Boo Charms

Hello readers! Welcome back to another blog post about selfish sewing. This week is all about the Cotton + Steel Boo Charms cotton magenta fabric. I saw this fabric on Miss Matatabi's about a month and a half ago during some early morning insomnia shopping (yeah, that’s a thing). Mistakenly, I purchased only a yard and a half and had to purchase another two yards from fabric.com a month ago. Once I received my two other yards from fabric.com, I washed, hung, and ironed the Boo Charms fabric. I let this fabric sit in my stash while I worked on two bird dresses, a Pikachu dress, a dinosaur dress, and the ghost kitties dress, knowing that I wanted to save it to make a Halloween themed dress. So far, I've made two: ghost kitties and now boo charms. I will be making one more with a cool dyed grey fabric with bats on them that I picked up from Joanns last week. This week, I am working on a unicorn dress!

Anyway, more about Boo Charms. I decided to try something completely out of my comfort zone and try a new pattern - Simplicity 1419. This pattern seems very simple in construction because the skirt pattern is only three pieces with simple pleats. Also, it comes with pocket pattern pieces, that I have cut out and use for almost all of my dress projects! The bodice is high necked and a collar can be attached! - which was the main reason I wanted to try Simplicity 1419. I began cutting out the skirt, the bodice, the collar, and the pocket pieces.

I sewed up the bodice fairly quickly, but I realized that I cut for a 20 instead of a 22, and the dress was EXTREMELY tight and off by almost 4 inches. I only had about a yard  left after cutting out the pattern. I wanted to give up and just make a skirt, annoyed at my mistake I complained to my boyfriend and friends about mishap. Ray told me to get over it and try again, so I carefully cut out a new bodice piece with an extra two inches plus one inch of seam allowance. The other thing I had to do was cut down the high neckline so it wasn’t choking me. I sewed up the new and improved bodice and marveled at how well it fit now with the changes.

I sewed up the skirt and inserted the pockets without problem. I choose a magenta zipper the same color of Boo Charms to complement the dress. Sewing the zipper was a pain because of the high neckline so I made a mistake by sewing the two bodices pieces together. I had to seam rip the mistake and try again. The second time went on smoothly and I was able to do a decent job inserting the zipper! I hemmed the dress and its guts and gave the whole dress a good ironing. I added the collar and used Annika Victoria's tutorial on how to add a Peter Pan Collar to a dress as a guide to attaching this collar to the completed dress. I think the collar adds the level of cuteness I was wanting from this dress. Overall, I am happy with the result and cannot wait to wear it in October. Thanks for reading! Come back next week for the unicorn dress. <3

Dinosaur Dress

Hey everyone and welcome back to another post about selfish sewing! This week I’m going to share my sewing process while creating my 17th completed dress of this year, the dinosaur dress. This dinosaur fabric has sat in my  fabric stash since the beginning of the year, when my sewing adventures began.

I purchased from  Fabric.com - Black dinosaur (the link goes directly to the fabric) and it sat in my stash until two weeks ago. I washed, dried, and ironed the fabric as usual and began the process of cutting out the fabric on a Sunday after work. This dress is a combination of a Simplicity 1873 style C bodice with my own self drafted skirt pattern and the pocket pattern from Simplicity 1419. I haven’t worked with Simplicity 1873 in a while, having switched to a low back bodice pattern from Butterick b5748. The biggest problem I have with Simplicity 1873 is that is runs a little small for me and my bust. It also has a high back style, which is hard for me to zip up myself. Having issues with the fit in the past, I have traced the pattern onto a piece of sturdy wrapping paper to adjust the sizing issues. When I finished sewing together the bodice front to the bodice back pieces for the dino dress, I believed the bodice was too small and would not fit. Panic set in and began to seam rip the side seam and thinking of ways to fix the problem.

I began to sew in an inch of extra fabric, and I didn’t realize I sewed it in on the wrong side of the fabric. Frustrated with my mistake, I let the torn apart bodice sit and I went to work. The next day, I removed the weird piece I made and decided to sew the bodice back together, but at a 3/8’s inch seam allowance instead of the 5/8’s inch needed by the Simplicity 1873 bodice pattern. That seemed to do the trick. I was also able to install the zipper with no problem. I took my time, sewed carefully, and took the time to move the dress out of the way as I sewed the zipper. I choose a 22" blue zipper that matches the blue Brachiosaurus dinosaur on the front of the bodice.

The only weird thing that happened was that my fabric kept gathering, and without notice, I increased the stitch tension to +2 when I gathered the skirt, but I had forgot to switch it back to auto or normal after I finished. After fixing that small mistake, everything was smooth sailing!

I am so happy with the final product of this dino print dress! I have wanted to make my own dino dress for half a year and having the ability and the skills to do so really makes me proud! It took me four days to make this dress from start to finish. My only complaint is that the back is a little poofy from the gathered skirt, I must find a remedy for this! I can't wait to wear this for Dinosaur programs at the Library or out to a museum! This dress is so appropriate for those outings and occasions. Thank you for reading and check in next week for my review of my current Halloween themed self sewing project. xoxo

Ghost Kitties

As promised, here is a blog post about my recent sewing projects. I will be writing about Ghost Kitties, my 16th completed sewing project of this year. To start off, I must say that the sewing process for Ghost Kitties was completely painful. Every time I had to pin something and sew it together, I pricked myself with the pins and I even sewed my finger! Ouch! I had to wear a band aide for a couple of days and hold my index finger up while typing or washing my hands because it hurt so bad. This is the second time I have sewed my left index finger but this time was the worst. I also jabbed a pin under the nail of my right index finger, making my fingers utterly useless.

Ghost Kitties took over one week to finish because I had to stop and start throughout the week. I was able to cut out the fabric all in one day. I sewed the bodice in one day, and then I let the project sit for a few days because I had to work and catch up on reading. I finished Sunday night last week and I let Ghost Kitties hang. This dress is my tried and true combination of Butterick b5748 bodice with the self drafted skirt bottom and the pocket pattern from Simplicity 1419. I really enjoy the mixture of the low back with the self drafted skirt because it is the style I want, but most importantly, the length that I want. My dresses hit me just above the knees, ranging about 40 inches in total. This is what Ghost Kitties looked like before the pointed collar was added:

Totally inspired by several seamstresses on the Internet and Instagram, I decided to find a tutorial to make peter pan collars and pointed collars to add to dresses and tops. I am so obsessed with peter pan collars and I really wish I could make an Emery Dress, but I don’t think I’m ready for assembling and working with the pattern. Moving on, the main tutorial I used was Annika Victoria’s Youtube video DIY Peter Pan Collar as my guide for sewing on the collar, while I searched online for a free peter pan collar pattern. The free pattern I used was by It's always autumn and it was easy for me to print out the t shirt and peter pan collar. I decided to use that peter pan collar as a base to design my own collar that would be about 3 inches longer. I traced  and cut out the peter pan collar out and proceeded to trace and cut out a pointed collar as well. I made all the necessary notations on the collar patterns to know how to pin and assemble the collar to my dress front.   

Finally, I used the pointed collar and I folded my simple scrap black fabric twice to achieve four layers of fabric and I cut out the collar carefully, giving myself an extra ¼ inch for seam allowance. I sewed the collar pieces together, trimmed edges and sides to have a smoother look and I ironed the two collar pieces flat. I sewed the collar pieces only to the front of the dress because the back of the dress is low and wouldn’t work with a collar. Here is the finished result!  I am very pleased for my first attempt at adding a collar to a dress. Maybe sometime soon I will try to make an Emery dress! Here’s hoping. Thanks for reading! xoxo               

Pokemon Go @ Your Library

Welcome back readers! This week I’ll talk a little more about my Pokemon program. I will post something later about my sewing endeavors.

On Monday, I held a Pokemon Go @ Your Library School Age program at my library. I prepared two crafts: a Design Your Own Pokeball and Pikachu origami for the children to participate in. I also checked out three Pokemon DVDs: The Greatest of Eevee vol. 9, The Greatest of Charmander vol. 10, and Pokemon: the First Movie. I allowed the children to vote for their movie and surprisingly, they choose Eevee. I made over 300 Pokemon buttons for the children to take with them. I had about 35 children attend, ranging for ages 8 to 13 years old. The best part of the whole program for me was when the Greatest of Eevee began with the Pokemon theme song, and all of the children began singing along. It was so cute I couldn’t contain my laughter and I too sang along. Being a twenty-something, I grew up with Pokemon over 20 years ago and it felt so nostalgic to share it with this new generation of children. The final touch of the Pokemon program was that I turned on the Lure modules for our two Pokestops and was happy to hear when a child caught a Graveler or Vulpix.

My department head actually cosplayed Officer Jenny over the summer and so I asked her to wear the costume briefly and walk around the program. A lot of the children knew who Officer Jenny was and was so happy to talk a picture of her. I wore my newly created Pikachu dress and my custom made The Peas Pod Growlithe brooch. Don’t we look amazing? So happy with the success of my program.

My favorite part was observing how they choose to decorate their Pokeballs and little Pikachu faces. Look at some of the Pikachu origami the children made!

Look at the different Pokeballs the children styled. So much creativity.

Take Care

This week I’m going to blog about things that are really personal. Sorry in advance if this sounds like a diary entry. This post is all about taking care of yourself. What I have learned in the past year is I have to take the time to stop what I’m doing in intense situations and assess how I feel. Lately, I have been feeling beat down and frustrated with some of my life choices. I feel trapped somewhere I cannot leave. This feeling has gradually gotten worse  with thoughts of doubt and failure. A week ago, I had a mild panic attack that was brought on by overthinking, anxiety and caffeine. I had to stop what I was doing, listen to nothing and breathe. I was worried and fearful of things happening at my job and concerned that I had made the biggest mistake. Am I meant to be a librarian? Have I done all of this in vain? Should I quit and try to a different career? Is it just me or is it always this way? Questions like these have been on my mind for months and I feel like they are only getting louder with time. I feel like I am not good enough and that I won’t be someone who will accomplish all of their goals. I feel like the ambition I had a couple years ago has dimmed by wrong decisions and opinions of me. Mostly, I feel like I am trying so hard, and it’s just not enough. Feeling this way, this helpless quarter-life crisis stupidity is not like me at all. It’s hard to see yourself act this way and feel like you have no choice.

What do I do to get rid of these feelings? I take long walks, I listen to audiobooks so I can’t think, I sew, I take fun bath bomb baths, I read. These are my coping mechanisms that I have learned to use when I can’t stop the negative thoughts. These activities remind me to take care of myself and even reward myself for not giving up. The problem I face is that I am too stubborn and determined to give up. I have to power through and try. I cannot give up on something I know is so close and so mine. I have to remember to love myself and take care. It’s so easy to give up and give in, but it’s even harder to stay motivated and driven. After the panic attack and tears, I rewarded myself for being strong and not forget what it felt like to be so blue. I hope that those of you who have struggled with feelings can relate. The best practice for me is to remind myself how creative, intelligent and loving I can be and that I have people who care about me. Sometimes reaching out to them helps me vent about these feelings and move along. Knowing that I have a support system of friends and family that will let me chat their ears off helps. Taking care of each other and yourself is important, but also a little wine always does the trick. If not, do what helps you remember to take care.

Pikachu Dress

Hello readers!

Thanks for coming back this week for my review of the Pikachu dress I just finished. This dress was fairly simple to complete and looks so good. I had to fix some minor mistakes, but nothing too crazy. (Although, when installing the zipper I went on a Snapchat rant about sewing the bodice to the skirt, oops!)

For this blog entry, I decided to include a picture of me actually wearing the Pikachu dress, but you’ll have to excuse my fans and wonky hairdo.

The Pikachu Dress is the same franken-dress combination of Butterick b5748 bodice with a self drafted gathered skirt pattern. The fabric was purchased from fabric.com about 4 weeks ago. (Unfortunately, almost all of their Pokemon fabric is sold out. ) I received it in the mail quickly and began my usual steps for sewing the dress. This includes washing, drying, and hanging the fabric. Then I cut out the dress using my traced pattern pieces and ironing out the fabric before I start sewing.

The sewing process of this dress was fairly easy, except for gathering the skirt and installing the zipper. I had to unpick the gathers in the skirt twice until they were to my liking. The third time's the charm! Also, when trying to push the fabric through the threads, I would end up popping a stitch and two inches of gathers would come undone. I tried this new trick when gathering the skirt where I turn up the speed of the sewing machine while following the gathered fabric technique. This technique is increasing stitch size and then pushing the fabric while holding onto the bobbin thread. Having turned up the sewing machine speed, I didn’t need to try the gathering fabric technique because my machine made natural gathers! Woot. Finally, I took my time while sewing and actually enjoyed putting Pikachu together.

I was inspired to make this dress for my upcoming Pokemon Go @ Your Library program happening in one week. This dress took me over a week to make and that left time to fix anything before I wear it for my Pokemon program. I hope the participants of the program enjoy my dress. The library I work at has TWO Pokestops, so I plan on turning the Lure Modules on. I have made over 300 Pokemon Buttons, and I plan on offering Pokemon crafts and a viewing of a Pokemon movie.

Until next time!