Wearables Sewing Project: Seasonal [ Round 134 ]

Can't wait to see all the wonderfull projects everyone will make. =)

 

Well, ok, I will pop in, even though I think sometimes the pressure of publicly fulfilling a plan negatively impacts me. however I am trying to tie up some loose ends lately and I have extremely beautiful hot pink Japanese Okinawa Bingata fabric that I want to make a long summer dress with for Marina. This project was thought of so long ago I'm pretty sure this is a screenshot of a screenshot or something to bump it back into where it's not lost in my phone... I need an intervention.


Link

I have something like 9,000 photos not backed up, on my phone, thanks for asking
I already had the fabric and saw this picture. My dress will be different but this is definitely the inspiration.

Here is our recipient kind of recently:

Link

She is Ariadoll Narvy on the iplehouse nYID girl body (small bust).

 

I'm hoping to join in this round! Not sure who my muse will be yet, but I got some pretty batik fabric that's a good weight for doll clothes.

 

I should probably take this time to cut down on some of my sewing backlog, huh? Such a lovely coincidence that I have some seasonally-themed dolls that need clothing...

Meet Cyprian, my winter fairy boy. He and his S.O. Robin live among humans, disguised as human themselves. One day I'll have enough money to custom order them their own fairy wings for their fairy forms, but until then I shall keep working on their human disguises.

Cyprian is a Dikadoll Krose.



The body he's on is really slim for a 75cm body, so he needs pants that fit and a shirt with a punkish winter pun on it. Pun suggestions are very welcome, haha.

Plan:

• Draft or alter existing pants pattern to fit Dikadoll 75cm slim body.
• Size up a shirt pattern for a relaxed but not oversized fit.
• Design a graphic for the shirt.
• Sew pants.
• Sew shirt.
• Print graphic on iron-on transfer paper and put on shirt.

I don't have stuff for his jacket, but this will do for now! It'll be a struggle to get through a pair of pants in a month anyway, to be perfectly honest...I hate sewing pants.

 

Well well well if it isn't Michi again who needs a springtime loli-inspired outfit to swap from the mori one



I plan to use the underskirt from a few sewing rounds ago and make a top skirt and a shirt (and maybe some other bits). I have a piece of light pink satin that is a nightmare to sew so I'll come here to moan every once and a while. Good luck everyone!

 

I'll be cheering you all on from the wings again

Teddy

 

I'm going to watch sidelines this round as well. /cheers

 

I'm sitting this out too LOL - got my final uni assignment to write & really can't make anything else till I see that doll of mine! Currently stuck in China for the duration of the hols it seems

 

I already planned to do this before may started, but I want to try and recreate the Hanami Coord Miku sakura skirt for my doll. Volks is releasing one but I'm not a big fan of how they did its shape so I want to try and make my own.

Seeing as cherry blossoms / sakura is very spring themed, I think it fits this round!

I have a pleated skirt pattern from a pattern I bought, and I've already drafted a pattern piece for the sakura part of the skirt.
I'll be tying it out in white draft fabric soon most likely. I'll also be making the blouse, but I'll probably skip the blazer.

I'm hoping to be able to finish it in time to take my doll outside to take pictures with the skirt in front of real cherry blossoms!

 

Springtime! The sun is shining (except when the thunderstorms are a'rumbling), the flowers are blooming, the allergens are allergenning...

My goal for this month is to make Captain Thalassus something more spring/summer appropriate than the sweater and pleather leggings he's been stuck in. I knit up a tank top with some leftover yarn during some work meeting/education stuff, so now I just need some shorts or the like. I do already have a pair of SD shorts and their pattern I do believe also fit the Goblin Tales Cassie body, which is fab! Just gotta... go make it.

I also have a more fall-ish mushroom gathered skirt I'm working on. That just needs the elastic and some hemming, and will probably be for Nova.

Spoiler: The Captain and The Skirt

@PoeticSoul I don't remember if I already commented on them in a previous round but my goodness, those little buttons and that trim are so cute! That flower trim especially? I admire how much detail there is on the outfit already, and I'm excited to see what comes of this month!

@AlisonVonderland Oooh that looks like a good summery combo. And hey the cut of it looks similar to Marina's underwear, perhaps she can achieve the glorious synchronity of the outerwear actually covering the underwear in summer!

@dm_sof Ahhh Cyprian looks like a delightful lil stinker! With punky winter puns... hm... Winter holidays or just general winter? The only one I got off the top of my head is "Sleigh Me" (perhaps accompanied by Santa's sleigh with a pool of blood under it?) but certainly there's more out there...

@cobaltconduct Michi! She's so cute! And god I feel you on nightmare fabrics. Slippery nonsense is such a headache.

@ashefaust Oh man sakura stuff is just perfect for the time of year. That skirt is adorable, and I'm interested to see how you work out the shape on it!

 

@JaxxCapta Winter in general. That one's got some potential! Might tweak it a little, like a laughing elf with "You sleigh me" or something. I'll probably make four or five different design rough mockups and ask for a vote.

 

@JaxxCapta oh that mushroom skirt you have in progress looks awesome! Spring clothes for Captain Thalassus should be fun! Can't wait to see.
Marina will tell you it's a shirt not bra... You know, like for festival season but we do love vaguely halter top things a lot around here so you're not wrong.

I've been thinking of this dress for months. I need to decide if my creation will have an interesting asymmetrical detail at the waist like the inspo, any beads there too. We'll see. I don't want to work very hard to be honest should snap a picture of the fabric and return soon.

 

Should have posted this pic at the end of April as that's when I sewed the outfit but only got my AoD Shang Nai today! Pleased that everything fits really well (small bust body) although the neckline of the tee shirt had to be cut to get it over her head, not surprisingly as my stitches made it non-stretchy. So I guess I need to make her some new tee shirts for the summer now! Perhaps I am back in the game - once I've recovered from that massive unboxing photoshoot LOL

AoD Shang Nai by elve, on Flickr

 

@elve - so nice to see the outfit on your doll! Congrats on the arrival

After looking at the fabric from hell for a bit, I've decided to make poofy pants. I cut the pieces out today, adapting from Dollcandy's easy pants pattern (less seams, less cuts), decided to seal the edges using a lighter, almost burned a whole piece down

 

@cobaltconduct I trace over pattern outlines with Fray Check of easily fraying fabric before cutting the pieces out.

The things I was planning last round, but didn't manage to start are both pretty spring-suited, so I'm making them this round.

First is Ember, my Resin Soul Yu. Here she is with the materials I'm using-

Photo Apr 23 2024, 7 27 54 PM

And since I'm so bad at posting progress photos, here it is finished with a different wig-

Ember in Spring Yukata

 

@Leo Pheonix that's a really good tip! Unfortunately I have none and my local craft store hasn't had it in stock in ages... All the more a reason to grab a bottle should they have it again! Your tiny yukata looks adorable, too!

With surprisingly little hassle I have made a shiny pair of bloomers! Michi seems to be excited for a spring slumber party now so I guess we've somehow taken the direction towards finishing a pj-set. I'll just need to find a shirt pattern with as few seams as possible so the fabric has less of a change of coming undone and ripping.

 

@cobaltconduct Those bloomers look ADORABLE! Seems like Michi approves as well!

 

Thank you @kaschan502 ! She really seems to like the bloomers indeed!

The shirt however... I struggled getting the neckline (among other stuff) to fit right and it almost ended up in the trash bin BUT - I remembered @Lillith mentioning "gathering to fit" in the last month's thread which ended up saving my WIP. Not a good shirt by any means but I can work with this. I still want to add buttons and maybe a detachable collar to hide my mistakes, and perhaps remake the whole thing in the long run, but for now Michi has a matching pj set and that's all that matters.

 

Glad to be of help!
That set looks super comfy. Very few of my dolls have any sleepwear, I should probably remedie that... some time.

 

Wah, I couldn't stop working on the shirt so here it is with buttons added didn't expect to get to the finish line quite that fast.

 

That's turned out so lovely @cobaltconduct ! She looks so pretty in the light satin fabric

 

That is so adorable @cobaltconduct

 

@Leo Pheonix your outfit on Ember turned out fantastic! The teeny ones are so super cute in yukatas.

 

@cobaltconduct those satin PJs look super cute! Thanks Everyone for your compliments on Ember's outfit. I'm hoping to also make an outfit for Morrigan, my Dream Valley Rosa this month.

 

Thank you all for the sweet words! Michi partied too hard and us now snoozing in her box

 

Don't know how to directly tag users outside of quotes, but Leo Phoenix's yukata and cobaltconduct's outfit both look amazing!

I tried to draft the sakura skirt shape for my project but it came out looking more like a deformed tooth than anything.

Spoiler: PIcture of failed sakura skirt overpiece

I didn't press the seams in the picture, but I did after and it didn't really improve the shape at all.
I'm thinking of maybe doing a one layer version instead and just hemming it, instead of two pieces flipped inside out.

If that doesn't work, I'll probably change my project to something else. I do have a kimono related project with a flowery print that I had dropped before, that I could try finishing. I think it fits a spring theme sort of.

 

@ashefaust you can just type it to look like this with the @ and username after, no space. Suggested users will pop up below as you type.
I sympathetically laughed at your "deformed tooth" remark because it's so frustrating when ideas fail the first time but sometimes you can't help but be amused either. I fail often enough. I don't know how to execute the design you're working on but probably someone else does! Either way I'm sure you'll figure out something and regroup!

 

I think there are two things going on.

The first is the over all construction. On your reference image it looks as if the overskirt is smooth all the way to the top and flares out towards the bottom and so it appears to be a partial circle skit.
On a circle skirt the waistline is cut at the center of the circle and the length of the skirt is determined by the distance from that wastline to the circles oute edge. This allows an evenly distributed width of the skirt and gives that smooth flare.
The way your pattern is drawn it looks like you intend to use a cross cut of the circle as the wasteline. This would give a straight skirt with no flare, more like a beach wrap.

As for the sewing, it could be as simple as you need more or deeper relief cuts and notches at you seam allowance.
Any convex curve, when turned, will have too much fabric in the seam allowance for it to lie flat and you need to cut away littel V shapes to get rid of the excess.
Any concave curve will have too litte material in the seam allowance to allow it to lie flat and so you need to make little straight cuts in the allowance to relieve the tension.

Anyway, it's a fun design and I hope you figure out some way to make it work!

 

@ashefaust - I'm sure you can manage to get a less toothy shape out of the skirt! With tight grooves like this, you'll need to make sure you cut off enough seam allowance and cut some indents into curves so they preserve the shape better. I sometimes use a bamboo skewer or a knitting needle to really get the tight details turned out. Now, it won't always help, depending on the size of the thing but it's worth trying

Lillith explained it excellently above, I'll just supplement a bad sketch that may or may not help with trimming the sewing allowance before turning the thing inside out -

Spoiler: Here

 

@cobaltconduct I was debating on if I should make a sketch, but I was too lazy.
Thank you for supplying this!

And I second the use of a knitting needle or similar to help with turning sharp tips and corners.

 

Well done @ashefaust that is a really tricky shape IMO & it's a shame all that work didn't work out in the end! In my googling journey I found that this cosplay outfit gives a really clear idea of the overskirt shape at the back and front https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005797080736.html It's meant to look like a cherry blossom petal & be kind of 'fluttery' like petals, so just go with that shape and vibe - maybe make it from single layer pink fabric so it's less stiff? It probably won't fray much as it's not getting a lot of wear and tear compared to a human sized skirt. Or perhaps use pink felt if it's a bigger doll as that doesn't fray? I would make it like a belt to be worn over the normal skirt, just to make it simpler because I'm all for shortcuts

Meanwhile I'm thinking of making a summer dress for this project based on the slip dress featured in Simplicity 8186 sewing pattern by Dolly Angel as it's a very simple shape - Alternatively a simple 'pillowcase' dress or top with ribbon ties and a pair of leggings.

But footwear - been thinking maybe I could make a pair of espadrilles? Apparently the ribbon tied ones I have in mind are called Catalan or Basque espadrilles & I found lots of inspiring pics online plus this great link French Favorites: Basque Espadrilles – Am I French Yet? featurig a youtube on how they're made! Thinking maybe make the base from cardboard & string...

 

Oh that makes a lot of sense! I've only ever tried making gathered rectangle skirts so it didn't occur to me to do a circle skirt for this.
Thank you for the rlly in depth tips! I think I have a better idea of how to try again now

Thank you for the tips and diagram! I hadn't thought of trimming the seam allowance but it sounds like it would help a lot

Thanks for the reference images! I think I did see one cosplay of it that seemed to have the petal skirt part as some kind of belt so that could probably work too

Thanks!!

 

Well I had fun plaiting bits of string today (after I'd found that ball of string I knew I had somewhere!) but I'm totally winging it with these espadrilles and they may end up in the bin as a result! Managed to find JUST enough narrow ribbon in a cardigan of mine which were being used as the hanging loops! Think I'll cheat on the top and make it from teeshirt fabric as it's a bit easier to handle

sewing project 'seasonal' by elve, on Flickr

 

@elve It's a really great beginning ! =)

Everyone's project is so cool. ^^ Great job everyone !

 

They're looking good so far.

Teddy

 

Thanks @Moonycat31 and @Teddy I felt duty-bound to keep working on these after your comments LOL (no pressure!)

There's no sewing going on with these espadrilles (if you can call them that) just a lot of glueing - I've glued some string to the footbed of each shoe today and then the tricky question of how to make the top? Decided to use ribbon in the end as it was simpler and opted to make the heel a simple loop for the ties to pass through, even though they're not made that way IRL - So now the glue is drying till tomorrow, when it all falls apart most likely - I'm planning on making another sole piece with plaited edges, to glue over all this mess now. THEN I can throw them in the bin LOL

hmm... by elve, on Flickr

 

We have a result! For a prototype which I kind of threw together using what I had, these have potential - although one is bigger than the other LOL & I've not made a second sole for them yet to tidy up the messy glued bit on the bottom.

The thin ribbons I'd found weren't long enough and were too narrow IMO so I decided to use 1/4 inch strips of tee shirt fabric, pulled to make a 'string' and actually think it looks better than ribbon would have. I just stitched the strings to the edge of the shoe upper, then threaded them through the loop I'd made at the heel

Result! by elve, on Flickr

 

@elve Not bad. Feet are complex shapes and making things fit them is a special kind of tricky.

 

@elve those look lovely! Making shoes is so hard, you did great!

 

Thanks @Lillith and @cobaltconduct I'm tempted to make myself a pair now - Finally a use for all those amzon boxes I can't get rid of LOL

Must make her a pair of leggings and a summer top next!

 

Thank you @PoeticSoul And yes tee shirt strips are amazingly versatile - In the past I've used them to make latch hook pictures and also the elastics for face masks I made in March 2020 when I couldn't buy elastic or face masks! I think I'll be using them for the shoulder straps for Daisy's top when I get around to making it

 

They're looking quite good.

 

Thank you so much @Teddy I'm sorry I didn't thank you sooner but I REALLY wanted to have something else to show on my next post & seem to be dragging my feet a bit now (or am I resting on my laurels haha)

Anyway - at least this forced me today to 'make a start' (albeit a half-assed slapdash one) on the leggings I wanted to make for Daisy too! I have roughly an idea of the shape for these, and roughly an idea of her measurements, but they may well turn out to be too big or too small - Throwing something together is less pressure for my resistant brain & means I do at least get started! I still have a week after all...

leggings by elve, on Flickr

 

I can see what you're aiming for but I think you might need to angle the crotch seam of the body part out more (and make the leg seam curve out along the thigh to meet that line at the crotch-point) or you may not be allowing enough width for her backside Sort of like this: https://livefreecreative.co/wp-cont...aft-and-Sew-Leggings-One-Little-Minute-12.png

Although your fabric may stretch enough that it isn't necessary.

Teddy

 

Oh thanks for that link @Teddy Yes mine are a bit shapeless in comparison!

 

I've encountered the issue myself, in the past, so wanted to head it off if possible for you.

Teddy

 

Thank you Teddy

Meanwhile - we're done! And in the process, since I only had one colour of tee shirt to chop up, I seem to have made her a set of thermals for winter too LOL - seasonal!

leg4 by elve, on Flickr

I sewed up the crotch seams with about a 1/4" seam, as per my previous photo, then tried them on her to see how much leg adjustment I needed to make whilst sewing the inside leg seams. Obviously way too long so I chopped about 3" off the hem and decided to taper seam from the crotch to about 1cm at the knee, and 1 inch at the hem - approx. Pinned it and sewed it by hand (it's too quiet here in sheltered housing for me to dare use my sewing machine!) Then decided I'd not tapered one leg enough so did another row of stitching from knee to hem on that leg.

leg2 by elve, on Flickr

Made a small hem around the leg but decided to leave the waist unfinished as it wasn't going to fall down, being such a snug fit, and would be covered by a top anyway - which is my next project!

leg3 by elve, on Flickr

 

They look like a good fit too. Excellent!

Teddy

 

Thank you @Teddy

That was all the encouragement I needed to get cracking on a top for her seasonal summer outfit! I had intended to make a simple pillowcase/slip kind of top with shoestring straps but all my patterned fabric is in 8" squares from a patchwork pack. So I chose a square I liked then thought hmm... why not just cut it like this instead? So I did (winging it with no plan as usual LOL - only way I can work!)

Then I hemmed the back opening (need some velcro to fasten this) made 2 pleats in the neckline front, sewed the side/sleeve seams, added some bias binding to the neckline to neaten it, hemmed the sleeves and bottom of the top/blouse, and we're done! Really happy with it although must get some velcro to finish it.

top5 by elve, on Flickr

top4 by elve, on Flickr

 

You've been so busy @elve! She looks wonderful! This summer outfit in the last post is perfect. I love that cute floral top for it and the espadrilles were absolutely perfect. Maybe one day I'll make some for someone. I'm!
I have personally not abandoned my committment to sew a dress for Marina just been very busy this month.... Think I will take a crack at it tonight.

 

Super cute @elve ! The blues fit her so well

 

Thanks @cobaltconduct Yes I think blue is her colour but only by chance - that was the only tee shirt I'd grown to fat to wear any more LOL

Thanks @AlisonVonderland I hope you can get Marina's dress made! I take lots of shortcuts like not finishing raw edges etc - It's quicker for me to sew by hand than get my machine out, thread it up etc. and I find it quite absorbing once I get into the 'zone' - It's starting that's the problem!

 

It works very nicely with the leggings

Teddy

 

Thank you @Teddy