Gatoooooos!

(Pencil, ink, Photoshop).

Commissioned piece I drew for a friend of mine, who requested it as a birthday present for a friend of his. Style based off of the anime/manga, Chi’s Sweet Home.

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Butterick Retro 60s Pattern B6582 (Dresses A & B)

Pattern can be purchased here.

A while back, I've mentioned that I was on a quest to replenish my pitifully bare wardrobe with new, self-made cute clothes. To date, I've since made several more pieces of clothing, with two of them featured below.

Both of the Butterick 6582 dresses, thankfully, did not require any modification to the pattern, making the process more expedient. Unless you're using a heavyweight fabric, I highly recommend adding a lining for durability. The included step-by-step instructions were easy to follow.

Dress A was made late last autumn, using navy floral print cotton fabric that I snapped up on clearance the from Equilter. It's lined with black medium-weight crepe fabric I already have on hand.

With Dress B, I splurged a bit and bought some gorgeous monarch butterfly wing cotton sateen fabric from the talented C'est La Viv on Spoonflower and lined it with red lightweight silky fabric I already have in my stash.

Overall, the fit feels fabulous for both dresses. The vertical darts on the front and back, in particular, gave the illusion of hips to my rectangular body type. I highly recommend this retro dress pattern for spring and summer wear!

Dress A (back view)

Dress A (front view)

Dress B (back view)

Dress B (front view)

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"Botched" Knock-Off Anglomania Dress

A few months ago, during my perusal of eye candy on Pinterest, I stumbled upon this striped little jersey number from Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania collection:

The draping, the gathers - how they affect the pattern to gracefully draw the eye all over the garment...I must have it! Unfortunately, after some extensive browsing all over the internet, I was bummed to find that this particular stripey style dress has been sold out for some time. There are similar dresses from her collection that are available in a few different prints (and solid colors), but they were far too out of my price range. *Le sigh* Some day, I'll be able to afford a Vivienne Westwood piece.

In the mean time, I decided to make a knock-off of the Anglomania jersey dress. I purchased an out-of-print Butterick pattern off of Ebay that had a similar look and drape:

Butterick B5035 Tunic Pattern A.

The pattern for tunic A was a bit tricky to modify, as it was one single piece, with both sides mirrored together in sort of a "butterfly" formation, which is the best description I could come with off the top of my head. The wiggle skirt portion was from a self-drafted pattern of mine.

For the fabric, I chose a lovely 5-6 oz. striped bamboo cotton jersey, lined with similar weight ivory cotton modal jersey for modesty. I was super excited to put these fabrics to use...until I totally futched up the pattern cut-out.

The ruching in the back is supposed to go on the opposite side so that the dress can be flipped either way around. The top half is also supposed to be more slouchy (the curvature of my ribcage on the left in the pics is actually more aligned with the side seam, so I'm not actually that wide on the top!). Instead, both ruched portions ended up on the same side! Crap.

Frustrated, I debated on whether to buy more fabric and wind up with two knockoff dresses, or just learn from my mistake and finish up the "botched" dress. I ultimately went with the latter to save money and was surprised that my mistake didn't turn out as bad as I'd initially thought.

I didn't bother to brush my hair. Oh well.

Also, I hate my love handles...they're always the last to go.

The dress was form-fitting around the skirt portion as it should be, but wasn't as slouchy as I wanted to be on top. I liked how the ruching keeps one of the sleeves hanging off the shoulder in a tasteful manner, and the overall fit was comfy and breathed well. It would be great paired with a bright, wide belt and matching leather flats for a weekend outing, or just chilling at an outdoor cafe with an almond latte and good book to read. I would love to create a second Anglomania knock-off dress sometime in the near future, but will make absolutely certain that I get things down correctly the next time.

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DIY Swimsuit Round-Up

It's already a few weeks into summer...not to mention it's the hottest month of the entire year. You're ready to hit the beach and wanna look your smexiest but can't find the perfect swimwear just about every store you've searched through. Or maybe you have found the perfect one but the price tag made your jaw drop...like in my case.

I was initially inspired to write this post when I was rummaging through my fabric stash and unearthed a bunch of perfectly good tricot fabric, in asphalt grey and sunny yellow (separate colors). I figured, "hey, these'll make really cute swimsuits!" which ultimately lead to my online quest for the perfect sewing patterns. Below is a round-up of several trendy styles you can make at home.

Vintage-Style Bombshell swimsuit PDF Pattern by Closet Case Files

"Alison" Vintage 50s Maillot by BurdaStyle

Gah, I want this crop top/hip-hugger set! Too bad I can't knit.

Vintage Knitting Pattern 1970s Hip Hugger Bikini/Crop Top Play Suit (PDF Format) by 2nd Look Vintage

The 3-in-1 DIY Swimsuit Sewing Tutorial by Cotton + Curls

FREE Swimsuit Patterns in Three Different Styles (PDF Format) by Ralph Pink

Below is a quick and easy tutorial that revives the saggy bikini bottom that's been sitting in your dresser for a few summers...Y'know, the one you're too embarrassed to wear 'cuz it makes you look like you have a saggy diaper that leaks? I've been there before!

The Pucker Bottom Tutorial by Bits, Bites, and Mishmash

FREE Ruched Halter Bikini With Instructions by Sew Mama Sew

Vintage-Style High-Waist Bikini Bottom With PDF Pattern by HollyMann

If you're not skilled with the sewing machine, you can always take any existing swimsuit and make it fabulous with dye, paint, fabric markers, and various embellishments. Below are a few tutorials to get you started:

Solid color dyeing tutorial (I recommend using Jacquard's iDye Poly)
Ombre dip-dyeing tutorial 
Ruffles Tutorial
Fabric stamping tutorial
 

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Team HiP Fave

Custom Netted Jewel Pendant by Precious Meshes

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I've Been Featured!

My Ginkgo Leaf T-Dress has been featured in Colette Paperie's wonderful blog, along with a beautiful collection of ginkgo leaf-related Etsy items from other sellers.


Please check out her shop of gorgeous and unique paper goods! She makes custom greeting cards, wedding invitations, journals and more.

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Site of the Day: Recyclart.org

For those who are into eco-friendliness, Recyclart provides inspiration to save random, everyday objects from the trash bin and recycling them into functional decor, furniture, accessories and more! Check it out!

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Etsy Site Review: CraftPudding

CraftPudding is home to some of the cutest stamps I've ever seen. Owner, Magda K. painstakingly carves out her original illustrations into rubber stamps, which are perfect for cute little projects. Stamp it on fabric, greeting cards, thank you notes, anything you can think of! She also has a few Christmas-themed stamps, tags, stickers, stamped boxes, ceramic goods and handmade trimming. I've personally taken printmaking courses during college, and from what I can tell you, the procedures are teeeeedious. I'm utterly impressed by how fast she can churn out these stamps!

Currently, CraftPudding is not taking any custom orders due to the high volume she's currently dealing with. For further updates, please visit her blog and Flickr.

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