Sewing Through the Years

Finished September 2, 2020. The fabric was a dark royal blue polyester bedsheet. I cut 2 panels each ~86", pleated them in the 18th century petticoat style (box pleat surrounded by knife pleats), then sewed everything up on the machine, except for the waistband which was hand sewn. This is a very swishy and light-weight skirt. 

Finished July 10, 2020 This is a tiered, gathered skirt with stripes of olive, brown, stripey fabric featuring all of these colors, and teal. This turned out a little shorter than I normally go for (just below the knees) but it is still very cute. This was all machine sewn and has no pockets. I made an embroidery-thread kumihimo for a drawstring.

Finished July 4, 2020 I was given a set of red/brown variously patterned quilting cottons. I also bought a brown cotton/linen that goes well with the brown undertones of the red quilting pack. I cut all of them into a blunted triangle kind of shape, sewed them together, then box pleated over the seams at the top (as it was too large for my waist).  (Then I couldn't decide how to finish it, and then we moved so it sat for several months) I stitched on a waistband, attached a cute bow to the back, and ran a thin twill tape through the inside waistband to act as a drawstring. Then I hemmed it.  It's very cute and gives me like 'Stranger Things' meets an autumnal festival meets like 50s vibes.  I stitched nearly everything (except the waistband and bow) by machine!

I took a 1-week intensive class at the beginning of the summer (June-ish) of 2018 and sewed 2 corsets utilizing 2 different modern commercial patterns - Simplicity 8129 and Simplicity 1345. S8129 is an underbust corset with 4 views while S1345 is an overbust corset with 5 views, blue and black/gold respectively. I don't know how the instructions are in these two patterns as I followed the teacher's instructions and never looked at the provided instructions. The teacher provided the interlining, the grommets and the tools to set the grommets, the steel-ring boning, the sewing machines, and advice/instructions. We brought our own inner and outer fabric, bias binding, and lacing. Neither corset does much in the way of shaping, though both are relatively comfortable to wear. I haven't worn the black (overbust) one as much as the blue one. The blue (underbust) one does lift my bust a bit. What I learned: refresher on machine and hand sewing (finishing the bias binding),...

Back in June-ish of 2015 I came across this image (which I do not have the attribution for) and really wanted to make it for myself. I didn't really come across a true pattern, but (with help from my mom) finally came across these schematics (which I also don't have attribution for) and was able to make it with help from a friend of my mom's who had a large-scale printer and sewing experience! We had to make a mini version in paper to figure out how everything went together. I chose a green polar fleece fabric, so that it would be nice and cozy. This was all machine sewn. As this was my first 'real'/major sewing project, I didn't really take any pictures of the process. But here are the basic steps that we wrote down: Here is the approximate method that I used to make the poncho.  I'm sure there are other ways it can be done. You'll need two of every pattern piece except for the hood front.  (Ben provided them already, with the regular an...