mel in the milkyway: So far on the sewing front.

currently: lying in bed

So I haven't really posted much about my current projects that I've been doing this summer. Mainly cause I've done squat. But to prove to people that I do sometimes act productively, here's the proof:

One denim vest made out of the legs from jeans (the makings of which were previously shown here) and one purple skirt with elastic waistband. (similar to the skirt here)

So the denim vest is pretty much two legs from denim jeans unpicked, then sewn together. That seam in the middle is the back of the legs of jeans. They were similar colour, thought it was best they be fitted together. Added a slit just for ease and junk, though the slit could be a bit smaller as my mum pointed out.

The ONLY thing I spent on this vest were the two buttons. Two buttons= 80cents all together (40c for each button.) So this denim vest only costed 80cents to make.

Bam. Lining. Which I'm glad I put it cause it looks better with it. The lining is this gorgeous peachy satin which I originally used to make my sister's friend's costume for Shakespeare. I got to keep all the offcuts. I only lined the front part of the vest since I didn't really have enough for the back.

This is probably one of the bigger flaws - the two toned join at the shoulder. Since these jeans were cut off at the knees, they had that faded look on the front and not the back. Oh well. A bigger problem is the fact that one strap is also bigger than the other. No one really notices though.

This is a skirt I made from chiffon lace print material, black lining and a black piece of elastic. Originally the chiffon and black lining were cut out and sewn for the skirt piece of a dress top I was making. But I stuffed up the bodice, so here's for recycling!

I love this material btw. It's just a great pattern.


And here's something that I've kinda just played with, I've been wanting to try this out for ages and now:

Smocking! Using this tutorial from Threadbangers you put elastic thread in the bobbin and regular cotton in the top. Then you just sew lines.

It gathers up itself and just looks awesome, transforms the material :)
The test I did wasn't as gathered as I thought it would be, but I'll play round with it a bit more, see what happens. It's really so easy to do :D