the pleated version, while the vest is a vintage 1979 McCalls 5297. The skirt is a repro of an actual Victorian/Edwardian walking skirt made from instructions here. I decided not to use a bustle since I had plenty of rear end once I tried it on!

The hat and cane I made. The hat went over extremely well at the party! People couldn't believe it was made out of poster board (and fabric of course). Overall, we were very happy with the way our costumes turned out. More details to come...