The results:
The close up:
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Hair and dancing
We were at a competition in Connecticut last Sunday. It was a small, but nice one. It was also during the day, so we had to prepare and be there (which is a 2-hour drive) by 1 pm. This means I had a lot of things to do with my hair very early in the morning.
The results:
The close up:
The results:
The close up:
Band making
Last week I went to the gym to see my trainer. He came well prepared and brought special bands to make sure I don't slack off and get enough core and balance exercise. I've heard about these bands before and wanted to try. They are called TRX bands and cost some crazy amount of money. I think he mentioned he got them for $200. A brief look at the bands revealed they are nothing more than just some webbing with cam buckles, a carabiner and handles.
So, over last weekend, Tuan and I decided to make the bands from nylon straps. Not sure if the real thing is nylon, but nylon is a good enough for the first try. Here is the result of the team work:
These are the handles. The white tubes are for the hands and the low loop is for the feet.
The view of the top. The loop with the carabiner is attached to a piece that goes between the door and the door frame.
This is the top with the door hanger. The hanger can be detached to loop around a beam.
The door hanger piece from the other side of the door:
And here is the first tryout of the bands.
After trying the bands last week, I was in pain for several days. I guess they do work.
EL
So, over last weekend, Tuan and I decided to make the bands from nylon straps. Not sure if the real thing is nylon, but nylon is a good enough for the first try. Here is the result of the team work:
These are the handles. The white tubes are for the hands and the low loop is for the feet.
The view of the top. The loop with the carabiner is attached to a piece that goes between the door and the door frame.
This is the top with the door hanger. The hanger can be detached to loop around a beam.
The door hanger piece from the other side of the door:
And here is the first tryout of the bands.
After trying the bands last week, I was in pain for several days. I guess they do work.
EL
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Practice shirt, rolled edge and new book
Last night I wanted to start my new ballroom dress, but then I went to the gym and got tired so I decided to make something fast and simple. Practice shirt seemed like a good idea. I made a pattern and cut fabric. Again, it was supposed to be a small project with only 4 seams and maybe some rolled edge on the neck line, bottom and arm holes. I serged the pieces together and started with the rolled edges. OMG, I thought lycra behaves better than chiffon! I kind of does, but not when you have sharp corners to turn. So, the first shirt went to waste. I had to modify the pattern and make a whole new piece.
Disregarding the first shirt, total time spent was only 2 hours from pattern construction to finished shirt!
And today I got a new pattern making book. I just flipped through it, it looks so good! Finally, I'm going to make patterns based on theory.
EL
Disregarding the first shirt, total time spent was only 2 hours from pattern construction to finished shirt!
And today I got a new pattern making book. I just flipped through it, it looks so good! Finally, I'm going to make patterns based on theory.
EL
Monday, September 13, 2010
Box Pleats and a new skirt
After completing my first full skirt mentioned here, I decided to try another one but with thicker fabric (the summer is over..) and with box pleats. Box pleats look more symmetrical on the hips and more full to me. So, I got this thick cotton fabric and started working.
Unfortunately, by computer hard drive decided to die, so I had to redo the pattern. Basically, the 2 pieces of "pattern" I made were the belt and the lining, both are A line skirts of different lengths and sizes. In addition, the difference with the previous skirt was that the skirt itself used 3 fabric pieces and not 2. So, it's more full, 130" length on the hem. Other than the lining and the belt, the skirt construction is pretty simple. Cut 3 rectangles from the 44" fabric such that the longer side is 44", then connect them and make the pleats. As before, I used fusible interfacing for the belt, lining and invisible zipper that goes between the skirt and the lining. The final result:
And the zipper view from inside:
Tuan decided to hook me on to watching Mad Men show. I don't mind, the costumes are spectacular there. I especially like the bottoms and I guess the skirt I just made is kind of like that.
Finally, ballroom dress is next in queue.
EL
Unfortunately, by computer hard drive decided to die, so I had to redo the pattern. Basically, the 2 pieces of "pattern" I made were the belt and the lining, both are A line skirts of different lengths and sizes. In addition, the difference with the previous skirt was that the skirt itself used 3 fabric pieces and not 2. So, it's more full, 130" length on the hem. Other than the lining and the belt, the skirt construction is pretty simple. Cut 3 rectangles from the 44" fabric such that the longer side is 44", then connect them and make the pleats. As before, I used fusible interfacing for the belt, lining and invisible zipper that goes between the skirt and the lining. The final result:
And the zipper view from inside:
Tuan decided to hook me on to watching Mad Men show. I don't mind, the costumes are spectacular there. I especially like the bottoms and I guess the skirt I just made is kind of like that.
Finally, ballroom dress is next in queue.
EL
Friday, September 10, 2010
Dress from a pattern
Earlier in August I made a dress using Simplicity 2373 pattern.
This was my second dress attempt and the second time I tried to use a commercial pattern. The first dress was a failed attempt and this one came out pretty good. What I found is that the patterns are ok, but the instructions and the sizing are pretty bad.
First, if I just look at my measurements and use the corresponding pattern size, it's the first step to failure. The first dress was supposed to be a strapless dress, so you can imagine that if the top is too big, then there is no chance. For some reason the final garment has too much nap and so my first dress ended up being unusable. After learning this, for the second dress I used the measurements of the final garment instead of the body measurements to choose the size. This worked much better.
Second, the instructions are either incomplete or too confusing. The first dress instruction never told how to attach the top to the bottom and how to attach the lining. This dress instruction instructed to cut fusible interfacing for the straps but never mentioned when to attach it. So, after cutting the pattern, I just assembled the dress the way I wanted.
In addition, I changed the inside of the top to have 2 layers, because I just don't like bad looking inside. Since this dress didn't have lining, I didn't want to have all these seams showing inside on the top.
Finally, this was my zipper number 3. I attached it with teeth showing on the outside as I wanted to try attaching without sewing the 2 sides of the dress together. The zipper color was a perfect match to the dress color, so it was ok to show it.
Next up, making my own patterns...
EL
This was my second dress attempt and the second time I tried to use a commercial pattern. The first dress was a failed attempt and this one came out pretty good. What I found is that the patterns are ok, but the instructions and the sizing are pretty bad.
First, if I just look at my measurements and use the corresponding pattern size, it's the first step to failure. The first dress was supposed to be a strapless dress, so you can imagine that if the top is too big, then there is no chance. For some reason the final garment has too much nap and so my first dress ended up being unusable. After learning this, for the second dress I used the measurements of the final garment instead of the body measurements to choose the size. This worked much better.
Second, the instructions are either incomplete or too confusing. The first dress instruction never told how to attach the top to the bottom and how to attach the lining. This dress instruction instructed to cut fusible interfacing for the straps but never mentioned when to attach it. So, after cutting the pattern, I just assembled the dress the way I wanted.
In addition, I changed the inside of the top to have 2 layers, because I just don't like bad looking inside. Since this dress didn't have lining, I didn't want to have all these seams showing inside on the top.
Finally, this was my zipper number 3. I attached it with teeth showing on the outside as I wanted to try attaching without sewing the 2 sides of the dress together. The zipper color was a perfect match to the dress color, so it was ok to show it.
Next up, making my own patterns...
EL
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Back from LA
Last weekend we went to Los Angeles for the Embassy Ball competition. Of course, being in LA I had to check out their fashion district where, as I heard, 100s of fabric stores are concentrated in a relatively small space and the fabrics are so cheap that it's impossible not to buy a lot. Well, the concentration of the stores is true, but the prices are low if you're coming from somewhere you don't have 2 discount fabric stores 5 min walk from your house. But if you're coming from NY fashion district, then the prices are great.
First of all, the amount of stores is just crazy. We spent several hours just going from one to another. In the process, we slowly learned that many stores sell the same fabrics and it's very hard to find good quality stuff. I guess if you live in LA, you just find favorite stores and go there, but we didn't have this knowledge. Better quality stores are more expensive though. I particularly liked the store I got some chiffon and a fabric very similar to Chrisanne's dance crepe. Interestingly, the "dance crepe" fabric was produced in the US and was obviously much cheaper than Chrisanne.
Second, the prices are not stable there and you have to haggle. From conversations with a store owner, the economy is really bad and the stores are not doing very well. So the first price they ask is a bit higher than I would expect. Being trained by my local discount stores, I just could not justify most purchases since I could get the same fabrics for same or lower price at home. The only stores that were absolutely amazing are the everything for $1 per yard. Here I bought about 20 yards of organza! This is just perfect.
Overall, some fabrics for dance costumes were relatively hard to find. Non of the store owners I talked to had every seen satin chiffon. They kept pointing at the lining, which is not the same and does not drape as well. It was also hard to find good light satin. Sportswear lycra was somewhat missing as well. Horsehair braid was not available in any trim stores.
What was easy to find were organza, chiffon, lycra for practice wear, stretch net.
So, my overall haul was: white stretch net, white chiffon, white organza, hot pink organza and black "dance crepe". You can see where it's all going, it looks like I'm going to make white ballroom dress next.
As for made by EL stuff to show... I did make my own hair for this competition, but I forgot to take a photo of that. I also don't see the official photographs from the event, so I'm going to post a picture of my hair I did for Blackpool this year. Sorry about the blurriness. I took it in the dark room with my shaky hands using my iPhone.
EL
First of all, the amount of stores is just crazy. We spent several hours just going from one to another. In the process, we slowly learned that many stores sell the same fabrics and it's very hard to find good quality stuff. I guess if you live in LA, you just find favorite stores and go there, but we didn't have this knowledge. Better quality stores are more expensive though. I particularly liked the store I got some chiffon and a fabric very similar to Chrisanne's dance crepe. Interestingly, the "dance crepe" fabric was produced in the US and was obviously much cheaper than Chrisanne.
Second, the prices are not stable there and you have to haggle. From conversations with a store owner, the economy is really bad and the stores are not doing very well. So the first price they ask is a bit higher than I would expect. Being trained by my local discount stores, I just could not justify most purchases since I could get the same fabrics for same or lower price at home. The only stores that were absolutely amazing are the everything for $1 per yard. Here I bought about 20 yards of organza! This is just perfect.
Overall, some fabrics for dance costumes were relatively hard to find. Non of the store owners I talked to had every seen satin chiffon. They kept pointing at the lining, which is not the same and does not drape as well. It was also hard to find good light satin. Sportswear lycra was somewhat missing as well. Horsehair braid was not available in any trim stores.
What was easy to find were organza, chiffon, lycra for practice wear, stretch net.
So, my overall haul was: white stretch net, white chiffon, white organza, hot pink organza and black "dance crepe". You can see where it's all going, it looks like I'm going to make white ballroom dress next.
As for made by EL stuff to show... I did make my own hair for this competition, but I forgot to take a photo of that. I also don't see the official photographs from the event, so I'm going to post a picture of my hair I did for Blackpool this year. Sorry about the blurriness. I took it in the dark room with my shaky hands using my iPhone.
EL
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Is it harder to sew non stretch?
I have been reading a lot of sewing blogs lately and everywhere I go the dominating opinion is that non stretch fabric is easier to deal with. Or it's maybe I somehow got into the circle of blogs that share this opinion. I am, however, surprised to see this. Ok, my first ever project was a non stretch skirt in a sewing class at my school when I was about 10 years old. More on this later. After that project I had a long lasting rejection of sewing in general. Only when I picked up sewing recently, I found that I actually enjoy it especially when I use stretch fabrics and a serger. The first thing I did was the bodice for my ballroom dress I showed previously. All was great until I needed to make the non stretchy parts of the dress like a skirt and the floats. They were much more difficult to complete because you can immediately see all the mistakes, especially mistakes in thread tension. Granted, I went straight to the more difficult types of fabrics like light weight silk charmeuse and chiffon, but still, I found it much more difficult than the stretch fabrics.
Anyway, I decided to conquer my fear of non stretch fabrics and make a summer skirt. So, I made myself a pattern, got some pretty cotton fabric + lining, fusible interfacing, spent a couple of days figuring out how to put it all together and here it is.
I made invisible zipper on the back of the skirt which is zipper number 2 in my life. This one I put between the lining and the skirt. It took me some time to figure out how to do this. I'm sure it's not a big deal for people who are experienced in this, but since it was my first this type of zipper, I spent some time putting it into the belt and the lining at the same time. So, here is how it look from the back.
I put a lining inside which is simply an A-line skirt I attached to the belt. The belt has fusible interfacing inside.
The conclusion, it's not as bad as I thought. Unlike a ballroom dress that takes a lot of time, I was able to quickly make this skirt from scratch. But I still stand with the opinion that stretch fabrics are easier. Just need to prove it to my self by maybe making a knit skirt? Next up, though, is a dress from a non stretch fabric. I actually already competed it and will post when I have a chance to take some pictures of it.
Happy sewing for now.
EL
Anyway, I decided to conquer my fear of non stretch fabrics and make a summer skirt. So, I made myself a pattern, got some pretty cotton fabric + lining, fusible interfacing, spent a couple of days figuring out how to put it all together and here it is.
I made invisible zipper on the back of the skirt which is zipper number 2 in my life. This one I put between the lining and the skirt. It took me some time to figure out how to do this. I'm sure it's not a big deal for people who are experienced in this, but since it was my first this type of zipper, I spent some time putting it into the belt and the lining at the same time. So, here is how it look from the back.
I put a lining inside which is simply an A-line skirt I attached to the belt. The belt has fusible interfacing inside.
The conclusion, it's not as bad as I thought. Unlike a ballroom dress that takes a lot of time, I was able to quickly make this skirt from scratch. But I still stand with the opinion that stretch fabrics are easier. Just need to prove it to my self by maybe making a knit skirt? Next up, though, is a dress from a non stretch fabric. I actually already competed it and will post when I have a chance to take some pictures of it.
Happy sewing for now.
EL
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