Autumn Wear
With the Autumn FINALLY here and the leaves on the trees
changing colours, I've started to add more reds, yellows and oranges into my
wardrobe. Since red is my favourite out of the three I am using it as the
dominant colour. Here is the first outfit I have put together. My pre existing
brown boots and dyed-brown maternity singlet are the base, with the occasional
pair or tights if needed (since autumn is a tricky season, layering is needed)
this look is mainly for the days that are on the warmer side.
Autumn Petal Skirt
After deciding I wanted a break from the hanky hem skirt, I
wanted to try a new design. Still favouring the circle skirt (because
apparently I don't wear anything else) I decided to try my hand at a style I
have seen used frequently in faery clothing: the "panel style". This
is basically a circle skirt cut into panels and sewn together as apposed to
being one large piece. This helps with the fact that it's hard to find fabric
wide enough and also to add more colours and textures. I'm pleasantly surprised
as to how well this skirt turned out on the first go, the only aspect I dislike
in the edging (I need to learn how to work with bias binding). I also decided
to up the quality of fabric I used, choosing cotton drill which turned out
beautifully. This skirt has three colours and is knee length, I purchased one
meter of each colour, which gave me plenty with some leftover. I then got my
circle skirt pattern, divided it into 12 pieces, added a "pixie
point" to the hem and cut out 3 pieces of each colour to sew together. The
skirt is sewn onto belting elastic like my other skirts. The only thing I
dislike about the finished skirt is the hem, I just over locked and hemmed it,
but bias binding really would be the way to go. All in all, I LOVE this design
and will definitely be making more of them in the future.
Maple Bucket Hat
Considering that it can still be very sunny in autumn and I
live in Australia, I decided to make myself a nice hat to go with my autumn
wardrobe as none of the hats I had found suited (and my headbands are useless
for sun protection). I used the leftover red and orange from my petal skirt, a
Lost in Paris pattern I found online and was able to construct the hat with
ease. The hard part came when I wanted to pimp it out a bit. Since maple leaves
are the leaf I associate most with the season, I drafted three different leaf
designs to use as appliqué. I cut out nine in total out of various orange,
yellow and brown felt I had on hand and stitched them onto the hat. I only
stitched the leaf detail and not around the edges as I wanted to give it a more
3D feel. We'll see how well it holds up, the overall technique is the same I
use for my headbands. The major flaw in the hat is the top, as I was stitching
the leaves on, the material folded and bunched awkwardly and didn't lie flat,
next time I will be stitching the leaves on before sewing it all together.
luckily you can't see this while I'm wearing it. I don't think I will ever make
a bucket hat for myself again, next time I'd rather make a large floppy hat,
but I did not have the interfacing needed on hand.
Maple Faery Wing Shrug
As I stated in my last blog entry, I LOVE shrugs! So it
makes sense to make my own! I downloaded Sew Sew Simples pattern and went from
there. The actual shrug itself only took fifteen minutes start to finish to
make (as it's only one piece and two seams, although I extended the back to
make a pixie point) but the faery wings on the back took a good two hours to
stitch. Again using felt I had lying around, I whipped up a three piece wing
design that complemented the shape of
the shrug and drew some detail with fabric chalk. I then used a small satin
stitch to make the detail pop before satin stitching the wings onto the back. I
used the same three leaf pieces as my hat to sew some leaves down the arms the
same way. The shrug will need some kind of fastening but I am yet to figure out
exactly what I want to use. The biggest flaw with the finished product is that
some of the felt is bad quality and is piling, but since I just used what I had
lying around this does not surprise me and is a good way to know where not to
buy felt from.
In conclusion, this outfit is a real head turner and by far
my favourite. I think I succeeded in my end goal ("Autumn Faery")
more so than I did with my "Cherry Blossom Faery". I have even more
Autumny goodness arriving in the mail, so stay tuned for a follow up (and lots
more red!)
Next week is a very special entry in honour of my fourth
wedding anniversary, I will be doing a wedding special! So stay tuned!
-Sami
Shrug Pattern:
http://so-sew-easy.com/free-shrug-pattern-simple/
Circle Skirt tutorial: http://www.madeeveryday.com/2008/07/tutorial-the-circle-skirt.html/
These are amazing! I want the whole ensemble! Wow!
ReplyDeleteIf you ever masked this to sell put me first on your list
ReplyDeleteMake
DeleteWill do! I am currently in the process of road testing and fixing the kinks in the design to make them sell-able!
Delete