I’ve been quiet a long time here — there’s been a ton going on in life, and I’ve been just enjoying it rather than writing about it. But it’s time to share some of my fun projects again! Particularly since, as my husband put it, I’ve recently leveled up my sewing skill.
So, here’s what I’ve been up to…
1) New SCA garb – a red Turkish coat over a white linen gomlek. Paired with a turban and feather, I look like a miniature. I don’t have a photo of the full turban getup, but trust me, 15th century Turkish miniature. 🙂
2) Turkish pants for the baby, which not only turned out awesome, but the process taught me how to make the pattern RIGHT, for REAL, not by accident. (My standard green pants came out lovely pretty much by accident, and I hadn’t been able to reproduce them since). The trick is in the angle of the gore — it needs to be much shallower than you get from just cutting into a rectangle, like my original pattern said. You’re making trapezoids, not triangles. But now I have the secret! Mwahaha, I can make all the shalwar!
3) I made a bunch of garb for a friend, just my standard Turkish shirt/gomlek pattern that I can make in my sleep, except…I figured out how to do the neckline so it’s not all wonky and difficult to sew. Here’s a pic of one of the early ones, and if you look closely you can see how the fabric is pulled at the neckline.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier, but straight seams mean that you can actually hem edge pieces before you sew them together. For necklines with hard angles, this makes things a LOT easier. Voilà! A neckline that does not pull the fabric.
4) The beginnings of a steampunk outfit. I’m using Halloween as an excuse to finally put together something steampunk, which I’ve been dying to do now for ages. In honor of the re-released Deadlands Doomtown game (and because I’ve never really let go of my Deadlands character from an old rpg), I’m doing Old West steampunk. The full outfit will get posted after Halloween, but the pieces I’ve finished now include a hi-lo bustle skirt (with fringe!)…
and a bolero.
This is the pièce de resistance. I’ve never made anything so fancy in my life. I couldn’t believe my machine could go through the pleated layers of corduroy, but it did! I was also very pleased that I was able to put together a fully lined jacket, essentially, out of scraps. That’s right, fabric scraps. Small ones. G-d bless boleros and other small articles of clothing.
5) Lastly, I’ve been playing around with making underwear and lingerie. My earliest experiments don’t have nice enough finishings to take flat photos, and they are far too revealing to post posed ones, but I did start working on a bralette-panties set last night that also falls under the “learning lots about sewing” category.
Lessons learned from lingerie making so far: a) jersey is a pain to work with (the stretch stitch on my machine is pretty horrendous) but SO comfortable that I don’t think I’ll make anything but, b) when the stretch stitch fails, zig-zag is your friend, c) when making bra-like things, curved seams are essential. Even when the wearer in question (yours truly) doesn’t have very deep curves.
Thus, behold! My halfway completed bralette set, including finished panties (not exciting to look at, but very comfortable on) and a halfway finished bralette. I spent all evening figuring out the pieced/seamed cups, cutting a slit in the back because I had accidentally cut it too small for my waist, and trying it on a zillion times, probably giving the neighbors an eyeful, before deciding to finish it up the next day. Still…almost done! I’m very excited to see how the finished product turns out.
LingFree 