Picture of a wolf

Before I made the bunny picture, I started another picture at school. It remained unfinished for a long time as we had other, scheduled projects (this was an extra project). It is also based on a picture from a coloring book. I started with the background and by cutting an outline of the head from black fabric.

Then I cut parts of the picture from various scraps of fabric and arranged them on the black outline. I had no glue while making this, so I had to be careful to keep the pieces in their correct places.

When the picture was finished, I covered it with black tulle and stitched straight lines on top of it in 0.5 cm intervals. This was a lot easier than going along the outlines as I did with the bunny. The tulle fabric on top of the picture changes the colors, and the result isn't quite as colorful as before adding it.

A lot of skirts

The task that determined our grades for the 30 skill point course from January to mid-April was to make several skirts in 1930's style for a theatrical production. We had to make the patterns based on a basic pattern and cut and sew the skirts.

We had to make at least two skirts each, but I ended up making four. The first two were basic bell-shaped skirts, one made of 8 pieces, the other of 6 pieces.

With the 8-piece skirt, the two half-patterns had to be cut into half to get four pieces. Then those were cut in half and the halves angled as shown below. So you add wedges in the middle of each of the four pieces. Finally, you cut two pieces of fabric per pattern piece to get 8 parts.

Below is the finished skirt made this way.

The 6-piece skirt is made using the same principle, except you cut the pattern pieces to 1/3 and 2/3 of the original width and place the 1/3 piece on fold.

The resulting skirt isn't that much different from the 8-piece skirt, just has two vertical seams less.

As I was watching a video about 1930's fashion in Finland, I saw some interesting ones, and the third skirt I made was different from the first two. In this case, the bell-shaped part starts about 1/3 down the skirt. Otherwise, it's an 8-piece skirt.

The video also showed a lot of pleated skirts. The common theme with those was that the pleats started fairly low, around mid-thigh. There were different variations of this, but I wanted to make a yoke skirt. So the fourth skirt had a yoke and wide pleats. The picture below shows the bottom part after stitching the pleats.

The skirt was size 44, so it was a bit too big for me, but I still decided to try it on. I just put it on over my jeans to get an idea of how it looks. As I was doing this, I mentioned to the teacher that "I'd wear a skirt like this," so she said "next you can make one for yourself."

I didn't have the fabric for that, so I started with the pattern as I needed size 42. After a visit to a fabric store, I was ready to make a skirt for myself. The main difference with it was the smaller size and shorter length. With legs like mine, the length in the above picture is about the worst possible, so I made a knee-length skirt for myself. All my other skirts are in fairly subdued colors (various shades of blue with a bit of white), so I chose something a bit more colorful for this one.

The weather hasn't been very nice lately, so I haven't had a chance to wear this yet, but I will as soon as it gets warmer. And the grade? I'm happy to tell that I got 5 on a scale of 1-5. I'm not that set on getting great grades, but of course it's always nice to get a good one. It's just not as important for me as it is for the young students who need good grades for applying to wherever it is they want to go later.

Back from a break

Just as I was getting back to speed with blogging, life happened. Or rather, death. So I took an almost total break from my online activities.

I've still been studying, actually even longer hours that before, because it's one of the things that keeps my mind occupied and away from all that's happened. But now I think I'm ready to continue, and first, I'll be doing some updates on what I've been doing during the break.

The vest got finished. It's maybe a bit big for me, but then again, it is meant to be worn over a hoodie as seen in the photo below.

After finishing it, I thought I could do another one that's a bit smaller (goes on top of a shirt). I didn't have enough of one fabric, so I decided to use smaller pieces. First I sewed 15x15 cm squares together to make a rectangular piece, which I then cut using the pattern I had modified a bit (shorter shoulder seam and 2 cm off from the sides seams).

Here's the same piece seen from the reverse side. The order in which I sewed the pieces was first sewing four pieces together in vertical direction, then sewing the four resulting pieces together.

Then I made the front pieces the same way and sewed all three pieces together. Next, I made a narrow strip for the hem. I liked the elephant pattern, so decided to use it.

The lining is made of an old duvet cover. It was the only fabric I had in big enough pieces. Also, the colors weren't too off as the vest has all of them. This time I decided to only make inside pockets, because I didn't want to cover any of the pictures I had in front.

Finally, here is the finished vest. It's smaller and weighs a bit less than the first one. The idea is that it's for summer use. I prefer large pockets instead of a handbag, so this should do the job fine.

More pockets

After finishing the double pockets, it was time to make some more pockets for the vest. These go above the other pockets.

The first thing was to make a pattern, and I had no idea how to do that, because the pockets needed folds. However, that's what the teachers are for. It turned out to be quite simple, you just need to know what to do. In this case, it was the same thing we did when making the patterns for the bell-shaped skirt.

You make a pattern for a flat pocket, cut it as shown in the picture above, and then spread out the bottom ends of the outer parts a bit. In this case, there is 1 cm added to both corners. Then you glue the pieces in place and draw the seam allowances around the pattern created this way. When sewing, you just make folds that remove 1 cm from both corners, and the result is a pocket with straight vertical sides.

The order of sewing is: sewing and stitching the folds in the corner, hemming the upper edge, ironing the seam allowances in the sides and bottom edge, and stitching the pocket in place. With a single color fabric, you'd use either the hem or front middle to get the pockets straight, but in this case, I used the upper edge of the lower pockets, because the pictures needed to be horizontally straight.

So now the vest has all of the outside pockets. The next step is to make the lining and the inside pocket that will be sewn into it. I'm currently in the middle of making a sample of the inside pocket, because getting the zipper in place properly is a bit tricky. Best to practice first before touching the actual lining.

More collars

On Monday, we made samples of two of the collars we drew last week. Making them made things a lot clearer than just reading the written instructions. With the instructions, it didn't help that some pictures had been turned 90 degrees to fit into the page. Especially one of them was totally incomprehensible until I realized I needed to turn it first to get the upper edge on top. Then it started making sense.

The first collar was a simpler one for a women's blouse. It was fairly quick to make once all stages were clear.

The other one was the kind used in men's shirts. It's more complicated and requires accurate sewing, but I think it looks much nicer and neater. Once we've done some samples of slits for sleeves, we'll be making a blouse, and I think I want this kind of collar in it.

Bias Binder

I decided to take a look at what accessories are available for my sewing machine. There is a quite wide selection of presser feet, and the one I decided to get was the bias binder. This is a lot smaller than in the machines we have at school, but it doesn't matter, because this is a good size for doll clothes.

The bias binding needs to be 24 mm in width, which means the end result is 6 mm wide. This picture is from a practice piece I sewed just to see how the thing works. Straight edges are easy once you figure out the right needle placement, but I'm not sure this can be used for curves. At least the first attempt failed, but maybe I just need some practice.

Here is the piece from the picture above. The needle placement was 1.8, which is quite a bit to the left. The default needle placement makes the stitches much too close to the edge.

Double pocket

I managed to finish the lower pockets of the vest this week. Or not quite, two corners of each pocket still need a bit of stitching, but my sewing machine isn't powerful enough to do it as there are so many layers of fabric there. So that'll have to wait until I get to the school's sewing machine on Monday.

The structure of the pocket is such that there are two pockets in one. A flat one in front and a bit deeper one behind it. Here you can see the almost finished pocket. The front pocket is accessed from the top, under the flap, and the back pocket through the opening on the side that has a zipper.

I'm giving here the basic instructions, explaining the order of things, but not all details, because a lot depends on the thickness of the fabrics you're using. I had to do some tweaking in the corners to minimize the layers of fabric, but with different kinds of fabrics, those things probably would not have been necessary. 

To begin with, you need two identical parts for the pocket, one made of the outside fabric, another made of the lining fabric. Turn the upper edge of the outer part and sew it. At this stage, the inner part should be 1 cm (seam allowance) higher than the outer part.

Sew the pieces together with a narrow strip of the lining fabric in between (this part can be seen from the outside when accessing the zipper pocket). The original vest had black lining, which looked the same on both sides, but in my version it took some thought to figure out which way the lining fabric used inside the pocket should be facing. When sewing the vertical seam that attaches the pieces together here, the inner and outer parts should have the right side facing up with the inner part on top of the outer part, while the strip in between them should be the right side down. Lay the pieces flat, turn the strip on top of the inner part, turn the edge of the strip under and stitch near the edge.

The next step is to sew the zipper. It should be entirely under the edge of the fabric, so it stays out of sight. It needs to be sewn with the right side of the outer part facing up, so you're basically going blind, but it is fairly easy to feel the zipper underneath. You just need to be very careful, if you're using a metal zipper, so you don't break the needle when sewing the horizontal part at the bottom. Here you can also see how the narrow strip in the previous picture shows to the outside.

The next step is the side of the back pocket. Sew it in place, turn the right side out, iron flat and stitch near the edge. Note that when you're stitching the upper corner, you need to first turn the seam allowance of the inner part as shown in the picture.

Turn and iron the seam allowances of the other edge. Draw the shape of the pocket to the fabric to which you're sewing the pocket, so you get the edges of the side to the correct place (to get the curved parts identical in both pockets), and sew the pocket in place. Start with the zipper, then the upper edge (the lining fabric, this is why the inner part needs the seam allowance to go 1 cm above the upper edge of the outer part) and finally the edges of the side piece. Stitch the corners neat and flat.

To get the pockets straight, you can either measure from the bottom edge or the vertical middle, but in this case, I used the fabric patterns, because anything else would have looked strange.

The very final part will be to add buttons, but that also requires machines I only have access to at school, so it'll be done later.