I've lost my mind....again

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday full of loved ones and indulgences. I know my holiday hangover has certainly set-in, hopefully it's not too bad for everyone else.

My whirlwind of holiday craziness resulted in a couple insane ideas. The first of which is I've joined Goodbye Valentino's Ready to Wear fast again this year. While Sarah herself is not 100% committed to the fast this year (see her blog for details why), I've joined up with many others in swearing off buying retail for 2015.

Hopefully I have enough time between school, work, and homework to keep myself clothed!

One thing that may be tricky is I'm taking a 120% course load this semester....and I'm still toying with the idea of adding 1 more class to my already very full schedule. A few people are trying to talk me out of my crazy tree, so we'll see if their attempts to keep me sane work. But the idea of learning to work with leather is just so tempting, and the Leather Apparel Design class is what is currently missing from my schedule. Let's just ay I'm still thinking very seriously about this...

Speaking of school, I made this super pretty dress last semester. I didn't design it, it's one we were assigned for our construction class, but I love how it turned out!

When we were assigned this dress and given the pattern, I thought it was pretty hideous. But with the right fabric, it ended up as a cute wiggle dress! Once I get the final measurements of the dress (I haven't had a chance to get the final measurements yet), I'll be posting this for sale in my etsy shop soon! As much as I wish I fit into our sample sizes, alas, I do not.

Is anyone else jumping in and taking the RTW Fast pledge?

xo
Andi

WIP Wednesday

The semester is finally over! This one was a rough one, and after an arduous journey, my school chums and I all made it through!

Congratulations everyone! We're one semester away from graduation!

Today's WIP Wednesday is slightly different, in that it's not about crafting but about this:

 

I've been plotting this piece for ages, and decided that this winter break was the perfect time to get it started. Can't wait to get it done!

 

I'll be posting soon about some of the projects I completed during the semester :D

 

xxx

Andi

What a Tweet!

This weekend, I took the Husbeast on a little adventure for our anniversary. I combined his love of boats, Toronto, craft beer, and me, and took him on the Indie Boat Hop Craft Beer cruise. We cruised around the Toronto harbour, sampling "beers only available at sea". There wasn't a bad brew on offer. It's such a shame we won't be able to get these one-off beers again.

When planning this little adventure, it occurred to me that I should have a new dress for the occasion. It was for our anniversary after all! So I dove into my stash, and made myself a cute little birdie dress.

This is yet another version of New Look 6557. This pattern is so well used by me (I've made it at least 6 times now) that the tissue is starting to get destroyed! I'll have to do something to preserve the pattern ASAP.

I find I've been wearing way too many circle skirts for the last little while, so it is super nice to wear something that's just a simple flared skirt. Also, let's be honest, it's much less likely that a Marilyn moment will happen on board the ship should a gust of wind blow up off the lake.

Two dresses made by me were on board!

Nothing major to report about the construction. Because I've made it so many times, I could cut and sew this in my sleep. It's super fast and easy. The only thing I changed is I added a lining to the skirt so it won't cling when I wear tights.
We have another cruise coming up in a couple weeks, Tease on the Seas, a burlesque boat cruise with a dress code theme of Naughty Nautical. I'll have to come up with something cute for that soon!

What a month!

Wow! This month sure has been busy! It flew by in a flash! Hence the radio silence (sorry about that!)

I've been doing a shit ton of sewing, 95% of which has not been for me. I am interning this summer with Victory Patterns, which is super fun! I've been madly sewing away with Kristiann, helping her with a super secret project, so I can't really elaborate more on that ;)

I also decided to use the skully fabric I posted about previously to make a dress for the bride for the backyard wedding party I attended yesterday. And I'm so glad I did!

I essentially had free reign to do whatever I wanted for this dress, so I decided to have some fun with it. I wanted to make sure the dress was light and comfortable, for what could potentially be a super hot day. Luckily, the weather cooperated and was absolutely perfect, no rain or super heat/humidity!

I opted for a fitted, v-neck bodice, with a full circle skirt for maximum twirling potential and girliness. She sure loved making that thing twirl!

And had a lot of fun wearing it!

At the end of what ended up being an 11 hour party, she was still comfortable, so I think I can deem this dress a huge success! And I'm glad that it's not "bridal", so she can wear it again, and again, and again.

Look at how happy she is!

Congratulations again, S&R!

No Pants Summer Has Officialy Begun!

And I nearly forgot about it! Thankfully, Haizle gave me a reminder the day before we started. Otherwise, it would have been pants for a day spent at the park. Instead, I fished this dress out of my closet, gave it a quick hem, and voila! An old dress was given new life :D

I made this dress a few years ago, and always felt it was too long, so it just languished in my closet. I feel like it will end up coming out to play a lot more often now.

I've been busy busy all of May, with 6 day weeks, so I haven't had as much time to make things as I'd like, but I did manage to bang out 3 dresses. I finished 2 more for my etsy shop:

I'm obscenely in love with that crab fabric

And a dress for me!

I used Simplicity 2886 for this dress. This is the third time I've used this pattern, and I gotta say, every time I make this dress, I like it less and less. I changed the neckline to give it a proper scoop, as the pattern is actually a weird almost-scoop-but-almost-v-neckline. It does a weird gape-y thing at the armholes, which would have been a simple fix had I remembered that it does that. Oh well.

I also added a little more flare to the skirt. There's actually nothing wrong with the skirt as it was, I just like really flowy skirts.

All in all, the dress is okay. It's wearable and has pockets, but I'm wishing I had saved this fabric for something else. I had been waiting for the perfect project to use it for, and this just wasn't it. C'est la vie.

maybe I should try to hunt more of this down

Is anyone else out there playing along for NO PANTS SUMMER?

Hooray for free time!

Hello everyone!

I'm on the tail end of a two week break from school, and I've gotta say, as stressed out as I was by the end of the semester, I sure do miss it! BUT, these two weeks have allowed me to be very productive! I have made two dresses, got started on a few knitting projects, and opened up a new etsy shop. That's right! I'm selling dresses now!

So far, there are only three dresses in the shop, but I have three more cut out to be sewn up, as well as a dress for me (selfish sewing rocks).

The two dresses I made over the break (so far anyway) are these pretties:

They're simple sundresses of my own design, that are very much a style that I like to wear myself. In fact, I'll be making myself a couple of these very soon :)

I have a few more ideas that I'm working on right now, so stay tuned for something new within the next few weeks :D

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I have signed up for a couple of classes over the summer (well, they are only in May and June, so I'll still get a bit of a break before the next semester starts), so I'll have a little less free time as of next week. But that's fine by me, as there will still be time to sew! Which is good, as I have four weddings to attend this year, and I need to get started on dresses to wear!

The first wedding is a more laid back backyard party, but I still want to have something pretty to wear. I've narrowed down my choices to five different fabrics from my stash, but I need your help deciding which one to use. So please, dear readers, help me choose which fabric to use. The pieces I've picked  out are:

Red and Black Poppy type fabric

Roses fabric (pardon the blurriness of the pic)

Skulls and Roses fabric

Black, White, and Blue Hibiscus fabric

Lobster fabric (just for fun)

Please let me know what you think in the poll below. 

I can't wait to see what you choose!

Me Made May 2014

The end of semester is quickly approaching, which means lots of deadlines, and hopefully this means I also managed my time well and am not at all stressed out.....Yeah right... Despite the fact that I've been super stressed the past few weeks, I decided to take a course in May/June as well, just to get ahead a little for the fall, and possibly to open up space in my schedule to take some additional electives.

In the spirit of planning ahead, I'm also starting to evaluate my me-made wardrobe so I can participate in this year's Me-Made-May challenge. Zoe of "So, Zo...What Do You Know" has been hosting this challenge for years, and I've always sat on the sidelines and watched with some excuse or another as to why I can't participate. This year, I've run out of excuses and am jumping right on in!

So, here it goes...

I, Andi of how-unseamly.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made item each day for the duration of May 2014, and have the best time ever doing it!

I'm hoping that this challenge will get me back into wearing all the me-made stuff in my closet :)

Are you going to participate this year? Or are you thinking about it?

First Year Pants Design

Hello all! I'm at home today, wallowing in a pool of my own germs (I hate being sick!), so I figured that now is as good a time as any to share with y'all the pants I designed and made this year.

I wanted to take a different twist on the "sailor pant", and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I just wish I hadn't decided to make all the buttons/buttonholes fuctional. What a giant pain in the ass it was to make 12 buttonholes and hand sew all the corresponding buttons. Ugh!

I wish I had more time to snap pics of these bad boys. I yanked them up too high on the Judy so they look like they're wrinkling funny. Sorry about that!

I also wish that the end of the semester wasn't as hectic as it's turning out to be. I wanted to submit these pants along with the blouse I designed (pics to follow as soon as I finish it) to the year-end fashion show, but we were not told until a couple weeks before the fashion show submission that we should make everything in a teeny tiny size 6, and everything we've made this year is a 10. There's no time to re-draft/sew another pair :(

Oh well, at least I know for next year!

I hope this post makes sense/is slightly coherent...the meds are making me a little loopy lol

Until soon

First Year Skirt Design

I finished my skirt! I know I posted an almost complete pic the other day, but here it is again! I'm pretty pleased with the end result. However,  I'm not sure how soon I'll sew anything white again. That shit gets really dirty really fast. Yuck.

I hope you all like it as much as I do!

Progress!

My skirt is almost done!  Sure it looks crazy wonky in this pic, but the buttons and buttonholes have yet to be added, and the hem is going to be redone. I'm so glad to be almost finished and get started on the pants :)

Planning ahead...Sorta

Winter is finally starting to let up! Well, it is today anyway. It's finally sunny and above freezing, but we're expecting a snow storm tomorrow so, well, yeah. With all the grey skies we've been living with this winter, it's no wonder this super sunny fabric came home with me the other day when I stopped into the local Fabricland for some school supplies...

I wasn't supposed to buy anything other than interfacing... This just jumped into my arms! I swear!

This fabric is super bright and sunny, which is kind of the opposite of how I normally dress, but the brightness of it just makes me so happy! Also, I love that it's basically a print that is meant for children. I can be 10 again, right?

Of course, I'm struggling with what to make with this, as it's a whole lot of yellow. And yellow tends to look pretty crap on me. I do know it wants to be a cute summer dress, but which dress? At first I thought I'd go with my go-to dress, McCalls M6646, but I think I'd have to do something to it to make it less yellow.

I suppose I could add some black detailing to it...

So I'm turning to you, dear readers, for your suggestions as what to do with this lovely stuff. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

I won't be sewing this up for the next couple weeks, as I'm still eyeballs deep in homework, but as soon as I'm done with all the school stuff, I'm diving head first into my stash to sew my summer wardrobe. I need to make a shit-ton of skirts and dresses before May 19, as my dear friend Haizle of 365 Days of Sweat, Yarn, and Laughter and I are having a NO PANTS SUMMER! The rules are simple. No pants all summer long. This means I need way more skirts and dresses in my closet than I currently have.

Anyone else want to join in on the No Pants Summer fun?

How do you stay warm?

I love the winter, so you will rarely hear me complaining about the cold (summer and the heat, on the other hand...), but this winter has been particularly bad for many, many people. Personally, I've been loving it, even when it's been -35C/-31F. This is the first winter in years that we've had real snow in Toronto. The kind of snow that used to fall when I was a kid! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Anyway, I stumbled across this video by Bill Cunningham on winter fashion:

and it reaffirmed my belief that just because it's cold, doesn't mean you can't look good. So I thought I'd share how I keep warm with y'all.

Personally, I have 3 wool winter coats, 2 of which are black (in different lengths), and one that is red/navy plaid. In this instance, I am wearing the longer of the two black coats with what I lovingly call my blanket scarf.

The blanket scarf is a gigantic infinity scarf that I knit for myself. It seems boring enough in the above picture, But then I wrap it around my neck twice to get this:

When I wear it like this, it's the warmest thing ever! But seriously, I can't turn my head or see my feet. It's crazy bulky. And, not gonna lie, I can't wear it while I'm driving (single or doubled) as it's just too big and gets in the way. But let's be real. I rarely drive, and it keeps me warm as fuck on my daily commute.

How else do I keep warm? With my awesome mittens of course! I've finished knitting my How Cold Is It? mittens by Drunk Girl Designs, and I'm totally in love with them. AND they kind of match my hair ;)

Seriously in love with these mittens!

So....What is your "winter look"?

xoxoxo

Red, Polka Dots, and Panels

So, this dress was supposed to be finished back in September to wear for Mr. Social's birthday. And, yeah, that didn't happen. But I did get to wear it today!

I've made McCall's M6741 again, this time without pockets, or adding a collar of my own. I kinda love this pattern, and expect I'll end up making it a few more times, as it's a super simple dress that can work in any fabric and for any occasion. The cut is flattering for a number of body types, and the skirt has a perfect amount of flare.

The one thing I will do the next time I make this dress is make it a wee bit longer. I made it the length of View A without the bottom panel, and it's.....really short. I'm a short person and didn't expect it would be that short, but hey, live and learn. It's not so short that I can't wear it, but just short enough that I will never be able to bend over in public while wearing it :P

Until soon! xoxoxo

AH-AMAZING!

Have you seen the Norwegian Curling Team's uniform? LOVE!

Drafting

So, I realize that my last post was just fabric porn, and that despite my best efforts to reduce my stash it keeps growing. I swear I have no time to do any selfish sewing right now! School has been keeping me crazy busy.

Exhibit A

This is a "muslin" of a blouse I drafted in drafting class. So far this semester, we've had to draft and sew up a muslin of 3 blouses. 3 blouses, 3 weeks. Plus homework for all my other classes. Clearly no time for me sewing.

I use the term muslin fairly loosely in the above paragraph. We are pretty fortunate to have a prof who told us to use fabric scarps we have laying around rather than going out and buying muslin because we're all students and we're broke. And since I have a shit ton of fabric kicking around, this helps me to destash at least a little bit...

Now that muslin sewing is on hiatus for a couple weeks, maybe I can squeeze in some personal sewing in my few minutes of spare time....well, as soon as I finish these anyway:

Since we have our first real winter in years and I've apparently lost all my mittens, I am knitting myself a pair of How Cold Is It? mittens by Drunk Girl Designs. They sum up my feelings on the sub-zero temps we've been having quite nicely.

Nothing much else to report, I'm afraid, so for now I'll just leave you with a pic of my new hair.

Until soon :)

Fabric Porn

I may have gone a little overboard while fabric shopping recently....I stopped into a local fabric shop to get interfacing for a school assignment and ended up with this:

There were actually a few more pieces that made it home with me, but as they are things like black denim, and lining, and the like, I figured there was no need to photograph them ;)

I'm hoping to have something to show off for you guys soon! 

Plaid matching!

Woot!

Fashion Illustration ~ Animal Prints

Illustration assignment - A spring line featuring at least 4 different animal prints. Prints used: tiger, zebra, pony, leopard, crocodile.

Fashion Illustration ~ Red, Black, White

Illustration assignment - A winter line using only  red, black, and white, and featuring houndstooth, quilting, denim,  herringbone, knit, and fur.

BRAAAAAINSSSSS

I really haven't had a lot of time to sew lately, with the exception of school stuff, but I do knit when I get the odd chance. One of the things I've recently finished is this awesome Zombie Cowl.

Remember a while back when I spun up the fluffy, fluffy brains yarn? Well, it finally jumped onto my needles and ended up as a crazy awesome scarf.

As much as I am in love with this one of a kind creation, I've decided that it's going into my shop. I have lots of scarves as it is, and I figure someone out there will love it way more than I ever will. Perhaps they would appreciate is as a Giftmas present?

I think it's perfect for all the zombie lovers out there!