Mini-Kimono Top

Earlier this year, I made myself a half-kimono top with leftover scraps and upon seeing it, my little sister wanted one of her own. I finally got around to making it! Hopefully she doesn't have a growth spurt out of nowhere and no longer be able to wear it...





Zoom-up of the side. I sewed it a bit too small so I had to take it out and make it wider. Hopefully it works better now...otherwise, she'll need help taking it off hahaha

Floral Tote

I've been meaning to make myself a bag [tote or legit backpack] for quite some time-since I made tote bags for my friends a couple christmases ago, to be honest, but I never got around to it. However, I figured it was high time to make something as my fabric pile was not going to get any smaller. I decided to go ahead and make a tote bag as it is much simpler and I already bought the fabric needed last year.

I made it from what I remembered of this tutorial from Skip to my Lou, but I took some liberties. I added pockets to both the inside and outside of the bag. I also made the straps have two different sides and purposely made them mismatch.



The front pocket has two compartments while the inside pocket is divided.

The bag is HUGE!

Experiment with Silk

It's been a really long time since I made a project from scratch so I figured it was about time. One of the easiest things to make, in my opinion, is a dress. I've been looking through Etsy for ideas and finally set my eyes upon these dresses from MyLolaFashion. I had several fabrics to choose from and took a poll from my friends.



Fabric #1 was the winner. And so, the fun begins!

Le Sac Dress...Shirt

I made a Le Sac dress from American Apparel after seeing several different tutorials.



I actually made it a while ago, but never wore it because I realized that it wasn't wide enough or long enough to be worn in the several ways possible.



Since I would never wear it as a dress, I decided to make it a shirt. I cut off some length and undid a few seams so the edges would end in a slit. I also decided to make them uneven so that the front length would be a bit shorter than the back.



I wore this to my friend Melinda's 21st birthday party at a greek restaurant full of napkin-throwing and plate-smashing. :]



[I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing, but at least you can see how I wrapped the straps and tucked in the edges]

Oops...and Happy New Year!

The japanese club, along with chinese language and culture club, hosted an event last Saturday called A Night in Tokyo. I figured this would be the perfect time to make a kimono-style blouse. I've seen several that I've wanted to make and planned on how I would make them, only to realize that my remnant fabrics are, well, just that. Remnants. I didn't have enough fabric to make an entire shirt. Luckily, I stumbled across a half-kimono shirt and figured I'd give it a whirl.

I used scrap fabric from a bed sheet to make a mock-up to see if the remnant fabric would be enough to make this top. I forgot to take pics of this process since I was just sewing on a whim, but I took the remnant I wanted to use and cut out the same size using the bed sheet. I ended up cutting out extra strips for the bottom portion to make it tie in the back.

Didn't you love sesame street as a kid? I didn't watch much, but I do remember the theme song…

Sunny day, sweeping' the clouds away.
On my way to where the air is sweet.
Can you tell me how to get,
how to get to Sesame Street?

Anyway…

Circle Skirt turned Dress

SURPRISE! I ended up making something to wear this week :] I also got bored last night and decided to make my name tag out of scrap fabric! Who wants to blend in with a name tag made with markers and a piece of folded paper?



But, on to the main piece. Prior to starting this Thesis project, I've always kept an eye out on different DIY projects and tutorials. I have a whole bookmarks folder dedicated to tutorials I found interesting or simple enough for me to complete. This week, I decided to make a circle skirt.

The person who created the tutorial said she used a bed sheet to make the skirt and I realized I had tons of bed sheets laying around the house so I hastened to my closet and pulled out this beauty from back in the 90s...

...and I made this!

The bed sheet I used had a wide strip of solid fabric at the top, which I found could be used to convert the skirt into a dress. It's a two-in-one! However, today's forecast was cold and rainy so I decided to wear it like a long shirt with a pair of skinny jeans. Coincidentally, this is my 3rd post and I tend to park on the 3rd floor of a certain parking garage on campus so....

TA-DAAA!!!
P.S. I make a lot of funny faces >.<
Happy Friday!!

Birthday presents

I was going to make something to wear this week, but I fell ill and slept for most of my MLK day. So, in lieu of what I was originally planning, I decided to show you something else I made this weekend for my friends' birthdays. It's still fitting, though, as I used only what I had at hand: remnants and t-shirts.

So, what did I make? Clutch purses! I've never worked with zippers before and it was a great learning experience. The first one I made took a really long time as I made some errors [where I had to take it all apart!], but the second one was smooth sailing and I finished within an hour. Yay!

Here they are...

The second clutch had the same interior of one divider pocket. I made the divider black and the inside fabric is the same color as the front band.

Time to roll up the sleeves...

...and break out the bobbins! What's a bobbin?? Well, I asked myself that too when I first saw a sewing machine. Actually, I was full of questions when I first tried my hand at sewing, but I finally figured out most of the features of my sewing machine through lots of trial and even more errors. And for the record, a bobbin is just a little cylinder wound with thread that you put inside the machine.

Anyways, I started sewing a while back, but never really got into the swing of it. However, once I decided upon this sewing thesis, I decided to have an official beginning project instead of starting out cold. The project of choice: an apron.

I bought a nautical themed remnant and matching remnants a long time ago intending to make my friend something incredibly awesome. As usual, that idea fell off the wayside. However, with her birthday looming closer and closer, I finally decided. She had been baking a lot recently and I remembered a few months prior, she was looking at cute aprons online. So, I set out to make the best apron I've ever made…not a big deal since it would be my first.

I used this apron as a template.