| He should know better by now than to dare me into sewing him something, because I will respond with something like "okay, what color do you want that in?" When he jokingly asked me for Pac-Man PJs, I went to eBay on my fabric search. This was before the Geeks Gone Wild Pac-Man fabric was released, and I found nothing that fit the bill. This left me with the choice of either buying something custom from Spoonflower or the like, embroidering fabric with my machine, or doing appliqués. I didn't think embroidery would stand up all that well to the stress of PJs, and he told me straight up not to spend a lot of money, so Spoonflower was out. Appliqués it was. While I might have skill with a needle and thread, I am not the world's best artist. I know some people can free-hand their custom appliqués, but I am not one of them. I did the designs on paper and then pinned them on the fabric as patterns. For the things that were circular in nature (Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man, pellets, etc), I traced whatever was round and of appropriate size. I think the big Pac-Man on the chest might have been the lid from a pot and the eyes were from a candle snuffer. Pretty much everything else was much tougher, and I made multiple patterns before I settled on one that I liked. I think the damn banana (top picture, bottom right leg, which you can barely see) gave me the most trouble (which is probably why it is on the bottom on the pajama leg). The final touch was putting Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man smooching on the butt area. I thought this was hilarious, but apparently some people don't share my sense of humor. Overall, I am happy with how these pajamas turned out. It was a lot of work, and I wouldn't have done it for anyone else except him. :) |
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Showing posts with label geek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geek. Show all posts
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Pac-Man Fever
I fully intended to post part II of It's a Jungle out There, but I haven't finished it yet. I have made progress on it - I cut the binding today - but it hasn't been quilted yet. Too much stuff came up this week: late nights at work, an unexpected trip to the vet, running errands, etc. And then yesterday I just wanted to unwind from all that, which consisted of a a nice picnic with some friends and then eating brownies while watching MST3K. So instead, I have another edition of It Came from My Closet! (though, in truth, this comes from my husband's closet).
Monday, March 19, 2012
Skittles Dress I
Our story begins with Butterick 4790. It's a reprint of a pattern designed in 1952 with modern sizing. I go in and out of vintage phases, and was in one when I bought this pattern. I was itching to make it as soon as I could, but I was in the middle of other projects that I couldn't stop. Around the same time, fabric.com (one of my fave fabric sites) had this fabric on sale:
That's Geeks Gone Wild's Pac-Man fabric. I had to have it! Had to! I just needed to decide which pattern I would use it for and then buy the appropriate yardage. I remembered that pattern and thought it would be perfect. The incongruity of a 50s dress meeting 80s pop culture was too good to pass up. I even had some mega-cute Ms. Pac-Man buttons made for me on Etsy. I was ready and raring to go, all I needed was the time to make the dress!
Well, my projects all finished up (after months, harumph), and I finally was back to sewing for myself. I kept going to that pattern and fabric and then shying away from it. Something was making me hesitate. Was it the humor of a 50s/80s matchup wearing thin? Was it the thought of trying to explain the humor daunting? Concern over how the fabric would look cut on the bias? I think what finally changed my mind was those damn buttons. They're made of polymer clay and probably shouldn't be put through the washing machine. Even washing the dress by hand would be a risky prospect. I began thinking of ways to make the buttons removable without having to re-sew them whenever I wore the dress (such as sewing the buttons to snaps, sewing them to a Velcro strip, etc.). Ultimately, I decided that if I had doubts about such awesome fabric, then this probably wasn't the pattern to go with. You can always re-use the pattern, but you can't re-use the fabric.
So with that idea shelved, there was the question of what fabric I should make the dress in. It just so happens that I had McCall's 6024 and fabric already purchased - AND both patterns used the same amount! I'm going to take this as kismet and sew the Butterick pattern in the second fabric. I can't find the fabric on the Joann's site, but it's black with lavender, pink, yellow, and green dots - which is why it reminds me of Skittles.
I can't eat Skittles because they have gelatin. (Or at least they used to. I haven't checked in a while.)
I also know regular Skittles don't have a pink flavor and the purple is dark, rather than light. But Skittles were the first thing that popped in my head, so that's what I'm sticking with.
So next time, I'll feature the actual sewing of the dress. I imagine that post will be shorter than this one.
That's Geeks Gone Wild's Pac-Man fabric. I had to have it! Had to! I just needed to decide which pattern I would use it for and then buy the appropriate yardage. I remembered that pattern and thought it would be perfect. The incongruity of a 50s dress meeting 80s pop culture was too good to pass up. I even had some mega-cute Ms. Pac-Man buttons made for me on Etsy. I was ready and raring to go, all I needed was the time to make the dress!
Well, my projects all finished up (after months, harumph), and I finally was back to sewing for myself. I kept going to that pattern and fabric and then shying away from it. Something was making me hesitate. Was it the humor of a 50s/80s matchup wearing thin? Was it the thought of trying to explain the humor daunting? Concern over how the fabric would look cut on the bias? I think what finally changed my mind was those damn buttons. They're made of polymer clay and probably shouldn't be put through the washing machine. Even washing the dress by hand would be a risky prospect. I began thinking of ways to make the buttons removable without having to re-sew them whenever I wore the dress (such as sewing the buttons to snaps, sewing them to a Velcro strip, etc.). Ultimately, I decided that if I had doubts about such awesome fabric, then this probably wasn't the pattern to go with. You can always re-use the pattern, but you can't re-use the fabric.
So with that idea shelved, there was the question of what fabric I should make the dress in. It just so happens that I had McCall's 6024 and fabric already purchased - AND both patterns used the same amount! I'm going to take this as kismet and sew the Butterick pattern in the second fabric. I can't find the fabric on the Joann's site, but it's black with lavender, pink, yellow, and green dots - which is why it reminds me of Skittles.
I can't eat Skittles because they have gelatin. (Or at least they used to. I haven't checked in a while.)
I also know regular Skittles don't have a pink flavor and the purple is dark, rather than light. But Skittles were the first thing that popped in my head, so that's what I'm sticking with.
So next time, I'll feature the actual sewing of the dress. I imagine that post will be shorter than this one.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Space Invaders III
If you haven't already, you might want to read parts I and II.
The last update on this dress had me considering my contrast options. If you recall, I was pretty confident that I could find a solid aqua or light blue to match the Space Invaders, but had my heart set on some kind of print. My first stop was JoAnn's. Let me first say that I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. Despite the huge wall of quilting cotton that my local JoAnn's has, they had only one print that even came close to matching - but it was swirly, busy, and just didn't go with the blocky Invaders. So I gave up on that idea and decided I'd just go with a solid. Not my first choice, but eh, no biggie. Well, again, despite the huge selection of quilting cotton, I only found one color match. To refresh your memory, this is what the fabric looks like:
I would have been fine with either aqua or blue, but the only match was in that nasty yellow-green. With no other options, I purchased a minty green - it was in the same color family, but not as dark. I was pretty upset by that I couldn't find anything better - so upset that I went to Hancock's. I really dislike going to my local Hancock's. It's a pretty long story, but I'll just say that it involves rudeness and bad smells. But I figured that for Space Invaders, I could stand it. Their selection was even worse! Nothing even came close. I stared forlornly at the quilting cotton before admitting defeat and heading home.
At that point, my options were to go with the minty green or buy online. Matching colors online is tough without fabric swatches and I didn't really want to waste the time on that. I reluctantly settled on the minty green. The dress is lined and interfaced, so at least I wouldn't have to be concerned about my bra straps showing through.
As of my last update, I had sewn together most of the skirt and part of the top - that was as far as I could get before the contrast came in. Here was the first step in that process:
As you can see, the mint isn't a perfect color match. I grumbled every step of the way about how I was wasting this precious Space Invaders fabric (I'm just gonna say "SI" from now on, okay?), not to mention my precious weekend. Nevertheless, I plunged ahead because I don't like leaving projects unfinished.
My first challenge was the midriff section. The instructions said "sew broken lines together". That's it. It wouldn't have been so bad if there were only two lines, but this is the pattern piece:
I can think of any number of ways one could "sew broken lines together", and even tried experimenting on some scraps, but they all left me with a diminutive midriff piece that was far smaller than the lining piece. It took me longer than I care to admit before I figured out exactly what the instructions were telling me to do. You see where it says "tuck" up there? You sew the lines immediately above and below together, and they don't get sewn to anything else. That does leave an extra line at the top and bottom though, which is why I think I got confused. Those lines are never mentioned, so I think they represent the stitching lines for where the skirt and bodice are attached.
This is the piece pinned:
And here it is sewn:
Sewn to the bodice:
I proceeded with the rest of the pattern, which involved attaching the back, sewing on the skirt, adding the contrast band, and sewing in the zipper. This dress is a bit unusual in that the back is fitted with elastic and the zipper is on the left side (if you're a leftie making this, you might want to move it to the other side). Here's the final dress:
This is how a kitty sulks after you've shooed her off your dress one too many times:
So, overall, this pattern wasn't too difficult, but it was pretty time consuming. Part of the reason for this is that the instructions were very dense - four full pages, not counting the Spanish section. I understand the company has to pay more to get another page of instructions, but "sew broken lines together" is somewhat lacking in clarity. On top of that, I spotted a couple of typos in the instructions and the previously mentioned misprint on the pattern itself. The technical challenges here include: pleating, tucking, gathering, inserting a zipper, and inserting elastic. The last two aren't too bad, but the first three can be. For these reasons, I would recommend this pattern for those of intermediate sewing skills. If Simplicity can correct their typos and expand the instructions, an advanced beginner could probably handle this.
If I made this again, I would make the changes I did before (straps and pockets), but I would also change how the bodice is constructed. I didn't like that it left raw exposed seams. I finished mine, but it wouldn't have been to hard to turn them inside. It grieves me a little to know they're there. :( Also, I was a little disappointed in the length - it hits me about mid-knee, which is a little shorter than I'd like. My fault for not checking the length beforehand, but I would probably lengthen this by two inches, at least. Double check your lengths!
The last update on this dress had me considering my contrast options. If you recall, I was pretty confident that I could find a solid aqua or light blue to match the Space Invaders, but had my heart set on some kind of print. My first stop was JoAnn's. Let me first say that I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. Despite the huge wall of quilting cotton that my local JoAnn's has, they had only one print that even came close to matching - but it was swirly, busy, and just didn't go with the blocky Invaders. So I gave up on that idea and decided I'd just go with a solid. Not my first choice, but eh, no biggie. Well, again, despite the huge selection of quilting cotton, I only found one color match. To refresh your memory, this is what the fabric looks like:
I would have been fine with either aqua or blue, but the only match was in that nasty yellow-green. With no other options, I purchased a minty green - it was in the same color family, but not as dark. I was pretty upset by that I couldn't find anything better - so upset that I went to Hancock's. I really dislike going to my local Hancock's. It's a pretty long story, but I'll just say that it involves rudeness and bad smells. But I figured that for Space Invaders, I could stand it. Their selection was even worse! Nothing even came close. I stared forlornly at the quilting cotton before admitting defeat and heading home.
At that point, my options were to go with the minty green or buy online. Matching colors online is tough without fabric swatches and I didn't really want to waste the time on that. I reluctantly settled on the minty green. The dress is lined and interfaced, so at least I wouldn't have to be concerned about my bra straps showing through.
As of my last update, I had sewn together most of the skirt and part of the top - that was as far as I could get before the contrast came in. Here was the first step in that process:
As you can see, the mint isn't a perfect color match. I grumbled every step of the way about how I was wasting this precious Space Invaders fabric (I'm just gonna say "SI" from now on, okay?), not to mention my precious weekend. Nevertheless, I plunged ahead because I don't like leaving projects unfinished.
My first challenge was the midriff section. The instructions said "sew broken lines together". That's it. It wouldn't have been so bad if there were only two lines, but this is the pattern piece:
I can think of any number of ways one could "sew broken lines together", and even tried experimenting on some scraps, but they all left me with a diminutive midriff piece that was far smaller than the lining piece. It took me longer than I care to admit before I figured out exactly what the instructions were telling me to do. You see where it says "tuck" up there? You sew the lines immediately above and below together, and they don't get sewn to anything else. That does leave an extra line at the top and bottom though, which is why I think I got confused. Those lines are never mentioned, so I think they represent the stitching lines for where the skirt and bodice are attached.
This is the piece pinned:
And here it is sewn:
Sewn to the bodice:
I proceeded with the rest of the pattern, which involved attaching the back, sewing on the skirt, adding the contrast band, and sewing in the zipper. This dress is a bit unusual in that the back is fitted with elastic and the zipper is on the left side (if you're a leftie making this, you might want to move it to the other side). Here's the final dress:
This is how a kitty sulks after you've shooed her off your dress one too many times:
So, overall, this pattern wasn't too difficult, but it was pretty time consuming. Part of the reason for this is that the instructions were very dense - four full pages, not counting the Spanish section. I understand the company has to pay more to get another page of instructions, but "sew broken lines together" is somewhat lacking in clarity. On top of that, I spotted a couple of typos in the instructions and the previously mentioned misprint on the pattern itself. The technical challenges here include: pleating, tucking, gathering, inserting a zipper, and inserting elastic. The last two aren't too bad, but the first three can be. For these reasons, I would recommend this pattern for those of intermediate sewing skills. If Simplicity can correct their typos and expand the instructions, an advanced beginner could probably handle this.
If I made this again, I would make the changes I did before (straps and pockets), but I would also change how the bodice is constructed. I didn't like that it left raw exposed seams. I finished mine, but it wouldn't have been to hard to turn them inside. It grieves me a little to know they're there. :( Also, I was a little disappointed in the length - it hits me about mid-knee, which is a little shorter than I'd like. My fault for not checking the length beforehand, but I would probably lengthen this by two inches, at least. Double check your lengths!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Space Invaders II
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
As previously featured, I am making myself a Space Invaders dress out of this pattern. I am still not sure what to do for the contrast. I'm heading to JoAnn's this weekend to see what they've got for me. I'm sure I can find a solid to match the aqua or light blue, but I would still prefer a print. I guess we'll see.
In the meantime, I started on the non-contrast components of the dress. I didn't get too far with the actual sewing because the contrast comes in early, but I can at least show you what I've got so far.
First up: due to the various lengths and added contrasts of this pattern, there are several cutting lines on the dress' skirt.
Some people like to just cut out whichever pattern they're using at the time and will just buy the pattern again if they want a different view. I'm cut from a different cloth (ha, ha). I just pin where the cutting line on my view is and cut very carefully.
A common complaint I have about Simplicity and New Look patterns (owned by the same company) is that they are, shall we say, overly generous with their fabric allotments. This is after I pinned out the dress:
Look at that! Look at all the waste! I hate, hate, hate wasting fabric! This is so common with these pattern companies that I've gotten in the habit of not buying lining - there's usually enough leftover fabric. And there was more than enough this time:
Still a lot (not alot) left, but not so much that it makes me angry. Enough that I'll save it for some nerdy future project.
Next up is the modifications I made. You'll notice this pattern has skinny straps, which I dislike. I want the dress to be able to cover my bra straps! I just happened to have McCall's 5094 (I made a cute dress in view F last summer; perhaps I'll feature that at a later date), so I used the straps from D/E/F. These are the same width at the opening and closing as the original, but they curve out to be nice and fat. They're also a little shorter, which is good, because dress straps usually end up being too long on me.
Kitty approves.
I also skipped the pockets. Don't get me wrong - I dislike not having pockets to store my phone or keys in when I'm oot and aboot, but they never ever look good. It's not that I'm sewing them wrong or something - even in purchased dresses or skirts, they look weird, wrong, and they tend to bulge. And I've got big hips, so I don't need any more bulk in that area. So I suck it up, store my stuff in my purse, and my hips look as thin as they're ever going to look.
To omit the pockets, I just lined up the pocket against the skirt front, making sure the dots and the tailor's tacks lined up - et voila, pocket-less dress!
The last thing I did last night was pleating. I will gladly admit that while I'm a big fan of how pleats look, I am not the biggest fan of sewing them. And it doesn't help when the pattern is printed incorrectly.
You see the pleat line for size 6? Well, this is for sizes 6, 8, and 10, and there's no lines for sizes 8 & 10. I think this was just a misprint, as the front of the skirt just has a pleat line with no size marked. Harumph. I proceeded as if it was for all sizes, just like the front. Here's the back, after I sewed in the pleats:
So now I'm at a standstill until I get the contrast fabric. *grumble*
As previously featured, I am making myself a Space Invaders dress out of this pattern. I am still not sure what to do for the contrast. I'm heading to JoAnn's this weekend to see what they've got for me. I'm sure I can find a solid to match the aqua or light blue, but I would still prefer a print. I guess we'll see.
In the meantime, I started on the non-contrast components of the dress. I didn't get too far with the actual sewing because the contrast comes in early, but I can at least show you what I've got so far.
First up: due to the various lengths and added contrasts of this pattern, there are several cutting lines on the dress' skirt.
Some people like to just cut out whichever pattern they're using at the time and will just buy the pattern again if they want a different view. I'm cut from a different cloth (ha, ha). I just pin where the cutting line on my view is and cut very carefully.
A common complaint I have about Simplicity and New Look patterns (owned by the same company) is that they are, shall we say, overly generous with their fabric allotments. This is after I pinned out the dress:
Look at that! Look at all the waste! I hate, hate, hate wasting fabric! This is so common with these pattern companies that I've gotten in the habit of not buying lining - there's usually enough leftover fabric. And there was more than enough this time:
Still a lot (not alot) left, but not so much that it makes me angry. Enough that I'll save it for some nerdy future project.
Next up is the modifications I made. You'll notice this pattern has skinny straps, which I dislike. I want the dress to be able to cover my bra straps! I just happened to have McCall's 5094 (I made a cute dress in view F last summer; perhaps I'll feature that at a later date), so I used the straps from D/E/F. These are the same width at the opening and closing as the original, but they curve out to be nice and fat. They're also a little shorter, which is good, because dress straps usually end up being too long on me.
Kitty approves.
I also skipped the pockets. Don't get me wrong - I dislike not having pockets to store my phone or keys in when I'm oot and aboot, but they never ever look good. It's not that I'm sewing them wrong or something - even in purchased dresses or skirts, they look weird, wrong, and they tend to bulge. And I've got big hips, so I don't need any more bulk in that area. So I suck it up, store my stuff in my purse, and my hips look as thin as they're ever going to look.
To omit the pockets, I just lined up the pocket against the skirt front, making sure the dots and the tailor's tacks lined up - et voila, pocket-less dress!
The last thing I did last night was pleating. I will gladly admit that while I'm a big fan of how pleats look, I am not the biggest fan of sewing them. And it doesn't help when the pattern is printed incorrectly.
You see the pleat line for size 6? Well, this is for sizes 6, 8, and 10, and there's no lines for sizes 8 & 10. I think this was just a misprint, as the front of the skirt just has a pleat line with no size marked. Harumph. I proceeded as if it was for all sizes, just like the front. Here's the back, after I sewed in the pleats:
So now I'm at a standstill until I get the contrast fabric. *grumble*
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Space Invaders I
I'm making this dress (view C) in the following fabric:
I'm not really sure what I should do for the contrast in that dress. That yellow-green invader color is quite unappealing (sure, it looks okay in the print, but a large expanse of it would be, quite frankly, somewhat nauseating). The light blue and aqua invader colors (yes, there are two colors there, though it's a little difficult to see) are options, but that's so boring. I'd like a contrasting print, I think, but mixing prints can be tricky. Thoughts?
I'm not really sure what I should do for the contrast in that dress. That yellow-green invader color is quite unappealing (sure, it looks okay in the print, but a large expanse of it would be, quite frankly, somewhat nauseating). The light blue and aqua invader colors (yes, there are two colors there, though it's a little difficult to see) are options, but that's so boring. I'd like a contrasting print, I think, but mixing prints can be tricky. Thoughts?
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