Sewing

I am almost finished with my babydoll top! :) I just have to finish my hems.

Post pictures, I wanna see

My guy friend gave me all of his cotton, button-down dress shirts. There's a lot of fabric put into those babies, which means I can make a lot of stuff with them. With a white shirt, I made a tuxedo dickie/bib type thing. It has pleats and all that good stuff. Then, with a yellow shirt, I made myself a bow tie. I am really proud of my new dress wear. haha
I also like to make adjustments to things that I've found at Good Will or a thrift store. I've been working with elastic lately. Sewing elastic into something can make it look completely different!

Does anyone have a Serger? If you don't, what do you do to finish seams?

I finished this dress today. Managed to do the whole thing in just a couple hours because I was bored and had nothing better to do. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, considering that I used cheap Walmart fabric to make it (:

Finished another shirt today :)
I really have to take pictures of them.

*bump*
I dislike how dead this thread is. :(
Anyway, I'm off to Joann's fabrics soon. Anyone have ideas for patterns (preferably simplicity) for an alice in wonderland inspired dress?

I used to take sewing classes for a really long time!
I wish I could have made really awesome clothes, but all the patterns in the store I took classes at had really godawful patterns from, like, the 80s. and I just never mastered how to make things without patterns.
I wish I could have continued. It would be so cool if I made my own clothes.

^ I actually made a red satin dress (>.> which I still need to take a picture of. Shh.) and a halter top that I'm going to wear to a 30 seconds to mars concert.

brand new hope.:

*bump*
I dislike how dead this thread is. :(
Anyway, I'm off to Joann's fabrics soon. Anyone have ideas for patterns (preferably simplicity) for an alice in wonderland inspired dress?

That reminds me. One of my summer projects is to make at least the top of this dress:

Probably just going to attach a simple ruffled skirt with a lace trim, nothing fancy. Anyway, I was planning on just customising a pattern I already had, but I looked on the Simplicity website and 2501 looks quite promising, either view B or C.

Anyway. Sewing/crafting is generally taking over my life right now It's so fun. Today I made a floral summer dress. I've made them before but this is the one I'm most proud of, it's the neatest and most professional looking so far. I want to start making bags next.

^ Bags are really difficult to make if you dont know how to do piping, unfortunately.
I bought 3 dress patterns today, one of them being Simplicity 2622. I bought a glitter fabric to overlay the black cotton. I'm excited :)


Oh, and thats my 30 seconds to mars halter top that I made :)
The glyphics are made from a stencil my dad made and fabric spray paint. I made the straps just like how I do for mostly anything else. The straps are red with black chinese lettering, which was inspired by their music video for From Yesterday.

Hmm, I've been trying to get more interested in sewing, but fail to think of a good starting project.

I've done some sewing before when I was younger, but mostly hand stitched things. My mom was also a seamstress sometime ago and is definitely willing to help me. It's all just in picking the project.

Anyone have any suggestions on what might be a good, simple starting project?

Retro.:

Hmm, I've been trying to get more interested in sewing, but fail to think of a good starting project.

I've done some sewing before when I was younger, but mostly hand stitched things. My mom was also a seamstress sometime ago and is definitely willing to help me. It's all just in picking the project.

Anyone have any suggestions on what might be a good, simple starting project?

A simple apron pattern is good for a simple starting project. However, when I started taking classes, we had to do a few seams on the machine.
One 5/8
One 5/8 pinked
One zig zag
Etc.

brand new hope.:

^ Bags are really difficult to make if you dont know how to do piping, unfortunately.

None of the ones I'm making have piping, it should be cool.

Retro.:

Anyone have any suggestions on what might be a good, simple starting project?

Cushions/pillows are really easy since you're only sewing straight lines. A cushion was the first thing I ever made, back when I did textiles at school. Or a simple tote bag. Then you can start putting all your sewing supplies in the tote bag, which is good if you're incredibly messy like me and lack a place to put things.

Ooo, nice suggestions. Definitely looking into all this now. Thanks.

Matt Smith:

Cushions/pillows are really easy since you're only sewing straight lines. A cushion was the first thing I ever made, back when I did textiles at school. Or a simple tote bag. Then you can start putting all your sewing supplies in the tote bag, which is good if you're incredibly messy like me and lack a place to put things.

In that case, it should be easy. I know for me, piping was extremely difficult

Matt Smith:

Cushions/pillows are really easy since you're only sewing straight lines. A cushion was the first thing I ever made, back when I did textiles at school. Or a simple tote bag. Then you can start putting all your sewing supplies in the tote bag, which is good if you're incredibly messy like me and lack a place to put things.

In that case, it should be easy. I know for me, piping was extremely difficult.

I don't know if it counts as sewing, but I've been making my own band t-shirts lately.

I use iron ons, though. I want to buy a Yudu so bad! It's a personal screenprinting machine.

I'll post pictures as soon as my dad brings the camera home. I've made one Gogol Bordello tee. It's a purple t-shirt with white lettering that says "Start Wearing Purple!" in this staggered lettering on the front, and "Gypsy Punk" on the back. I'm making a Tom Waits one today, hopefully.

I want it to be white with black lettering. I'm planning on having it say "I'm on my way to Burma Shave" on the front, with possibly something on the back. Maybe "Rain Dog".

So I got this book:

I love it, I'd totally recommend it. I've decided to attempt every project in there in the hopes that it will improve my sewing skills. So far I've done the knitting needle case and the bird cushion (but the latter went horribly. Appliqué birds were infuriating and in the process I ended up jabbing a needle right under my thumbnail and it's gone all purple and painful. I am not cut out for hand sewing).

I'm hoping to make a dress similar to the ones Kerli Koiv wears in her music videos.


Similar to this, but not so ballerina tutu. I want the skirt to be poofy, just not straight out like this.
As for the top, I'm thinking about just making a simple corset - embellishing it a bit with lace (possibly?)
But I'm thinking about what fabric I should use... should I stick to cotton? Or try satin?
If you guys have any suggestions - let me know?
--
@Matt Smith - I started handsewing when I was younger. I don't think I ever pricked myself with the needle. But, I get pricked with machine needles like HELL. Sometimes I sew over many layers *like sewing over elastic* and the needle will snap, the sharp half getting caught in the presser foot. I had already inserted the machine needle when I saw the other needle was still stuck in the presser foot. Me being the genius I am, stuck my finger in to get the broken needle, and it good needle jabbed my thumb. Bled, bruised and was sore for a week.