Tuesday, October 13, 2015

I Am Horrible


I made accent pillows instead of starting on the Halloween costumes.
And then I came here to blog about them.

In an attempt to be fast, I omitted piping.
Travesty!

These are for my friend, in whose house I crashed one summer weekend in NYC. They are a housewarming and thank-you-for-your-hospitality-and-letting-me-eat-all-the-ice-cream-in-your-freezer gift. 

Belated (of course).

Or . . . I could send a Christmas card with it and be premature.

Now, there's an idea.





6 comments:

  1. I'm also procrastinating on Halloween. It doesn't help that my girls keep changing their minds about what they want to be.

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  2. So I have a question for you, but before I get to the point, thank you for your blog, I love it, and check here often, and have learned so much about sewing from you. I love how much you teach techniques that empower your readers to create. I don't often comment I guess because I've never properly introduced myself, and I've never felt comfortable treating a complete stranger like an old friend. So anyway, I'm Kathy and I have six kids, and I like to pretend like I know how to sew. One of my philosophies is that you will be amazed at what you can do when you just pretend like you know what you're doing.

    So, now to my question, I'm making a mermaid skirt for my 11 yo daughter, and the fabric I'm using is the same kind that you used for your girls' morphing mermaid tails. I want to do something similar, but I want it to be more fitted, with ruched sides, and I'm inclined to use a zipper in the side seam instead of an elastic waistband. At first, I had planned on leaving it unlined, the fabric has some stretch, but then I didn't want it to totally lose its shape with the ruched side seams. So then I thought maybe it would be a good idea to have a non-stretchy lining, but I'm still not sure. I'd love your thoughts.

    My 9 yo boy wants to be a bat this year, and I'm thinking your butterfly wings tutorial will be perfect to adapt for it. The one with the sleeves, not the skirt with wrap around wings. Incidentally, I did use the skirt with wrap around wings tutorial for a spider costume for my girl a few years ago, except the wings were the spider's web. I should send you a picture, it turned out pretty cool.

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    Replies
    1. KathyD: Hello back!

      My thoughts on the mermaid skirt:
      (i) yes to the zipper. This fabric, if I remember, is not as stretchy as a real knit, because it has that metallic layer fused on top of it that restricts the stretch somewhat. Use an invisible zipper if you can - not only are they easier to install than regular ones, they are also bulk-friendly; you'll actually be sewing through just one layer of fabric instead of two, that the regular zipper will require during the topstitching step.
      (ii) I would use a knit lining, or something that has give. A woven lining would make this a pencil skirt, and your kid might find it difficult to walk in. Not impossible, just difficult. Since the outer fabric (the metallic scale one) is already not especially stretchy, having a knit lining would not take much away from the shape. And is comfortable against the skin.

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    2. Thank you! That helps very much!

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