Wednesday 27 November 2013

Belly Dance in Blue&Brown - Bra Covered

Just a little update on the bra - covering the bra with the fabrics is successfully finished. Hooray!
 The wrapping effect was quite easy to do - I sewed the edges, leaving a lot of fabric in the middle and attached it with tiny stitches, gently gathering it every time.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Belly Dance in Blue&Brown - Covering the Cups

I feel like making myself a new bellydance costume. I believe I've learnt my lesson from the last attempt and I will only use stretch fabrics for covering the bra :-]
 The pattern. I put the lovely blue fabric on the cup and pinned it on, eliminating every wrinkle by stretching it, mainly diagonally. Then I cut it out leaving a 1.5cm seam allowance. I cut the other half symmetrically. The result should resemble a rectangle more than circle...
 I pinned it on again. Those who are not lazy can baste the right side at the edges - it simplifies the work a lot.
 I folded the seam allowance in a half and carefully attached it to the bra. It's ok to pull a bit to keep it smooth.
 Just tiny little stitches. If you baste it, you can get rid of the pins.
Around the cups, I sewed tiny back stitches.
 You can see the brown fabric too - it's tie-dyed and has some blue spots :)
The center is probably the hardest part. Not much space to manipulate...

Monday 21 October 2013

Machine embroidered patch

I wanted to make a logo of the company I work at.
 I printed it out several times. I put it onto the fabric and sewed with a narrow zigzag stitch through both the paper and the fabric layers. This way I could get the right shape and proportions of the logo.
 The stitches are so close to each other that the paper can be easily torn out.


Sunday 26 May 2013

Machine Decorated Sacks and a Guitar Strap

I'm at the last year of the bachelor studies and I'm procrastinating from learning to the final exams by sewing :-)
I'm having fun discovering the decorative stitches on my beloved Janome Horizon.
The smaller sack has a motto that means a lot to me as I have trouble doing the same routines every day - mainly spending my time on the computer...
Anyway, I gave it to one of my best friends.
The other sack is meant for my breakfast honey rings, that I usually take from home to where I study.
I just hate plastic bags.
I embroidered the rectangle and sewed a sack from it. Then I flattened it so that the bottom and side seam would be one on another and sewed and clipped the corner - the bottom is wider this way.
Oh, how I love the stitches :-) Especially on the linen fabric...
This time I used a decorative stitch even for the fastening.
Today I made a guitar strap as well. I found out our guitar has no knob at the bottom so it had to be the one with a hook.
I reused a hook from bungee cords I bought for my bike.
I attached the polyester band to it with screws. To protect the wood from scratches I glued a piece of band inside the hook - I used double sided tape.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

A Man Sunbathing With His Pet

You know, when it comes to a snowman, it doesn't mean the same thing for me as for most people...
I just don't like making balls, I'm not good at it.
At first, I wanted him to hold a puppy, but then I thought almost everyone has a pet dog.
I prefer imagination. When I shape the body, I feel like stroking the real body. That's what makes the right profile easier to achieve :-)

Saturday 9 March 2013

Female Leather Armor

This piece was meant to be unisex - sewn for a couple who would spare it.
They broke up before it was completed and I adjusted it to the female half :-(
At the beginning, the side seam was curved like at normal dresses. Then we agreed I should make it thinner. To my surprise, a plain straight line fits the best! The main shape was in the center back seam.
I used my favourite pattern for the fastener bands - I call it a shamrock :)

Saturday 2 March 2013

Renaissance Dress - Finished

The dress has a little sweep (only about 10 cm) that gives the skirt part a nice silhouette from the side view, mainly when walking :-)
The upper tubes at the sleeve would lay flat if I hadn't sew the center one right to the shoulder part of the corset. These sleeves are so arduous to make...

What could I do better next time?
The petticoat sleeves are just about 20 centimeters longer than hands. Far more would be ideal, at least for such lightweight fabric. The tubes need petty's support to form nice archs.
She's so beautiful :-)