personal projects
personal projects including artwork, sewing for myself or for my cat, recipes and other things about my life
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A Cape for the Revolution.
On a whim, I decided that I needed a cape to go with my bandit mask. Given the terrifying way the country is going, a girl must be prepared. I bought this kermit green wool a month or so ago thinking I would be making a skirt or a jumper. Let’s just say I am really good at fitting pattern layouts. I almost always have .25 to .5 yards left using commercial sewing patterns; it’s one of my superpowers. It is funny to me doing a couture project with minky fur, but it is cozy and super soft. I wanted something that I could wear in slightly warmer temperatures than my…
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Spring Dress with Hearts Around the Hem
I exiled my sewing machine to the closet in mid-December intending to just take the holidays and January off from sewing. Before I knew it March was here, and my sewing machine was still put away. Of course what was meant to fill me with relief fills me with anxiety. Since moving my studio into my house, I have to live with the piles of unfinished things that seem to mock me: the plaid skirt cut out on the chair, the stack of garter belts I never finished before the holiday sales, the stack of corsets in various stages of not done. The story of my life. What inspired me…
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Cashmere Winter Coat
I had no intention to make myself a new winter coat, but sometimes serendipity happens in the form of finding gorgeous cashmere fabric at a sale for $6. per yard. This fabric treasure was unearthed from a pile of junky fabrics on an unmarked bolt at a clearance sale. I recognised it, because I made a jacket out of the same fabric in a different colour last year. That fabric cost something like $25. per yard on sale. So, of course I had to buy it; the deal was too much to pass up. And who in their right mind could let that fabric just sit there in their fabric…
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A Cat Sized Quilt – Adventures in English Paper Piecing
Spring this year was a little rough for us at the House of Piper Ewan. My company’s namesake, and furry partner in crime turned seventeen at the end of April. She had been feeling under the weather, so for her birthday, she got to go to the vet. Not the best birthday present, I know, but since we celebrate birthdays not only for the accomplishment of years, we also wish for many returns of the day in the future. Suffice it to say her diagnosis and treatment are working and she is almost her old grumpy self, but the May and June were difficult months indeed. One thing for those…
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Birthday Dress
Most years I make myself a New Year’s Eve dress; mainly as a consolation and armour for having to go out on an evening that everyone is out and staying home feels like a worse idea than being out. This year’s occasion is my 40th birthday, which seems to warrant a fancy dress more than NYE. I am not freaked out about my age, as most seem to assume when I tell them that I am about to turn 40. The last few years it isn’t so much the number that freaks me out, but birthdays in general. Like holidays where there is too much pressure to have a great…
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Sewing Hearts Over the Holes
When I have posted this line periodically over the years, it has often been mistaken for metaphor; when in fact, I am actually sewing hearts over holes. I finished my bed quilt in 1997; it is a simple squares quilt made from 1930’s reproduction prints in bubblegum colours. The first holes appeared about six years ago. Seven hearts over seven holes. (Shown above when you could still see the squares.) Things wear out, and more holes kept appearing. Then the binding wore out, but instead of replacing it, I patched it. At first, I tried to stick to reproduction prints of the same era, but gave up on that, because…
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What I did Last Summer
This summer was a bit unusual for me, as most summers are spent with desperate wedding deadlines. I have been in the process of retiring from weddings for the last several years trying to stop. This summer I didn’t take any custom dresses or major alteration/restyling/restoration projects save for a couple of accessory orders. I spent my summer tying up loose ends; finishing left over custom projects (some have been languishing for years for various reasons), doing some sewing for myself, and of course designing corsets! Here is some of my summer in review: This is the quilt I started before it’s intended owner was born, she is now 8.…
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1911 Corset Sew Along: The Finished Corset
I broke five needles flossing this corset, but it is finished. Well, almost finished. There are garters to attach to this. Garter that I had the worst time finding one piece of hardware for. But now that I have it, I am on the fence as to whether to use it or whether I want to add garters at all! Generally this type of corset doesn’t have removable garters. In the sew along we were given instructions for covered garters; which I was all set to make, but now I am not so sure. Since this corset is so clean lined, I hesitate to add such a foofy thing. Plain…
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1911 Corset Sew Along Final Fitting
Once I put the whole corset together, it is time to lace it up and try it on to see if I need to trim or cut off the the top and bottom edges. By the time of the Edwardian era, corsets had become longer in their lines, and had more of a focus on smoothing lines and the S curve rather than the hourglass waist. The top of this particular style of corset rises over the chest line without covering the whole bust. The bottom covers the hips. The boning ends at the top of the hip so you can sit down. I am pretty satisfied with the lines…
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1911 Corset Sewing the Actual Corset
I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted about this. There was the week I couldn’t stop dropping sharp objects on my feet, and then there is the part about how I am really bad about taking photos or writing blog posts. Really bad. But here I am to finish what I have started. Now that I have made a mock-up, and it fits, I have adjusted the paper pattern pieces to reflect my fitting changes; it is time to cut out the real thing and start sewing! This corset is unlined, so I have to make it using flat felled seams. This method involves sewing the wrong…
