fashion a la nica

the comfy jeans jean skirt

2007-09-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

I know all of you have them: the sad pile of jeans that have holes ripped in the knees, but you can't bear to throw them out cos they're just so comfy and you might find a use for them someday. You mean to do something neat like make a quilt or turn them into shorts, but you never do.

Well recently most of my jeans have gotten holes in them, but thinking about it, I really haven't bought any jeans in like 2 years, so I guess it's ok. I had an idea this morning to turn them into a skirt. Use the waist bands as the waist and just cut them into strips. Heehee... yeah.

*Those who are sad by jeans with holes in the knees, cutting up jeans, or are confused by crazy sewing that may make no sense may want to avert your eyes. I do not use any kind of pattern and just cut pieces and sew as I go.*

So here they are, I just started cutting them. I cut them all at the knee at the point where they ripped open themselves.

Then I chose which piece I wanted as my middle/crotch/button/zipper whatever piece. I chose this one cos I love the giant button this pair has.

*Little note when cutting these pieces, I hadn't really paid attention to where the pockets were at first, make sure if you are cutting through a pocket that it's straight and that you sew it up after. Also, those little metal rivets that they put on jeans, watch out for those when cutting and sewing. Hitting one of those with your fabric scissors or machine would be really awful.

Then choose your side/front pocket pieces. You'll want to either use a seam ripper, or cut where ever you think will be good. Really, measuring and being precise about where you cut is only going to drive you insane, and this is suppose to be a fun project.

Word of caution for those who like to snip the threads and yank at the seams as hard as you can (this includes myself): While this is a very fun thing to do, always take caution, cos this can happen, and then you'll have to pick a new piece to use:

I thought the crotch/button/zipper middle thing was probably the hardest part, so here's what I did. I don't really like those ones that they stretch the material over and you get this pointy triangle thing sticking out the front. Like here:

I don't know, it just drives me crazy and I don't like how it looks.

So I went ahead and just made a straight seam down from the zipper. Then I cut away the little triangle left from the crotch area. If you don't do it right you'll end up with a weird bumpy thing, check if you did it right before cutting! If it you get the weird bump, you can: a)take out the seam and try again, b)just re-sew over your seam and try to fix it, c)try to sew a stitch over the top to flatten the extra material, or d)just go with the crotch triangle swoosh thing. Whatever works for you.

Then I worked on the back some. I picked out the ones I wanted for the back pockets. Then when you lay them out they kind of leave this big triangular area, so I picked out a piece for that. Actually, I went with a piece with stars embroidered and not that piece, lol. but same idea.

After that you just have to keep trying it on and adding in little strips to the sides until you get it to fit and look right. When you cut and sew the sides on, just your first cut pieces are going to be smaller than your jeans were, if you're anything like me, they'll be about 1" to 2" short, depending on how much seam allowance you felt like that day. I paired up strips from the bottom portions that I cut and added them onto the sides. Here's the finished front and back:

And here's my favourite features of it:

Freehand embroidery that I did myself (I had done this on the jeans prior to deciding to use them as a skirt)

The giant button on the front:

My ridiculous "oops" frayed hem on the back. I accidentally cut too much off and didn't realize it till it was too late:

And the stitching on this back pocket (I didn't do this one, bought them this way):

My silly "oops" frayed hem I satin stitched across so it won't fray too far. Coincidentally, that satin stitching across it was the last thing I did, and at the very end of stitching it I ran out of bobbin thread. Hmmmm...was it meant to be? lol

I loved making this, but I was in the mood for making something crazy. I've been working on a lot of more "serious" projects lately and sometimes I worry when I'm feeling creative that I'll try to implement something strange on the projects. So I come up with crazy things to make as a kind of break from the serious ones and a way to get my creativity out. I'll probably be adding some hand sewing to it in the future. Like I'm seeing that stitching up the seams a little on the inside would be nice. Or strengthening the top waist seams would be good too. Other than that I'm pretty happy with it. :)

Some little notes to consider when making something like this-

-Watch out for things like those metal rivets. It would really suck to accidentally run one over with the machine or ruin your fabric scissors if you cut down on it.

-Your machine will probably hate you (again) for sewing through too many layers. Make sure to use a heavy duty needle and take it slow when going through the thick parts.

-Make sure you're in a very creative mood! I can't stress that enough. If you're the type that freaks out when you don't have a pattern or directions to bring you through step-by-step, I'm sorry, but this is not the kind of thing you want to make. You'll only aggravate yourself and then have a bunch of cut up jeans. And if you do like creative crazy sewing like this but aren't in a creative mood, wait till you are. I've done things like this too many times when I'm not totally feeling it, and end up with (more, lol) unfinished projects.

-I only used 4 pairs of jeans, and can probably make at least one more skirt out of them, but you could use any number. Even just 2 pairs of jeans could make a great skirt. Use your imagination, take your time, and lay out the pieces before sewing them to see how they'll look.

I'll have to take a pic of it sometime while I'm wearing it, I didn't realize how goofy it looks in the pictures. It really does look nice on, and is sooooo very comfy. You know how your most comfy pair of pants feels? It's like that, only in skirt form, lol.

a new style or same as before?

2007-09-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so those that know me know that I've had some strange purses in the last few years. I think it all started when I found this hilarious soft-sided lunch box at a Marshall's. It was a bight blue background with cartoon-y drawings of planets and little aliens in saucers. I added a strap to it and used to as a purse till it bit the dust. Then my mom found a marvelous Beatrix Potter baby's bottle carrier. It was kind of an oval shaped cylinder and I also added a strap to that and used it as a purse until it looked like it had seen better days. Then , as previously posted, I made my chinese food style take out box purse. I love everything about, the fabrics, the buttons, the size, and the silly little fortune cookie change purse. But I noticed a wear hole in the corner of fabric that rides on my hip. *sadness* :(

So now I'm faced with my dilemma: make another chinese food box purse, or come up with something new? If I make another chinese style one, it's not going to have the shoulder strap. I shouldn't be using one with how my shoulders get, and then I wouldn't have the wear issue so much. Must think....

Also, on another note: must start figuring out what to be for Halloween! :O

THE food quilt

2007-09-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

So pretty much everyone I tell that I'm making a food themed quilt thinks that I'm crazy. (one because I never have the patience to actually finish a quilt, and two cos no one's ever really heard of making a food quilt, lol) Well it's starting to look nice. I wasn't sure how I wanted to pattern the pieces, so I laid them all out on the floor before I started grouping anything together. It's going to be a very big quilt.

Here's a few pics of the fabric close up. I took pics in groupings, so hopefully I managed to get a sample of each kind I used. We've got everything from ice cream, cabbage, fruit and veggies, french fries, even sushi fabric. The one that looks red with little dots is actually tiny popsicles. We even have drinks here: wine, coke-a-cola, and tea! The ones with the people on the dark navy background is the sushi themed fabric.

I'm using varied black fabrics to lattice the pieces, since I thought it would be too busy if they were touching each other. And each of the squares is about 4" each side. More pics to come!

A little bit about how I sew

2007-07-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

I realized that I haven't really written much about how I go about my sewing or my habits, and I always have people asking me how I learned or how I make things without patterns, or how I make my own patterns. So I figured I'd write a little about my likes and dislikes of sewing and how I go about some things, plus I just kind of felt like writing a bit.

First, a list of my likes and dislikes about my sewing and sewing accesories in general.

Likes:
My fabric scissors. They're Fiskars, and they have a little spring in the handle so you don't pull them open. I used to work at fabric stores, and it was awesome for saving your wrist when you're cutting fabric all day long. Plus the bottom edge is flat which is nicer than you'd think when cutting fabric. It glides under the layers much easier than with regular styled scissors. They do take some getting used to though, and even though there's not a defined right and left (they're exactly the same on both sides), left handed people have told me they've had trouble getting used to them at all. But I love them :)

This bobbin holding ring thing, it was definitely worth the $6 or $7 to not have unravelling bobbins or those awful little bobbin boxes where you open them and the bobbins go flying everywhere. I put it right on my sewing desk and put a little pencil holder in the hole in the middle of it.

Not having a chair. Yes this is actually in my likes section. I ended up waiting on getting a chair for my desk after moving, and now I've gotten very used to sewing while standing up. The desk I have is just about the perfect height for standing while sewing, and I've found that my back and shoulders don't get sore after 45 mins of sewing anymore. I can sew for nearly 2 and a half hours straight before they get sore at all, and even then if I take a short break I can keep on going. I'm seriously thinking of just not getting a chair ever. I've even gotten used to switching off my feet on the pedal so one foot doesn't get too sore having all my weight on it.

Having everything in one place. I've got everything except my fabric stash all at the sewing desk, but I have enough room where I keep just fabric for my current projects at the desk and the stash in the closet. This seems to be helping with keeping me a little more on track on current projects. I tend to search the stash less while I've got other projects right there on hand so I've been actually finishing things lol. But having all the accessories and things needed for sewing all together has helped a lot too.

Dislikes:
Having my sewing machine in the living room. I guess I'm slightly self-conscience when I'm sewing and don't really like to sew when other people are hanging out in the living room, so I really only end up sewing early in the morning or if I've got some time by myself. If I've got things that just have to be done I'll sew anyways, but I find I don't enjoy it nearly as much.

Limited lighting. The area that the desk is in right now has very limited lighting, which adds to me really only enjoying sewing during the morning when it's the most bright in that spot. A floor lamp would probably work out best to solve this one since the desk isn't really big enough for a lamp, maybe a clip or side clamping lamp would work though.

Not having a table. I've got the desk just for sewing, but no table that I can lay things out on. There's plenty of floor space that I can use for this, but it's so much nicer having a nice big table to lay things out on.

I think all in all things are pretty ideal for my sewing habits so far. My sewing machine itself kind of falls into both categories. There's things I like and dislike about it, but it works so I'm happy, lol. It's an older model Brother machine, has plenty of decorative stitches and button stitches. The thing I don't like is that some of the knobs for changing stitch width and length seem to becoming loose from the inside but the way the case is, you can't take it apart to get in there at them. The only way I can see to get in there would be to break the case at some point, which I don't really want to do. Other than that it's a fairly good machine, easy to clean and oil and runs fairly quiet for an older machine.

As far as some habits I have with sewing, I absolutely hate pinning things. Very rarely do I ever use pins on fabric that's being sewn, although there have been exceptions on things that were going to be for other people that I worried the fabric might slip if I didn't (these were very rare occasions). I think I use pins more for things like pinning a label of what the piece is than anything else.

I really haven't been using commercial patterns for anything anymore, and if I have to I try to avoid Simplicity ones if I can. I know the name makes it seem like they're simple patterns to follow, but I've found that compared to similar patterns from other companies, they seem to take the most complicated direction possible and add in steps that aren't necessary. Most of the time I'll have a piece of clothing that I love how it fits and I'll actually just use that to make a pattern from it. And if I really like it and want to make lots from it, I'll use newspaper or junk muslin fabric to make a more permanent pattern instead of copying the original each time. Other times I'll just look at something and sketch it out, measuring on me how big I'll need it and jot it down. And sometimes I'll just think up something that I want and sketch out what I want it to look like.

There are things that I pretty much refuse to make just because there's just so much work on them. Like jeans, usually the material is pretty pricey, and there's so much work with double-stitched seams and special jeans thread and everything , it's usually cheaper and worth my sanity to just buy them. And I haven't tried making a bra yet, and although I'd like to try, they seem like another thing that would be more trouble than they're worth to make.

I'll probably be posting again pretty soon with some pics of current projects. There's a whole bunch of business style tops I'm making for someone, and a giant quilt of food-print fabrics that I've been waiting to start for quite some time now. There's also a really cute skirt I've been working on that I should try to finish up soon. Happy sewing!!!

winter coat!

2006-11-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

i made this with navy cotton velveteen, with black flannel for the liner, with a 4 oz. weight polyester batting. i ended up not having enough fabric for a collar, and decided that i'd attach my scarf that i love so much to it instead for now. i'll probably end up getting some more fabric eventually and make a collar to match.

and for those with a button addiction like me.... ^_^ they were a bit expensive but they're so very pretty and they're actually all metal, so they were worth it.

fortune cookie change purse

2006-11-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

more chinese box purse pics

2006-11-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

chinese food box purse

2006-08-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Mom's jacket from a little bit ago

2006-04-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd add the picture of the jacket I had made for my mom, it's not the best picture, but it'll do for now. It's made of a purple and black paisley tapestry fabric, has two slit pockets, buttons and the double collar.

Turquoise wrap skirt

2006-03-25T14:52:00.001-08:00

This is out of a woven fabric, more of a boucle than a tweed. I designed it so there is only one seam at the front, so it's all one piece. And I seem to enjoy things that are asymmetrical, so when I cut this piece I made it so the slope down actually is a semi-circle if you were to flatten it out. I thought that gave it a nice slope and didn't make it look too pointy at the bottom. The last picture is a close up of the really cute puka-shell buttons.

Poppy skirt

2006-03-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

This is one of those skirts that I made simply because I loved the fabric. It's a cotton print, with very nice detail, of bright red-orange poppies. I made a knee-length drawstring skirt out of it, with the drawstring hidden on the inside. I've made quite a few of this type of skirt from finding fabric that I loved and wanted to make something out of it.

Spirograph button up shirt

2006-03-25T14:50:00.000-08:00

Well, first off, I wish I had been able to get a better picture of it, but the camera and I as well as my computer and I were having some difficulties agreeing on how things would work out, oh well. This shirt is made of cotton, I modeled it after another button up shirt that I have that fits nicely. The spirograph print I thought was a lot of fun and really great, and I'm glad I ended up having enough to make this, I didn't really know what I was going to make when I bought it. It's got a standard collar, and 5 buttons down the front, and yes if you look closely they don't match. They are all silver, but they're different shapes. What can I say, I'm a sucker for interesting buttons, lol.