Yellow-Brown Dress - Sleeves

As I must double everything, I have to work with a paper pattern. I marked the changes since the last trial - fortunately, this just meant to change the back tuck.
I ripped it out, drew on both the dresses and resewed. The center back tuck has been prolonged to the little tuck above the gore, so that the little one actually disappeared:-)

The sleeves were OK, so I could prepare them for the dress assembling. I sewed them in the center seam and pressed the allowances flat. As the seam's not very straight, it should be ironed in the following way.
I put it on a tailor's ham and ironed the straight part up to the top of the curve which has been placed to the edge of the ham.

Then I turned it and finished ironing from the other side, raising the sleeve to make it easier.

Not very interesting work to watch today:-)

Toy Serpent

A Christmas present for my almost one year old niece.
I had a scrap of velvet kniwear. I cut it in about a triangular shape and sewed the edges together at the long side. The seam shrinked as you can see - maybe you know what it is like to sew knitwear on regular sewing machine.-)

For reasons like this I have been collecting small useless pieces of fabric. I tried to cut them to even smaller squares or whatever for the toy to be soft.

Before filling the head I basted the fabric about two centimeters from the edge.

I stuffed the head, gathered at the basting and pushed the edges inside. I sewed quite a lot of times over the opening for the toy to be safe.

I sewed on a tongue with satin stitch. It was cut from a piece of red satin lace.

I took a fabric from above and under the tongue, pressed them on it and sewed there. This way I got an upper and lower jaws.

The rest was embroidered - I didn't want to use beads or so for such a small child. Eyes - raised fishbone stitch, back - coral stitch.

Yellow-Brown Dress - Neckline

Before the friend would try it on, I could prepare the necklines as well. I basted the line and made small cuts towards it.

I ironed the squares so that I got a regular ellipse, or whatever:-)

I roughly drew a pattern for the sleeve, she should wear it with the lower side turned up, so I had to make this part straight.
I sewed the sleeve to the armpit and now I'm very curious if it will fit:-)

Yellow-Brown Dress - Gores

A dress for a friend of mine. I've owed it to her for more than a year:-)
Now we finally got to the pattern - I arranged the fabric on her and made a paper pattern. That was necessary as the dress should be lined. In fact two identical dresses sewn together.
This is the pattern I got. I has a tuck on a spine and should have one gore in the front, one at the back. The lining doesn't have a seam at shoulders, unfortunately I didn't have enough brown canvas to cut this as a whole.

The worst part - the gore. I have been searching for another method than this. I made more than fifteen models of the gore's tip. But this way I got the best results.
I cut an opening for the gore. I made a little tuck at the top - a cm high and about three milimeters wide.

I pinned the gore to the dress. I drew a mark on the dress, twenty centimeters below the tip, and that's where I put the edges equally.
You may spot a pin on the left, it helps me to know, wheather the tip of the gore and the end of the tuck are exactly one on the other (it must then stand upright).

I jabbed the needle to where the tuck ended. I can move my needle left or right, so I arranged it so that the edge of the gore would follow the left side of the foot.

I sewed in a stable distance from the gore edge. In my opinion, at this technique it would be better to iron vlieselin on before cutting and sewing for it not to fray out.

But not necessarily. The gore has wide enough allowances and attaching these to the dress should cover the narrow ones securely.
I won't do any of these, seam allowances will be hidden inside the dress.

The gore at the right side.

Lady's Crown

Performance next week. Nothing to wear on your head? Make you something.
So I made a similar pattern like the toque I've made some time ago. This time it will just be more open then the last time.
I always tell myself: you must take a different colour of chalk when you redraw a pattern. I always tell this after I cut something wrong:-) Yes, I made the pattern with a mistake first time, redrew and cut along the original wrong lines. No matter, I cut it again according to this piece.

The dress this is made for is from a knitwear similar to velvet. That's why I could 'cheat' a little - I didn't sew the cover as the pattern, but I made a narrow tunnel instead. It adapts.

I decorated it with golden beads and white pearls of different sizes. As usually, to get regular distances, the wreath was divided in two halves, then quarters and so on. I marked those with pins before I started.

The finishing touch - a lace. Fortunately I found the same in a shop as it was on the dress. Unfortunately, I couldn't sew it on by machine because of the pearls - I lack a precious zipper foot. But what wouldn't I do for a nice result ;-)

Pocket Panel

You may have noticed me not writing too often recently. I've been preparing for some school exams and this is my preparation - pocket panel for a car seat (we should have learnt to make pockets).
I prepared a few different types of pockets - neat, with a yoke and with pleats.
I measured the back of the seat and drew the shape roughly on the fabric. Cut two layers at the same time.

I drew where each pocket should be and basted the main lines so that I could see them at the right side. Then I ironed vlieselin on the wrong side.

I prepared all the pockets and sewed them on according to the marks. The last big pocket is just A big rectangle with only the upper edge nice. The other three will be hidden inside the pocket panel.

I pinned or basted two big swivels for hanging and four small pieces for securing with pins. At this point they face in.

I put a back part right side to this and sewed along the edge. I didn't sew at the bottom the whole line. I let there slits for inserting hooks and a big one to be able to turn this over.
You may notice the little black square - they're inserted when sewing the pockets on so that they wouldn't be torn out as the products would be getting older.

I turned it over and laid a line of stitches two milimeters from the edge. Thus I also sewed over the turning-over hole so that it closed.
I inserted the hooks that hold the pocket panel at the bottom of the seat and that's it:-)

Voilà.

Saint Wenceslas' Tunic

One of our people will act as St. Wenceslas at a festival in Prague this week. Who will make the costume? :-)
I prepared a pattern from another piece of fight clothes. I usually take only the pattern for the neckline, armholes and the upper part of the sleeve.

I sewed an oval to where the slit would be.

I cut it in the middle, turned the bands in and basted, leaving a mm or two from the bands visible. This will cause that the slit won't have the usual compulsory distance between the right and left half. Unfortunately, it should have been facing the right side out, but I didn't manage to:-/

Before I sewed it on machine, I basted the end of the slit so that it wouldn't open. Then I secured this with a line of stitches near the edge.

I made this costume according to a picture of St. Wenceslas, he had a wavy lower hem. I let the seam allowance as small as possible so that I could easily iron it before sewing. When ironing, I was using a paper pattern of a wave, around which I was folding the hem.

Wing Flag Poi - Done

To the part that holds the loops.
I cut the piece, ironed the edges in and then folded it in half and ironed again.

I ironed a vlieselin on the place for the grommet and prepared a rectangle of a tough canvas. I turned the upper part right sides together and sewed the tip horizontally. I cut the allowance at the corners, inserted the rectangle (to toughten the place for grommet even more) and turned over.

Finishing was as usually - sewing the black piece to the poi and making the loops and the case. This time, I made a long big sack for the sand so that the sand could move in it and I could easily squeeze it in by the narrow hole.

In motion they look beautiful:-)

Leather Thimble

Well, I learned to sew with a thimble (it was quite hard to :-D) and was sad that I can't use it at events for what it looks like.
I took two needles and thread and let's go!

You can see my original pattern. I sewed the sides laid flat as long as possible. The stitch is noticeable only at the wrong side. How did I do that?

As the leather doesn't fray, you can sew very close to the edge. The trick is that the needle goes in the leather through the side and comes out at the top (and vice versa). It took me quite a lot of time since I've seen this stitch to believe it really works and is safe:-D

When I could no longer sew it flat, I finished one seam and than the other. I secured the ends with about three stitches at the same place.

Unfortunately, I managed to lose my new thimble before I could took the final photo. I looks somewhat like Ronald Rich's one, who was my original inspiration :-)
But I loved how it fitted and if I don't find it, I'll be sure to make a new one.

Wing Flag Poi - Wings

These flags were of my design.
I made a paper pattern of the flag and cut it in three pieces. I laid each piece on a colour and added a seam allowance.
To put these together I just laid them right sides together and sewed in the original seam allowance.

Then I ironed the seam flat and cut one of the allowances to half a centimeter.

I sewed over it with a decorative stitch. Then I cut the other and did the same. This way I got a seam that was nice from both sides.

This was probably the worst at all the flags:-) I don't know why exactly the design reminds me of wings. Fairy's or bat's or a basilisk's..

Brown Jagged Hood - Finished

I took the basted piece, I let the pins in, they can keep the fabric in place bettern than a thread. Sewed in the drawn line.

How did it end up? It didn't work very much. Even the basted and pinned pieces slided on each other and in the end were different for at least half a centimeter. I really don't know how to sew velvet inteligently :'-(

I cut the seam allowances to half a centimeter.

I made these small cuts in the corners to turn the jags easily. You must always be careful no to cut a stitch. I also adapted the allowances at the tips.

Before turning it over, I took the liripipes and attached their seam allowances together with a few stitches.

Turned over, but I still didn't like the appearance of the jags. I handsewed the facial parts together.

I basted them roughly and sewed along the edge. It flattened them nice. I also did this at the face.

I'm quite curious what it will look like with the gardecorps:-)
Done.