This is Halloween...

Hello!

Lucky for you, you get to see my costume early because it debuted on Saturday for a work event.

As usual, I put a lot of detail into the costume.  Here's some detail:

Letters before:

Letters after:

Earrings before:

 Earrings after:

 Finally here are the concept pictures:

Have you guessed my costume yet?  If you guessed Suzy Bishop from Wes Anderson's masterpiece Moonrise Kingdom, you guessed right!  (On a side note if you haven't seen this film, please do so.  It's wonderful.)

So obviously (because this is a sewing blog) I made this dress.  Striving for accuracy, I used this 1960s pattern:

It wasn't that hard to make.  The hardest part was sewing in those two side panels.  I have know idea what they are called.

I wish I would have taken a picture of my makeup because that was spot on too and I know you can't see it in the above pic but my dress does have a collar.

You can kind of see it in this pic:

Anyway, what do you think?  I personally think it's awesome.  ;)

It came!

Hello!

I still have not hemmed the costume!  I have been too too busy.  Maybe this weekend? 

Good news!  One of the accessories arrived.

I am still waiting for one of the other accessories to arrive and the final accessory I haven't ordered yet.  It's no problem because I'm just ordering it from Amazon.  It will arrive quickly.

Here's another hint:

Costume completion at 75%.

That's all for now!  I promise to sew soon!

Halloween...

Hello! 

The Halloween costume is 85% complete.  I need to hem it and finish some last minute touches and then I need to take it to the laundromat because I don't have a dryer and I ironed out some of the seersucker suckers.  Oops!  Hopefully, it will correct itself in the dryer.  That's the rumor anyway. 

So I have nothing to show you but here's a costume hint:

No, I didn't sew that but it's a crucial part of my costume and I just ordered it from Amazon.  I previously ordered another accessory but I think it's a dead giveaway so I'll keep that hush hush.  After, that I have one final accessory to obtain.

In other costuming news, I was ecstatic to find whilst in America I had purchased fabric to make a costume I've wanted to do for a long time.  That might just mean that it can be like old times.  The times when I had two costumes.  I'm seriously contemplating it.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

One day blouse...

I love things that take a few hours to make.  So my grandmother gave me this fabric like 3 or 4 Christmases ago.  I've been wondering what to do with it.  It was less than two yards and it seems like every pattern I have takes over 2 yards of fabric.

So my mom got this pattern for me and I originally wanted to make the puffed sleeve blouse.  (I mean I still want to make it.  I'll save that for another time.)

But I didn't have enough blue fabric to make it so I decided on the high neck blouse.

It was pretty easy to make.  I only made one button on the neck instead of three and made it a little longer.

What do you think?

I know it's an odd pose but I tried to get as much of the shirt as possible.  I like it with the pencil skirt.  Add a sweater and a necklace and I think it's a pretty classy outfit.

September means...

Hi all!  Long time no sew eh?  I had a bit of a rough patch and didn't feel much like sewing anything.  Plus, I also got heavy into gardening which took a lot of time, effort and energy. 

Needless to say after cleaning out my closet and being surrounded by piles of clothes I thought "Hey I need to f-ing sew something."  I may or may not have said those exact words (out loud...to an empty house).

Well, it's September and you know what that means.  It means it's time to start working on that obscure Halloween costume no one will understand.  (Or maybe one person will.)

If you know me at all you know that costuming is kind of a big deal to me and I don't let anyone know anything until the costume debuts.  Over the years, I've acquired many tattoos which means to costume properly (especially when playing a character) they have to be covered.  When I saw this one, I knew I HAD to do it and it (hopefully) wouldn't be a difficult endeavor.  I actually purchased the pattern and fabric last December when I went home for Christmas.  It's been on my mind since then.

Anyway, without further adieu, here's a fabric hint:

That's all you get for now.  I'll check in soon.

Dress reduction...

Oh hello!  I have a blog here.  Sorry about the lack of updates.  I've been too tired and busy to sew anything.  However, now I'm on summer vacation which I started by mending all my clothes that needed mended.

In addition, I also got busy shortening some dresses.  See there's this great store here called Uniqlo.  (I think it's sparse in the US.)  Their clothes are super cheap.  Super cheap.  I found these maxi dresses (on the left) on sale for ¥590:

The problem is that I don't really like maxi dresses on me.  They make me look shorter than I actually am.  But I can never turn down cute summer dresses for ¥590!  So I bought three.  (One I've already shortened,)  The dress on the right I bought at a store called Esquilo Branco for ¥990 and even though it's not quite as long as the others, I still though it would look better shorter.

So I just got out the scissors and cut.  First, I used a dress that was a good length to measure against.  It would have been a tragedy if I made it too short.  (Actually, I probably could have made said tragedy into a cute shirt.)

And here's how they turned out:

Ah summer!

A little longer than I would have liked but it's still cute.

And it's fitting that this is my favorite design and it turned out to be the perfect length!

Anyway, that's all on the sewing front.  I hope to make something this summer.  I hope I can!

Jumper...

Hi all!

Sorry for the massive delay in between posts.  Life in Tokyo doesn't give me much time to breathe let alone sew.

Before I am allowed to buy any new fabric, I have to use what I have.  I have had this fabric my grandma gave me for a long time and when this pattern came out (McCall's 6396):

I set aside the fabric for it.  Life has a way of getting in the way of sewing projects, so it sat.  Today was the beginning of my 2 day mini vacation so I decided to make it.

First it's marked "EASY" and in my opinion it's not easy.  There are a lot of pieces and lining to make.  In addition, my zipper doesn't look great and I am not sure if I needed to but I had to put a pleat the back.  Also, the bust is a little large even though I used the A/B cup option.  A cups might find this a bit too big.  So it's not perfect but it's okay.  What do you think?