oCtOpAck The Beginning

An octopus shaped backpack. The question is, "what would compel someone to sew one?" And to be honest I can't answer that. I can say that the Octopus Charm Tutorial by Oborochann started a conversation between myself and Grip N Flip on the cuteness of Octopi in general. Somewhere in that conversation came the desire to sew an Octopus-shaped backpack . But this conversation, like many others, was taken like a flight of fancy.

As time progressed the desire to sew an Octopack grew. As the Miyavi Concert drew near there were plans to have an Octopack, in addition to the concert outfit, constructed to wear to the concert. Sadly, as the concert drew near, I found myself short on time and decided that sewing the Octopack would have to take a back seat to the concert outfit.

Fortunately, Grip N Flips' birthday is coming up, therefore, creating a lovely reason to sew an Octopack.

Here is the pattern that I drafted. I wasn't sure how to shape the Octopack at first but decided the cuteness from the Octopus Charm came from their roundness so that's how I progressed with the drafting.

We are trying to figure out general placement of the zipper mouth and button eyes. We couldn't make a decision. There were just too many options.















This is the fabric we finally decided on for the lining. We wanted something fun and colorful that was visible when you unzipped it's mouth, while being affordable, since I was going to use a lot of it to sew a bevy of pockets. And what is more fitting than fruits!!
Anything food oriented would have been fine. I have to say I almost wanted to use this fabric with Japanese Women in traditional Kimonos but that would just have been a bit weird. Just imagining Japanese Women spewing out of an Octopus's' mouth would have been more frightening than whimsical, even in my book.

Miyavi Concert Outfit COMPLETED

IT'S FINISHED!!!!!
This is the whole outfit. That's a Miyavi Poster in the background.


The star cut outs were a pain but turned out pretty well. The sarong skirt is my favorite piece for this outfit. I lost love the fact that I was able to keep the pockets from the jacket intact. For accessories we used a glove I made for her Bill Skirt Outfit and a hot pink bracelet I found in Thailand. I bought one of the chains from Home Depot and the other one from Walmart in the craft accessory section.

Miyavi Concert Outfit, The Tops

The Miyavi Concert Outfit (MCO) has a two part top. There is a one sleeve tank that I'll knock-off from the preexisting JRR Concert Outfit . Why not use the preexisting green one you ask. Well Grip N Flip would like it in a burn-your-eyes neon pink fabric she got from her babcia (according to Grip N Flip it sounds like bop-chu, it's Polish for grandmother). Well those Polish Grandmothers sure love vibrant burn-your-eye colors!!!!

I traced out the shirt onto on old over sized calendar. I forget which celebrity is staring at me but it was sort of freaky and distracting the whole time. Next time I have to remember to use the back!!

Here is the burn-your-eyes neon pink fabric I'm about to trace out and cut. I don't think this picture is doing justice to the agonizing retina burnout that occurred while I had to work with the fabric.


I ended up having problems finishing the edges for the collar/sleeve section. I believe that section of fabric is on the bias of the fabric and gave it more stretch than I anticipated. I didn't have time to fix it and because this would be the inner shirt I decided that I would deal with that problem another day.

The second top or outer top would be a simple black shirt with buckles at the straps and triangular cut outs. I made a quick tester to work out the details. It's on the dress form that we made last month. The dress form is still a concave slouching mess, as you can you see in the picture. But Grip N Flip was far away and I need a quick model.

The shirt was taken up significantly and buckles for the straps were found at the last minute. The triangular cut outs ended up not working so we decided to do star cutouts. What I did forget to do was leave opening at the waist side seams since this was a non-stretch fabric. Oh well live and learn.

Miyavi Concert Outfit

Miyavi is coming!! I'm so excited. And with Miyavi coming for a concert it means that Grip N Flip needs an outfit. This outfit is all her own design. I violently and vehemently rejected her first design thusly making complaints on her second design null and void. We're not even going to discuss why the first one that she designed was so reprehensible, it just offended all of my sensibilities.

There are three parts to her outfit. The first part is inspired by this sarong skirt by Refuse To Be Usual (I was afraid to post the picture in case there are some copyright infringement permission line the would be crossed). We made it a little shorter and not ALL the details are the same but that's why it's an inspiration. I actually took apart an old jacket that I didn't wear the make this. I was able to keep the pockets from the jacket. It took apart an old bag for the buckles and belt.














The skirt is mostly completed. I think the biggest challenge wasn't recreating the skirt but figuring out how much fabric I had available from the jacket. And living in fear that if I messed up I wouldn't have any fabric to replace the pieces. It made the process a lot more time consuming and premeditated cutting was necessary, as opposed to my "cut first, figure out later" methodology. I turned out better than I expected. I have it wrapped around a pillow for lack of a model.
















I still need to add a chain, but other than that this skirt is 98% complete.

I still have two more pieces to go. Lets hope that they won't be a pain in the bum.

Lace Gloves

Here is something I thought I would NEVER do. Well, never say never.

Grip N Flip ask for long fingered lace gloves. FINGERED LACE GLOVES. This project wouldn't have been that difficult if I had purchased stretch lace. But because I'm thrifty and found non-stretch lace for $1/yard I would obviously choose pricing over ease. Well maybe that wasn't the best decision. After several tries I was able to finish the gloves. There are slight fit issues.

I didn't have a plan and basically traced her arm & hands, then sewed the outline. The gloves were actually sewed against the grain, if lace even has grain, because the selvage had this beautiful scalloping that I used at the top of the gloves. I'm sure there was a better way to do the gloves then how I did them, but I'm still just in awe that I made gloves out of lace!!



She wore these gloves with a pleather outfit that her friends gave to her as a collective X-mas gift. A few weeks later one of Grip N Flips' friend borrowed these gloves for prom.

Grip N Flip-form

So Grip N Flip and I were able to find some time together to make a dress form out of duct tape. For all of you that don't know what a dress form is a mannequin/torso dress makers use to drape or fit the garments they are constructing. They're nothing like the ones you see in department store displays.

I've been wanting to make one since I read this article a year ago Clone Yourself A Fitting Assistant. The idea is that you make a dress form out of your own body. There are a few options to choose from but I ended up using duct tape since I had a lot readily available, or at least my dad does.












I taped up Grip N Flip. I had to start over once. I didn't read the directions carefully an didn't start from the bottom. Good thing I didn't get very far. I used the silver duct tape to start and ended with the red duct tape. We didn't plan this out very well. By the time we started on the last red layer it was the height of the afternoon and pretty hot. Grip N Flip was sweaty and gross. She was also not happy with me taping a good bit of her hair at the nape of her neck. The pain we go through for fashion. When we were done with the last layer we cut her from the back.


After I cut Grip N Flip out of the dressform we taped it back up.


It's hollow at this point and options for filling the center are stuffing or a insulating foam. I thought the insulating foam would be a good idea.


The only problem was that I didn't have any on hand. It took me a few days before I made my way out to a hardware store to buy some. At this point my dressform had been sitting around getting deflated and deformed, loosing all of it's shape. The bust became concave.

I decided to just go ahead and fill it with the insulating foam. I was hoping that the foam would fix my problems. But because I wasn't sure if the foam would work out I only bought 1 can.

In the end this dressform became a concave half filled slouching mess. I don't have a picture of it because it's a disaster. Maybe I'll post one up later. Right now it's sitting in one of my dinning room chairs, staring at me in all it's red mocking glory.

As of right now, I'm trying to convince Grip N Flip to do another dressform. She's not budging since it's hot and sweaty work. I'll have to try and convince her again in the winter.

Swimmy

For my FASH 1B class, a few semesters ago, I had to knock off a swimsuit. I decided to copy this swimsuit that I "borrowed" from Grip N Flip . She really liked this swimsuit but it's too small for her now.

ORIGINAL SWIMSUIT:

I ended up using this green and black fabric I found in the garage. I think it has an authentic Speedo pattern printed on it. My dad said someone gave it to him as a drop cloth *gasp*!!! It was really easy to sew on. This was my tester swimsuit. I had to alter the pattern to be a little longer and the bottoms a little bigger, so that Grip n' Flip would be able to fit it.

KNOCK-OFF SWIMSUIT:





















Apparently, since the construction of this swimsuit, Grip N Flip has gained a little pudge (aka Love Handles).

I like how this swimsuit turned out. But sewing it was hellish. I never want to sew swimsuits or lingerie. Hard as heck!!! On that note, I ended up sewing an altered pattern of this swimsuit. I didn't finish it for class, due to some sewing machine trouble, but I'm hoping that I will eventually finish it in the near future. I'll leave it as a surprise for now, but it's super fun!!

Bill Skirt, Part II

So this is the follow-up to the Bill Skirt Post. I was finally able to give the skirt to Grip N Flip.






















And basically we found that her 16 year old legs were definitely not as sexy as my stepmoms' 50 year old legs. It's a sad but true fact of life.

The skirt turned out pretty well . . . . I think?

LEO Pillows

For Spoon's LEO Club, they had their final gift exchanges. Their SL (Secret Lions) were revealed. A final gift was given to their SL recipient, and a gift back to their SL giver. Meaning that I had two gifts to produce. We decided to make pillows for the both of them.

The first gift for her SL giver. We were inspired by this sign, which Spoon received when she was accepted into the club.

I enlarged the lion image and used it as a template for the pillow.


We decided to do free standing letters to give the pillow a novel look. It took me a few tries to produce, since it was harder to do free standing letters as opposed to stitching letters onto a rectangular pillow. Eventually, I was able to achieve a look I was satisfied with.

This is the finished product:

For her SL recipient, we created a lion head pillow. I had Spoon sketch me a lion head to size. This was a lot easier than the first pillow. The lion head is actually a separate pillow and cover. This way her SL recipient will be able to wash the cover.

I hated this pillow at first. I was dissatisfied with how it turned out. But being pressed for time, there was no chance to fix it's imperfections. Later upon reevaluation, I've come to realize that this pillow is perfectly fine and I was just crazy.


I was told by Spoon that these pillows were a huge hit. And there is talk about doing more. We'll see how that will turn out.

Skirt for Bill

There are 2 variables that came in conjunction for the creation of this skirt. The first variable, was the purchase of this cloth. It was $5 for 4-5 yards. It had an interesting texture, if that's what you would call it. My stepmom, who is a casual sewing, said that she had a hard time making a top with it. I was curious to how difficult the material would be to sew. That is not a normal reaction, but sometimes the weirdest things ignite a fiery challenge as opposed to abhorrence. The second variable, Grip N Flip needed a skirt to go with a t-shirt she had screen printed of Bill from Tokio Hotel. Apparently the skirt I made for J-Rock Revolution is too much for everyday use.

This whole skirt was done on a whim, with very abstract ideas. I was going for a punk/goth/rock look, nothing specific, just in that genre. I ended up forcing my stepmom to pose in it for me.

She was embarrassed, but I think she has sexy legs.

The only thing that I'm worried about is if it would fit Grip N Flip. Somehow, when I sew an elastic waistband, I always overestimate how much should be taken in, to account for the stretch. Well, I hope that practice and experience will fix this problem in the future.

LEO Frame

Just a quick project for Spoon (sister of fork) as a secret gift exchange. The name of her club is called LEO hence the cute lion paw prints. This was done with some Ikea frames, rope, and the wood burner. These hanging frames are easy, quick, thrifty, and versatile.


I haven't been sewing at all. I'm not especially motivated to sew anything right now. I'm a little more excited about craft projects.

J-Rock Revolution 2007

In May of 2007, I had sewn Grip N Flip an outfit for the J-Rock Revolution Concert. For those of you that don't know J-Rock stands for Japanese Rock. This outfit was neither planned nor executed well. I guess a part of the reason, though not a valid excuse, was because the sewing class I was taking at the time was so frustrating. We were excused from taking a Pattern Making by Draping class due to the timing. The teacher told us that she would guide us along and it wouldn't be an issue. But it was an issue and I felt like I was drowning. So when this project came along I just wanted to sew and not "think". Which obviously isn't the smartest thing anyone can do, especially someone with my limited experience. But I guess that I always like to learn things the hard way or they don't stick.

The shirt and fishnet stocking came out of my closet, from a thinner time in my life. The gloves came for an old tacky scarf I found in the garage with large decorative sequences - "waste not want not." The goal of the skirt was to have volume and slightly cascading in the back. It's not my best sewing venture. And maybe "cut first, figure out later" wasn't the best approach but it worked out in the end. Finally the half-sleeve, I don't know what else to call it, was inspired by old princess-like dresses. I only have one sleeve because I wanted to use this piece to balance out the asymmetry of the shirt.

Unfortunately J-Rock Revolution was on the weekend before finals and I couldn't go. Grip N Flip had a blast at the concert and we had tons of fun talking about it afterward. She showed me lots of pictures and other peoples outfits. All I have to say is that I need to work on embellishments, trimmings, and accessories. I'm looking forward to see what we might do next time since J-Rock is so over the top with so many different categories and sub categories. Maybe I'll do something with buckles. . . . . . .

Happy New Year!!

Best wishes to everyone for the New Year. It feels so strange that it's 2008 already.

I'm really excited for this year. I get to go to Thailand for my friends wedding, which really translates to: traveling & eating!!!! Miyavi is having a wold tour. Those are just a few things to be excited about this year. I hope everyone has many things to be excited about too!