summer dancewear

Some new dancewear for the warmer months -- 

one based on this Ikatbag tutorial for a racerback dress grafted onto the tweaked shortard bottom; 

one based on Jalie 3138, with a high neckline, decorated with a fun rhinestone g-clef; 

one black stretch pleather and cotton lycra (lesson learned: stretch pleather is not as stretchy as other stretch fabrics...but it does look cool and edgy!)

  and one cerulean stretch velvet Jalie 3241, with some rhinestone flowers from Top Trimming (the dance shorts are scraps of brown stretch pleather: I added a Oliver + S Nature Walk waistband on shortened Playtime leggings to get the stretch running in the correct direction.) 

and the last one is a bit of a cheat for colder weather -- does anyone remember the Bitten line Sarah Jessica Parker did for H&M  many years ago? This tuxedo-ruffled top ceased to fit me awhile ago, but it made for an almost instant hack to re-cut the shape as for the snapless shortard, retaining that cute button front.

Another trip 'round the bend...!

aka ballet performance sewing time again!
This year it was Journey to Neverland, an original Peter Pan ballet basically, not the famous one. I was supposed to make costumes for Peter, Hook, Tink,the three London girls, seven Indians (Tigerlily and six ensemble) and fifteen pirates.

Nightgowns, based on a vintage pattern found on Pinterest... Charmeuse and lace, fully lined in polyester habutai; three colors of the same fabrics.

Vests and skirts for Indians and Tigerlily in fawn suedecloth. Circle skirts for the ensemble, fringed tutu (and lots more jewels) for Tigerlily. Simplified version of an old vest pattern.

Tinkerbell, in lime green suedecloth. Side zip, sequin lace appliques. Actually the beauty of suedecloth is that you can use hot glue! I drafted this one myself, with a one-shoulder bodice and short circle skirt.

Pirates -- red/gold metallic brocade vests, baggy below-the-knee pants in charmeuse... simplified versions of  a Burda pattern I already had (and used several years ago for silver rapper pants!)

As things happen, they decided to order Hook and Peter's costumes instead so now I have to think of a use for red brocade and green suedecloth... I was sad but realized that it was a good thing! I would have overthought them and stressed myself out. But it was fun to imagine and plan.

Ironic that I never work on my own dd's costume except for some appliques last year... but have some pretty pix anyway!

The pirate outfits modelled... if you can call it that.

And here they are, worn! Tigerlily, Joan, Tinkerbell,Wendy, Michelle... and Maria and Franny.

Aaaand another year done! Wonder what they'll do next time....

T'was a pretty good year! Roundup post 1: sewing

Nothing like a nice introspective look over the past year to make one'sself feel accomplished, right? Somehow arranging pictures of projects within a pattern theme makes the most sense.

First, dancewear... there is definitely a learning curve to sewing Spandex/Lycra/stretch knits. This year I had fun modifying and tweeking commercial patterns (two Jalie and a Kwiksew) into the following:

Top row are the shortards that snap closed along the inseam -- the second from left is the latest and best-fitting, with a diamond-shaped gusset. 

Second row are the snap leotards -- with lace, skirts and color-blocking, and one with flower snaps along the raglan closure. 

I have a few more fun stretchy prints to use this 2016! It makes me happy that her acrobatics jazz teacher actually noticed what she wears. She's in advanced tap and ballet now so they only wear black, but in acro-jazz anything goes. (And there's still good variation possible in black!)

Next, Oliver + S sewing... the patterns Liesl Gibson designs work so well, I wouldn't think to stray from them even as I riff on the classics. Looking at these, the Field Trip raglan and Sketchbook patterns are the ones that got a workout this year. 

Machines!!

This post was a long time coming! I started it in early September but didn't get around to putting it up. Bad, bad.... On a whim I bought a sewing machine. It's a Janome MC4800 that is probably as old as my Kenmore, but works very well and has a lot more stitches. Most important to me, it does five kinds of buttonholes, one of them automatic, and embroiders letters. (Still not exactly all I'd ever need, but more on that later.) So for now the Kenmore that has served me well, but I've had fights with lately, is tucked to the side.

I had originally been looking for second-hand embroidery machine for uniform monogramming, but I guess no-one sells them back :( . Lucky for me my dear brother-in-law has a membership at TechShop and they have a Janome MC350E, so as part of our fun and fabulous trip to Pittsburgh he and I spent an hour embroidering 6 shirts with the school letters. Seriously that place is amazing and if they had one near me I would happily spend hours crafting with metal and plastic as well as wood and fabric, they have machines that work analog as well as CNC everything.

But look what I have been able to finish with my new Janome -- as well as a look at those embroidered shirts.

It is a shame that the uniform rules are not flexible, because I would have rather made some oliver + S Parachute polos (I even found a knit pique fabric on Etsy) but those ribknit-to-fit collars are impossible to buy. (I might still get that pattern for sweatpants tho!) I got these from Old Navy.

The pants and shorts are all the Sketchbook pattern, with snap and zip fly and adjustable button elastic waists; I've also tweaked the pocket to make it fit P's hand better. They are in different fabric weights to carry into the fall and winter: poplin, poly twill, light drill, and denim-weight twill.
The skirts (one in cotton twill, one in poly drill) are a mash-up of the shape of the Sailboat skirt and the Badminton skort, with the Playtime leggings-as-shorts.

Thinking about it I do like sewing multiples of things, with little changes between... I finally got around to sewing up the idea I had in my head for an Empire-waist dance dress. It has my now-standard snaps between the legs and a pretty layered chiffon skirt. K likes it, and true to form more dancewear is forthcoming because she's doing dance 4 times a week soon!

Lastly one more hot-weather shortard. This is a great pic of how she likes it... you can also see how it snaps.

Shortards! yes, I made up a word.

The latest addition to K's dance wardrobe: leotards that are shorts. Firstly, sleeveless for the summer, and second, one-piece dressing. I am very pleased with the slight changes that I've made to jalie 3138... added 2 inches to the leg length to make them more like shorts, and a snap-closure for quick bathroom runs. 

The first one, in a lycra swimsuit-type fabric; no changes except longer legs and snaps.

Lycra stretch , with self-binding and snaps.

The second one, with a little double ruffle and color-blocking in cotton knit... a little fancier!

Purple floral with a little skirtie.

The shorts part fits great! I might redraft a little because they bag around the armhole, or maybe that's just me and finishing the armholes on a regular sewing machine rather than a serger. These are great because no elastic is needed. 

Since she's dancing every day this summer, these will get a lot of use!

Flying monkey jackets!!

For this year's full-length ballet, the dance company did The Wizard of Oz, and they asked if I could make jackets for the flying monkeys. Of course the answer was yes! At first I was searching for costumes or bellhop uniforms, but those were either too heavy, too expensive or needed to be altered to be practical to dance in.
So from scratch it is! They needed 21 costumes for various-sized girls. This is what I used to go off of: 

And this is what I made: 

plus hats, of course. 

I chose poplin for the fabric; unfortunately I couldn't get it in the grey-blue that would match, but royal blue looks pretty good I think. I found this in the NYC Garment District, at A&H. 

The raglan-sleeve jacket pattern was tricky... I had a hard time finding a pattern for tween/teen sizes that would work. Eventually I combined the Field Trip and Nature Walk patterns from Oliver + S to make a raglan-sleeved cropped jacket. The size 12 worked well enough for the 27 inch chest, but for the other sizes I graded the pattern pieces. I left the collar off because they were smearing makeup as they turned. For wings, craft foam worked well -- I drew 3 pairs onto each 12x18" sheet and cut them out.

For the red and white design, at first I thought I could just stencil it onto the poplin before constructing the jackets. I made some stencils from plastic, cut with an x-acto knife, and tried it.

Straight-on fabric paint (actually screenprinting ink from dickblick) didn't work because the blue showed through. I realized that i needed a white background to paint the red onto, then still applique that onto the blue main fabric. I found 60" poly-cotton broadcloth in white from Fabric Wholesale Direct (a great online store, I wish I'd found them before hauling 15 yards of heavy poplin on the train!) Back to the art store I went as well, to get a silkscreen and a consultation... the trial also showed me that I needed to mix two reds to get the color I wanted.

After measuring my stencils, I figured out that if cut into 14" widths, the 60" broadcloth could lay over my kitchen counter and fit 7 of the back design at a time.

After screenprinting the design on, I had nowhere else to let them dry so I hung the pieces on the wall; I didn't want red splotched walls so I taped them straddling corners.

I then ironed them to heat-set. I did the same for the sleeves and the hats.

For the front pieces, I decided to make a stencil that could do two at a time and just flip it for half of them... after I'd made quite a few ;D! I figured out an alternative way to heat-set is with a low oven for 10 minutes -- just watch the time or they melt :(
After the fabric strips were heat-set, I cut out the pieces with a generous white border. 

Pinning, pinning, lots of pinning. 

Using the edge of the presser foot as a guide, I stitched the appliques on with a wide satin stitch and black thread.

Then the jackets could be put together, with the wings sandwiched into the back seams.

Then just hems and they're done! Hats are the 9-12 month Bucket Hat (from Little Things to Sew, and from the o+S website, under free patterns) without the brim. 4" rolls of interfacing and grippy clips from toptrimming... (they don't have them on the website, but do in the store)! 

and here they are in action. 

whoohoo! one of my biggest sewing undertakings yet. And that was just the jackets. There was also 40 red poppy dresses that took 4-5 appliques each,

skirts for the Scarecrow, Tin (wo)man, and Lion, 

 14 Emerald City tutus with 6 appliques each,

and trims for Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch. 

A good time was had by all... they even gave me a thank-you card and a show circle shoutout. Happy girl, looks like they have me roped in for the next 10 years!