Tag Archives: scrap fabric

Scrap Sunday – World Costume Day

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I know, I know, a little later than usual, but it is still Sunday.

It was World Books Day this week, so time to get dressed up as favourite book character. Which is quite clearly mistaken by some as favourite TV character. I saw a lot of Disney princesses and Superheros plus one Yoda.

But I was lucky.  I asked them: What’s your favourite book?

Child No 1: Room on the broom (We haven’t read it in ages but ok.  It is a good book, also costumewise)

Child No 2: Blue.

We did a couple of times: -No your favourite BOOK. -Blue. (or “green” as clearly mum did not seem to be satisfied by blue)

I explained: – Look, for example P wants to be the witch from Room on the broom….

– I want to be the dragon, I want to be the dragon.

Great. Matching outfits. In different schools though 🙂

Technically, the witch costume is not exactly a scrap project. I had to buy just about everything. Well, the yellow bow (hiding behind the hair) and the ginger plait are made of scrap wool (see, I am still knitting). And we had the hat since ages.

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Obviously I could have made a simple purple skirt but I wanted to use the opportunity to practice piping as I will need it for the final garment in my Fashion Course.

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The dragon however is entirely made of scrap.

IMG_3297I have used the left over from the carrot costume  and some other red and orange fabric scraps.

First of all I cut out some sets of red triangles plus some strong interfacing. I sewed them together and turned them inside out. I also made a stuffed grey horn similar to the one the dragon in the book has on his head.

For the main “body” I used a hood pattern and just elongated it at the back into a long tail. I pinned all the spikes and the horn on one side and stitched the two body parts together. I decided to line it with some dark red left over lining as it makes the whole costume just so much more sustainable.

IMG_3295As you can see, the horn does not quite stand up but the dragon was happy and so was I.

I did not want to make a full costume because… well it would have been far too much work really but also we needed something practical to be able to play in the nursery and its garden.

And in case if you were wondering why he carries a flag, obviously this is not a flag but a portable fire to breath out fire. Because this is what dragons do.

I am extremely pleased with the result of the whole costume making. The child inside misses the carnivals of my childhood I guess.

It has been very little work (apart from the skirt) with maximum outcome plus the children could help with some of  it. Obviously the skirt is too elaborate for a costume only but it was a good opportunity and I made it to be worn on many occasions.

 

 

Scrap Sunday: The fabric mosaic or Please welcome my first guest writer

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A couple of weeks ago I was working on this apron for a teacher whilst my daughter was sitting quietly next to me…. cutting fabric into little pieces. I am so proud of her, she really embraced the rule that the big fabric scissors can only be used on fabric and not on anything else.

Anyway, then she had the rather brilliant idea to use those little pieces to make a card with a carrot on the front (we had printed carrots on cards as Christmas cards for the nursery teachers).  The card looked great but stupidly enough I did not realise that I could use that idea for Scrap Sunday so I did not take any pictures of it.

So a couple of days ago, we reincarnated the scene (and we did it properly this time, not just green and orange fabric were harmed in the making of this picture series.

But enough said, it was her idea, so I thought, she should write the post. Lovely idea anyway to ask friends, family and readers to write a post for my blog. So if you have any good ideas you wanted to share, please step forward now. It would mean so much less work to me. Ok, not all at once… Oh, well, it was worth a try. (And I do know where some of you guys live, so you better start writing)

Anyway, back to this weeks guest post:

Stoffmosaik Anleitung

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Scrap Sunday: Confessions to a bishop

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You might be wondering why my Scrap Sunday posts are really lacking of inspiration lately. Well, I have a confession to make: Somehow my brilliant and very sensible resolution to not only not buy any excess fabric or yarn (only what is needed for a particular project) but also to use up my huge amounts of stash has been replaced. Without my knowledge or agreement I hasten to add. Apparently buying sensibly is so last season. 2015 I am worried that fabric and yarn shops could all shut down over night so I better buy enough for a few very vague projects in mind. I have fully embraced this new resolution – to a point where I am buying a beautiful woolen fabric with embroidery on it, enough to make a dress out of it. Back home I then decide that a coat would look gorgeous.

Have I ever sewn wool? No.

Have I ever made a coat? No.

Does that stop me? No.

So I am going back to the shop the next day to buy what is left on the roll. So, for the slightly disappointed reader, there is at least one thing to look forward to. One day, there will be a post about a beautiful woolen coat. Progress is going well, you can expect pictures no later than May.

Other things to look forward according to the fabrics and yarn creeping you of their dedicated boxes? Light summer jackets for the children (need to work my way around the school uniform, jacket over school cardigan? probably not very realistic), baby blanket for my future niece (or nephew who will just love purple and turquoise), about 375 knitted cardigans, jumpers and tunics for babies (now, that I have plenty of time, I really want to get my shop going) and quite a few bags of all sorts.

But lets go back to the title of this post:

Confessions: done

Bishop: oh yes, lets talk about the Bishop

As you might remember (have read every single post or not?) I am currently back in school. On Tuesdays I am doing a Fashion Course. Yes, you did read Fashion and yes, this is what I am doing secretly on Tuesdays, and no, it does not show in my thoroughly put together wardrobe. I was looking for a one day sewing course but all I could find was this fashion course. It is a lot about designing and pattern cutting so even though it is not quite what I wanted, I still learn a lot of useful things. But I am dreading the final piece. We will have to design, cut the pattern and make a dress for a celebrity (who does obviously not know about her luck) for an occasion that we had to choose from a list of occasions.

As you can imagine, choosing a celebrity was super easy for me. I just went through my collection of celebrity pictures in my celebrity picture albums. There she was Michelle Williams, proud wearer of colourful dresses (rather than black and white which would be veeeery hard for me to even think of).

I will have to make a cocktail dress for her and I am struggling to imagine anything other than a very simple sleeveless A-line dress out of the 60ies. I guess I should incorporate the things that we have learned in class and I also kind of have in mind to add some knitting to it. After all, if any celebrity would ever ask me to make a dress for her it would probably be because I am a famous knitter.

But back to the bishop. In the last lesson, we have been talking about different types of sleeves and our homework was to “interpret”  one of them. And this is where we are back to using up scrap fabric (phew).

I decided to make a bishop sleeve, a sleeve that gets wide at the bottom but is gathered up and hold together somehow, either by just an elastic or a cuff.

So here is the pattern draft. Pattern cutting really is cutting a big shape into small pieces and then sticking them onto a bigger paper. Luckily, I know two experts in cutting and sticking 🙂 …

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… then you take this pattern draft and copy it onto a clean piece of paper, add seam allowances, notches, marks, grain line, other clever things….

Insert mental picture here as I am too lazy to get it done for you, sorry but I am up since 5am.

… and then you just sew the sleeve, attached to half a front and half a back, as you obviously have to mount it somewhere…

As it is a model only, it is actually not the right size but 3/4. I have used some left over lining as I wanted to practise working on flimsy material rather than my usual cotton….

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… I will have to include some historical fashion detailing for my final garment chosen at a Wedding Dress exhibition and in my case it is for some reason surface decoration. So I decorated my cuff with some lace knitting to see how this would work (see another clever use of scrap yarn here) …

IMG_3132So far, I am not impressed and definitely would not want to wear it (haven’t asked Michelle yet)

Ok, I have chosen a rather thick (compared to the flimsy fabric) cotton yarn for laziness practical reasons but I also think it would not work that well in a better fabric-yarn combination at least not for a cocktail dress. It will definitely be easier, quicker and prettier to just buy some lace and put it there. If lace it the kind of surface decoration I want to use. You see, I really know what I am doing, clearly this is just the right class for me and considering that I am fully committed and doing my homework no later than Monday evening it will be a huge success.

So stay tuned! I guess once I press that “publish” button there is no way out of it anymore , I will have built up too much excitement and too high expectations….. Should I, should I not? I guess I should.

 

 

 

Scrap Sunday: Essentials

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I am afraid but today’s Scrap post will only be a link to a brilliant idea of how to use up scrap fabrics.

I had already mentally prepared an incredibly funny pun about having something up my sleeve and this week’s fashion course homework but I am too lazy to talk about different types of sleeves and knitted surface decoration and all this kind of stuff. Will have to be another day.

Anyway, I came across a lovely blog which linked to another lovely blog. They make me both rather jealous as they just prove an impression that I am having since a long time: German speaking blogging world has access to much nicer fabrics than I have here in one of the world’s fashion hotspots. At least when it comes to children’s fabrics. I am now following both of them and the second one, Schnabelinas Welt seemed to have felt my need of a good scrap idea and posted just today about scrap fabric knickers  for her daughter. I think they look amazing and they are a brilliant and perfect idea for me as I had already been wondering what I should be making for my daughter in future considering that she has to wear a school uniform for most of the time when she is awake. Unlike Mr NoThankYou she usually likes the stuff that I am making for her and wears them with joy. So knickers made by mummy it will be 🙂 … Just for her I am guessing, just imagine the life long trauma and hours of therapy for Mr NoThankYou: His mother not only buys his underwear, she is actually making it. We definitely don’t want that to happen 🙂

Have a lovely week and don’t get your knickers in a twist! Thorough information about sleeve types and fashion course progress will follow.