Wind-sock

I had this coloured light cotton fabric cut up from a summer dress.

And I turned it into a wind-sock simply by sewing a square shut at the side, hemming the top and bottom. I inserted a wire coat hanger into the top hem. And attached scraps of matching fabric at the bottom. Light fabric that could billow in the breeze.

Then I simply got a thumbtack and stuck the fabric on to a stick!

What a difference a patterned fabric makes

I've moved house. Here's a pic of the window in the bathroom:

 It needs a blind. So I got a blind... plain white:

And then I added some fabric to it. I was pleasantly surprised by really how much of a difference the pattern makes:

From Ikea! The fabric and the blind itself.

Great Gatsby trousers

My brother's friend is organising a Great Gatsby party. He wanted plus fours to wear to it. Now, I didn't research plus fours or plus twos or any of that jazz, although I know I should have.
We took an old pair of my mother's tweedy pants.

Took in the waist, cut off the legs, and added a band below the knee.

My brother's under-knee is 32cm in diameter.

I found very appropriate buttons (I think!)

Can't wait til he tries them on.
And I hope to be roped in to dress some of his friends too :)
... I have a feeling I overlapped the button part towards the front when it should be towards the back. So now, with that in mind, I'll undertake some historical research; check if those buttons are as appropriate as I like to think. It was nice to know I could pull it off sewing-wise.

Decorating Julie Feeney's Shoes

I've designed a Clocks Dress for the singer Julie Feeney - to go with her latest album Clocks - she'll wear it on the 9th August at a concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the National Concert Hall.

The dress is one thing... but shoes... I picked up these leopard-print shoes. I really think the weight of the heel is appropriate for the dress I've designed. 

 Leopardskin is NOT the look I wanted, so out comes the spray paint...

And now for the fun part. The embellishment! I bought these old clock parts from a shop on Etsy. I sorted through them, arranging them into circular cog parts, clock-hands, and "other".

 

But the problem now is how to attach these embellishments to the shoes. I'm thinking in cog-shapes to emphasise them.

Hot glue is too messy methinks. I'm wondering about sewing them on to a fabric and then gluing that fabric to the shoe... luckily my bastel-crazy sister-in-law is on hand to help. And I still have more than a week to get the shoes done.

Cut-up Top

Another Cut-up Couture project. This time made from a man's shirt, size L. A halterneck top. The shirt was an old one my brother had.

 See the original shirt buttons at the back.

I liked this. It was fun and I'd make it again but the measurements weren't great in terms of making the halterneck fit properly around the neck or the back. The back sits a bit too low (hoisted up over my bra in this pic).

Cut-up Jumper

Recently I blogged about a Japanese pattern-book called Cut-up Couture. The patterns take men's garments and turn them into interesting female garments.
I made a jumper from two XL man's sweatshirts, bought in Penney's for €12 each. The ribbon was bought in the wonderful, huge, Hickey's in Galway near Eyre Square.

It balloons at the back, and ties with a ribbon at the front.

The pattern calls for men's L sweatshirts so perhaps this corner which takes from the "ballooness". This would be avoided if the sleeve and side seam of the original jumper were the same length.

I like things cosy and snuggly, this is more crazy and zany than practical.

Cut-up Couture

A girl in my dress-making class leant me a Japanese pattern book of hers: Cut-Up Couture: Edgy Upcycled Garments to Sew by Koko Yamase.

I bought a man's XL sweatshirt, and my brother gave me a L shirt that doesn't fit him... and I've made myself an "interesting" jumper and a halter-neck top. Both quirky and wearable.

Figure 8 Scarf #1 Take#2

I have re-made the first Figure 8 Scarf that I made! I had bought the Anna Maria Horner fabric and voile scarf cuts from The Village Haberdashery. For the second scarf I made, I didn't use the voile but bought a silkier lining fabric from a local shop. The colour matched the Zagzig Garnet velveteen as well so I decided to remake the first scarf.

I am so glad I bought these scarf fabrics and did these projects. I learned a lot as a beginner seamstress.
Practice on sewing maching

• straight stitching
• feeding the fabric in a straight line
• sewing two fabrics of different textures

Little sewing techniques:

• starting the seam a little in from the end in order to have a hem to turn in left over (that's a difficult sentence to make sense of! See Anna Maria's scarf-making instructions)
• hand-stitching the "hem"

And as a result of all that learning, I have two beautiful scarves to present to a friend or family member.

Upcycled Skirt

I had this black velvet dressy skirt languishing in my wardrobe since I bought it.

I removed the floral panel and the velvet 'flap' which made a faux-wrap-skirt of it. And removed the netting at the bottom. And re-sewed the side seam.
Let's see if I wear it now!