Unwearable – Pleated Wool Circle Skirt

This skirt was finished a few weeks ago, but I just just cant make it work. It is made from this very drapery, fray-crazy, slippery wool suiting material in my stash. I was so glad I chose to do a simple project with it because it is so hard to get the wool to sew evenly. I had tried adding a pocket, but the seams came out all crooked so I ripped it out.

The skirt pattern is the same as a circle skirt, but a much bigger circle. I pleated the skirt so its even fuller than a circle skirt. But because it is a circle, and the fabric is so drapy, I had to hang the skirt for a week before hemming it. After hanging I trimmed the skirt as if I am giving it a haircut, evening out one pleat against another (does that make sense?). Hemming it proved to be very difficult as well, as the fabric pulls in different directions while I am serging it. Oh well, the hem is as even as its ever going to get here. However, due to the fact that it is cut out of a circle, no matter if i ironed the pleat out or in, the drapes are very uneven. Can you see it in the picture? The pleats do not fall the same way. I was not sure how much I will be wearing this skirt as the uneven drape is driving me crazy. After a few weeks of hanging it in my closet, it is officially going to the failure pile. boo!

 

T-shirt Yarn Sweater — Dont do it!

(No baby yet, booo!)

I saw some tutorials on pintest on how to turn Tshirt into yarn, and I thought its the greatest idea ever!  My husband has a bunch of old Tshirt that he just used to clean stuff around the garage and toss. So I took some of the black ones, thinking it would be great for a chunky sweater. I tried looking up on the internet to see if anyone else had made a sweater from Tshirt yarn but didnt find much, so I decided to just start knitting it and see how it goes.

The Tshirt was cut into 1/2 (some times less) inch stripe and turned into yard. I used a size 15 needle and it knits up very nicely. However, after about 1.5 Tshirt worth of yarn, I realized that the end product is going to be super duper stiff, and heavy, and thick. Its not going to be comfortable as a sweater at all!

So I am here to report — unless you have the patience and scissor skills to make thinner yarn, dont use T-shirt yard for sweaters. They are super great for crafts though! I think they would make great rugs, placemat, dishtowel, and coaster!

Cute Little Things

I wanted to take a small break from wedding stuff, but did not want to start on anything big before the wedding. I had scrapes from the Maui White dress and some cotton trim from Walmart (they have some good cheap stuff very occasionally) lying around my sewing room. So I decided to make a cute undie!

I used McCall’s M5651, view B. The pattern called for knits but I used cotton. It was cut on bias so it had a LITTLE bit of stretch in it, side ways. To compensate for the lose of vertical stretch, I attached a elastic band on the top to make it sit taller on my hips. This is a true low waist hip hugger! Then I sewed all the trims on. A tip for that: always zip-zag, never straight stitch for stuff that needs to have a little stretch. The first time I attempted on the trims I straight stitched, i couldnt even get into the undie since it lost all the stretch. Even zigzaging the trims on make it loss a little bit of stretch, unless you stretch the base fabric while you are stitching.

I love it! Its all cotton and all cute! Going to wear it with my White for Maui dress to Maui! Most importantly, I felt all calm and happy after making it, very therapeutic!

Goodbye Epic Fails!

We hired our contractors to do some asbestos popcorn ceiling removal last week and we had to clear most of our stuff away from the rooms. Sadly, this means lack of blogging and more unfortunately, the lack of sewing. My hands are aching from the absence of my sewing machines (I am constantly trying to keep my carpal tunnel at bay, and sewing let me use my hands in a different motion than typing, thus is a great remedy and relief for my hands! Isnt that an awesome excuse for sewing?).

Anyway, I somehow managed to pack everything in my sewing room (except the big furniture) to our bathroom, where it was popcorn-free. I tried to clear some of the scrape fabric I had been keeping “just-in-case”, and I stumbled my collection of sewing failures. They have failed mainly due to poor material choice, so there’s not really much more I can do for them (do I sound like a doctor here?):

1. Talea coat from burdastyle — failed because a light weight super stretchy twill just doesnt work for a jacket
2. Built by Wendy top — failed because a really loose top + crappy super flimsy knit+ white muslin just looks… bad
3. Heidi prom dress from burdastyle — failed because flimsy polyester slippery thin fabric for both lining and SHELL is just impossible to work with!!
4. Mccall dress — failed because that color and thick cotton quilting fabric with the extensive gathering looked a little, horrifying on me, I dont think I want to subject any of my friends or reader to that combo even though it WAS going to be well made!
5. Vanessa skirt –It is actually a really cute skirt! but my sewing skill at that time was just not good for it, polyester shell doesnt help its appeal either!

And there was more! I dont know what I was thinking back then and why I even bothered shopping for fabric at walmart!! Looking at those pieces, I am slightly horrified. But I could not bear to part with them in the last move. I think it was because I am a person who learns by exploring and experimenting, and I get better through making mistakes. However, I have kept the failures for almost 2 years in the closet and have never needed them or even thought about them. So after much debate with myself, I decided that it is time to let go. There they went, into our recycling bin! (Sorry, they are not good enough even to give away!).

What kind of mistakes did you make when you started out? What do you do with your un-wearable and un-mentionables?

Damage Control Skirt

Attempted to make a skirt the other day using my newly drafted skirt patterns. However, I failed to recognize that the wool I bought was loosely weaved, so there is a LOT of room for stretching side ways. It ended up being ridiculously big, so i had to do some damage control. After a few hours of cursing and searching through my fabric pile for lining, I made this! Its kind of cute, and I kind of like it, but I only wore it once so far. I was going to throw this into the give-away pile, but my fiance threatened to never take fashion photos for me again if I did, because he likes it. So I guess I am keeping it!

The Perfect Jean

I made the most perfect pair of jeans for myself in the past 2 weeks, after the selfish seamstress have posted multiple jean teasers just to tempt me into making another pair of jeans for myself.