Handsomely Handmade

I’ve started a new flickr pool! It’s called Handsomely Handmade, and it’s the place to post photos of your lovely handmade outfits. Basically, I was looking for something like Wardrobe Remix or 100% Thrifted for folks that make their own clothes, and I couldn’t find anything! There are plenty of pools for sewers and crafters, but I couldn’t find any specifically focused on outfit photos. So there you go! Please post your favorite outfits featuring at least one handmade accessory or piece of clothing and I will pick the best of the week for this here blog. Yay!

 

Wednesday, September 9th

So I’m going to try and post my daily wear regularly on here (at least on the days I’m wearing something cute).

Dress: vintage store in Portland on their last day in business (so I think it cost, like, $5)
Tights: 50¢ from the hat guy* on South Beacon Hill in Seattle
Shoes: Reaction by Kenneth Cole, found at Goodwill
Belt: yard sale
Hair clip: handmade

*The hat guy is an older gentleman that lives on 15th Ave South and sets up a regular yard sale of primarily hats. He has hundreds of hats, categorized into large piles (nice hats, straw hats, winter hats, etc.). He also had several piles of wigs, new tights, and scarves. When I went by he was hanging out in the yard on a Sunday afternoon drinking lemonade and listening to the radio, and was happy to cut me and my friends a deal on our hats. It was one of those lovely moments that make me really love adorable old men and living in the city and the world in general.

Things I have sewn since I stopped updating

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I’m pretty obsessed with Threadbanger. Every week they offer great DIY tutorials, which range from the simple (and occasionally somewhat insipid) to the amazing and difficult. About a month ago they did a T-shirt Recon contest, and the winner was a really amazing and simple project to make a dress out of three t-shirts. I spent, like, an hour at the Value Village going through t-shirts, trying to find the best, softest ones to make this dress out of. So here it is!

I love it so much! It’s insanely comfortable, and it has pockets. Oh, how I adore pockets on dresses.

This next skirt was made out of sale fabric I got at Bolt in Portland. I didn’t use a pattern, I just measured my waist and based it on that.

And here’s another party skirt! This one was made from fabric I got very cheaply at SCRAP, also in Portland. I’m not sure if you can tell in the picture, but it’s tiered. Once again, no pattern. I feel like my not using pattern says less about my level of skill and more about how lazy I can be when it comes to crafting.

And finally… Yet another skirt! Made without a pattern! God, I’m really predictable.

So what have you been making since March? Anything interesting?

Oops!

Oh man, hi, remember this blog? Ha… ha.

So, obviously, I failed with my new years project. I failed real bad! I have actually done a lot of sewing this year though, but not quite to the ambitious level I had hoped for. I also have several unfinished projects (a shirt and a dress, both very near completion). Most of the things I have finished were simple skirts, because shit, I can make a skirt in a night or two. But complicated dresses? Shirts? Pants? Naw, those all take way too much time for my busy lifestyle. I don’t craft or blog for a living, I have lots of friends to hang out with, other unrelated creative projects to work on, and I just moved to a new city, so that was stressful.

But you know what? No more whining! No more excuses! I’m going to blog regularly now, about fashion and diy and culture and things that I think are pretty. Oh yeah, I’m also starting an ebay store very soon, with my best Seattle thrift store finds (and believe me, there are some serious gems in this town!). So, uh, get ready world! Nickey Robo’s opinions on sewing and fashion are back! (I know you’ve been waiting.)

Craft Talk with Leslie Hall!

If you’re not familiar with the wonderment of Leslie Hall, you’re really missing out. She makes awesome ridiculous music and videos, and is a hardcore crafter to boot. She makes sweet spandex pants that are available at Fat Fancy in Portland. The spandex has it’s own website, and there’s a picture of me and my roommate on the “testimonials” page!

Anyway, she just came out with this new video for her song Craft Talk. This should be the theme song for all crafters!

Paper Tape Form

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, fitting patterns has been a real pain. All patterns are (obviously) made with someone else’s body in mind. With that thought, I set about making a dress form fit for me. I used the gummed paper tape method described in this article from Threads, and in this post on jejune.net.

First I took an old promotional t-shirt and took it in so it was very tight on me (but not to the point that it was changing the shape of my body). Then we put on Valley Girl, which I got on VHS for $1 at a flea market on Saturday, to keep us entertained during the process, and my roommate Mark and I set to work. He started off wrapping me around my waist. The tape is like those old lick ‘em-stick ‘em stickers- you have to wet it with a sponge for it to stick. It molds into a papier mache like form.

He then started taping over my shoulders and bust. This is when it started to get uncomfortable… I have pain in my shoulders already, and having them trapped in a form for two hours was really painful. But, whatever, I knew what I was getting into.

This was about half way through.

At this point we were almost done, there was just some reinforcing left to do. We then used a hair dryer to harden the glue before taking it off.

To get it off, Mark cut straight up the back and we then used the tape to stick it back into a solid piece. Although it was pretty solid, it’s thin so it was rather crinkly. I then remembered that we had an old dress form in the basement- it’s a broken adjustable form that was left behind by an old roommate about three years ago.

We pulled off the broken pieces on top so that we could put the new form on it.

We then stuffed the form before putting it on top of the form.

Here it is on top of the base. You can see the broken pieces we pulled off on the right. The yoga mat is out because I made Mark take it out for me to stand on after I’d been standing still for an hour and a half getting taped.

Once it was all stuffed and finished I couldn’t stop doing dumb stuff and hugging my own form. It was very surreal to feel my own body shape like this!

All done! The bottom of the paper tape form is taped onto the old dress form at the bottom to keep it in place. You’ll have to forgive my ridiculous Sunday night zebra sweatshirt.

The final measurements are a little bit off from my real measurements. The bust is just right (42″), but the waist is 4″ bigger than my real waist (my waist is 34″, but it came out as 38″). I think this is because the way it had to be taped on and the way a shirt stretches over your body, it’s just not going to allow you to define a waist as much as it may naturally be. I’ll just have to keep the difference in mind when sewing.

After this was all done I went and made a skirt (which I didn’t even use the form for, pfft). Pictures of that tomorrow!

And thanks again to Mark for all his help taping me up.

Hits and Misses

Well, I’ve really failed at updating this blog, eh?

On the plus side, I have not failed at my project. Not completely, anyway. My first project of the purple dress didn’t turn out so well at first… Despite the pattern being a vintage size 16, the back of the envelope said it was measured for a 28″ waist. Seriously? I know it was a long time ago and all, but that was a 16 back then!? This was also very confusing because I know this pattern belonged to my grandmother, who’s old clothes usually fit me quite well.

So I decided to go ahead with sewing it anyway, and it kind of turned out like an accidental mumu…

Not exactly flattering. You can also see the (ahem) chaos my craft space has descended back into.

Here it is from the front:

This weekend I finally added darts. I still think it needs to be worn with a belt, and the pockets kind of give me a belly pooch. But having a dress with pockets is so nice, I don’t care about the pooch! It’s also nice because I didn’t include a lining. It’s very lightweight cotton, and I think it will be super comfy in the summertime.

Obviously, if you are keeping track, I should have made three projects by now. Well, I did! The other one wasn’t even intended for the fashion ration, it was a skirt I whipped up in a few hours for a party. But I liked it so much, and it turned out so well, that I’m including it.

I made it for a white party, then later ombre dyed it blue. I still might do one more pass of dye (I really want the blue at the top to be dark, cobalt blue).

It’s ultra high waisted, made of soft, crisp cotton.

That’s where I’m at right now. I’m hoping to start the silk shirt tonight. I also just bought this REALLY dorky sewing book called Fit For Real People, but I think it’s really going to help me with tailoring. I still haven’t made a body form, but my roommate promised to help me with that once he finishes his midterms.

Kasia Skirt

So I finished the Kasia skirt last week… I’m pretty happy with it, although I think it makes me look a little, um, lumpy. This might be a result of: A) not totally following the directions or B) not using interfacing (which directly corrolates with A) or C) not having a dress form on which to make alterations to the fit. So I guess my goal this week is to make one of those goofy duct tape dress forms.

I’ve also started on the dress out of the purple fabric. However, the vintage pattern lists the size 16 waist as 28″. Seriously, WTF!? I have vintage dresses that are a 16, they usually fit quite well. I measured the pattern pieces and it seemed like it would come out a lot larger than that. So I’m making the pattern unmodified, and if it doesn’t fit, well, I’ve learned my lesson.

My craft space

So I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning up my basement craft space for hours, and now it’s the maybe the cleanest it’s ever been! I’m kind of an organized chaos sort of person, so I guess this probably doesn’t look clean to other folks. But I can see most of the floor and all of my sewing desk, so that’s really an accomplishment.

This is me in the whole space.

My craft desk. It’s covered in pattenr pieces, an iron, craft books, knitting needles, buttons, and random craft supplies. All the books and other paper ephemera to the left of the milk crate are for collaging. I collect this kind of stuff primarily from thrift stores and estate sales. All the magazines under the typewriter are from the 40’s-70’s.

My collection of craft books. These are collected new, from my family, and from thrift stores. One of my favorites is the little blue one, which my mom gave me, called The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Books. It’s really hippie-tastic, with directions on how to make your kaftan pattern free, and rants about how your clothes look better without a bra.

I took this drawer that I store my patterns in from an abandoned house in Amherst, MA when I was in college, and the poster is from a film festival I was in.

This is my next project. The fabric and pattern are both vintage that my mom gave me over the holidays.

This will be my third project, after the purpe dress. The fabric is a wonderfully soft silk, and I want to make a 40’s style blouse with it. I plan on giving it slightly longer cuffs than in the pattern.

So that’s it for now. I actually finished my first project last night, the Kasia skirt! I’ll post some photos of it later today.

Inspiration

Most of these pictures are from the set “1930’s and 40’s in color” on the Library of Congress page on the Flickr Commons. I’m really in love with it, and I find the fashion of those times really inspirational.

I really want to make some pants like these, but I’m putting that off for awhile. I’m really intimidated by sewing nice pants.