anzgu

Recent and not so recent things: China-print coctail dress

2009-10-27T22:10:15Z

This dress is something I reeeeeeeeeeally like and would wear to every event had I not done that already. The pics of it aren't most excellent but you'll just have to live with it for now... :P

Front:

Back:

The dress fabric itself is a printed cotton-blend with a really colourful and china-inspired print. I really liked the fabric and went ahead and made a reversable jacket of it aswell but that's a whole other story right there. In this dree it was a breeze to sew because of the firm nature of it. When you cut it a certain way it stays in that shape instead of wiggling all over the place.

The belt part! It's made of black, short-run satin that also holds it's shape really well, concidering it's satin. The colourful bits on between the belt-section are of the same fabric as the rest of the dress. Hidden zip in the side seam and fully lined. That's all the information I'm remembering now, hope you like it! :)

Recent and not so recent things: Flowy gown

2009-10-20T22:20:56Z

Now, I'm not quite sure wether I've posted pics of this dress or not but I bet if I did the pics weren't this good. So I'm posting reguardles. :P

This dress is something made completely for a show, and if I'm not forgetting something big it's never been worn in an event. I've used it for several portfolios and competition entries, though.

Here it is!

I made the dress by first modeling a form-fitting base for the dress... Without the draping and all. Once I was finished with that I draped the top fabric on top of the base and sewed them together after what seemed like a billion chalk markers on both the base and the top fabric. Other than the markers I also tried a new technique. I cut a thin strip of fusable interfacing and ironed it on the edge of the draped fabric while it was still on the dummie trapping the folds under the fusing. This kind of worked and kind of didn't. I also needed the markers because the interfacing didn't hold all the folds in place. But I do have to admit that it did make the sewing a bit easier because I didn't have to worry about the overall "looseness" being in the wrong place. Most of the fabric was where it was called for so the markers only helped me with the fine-tooning, if you will.

The train I "free-hand-cut" and draped to fit the bodice. I wanted it to be a very specific shape when it hit the floor and I've found this to be the best way for things to work out my way... :P And the hem is just a normal 0,5cm rolled hem.

That's about everything I can think of this dress right now, hope you ejoy! :D

Recent and not so recent things: India-inspired dress

2009-10-17T22:18:11Z

So today I finished a supercrazy three-weeks-of-sewing-twelve-hours-a-day-period of my life, one of many, by showing a J-rock-inspired collection at a fair for such things. It wasn't my designs, the whole thing was for my friends label but even though none of it was designed by me I put such an amount of work into it that I really became quite fond of the whole thingy. No pics of that, not yet atleast but I have something else.

First of all a front pic of the last dress I posted since I realized afterwards that (as someone noted) the pic doesn't really show the dress so here's another one.

Thinking about it the next one has kind of a similar shape to it but I' still posting it! :D I like this one quite a bit because it has a really nice feel and colour to it.

It's made of shiffon that has a really thick gold print on it. The printed figures almost look and feel like little pieces of jewellery when you look at it close up. There's a lining, obviously. I'm not that into revealing myself in that matter. And the fastening in just one of the cutest little gold buttons you've ever seen. Since the dress has such a loose fit I didn't want any extra construction done on it so I just made a skinny oval opening on the side and put the button on the top end of it. Looks cute close up and from further away you can't even see there's an opening due to the loose-hanging fabric around it.

Ok, that was it on this dress. I'll post some more on some other things the next time I'll have a moment to spare.

Bye!

Recent and not so recent things: Little brown dress

2009-10-12T19:35:26Z

Soooooo it's been a few forevers since I posted anything. Now I thought it'd be nice to post a few things I've made in this time. I've even managed to snap some portfolio pics of some of those things so the pics should be a teeny bit better than the ones I usually have to post.

Enough with the nonsence, let's get to the good stuff! This is a little (black) brown dress. I made it for myself for family christmas meetings. Since I live so far away we do this whole tour-shebang-thingy with meeting all the relatives every christmas so I get to meet everyone. Anyway, that's what the dress was for... :D

I was going for a farely basic little black dress, only in brown since I look like ghost if I wear only black. Made of poly-blend satin, half-circle skirt and there's a straight lining under the pleating around the waist. Otherwise no lining.

Nothing much more to say about this one, except that it was a very easy dress to wear, even with all the playing on the floor due to having cousins that still play on the floor... :D Hope you like it! :)

A Skull bag...

2007-02-06T10:56:57Z

The bag itself isn't that special. It's a normal shopping bag but the reason I like it is the skull... I stitched it with a normal, short sewing mashine stitch. So here's the bag... More under the cut...

And a close-up of the skull...

That's it...

A Sweatsuit...

2007-02-03T19:43:14Z

Dad ordered a sweatsuit (size XXL) that was supposed to be of a loose model. When it arrived it looked like a skiing outfit... Meaning he could barely get it on. Not exactly XXL, might I say... He's too lazy to return anything so he gave it to me to re-do... In the before-pic the pants aren't the ones that I re-did because I already cut the pants before I remembered to take pics... But they looked pretty much like lhese ones... Except for the colour... So here's the before-pic...

And then it turned into this:

Front...

Back...

Side...

The side-view shows the stripes on the pantlegs and sleeves...

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out...

A pleated denim-skirt...

2007-02-02T14:20:10Z

I have an obsession about stitching patterns on clothes... :D So I went and bought some denim and made a skirt in wich I stitched tribals (or what ever graphics you want to call them) on both sides. First I drew them on with chalk and then just stitched along the lines. I've stitched a LOT of clothes like that but this is the first one with symmetric graphics... And it turned out suprisingly... Symmetrical... :D So here's the skirt...

Front...

Closeup of the front graphic...

Back...

Closeup of the back graphic...

The rest of the back graphic...

The fabric was a pain in the butt to work with though since it lets out colour a LOT... My hands and the sewing mashine were all blue after I finished... Even though I pre-washed it... And from experience (I made jeans with white stitching of the same fabric) I can tell the stitching is gonna turn light blue after a few washes. But that's ok. It'll look different but still good...

BUT! The fabric was easy to iron so the pleats were really easy to do so the fabric DID have some good qualities too... :D

That's it... Let me know what you think...

A Skirt...

2007-01-31T15:54:42Z

And since I'm posting now I might as well post the skirt wich produced all the leftovers for the wallet and the bag... :D

So here's the skirt...

The backside...

The Front pocket...

The back pocket...

The Front... Instead of a zipper I decided to use buttons on this skirt...

And pleeeease don't ask the same question as my friends are asking... Yes, it has button holes also, they (and the buttons when the skirt is closed) are covered with another layer... :D

That's it...

A Bag...

2007-01-31T15:42:22Z

I posted a wallet here... A couple of days ago...? My consept of time is soooo screwed up right now for some reason... Anyway... I said I made it out of leftovers of a bag I made so now I'm posting the bag. Hope you like it... :)

It's made of this thick cotton-print and the bottom and lining are black teddy... Warm and comfy. Only the best for the crap I carry in my bag... :D

Here it is...

It has two folded pockets on each side.

I decided to use hook and eyes instead of a zipper. Granted it's way slower and harder to use before you get used to it but I think it looks good enough to make up for the trouble... :D

A pic of the teddy-bottom...

And not really related to the bag itself but since I'm in almost constant state of flu as long as the winter continues I was so happy to find these!

Skulls that you can wipe your nose on! Yay! :D

A Wallet...

2007-01-29T12:18:19Z

I made a skirt and had some left-over fabric so I decided to make a bag out of them... And then I still had some leftovers so I decided to make a wallet. The fabric is cotton print and this black water resistant fabric on the inside parts and finishing the edges... Here it is...

Closed all the way:

It stays closed with velcro.

One side opened:

The wallet is the kind that fold in three parts.

Opened all the way:

It has two open pockets for cards and one that closes with velcro for coins inside and two pockets for receats and bills.

The card pockets:

The coin pocket:

The pockets for receats and bills:

That's it...

Tops and... Tops... :D

2007-01-29T11:52:42Z

Yay!

I finally got my camera back in one piece! So now I can start posting again...

I'm gonna start with a bunch of tops I made. The thing is that I'm unimployed at the moment so I have a LOT of extra time on my hands. To keep myself busy I've been buying fabrics and making stuff. This isn't the last one I've made but I think it was last week... Maybe... I bought 1m of white jersey and 1m of black jersey(Same kind, unbelievebly comfy...), sat down for about 20 minutes to think how to make the most of them and then started sewing. This is what I got out of them...

TOP1:

A white basic top.

Front:

Back:

TOP2:

A white halterneck. I wanted it to have something different even though it's a basic halterneck so I made it with just one seam in the front.

Front:

Back:

TOP3:

A wrap-up thingy... With half-length sleeves...

Front:

Back:

TOP4:

A black loose top with scoop neck both back and front. Since the the straps would keep falling off because it's a scoop neck on both sides it has strings on the straps that you can tie on your neck. A band at the hips just so it won't look too much like a sack... :D

Front:

Back:

TOP5:

A black draped top with a white "top" underneath. Basicly I wanted to make the top with a "modestypanel" (:D) underneath. It's not a separate top, just a piece of white fabric that's attached to the sideseams in a way that it looks like there's another top underneath.

Front:

Back:

Front turned inside out: (just so you can see what I mean with the panel-thingy...)

Phew... Long post. Well, it's been a while since the last one... :D

Yay...

2007-01-24T21:22:12Z

Yay! I'm getting my camera soon so I can start posting all the lovely things I've made! I was gonna post some pics I woulda taken with my phone but then I lost the phone... I'm outta luck with electronic devices... BUT! My camera is working now. The only problem is that it's 400km:s away.. A bit hard to take pics with it now... But I should get it in the mail soon...

Blabbering on and on about a camera... :D The point was that I'm gonna be posting again moderately soon... I'll stop now... :D

anzgu @ 2007-01-01T19:01:00

2007-01-01T18:16:33Z

Haven't posted in a looooooooooooong time since I just moved AND broke my camera... I got the moving-thing settled but my camera is still broken. However! I got bored and decided to post something I made a couple of weeks ago even though I had to use the cam on my phone. Thus, the pics aren't the best possible. But here it is...

A long, lined jacket. Drafted the pattern myself as I usually do...

Front...

Back...

Side...

Collar...

Tah-daa!

A Corset...

2006-08-28T15:02:38Z

So I finished a corset today. I've been working on and off on this for two weeks or so and now it's finished. I'm not completely happy with the way everything turned out but I still like it.

It has 12 steel bones, white cotton lining, two layers of heavy cotton denim and the metro-fabric is pretty thick cotton too and it has a thin fusable interfacing because the inside of the fabric seemed like it would frey easily. No supportive purposes at all cause the interfacing is the kind that molds to whatever movement the fabric has as a natural quality. The vertical black lines on the seams are 0,3mm wide satin ribbon and the top and the bottom are finished with black satin bias, cut from tight-woven satin, not ready-made. The lacing in the back is black polyester lacing woven so that the surface isn't completely smooth so it doesn't slip or slide that easy.

The Side...

The Back...

Lacing in the pic isn't the best possible...

Side Detail...

Bias-detail...

X-posted... Cause I'm excited... :)

A Satin top

2006-08-27T16:22:34Z

I had a before-pic but my computer ate it... It was a womens M bluose.

So here's how it turned out.

Front...

Back...

Front-detail...

Back-detail...

So that's the top...

A Hoodie...

2006-08-22T18:44:56Z

Yes, I'm posting twice in a row... I didn't feel comfortable about putting a dress like that and a hoodie like this in the same post... :D

Made it from a men's L hoodie...

Wasn't made to be worn with a lace-bustier but oh well... :)

I took it into pieces and reconstructed the whole thing just to be sure it fits like it's supposed to.

The Front...

The Back...

The Side...

The Sleeve...

I took the fabric from the bottom I cut out and made the cuff-thingies to replace the knit that was in the original one. Got some length in the sleeves with it too...

A Dress...

2006-08-22T18:30:33Z

I took a break from posting (not so much from sewing...) and then I broke my sewing mashine. BUT! I got it fixed yesterday and I just had to get my hands on this scarf I got from my great-aunt to make something out of. Everyone who knows me knows I make stuff out of... Well... Stuff... :)

The Scarf...

The Dress...

The Back...

The Side...

The Collar...

The Button-thing is a short loop and the "button" itself is a shorter loop on a knot.

The Fabric...

This part is covered with sequins and beeds. It's the wide portion on the bottom.

A Dress...

2006-08-14T20:57:08Z

I know I post too much... BUT...

This was for an old show and I just found it yesterday when I was going through my closet. Thought I'd share it with you...

Originally I made it long with a slit and completely black and simple but since I have so many black dresses I could afford the sacrifice... :)

The Front...

And no, those aren't sleeves... My mannequin just almost matches with the colour of the dress...

The Back...

Now... The idea of the show was to show all kinds of clubbing outfits. That's why the purple fabric isn't exactly something you'd normally use in a dress like that. It has this constant wet-look to it. Completely man-made, no natural fibers, doesn't breath and that's why it can only be used like that in a dress. NOT touching your skin. The inside does feel softer though but it still doesn't breath AT ALL...

There are sequins on the neck, in the back and around the loops from wich you hold the train up.

The Neck...

The Train...

The Loops...

Zipper in the back and covered buttons in the neck where the purple collar is...

Cordroy Jacket with satin applique...

2006-08-13T19:19:53Z

I had a nice jacket but the problem was that I didn't like the way it looked on me. So I re-fitted it and made a pattern in the back.

Before...

After...

Back...

Front...

Close up of the pattern...

Because you keep asking me to wear the stuff I make I wore the jacket. Plus if I didn't you couldn't see the difference between the fit before and after... Not that it would show that well in the pics now... :D

A Denim skirt...

2006-08-12T21:59:49Z

I had a denim jacket (yes, denim again... I'm working my way through that pile...) that didn't fit properly so I desided to turn it into a skirt...

Before...

After...

The Back...

Close up of the back...

It had a welted pocket so I cut from the middle of it and ta-daa! I have a split... Or whatever... It has a real name that I can't remember again...

And then I made this pocket. The Lower cut is the pocket, higher is just for decoration...

Thatsit...

A Denim Dress...

2006-08-11T20:57:08Z

I remembered to take a before-pic! Un-friggin'-believable!

I had jeans and no dress. And I needed a dress and no jeans. So what do I do? I turn the jeans into a dress.

The Jeans...

And The Dress...

The Back...

The Front-detail...

The Straps in the back...

It has red double-topstitching. And I'd so want to say it was the idea from the beginning but let's face it... I can't lie to you guys... I didn't find my white or black one so I had to use the red. There I said it. And then I also misplaced my double-needle so I had to stitch every seam twice... Urgh...

Denim-top...

2006-08-11T09:53:02Z

This is just a pile of old jeans and about a meter of white cotton strap... I bought it as ready-made strap-material but honestly, it's not usable as straps...

I cut the jeans into long strips and wove them together. Then just sewed the edges together and made some extra attachment to where I thought they might be needed.

The Front... -ish...

The Back...

The lacing-detail...

The back-detail...

The back-thingy is a belt that was attached to one of the jeans. Wasn't gonna do anything much in the back but since it looked like it was originally ment for this purpose I had to put it there. And I think it looks cute.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

3 Tops...

2006-08-10T18:12:21Z

If I'm not mistaken it's been a while since I've posted in this community... I've been busy with projects that I haven't been able to post here since it's un-t-shirt-stuff... If you're interrested go check out my diary. There's a whole bunch of nice stuff there...

But! On to the shirts...

The Front...

This I made from a big old denim-dress. It was about knee-length and a size XL. Now, me being size S-M you can make the conclusions as to how it looked on me. I took of the front-pockets and took it in from pretty much every seam. Also took out the sleeves, shortened the shoulder-length and put them back on. Shorter.

The Back...

Now this might be the most simple thing I've nade in a while but I swear... If it would be leagle I'd marry it. (Don't tell the boyfriend... :) )

From a Medium men's t-shirt. Cotton lace on the sides.

The Front...

The Lace...

Again simple. But I think it's cute. And it turned out absolutely great concidering that this is one more of those things that I realize that I have to go in half an hour and I don't have anything to wear. But the pics... And I swear I wasn't trying to photograph my boobs...

The Front...

The Detail...

Punk-rock Fairy...

2006-08-10T17:48:04Z

With this one I was given a task to make an outfit for a "Punk-rock fairy"... The original sketch was this:

Gives you an idea but not much more... And when I started making it the sketch had developed into this:

And on I went with the Punk-rock fairy... :)

(Pics of the resault under the cut)

So what I came up with is this four-piece thingy. Starting with a red tube-dress. Wide elastic band on top to keep it up:

Then a black tulle-skirt, elastic on the waist to hold it up. The tulle was bought straight but going with the punk-rock-theme I decided to "completely destroy" it as an old teacher of mine articulated the following prosedure... :) Wrinkly! Yay!

Now, I'm aware that the next picture looks like there would be a black cloud on the doll but bare with me, it's gonna look better... The shirt is obviously made form the same tulle than the skirt. It has off-the-shoulder puffy sleeves (Now going woth the fairy theme... :) ).

For dramatic affect I'm showing the finished product first from behind... :) (Actually I just put the pics in the post in the wrong order and was too lazy to switch the places...)

And this, my furry little friends, is the finished product in all it's glory...

A close-up of the vest. The front-pannels held up with safetypins. Punk-rock...

So that's-a-diddly it... (I've been watching way too much Simpsons...)

X-posted...

Tutorial for a salsa-skirt...

2006-08-09T22:10:44Z

Someone asked for a tutorial so I made a tutorial... The skirt is really simple to make but really complicated to explain.. I tried, I tried... :)

The finished product is this:

And the basic idea is this:

My own measurements inside the ()'s for clearance... You measure the circumference of your hips and that's the width of your first piece (1m). The second piece is twice the width of the first one (2m) and the third piece is twice the width of the second one (4m).

As to the length of the pieces my guideline was that the skirt would be 90cm wich reaches almost all the way to the ground. To make it more interresting than 3 same length pieces I didn't divide it 30cm-30cm-30cm but 20cm-30cm-40cm. Adds up the same but looks way better.

So all that cleared, how do you cut it? The best fabric for this is thin cotton (wrinkled is veeeery nice for this):

And that tends to be kinda seethrough so the highest piece is best cut doubled. So! The pieces you need (in my size) are (Because the highest piece is doubled, 20cm+20cm=) 40cm x 100cm (your first piece), 30cm x 200cm (your second piece), and 40cm x 400cm (your third piece). Now, obviously you're gonna have to make vertical seams on the pieces because... where are you gonna find fabric the width of 4 meters? And I don't recommend cutting it so that the length of the fabric it the width of the skirt cause fabrics act different when you cut then in another direction... Very possible that the skirt would grow 10-30cm in length, depending on the fabric you use...

Now that you've cut the pieces we move on to the sewing...

1. Fold the firs piece (40cm x 100cm) in two so it makes a doubled 20cm x 100cm piece and sew the edges together.

2. Measure where you want the skirt to sit and cut a rubberband to match it. Put the band inside the folded piece on the opposite side of where you just sewed it close. Stretch the band to the length of the piece and sew a stitch to both edges of the band attaching it to the piece.

If you don't feel like going through that trouble just sew a stitch about 0,5cm from the edge of the band and attach the ends of the band to the ends of the tunnel you just made.. That way it might wiggle around a bit but it's easier to sew... Your call...

3. Loosen the top thread of your sewing mashine so that the stitch in uneven on the bottom. (There is a reason for this...) They usually have this knob-thingy that rotates. If the number is something like 3-4 put it on 1-2. Sew a stitch on top of the third piece (40cm x 400cm) and don't secure one end.

4. When it's done take the unsecured end of the bottomthread and pull it evening the wrinkling until the third piece matches the secon piece in length. This might take some time, be careful so you wont yank the thread too hard an cut it...

5. Sew the edge you just wrinkled to the edge of the second piece.

6. Do the same wrinkling thing to the unsewed edge of the second piece.

7. Attach the wrinkled secon piece to the free double-edge of the first piece.

8. Now that you have this three-piece wrinkled pannel-thingy, sew the edges of it together to make it a full circle and serge the edge. If you don't have a sergerer just use zig zag but I suggest you do something to it.

The pannel...

The stitch...

9. Topstitch the band-part of the seam down on one side so it wont look all weird.

10. Hem the bottom.

And voilá, you have a skirt!

Oh, and a tip for storage... Twist it on a bunch so it stays nice and wrinkly... Tie the bunch so it won't open...