#bpsevwember!

Amanda from Bimble and Pimble started a sewing hashtag project on Instagram for the month of November, and it's been so fun, especially when it comes to meeting new sewist friends from around the world! Every day we post a photo according to the set topic, and since we're heading towards the end of November, #bpsevwember will be ending soon too :( If you'd like to join, it's never too late to hop on the bandwagon though :D

Here's a couple of my #bpsewvember photos; no prizes for guessing which are my favorites lol.

Check out the other lovely photos by searching the hashtag #bpsewvember on Instagram. And if we aren't friends yet on Instagram, I'm at @chiiiiing (5 i's heheh).

 

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The making of The BFF Bag

A video!

/squeal

It's been a long time since I've made a video about making things-- the last one being my entry for Modcloth's DIY Boss contest... 2 years ago. LOL. #fail

Now I have another video to share with you, and it's about making a L.A.R.K bag, specifically The BFF Bag. It's a real snappy video, so no it's not something for you to bookmark and watch on the long commute home. Unless by long commute you mean 50 seconds tops ;-)

Please take a look :-B

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A Tutu Fit For A Rockstar

Sometime last year, I took on a fun project-- design and sew a tutu for a bride-to-be's hen's night. The challenge: the bride is not a girly-girl type of uh, girl, so Kel Li the maid of honor wanted something feminine yet edgy for the bride. We discussed it and decided on a combo of soft tulle, pleather and studs: the ultimate hard and soft (hello Project Runway episode title!).

And of course, the tutu had to be in black ;-)

Here are the initial sketches:

While both are rock star-worthy, the tiered tutu was a little more playful while the single layer tutu was more... grown up. Kinda like Avril Lavigne vs Gwen Stefani, y'know what I mean? Kel Li decided the single layer was more becoming of Joanna (the bride), so we went with that.

Kel Li said the tutu has to be poofy, so a lot of ruffles went into it. I actually laughed when I was sewing them because the ruffles seemed never ending and I was surrounded by it!

And all the ruffles, ruffles and ruffles were worth it.. the hemline of the lining was so flouncy and pretty-- time to look for a subway grate ala Marilyn Monroe maybe?

And all that flounce, topped with layers of soft black tulle...

Gold studs on the waistband for that rock star edge. My favorite part though, was the tiny little widdle rhinestones.

Tutu: Unfluffed. Oh she's a rocker chick.

I didn't want to overdo the bling-ness of the skirt, but wanted the tutu to sparkle with a bit of dreaminess. So the tiny rhinestones dotted the tutu like stars in the dark sky.

And when the tulle is fluffed up by hand, that's when things begin to get dramatic.

Tutu: FLUFFED! DRAMA MAMA! SHE'S GOING TO SMASH HER GUITAR!! MASCARA EVERYWHERE!!

But don't take my word for it-- let the bride speak for herself:

Pic by Kel Li

Uh sorry she can't speak now, she's kinda... occupied. 

Hahahaha I love that bathtub pic, Joanna really rocked it!! Pretty epic.

Pic by Kel Li

I know this is super late, but congratulations again to Joanna the rock star bride! And thank you Kel Li & Nora for the fun project, and for the pics! ^.^

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Free Pattern: Sweet Nana Pajamas!

Hey guys, I'm back! Apologies for being away, it's been too long, and hopefully this makes up for it. My grandmother spent a week at the hospital for an operation, and was just discharged yesterday. My mom asked me if I could get some material to make my grandma some pajamas to wear at home once she gets discharged-- her current pajamas was too short on the legs and too tight on the waistband, and the sleeves of the blouse was too long. 

Since my grandmother spent a few days floating in and out of sleep at the hospital while the anaesthetic wore off while being in pain from the surgery scars, we couldn't really take her measurements so we decided to base the pattern off one of her pajama sets.

The sleeve was drafted using Winifred Aldrich's book (bless her)-- I tried googling for a shortcut easy way to draft sleeves (haha lazy me) and found this video by Fettucinnetube, but after drafting it and showing it to my mom, she said it looked weird and I had to agree. If anyone's tried the Fettucinnetube technique, let me know if it worked for you. I ended up drafting the sleeve the correct way with the Aldrich book and am glad I did it coz the fit is nice!



I drew the pattern in Illustrator and was in such a hurry to finish it because my grandmother was discharged a day earlier than we anticipated. Sooo the pattern isn't perfect by industry standards (you will have to have experience in sewing pattern pieces together), but hopefully it will make sense and be of help to anyone who is looking for some pajamas to lounge around in.

After sewing it, I shortened the sleeves by 9cm from the hem (the pattern's sleeves would sit at the elbow-- an oversight of mine during the drafting process as I had forgotten that my grandmother wanted shorter sleeves, oops). 

It's made for size XL, and I would recommend lightweight fabrics such as cotton, rayon, satin, polyester, as long as they feel good against your skin (a good excuse to play with the fabric like a cat at the fabric store).

The pattern is available for free as a print at home copy. The top/blouse prints on 30 pages, and the pants pattern prints on 20 pages. 1cm seam allowance (SA) is included, and there are guides to help you line up the pages to stick them together. More instructions on the pattern pdfs.

I sewed a little satin ribbon on the front of the pants as a reminder of which way's the front. Though, technically, since the crotch curve of this pants is pretty low (nobody should wear tight crotched pants as pajamas, please just don't), the pants can be worn either way.

Download the PDF patterns here:
Sweet Nana Pajamas (Top)

Sweet Nana Pajamas (Pants)

Feel free to use it to sew a loved one some pajamas! This is my first pattern that I'm sharing here, so please share it and let me know if you like it. If you have any questions, do leave a comment or tweet to me at @chiiiiing (5 i's). Enjoyyyy! :D

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Draped lycra slip and tips on getting a dress form

Sometime last year, I finally decided to get myself a dress form, and got mine from Leichio in Thailand. I posted this pic below on the day I received the package, and christened her Sha Nay Nay thanks to one of my Youtube favorites: Top 60 Ghetto Black Names

Yeah, I was so happy I felt like hugging her to sleep!

For my first ever project with Sha Nay Nay, I made a Lycra slip to wear under my dresses. The fabric is soft, so I can also wear it as a long tank top on its own.

Check out my boobies.

Just kidding, they're Sha Nay Nay's! Heh. Now stop checking out her cleavage! :P

This slip was fully draped on Sha Nay Nay, so no paper pattern pieces. I learned some pros and cons, which I'll get to below.

The edges were finished with small zig zag stitches, as I didn't want anything too bulky.

Here you can see one of Sha Nay Nay's adjustable dials, just like a cyborg eh?

Having a dress form has really helped me in my sewing adventures. It cuts down fitting time, and I'm able to create patterns from draping directly onto the form, like I did on the wedding dress. Here are some tips for getting your own dress form.

Tips on buying/making dress forms

If you sew for yourself and others...

1. Consider getting an adjustable dress form that falls within your measurements. Amazon sometimes has discounts-- while searching I found that the common size was M, and they were cheaper than the other sizes.

2. Check if the tailor form is pin-able. A pin-able form is needed for draping designs (some pin all the way into the body, and some pin halfway meaning you will have to angle the pin at a slant to push it in)

If you only sew for yourself...

1. Measure your body measurements (key areas: bust, waist, hips) and try to look for one closest to your size. It may be easier to buy a slightly smaller one and pad it up later to match your measurements, rather than buying a bigger one which might not help much with your fitting.

2. It won't be essential to have an adjustable dress form, so you get to save some money there :)

3. Like the above, check if the tailor form is pin-able.

4. Make your own! Here are a few ideas:

Shannon's duct tape dress form, made mostly on her own with the help of her adorable son. The thing I like about her version is that she filled the insides with spray foam.

Threads' mama got swag paper tape dress form

Sartorial DIY's amazing plaster bandages dress form. One word: WOAH!!

lazylinchen's sloper dress form filled with sawdust... another of my favorites!

Do you have a dress form, and if not would you be interested to make one on your own?

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Tutorial: Sew-on bra cups

Having experience failure in the area of wearing stick-on bras (they keep falling out like stray chicken fillets-- would be rather confusing at a buffet), I much rather prefer to sew on bra cups into dresses that I can't wear a bra in. I made my first bra cup insertion in the Mad Men Wiggle Dress using this technique below, which I learnt from another tailored garment.

I've seen another tutorial where both the bra cups are manually joined with a sewn-on elastic band (so they are in one piece like a bra), but I couldn't do it with the bra cups I had because the edges were thin and I was afraid they might tear. So it depends on your bra cups I guess :D

This technique works best when the bodice has a lining piece (either a full lining, or at least a lining that covers your boobs so you can sew the bra cups onto the lining).

So here's how I did it:

Hmm, I hope I didn't miss anything out. If there are any questions just pop me a comment! Happy going braless! (sorta)

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Mad Men-ners Wiggle Dress

I'll be damned if I am in the advertising industry and never went to a Mad Men theme party. Thankfully, our friend Theo (who is a writer in an agency) and his now-missus Lisa planned a Mad Men wedding dinner, so phew, I won't be damned.

Ah, Mad Men. The fashionable show set in the 60s about an ad agency on Madison Avenue. Gorgeous vintage dresses and curvaceous ladies (or should I say, curvaceous Joan) paired with dapper men in even more dapper suits, PLUS it's about the ad industry. With both my husband and I working in the industry (my husband's a writer, and I consult for an audio production house for tv commercials), naturally we were excited about Mad Men when Season 1 came out. Then er, we kinda got bored. I think it's like doctors watching Grey's Anatomy... hehehehh

ANYHOOT.

I decided I wanted to make a dress for the Mad Men wedding dinner, and I decided to make one of the dresses that the Asian girl wore in one of the episodes of Season 4. You know which Asian girl I'm talking about right? I forget her name... she's the new intern on the show. But seriously-- she's the only Asian in the show, you can't miss her. Wait, what? You don't recall there being an Asian girl on the show? Good gracious, I can't even... gosh. OK, fine, I will google her picture and paste it here, maybe it'll jog your memory. 

Here you go, thank me later:

That's the Asian intern, beside Joan!

You remember her, right?

She's the intern who ALWAYS makes mistakes, remember? The klutzy Asian intern?

No? Maybe you'll remember this promotional poster instead:

Remember her now????

. . . . 

. . .

. .

. . . ok, ok, fine, yeah, that's me.

LOL.

(Love the looks on John Sterling and Don Draper's faces thinking about this crazy Asian intern.)

I drafted this dress, inspired by Butterick 6582 for the bodice.

The fabric is a faux houndstooth/plaid-with-a-houndstooth-mirage that I bought from Singapore when Ayu took me to the fabric market. I had initially bought it to make shorts, but after having drafted the dress I thought hey hey hey!! This would look fab too!

I love it that I had shoes that miraculously goes together with the whole look. Belt from Bangkok, and a vintage brooch that belonged to my husband's late mother.

For the back of the dress I drafted a deep-V (no place for a bra; thank goodness for sew-in bra cups [edit: here's how I did it] ) and a kick pleat for the wiggle skirt. The skirt length hits just below the knee like the sophisticated dresses in the 1960s (I think it also enhances the wiggle shape).

The dress is fully lined-- my first fully lined dress!-- and I love wearing it. It gives the dress a better hold (especially when the main fabric is not as structured), and I don't have to worry about having to wear a slip/whether my slip is showing. I think I really like deep-V backs, and would like to draft more dresses like that. 

Here's a photo of us at the dinner being irresponsible adults:

Tsk tsk tsk...

What about you, have you made a Mad Men inspired dress before? I love the fashion sensibilities of that era, don't you? :D

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The Capsule Wardrobe Mission: Determining your body shape (or, How to get that hourglass figure without ANY exercise!)

Ok, ok, yes that blog post title was rather spammy, heheh. But it's not a lie! I've been following Gok Wan's tv shows recently, and I'm very inspired by him. Gok is a designer who goes round UK helping ordinary women take control of their wardrobe and style in his show Gok's Fashion Fix (I think the show dates back to 2010). One of his key lessons is that clothes are made for the typical mannequin hourglass figure, but not all of us have hourglass figures-- apparently only 8.4% of women do! (phew, now I don't feel that lumpy.)

Here's a clip of Gok at work in creating an instant hourglass shape on another of his show, How To Look Good Naked:



Another of Gok's (almost typed God there haha) fashion lessons is to create a capsule wardrobe of 24 items-- tops, trousers, skirts, dresses, shoes and bags that can mix and match with each other to create more than just one look. This doesn't mean that your wardrobe should only consist of 24 pieces, but it's a starting point in building a compact yet flexible, sustainable wardrobe.

His mantra is "Buy less, wear more". Get more mileage out of the pieces in your wardrobe that make YOU look great.

I'm now on a mission to create my very own capsule wardrobe. God (not Gok) knows that I've got way too many clothes from my thrifting and sewing adventures. I think it's time for me to take a step back and really evaluate which clothes are going to be part of this capsule wardrobe. It's time to weed out the  clothes that don't make me look like Salma Hayek (ok who am I kidding LOL /slaps self).

But first, I needed to know what body shape I am, right? Coincidentally, Ayu invited me over to her place for some body graphing exercise. Using the guide on Patti Palmer's Fit For Real People, we helped each other draw our body graphs.

That's me rockin' a breast pump tag around my neck (we didn't have a necklace to help determine the neckline haha), a raffia string around my waist, thinking of a pear. I got swag.

And yes, I'm a triangle a.k.a pear shape! Big booty, thunder thighs, tiny boobage, that's me.

Do you know what body shape you are? Here's a simple guide I drew, along with that coveted hourglass figure cheatsheet for each body shape:

Next step in my mission: Determining which clothes work for me, and to chuck away those that don't.

What about you, would you want to create your own capsule wardrobe too?

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Interview: A Brunswick Bomber!

Are you ready for some amazeballs knitting??

I run Weekly Dose of Color, an online newsletter under my accessories brand L.A.R.K where the aim is simple: to simply share and spread the love for color. L.A.R.K is short for Life's A Real Kaleidoscope, a vibe that's reflected in the colors and designs for the things I create under that brand, which is why everything you see on the online store is so full of color! What would the world be without color?

Am I the only one feeling like I'm looking at where Willy Wonka lives??

Which is why when my friend Steph posted up photos of some knitting street art in her neighborhood Brunswick, it caught my eye. First she posted up a picture of a street sign where its pole was completely covered in colorful knitted yarn. Then she posted more and more pictures, and with every picture I got more and more amazed! So I decided to start a feature on Weekly Dose of Color to feature real people who bring color into the world. I got in touch with Claire Drake a.k.a. A Brunswick Bomber and was so intrigued by her story that I decided to also do a full feature of here on my blog. I know some of you out there are really good at knitting-- even if you don't knit (ie me), trust me, her work is going to inspire you!

A group project with Melbourne Street Knitters

Please tell us a bit about yourself :)  
My street name is A Brunswick Bomber.  I am a part-time yarn bomber and full time primary school teacher - although I wish that was the other way around.  I got started when I saw a piece of knitting wrapped around a pole in Fitzroy.  I did some online searching and found out that what I'd seen was a yarn bomb.  Soon after that, I joined my first yarn bombing group (Yarn Corner) on Facebook.  It was a good way to hook up with like-minded people and get involved in large-scale projects.  As well as doing solo projects as A Brunswick Bomber, I now work with a small group of yarn bombers under the name Melbourne Street Knitters.

If this doesn't invite you to be a tree hugger (literally), I don't know what will.

At what age did you learn how to knit, and what was your first knitted creation? 
I learned to knit when I was about 8 or 9.  My nanna taught me.  I wasn't that into it.  I guess I didn't have the patience.  Over the years, I picked up knitting needles a few times and tried to finish a scarf.  It never happened.  I only started knitting and getting pleasure from it once I began yarn bombing.  Making jumpers or other clothing doesn't really interest me.  I only get excited about knitting for the street.  Now, I knit to relax and do it for several hours each night.  If I'm sitting down and not knitting it feels weird.  All of my troubles and stresses melt away when I'm knitting.

Another group project with Melbourne Street Knitters!


Why did you start yarnbombing Brunswick?  
I started yarn bombing Brunswick because I wanted to enhance the dull, urban environment I live in.  I thought that placing unexpected splashes of colour and texture on street signs, bicycle racks, trees and poles would make my surroundings more interesting and inviting.  I do it because I like the way it looks.  I think yarn bombs are friendly and non-threatening.  They make people smile.  I love it when I see another artist's yarn bomb.  It reminds me that the world can be a cozy and happy place.

Claire at work! Photo by Bali Portman

What are your go-to knitting needle sizes for yarnbombing, and how long does it take for you to work on a project?  
I always use 6mm needles.  It can take any length of time to complete a project.  An average tree may take two or three weeks to knit and then three or four hours to install.  A street sign pole can be whipped up in a couple of nights and installed in twenty minutes.  Your average bike rack takes about 3 nights of knitting and then 30 minutes to install.

Bringing color to the world, one knit at a time. Photo by David Scholes

What is your dream destination/item to yarnbomb?  
I don't really know.  I'm always on the look out for new, interesting objects and strange shaped things on the street to yarn bomb.  Being in one place doesn't stop me from having my yarn bombs on display in different parts of the world.  I've contributed to quite a few overseas projects by mail and received contributions from overseas yarn bombers for projects here in Australia.  Yarn bombers all over the world are very good at making contact with each other online and collaborating on joint projects.  Yarn bombing can be a solo endeavour to improve your local neighbourhood or it can be a very social experience that exposes you to lots of different people from many different cultures.  

I'd totally wear that sweater!

I hope you enjoyed this little interview with A Brunswick Bomber! Follow her on Facebook (she even gives advice on how to yarnbomb) and subscribe to Weekly Dose of Color for more colorful features... I have someone very yummy lined up for the next newsletter! :)

All pictures belong to Claire Drake unless credited otherwise

#yarnbombing
#LifesARealKaleidoscope
#realpeople

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