50s rockabilly fishtail skirt

hello everybody,

It was a while since my last post, but finally here it is: a skirt in the 50ties style but with a modern twist, my idea was to make sort of a fishtail skirt.

For the skirt I am going to use a black polyester/ cotton blend, red lining and some old trousers with a gingham pattern.

 

 

 

The base of the skirt is a slim pencil skirt. I flat drafted the pattern, because I have learned this method in school and desperately wanted to try it.

 

 

 

I cut the pattern out in the black and red fabric on the fold, each two times.

 

Then I marked the Darts I had 4 in the back and 2 in the front, I also did this on the lining ( the lining gets always treated the same as the main fabric)

 

I sewed all the darts and the side seam on one side. The same for the lining as well.

 

Then I closed the other side seam but left approx. 25 cm open to insert the zipper there later on

Before attaching the lining I did finish all my seams with a narrow zic-zac stitch, since I don´t have a serger, but this method has grown on me, mainly because it is the recommended method from the  original instructions of the maschine from 1959, so if it worked back then it´ll work for me

Then I connected the lining and main skirt togehter with a straight stitch 0,5 cm from the upper edge

 

So the next part was rather tricky, so I don´t have much photos, but I´ll try to explain it best as I can.

 

Since I left the 25 cm open for the Zipper on both pieces I had raw edges here, I could have just finished them with a zic-zac as well, but I wanted to try something else:

I flipped the skirt inside out, that ll the edges and darts face outwards. Then I pinned the the raw edges togehter. S ot looked like this:

 

 

When pinned I sewed 2 cm away from the edge, (This was my whole seam allowance, I did that because the skirt was a bit wide, if you would want the exact same width then you would have to only sew 1 cm, ecuase the zipper needs one as well)

 

For the end I stopped right before the seam and sewed it close by hand.



Then I flipped it back on tje right side and the seams are hidden on the inside. Then I pinned the Zipper and sewed it in. This is an invisible Zipper, which means it Need to be sewn ony with the teetht facing away drom the slit, but there are plenty of tutorial, where this process gets explained better.

When the zipper was inserted, I was time to work on the waistband and the ruffled hem, for that I wanted to use an other fabric, which was kinda unconevtional. since I was in a school for tourism, I had these pants for cooking at home and I liked the pattern, sooo I decided to cut the pants and make something new.

 



 

So for the waistband I two strips with my waist- measurements.

The strips got connected by side seams, then the black and gingham one got sewn together.

The Gingham strips gets folded in by 1cm and then sewn down with basting stitches, which will eventually be removed again.

 

I sewed the waistband 4 cm away from the top edge to the skirt, these 4 cm were  2cm seam allowance and the other 2 cm got reduced so the waistband will sit in the right spot.

First I sewed the black side on with the right side facing the lining.

Then I cut the excess  fabric away and left only about 1 cm. After that I flipped the whole waistband to the other side and sewed the edge of the gingham strip down.

So now for the ruffle, I decided to finish the the hem of the ruffle with narrow bias tape, So I needed approx. 2 meter of bias tape. The other unironed bias cut strip  will be for some piping.

 

I basically sewed it on the same way as the waistband. first the right to the left side, then flipped it out and finsihed it with a another seam

 

I am making the piping relatively simple. I took some cotton cord and wrapped the bias strip around it and sewed it down with the support of a zipper foot.

Then I started on the hem of the skirt. I wanted to make it asymetrical, first I tried it on and marked it with pins, then made a chalk line and cut it there.

Since the red lining frays a lot, I hemmed that first with a 1/2 cm hem. First pinned it carefully, then sewed it down.

Back to the ruffle, I finished the vertical edges by hand, so there isn´t any visible topstitching.

 

With a running stitch i gathered the fabric, I used the tiny squares as a guide for my stitches, which was quite handy,

 



The waistband the fastened with 2 hooks and eyes:

 



 

Then I sewed the rufflle on and sandwitched the piping  between

the skirt and ruffle. I pinned it toegther very carfully and moved the folds around till there were even.

 

And I also sewed it really slow and careful, and just like for the piping I used a zipper foot, so I could get really close to the piping.

 



The seam allowance wasn´t finíshed, just cut with pinking scissors. and then pinned upwards and stitched down , as  close as posible to the piping..
at the very end I also stitched the two ends of the piping together by hand.

 



At last I sewed 2 fake leather Buttons on, just for decoration.

 

 

with that finished, the skirt is ready to be worn and here are two photos of me wearing it:

 

 

 

 

tutorial: victorian belt pouch

hello everybody, I am making sort of a tutorial again, this time for a victorian inspired belt pouch, which are currently trendy too, but mine will be less trendy but more costumey ^^

So I used three fabrics for the pouch:

1. A base fabric, in my case fake leather, but any stiff fabric will work

2. An outer fabric I used a very thin snake print fabric

3.  A lining fabric

And you´ll also need a sewing maschine and basic sewing supplies like sicssors, neddle, thread... binder clips are very helpful too and you can also decorate the puch with different materials. I used a fancy button, a fabric tube and some studs, which had some quality issues, so they are  not symetrical in my bag, which sucked. ( I fixed it by sewing decorations over the holes, which were left by the studs.

So first for the pattern:

I made a rectangle with the meaurements W:14 cm and L: 16 cm.

The I marked the middle and made a poiny top. with my french curve I made it a bit rounded and added seam allowances

 

After the pattern-making I could start cutting everything out, additionally I cut two small strips, so I can wear it on a belt

The same pieces with the outer and lining fabric, but for the strips I doubled the width.

And I also made a flap by using the same pattern but I made it shorter.

After that I made a tiny bag in the lining, so I can store smaller things. for decoarations I also made a small tube with black polyester fabric.



Then I could start putting all of the pieces together. frist I basted the main Body of te purse together by hand and hemmed the front piece.

And I also hemmed the flap and basted it before.

 I also finished the straps by covering it completely with the brown leather, folding them in half and sewing them closed with a straight stitch



Then I sewed the flap to the back pieces, hemmed the edges of the flap and the body of the bag together and yes I now the stitching isn´t straight...



i finished the bag by sewing the two main pieces together. I did that inside out with  2cm seam allowances, which got trimmed to ca. 1cm and weren´t  finsihed at all.

With that done I could turn the bag inside out, this was a tough work, because my bag was so stiff. but I am happy with the end result.



The two straps get sewn to the back of the purse by hand, you coud use heavy duty thread, I did not.

For fastening the bag I used a silver button, which gets punched into the fabric adn the smaller peice of the black tube, which I sewed onto the flap in a small loop.

I also did some "embroidery" by sewing the longer tube on the bag by hand.



Lastly I added the suds, which was a mistake, because as mentioned above, they fall off and are in the fabric unevenly, but I will  try to fix it by pulling the studs out of the fabric and making more of the tube and sew it on the flap.

Anyway, thanks for reading and have a good day :)

looking back at 2017 + plans for 2018

hello everybody

I thought to start the new year with a lookback at 2017 and my plans for 2018 are a good idea. So I start with some photos of the things I made in 2017. ( This isn´t by far everything I made, just the "Highlights" you can soon see everything in my portfolio)

Casual wear:

 

 

The first thing I have sewn in 2017 and also the first garment I have ever sewn was this coral chiffon top ( you probably can´t see it on the picture, but i was really badly constructed, but I want it here so you and me can see how I developed)

 



 

This was the first skirt made ( there are approx. half a year of practice in between the top above and teh skirt)

 

This was the second bag I made last year, which looks fine, however I didn´t like it that much, so I gave it to my mother

  Another skirt I made, which I am pretty proud of and love to wear:

 

I made two denim corset belts this year, so I could get familiar with boning and stuff. the light grey one is for me, the darker one for my mother as a birthday present

 

 

Another aim for 2017 was to learn a bit embroidery, first i did pimp an old blouse with some fancy dolphins.

 

 

The second embroidery project was this scarf that features a beautiful red chiffon and embroiderd flowers in  a peachy colour.

 

 

As mentioned before, I made more things this year as shown above, including lots of jewelry, but I show you the best things I made:

 

 

 

Costumes

I began this year, with something I wanted to do for a long time: fairy wings and a matching headpiece. The fabric was completly handstitched to the wire frame of the wings and it can be worn with straps or  the wire loop.

 

 

 

I also managed to make some costumes/vintage stuff. First a 50ies inspired Petticoat, which  I am not in love with, it is a bit to messy for me, the next one I´ll make will be more structured.

 



 

The next thing was an edwardian chemise, which will eventually be worn under a edwardian gown, but I am going to talk more about that in my plans for 2018.

 

 

I also made my very first hat, to be a bit more precise a pillbox (brimless) hat, also inpired by the 50ies.

 



 

Last but not least I made my very first complete fantasy costume, the christmas costume:

 

 

 

After all I was pretty productive this year, but I want to make more next year, especially complete costumes, not just different pieces. That leads me to my plans for 2018.

 

 

 

Plans for 2018

This year I want to make 7 complete costumes, one of it just if I have enough time. Some of them should be rather simple and done in a month or so, some more complicated, because I need many pieces. I also want to make some casual or vintage inspired things.

 

Lets start with those.

 

I don´t have a picture, but I am currently working on a Rockabilly pencil skirt and I already made a purse, but there´ll be  blog posts about both of them.

 

So one thing I will make in spring is a green linen blouse, the pieces were cut in school, so I just have to put it together.

This is the fabric for that, in reality it is more green, not grey

 

 

Another thing I´ll make is the silk dressing robe, which I already talked about in my fabric haul

 

 

And also the golden/ivory clutch I talked about

 

 

I also bought a dotted fabric for a dress, which I´ll probably sewing in autumn.

 

 

And I also want learn silk painting, for what i have bought this book on a flea market. I thing I´ll try a scarf first and  there are some beautiful ideas in there.

 

 

And there are some other things I want to make, where I don´t have material or photos of.

for exmaple differnt kinds of jewelry, a bohemian belt, a blazer or jacket, a jumpsuit, 2 blouses....

 

 

Now to the costumes, the most exciting part ( at least for me):

 

 

The first costume I want to make this year is a dress that complements the fairy wings. I want to start that one in February so I can hopefully make some lovley spring photos. You have seen the wings and headdress above so here are two of the fabrics I´ll use.

 

 

 The purple one was a curtain, but I just loved the subtle sprakling texture and the stripes.

For this dress I also need to buy some ivory satin and light pink chiffon. I´ll also make some more accesoires: a necklace, a bracelet and some jewelry for my feet.

 

 

 

For spring I want to make something set in 50s. I came up with this idea, because I got a sewing maschine from te 50s for Christmas and really liked the idea to sew something from this decade on it.

So I bought this soft yellow cotton and matching flower buttons.

This will be for some high waisted trousers.

 

 

To go with that I´ll also make blouse, but I haven´t deciced on one yet. Here are some that I like. comment down below, which one you like best

 

 

 

The next costume is probably the one I am most excitied about. It´ll be an late edwardian evening gown. based on a dress I saw in a museum in Barcelona.

 

 

I already made the chemise, but I also have to make a Petticoat and corset, which will be an adventure, but I am making the corset with this great tutorial

 

 

For my next costume I´ll be diving into the 40s. I bought a lovely pattern for vintage aprons, when I was in England and I also bought a striped cotton for the apron (D)

 

 

But of course I am also making a dress to go with it , maybe in blue or white or grey, I don´t know yet

 

 

Probably in autumn I will be making a costume from the medival time a bliaut to be more precise.

In the book "chronicle of western costume" was this drawing:

 

 

This will be the base for it, but I´ll change it a bit, make it more flattering by adding a belt.

In every case I want to make this golden circlet and I already have chain fo that. The main fabric for this dress might be purple linen.

 

 

The next costume will be reality just if I have enough time and it would be a cosplay.

I really like the fashion of the 18th century so I decided a remake of the dress Eliza Hamilton wore in my favorite musical "Hamilton", Since I probably don´t have too much time, I won´t make any fancy underpinnings, just a bumpad and a heavily boned dress.

 

 

And the last Costume I´´ve planned is another christmas costume, maybe something cute and less glamourous, a Christmas elf for example ^^

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this was a pretty long post, but well I have a lot ideas.

I hope you enjoyed it, is there something you ar eypecially excicded about?