presserfoot propaganda: Self Stitched September

Self Stitched September

Showing posts with label Self Stitched September. Show all posts

I am drowning in work. Everyone keep your fingers crossed I can get through this week! However, now that SSS is over I can just wear sweatpants for the next 6 days and not have to think about what I'm wearing... There's a silver lining for ya!

Also, my pictures this week are more terrible than usual because my boyfriend stole back his nice camera and my old crummy camera isn't working so I had to resort to cell phone pics exclusively. To top it off, it took me a few days to realize that the bathroom at work is the best cell phone pic location, so the first 2 pictures are especially terrible. Sorry :)

Day 26: Tie Front blouse; worn for a million hours of work

Day 27: Black and Grey Floral dress; worn for a million hours of work

Day 28: Lions and Tigers and Zebras dress; worn for a million hours of work

Day 29: Ruffle Front Sorbetto; worn for a million hours of work

Day 30: Wanted to Finish Where I Started; worn for a million hours of work, then margaritas...

Observations: This month was SO much easier than Me Made March. I did not have a single day where I stressed about what to wear and I was able to wear something new everyday! (with the exception of my denim pencil skirt which I wore with several different tops) I even have a bunch of things left that I didn't get around to wearing! I'm guessing, based on this fact that I've at least doubled my self made wardrobe since March. Not too shabby for such a lazy girl...

Happy Friday Darlings!

Not a lot of posting going on around here lately. I'm in full blown event mode. Left the office 2 hours after everyone else tonight and I'm anticipating that it will get worse before it gets better. Hopefully I'll have Saturday free to finish my cocktail dress and post a picture of it, but other than that, I'll probably be neglecting the blog until the end of next week!

Here's the rundown for the weekend:

Day 23: Full of Glee skirt; worn for work and errand running, this is how I do casual Friday's this month since I barely have any self-made casual clothes...

Day 24: Green Polka Dot pajama shorts (not blogged about); sort of a cop-out day, I had to drive to my hometown for a funeral and since I don't really have any self-made, funeral appropriate dresses, I wore a store bought one. Ended up spending all day in my hometown shopping with my mom so by the time I got back to San Antonio, it was time to slip on pjs and hit the sack. (no picture of me because the lack of make-up and grungy t-shirt were frightening...)

Day 25: Cheap Fabric shirt; worn for making dinner at the future sister-in-law's house and seeing her SUPER cute baby! Happy 5 month birthday Cade!

Also, just for fun, here's some newly released pics from the me & the boyfriend's "faux engagement" shoot...

Happy Wednesday!

I have not posted in FOREVER. And it's not even because I've been sewing furiously! The cocktail dress is nearly done, just needs a zipper and the ruffle attached but I should be done by now! The event is in a week and a half! AHHHHH!

Anyway, here's the Self Stitched September rundown...

Day 19: Black Asian Print dress; worn for work work work

Day 20: Refashioned Goodwill skirt; worn for work, an oil change and a ridiculous amount of fabric purchasing

Day 21: Denim skirt & Vintage Jersey top; worn for more work and dinner with the boy

Day 22: My Fair Lady dress; worn for our monthly Board Meeting, then removed so I could crash on the couch for hours...

In other news, I have added 37 yards of fabric to my stash in the last 2 weeks! OMG! What happened to my stash busting goal you may ask? I clearly ignored it in favor of RIDICULOUSLY cheap fabric...

First up, our Austin trip last Friday turned into a thrifting mission and I found some great deals on fabric, especially when the guy checking me out at the thrift store kept remarking at how expensive the fabric had been priced and ended up charging me like $10 less than it had been marked! All this for $20...

From left to right it's a grey linen (6 yards), royal blue lining (5.5 yards), teal green rayon (4 yards), and blue green polyester knit (3 yards)...

Next up, while getting an oil change at Walmart, I snuck into the fabric section and ended up finding some amazing deals on fabric! It's probably not linen but it looks like it and all but the teal fabric (which was $3 a yard) was $1.50 a yard! Seriously couldn't believe it! I think these pieces will be great for some fall suiting like outfits. Shift dresses, skirts, vests, jackets, etc...

From left to right, black linen-like? (4 yards), charcoal linen-like (6 yards), light grey linen-like (3 yards) and teal linen-like (1 yard)...

Look at the price tag! $9.00 for 6 yards! Crazy town...

Hope you're all having an amazing weekend ladies!

On Saturday I did something I've never done before... I made a muslin! The two day Louisiana trip planned for last weekend turned into a one day Austin trip, so I had most of Saturday and Sunday free to work on the cocktail dress.

Something you should know about me, I never make muslins. Ever. I know there's a million reasons why one should and I've had several dresses that could have benefited from a trial run muslin but I'm super stingy with my fabric and I always feel that since I have so many projects I want to make, sewing something twice is not very appealing. Having said all that, after all the weird sizing chart issues with this dress a few of you suggested I bite the bullet and make a muslin. What sealed the deal is the fact that I was thinking about making this dress in a navy cotton for day anyway, so I used a navy sheet I had lying around and figured I could finish this muslin out later and make it wearable. I cut a 10 for the bodice and waistband and a 12 for the skirt. It fit really well with a decent amount of ease. I probably could have gone down a size but I don't think it will be that big of a deal. On Sunday I cut the silk and started assembling the bodice and waist. Hoping to finish it up tonight!

No makeup + pale legs = yikes

Now to SSS days 16-18...

Day 16: Black & white striped pencil skirt; worn to Ikea and bumming around SoCo in Austin

Promise I'm not pregnant, nor do I have a beer belly, just a ridiculous slouch...

Day 17: Green polka dot Sorbetto; worn for a grocery store outing, the rest of the day was spent in pjs

Day 18: Assembly line skirt; worn for church

Also Day 18: The boyfriend's sister is an amazing photographer and is thinking about starting a business so she asked us to take some fake "engagement" pics so she could practice and have some for her portfolio. Of course I had to wear something "self stitched"...

We are dorks who love fake mustaches...

Days 12-15 prove that:

1. I cannot stand up straight

2. I cannot make a normal face

3. I only wear McCalls 6038

Day 12: Gauzy top & denim pencil skirt; worn to wok and then removed for ridiculously tough yoga

Day 13: Assembly line skirt; worn to work and removed for more ridiculously tough yoga

Day 14: Black & white skirt; worn to a loooooooong work meeting that included wine, shopping (yay for pay day!) and dinner with the boy

Day 15: Refashion dress; worn for work and packing for Louisiana!

Studio P Vintage Giveaway ends at noon Central time! Last chance!

Day 10 is a perfect example of what this challenge is great for, helping you realize where the gaps in your wardrobe are. I sort of already knew this but, I don't make casual clothes. I have very few "non-work" pieces and when the boyfriend and I planned a BBQ and two-stepping outing for a friend's birthday this weekend, I realized that any dresses I had appropriate for that occasion I had already worn in the first 9 days of September. Luckily, I steal things from my grandmother. Or more accurately, last time I was visiting, I commented that one of her house dresses had a really pretty fabric so she insisted I take it. Love grandmothers! They make getting ready for a night of country western dancing way easier! I just had to take in the sides, cut out some of the neckline and remove a few feet from the bottom. Easily done in 30 minutes before I started making burgers and birthday cake!

This is a terrible picture, just showing that the dress was huge and long before...

Closeup of pretty fabric!

Day 11: old reliable coffee date dress; worn for church, then immediately taken off in favor of pjs when I got home...

Happy Monday! Just a few more days to enter the Studio P Vintage Giveaway!

It's a skirt, it's a dress, it's literally the easiest thing I've ever made in my life! I got this great peacock feather cotton jersey on Etsy. It was an end of bolt remnant, only 30" but I got it for 20% off.

Day 9 (day); worn for work

Day 9 (night); worn for my bff's bridal fitting and
a comedy show with the boyfriend

I was originally just planning on making a pencil-like skirt but decided it would be cute as a tube dress as well. I got a ton of compliments on it, which is obviously entirely due to the print because the construction is no great show of skill. It is however, an opportunity to try to convince my friends to take up sewing! I seriously need more people doing this so I can justify my habit... When they say it's cute I can literally say it took me half an hour and no sewing skills to make. See kids, sewing can fun and easy! Jump on the bandwagon!

Here's my really unscientific method for making this dress: Since I wanted to wear it as a dress and skirt, I took both my waist measurement and my upper bust measurement then averaged the two, divided that number in half and added one inch for seam allowance. Then I folded the edge of the fabric over to the measurement I wanted (in this case 17.5")

Badly lit, unhelpful photo

Then I cut along the edge of the folded fabric, sewed a zig-zag stich with a 1/2" seam allowance up the side, folded the top over 3/4" twice and sewed down to make a casing, added 1/2" elastic and cut the bottom off even. SO EASY! (so much so that I'm laughing at myself for labeling this a "tutorial")

I love this dress/skirt because when worn with a t-shirt and elastic belt to work it's just about the most comfy thing ever. I might as well being wearing pjs. Also, it's cute as a dress with no belt and flip flops, for running around town. I have another piece of black and white striped jersey that I will use this same technique for, although I can't decide if I should just make it a skirt (aka, cut 5 or so inches of the bottom), rather than a skirt dress/combo. I'm afraid it might look like a sexy inmate costume when worn as a dress. Wait, have I just figured out what I'm going to be for Halloween?

Remember to enter my giveaway here!

Warning: Apparently I decided I was a model in the past few days. It didn't turn out well.

Day 6: Polka dot dress; worn to work for a scary foundation site visit (eek! keep your fingers crossed we get it!), then having dinner cooked for me by the boyfriend

Day 7: Blue Cynthia Rowley dress; worn for a VERY LONG meeting, then Olive Garden for date night!

See what I mean about the model poses?

Day 8: Assembly line skirt; worn for more work craziness (ready for this month to end!)

So weird!

On another note, I've decided to extend the Studio P Vintage giveaway for another week so more people get a chance to enter. It will now end on September 16th at noon, so since I'm being so nice, you should enter! You could win a free vintage pattern so seriously, go do it! Then go have an amazing weekend! XOXO

Number 1:

Have you entered the P Studio Vintage giveaway yet? You haven't? Go do it!

Number 2:

Here's the weekend update (man I miss SNL!) for SSS

Day 2: re-fashioned thrifted dress; worn to work, meetings, shopping

Day 3: goldfish dress; worn to dinner with mom, sister, sister's bf, and my sweet grandmother

Day 4: wedding dress; worn for drinks with one of my girls

Day 5: pink zebra top; worn for the very American task of helping a friend move, Happy Labor Day!

Yay for short weeks!

For the first day of Self Stitched September, I decided to start out with a new dress and a Sew Weekly challenge at that! When I saw the plaid challenge I knew I had to make this dress. I found this plaid stretch cotton at Walmart a few months ago. It reminded me a little of the signature Burberry plaid and since they use it to line their trench coats, I thought it would be funny to make a trench dress. I know, I know, I'm so witty...

I had held off on making the dress until now because I thought matching the plaid was going to be a nightmare, but the other night I sat on the floor with Tasia's tutorial, a ton of pins and a House marathon and set to matching. I loved her tutorial, however, I found that because my fabric was stretchy and I think printed a little off grain, it was nearly impossible to match the plaid pre-cutting like she suggested so I just kinda winged it and it worked out ok.

I used McCalls 6279 and it went together fairly easily, although it has a LOT of pieces. I omitted the top stitching on the seams and cut the back yoke on the bias (seen below). I cut an 8 which I think would have been perfect in a fabric without stretch, but with stretch it's a tiny bit big. Also, now that I'm looking at it, I think the buttons are too small, however, neither of those problems bug me enough to fix them right now.

And because I'm super proud of my finishing on this one...

Excited to start this month with everyone! Also, I have big news for Monday so stay tuned!

'I, Forrest of ‘Presserfoot Propaganda' blog sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-Sept '11. I endeavour to wear one self-stitched or refashioned clothing item each day for the duration of September 2011'

I'm only requiring myself to wear one piece a day because I have yet to make any pants and I want to have that option for movie dates (we have a lot of those) since I always freeze in theaters! I'm also going to try to avoid repeating items as much as possible, although I don't think I'll make it the whole month unless I really start sewing!

All in all, I'm super excited to get started! I'm trying to spend this last week mending some of my handmade items, refashioning some things from the thrift store basket, whipping up more seperates and wearing all my favorite store bought clothing items before I have to give them up for a month!

Happy Tuesday Shoesday!

I actually made something! It's a red hot miracle... Ever since Zo announced Self Stitched September '11, I've been contemplating what I'll need to do to get ready. I participated in March but opted out in June because I figured I hadn't made enough new pieces. Now, however, I think I've made enough stuff that September should look pretty different than March. I've also been on a separates kick, due to the fact that I had pretty much only had dresses to wear for the March challenge. I found this pattern at an estate sale a while back and I adore it! I think it has great 30's feel despite being made in the 80's. I'm dying to make a pair of high waisted, black linen trousers to wear with it.

The material is a really loose weave cotton, almost like gauze. It's a vintage piece that I picked up at the same estate sale where I got the pattern. It was sort of difficult to work with but I loved the pattern and colors too much to give up. I have no tripod and no helper so this is my attempt at a self portrait in the shirt...

Close up of the sleeves...

Also, here's a picture of the third assembly line skirt in action. Not necessary but I really liked the shoes with it...

Finally, exciting things this week! Elaine at Selfish Seamstress is back! Her's is the first blog I really read when I started sewing, plus her Burda previews are hilarious! Glad to have her back. Also, Sarai at Collette announced her new book. I'll admit, I saw it on Amazon a few weeks ago and I'm definitely pre-ordering it! As well as these other books (and Gertie's when it comes out!)...