Gift wrapping with fabric

I was trying to come up with an interesting way to wrap a few gifts this Christmas and remembered the stacks and stacks of fabric I have in my basement.  I wondered if I could gift wrap with fabric.  I decided to make an envelope.  So, I cut a long rectangle with a point out of two different fabrics -

My measurements were 15.5 inches wide by 19.5 inches long plus another 4.5 inches of diagonal

I sewed the right sides together leaving a hole at the bottom.  Then, I flipped it to the right side, sewed up the hole and sewed the sides of the envelope together.

To make them look a little more festive, I added ribbons and buttons -

Here's a tip that I learned the hard way... then forgot and learned again -

If you cut the rectangle with the point going up (like it is shown in the first photo), make sure your fabric is upside down.  Or you can cut the fabric right-side up with the point coming toward you.  Either way, it was opposite of how I was thinking, so I cut it out incorrectly twice.  And that is why the "French" fabric is on the inside of two of them.  But I like that they are all unique.

Splatter paint dress

The status of the splatter paint fabric

Inspired by Jay McCarroll's pants, I purchased some splatter paint fabric at Mood (the fabric store of choice on Project Runway) -

I have started on a wrap dress for myself (as if I need any more wrap dresses, but I just thought it would be so cute).  I promised my New York friend, Elizabeth, a t-shirt out of this fabric, so I whipped one up today while she was in town.  However, I was so un-confident in my ability to make a garment with no fittings that I didn't even take my camera when she tried it on.  It fit!  I was excited, but I have nothing to show you.  I promise I will take a picture of the wrap dress when it is done.

We did have a conversation about buying high quality items that will last longer.  That is one thing I have decided to do once I am buying clothes again.  This fabric buying experience showed me that I still tend to buy cheaper and more "fun" items (i.e. splatter paint fabric) versus more expensive and "mature" items (i.e. these beautiful silks that are $25 a yard) -

I thought maybe I could buy them online later.  Alas, they are not for sale online.  It is nearly impossible to find good silk fabric in Atlanta.  I can't believe I passed them up.

Anyway, while I was there, I had to buy t-shirts for my girls who now love to watch Project Runway with me.  Don't miss the finale tonight!

Puffed sleeves and divine necklines

I wanted to start working with my splatter-paint fabric, but I had promised my daughter a dress out of a certain floral fabric.  It has been sitting in my basement for a while, and I had to finish the flower dress before the coolness of Fall blew in.

This would have been a fairly simple dress had I inserted a zipper in the back, but in an effort to challenge myself, I put the closure in the neckline.  I just tried to copy a dress that my younger daughter has instead of buying a pattern (which I really wish I had once I started).

And, oh my goodness, I felt the hand of God making this neckline, because I really didn't know what I was doing.  I didn't know if it was going to work until the very last stitch came together.  I was honestly shocked that it worked. 

I am fairly confident in my sleeve making, though, so I made her the puffiest sleeves I could.  (She inherited her love of puffed sleeves from Anne of Green Gables).

I need to step it up and purchase some drafting paper and pattern making tools, because I will have to reinvent the wheel if I ever make this dress again.  But now onto simpler designs and splatter-paint fabric...


"I'm so glad that puffed sleeves are still fashionable.  It did seem to me that I'd never get over it if they went out before I had a dress with them.  I'd never have felt quite satisfied..."  - Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Geometric dress

I spent most of Saturday finishing this dress -

Since the print is so geometric, I wanted to do something geometric with it.  But I didn't know what.  I cut out a simple dress with a waistband and soon realized that I had cut the top too small and had run out of fabric.  I needed to add width down the sides.  I happened to have some left-over denim, so the design was forced upon me...and I love it -

In the end, I realized that it would have been much faster to wait on another shipment of fabric from fabric.com to re-cut the top than to add stripes down the sides.  However, the design is much better this way.  I am trying to learn more sewing techniques, so I added a back vent (with the help of this tutorial) and sewed an invisible hem (based on this tutorial).  The vent looks difficult, but was actually really easy.  The invisible hem looks difficult, and is actually very difficult.  But the good thing about the invisible hem is that even your mistakes are invisible. 

I would like to make one more dress before I head off to New York, but my children need a little attention.  So, I think we are going to spend this Labor Day making fashion origami.  However, I am a little obsessed with this fabric (and did end up ordering more just as a back up plan in case the stripes didn't work out), so you may see it again.

Fashion Origami

My daughter and I are loving our new books.  Fashion Origami has been a great sick day distraction for her -

I would highly recommend it for any child interested in fashion.  It is a little challenging.  I have had to help her a little, but fortunately it is fun for me, too. 

And I am excited to get started on my people-sized fashion origami -

It is full of IDEAS, which I love.  The instructions are not extremely detailed, so it will be an exercise for my brain to fill in the gaps.  Already, it is encouraging me to stretch my boundaries in the construction of a "normal" dress, which is starting to feel like a geometry project.

Once I finish my geometric print dress I will tackle a geometric shaped top.  I think I will start with this one -

New floral dress

I finally finished the dress I have envisioned in my head for months -

When I ordered the fabric, large scale florals were all the rage with designers in New York.  Now, they have generally moved on to more geometric patterns.  But how can flowers ever go out of style?

I thought the structured silhouette would make the dress feel restrictive to wear, but it is actually very comfortable.  The tencel jersey knit sleeves make it feel like a really soft t-shirt.
  

Now on to my geometric print dress... 

Wrap dress - Part 2

I have loved wrap dresses for a long time.  I think they are elegant and classic looking as well as flattering on everyone.  After purchasing a few at Macy's and H&M, I dreamed of owning a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress.  She is considered the "inventor" of the modern wrap dress, but her "inventions" cost a lot of money.  Last year, I found one at a consignment store in Buckhead -

Then, I dreamed of making my own.  I started with a pattern that was for a fully lined cotton dress.  It wasn't exactly what I wanted and was wearable only after sewing the skirt completely closed in the front and adding a tank top -

This week I adjusted a pattern that I found here to make a knit wrap dress -

Now I have enough wrap dresses to last a life time.  Next I'm going to work on one for my mother.

Wrap dress - Part 1

Well, I finished the wrap dress for my mother-in-law -

I give myself a "B" for that project.  However, the difficulty was "HIGH", since I didn't use a pattern and made it for someone else.  Starting from scratch taught me a lot of the "why's" in clothing design.  I made a lot of mistakes, but that's how you learn.  Now I am ready to make one for my mother with slight variations. 

My projects

I've been working on some projects this week.  Some successes -

Some failures -

I tried to glue pretty paper onto this canvas, but it ended up with too many bubbles.  So, I pulled it off.  Now, I have to think of something creative to do with this crazy mess.  This is what I was trying to do -

I don't even remember how I managed to not get any bubbles in this one.  That's the problem with jumping around from dresses to purses to paintings.  I don't remember all of the tips and tricks every time. 

I'm also working on a headboard and pillows for my daughter's bed -

The fabric in the middle has various French scenes.  I asked my older daughter if the fabric is too literal.  She couldn't even understand that concept when I tried to explain it to her.  Then, I realized that nothing can be "too literal" in a child's bedroom.

Hopefully, I'll have more successes this week.  I'll keep you updated...

Skirt come to life

Here is the skirt  my daughter dreamt of last Friday -

It is evidently very versatile.  She wore it to church.  Then, she ran in it -

Then, she climbed a tree in it -

She looks like she's a part of the yard.

Conversations with inanimate objects

My dad was so excited when I became an accountant.  He would ask, "Don't you hear the numbers talking to you?"  "No," I would answer while rolling my eyes.  That sounded a little crazy to me.  Well, when I started sewing, I found out that fabric talks to me.  I would buy fabric to make a purse (I was making a lot of purses), and the fabric would say, "I don't want to be a purse.  I want to be a skirt."  Or, "I don't want to be purse lining.  I want to be a blouse."  That's when I knew I was right where I should be.

My older daughter picked out this fabric -

...and wanted me to make this dress -

I want the fabric to want to be this dress, because this dress is very easy to make.  But the fabric doesn't want to be this dress.  It wants to be this -

It's an adorable dress that wraps in the back.  (You can buy it from Amoretti for $136!)  It would be much more difficult to make, but you can't fight the fabric.  However, my daughter latched onto a skirt from the same website that looks like this -

The fabric likes that design, too.  So, we'll see if I can figure it out.  Now, my younger daughter thinks I am crazy.  "Please, mommy, stop saying that fabric talks to you."  I can't wait to see what talks to her.

It's a wrap

I finally finished my first wrap dress -

The bright plaid is so happy and Springy, so I'm glad I finally finished it.  However, it doesn't fit perfectly.  Lining a dress like this makes it 100 times more difficult to make and almost impossible to fit.  (I guess that's why experienced seamstresses make a muslin first.)  It's too big in the shoulders (thus the need for the tank top), and the slippery lining was causing it to fall open every time I sat down. 

I had actually given up on this dress.  But after a break yesterday afternoon, I had the inspiration to sew the front flap of the skirt closed.  That simple alteration actually made it much more practical for my everyday life than my store-bought wrap dresses.

As always, I learned a lot about myself and about life while making this dress.  I noticed that I have a tendancy to disregard advice that I feel would take too long to implement.  I can always figure out a quicker way to do it.  I end up learning the reason for "long way" by doing it the "longer way" (meaning my way, which doesn't work, and then their way). 

After I make the dress I promised my daughter, I'm going to start on a new (and simpler) pattern for a wrap dress. 

Working with my hands

During my hiatus from shopping, I have become more keenly aware of other people's shopping woes.  It seems that if you want a nice dress that covers both your arms and your knees, you are out of luck.  There is a void in the market for modest dresses, and it makes me want to make dresses.  I feel daunted and excited by the 10,000 hour rule (the one that says it takes 10,000 to master a skill).  Wouldn't it be fun if I were so good at making dresses that you could just describe it to me and I could make it for you?

Today, I put in 4 of those 10,000 hours working on a wrap dress.  I love wrap dresses and believe they are the answer to the daytime dilemma.  (Next, I will be working on a dressier dress.)  However, I had to make it hard on myself, so I chose a plaid fabric and altered the pattern slightly.  This dress may end up being just a learning experience.



As difficult as sewing is at times (like trying to figure out how to line up plaid and take out pleats), my brain feels so much calmer today than it usually does.  I spend so many of my days multi-tasking and racing from one thing to the next that my mind is torn in 100 different directions.  Doing something with my hands gives my mind room to breathe.

I guess it's contagious, because when I start designing dresses, my daughters start designing dresses.  My older daughter wants to sew hers as well, but I don't have that much patience yet.  Here are a few of her designs -

And here is one from my younger daughter that I have to show you.  The dress isn't much of a design, but I love the little face with glasses and the bun on top of her head -

My color story

About a month ago, I ordered some fabric that looks like this -

I like the fact that it looks like a painting, and the neon colors are very "on trend".  I really wanted to make a long skirt out of it, but I thought, "Where am I going to wear a long splatter paint skirt?"  And then I realized, "Fashion Week!"  So, although it took me 20 hours to make it (due to trying to figure out how to line a skirt with an invisible zipper), I finished it just in time to wear on Friday in New York -



Normally, nobody makes eye contact on the subway in New York, but when I got on wearing this skirt, everyone stared at me.  I soon realized that not only was I wearing a very "loud" skirt, I was the only person wearing any color at all.  However, I fit right in at Lincoln Center.  I actually had a lot of bloggers and media people photograph and interview me.  It was humorous to hear several of them in their nice British accents say (as they wrote on their notepads), "Meredith in her handmade skirt.  Jacket by Target."  I was definitely representing the economical end of fashion. 

Success comes after failure after failure after failure...

Hallelujah!  My roman shades are finally done! 

That only took 9 months. 

It was hard to make myself work on them, because they were a constant source of failure for me.  This project reminded me why it's better to use fabric with a random pattern rather than obvious straight lines -

Every stitch was sewn 2 or 3 times.  I use this tool way more than I use my sewing machine -

I was also haunted by the never ending rings.

I learned that it's better to spend the $2 for extra screws than to run out.

I learned why you start from the middle when you staple fabric onto a wooden rod.

The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that I was saving over $1,000 by doing it myself.  Sewing has taught me more about patience and pushing through frustration than anything else I've ever done.  It is such a good picture of success being built on a pile of failures.   And in the end it's never perfect, but it's done.  And maybe I'll do a little better next time.