I’ve been a bit ill this past week, but in between bouts of random nausea and exhaustion, I found the most amazing woman on YouTube. Her name is GiannyL, and she has inspired me to go on a sewing spree. More importantly, she has made sewing big projects really, really fun for me, namely because she doesn’t use patterns. At first, this scared me a little. Sewing without a pattern? Was this possible without years and years of experience? I watched her channel warily, but with growing fascination. Her videos were clearly not for absolute beginners, but they were also beautiful in their simplicity. For one thing, she doesn’t say a word. She explains what she’s doing only with gestures, camera angles and careful pointing. There is no seam allowance, fabric yardage, or stitch setting mentioned anywhere. Whether this is a personal choice or because she doesn’t speak English, I don’t know, and honestly don’t care. As it turns out, since I’m an extremely visual person, I follow the videos just fine, in fact I found it quite freeing. It took me awhile to work up the nerve to take the plunge, but now that I have, I am so glad that I did. Thursday night, I decided to make her elegant “off shoulder” dress from some left over jersey knit fabric that I had originally purchased to make several pairs of leggings out of. I borrowed  my mom’s iPad, loaded up her video, and locked myself in my sewing room for 2 1/2 hours.

This is what I came up with:

Later on I found a wider black belt to wear with it, turning it from a cute little brown dress into something that easily could have been worn to a party or important event. I took it out for a test drive last night with my parents while we went grocery shopping, and pretty much everybody who saw me couldn’t help staring for a second or two. Not bad for a couple hours of work.

I think the most important part of making that dress was how much fun it was. Finally I didn’t have to worry about a complicated, hard to read pattern and its fiddly tissue paper that never wants to do what you need it to do. No worrying about sewing everything perfectly straight because you barely have a 1/2 of fabric in which to work. I made my own seam allowances, put my in my own hems where I felt they were appropriate, and just generally did things my way, according to the measurements of my body. It was awesome. And all from a 2:09 long video on YouTube.

My mom was totally blown away by what I had managed to seemingly pull out of nowhere. She and I spent most of today watching Gianny’s videos on her laptop (in gorgeous 1080p HD no less…*drool*) for what ended up being about three or four hours, lol. We finally ran out of videos to watch (probably a good thing) and went through my fabric collection, which unfortunately is pretty small at the moment. Still, we managed to find enough stuff for a few different projects. We decided on a tunic-style top, tube dress, “bat sleeve” shirt and pencil skirt. Since it was easiest, I started with the tunic top first.

I hemmed it quite a bit more than Gianny suggests because I was using different fabric than she was, fabric that liked to fray and disintegrate. However, because of the way I cut it, I couldn’t do a rolled hem without the risk of making it unwearable, so I used a fancy stitch I learned from my awesome sewing instructor Judy in our last class together to keep the edges from fraying into oblivion. It worked beautifully, and I think it really adds a professional feel to the garment. It’s also going to keep it nice and strong for me so I can wear it over and over again. It was also a lot of fun to sew.

I used this video as a reference.

And I’d say the top turned out pretty darn well, wouldn’t you?

It’s so comfortable and fun. Not too hot, not too cold. Basically I don’t ever want to take it off.

So yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. And there’s more to come. Stay tuned! And thank you Gianny!! Your videos are awesome. Also, I am deeply envious of your adorable shoe collection. O_O <3

This one went a lot more smoothly than the first one did, simply because I’m more familiar with sewing and  my machine now. My seams were a lot straighter, and my gathering is much tighter this time around. I also had the good fortune to find a tool in my machine’s starting kit that has a plastic seam ripper type attachment on the end of it, without actually being sharp. It’s been such a great help because it allows me to pick up the thread without cutting into it and running the risk of breaking it.

Anyway, the skirt looks fantastic. The pictures below really don’t do it justice. I’m very happy with how it turned out!

Skirt! (Fully extended)

Close up of the top stitching.

Inside the skirt.

Yay I can has pictures of mahself in the bathroom mirror.

So, one of the sewing books I purchased a few months ago had a bunch of fun, practical designs for the house in it. We’re talking everything from aprons, to curtains, to bags, hats, yoga mat carriers, and more. First, I made several draft snakes to help keep our house warm over the winter by placing them in front of our front, back, and garage doors. They were basically just big socks filled with beans, but they were very fun to make and helped me use up a lot of remnants I had lying around. After that, my mom needed a birthday present this past December, so she asked me to make her a new doorstop to replace her old wooden one she no longer liked. There was a great pattern for it in the book, so I made her one, and I liked the look of it so much that I resolved to make one for myself as well. And here it is!

The fabric I used is a canvas fabric, which frayed a bit more readily than I was expecting, but otherwise is really nice to work with. The pattern is good too, although I wish it had explained certain aspects of the process a little better than it did. There really is no substitute for thorough instructions, explanations why you’re doing what you’re doing, and detailed pictures. Especially not in a book for beginners.

Picture time!

“What’s this”, you ask? This is the paper plate bean scoop my mother developed in 10 seconds to help me get the beans inside of the doorstop through the tiny 4 inch opening the pattern tells you to leave in the bottom. (That’s not big enough, btw) My mom is officially a genius. Also, my flat iron is here because I’ve started using it on small pieces of fabric so I don’t have to get out the whole iron to press one 1/2 seam. This was my boyfriend’s brilliant idea, and so far, I like it pretty damn well. It would also make a good substitute if you don’t have an iron for some reason, though it’s not going to help you flatten out large pieces of fabric. (Unless you’re very, very patient.)

That’s all for now. More projects coming soon!

Because, you know, I’m nerdy like that.

However, I had absolutely no idea how to make a hat. Not a clue. I examined all the fleece, flannel and knit hats that I’ve bought over the years, but pretty much all I could glean from them is that machines are way better at sewing than I am. So I got onto the intarwebz, figuring that I’m not the first person to have the urge to make a hat for a loved one. And lo and behold, I found this pattern! Hurray. My boy didn’t want a scarf, so I just nixed that part of the pattern out and made him a nice fleece pillow case from the leftover fabric.

This pattern does require the use of a compass, though, so it took me a little while to find one and as such my boy’s head was cold a bit longer than it should have been. Still, once you’ve got your pattern circle made, this hat is just childishly simple to make. I could seriously sit down and churn out about a dozen of these in an hour, maybe more. And the neat trick of rolling up the sides plays in nicely to fleece’s tendency to roll when you’re not looking. (Ah, stretchy knit fabrics and your rolling. You think you’re so clever.)

The only thing I had to change was the 7″ wide strip at the bottom of the hat. This ended up being so large it almost fit over my shoulders, and I even though have it on good authority that I have a pretty big head, that’s a bit much. I would suggest measuring your recipient’s head beforehand, just so you know how long to make this strip, since it forms the bulk of the hat. The crown part is pretty much one size fits all, since the fabric just gathers to accommodate the size of your strip. Also, to make it look a bit nicer, I double stitched the part where the two sides of the strip come together, and laid it over flat on one side, so that when you roll up the hat, the back seam looks a little more decorative and less like “HAI GUYZ I HAZ A HAT AN LOOKIT I MAD IT ALL BAI MAHSELF”.

I decided the hat was so cute and so easy to make that I made one for myself too. Actually, I made mine first as a sort of prototype, that way my boyfriend’s hat would be perfect.

Pictures!

(Unfortunately, I didn’t have the presence of  mind to photograph my boyfriend wearing his spaceship and robot themed hat. Bad Mandaray.)

My hat, and accompanying pattern.

Hat, inside out.

I has a hat!

Until next time, faithful hat wearers.

Luckily for me, the lovely ladies at Sewing Machines Etc. are a much more knowledgable lot. Not only did I purchase my lovely new Pfaff machine from them, but they host regular sewing, serger, and quilting classes at their cozy little store just off Kingston Pike. They also have a wide range (and I do mean wide) of gorgeous fabrics, threads, and gadgets. If you want to do anything relating to sewing or quilting, this is the place to visit. Everyone is really friendly, too! (Even though I was a total noob and forgot to bring my sewing machine with me to the class. Oops.)

I’ve been patiently reading their newsletter waiting for a beginner level sewing class to pop up, and last week, my lucky moment came! Two classes in one day: A cute little bubble style skirt, and a holiday apron. I signed up for both, and basically spent about five hours hanging around their store sewing my little heart out and soaking up the expert knowledge of my lovely teacher, Miss Judy. I am now convinced there isn’t a clever shortcut or efficient trick she doesn’t know.  They were even nice enough to continue helping me with my projects even after I was there a little longer than they were supposed to be open, technically speaking…heh! Sorry guys.

Long story short, I learned loads, took home two great patterns, and for the first time since I started this adventure I feel like I know what the heck I’m doing. My apron isn’t totally finished yet (I had to take it home unfinished due to time constraints and unfortunately this past week has been totally crazy and I haven’t been able to put some of the finishing touches on it yet) but now my skirt is! It was pretty much finished when I left the class; I only had a little bit  more sewing and gathering left to do, which was accomplished the next night without trouble. Only thing is, I measured  my waist incorrectly when I first took my measurements for this pattern, so tonight I got mom to help me take in the waist band a little bit because, apparently, I’m even skinnier than I originally thought. =P

Skirt!

I know how to gather things now. It's cool!

Like my pattern? Yeah, I do too.

I also bought enough material for two more skirts after this one, so now that I’ve officially finished this project at long last, I’ll be starting in on those very soon. The prints I found at SME were all SO adorable and I can’t wait to wear them! The weather needs to warm up like, right now. Either that, or I need to make like my other favorite seamstress K.L., and start sewing crazy numbers of leggings. Someone invite me to a party so I can show off my cute skirt!

Also, I recently went to the bookstore and got a mini-haul of great sewing books, both of which have patterns included. B&N had a great selection of sewing books and I can’t wait to go back, because there were a lot of them that I passed up as either too expensive or too complicated for my current skill level, but I definitely saw a lot of stuff there that I liked. I feel so dumb for not trying to find sewing books before now. My age was really showing when I decided the Internet was going to teach me how to sew. (Not that it hasn’t taught me some very informative things about sewing…but the nuts and bolts of the craft are, apparently, still paper bound.)

Books!

Books again, and my new giant thing of thread which I haven't quite figured out how to use yet. Hehe. Pardon the mess in the back--after all I am, first and foremost, a crazy gamer.

So yeah. November has been a good month for this seamstress! I will be finishing up that apron soon, and also taking some pictures of me actually wearing my bubble skirt instead of copping out and laying it on a table because I’m writing this at night and it’s too cold to wear a skirt right now, hehe. It looks so much cuter when it’s actually on something, whether it’s a person or a dress form. (Which I don’t have. Yet.) I’ll also be taking pictures of everything as I go this time, instead of just the finished product. And somewhere along the line, I have to figure out how the heck to switch out the needle in my machine. I’ve never done that before. The last time a needle came out of my machine, it nearly blinded me, so this should be interesting…

Sew on!

I don’t really have a great explanation as to why I’ve always been drawn to this time period. Maybe it’s the fact everyone seems like they were having an awful lot of fun, or maybe it’s because women were finally starting to realize they could be more than just a piece of property and that being scandalous wasn’t just for men any more. Or maybe I just think the fashions are cool. No idea. Either way, I love the 20′s. I love a lot of other eras, too, but I think something about dressing up as a Flapper is just too neat to pass up. So, I bought myself a dress off a costume super center website and proceeded to be utterly and completely disappointed.

Not in the dress. No, the dress was fine. A little shorter than I’d expected, maybe, but I’ve got the legs to pull it off. No, what disappointed me was the hat it came with.

You can’t see it very well in the picture, and that’s good. The thing was hideous. For starters, it’s too big for my head. For another, positioning it so that it looks good is impossible to do without making it uncomfortable or nearly fall off. It made my head look flat and weird, and didn’t go along well with my hair at all. It was just this big, black, velvety thing sitting on top of my head and I hated it. Unfortunately, the costume doesn’t look quite right without it, so what’s a girl to do?

Make her own darn head accessories, that’s what.

So, in addition to learning how to sew and quietly hating an essential part of my Halloween costume for this year, I’ve been watching The House of Elliot, mostly because Netflix thought I’d like it. And despite being a little predictable, it’s a show that has its own special charm. (And it’s all about independent women starting their own business focused around sewing! I wonder who that sounds like…) It also has characters going to parties, where they proceed to dress up in all sorts of short, scandalous, backless dresses with accompanying accesories…

Like headbands.

My little brain put two and two together and my very first independent sewing project was born.

Back in black

Once more enlisting the help of my mother, we made a beeline for our nearest Hobby Lobby to pick up supplies. At first, I thought I might have to elasticize a piece of fabric myself, something which I actually would kind of like to learn how to do, but after some careful searching we found the ubiquitous shiny black sequin stuff that is, of course, already stretchy…see right. (Considering how many colors this stuff comes in, I now believe all fabric stores are required to carry this product.)

However, upon examining the material, I decided it would be pretty itchy on my oh-so-sensitive noggin, so we found some black velvet ribbon to attach to the underside of the sequined material. Since the sequin stuff is stretchy, but the ribbon isn’t, we could only put a little patch of it on the underside, but that’s all I needed anyway. We got our stuff cut and went in search of some adornments.

Right after I first bought the costume, I made a trip down to my local Wally World and found some lovely (and very, very cheap) pearls that go nicely with the costume. Attached to these was a hideous plastic flower that had no place being on a necklace, but just happens to be perfect for going in the middle of a headband. Since I’ve noticed that feathers were also very popular for these headbands, I decided to search some out, thinking maybe I could get out the hot glue gun and attach some behind the plastic flower.

Hat thing! With added flower, of course.

Turns out, someone already thought of this for me. As we were browsing through the aisles, I spotted a small display of “hat adornments”, which are apparently the specialty of this one company. There were several lovely things to choose from, almost all of them featuring brooches, jewels, and feathers of various types, but I picked one I thought would match my dress best. I didn’t realize until I got it home that there was a suspiciously empty spot in the middle where a jewel had once been. Some hyperactive little brat probably picked it off and then tossed it back on the shelf with no one the wiser, but as it turns out, it was just the perfect shape and size for my flower!

Clearly, this project was meant to be.

Unfortunately, sewing material with sequins on it is a bit problematic. For one thing, the thickness is a little tricky. I had to go slower than I’m used to. (And considering how slow I go normally, this is saying something.) Also, the sequins get caught underneath the presser

Thanks, mom. One of these days I'll stop bugging you to do my stitching for me.

foot and the machine jams. Kind of annoying. So mom had to take over for most of the sewing of the velvet ribbon to the sequin band, because she did something totally daring I didn’t have to guts to: Turned the material over and sewed “blind” on the sequined side instead of the fabric side, which I was using. The stitching looks a little crazy, but it’s solid, and it worked. No harm done. Thanks mom.

After that, it was just a matter of getting out the hot glue gun and attaching my flower to the feathery “adornment”. (Which, incidentally, already came with several clips/pins on the back, so attaching it to the headband itself was no problem at all.) I let this harden over night and then this afternoon after I got back from the library, mom helped me measure out the seam allowance I’d need for the back, I stuck the two pieces together, and sewed my headband shut. Voila! My project is finished!

Even though I ran into some unexpected road blocks, I had a lot of fun doing this. I also had fun creating my own project and then carrying it out with only a little help. This is the very first clothing-related thing I’ve ever created, and I love it. It turned out absolutely perfect, and is so much better than anything I could have bought from someone else. Truly, this is what sewing is all about. I’m so excited, I could just bust.

Check it out!

Ta-dah!

It took me about 5 1/2 hours of work total, mostly because I’m an utter slow poke and our pattern’s instructions left a lot to be desired. But with my mom’s help, we muddled through. I learned a lot about reading patterns, different ways to stitch things to other things, and also to never ever use thin, stretchy cotton fabric in a pattern that calls for thicker fabrics. (i.e., duck cloth or twill cloth.) That way lies  madness.

For my next project, I need a flashy elastic headband to go along with my 20′s Flapper party dress for Halloween. Since the one that came with the costume is awful, and I can’t seem to find one in any of the Halloween stores here, I figure why not make one? It’ll teach me how to use elastic and stretch my creative muscles a little bit. I’ll also take lots of pictures as I go so anyone reading this can follow along. (I like to imagine there’s at least one of you out there! Even if you only exist in my head.) Not sure if I have any place to wear my costume to this year, but if I do, then I want to be prepared! Now if I could just find some decently priced Mary-Jane style shoes, I’d be a happy girl…

Where I'm at now.

The Apron originally started as one of The Boyfriend’s projects, since he got kind of excited watching me sewing all those pillows. (It’s like he wants to learn new things, or something. Weird, right?) Anyway, Boyfriend told me he wanted to make an apron as a gift for a foodie friend, and since I had already purchased an apron pattern with my mom a few weeks previously from JoAnn’s, it seemed like the logical choice for a project.

Mom and I had a separate bunch of materials to use for our apron already, (including some truly fabulous shiny gold ribbon stuff that I can’t really describe properly) but I was loathe to dive in without really knowing what I was doing and waste her money. So, Boyfriend suggested a quick trip to Hobby Lobby to see what they had. We roamed. We asked questions. We got the wrong kind of ribbon. But eventually we settled on what we wanted, and the apron for a friend turned in to an apron for his mom. (Hence the cute Winnie the Pooh pattern; apparently she’s a fan)

I never say no to a little extra practice when I’m new to something, so I was excited to get started, even though this was primarily going to be Boyfriend’s project and I was just going to supervise. And supervise I did. We got home and I helped him with the cutting, then settled down with his shiny phone to read Sherlock Holmes novels and assist him when needed. He hemmed, cut, and got a little bit of work done before we both got tired and decided to set it aside for the night.

Pocket!

Unfortunately, we started our project a little too close to his deadline for moving out of the house, and since he would now be 2 1/2 hours away, it would be kinda hard for him to complete the apron. I told him I’d finish it for him, but I, uh, kinda had an attack of The Lazies and really didn’t look at it much after that…it didn’t help that the pattern mom and I bought for aforementioned apron makes almost NO sense. Mom says it’s because it’s a Butterick pattern and they’re usually kinda vague. I wouldn’t know, since this is the first pattern I’ve ever used. Basically what this means is I couldn’t proceed on my own.

But I finally got over myself tonight and between mom and myself, we figured things out! It’s coming along really nicely. Stitching the curved sides up by the top of the apron was torture, mostly because I had to take out all of the hemming Boyfriend did before (he gets a tsk, tsk, for not reading the instructions, though with that pattern I don’t really blame him; prolly wouldn’t have helped anyway) and it was a really tiny hem. Like, 1/4 inch tiny or something. I forget exactly what it was but it was pretty tricky. I think I did well, though!

Took mom & I forever to figure out how to do the ribbons at the bottm. The way the pattern words things is so strange!! Also, since Boyfriend got ribbons that all matched, we had to modify how many we used.

My fabric has also frayed a little more than I’d like, A) because it was abandoned for so long and B) because I had to take out the previous hemming. It’s also a lighter fabric than what the pattern actually calls for. (It asks for twill or duck cloth, both of which are much thicker. The fabric I’m currently using is just run-of-the-mill cotton.) Again, though, I think I’m doing OK. I’ve learned a lot more than I thought I did from spending so many hours parked in front of YouTube videos about sewing, which is great. My pattern makes a little bit more sense now, and I feel a true sense of accomplishment! Tomorrow, this project will be FINISHED (yay!) and from now on, I will know how to make aprons.

Now that I’ve actually experienced it first hand, the pattern is pretty simple, and I could easily copy it again without looking much at the directions. I also think I could make some really nice alterations to the pattern eventually, since at the moment I’m not 100% happy with where everything is placed, the size/style of the pocket, etc. Also, as a tall person, I’m not thrilled with the “one size fits all” length they used for the adult version. (The pattern came with the option of doing an adult sized apron and a child sized one) I’m finally beginning to see where all these crazy projects come from! Also, I understand better now the obsession sewing can form in the creative mind. I’m tired, but I’m already thinking of ways to do more! It was also pretty cool to sit down at my table and lose myself in something for about 3 hours. Usually that only happens to me when I’m playing a video game.

More updates on the apron project soon! In the meantime: moar picz!!!!!!

The curved sides were so hard!

Like really, REALLY hard.

Soon, Pinky. Soon.

I get to look at my awesome Kitty Poster again too! I missed it.

My new space!

This is the room I used to share with The Boyfriend while he lived here, so moving stuff around was a little bittersweet, but it’s for the best. I know he’d want me to be comfortable and also have a great space to sew like crazy in, which I haven’t been doing nearly enough of lately. I really need to finish my apron, and also get some other projects underway. I’ve been stalking through the wild jungles of YouTube recently, absorbing a lot of really cool sewing tutorials and videos, and I’m excited to start making some more complicated stuff. I also really want to grow out of my “What the heck is that?” phase. So maybe I can watch some of these videos and instead of sitting there thinking “What the heck are they talking about? How do I do that? I don’t get it”, I could instead be thinking “Holy cow that’s awesome! As soon as this video is finished I’m going to go do that!”

I’d like that a lot.

In the meantime, here are a few of the channels I’ve been watching. Highly recommended for a variety of reasons, the foremost being these channels are awesome and very entertaining. (Oh YouTube. How you’ve grown. I’m so proud of you.)

Secret Life of a Bio Nerd (watching her do crazy stuff with her hair is quite possibly my new favorite internet addiction)

Thread Banger

Cyber Seams

More to come soon!

Technically, it’s not my fault. Technically, it’s because my sewing stuff got moved into a new room and everything is presently in chaos while we rearrange furniture, move TV sets, drawer units, and try to figure out how best to align my tables. Technically. Really, though, it’s just a lack of knowledge. Sewing is still pretty new to me and to be honest most of these patterns read like they’re written in Chinese. I’m a smart girl; I learn quickly and I cope well under stress generally speaking, (see first post! lol) but there are limits to my understanding right now. I know once I master the vernacular, there won’t be any stopping me, but it’s kind of a hard river to cross at the moment. My supportive Pillow-As-Hats wearing Boyfriend moving out hasn’t helped matters, either, since now I’m minus a Pillow Model as well. (Good help is hard to find these days!) But I’m not giving up, and I’ll be posting (and sewing) more soon. Promise!

And, as always, if you’ve got any suggestions about tutorials I could read or helpful videos on YouTube, please feel free to comment.