Category Archives: sewing

Lighten up, it’s just fashion.

June 8, 2009

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope your weekend was fab. Mine was pretty eventful. Friday, I won tickets to see Erykah Badu at Club Nokia at LA Live and it was AMAZING.

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I wish my camera didn’t die, otherwise I’d have photo evidence of how even more beautiful Ms. Badu is in person. Not only is she a great singer and songwriter, but she’s a great performer as well. If she’s ever in your town, go see her! I’ve been a fan since high school, and OMG was it amazing to finally see her live. Thanks KUCI for the tix! She is most certainly an icon in the fashion world. Or at the very least, in my fashion world. She is constantly evolving, but always staying true to who she is. The outfits that she wore at her show were out there… but at the same time reflected her style really well. The first outfit she wore was a beautiful silk black asian inspired dress with a pink floral robe over it and a shiny silver outer-space/1920′s inspired cap. Like I said, it was OUT THERE, but it worked. Sometimes it pays to just have fun with your ensemble.

Alas! As it is Sunday, I have a nice little dress that I’ve spruced up to make it more modern and young. I didn’t really make much of a tutorial today, mostly a little photographic journey from beginning to end. So here we go:

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This little dress story begins with this copper and black hounds tooth number that I found at le thrift store. It is clearly a 1990s style jumper of sorts with a lot of potential. The fabric caught my eye, and I knew it would be an easy fix.

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I started by trying on the dress and taking in about 2″ from the top. In doing this, I was able to heighten the waistline without having to deconstruct anything. Score!

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So after sewing both straps, I cut the excess, ironed it down and top stitched it up to make it look schnazy.

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Next, I tried it on again just to make sure everything was going according to plan, and it was! I then pinched and pinned the sides all the way down to where the pockets began to fit properly. I sewed that up on both sides using a straight stitch.

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Once that was finished, I tried on the dress once again to figure out how short I wanted the dress to be. I ended up cutting it about 7 inches shorter. Luckily because of the geometric lines provided by the print of this fabric it was easy to measure and cut.

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Lastly, I ironed and pressed a hem around 3/4″ around the bottom and double stitched that baby up. Because the fabric is nice and sturdy and hounds tooth-y a machine stitched hem does not look bad.

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And there we have it! A pretty simple fixer upper, but I am really digging this dress. It’ll be nice for hot summer weather, and perfect for the winter worn with a nice pair of black tights and a black cardigan. Voila! Another successful Upcycle Sunday, if I do say so myself. (Raises the roof). Have a great week my lovelies.

Also posted in fashion, los angeles, music – 6 Comments

Topsy Turvy!

May 27, 2009

Man oh man. So many things to say in one post, I like to try to keep them focused on one or two topics, but not this time! This will be my circus/variety show-type post.

circus

First of all, remember a long time ago when I wrote about Burda Style? And how awesome I thought they were because they provided open source patterns? Well, yesterday I received an email from them, as I usually do since I am on their mailing list, and I see this lovely pattern:

burdadress

Unfortunately, you have to purchase it. Now, I’m all for paying for patterns. That’s fine. But when you advertise your company as “Open Source Sewing,” I feel that it is misleading to do so and charge for a pattern. The term “Open Source” derives from the free software movement, so the implications of this term are “FREE.” I mean, $3.50 is a bargain compared to some of the patterns out there for $18.95, but that is besides the point. I just feel a bit disappointed.

In other news, for all of you embroiderers out there, this fine lady (who’s blog is AMAZING, by the way) has uploaded a free embroidery pattern. And it’s super cute! I might actually try it myself… we’ll see what happens.

misakomimoko

Moving on. Last night I got home and while going through my junkmail I found an advertisement for THIS. I think god loves me this month. Either that or Elvis Crespo was reading my mind and knew that I have ALWAYS wanted to see him live. SUAVE!

This is seriously the cheesiest music video, probably of all time. You gotta love the costume changes. I like to call it “The many faces of Crespo.”

Lastly, I recently joined Indiepublic. So far I’m digging it. It’s a nice way to network with other independent crafters, artists and designers all over the world. And everyone is super friendly! I spent about an hour on their site the other day and became really inspired and excited about adding more items to my etsy shop. Good stuff.

Alright kiddies! That concludes my Topsy Turvy post. Don’t forget to check out KUCI Nights at the Yost Theater this Thursday! Only $8! It’s a bargain to experience some new music. I’ll also be HERE on Friday. Yay Lykke Li! I’ve never seen her live, nor have I been to the Hollywood Forever Cemetary. Should be fun. I’ll try to take blog-worthy pics for you beauties!

Also posted in crafts, fashion, los angeles, music, orange county, random – 5 Comments

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”

May 25, 2009

This week’s Upcycle Sundays was inspired by the beautiful, sharp and colorful Frida Kahlo.

Frida

I love this woman. You know that question that people always ask at icebreakers? When you have to name the people dead or alive who you’d want to have dinner with? One of my picks would definitely be Frida. Her resilience, tough spirit and talent are absolutely wonderful and empowering.

So! I have this red cotton jersey fabric that has been in my possession for over a year now that I have not used, so I decided to make this dress:

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I also had a wrap skirt that I got over a year ago at a clothing swap party. I fell in love with the print, but the skirt was a tad too small, so I thought I’d hang onto it for a project. Today was finally my opportunity to turn this neglected skirt into something shiny and new!

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“I’m just keeping you honest, panzon.” – Frida

This dress was pretty time consuming. Cutting the fabric, dyeing my white jersey tan to match the print and look less costumey, gathering the fabric for the peasant skirt look. Oy. It took a while, but I am REALLY happy with the result.

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And the pockets are rad. I’m so proud of myself for not screwing them up! Sorry for the iPhone photo, I think I left my camera at work. Anyway, this is the first of many (hopefully) handmade summer dresses! Here’s to the beginning of summer, wonderful weather and a great, relaxing, and productive Memorial Day weekend!

Besos!

Also posted in fashion – 11 Comments

Upcycle Sundays!

May 10, 2009

Hello lovelies! I hope everyone is having a happy Mother’s Day. We strategically celebrated with my mom last night in efforts to enjoy a Mother’s Day dinner sans the crowds. It was delish and the evening continued with a viewing of our guilty pleasure flick: Twilight.

So! Today I decided that I should head over to my favorite thrift store and see what treasures I could find. This lead me to the idea of creating this new segment for Tatiana Supports the Arts that I shall call Upcycle Sundays. Every Sunday I will bring you visuals or the occasional tutorial showing how you too can help reduce your carbon footprint and reduce waste by reusing and upcycling materials that already exist. Why buy brand new for $30+ when you can make it yourself for less than $5. I’ll show you how my dears.

In this segment of Upcycle Sundays, I bring you a very very simple (and my first ever) tutorial. I don’t always alter or sew by the book, so please don’t take my suggestions as gospel. Here we go… in this tutorial we will take an XL man’s cotton t-shirt purchased from my local thrift store for $1.50, and reconstruct it into a cute, light summer blouse.

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The first step to this t-shirt reconstruction project is cutting off the collar and the sleeves. Try to cut as neatly as possible to make your life easier in later steps.

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The next thing you want to do is try on the shirt. We are making a v-neck so you want to measure and mark how deep you would like your v-neck to dip. Mark the v-neck path with pins.

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Go ahead and fold your shirt in half so you can cut the V in one swoop; think back to kindergarten Valentine’s day cards… folding the paper in half to make a heart. Same idea, different shape.

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This next step is not entirely necessary, but I like to do this to keep things neat and polished. Fold a hem around the front and back of the freshly cut neck of your shirt at 1/4″ and iron.

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Take that to your trusty sewing machine and sew that baby up, and make sure your hem looks good! I used a straight stitch here. Now, try your shirt on again and measure up the side; pinch and pin! You can also use your dress form for measuring, but sometimes I feel like things fit better when I just fit it directly to my body.

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After you’ve pinned, sew it up! I used a zig zag stitch here. Go ahead and try on the shirt again to make any additional alterations. Once everything looks peachy, I like to make an additinal zig zag stitch up each side just to be safe.

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And voila! Since summer is quickly approaching, I decided to veto sleeves for this shirt. It looks cute and breezy without them. Enjoy!

Also posted in fashion, thrift – 11 Comments

Ode to a 90 Degree November

November 20, 2008

So the other day I felt the need to Spring Clean. Then, another other day I felt the need to go tan outside. My mind and body have been so confused by the wackadoodle weather lately. Why is it still 90 degrees in the afternoon? Why am I still sweaty? Oh me, oh my.

Anyway, like I was saying, I was Spring Cleaning the other day and realized I had a bunch of half-completed projects laying around. I hate it when that happens. I feel guilt for neglecting projects that should be loved. One of which was completed but forgotten about, so here’s that one. (The bag, not the dress).

Now listed over on etsy…

And then one that was half finished and then put aside while I worked on something else. This one was a custom order from my cousin. But good news for her! Her birthday is this Saturday, so her custom order has turned into her birthday present! Voila!

Shot #1

Shot #2

In other news, I’ve been really motivated to make some new clothes. Currently I’m working on a sleeveless variation of this pattern (the blouse on the right):

Built by Wendy Simplicity #4111

…. and a really cool (hopefully) lined vest that I started a year ago. I’ll post photos when finished.

Oh yeah! KUCI is having a Program Design Contest, so I’ll be working out a couple of design ideas in the next week or so to submit. How fun. I’ll be sure to post those as well. OH RAIN! OH COLD WEATHER! Where the heck are you?

Also posted in crafts, fashion, graphic art, knittery – 2 Comments
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