Skirt #3 – Just in time!

Last day of May, and my 3rd skirt for Skirt Month is finally done (well, minus a hook/eye). Here’s the finished product:

I traced one of my skirts I have from Gap. The fabric on the original skirt was a lighter than this fabric, so the Gap skirt looked more limp. But this fabric brings out the nice shape. It does really well for twirling.

I found the fabric at Sew Mama Sew. It’s Alexander Henry – Gist of Gemini. I saw it and immediately knew I wanted to make a skirt out of it. I actually had the trim picked out, too…it was originally inspired by this dress at Macy’s. I wanted to use the flowery print and pair it with a brown fabric w/ pink polka dots. I was only able to find the desired fabric online, but by the time I finished Skirt #2, it was too late to order online. So instead, I went to Joann’s to hunt for it. They recently opened a Joann’s Superstore near my house, so I figured I’d find it, or something close. Well, it took a few trips and I finally gave up on the brown with pink dots. During those few days, everywhere I went and saw clothes or fabric, I kept thinking “brown with pink dots!”

*sigh*

Then, I dragged Dickson with me to Joann’s one night because I had decided to go w/ a brown baroque satin and a pink or teal/blue ribbon instead. But he found the fabric that ultimately ended up on my skirt:

I love it. Who knew the finishing touch of my skirt would be picked out by my Designer Boyfriend…

I finished the top of the skirt w/ a white bias tape, and I lined the skirt w/ pink liner because I love liners. I don’t know why…it does require more work.

The zipper turned out MUCH better than on my other skirt. I guess it’s because I finally decided to print out the Zipper Tutorial on Sew Mama Sew’s blog instead of trying to remember how to sew a zipper. Funny when we actually read instructions, huh? Oh, but instead of glue stick, I hand basted the zipper in place with some big stitches. The zipper was brown, so I used white thread. Made it easy to take out.

This skirt was SO tough to hem. Probably because the brown fabric was thick and the skirt was wavy in some places. So I figured out a way to hem it that involved a lot of pins, and also involved some stay-stitching to indicate where the first fold of the hem would be

Chicken…Yum!

Oh, and just to clarify that my life doesn’t revolve around my car, here’s the food Dickson made for us tonight:

YUMMMMMMMMM!!

Penny Loves Dickson

Last weekend, Dickson gave my Satty the Dickson treatment.

This included washing, clay bar-ing, polishing, and 2 layers of wax. She’s SUPER smooth now and really easy to wash…the water just falls off her effortlessly. The whole process also bought her a few days in the garage!

She’s good as new now And we’ve named her Penny.

More photos on my Flickr. Go see the clean engine!

Skirt #2 is complete!

Okay, I’ve been working on this skirt for a LONG time. And finally it’s done! I’m quite proud:

The fabric is from Ikea. It’s actually from a 26×26 inch pillow cover. The front side was the white and the back side was the gray. Originally, I wanted to keep the circular pattern of the white in tact, but obviously, that would make my butt or front side look huuuuge. So, with some thought, we modified the pattern so I could put each fabric on the side instead of the front or back.

Since I didn’t have extra fabric to “line up” the patterns, I used a white ribbon to break up the pattern of the circle. So now it looks like it really does fit right. Ah, the joys of optical illusions.

Instead of doing a facing, I made a purple liner, since I needed one anyway for the typical sheerness of white fabric. Worked out well. Of course, this caused some problems towards the end when I realized I needed to sew on a side ribbon for the circle. I had rip open a seam so I could get the needle to the ribbon. Too bad sewing machines don’t sew horizontally.

And I’m STILL having issues with drafting. I ended up taking off a couple inches from my original pattern to get it to fit at my hip the way I like. I guess my next skirt will be based on a trace instead. Gotta try new things!

Overall, I’m happy with this one. It’s unique and I put a lot of arithmetic power into it! Fractions at that!

New Birthday Bag

This bag was originally for Miranda’s graduation present. But, after I cut the fabric, I realized I made it too small. So, I used her original Birthday bag for her graduation present and now this is her new Birthday Bag.

Fortunately, the tissue paper still matched. I found this pattern online by Jan Andrea. It was originally designed to make a canvas bag for grocery shopping. But, obviously, I rarely go grocery shopping now since I live at home, so I chose my own dimensions based on a gift bag and used the tips on how to create the rectangular bottom. Then, I presed the edges to give it that “folded bag” look:

So YAY! Miranda’s gifts are all done, and it’s not even June yet! I’m almost done w/ another skirt for skirt month and then I have one more to go, but I need to buy some new fabric for the trim. Hopefully I can find what I need…I’ll have to make a trip to the fabric store this weekend.