Christmas Project

I made this for my Robocop-obsessed boyfriend!! :)

I spent at least 12 hours working on it on Christmas Eve Eve. (I don't know quite why it took me so long. I think it's because I planned and designed as I went along)

He loves it and thinks it's hilarious. He laughs every time he looks at it :) Perfect. Even better than I hoped.

Dream Man illustration

I made this for a temporary art gallery that a friend of mine put together. The title is "Dream Man." I could have done anything, but I wanted to take this opportunity to do a painting, and in the end I decided to go through with this concept I came up with. I don't feel like explaining it right now, but if you want me to- I will later.

At the gallery, they hung side by side like this.

I really wanted to use metallic paint- so I did! Silver on his border, and gold on both of theirs.

A close up of the texture and drawing and painting.

Oh The Things We Do For Our Mothers

I whipped this up- the apron of course- last night for my mom, and surprised her with it today.

Happy Mother's Day!

She really likes berry colors and so on a budget, this METALLIC fabric was the best buy! Thank goodness she approves of the silly youthfulness of it :)

Cute lady. Good mom. Nay. Great mom.

Introducing... Mi Amor.

I thought this would be an appropriate place to show tonight's sketch. This is my baby... my Baby Lock sewing machine!

Been Achin' for this Apron

I've been wanting to make an apron for a while now. It was time for a custom Ashley design to keep me clean in the kitchen! And also, I've never made one before.

Well I bought the fabric a couple weeks ago and have been extra antsy to make it since. I basically copied the pattern of an apron I bought a few years ago (this gem, from Spain-which is a big reason why I needed a new one- because as amazing as it is, it's not really suitable for company!) and adjusted measurements to make the bottom portion a frilly skirt.

So, below, this is what it looked like all cut out and ready for me to work my magic. I pressed roughly 200 inches of that orange fabric lengthwise, 3 ways, in order to do the borders and ties the way I wanted. And also, the pockets were an afterthought, but it worked out nicely.

All done! I don't know how, but it took me an hour and 15 minutes just to add the last 2 main straps. In part it was due to a malfunctioning sewing machine. But anyway, this is the grand total minus patternmaking and cutting time...

Tah dah!! Here she is! Well... She being the apron, not me. Because, as you see, I've cut off my head. So I'm not exactly here ;)

New Skirt!

Ever since I made my last skirt/pattern, I've been wanting to use it upside down to make a classic A-line skirt. So I did! I had to make the pattern a little shorter because I didn't buy enough fabric. (I'm always doing stupid things like that. I mis-calculate because I get too excited about the end product!)

All done! Flat and wrinkly on my floor. That's cotton for you.

reg. wear style

tucked in

side

I wanted to show you my seams. You're supposed to do a "seam finish" on all your seams so you don't have to little flaps of fabric on every edge of your outfit, fraying and thus your clothes eventually disintegrating off of your body.

THIS ^ is a "french seam", which is known as an "enclosed seam"- which is what I did for this skirt. It's classy, and really quite easy! Here are some other ways to do it:

This is what you'll see on most mass-produced, store bought clothes. A surged seam. (And incidentally this is NOT a skirt I made.)

These are some pajama pants I made in my first sewing class at BYU-Idaho. My teacher told us after we were well under way that we had to do seam finishes. So this is called an overcast stitch. Or something. It's just a zig-zag stitch over the raw edge to keep it from fraying.

Another technique we were taught was simply to "pink" the edges! (Which you do simply by cutting the fabric with pinking shears- which are scissors with a zig-zag!) You can really only do that on a fabric that doesn't fray much. This skirt is one of the first things I made after college and it's actually held up quite well through the washer and dryer with me only doing this seam finish. And I was really just being lazy, not knowledgable in this case. Seam finishes can be a drag, which is why it's nice to do the French seam- because you do it at the very beginning instead of at the end when you're just ready to be done with the thing.

There are other ways to do seam finishes but these are the only ones I have really done myself. Not that I did the serged hem, because I don't have a serger.

The end!

Til next time...

An Experiment: A Journey: A Crazy Skirt.

I don't know when I got the idea in my head to make this skirt, but all I know is that I designed and made a sketch of it the other day- and the next day I was making it.

So first things first, I had to make a pattern.

I used the "slash-and-spread" technique I learned in patternmaking class. I didn't bother making an accurate "block" with all the right measurements because I knew this was just going to have an elastic waistband and not be formfitting. So I just decided the width I wanted the bottom opening to be, how much gathering/puffiness I wanted at the top, and how long I wanted the skirt to be. So I slashed up my block and added onto the green paper seam allowances, hem, and extra on the top for a seam and folding it over to make casing for the elastic.

Ok so this isn't much of a journey because there are no pictures of this mid-construction but oh well! After a total of about 6 hours labor- from measuring and slicing up paper to stitching up hems- here's the finished product:
Not flattering!
Round!
Booty amplifier!!

Haha, no really, I'm proud of myself. It didn't turn out like the drawing, but I'll get into that in a moment. I'm proud of myself because I took an idea from start to finish, and employed my patternmaking education finally! Also, I had fun making it. I can get so INTO sewing!

So after staying up til close to dawn finishing this thing, I HAD to wear it to church. And it made me laugh every time I saw it in the mirror. Haha :) At least it's good for that. Also good for the up-and-down look from the girls passing by and no accompanying compliments! hahaha.

Ok, so the "problems":

1) I don't have the body of the girl in the sketch!! I don't have a small waist- my body just goes straight down to my hips. That's the main reason why I didn't pull this off as well as I thought I might.

2) It ended up more round on the sides than I intended. If I had to do it again I would make my pattern more concave on the side seams and maybe that would have helped it.

3) It's bulbous all around. It's just. not. flattering. despite my semi-thin frame.

...Solutions?

1) Next time I'll wear a necklace that takes the eye up and away from the waist.

2) Or a cute wide belt! I tried one on and it looked pretty darn cute.

THE END!

A Reversible Purse For MEEE!!!

I finally made myself something. I needed a new purse!

I was more excited about this before I assembled it. I was certain these wild non-matching prints were going to look awesome together. In the end, I'm just "ok" with it. After sewing together one of the sides I realized I like the colors better in the order you see here in the first picture- so the sides are different. Also, on the reverse with the "seaweed" side, I didn't buy enough fabric to make a matching pocket so there's clash there too! But the other side is plain with no pocket.

This is what it looks like flat- basically. There's a slight curve on the bottom.

Another Little Thing I Do...

I don't even know what to call these things, but I make 'em! The parents of the birthday child tell me what they want, they usually provide the wood and the paints, we decide on what I'll draw etc, I do it, and make the dads cut out the holes for the heads :) Come on! I don't have power tools!

This picture above cracks me up. I made this one for my nephew Liam most recently. The little portrait of him didn't turn out too well but with time, patience and MONEY it could have turned out better ;)

This was for my nephew Noah last April. I think it came out pretty cool! My materials were a little different for this one, and I spent more time on it.

(This one also cracks me up.)