Right off the Bat

I am not known for doing subtle well (I am sure that it comes as a shock that the person with purple hair does not do subtle well), so when Trystan announced this month's theme was hidden bats, I was at a bit of a loss.  Most of the batty things I make are over the top.  So I'll just call it hidden by my standards, as I didn't add batty earrings, barrettes, hosiery, etc.

I was at a particularly low point in my life when I made this blouse.  I felt like everything I did was wrong, work was terrible, my husband's grandmother had just passed away, and a dear friend disappeared off the face of the earth.  In an attempt to make myself feel better, I thought that perhaps if I tackled a sewing project, I might have more confidence.  I already had New Look 6179 in the pattern stash, and it looked easy enough.  I selected view A and grabbed this bat and spider fabric from the fabric stash.

(The story behind this fabric: I went into JoAnn's after Halloween and this fabric was 75% off.  I didn't have any particular plans for it, so I thought two yards would do.  There was something like two yards and four inches left on the bolt.  Rather than just have that four inches thrown away, I told the clerk I would take the whole piece.  She seemed to think I was just asking her to give it to me, though I most certainly was not.  It took considerable effort to make her understand otherwise.  Because those extra inches were considered a remnant, which is 50% off, and the fabric was already 75% off, those four inches she was thinking I wanted for free cost me a grand total of... EIGHT CENTS.)






Back to the review.  I didn't read the instructions before I selected the pattern.  If I had done so, I might have selected a different pattern.  Though cotton is the first suggested fabric, this pattern is designed for sheer fabrics; thus, French seams are used.  At that point, I made never tried to sew them, and considering how bad I felt about myself at the time, failure at this would have devastated me.

I am too stubborn determined to admit defeat, so I plunged ahead anyway.  I learned that French seams aren't so bad, but it is certainly weird to put right side to right side for sewing them.  Even now, I do have to double-check myself to make sure I've got it right.

This is a basic, loose-fitting blouse, so there aren't too many issues with fitting.  There is a slit down the front that is faced that I couldn't quite get to lie flat (enlarge the last picture).  The damn thing kept flipping outwards as well, so I tacked it down with some hand-stitching.  The upper seam is enclosed in  bias tape (I made my own from the fabric), and I threaded the ribbon through that.

Even after all my whining about the blouse, it wasn't too bad.  Once I got over my fear of French seams and my general malaise with life, this blouse came together rather swiftly.  Someone not wallowing in the depths of depression could do this blouse with beginner skills.

As for this other shirt, I think I got it from Target in their Halloween clearance.  It features an intentionally distressed bronze heart with bats fluttering away from it.

I just happened to wear this on a day when I was getting some bloodwork done.  The phlebotomist was surly to me from the moment she walked into the room, even though I was entirely polite and respectful to her.  After she drew the blood, she explained her rudeness was due to her being afraid of bats flying into her hair.  Apparently the cartoony bats from my shirt were going to come to life and attack her?  Bizarre.

UPDATE: Here is a close-up of the bat and spider fabric.

 

T Time

This month's CorpGoth status report is Love What You Do.  There are a lot of things I love about my job: it's interesting, it's challenging, I have some great co-workers, and the pay is great.  But one of the things I love the most about my job is the lack of dress code.  Even the president of the company wears shorts.  No one cares that my hair is purple, I'm pierced, or that I have visible tattoos.  People might not understand my spooky weirdness and Halloween addiction, but they accept it and admire how I express it with sewing.

So for this entry, I've indulged my passion for stripes and made a long-sleeved t-shirt.  The fabric is a thin black and orange-striped knit I bought a while ago in a lot of end pieces on eBay.  A burn test revealed that I don't know how read the results of a burn test, but I think this is a poly-cotton blend.  The pattern is McCall's 4261, in a mix of view A, view B, and my own crazy head.  It was harder to find a long-sleeved t-shirt pattern than you'd think.  I was resorting to looking at PJ patterns before I remembered I had this one in my (embarrassingly large) pattern stash.  And, may I please state that this was probably the most wrinkly, poorly folded pattern I have ever encountered?

The sleeves from view B are only three-quarters, so I used the sleeves from the jacket.  I should have redrafted the sleeve from the jacket to fit the armscye of the t-shirt, but they were pretty close to begin with and it's a knit anyway, so I just plunged ahead.  I stupidly forgot to lengthen the sleeves (which is stupid because it's my #1 complaint about RTW garments), so I instead lengthened the cuffs.  They still aren't as long as I would like, but not too ridiculously short.

The collar of the t-shirt is just meant to be stitched under, but I used the leftover rib knit for the cuffs instead.  I decided it should be 3/4" (1.9 cm), plus the seam allowance.  To arrive at the length, I found the percentage stretch of the cuffs to the sleeve and just applied that to the collar.

The difficulty here is minimal.  View B has only four pieces: front, back, and the two sleeves.  Sewing knits can be tricky; you have to stretch them a little when you sew (but not too much, as you can see the puckering a bit on the bottom).  I was completely fearless when I began sewing, so would sew knits all the time, not knowing it was supposed to be more difficult.  So this would probably be a good pattern for a beginner with no fear.

Here Today, Gown Tomorrow

The status report for this month is Holidays in the Office.  While there was a party in the office, I was not able to get a shot of my outfit (it was pretty awesome though: black pencil skirt, black tuxedo blouse, skull tights, skull suspenders, Victorian-inspired shoes, derby hat, skull jewelry).  This is the gown I wore to my company's holiday party.  It was at a super fancy resort and lasted the whole weekend.  I apologize for the quality of these pictures; despite the fanciness of the place, the lighting in our room was absolutely terrible.  Only the bathroom had bright enough light, so please ignore the towels in the background.  Also, we had left the camera at home, and these were taken with my cell phone. Anyway, onto the review.  The pattern is New Look 6454, in a combination of A (the halter) and C (the godet).  Strapless dresses don't work on me because I don't have the proper assets to keep them up, and I don't particularly care for those super skinny spaghetti straps.  The back was too low to wear a regular bra, so I am wearing one of those adhesive ones.  I can't remember why I chose the gore instead of the fuller skirt of view A; perhaps because those little godets would look silly in a contrasting color?  I made this to wear almost two years ago to my birthday party.  It was a Clue (Cluedo for non-North American folks) party; or rather, it was intended to be, but folks didn't really play ball as much as I would have liked.  I made a character up for myself that was a baroness, so I needed a fancy dress.  The fabric I used was crepe-back satin.  The party was in June (though my birthday is not in June; it's a long story how that happened).  June in the greater DC area is hot.  While I was stuck with synthetic fabrics for the dress, I opted against lining the whole thing (I don't think a lining is necessary for the whole dress unless you opted for a super-light crepe), I lined the bodice in cotton.  I figured that would mitigate a bit of the problem the synthetic would cause, and it did.  Other changes I made: I skipped boning and lace overlay.  I don't need the support of boning and it's a pain in the ass anyway (both to sew it and wear it). One note here: this has a side zipper, so southpaws might want to switch it to the other side. So how difficult was this?  I remember it as being time-consuming, but not difficult.  Perhaps it was time-consuming because I was planning the party at the same time?  The bodice construction wasn't any more difficult than any other dress with similar lines.  Satin is a pain to sew because it loves to fray (so you really should finish all the edges, and I do) and likes to slip against itself.  Cutting can be a bit difficult if your scissors aren't sharp enough too.  So if you can triumph over the challenges of satin, then the actual sewing isn't too bad at all.  Just remember to keep your grain straight when cutting; that seems to be an issue with me for satin more than any other fabric, and it probably due to the slipping I mentioned already.  So overall difficulty assessment leads me to recommend this for an advanced beginner. The wrap did not have clear instructions for cutting and sewing.  It's just two rectangles on each side, so how hard could it be?  Well, the copy of the pattern I have gives a length of rectangle to cut, and the instructions simply state to "sew the ends together" without specifying which ends.  I was pretty annoyed at that. My accessories: Purple tights from welovecolors.com Gloves from Good Goth Choker from Etsy Earrings from Charming Charlie, Claire's, and Good Goth (going from the bottom up) Bracelet from Charming Charlie Satin flowers made by me from a tutorial that I can't seem to find again.  I also had a wrist corsage that I didn't wear and a large one in both black and purple to hold the wrap. Nose ring from Pierced Fish in purple

PS: Theora turns six today. Please join me in wishing her a happy birthday.  She will return your wishes by waking up from her nap, yawning, rolling over, and taking another nap.

Coffee Dress: Full Outfit

The fabulous Trystan of This Is CorpGoth suggested I accessorize my coffee dress with red. I rummaged through my closets and jewelry box, digging out things I forgot I had or hadn't worn in a while. Here's the full outfit:



Since the dress is somewhat vintage in style, I wanted to use accessories with the same flair. This hat certainly fits the bill. Whenever I wear it (which is usually to funerals, since this is really too fancy to wear elsewhere), I get loads of compliments. These pictures don't do this hat justice. It's truly elegant and makes me feel like a million bucks (at a funeral - oh how morbid!). It was custom made for me on Etsy by My Treehouse Studio.



The gloves were purchased from Target's Halloween 2011 clearance. Being the cliche that I am, I also bought two pairs of stripe-y tights at the same time (fuchsia/black and orange/black). While I wear the tights frequently and they have held up well in the months since, the same cannot be said for these gloves. The bottom seam fell out and the edge isn't finished, so it started fraying. Unfortunately, I had to take them off shortly after I got to work. It's an easy enough fix, but it's annoying and once again demonstrates the value of hand-crafted items. Wrist-length gloves probably would have been more appropriate here, but I don't have any. YET.

The earrings I've had for forever. I probably got them at Claire's as a tween. While digging through my jewelry, I discovered I have far less red than I though I did most of the vintage stuff is just too fancy. (You know what that means, right? To Etsy to purchase things I don't need!) I went for hoop earrings here, as that's pretty neutral as far as my earrings go.



The fishnets are from We Love Colors. If you haven't shopped there before, you should definitely check them out - 51 colors to chose from in tights, fishnets, thigh highs, etc! They also things like carry dancewear and gloves. And don't feel left out, guys and kiddos, they've got stuff for you too. I know some people - including myself - have had some issues with their sizing, but their wares aren't so expensive that one pair of ill-fitting tights is the end of the world.

I did almost go with solid red tights, but for one, it's just too warm for that here, and two, I thought it might be too much here. The fishnets do have a vintage flair to them that regular opaque tights don't have (IMHO).

While they're a little bit tough to spot, you can see that I'm wearing red barrettes here. These came from Etsy seller Nattie's Place (who seems to have closed up shop). I likely bought them in a lot of 10 or 20.



The shoes are from Famous Footwear and feature wingtip styling.

My hair is about shoulder length (this is after growing it out for a year - it was about nose length before), so there isn't a lot I can with it (not to mention my lack of talent and experience here). While it's difficult to see, I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and then flipped it under and wrapped that in the hair elastic. It looks somewhat like a bun, which my hair isn't long enough for. If there's a name for this style, I don't know about it. Also difficult to tell from this picture (partially because of the lighting and partially because my hair was wet), my hair is actually purple in the front and brown in the back.

As I mentioned previously, I did have issues with the sleeves of this dress. I did not like how they turned out and they won't stay where they were supposed to. I had to yank them all the way up to my shoulders, which is not how the dress is meant to be worn. While it looks okay that way, the slightest movement sends the sleeves cascading down my arms. I am definitely going to have to do something about it, which means ripping apart the dress I just finished. Harumph.

I apologize for my bra straps showing. I didn't realize that until it was too late. A strapless bra would probably be the way to go with this dress (especially if the sleeves actually would sit where they are supposed to). Lesson learned.

Cost breakdown:
Shoes: under $50 from Famous Footwear
Gloves: under $10 from Target
Fishnets: $9 from We Love Colors
Barrettes: ~$2 from Etsy seller Nattie's Place
Hat: $55 from Etsy seller My Treehouse Studio
Dress: ~2.5 yds of Lucy's Crowd Coffee Cups @ $7.21/yd (but I had $20 coupon!) from Fabric.com

Thanks to my dear husband for taking the pictures.