All posts by Peneloping

On perfect fabrics falling out of the sky (not literally)

Sometimes I’ll have a project in mind and will search high and low and not be able to find the right fabric for it. When I was making my Betty Draper dress for the Mad Men party I went to, I literally spent hours perusing eBay and fabric.com and went to the fabric store twice before giving up and picking a different dress to replicate. (I had originally wanted to do this one but ended up going with this one instead.)

Then there are times like this past week when perfect fabrics fall into your lap and beg to be taken home.

Fabric finds

A few days ago I went thrifting on a whim looking for spice jars and possibly some DIY-able men’s shirts. There was nothing remotely resembling a spice jar and I was completely distracted by shoes and forgot to look at men’s shirts, but I did stumble across a three yard hunk of gorgeous pink/taupe silky satiny fabric mixed in with the sheets and bedding. Here’s the extra-awesome part: a few months ago I was wandering aimlessly around the fabric store looking for exactly that fabric! Except the only thing remotely similar was 100% silk and about $290384 per yard (not an exact estimate). I ended up leaving with a satin that was too heavy and didn’t drape right and abandoned that project. Did I mention the thrift store charged me exactly $1.99 for that three yard piece??

The next day I stopped by the fabric store on the way to school to get some thread and decided it couldn’t hurt to just glance around. My bank account winced and I thought maybe just one tiny chunk of fabric couldn’t hurt. And then I found the same fabric I had found at the thrift store, in exactly the shade of navy I had needed to go with the taupey pink! *happy dance*

Double breasted peter pan

While I was at the fabric store, I had also wanted to look around for a navy cotton, something on the thicker side but still with drape. I was about to walk out of there with something not so amazing when the perfect fabric basically jumped out at me. I don’t even know what this fabric would be called so I couldn’t really ask for what I was looking for. I’m still amazed!

Anyway, sometimes it’s nice when the universe balances out the times when you just can’t for the life of you find what you’re looking for.

Yellow floral fabric

In other news, I’ve got some more exciting projects lined up this weekend. I bought a yellow floraly fabric a few weeks ago and I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with it but I’m thinking of going with this pattern. I might add some sort of cute collar detail but I haven’t decided.

I have to say though, it’s a little depressing making summer dresses and not being able to wear them immediately. I feel like this yellow print is a little too sunshiney to be able to wear in the snow. I’ll have to experiment.

Literally all of yesterday I was sucked into this project and holy crap it’s been difficult! I’ve had absolutely no training in pattern drafting and I wouldn’t even know where to begin to do it the “right” way. I’ve tried the math thing and somehow my calculations always seem to be off (one time I swear I did all the math right and ended up with a waist line 14″ too wide). I’ve tried using my mannequin but it’s a cheapy one and we have entirely different body types (plus her boobs are oddly pointy –maybe she needs a bra?). I’ve even tried tracing existing garments, which usually works best (except for the time I stupidly used a knit dress to make a pattern for a cotton dress and didn’t account for the lack of stretch -headdesk-). Usually I’m able to cobble together something decent but I couldn’t begin to tell you how I did it.

Chelsea collar dress

Anyhoo, the point is I’m 99% done and it 99% fits! I just need to hem it and fray check the buttonholes and it’ll be good to go! Look for it on the blog on Monday ;]

Lastly, can I just say how much in love I am with my new camera? My one piece of advice for camera noobs is to go touch one. No joke. If I had actually gone to a store and picked up and played with each of the cameras I was looking into getting, I’m fairly certain I would have gone home with this one in the first place. (Although to be fair, the only reason I could afford this one now is because the d7100 just came out so prices on used d7000 dropped dramatically. But still! Touch all the cameras!)

d7000!

And yes, I  do feel slightly blasphemous taking crappy picture of a d7000 with an iPhone.

Have a great weekend!

8 Comments life - -

Winter-ifying

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress

Dear Creatures pink dress
dress: Dear Creatures // top: Ross // tights: Modcloth // boots: Boutique 9 // scarf: thrifted

You know that feeling when you’re craving a season that still at least five months away and clothing more suited to that season starts jumping out at you from your closet and you briefly consider dressing for that weather in the hopes that that weather will magically appear but you end up having to choke back sobs as you put those clothes back in storage for five months?

Well, this isn’t quite like that. But almost.

I bought myself a birthday present from Emerging Thoughts a few weeks ago and they happened to be offering grab bags so I snagged one. Somehow, magically, one of the items they sent me was a dress I had been eyeballing last summer! Except it really is a summer dress and we’ve had two weeks of pretty steady snow.

After I was done squee-ing, I hung it up and stared at it, petting it occasionally, and thought of all the different outfits I would make with it once summer rolled around.

And then I became annoyed. I have a brand new gorgeous dress by my absolute favorite designer. Why should I have to wait to wear it? Did I mention it has pockets??

So I decided to attempt to winter-ify it. Because expecting a person to wait months to wear a brand new Dear Creatures dress is just nonsense.

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More collar love

Navy collar dress

Navy collar dress

Navy collar dress

Navy collar dress

Navy collar dress

Navy collar dress
dress: self-made // tights: Modcloth // belt: Modcloth // boots: Boutique 9

Anyway, I think this might be my favorite of the Burda 7739 bunch I’ve made. I also think it might be safe to say that I’m a little obsessed with this pattern, considering I’ve already made it three times: this one, a gray one that I just realized I forgot to post oh no wait, I did post it!, and  a spring version I finished last week that I haven’t posted yet.

This one was heavily inspired by yet another Dear Creatures dress. Shocking, I know. I loved the original dress but I knew the lack of a waist would look terrible on me so Burda 7739 seemed the perfect pattern to use for it. As usual, I lengthened the waist by a few inches, and I used double fold bias tape for the white detailing. I also lengthened the sleeves past the elbow and made little cuffs. I’m thinking of ripping those and making new cuffs with buttons.

So far I’ve worn this on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I’m pretty much in love. I also have about six more dresses in my Sewing Inspiration board that this pattern would be absolutely perfect for recreating.

Do you have any patterns that you just can’t get enough of?

PS It was so great to hear about what everyone’s working on over the long weekend. I’m still hammering out a few pattern piecing-related issues, but so far so good! I hope all of your projects are going swimmingly.

17 Comments sewing - - - - -

The sketching stage

Notions

Notions

Sketches

I’m working on some fun stuff this weekend. I bought this fabric a week ago but I’ve been too scared to cut into it since I don’t have a pattern for this project and it’s been a while since I’ve free-handed a garment sans pattern. Yesterday I sat down and sketched it all out and made it all make sense in my head. I think I know what I’m doing now.

Wish me luck!

Do you have any exciting projects lined up for the weekend?

13 Comments sewing - - - -

On not standing in the way of goals

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I made another Sorbetto top! Actually technically I just harvested the guts from my turquoise Sorbetto and used black knit instead.

There are going to be some changes around here in the near future. I mentioned wanting to blog more in my New Year’s resolutions post and then again when I changed up the layout a bit, but I’m still not completely happy with where things are here.

A huge part of the problem is the state of my laptop, and another issue is general shyness.

My laptop is over three years old. It’s sad and dying. Editing photos literally takes hours because of how slowly it loads things and how often I have to start over. I bought a Wacom tablet last year that I’ve barely been able to use because it’s hard enough to get used to writing on a tablet without dealing with lag.

And then there’s the shyness issue. I bought a camera last year wanting to learn all about photography and use my blog as a way to learn as well as showcase crafty projects. I read piles of books (I have tons of recommendations if anyone’s interested!) and watched hours and hours of instructional videos. The one area where I had trouble was actually taking my camera out to play around with it.

It seems counter-intuitive, right? Most people get a new toy like that and can’t wait to run out and try it out immediately.

I really have no explanation. Except that I had no idea what I was doing and I was terrified that people would stop me on the street and and disdainfully demand to know why I was bastardizing the art of photography.

Totally reasonable fears, I know. *cough*

Anyway, I’ve decided I’m tired of holding myself back. My old apartment had great indoor lighting, and I was able to post fairly regularly, but I would only take outfit photos when no one was around. Needless to say, having to work around my own schedule plus my roommate’s absences was not exactly ideal. My current apartment faces the wrong way and has no good place for outfit posts. We do, however, have a lovely huge rooftop filled with plants and decor that would be perfect for outfit shoots. I’ve been meaning to go venture up there to try it out for ages but have always managed to come up with an excuse not to.

But no more! I’m doing it this weekend. If not tomorrow. I want to learn photography! I spent three hours yesterday looking at blogs and Pinterest and photographs and I’ve got all kinds of inspiration running through me. I don’t expect to end up with anything resembling an amazing photograph but I’m never going to get there if my camera just sits sadly neglected in my room while I read books and watch videos.

So yes, roof. Tomorrow. And yes, I will probably freeze.

And to address the technology issue, I have a new laptop coming in the mail tomorrow! *squee*

Which basically means that if I’m still unable to achieve my goals, I’ll have no one to blame but myself.

4 Comments life - - - -