Jumping shirt: part deux

So after making the last shirt I was pretty happy with how it turned out and it seems both flexible and strong enough to fully be great for riding in. Why not have a go at making another one, except this time a bit more elaborate and hopefully something I could wear for showhunters and stuff.

Front view:

Back view:

The first one I made with all stretch materials, and this one the side panels are a 2-way stretch (rather than 4-way) and the cream fabric has no stretch at all! This wasn't going to be nearly as forgiving if I got any measurements wrong. To counter the lack of stretch I used a much longer zip for ease of getting the shirt on and off:

I wanted to do something different with the neck. I used a lace fabric with the uneven/finished edge at the top to make it look a bit more decorative. I didn't have much of that fabric, so couldn't do a button & buttonhole... so compensate for that I did the button anyway (as I love this big brown & gold button) but I used an elastic loop to secure it. It's mostly for show, as the collar stands up by itself anyway, but I wanted that damn button!

I'll get to put them to the test this weekend at Masterton A&P show. Hope they are comfy to ride in otherwise I'll be gutted, as they take heaps of work to make.

Gearshift boot

Pie was doing some work on the MR2 and noticed that the shift boot was all ratty and torn, so he asked if I could make a new one. I took the existing one apart with a seam ripper and then drafted a quick pattern/template:

Due to the wire frame that's supposed to go at the bottom, I could only machine sew a few small sections and had to do most of it by hand - but it's pretty small so didn't take too long (though absolutely felt like it did!).

Pie popped it into the car and it fitted properly and everything! Awesome!

Jumping shirt

I made a shirt to wear while showjumping this weekend at the A&P show! I am over the moon with this shirt. I based the design off one I already had, plus a few ideas I'd seen online, and some things that I thought would look cute (the collar button and binding):

At first I made it too big, so I unpicked the side seams and took them in, then made the armholes bigger to be more roomy for riding in. Everything else has fitted. This is my first time inserting a zip, or doing a button and buttonhole - and everything came out fine!

I am really pleased, and just have a few bits I want to hand-stitch to tidy up... but it's done! I can wear it this weekend. I am stoked with it :)

Boxer shorts fail

Well, it had to happen. Epic fail on the boxer shorts. I wanted to learn to use a pattern - so found a Kwik-sew 'learn to sew' boxers pattern at the $2 shop. Following the pattern was confusing at times, but not impossible.. threading the elastic into the waistband was the hardest part:

They were kids sizes, and I picked a kids size L. I could fit a house inside these boxer shorts. I can't even work out how to alter them to get them to fit... Looks like I'd need to reduce them by 2 or more sizes!

Shopping tote

I bought some clearance fabric with girls covered in tattoos - and wasn't sure what to do with it. Decided to make a tote bag that shows off the fabric nicely. I had a full-colour version, and a sepia type version. I found some tutorials online for making bags and combined 4 or 5 different ones to get this simple shoulder bag.

I mostly used the coloured fabric, but put a pocket on the outside in the sepia (using the same part of the pattern so it looks in-theme), and made another pocket for the inside in the sepia:

I wanted a sturdy bag, so I added a lining (some thick cream coloured woven material I bought for cheap) and made the handles from that seatbelt kinda stuff (also easier and quicker than making it of the fabric... even if I'd had enough fabric to give it a go). Contruction was pretty tough with the lining as well (and putting the inside & outside parts together and making all of the corners match up), but good learning for me. And I'm stoked with the result and use it pretty much every time I leave the house:

Anti-rub vest

Trying to work out how to save money, I thought I'd try my hand at something for the horses. Horse stuff always costs heaps, so I was keen to see if I could make it for cheaper. These tend to cost $20+. I bought some fabric for I think $8, and various bindings came to another $8. If we add in the cost of thread we're probably coming to about the $20 mark - but I bought enough bits & bobs to make 2 vests. I guess that makes it pretty good value to make rather than buy? If you have the time, anyway.

I made the shape by tracing a rug I had and then making some visual adjustments. I cut out the shape from another piece of junkmail (junkmail is my pattern drafting friend!). Then cut out the material, and sewed on the bindings:

Sewing the bindings was tricky to get tidy, but I think I learnt some things that will make it easier next time (I think pinning it was a waste of time really - quicker to just put it together as I was sewing). Then added front sash and loop to attach to the rug (which I machine stitched with the wheel, as the material was too thick to use the foot pedal and sew normally). Tried it on Neo and it fits!

Neo is very happy with his new gift... now I just need to make another one for Dee.

Oven mit & glove

After finding a description online of how to make an oven glove I thought I'd give it a go (as our current one is coming to the end of it's useful life). I made a template pattern thing by drawing a shape onto a piece of junkmail (nice glossy card) and cutting that out. Because all the pieces (inside stuffing etc) have to be the same size/shape I thought it'd be wise to have a template to cut from. It takes ages to make an oven mit, but I was pretty impressed with how it was coming along. The skill fabric that Pie picked was pretty rockin' too:

Turns out though, that I made the opening too small for the free arm on my machine and broke a needle trying to sew the opening. Gutted. Because they looked cool aside from the stuffed opening, I thought I'd try again... but longer (so the opening could be wider!). Got some rockin' camo fabric:

And set to work! They still take ages to make! Argh. But when I went to sew the opening it only just fit around the free arm and I could see it wasn't gonna work. Oh no! So I hand stitched the opening and it's not too bad... The coolest thing is how long it is. We call it the 'oven glove' - handy for reaching things at the back of the oven!

Lounging Set

Having found a huge roll of some sort of grey soft 'sports' (stretch) material for $4, I tried to have a go at making clothes. I don't know how to read a pattern, so I just sort of freehanded what looked like a singlet top with a racerback. My idea was to have a cord around the neck part so I wouldn't have to worry about sewing that:

It was a bit tight at first, but being stretch it settled into fitting really nicely after about 15 minutes of wear. I decided to make a pretty neck tie part instead of cord. I used some asian printed satin stuff - and had a horrible time making it thin, but got there in the end. After that I decided I needed shorts to match. I made an insert in a sort of waistband thing (I freehanded the shorts too, but did need to re-do the side seam after constructing it wrong the first time). I like how the asian detail on the shorts came out:

And that was it - my first top and pants!

Neckroll pillow

Now having much bravery after making a regular pillowcase I thought I could put on some big girl pants and try something a bit more scary... one of those neckroll things. Was mostly the same idea - starting with a ribbon fabric, add some cord and some satin brocade (I think that's what it's called):

And make it into the right shape with a pre-bought neckroll inside thingo & Bob's your uncle:

My ribbon pillow

Posing for the camera:

Close up:

My first ever completed sewn item.

Pillowcase

So - my every first project was a pillowcase. I had my ribbon fabric made, and decided that a pillowcase looked to be about the most simple thing on the planet, so surely I was capable?

1. Grab an old pillowcase you have, so that you can get the measurements off it
2. You want to use regular fabric for the larger piece (I used calico because it's cheap and plentiful and soft to hug into) and then your ribbon fabric for the smaller piece which will eventually be the 'front' of your pillowcase.
   
3. The orange squares are the size of your existing pillowcase, the yellow is that little fold down bit that stops the pillow from falling out, and the red is the amount of extra you want to give yourself as a seam allowance (books say 1.5cm, but I usually use an inch - because I am old).
4. Pin the pretty sides of the fabric together - folding that yellow piece down (you may want to seam the edge first if you wanna be fancy). Then sew the 2 pieces of fabric together... as you sew you will also sew the folded yellow piece down - so you need to be careful that all the fabric is under the needle and not slipping away as you begin sewing. I stop sewing from time to time and do a quick visual check, because I am too retarded to do this on the fly.
   
5. So you have now sewn 3 sides (you can either sew the 3 seperately, or you can stop at the 2 bottom corners with the needle in the fabric, lift the foot, reposition the fabric to go in the new direction, lower foot, hoon on with your sewing). The little yellow flap is at the open side (remember it stops the pillow falling out).
6. Sew a top seam (not together! take out the front little clippy thing in front of your sewing machine so you can put things under it, this allows you to sew sort of in a circle... hard to explain, but the fabric goes under the machine while you sew what's on top).
   

And there you have it, turn it inside out and you will be amazed to see it actually looks like a pillowcase, except you made it. So crazy.

Ribbon Fabric

I had always wanted to make some sort of ribbon cushion or something (well, I wanted to buy one, but couldn't get anyone to make one for me). I figured I needed to start with grabbing some ribbons and making them into sort of a ghetto piece of fabric.

1. Assemble ribbons! I started with 4ths because hey, if I ruin them nobody will be upset
2. Decide how you want them to be oriented (all text facing the same way or not)
3. Stitch into fabric, there are a few ways to do this

• Topstitch onto a backing fabric (calico or something) - topstitch using a plain stitch close to the edge of each ribbon, or using a zig zag stitch over both (but I found zig zag bloody difficult).
  
• Interface the backing (you can use one big sheet, but I found that made it really stiff, and also took forever to fuse on with the iron) - then topstitch just for added strength
• I've also seen people zig zag the ribbons together with nothing else, but by christ I just can't make that work - everything falls apart. I suspect I am lacking the required talents for this!

Now you have your ribbon fabric, and can start using it the same as you would a piece of cotton or something.


Notes:
Because ribbons are essentially some sort of satin type fabric, you should use a newish needle. An all-purpose 80/12 is fine, so long as it's fairly new. I tried the shiney fabric needles but they got blunt really quickly.