School Project: Denim Skirt

This project has got to be my absolute favorite so far. We were allowed to pick any pattern we wanted as long as it had a waistband and a zipper. As soon as I saw the pattern for this skirt I loved it. Again it was either McCalls or Butterick. I can never seem to remember which one. They are both so similar that I don't really register the difference in my head.

Working with denim was different than working with regular cotton. As I'm sure you all know, denim is much heavier. So just simply working with the fabric was a new experience for me. Then you add in pockets, zipper, waistband, and the godets (the triangle pieces that make the flair at the bottom of the skirt) and it was a lot of new stuff for one project.

The zipper was easy. Open it up, attach one side. Close it, attach the other. Done. Took a little playing with, but over all relatively simple.

The pockets were a little confusing. Firstly because the pattern didn't say I needed a lining (yeah duh I should have known) so I had to hunt down some material to use for a lining. Thankfully my mom (who took the class with me) had some extra cotton i could use. Then I had to serge the pockets to the denim so they would stay in place. That wasn't too bad. Just a little odd, but it makes it look a lot cleaner than letting them just hang free.

The waistband was easy. The only really time consuming part with that was slipstitching (hand sewing) the entire thing together to finish it.

Now, the godets. My favorite part. Some of the sewing machines at school also do embroidery. The teacher's assistant was a fantastic help with these. There were a total of eight of pieces that we wanted to embroider. Normally, she would not have been able to help me. But because putting the embroidery on the fabric was not actually part of the construction of the skirt she was able to do that for me while I worked on construction. We used a vibrant, shiny purple thread for the embroidery that I also used for the top stitching within the whole skirt to keep the common color theme going. It took some trial and error to find the neatest way to attach the godets to the other pieces. So as long as you don't look at the underside of this skirt it looks pretty awesome :)

The only thing I am really bummed about is the fact that my machine at home did not like that embroidery thread and kept knotting it up. So the only place that I did not use the purple as a top stitch was the bottom hem of the skirt. I would love to make more of these skirts for people to wear. The only problem is I don't have an embroidery machine. Unless someone wants to buy me one for a few thousand dollars...

The zipper was easy. Open it up, attach one side. Close it, attach the other. Done. Took a little playing with, but over all relatively simple.

The pockets were a little confusing. Firstly because the pattern didn't say I needed a lining (yeah duh I should have known) so I had to hunt down some material to use for a lining. Thankfully my mom (who took the class with me) had some extra cotton i could use. Then I had to serge the pockets to the denim so they would stay in place. That wasn't too bad. Just a little odd, but it makes it look a lot cleaner than letting them just hang free.

The waistband was easy. The only really time consuming part with that was slipstitching (hand sewing) the entire thing together to finish it.

Now, the godets. My favorite part. Some of the sewing machines at school also do embroidery. The teacher's assistant was a fantastic help with these. There were a total of eight of pieces that we wanted to embroider. Normally, she would not have been able to help me. But because putting the embroidery on the fabric was not actually part of the construction of the skirt she was able to do that for me while I worked on construction. We used a vibrant, shiny purple thread for the embroidery that I also used for the top stitching within the whole skirt to keep the common color theme going. It took some trial and error to find the neatest way to attach the godets to the other pieces. So as long as you don't look at the underside of this skirt it looks pretty awesome :)

The only thing I am really bummed about is the fact that my machine at home did not like that embroidery thread and kept knotting it up. So the only place that I did not use the purple as a top stitch was the bottom hem of the skirt. I would love to make more of these skirts for people to wear. The only problem is I don't have an embroidery machine. Unless someone wants to buy me one for a few thousand dollars...

School Project - Collared Button Down Shirt

This was a tough one. I honestly never thought I was going to finish this shirt. Class is 16 weeks long and this shirt I think took me 10 or 11 class periods to do. I am glad this shirt is done, but not very happy with some of the details on it. I'm glad I had guidance with this one. Otherwise, it would have gone in the trash long before it got finished.

The collar. *sigh* I had to redo this one. Good thing I had extra fabric. I think the best advise I can offer to anyone is ALWAYS have extra fabric. You never know when you might need it. I was plugging along following the instructions (apparently that was my first mistake) when my teacher announced that she has a better, easier, nicer looking way to make a collar. Crap. I already made the collar according to the instructions. Ok, scrap that. Start over. I am not going to provide step by step instructions for most things, but for the things that I find make a real difference I will because I know it made my life more simple, or made the overall garment look a lot nicer. I am happy to share the good tidbits.

For the collar, she had us choose which side was going to be the under side of the collar and cut those pieces 1/4" shorter on the sides that were NOT going to connect with the shirt. And cut the interfacing a total of 1/2" shorter on the sides that were NOT going to connect with the shirt. Melt the fusible interfacing (great stuff by the way) to the under collar. Then sew the top collar pieces to the bottom pieces like normal. By shortening the sides of the back then sewing them together, it pulls the seam under. When you iron and attach the collar to the shirt you do not see the seams, AND you don't have to bother with top stitching to hold anything in place. This all makes the collar crisper and neater looking. Very cool.

Ok, back to non specifics. Button holes are easy when you have the little foot attachment for your sewing machine. I love it. Still trying to figure out machine attached buttons. Never seems to turn out quite right for me, BUT I'm working on it. I also did darts for the first time on this shirt. Start from the outside and work to the point. Easy.

Now that I have done a shirt like this I could do it again a lot quicker, but it is definitely more involved than other things I've made. And I know I have to refine some things still. But I am happy with this overall despite the amount of time it took to make.

School Project - T-Shirt

This shirt was my second school project. The pattern was for a basic t-shirt (just the black part) but I wanted to change it up a little bit. I asked my teacher if she could show me how to add the long sleeves and the bottom in pink. For the record... it was WAY easier than i ever expected it to be. Faux layers are easy.

I bought the same kind of straight up non stretch cotton as I did for the pj pants. Again, don't like the texture, but good for learning with, and another simple McCalls or Butterick pattern. All of the patterns I have used so far are McCalls or Butterick. But for the sake of consistency, I will continue to post that little bit of info :)

Adding the faux sleeves was very easy. Instead of cutting the pattern piece for the short sleeve version, I kept it long for the long sleeve version. Then, when I pinned it to cut the fabric I just folded it on the line where I would have cut it short. I cut the top sleeve section in black and the bottom section of the sleeve piece. Then I sewed the pink section to the black section. Easy peasy. After getting my two tone sleeve in one piece I wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next. The simplicity blew me away. Fold the black part down and over the pink part and top stitch to hold it all in place. Done! Faux layered sleeves! The bottom was exactly the same except I didn't use a pattern piece. It was just rectangle shaped pieces of material the length and width that I needed.

The contrast of the black and bright pink was a lot of fun to work with and I really like the overall outcome. I know you can not see it in this picture, but all the stitching (hemming and top stitching) that is on the black shirt is a bright pink thread for contrast and black thread on the pink material. I think it gives it another interesting but subtle think to keep your eyes interested.

School Project - Pajama Pants

I am currently taking sewing classes at a local community college to get my A.A. in Fashion Design. I am super stoked about being in school for this. I tried college right after high school and it didn't work out. Then I tried college again about 4 years ago. Again... didn't work out. Now, I have finally found something that motivates and actually excites me to be in school. If you would have asked me two and a half years ago if I even wanted to own a sewing machine, I would have laughed and told you "That is what the store is for, and thats why my mom has a sewing machine. So I don't have to."

These pajama pants are the first thing that I made when I started school. I knew a little bit about sewing and could have probably opted to skip the uber basic sewing class. But, I wanted to start at the ground and work my way up. And in all honesty I am very glad I have that foundation now.

For these pants I bought straight up no stretch simple cotton fabric. I'm not a big fan of it because it is not as soft as I usually like, but for the purposes of learning it makes everything a lot easier. You do not have to worry about the fabric slipping against itself because of the texture, and it doesn't stretch, so there is no worry about the stitches getting weird. The pattern that I bought was a basic McCalls or Butterick pajama pants pattern. No zippers. No elastic. Just a drawstring. Looking back now I realize pajama pants are probably the most simple piece of clothing you can make. This being my first try at making something though it was a very slow process. I think I took about 24 hours total work time to get these done. Now, I could whip out a pair of these from zero to done in an hour to an hour and a half.

With these pants I learned a lot of basic sewing techniques. How to use a serger. How to fit a pattern to make sure its going to fit right BEFORE cutting material. What the different markings on the patterns mean. How to make sure your material is straight. And about a million other very simple very basic things. I never knew that tearing material (such as cotton) across the top will actually give you a straighter edge than if you cut it. Weird huh?