Plushie cat

I made this cat with some fluffy socks and fabric scraps for the stuffing. I used this tutorial: DIY crafts: SOCK CAT - Innova Crafts

Calvin and Hobbes embroidery

I made this pillowcase for a secret santa exchange. I used the sewing machine for the blocks of color and chain stitched the black outlines. After 5 years of using my sewing machine, I finally read the user manual, and I learned so many things! Actually, the machine was acting a bit weird, so that's why I read it. I took it apart and cleaned everything and put it back together and it worked fine. yay. From reading the manual, I learned that I can do embroidery with the machine.

Next time I would finish the edges off better.

Holiday Party dress

I made a holiday dress. I messed up a lot but it turned out okay. I wore it to 2 holiday parties so that's a success. It's made out of jacquard fabric that is very beautiful up close.

Who wore it best

I made a quarter circle maxi skirt for my mom out of some bargain lot Girl Charlee fabric. Here are some pictures.

I asked my brother if I should put this on Facebook and caption it "who wore it best," and he said yes, and then I was like wait nvm you're gonna win. At least I look like I have the swolest arms hah.

Skirt + shirt = dress

This another one of those separate-able pieces that I made with the same cloth. It's bargain lot cloth from Girl Charlee--my first time ordering cloth online. The skirt is a circle skirt (full). The shirt is a bit too tight but oh well.

I'll post the shirt part later when I feel like wearing it.

Shorts

Here are some shorts I made. I traced some shorts that were originally my mom's. They are aite.

Striped dress for my mom

I made a dress for my mom from some red and black knit fabric I got from Joann's. I used her kurti as a pattern and just lengthened it. For the sleeves, I used a kurti and lengthened it so that I would get long sleeves. Then I just put the pieces together. It was really fast. I think I could have done a better job on the bottom hem, but the neckline came out nice. And I think it looks great on my mom, and she liked it too!

Here's my mom modelling her new dress

Flower pattern shift dress

I made a shift dress! I usually make gathered dresses, so this was a deviation from the usual. I think it came out well. It looks kind of like a kurti. The sleeves are kind of like puffed sleeves but the shoulder seams are a bit too low on my shoulders. I actually drafted a pattern and muslin for the bodice, but I guess need to fix the armhole part. There's a super long zipper in the back. I was planning on maybe doing a peter pan collar if I found some cool leather fabric, but I didn't, so I didn't. And that's about all the interesting things I can think of for this dress. Shift dresses are cool.

This is my "I'm so hip" pose. But at least you can see the dress and sleeves. Oh and the sleeves are actually full length, but I fold them up (I didn't hem them).

Another note: this is another one of the fabrics my dad got from India. 

Pink!

I got some pink knit fabric from JoAnn's and Black Friday and made these:

I learned some stuff from making the shirt. First, that kind of knit fabric is pretty thin and drapey, so the shirt looks more tight-fit than it actually is. Also, I have to make sure not to cut the neck too deep, which I did. Also, the pocket should have been a bit lower.

As for the skirt, I used this tutorial. However, I didn't put the elastic in the waistband, so the skirt is not very tight and tends to sag down, but with a belt it's fine.

3 shirts 1 dress

Before:

After:

I had 2 XL white t-shirts and 1 of my mom's old ones, so I made a dress with all 3 of them. The seams are kind of weird, but the sash covers it up. Also, the neck hem came out pretty well. I did a zig-zag stitch on low tension. Next time, I'll try to make my stuff more professional looking.

Quick, Simple Bag

My mom wanted a slightly different kind of bag, not as big as the satchel I had made earlier, so I made this bag. It was very quick and easy. I kind of just made it up. Here's a quick summary.

More pictures:

Satchel

I made this bag for my mom using this tutorial. I modified the pattern a little bit so that the bag wouldn't be smaller at the bottom. Instead of cutting a rectangle, I made the bottom width 4 inches wider than the top width, so it looked like a long hexagon.

Baby Dress

I made a little baby dress for my soon to be born neice! I made it using this tutorial: http://www.sewmuchado.com/2012/01/infant-peasant-dress-free-pattern-and-tutorial.html

There's my hand for size. It's so tiny.

Kurti-style Shirt

I got a lot of brightly colored and patterned fabric from India, so I decided to make a kurti. There are some tutorials on the internet (mostly YouTube), but I just used a t-shirt as a pattern. If I make another one, maybe I'll post a tutorial, but basically I just traced my t-shirt onto the fabric and cut about an inch or 2 extra because the fabric doesn't stretch. Next time, I would add some more width actually because the fabric shrinks. Also I left about 4 inches of the sides unattached (like a kurti) at the bottom.

Another men's shirt refashion

I had a men's shirt that was slightly too big for me, so here's what I did with it.

1. First I cut off the sleeves and collar. 

2. I removed the seam on the back that attaches the top of the shirt to the majority of the back. I also cut along the side seams so that the back was separated from the rest of the shirt.

3. For the sleeves, I cut off the cuff and cut the sleeve along the underarm seam. 

4. I attached the sleeves to the back piece (to add more length to the cloth). The cuff side goes on the bottom.

5. I gathered the top part of the back piece + sleeves so that the width matched the back of the shirt that was still attached.

6. I sewed the back piece + sleeves back onto the back.

7. I sewed down the sides.

8. I cut off the bottom so everything was even.

9. I hemmed the neck and sleeves. When hemming the neck, remember that the back is now the front and the front is now the back. When I was hemming the sleeves, I had to adjust things a bit since the armhole was not even, so some parts I had to fold back more than other parts.

10. Hem the bottom 

And that's all! Here's how it looks now (I do have to fix it up a bit since I was in a rush when I was making this)

Gold elephant t-shirt and refashioned shorts

I bought a $1 shirt from the flea market and painted an elephant on it with gold fabric paint. I used a "3-dimensional paint" bottle, which means the paint squeezes out of the bottle. This was actually way, way better than using a paint brush. The bottle offers so much control, and it doesn't necessarily have to be 3-d and funky looking if you don't want it to. It's easy to make small, flat strokes, and they come out pretty cleanly.

After painting and letting it dry, I cut off the collar and hemmed it and cut off some of the sleeves and rolled them up. I also made the sleeve holes a bit smaller.

I think the elephant came out well. I couldn't find one that I liked online, so I made a design myself. I like making unique designs. It's really fun. I could do it all day.

The shorts are made from the top half of a maxi skirt. They're not that great, but I can wear them at home. I basically made a slit down the middle and then added a rectangular piece of cloth on the inside to prevent bunching, but next time I should make it wider.

My friend got me that bow belt. It goes well with the shirt!

By the way, here are some more detailed pictures of the sleeves:

First I cut off an inch or two and rolled a hem and secured it.

Then I took in the sleeve a bit (the picture shows the sleeve inside-out)


Here are the shorts in action!

Long skirt to shorter skirt

I had a long skirt. I made it shorter. Here's how I did it: Actually I wanted to make shorts and a skirt from it. The top was going to be shorts, so I cut off the bottom for the skirt. Then I made a "waistband" by hemming the top and strung some elastic through it. Then I added pockets.

Had a skirt

Cut the skirt

Made new skirt!

More pictures!