Tag Archives: stripes

adventures in drafting // self-striping

Striped dress

Striped dress

Striped dress

Striped dressdress: self-drafted // shoes: Seychelles

**Photos should hopefully be fixed now!

No, not like sock yarn. Like when you go crazy and decide to make your own striped fabric.

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In my defense I really tried to find navy and white striped fabric and just couldn’t. At the beginning of this semester we were assigned a storyboard of a five garment mini-collection, with the stipulation that one of our three garments due this semester had to be from the board. Now, a normal person would’ve drawn garments in a solid, or easier-to-find kind of print. I decided I just had to have my wide navy/white stripes.

So I sewed my own. I bought peachskin fabric from Joann’s in navy and ivory, cut them into 4″ strips, and sewed them together with a 1/2″ seam allowance so each stripe ended up being 3″ wide. Perffffection.

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Drafting this was a bit of an adventure. Basically I wanted to re-make the Arrow dress from Dear Creatures (looove), but with a bodice that would actually fit me (I think they draft for an A or B cup and I’m a D –my bewbs are definitely not the happiest in that dress), and with a slightly more modern silhouette.

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I started off with the same bodice sloper we use for class. For the front I did a sleeveless adjustment, made a cut-away armhole, and lowered the neckline a bit. Then I drew in a princess line variation from the center front neck diagonally down to the side seam, and moved the side bust dart to the neckline, and transferred the waist dart (with a new apex 3/4″ over like Armstrong says) to ease. (You can kind of see it in the photo right above.)

The back was a little more tricky because my pivot points happened to be right where I wanted the back cut out. I ended up basically just doing a lot of contouring and it seemed to work out. It took a few tries though. The first attempt had a strange lump where most people lack a body bulge, and another attempt was slightly sideways.

The skirt is the same skirt pattern from my Christmas dress. And lastly, I drafted a flat roll Peter Pan collar because why not. :]

In terms of construction, I lined the whole thing with muslin because I have a crap ton of it for school, I needed something light in color because of the white stripes, and I was on a roll and didn’t want to have to stop and drive to Joanns for actual lining fabric.

The verdict: it fits a million times better than the Arrow dress! The only thing I’m a bit sad about is that the bottom edge of the bodice seems to have stretched out a bit, possibly when I was sewing the stripes, and there’s a weird wrinkle in the tummy area of the bodice. Oh well. Also I don’t love what’s happening with the stripes in the back. It’s like my bum ate most of the white stripe.

Anyway, other than those two tiny details, I adore this dress. I’ve already worn it to a party and it was the perfect mix of twee and fancy.

 

MeMadeMay’13 // day 1!

MMM'13 day 1

MMM'13 day 1

MMM'13 day 1

MMM'13 day 1
dress: Modcloth // top: repurposed // satchel: self-made // glasses: Bonlook //shoes: Minnetonka (not pictured)

I’ve probably spent waay too much time planning out outfits and projects to work on and garments to finish so they can be incorporated into MMM outfits. But it’s so much fun! I’m also using this as an opportunity to clean out my closet and get rid of all the stuff I never wear and probably will never wear.

This is my favorite outfit right now, although technically the chambray top was not entirely handmade. I decided to make up for it by adding in a floral satchel I made last year that has somehow managed to avoid making its way on the blog until now. I’ll do a post on it soon; I absolutely love it.

In other news, holy crap, when did it become spring for real? I swear I was up on the roof only a few days ago and everything was still gray and leafless. Suddenly everything is all warm and green!

Busy bee

I’ve been really lame with updating lately, I know.

To make up for it: uber post.

The past few weeks have been somewhat insane. That lovely pile of destruction in my previous post has been sorted/donated/stored and reduced to this:

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(For those who might be wondering, about 1/4 of the middle sized suitcase is yarn. 😉 )

And then there was a Vegas trip! I’m pretty sure I want to live in the Bellagio.

Bellagio

Not in an actual hotel room or anything.

Bellagio

Maybe here!

Bellagio

Did I mention it was 110 F the entire time?

Mandalay Bay beach

I also took about a two week break from all kinds of knitting, which my fingers are now scrambling to make up for.

Behold the current projects:

First there’s Georgia. I’ve been eyeing this for ages and finally gave in. I’m using Knit Picks Stroll in Basalt heather for this and so far it’s turning out lovely. If it fits right I’m definitely knitting it again, possibly in a light green. It looks brown in the photo but it’s really more of a mousey gray with bits of magenta mixed in.

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I only had two skeins of the Basalt heather (they were supposed to be socks) and this project was flying off the needles so whilst I wait for the shipment of four more skeins (on Wednesday!), I worked on my Hermione McRainbowpants v2.0 for a bit. The front is nearly done!

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I’ve also been wanting a cowl for ages and finally decided that I need to have one in my life now. Meet my Stockholm scarf! I loved this pink yarn (Lion Brand Wool-Ease in blush heather, I think) when I bought it but I’m semi-debating dyeing the whole thing a deep magenta/burgundy when it’s knitted. And yes, it’s most likely because the scarf pictures on the pattern are that color and it looks absolutely scrummy.

Stockholm loop

Anddd just to change it up a bit, I started another Damask in Sapphire (also KP Stroll). I’m starting on Christmas presents early!

Sapphire Damask

Andd now back to packing. Five more days until I get to wake up at 5am and fly across the country!

Hello New York

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This hat is an ego boost. It took me less than a day to finish it, I used up some leftover scrap yarn that was just going to sit in a pile anyway, and it’s slouchy and lovely. The pattern is called Hello New York and it’s really quite simple.

I actually changed it up a bit because I was running out of the pale peach colored yarn (leftover from my Hermione gloves) and I didn’t feel like I should be running out to buy more of something I was just trying to use up in the first place. Instead of repeating the six peach rows and two pink rows five times before starting to decrease, I did it four times, started the decrease, and ended up with two rows of pink at the very top. I also used worsted weight yarn (doubled) instead of DK weight yarn anyway like the pattern calls for so it would have ended up ginormous if I’d kept going with the extra pattern repeat.

It also made me feel less of a failure as I worked on my first sock ever, which I keep alternating between worrying that it’s going to end up far too huge or that blocking it is going to be entirely ineffective and it’s just going to be lumpy.

 

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I’m totally in love with the pattern though. And the reindeer.

Hello New York

CIMG1025

This hat is an ego boost. It took me less than a day to finish it, I used up some leftover scrap yarn that was just going to sit in a pile anyway, and it’s slouchy and lovely. The pattern is called Hello New York and it’s really quite simple.

I actually changed it up a bit because I was running out of the pale peach colored yarn (leftover from my Hermione gloves) and I didn’t feel like I should be running out to buy more of something I was just trying to use up in the first place. Instead of repeating the six peach rows and two pink rows five times before starting to decrease, I did it four times, started the decrease, and ended up with two rows of pink at the very top. I also used worsted weight yarn (doubled) instead of DK weight yarn anyway like the pattern calls for so it would have ended up ginormous if I’d kept going with the extra pattern repeat.

It also made me feel less of a failure as I worked on my first sock ever, which I keep alternating between worrying that it’s going to end up far too huge or that blocking it is going to be entirely ineffective and it’s just going to be lumpy.

 

CIMG1028

 

I’m totally in love with the pattern though. And the reindeer.