Dress Number Two!

For the first dress, I was learning how to properly use a pattern (and making shit up on the fly anyway)...  
So, for the second dress, it was all about altering a known pattern into a slightly different dress, and also using a different kind of fabric. 

The basic shape of the neckline started the same as the first dress, for example: 

Then, I wanted to see if I could add a cowl-neck.  I made up how I was going to do it, so... THAT was interesting:

 Instead of long sleeves in three pieces, this has capped sleeves:

Finally, I think the biggest change to the design was the bottom.  I cut it a little higher on the sides, and let it drop to a point a little lower: 

I'm still working on the way the stitches should look.  I'll admit, Mom helped me a lot with the machine.  

  
After many days of working a bit, stopping, questioning everything in my life, and then starting again, this is the final product: 

EDIT: The cowl neck is actually much cleaner looking now than it is in these photos. 

If I ever get around to doing a third dress, it will be time to learn how to make a pattern.  
In fact, I don't think I'd start with a dress there.  

That seems...  No.  

I'll make something small so that I can figure out how to design and cut flat pieces to build a three dimensional, wearable object. 

That might not be for a while though.  This coming semester is over filled with not-so-simple classes, and one class too many.  

Also, I might be moving yet again, which would be awesome.  It would also take up A LOT of time.  Time is a thing I will not have this semester.  

However, the hope is that in a better, safer environment, I'll get more work done more often.  

Fingers crossed!  

Lastly, a reminder that the Etsy site is up!

Also, the Deddrie site is... up?  But there is nothing currently there.  
We (Rob) are figuring it out.  We still have everything saved, so no worries there.  I'll keep you all posted. 

Meanwhile, my portfolio site IS up and running at RowynGolde.com. 

Drawings and commission info is not yet up, but prints and commissions are available.  That will be more apparent soon.  

For now, you can email me at deddrie@gmail.com for a specific question or commission. 

Adventures in Dressmaking!

I found a pattern and bought it on a whim.  It looked simple enough and I'd never used a pattern before, so it was exciting.  Then I scared myself into thinking I'd just screw it up and never even tried. 

 I was going to do this one, with a cowl:  

 ...

Like a year or something later?  More than that?  

Couple of years later, I bought fabric for this pattern.  My buddy Dani helped me pick out this fabric: 

 Isn't it cute?  I don't really own a lot of cute things.  I mean, yeah, it's still skulls but...  CUTE!  YAY! 


 Now, the pattern called for stretchy fabric and this was not, but I didn't want a zipper up my armpit either, so I decided to do panels on both sides of stretchy stuff.  

You know what I own even less of than cute clothes?  Pink. 

 Seriously.  Everything I owned before was red, black or brown.  Sometimes there were blue things.  Mostly black. 


I am le goth kid.  

And so it began!  I went to my mother for assistance, realizing that she had about as much experience using a pattern as I had.  She had done it once in the sixties and her story didn't exactly have a happy ending.  


Pinning up the fabric to then cut out the shapes: 

There was this tone of "Is this going to work?" throughout the process. 

 Of course, there were some mishaps.  One example being when we attached both panels to what would become the same side, instead of one on each: 

 Slowly, it began to become a thing: 

Thiiing: 

The cat was entirely unhelpful.  Please note that the rest of the table was clear at that point.  She managed to sit on ALL the dress fabrics.  

"I shall sit RIGHT ON ALL THE THINGS"
(The darker fabric in front of her is what we used for the second dress.) 



It fit!  We just needed the final touches aaand: 

BOOM BABY!  

The finished dress!  The pink, as stated, is stretchy.  The rest is not.  That means it's comfy enough when bending the elbows and (while it doesn't look it on the hanger) it's really form fitting.  The bottom of it wound up pleated just so it could be more fit to my body after the fact, so that's neat.  

WOOT.  I DID A THING.

Well,  WE did a thing.  My mother did a lot of the actual machine work because pushing pedals with my feet to make a loud thing go fast scares me whether it's a sewing machine or a car.  

I need to work on that.

But WOO a dress!

Adventures in Fabric: Summer Fun!

This'll be the last post I make like this for a bit until I get started actually working on that dress I talked about in the first one.  I'll be showing a step by step then too.  

Most of these have tutorials on various sites and in books about doing fun things with shirts.

First up, I got this shirt at a thrift store.  I sliced off the collar and the sleeves before anything else.  It was slightly too big as well: 

 Here is what I did to the back:

 Aaand a close up: 

The red underneath is a separate, not attached shirt. 

Next up is a shirt from one of the thousands of colleges I've gone to in my time.  The design for this logo was done by my friend Teresa.  Check her out here among other sites.  
Again, I sliced off... everything:

 After cutting the bottom into a triangle, I went ahead and had fun with the back:

 Next was an old Donald Duck shirt I loved a lot.  It had never fit right, so I made it fit a different way using a similar method to above, but with outside materials, rather than the shirt itself:

 Laced up the back, it is also a halter top: 

 This one was two different shirts, each sliced right down the middle and then sewn together.  It was going to be a skirt, and might still be (now that I'm wearing skirts again) but right now it's another halter: 

Okay.  I think that's enough for now.  Ready for my first real sewing project?

...I mean, I've done like... stuffed animals and a ninety inch sandworm (See: Birthday Bashing) but never an OUTFIT from scratch!  I've already changed my mind about the fabric.  I want to use the fabric for something else (I have no idea what) and then a more simple, easy to work with fabric for the dress coming up.

RANT

*breathes*

Hokay.

Adventures in Fabric: Fun With Paint!

Fabric paint is my friend.  

For sweatshirts to sport my favorite things:

To fixing shirts that previously fit me but had stains:

To making ridiculous things just so they glow in the dark:

 

Weeeee!

Adventures in Fabric: Bottoms Up!

Okay, so it's true that I do sew, and I like creating stuffed animals and I do occasionally attempt altering clothing.  
Soon, I'll be attempting a dress from a pattern.  

This is scary.

So, in the meantime, I'm showing you other successes and failures in my wardrobe!  Yay!

To begin with, PANTS.

First, we have a pair which I had loved to death.  GIANT holes in the knees of these ultra comfy pants upset me.  They were also covered in paint, which happens to everything I own.  

For a while, I was wearing pajama pants underneath them, but they'd bunch up and be a pain to get on and off.  

I decided to just cut the Hell out of the pajamas and sew them underneath to the pants themselves as patches from the inside: 

 

Then (and a little before) I used fabric paint to make a bloody horror look, like someone had sliced off my knee caps.  

Next up is a pair that fit me reasonably well, were cheap, and I was bored...

So I sliced them up on purpose, added the fabric paint from both sides as "blood" and stitched them back together with thick, black thread.  Zombie pants! 

 A better look:

 The back:

Finally (as far as "horror pants" go), there were pants on sale that were normally pretty expensive ONLY because they came with pre-made holes.  I determined that there would be no reason for such holes unless they were bullet wounds, so this occurred:

 Really finally, the Bat-Pants.  These pants were also well loved and full of holes achieved in battle, and the patches are just cut outs from really soft men's underwear.  I had bought them for a boyfriend who didn't want to entertain me by wearing them, so I repurposed them:  

I have too much time on my hands! 

Weeeee!