Picked up a new hobby. :)

     My mom is visiting me up here in WA, and I have started a new hobby. Crocheting! I only have completed a little bracelet, but I got some good photos from the experience. ;)

 

Jean, Part 3: Beautification

   I love working on these jeans! Even if they did give me trouble with the bleach, it was a really fun project. But it's finally done! Will have to make a second pair, soon. :)

     Since the bleach dissolved parts of my jeans last time I made them, I picked out a new pair of jeans to pull fabric from and bleached before constructing them this time. So once I was finally done putting them back together, all that was left was to dye them!

 

 I followed the instructions on my bottle of Jeans Blue Rit Dye, and it wasn't my first time dyeing with Rit dye, but it is the first time it came out so funky. I mixed the jeans into the dye and stirred them around often so that all of my jeans would be evenly coated. That's now how it turned out though...

     I'm thinking that bleaching the pants previously must have had something to do with the funky pattern, even though I washed them out after bleaching. I don't know, but they turned out funky as hell and I don't mind, they are pretty cool.

     So, that is the end of my jeans saga! :D

Einstein Swatch!

    Since I've found the website Spoonflower a little while ago, I've been a little obsessed with making designs and entering contests and reading their blog. I love it! So, goes without saying, I ordered some swatches of the fabric I've designed.

     I got my first swatch today! It was of this design:

   

    I'm pretty happy with it, decided to resize it on the website though but luckily I can put it up for sell without buying another swatch to check the size, so that's pretty nice. :)

  

   I've ordered swatches of most of my other designs, it kind of takes forever but I'm pretty excited to see how they turn out! Here's some of the other designs so far:

     Aztec Galazy, which I made for the upcoming Constellation contest. Banjos on blue, because I would like to make a strap for my banjo. Roses on coral, just because I thought it would be pretty (there's also a 'coral blue' version). And Pisica Mae, after another of my cats.

     Okay, so I just wanted to share my first experience with Spoonflower so far. I'm definitely happy about it!

Jeans, Part Two: Reconstruction

    So, when I left off on my last jeans post, I had already started prettying up my very first pair of home sewn jeans. This is what they looked like before that.

    I started the beautification process by bleaching. Unfortunately, I was unaware that some of the jean fabric was not bleach safe, and it disintegrating. Luckily, most of it was not damaged and lightened properly. So I had to start basically over again with pieces cut from a different pair of jeans, which I made sure where bleach friendly first this time!

    

     Still, this time I decided to bleach the pieces first and not risk it. I didn't take many photos of the construction process, since I posted the construction of the last piece, so here is the end result. :)

     Last time I constructed this pair of jeans, I did not want to alter the pattern since it was my first time using the pattern and first time making jeans. I planned on improving a few things next time. The high wasitedness, the button and zipper around, and the waistband in general. Since I had to remake them anyways, I decided to just go ahead and make my changes.

     It didn't turn out perfect, but I consider it an improvement! There's a few more things I'll still do different with the next pair, but for now these make me really happy.

     Okay, now it's time to actually beautify them this time!

OMG yay dress!

     I am so happy with how this dress turned out! The last dress I tried was very blah so I'm very pleasantly surprised! Anyways, here's the process. :)

      I found this pattern at Walmart! I was a little surprised, I wouldn't think of going to Walmart to find a cute dress with waist cut outs. I decided to change it up from the pattern a little. It's gonna be getting colder here soon and I didn't want something that looked too Summery, but I love those waist cut outs!

     The lighting in my crafting room is kind of poor, and I started sewing late, so sorry for the photo quality and infrequency! I got pretty caught up in sewing so I didn't take that many photos. :P

     I picked up the navy striped fabric at a thrift shop for a couple bucks! A thrift shop with a sewing fabric section, so awesome! That's my little helper Ringo, btw. :) She's a gem.

    

     Cut out the pieces and made the bodice right away! Tried on the bodice, and it was too big. Man, what is it with nothing fitting me right? Haha. :)

     The photo is a bit blurry, but here's the bodice after taking it in and adding the band below the cut outs!

      Time for the skirt. Instead of the wrap around high-low look, I decided to keep it simple since I'm still gaining experience. I took the remaining fabric and cut twice the width of the bodice around. Gathered and attached!

     Pretty long! I don't really have any formal anything in my life so I'm gonna shorten it up!

     Finished! And I love it! It's hard to get good photos with a camera phone and a dusty mirror though. :P I'm really happy with it!

     Edit: I've since taken better photos of the dress. :)

Jeans, Part One: Construction

     One week ago, I received a pattern that I bought online. As someone blessed with the gift of being "adorably small", aka: 4'9", buying jeans always presented an obvious problem. I can, and do, hem store bought jeans to fit my length, but that's usually not the only problem. Saggy crotches, higher-than-intended waists, and hippie dippy clown wide legs usually also are issues unless I buy skinny jeans. I am not a fan of skinny jeans.

     So, I decided I wanted to try making jeans! Something I thought would be a very difficult project considering that I am very novice at sewing. But this pattern is rated "easy", so I figured why not try?

     I picked up everything I needed at thrift shops and walmart. I didn't want to spend $30+ on what I figured would be a very ugly pair of practice jeans. So, I got some very large men's jeans and recycled the fabric from them! Once I got home from picking up everything I needed, I got right to making them! I decided on the boot cut!

      Some photos of the sewing process!

     I guess I mis-measured myself as the pattern ended up being too large. I took it in to fit better before finishing with the waistband and the rest. Much better!

     Finally finished the waistband and finishing touches. The waistband was the most frustrating part, which is saying something since this is the first time I installed a zipper! Here's the end result, at least of the construction part of the jeans. ;)

      I am not very skilled at sewing, but I am so happy with how my first pair of jeans came out! They are made from Butterick's B5682 pattern and two pairs of very large men's pants from the thrift shop, so they aren't the prettiest things, but I love them! I only used the fabric from the thrift jeans. I didn't reuse the waistband, button, zipper, etc.

     A couple things to improve next time: give more attention to detail on the zipper and button and alter the pattern! These things kind of swallow my stomach, but I didn't want to alter the pattern for my first try so I went as is. My first pair of high waisted jeans it is, haha.

    I've already started turning them from Frankenstein jeans to something a little more pleasing to wear and look at. That will be Part 2. ;)