Spats

They make me feel spiffy.

I came up with the idea, totally, and then checked the way to do it against the threadbanger guys (link at bottom)- and I was right!

What I made:

My thought process:

• I need to get these beige pants off my desk. I want spats. This seems like a good match.
• pattern? nah. I’ll just make stuff up!
• but if I mess up, I can’t just cut a new piece to fix it…
• pattern it is. Has anyone made one that I can steal?
• threadbangers
• cut up old tee-shirt to make pattern.1. Pattern.1 is held together with masking tape and has none of the divisions between parts in the right spots.
• make pattern.1 flat by cutting down the front and back and side where the buttons go and tracing it onto paper to make pattern.2
• add seam allowance and spaces to sew buttons on to pattern.2.
• figure out where the patterns fit on the pants (and take out the seams on the pants for seam allowance sharing. That’s how close it was…)
• cut, stitch together.
• find buttons, create buttonholes in outside piece, sew buttons on underside piece.
• discover that they’re too big because of liberties taken in the patternmaking and sewing process and fix that

A note on stitching- It is a good idea if you hem(get the raw edge of the fabric turned under and inside a seam) these, especially if you are using a fabric that sheds a lot. I didn’t and my universe is full of beige corduroy fluffies. Sigh. Also, stitch the pieces together, then do the button flaps, then do the top and bottom hems.

There is a strap that goes under the arch of the boot. Because I didn’t account for that in my patterns and plans, I have a rather embarrassing piece of yarn and a safety pin.

I have just enough fabric left to make matching gloves, so that’s my next step. Then I might work on a skirt I bought fabric for last winter… DO EVERYTHING ELSE LIKE SRSLY

This post moved up from three weeks from now to nao because fern is awesome and asked pretty. Hi fern!

Fern~

Here are all the patterns and stuff. I don’t know how useful they’ll be, though.

The three patterns together. The middle one goes on the inside of your right leg, the other two on the outside of the same leg. The ruler is a standard 1ft/30cm with HOLOGRAPHIC DINOSAURS. (It is the best ruler ever)

The button side ones. The strips down the middle get folded under and sewn down.

and the button side patterns with the button side of the spat to maybe make it a little clearer.

Threadbangers: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfxGVQ3WpSc

Shell Button Vest

I’ve wanted a pockety vest since forever, so I finally got around to making one for myself. Whee!

Vest looks like this. I’ll go into details under the pictures.

Skull Shirt

…the things I have to do to get clothing with skulls…

I had a whole epic explanation written up and then I read it and it sucked, so have a couple lists.

What I did:

• request striped shirts from mom.
• I got a nonstriped navy shirt with truly horrific flowers on the sleeves and chest. They had to go.
• I cut the sleeves off and the flower on the front out
• I cut a patch out of a contrasting fabric and sewed it in under the hole.
• The patch needed something on it. Went to the internet, printed out a pattern
• Pinned the pattern to the patch, stitched over the pattern, tore the pattern off
• also tore some of the stitching out, despite my careful knot tying
• When I wore the shirt to school and people loved it so I decided to salvage it.
• Quilting has a technique called free motion that works by stopping the feed dogs and letting the sewer guide the fabric by hand. Most sewing machines have a lever or button that disengages the feed dogs. I had to get out a screwdriver and manually remove the feed dogs on my sewing machine.
• Free motion stitched over the old stitching. It worked beautifully.

When I sew sideways and then backwards without stopping the machine, I feel like I have MAGICAL GODLIKE POWERS. It’s pretty awesome, you should try it sometime.

What Would Work Better

• Pin the pattern to the patch
• Free motion stitch the pattern, remove pattern
• stitch patch into hole in the shirt

So much easier, no?

Aand now for the pics (after the break (c’mon, click. they’re neat.))!