Fuzzy Hoodie Suit with Ears Horns and Tail

I just finished my first full body suit.  It's made out of faux fur with a polyester cuddle fabric lining. With all of its furry goodness, it reminds me of a cross between an abominable snowman costume and something from "Where the Wild Things Are." It has a hoodie-type hood with horns and ears.   This was a commissioned piece, completely made to order.

I started with a muslin mock up made from Simplicity Pattern 2853, size small, plus I added a two piece hood.   I also lengthened the sleeves and pants to be too long for the fitting.  My client and I arranged for a fitting of the mock up.  With him dressed in the muslin suit, inside out, I added a bunch of safety pins to fit the suit to his build.  I pinned the cuffs and pant hems, I took in the width of legs significantly, and also in the hips, waist and a little in the chest.  I drew on the placement of the side seam pockets and the inside patch pockets exactly where he wanted them.  I also marked where the bottom of the opening should start.  Then he got out of the suit, and I penciled where the seam should be as identified by the pins, removed the pins, ripped the muslin apart into its component pieces, transferred the markings to the paper pattern, added seam allowances back in, and my pattern was ready to go.

With the pattern in hand, I cut out the lining and fake fur, trimmed all of the fur out of the seam allowances, and serged all of the pieces including the lining.  I sewed the fur pieces together and all of the lining pieces together.  Then I added ears, horns, and a tail.

Normally, with a fur coat, I machine sew the lining to the fur, right sides together, up one side of the front lapel, across the shoulders, and down the other side.  This leaves just the bottom hems and cuffs to finish by hand.  However, because the particularities of this suit, I decided to finish everything entirely by hand.  It's more work, but I have much more control when hand sewing, so I could finish all of the corners neatly.  Adding the lining by hand required that I cross stitch all of the hems of the fur around both cuffs, pant hems, and the whole front opening (including hood).  You can see the cross stitching in many of the photos below.  I also added five extra-large hook and eye clasps along the front opening. It took me a few tries to figure out a good way to start adding the hooks, but if you look at the photo below, you can see the first two stitches that are adequate to anchor the hook efficiently.

Here's what a hook looks like after it's sewn, before it's covered with the lining.

I was worried that the fabric would rip at the bottom of the front opening, so I added a patch of flannel (it matches the pockets) with multiple rows of stitching across its width, an a tons of knots.

I also cross stitched down the seam allowance where the hood meets the neckline, under the arm pits, and at the crotch.  I did this to reduce bulk.  This photo shows an armpit.

Then, I added the lining.  In addition to stitching all around the openings, I also tacked the lining to the fur in the bottom third of the arm hole seam, on the crotch seams, and where the hood meets the neckline.  I added my tag and it's done!  Here you can see where the lining meets the fur at the front opening.

Today, the suit's new owner came over to try it on and he let me take photos.  Yeah.  We were both very happy with the fit, and he was amazed that the seams blended right in.  He couldn't even feel them.  I really enjoyed this project and we are both super happy with the results.  I put a little piece of my heart and my best workmanship skills into making this suit, inspired by the vision and enthusiasm of my client.  I joked that it's industrial strength, a family heirloom, so he can stay warm on the Playa at Burning Man, in his new fuzzy suit for many, many years to come.

Pink Fur Coat

This coat has awesomeness written all over it.  What's not to love about pink faux fur and pure silk lining?  This was made with McCalls pattern 5092 (medium) but it is a different pattern in the same envelope as compared with the other coats I've shown on my blog.  Like with the other pattern, my muslin sample proved to be way, way too big for me.  In the Playa spirit, I wanted to make it a one-size-fits-all. So I made it smaller and now it's still big on me, but wearable by most.   I made some adjustments to the sleeves:  First I narrowed them so that you can wear a back pack.  I also made them longer, long enough to cuff.    Since the top of the sleeve was way down my shoulder, I also narrowed the entire coat by folding the pattern pieces all the way from the shoulder to the hem.  This moved each sleeve cap one inch closer to the neck (another reason I had to lengthen the sleeve), and removed 4 inches around the waist and hem.  It still has a drop shoulder.  I also lengthened the pattern from a jacket to a coat.

The only lining fabrics I had in my stash that coordinated with the fur were not large enough for the whole coat.  So I made a patchwork lining with patch pockets.  I bought the two swirly, dotty silks years ago in the fabric district of Philadelphia, and they are fabulously thick.  For this coat, I united them with the plain fuchsia silk, and to my delight, the fucshias match perfectly. 

What I learned: I learned that doing patchwork for a lining takes a lot more work than making a patchwork for a quilt because, in the lining, you have to finish each seam twice, front and back.  In a quilt, you only sew each seam once before sandwiching the layers together and quilting.

Three playa coats done, and I've been learning a lot from making these coats.  In retrospect, I learned a few more things from the Blue Coat that I incorporated in this pink one.  I found that I prefer cotton flannel for the side seam pockets.  It's heavier than silk so it will keep your hands warmer, and it's more durable.

I learned that you need to completely sew the lining together, including all pocket details, before attaching the lining to the coat.  I managed to create the crookedest pocket in the world on the blue coat, which I ripped and resewed by hand.

I learned that making buttonholes on my sewing machine isn't as scary as I think it is, at least not on the silk pocket flaps it wasn't.  In the front of the coat, things are different.  Having to cut a hole right in the center front of my work can be a bit debilitating.  I tend to procrastinate that step and switch to other projects.

The Blue Coat is the only one with button holes through the fur.  I learned that making buttonholes on fake fur is still tricky.  I had to cover both sides of the furry lapel with tracing paper in order to get the lapel through the sewing machine.  Without the paper, the fur gets caught in the bobbin case and everywhere.  Bad bad!   Also, if my buttons are too big, my automatic buttonholer doesn't make big button holes and I'm on my own.   I have to make the button holes manually.  In the end, to make large button holes in fur,  I used my machine to straight stitched around the button holes, I cut them open with a seam ripper, and then finished them by hand with a knotted button hole stitch in thick pearl cotton.  Functional, looks nice.  However, my fear of buttonholes in fur overtook me for the pink coat here.  So I used a really thick new hair tie as a loop instead.  For me, sewing a loop on the front is much easier that cutting a hole.

I learned from my brother that this faux fur is actually a faux feather.  The original is used in tying flies like the Grissly King wet fly.

This pink coat is SOLD.  Thanks Jim.

Another Playa Coat with McCalls 5092 Pattern

I finished my second playa coat, this time with really nice, thick fake fur. This is the identical pattern as by blue/green one I showed earlier, McCalls, 5092, but with a lot of reduction in the sleeve and skirt.  It's still huge.   I learned that sewing with really thick fur is much more challenging that sewing with thinner stuff.  You NEED to trim the fur off of all of the seam allowances first, or you wont be able to get nice seams.  There's no way I'd be able to fit the 4 layers under the presser foot of my sewing machine, required to attach the collar, if I didn't trim the seam allowances first.  All that trimming takes several hours of snipping.  I just used scissors for this, but there might be an easier way.  I don't know.

I love the way this coat came out.  Two outside pockets, two inside pockets, and it's so warm and fluffy, my sweetie will never be cold on the Playa.  I took it to a weekend outting for Memorial Day and no less than a half a dozen people wore it that weekend.  It's got a lot of love on it now.  I also added a string of LEDs on the front with some hand stitching.  They were super cheap, so I hope they don't set it on fire at some point when the wiring breaks.

More fun with fiber

I don't have much to say, but I have some photos.

New Patterns and Kits

Florence and I listed a bunch of new patterns and kits over at beAd Infinitum.  Here are photos and links to our newest patterns.
Hour Glassy Beaded Bead
using herringbone stitch

Toggle Clasp & Cable
using herringbone stitch

Circle Starburst by Cindy Holsclaw of beadorigami

Check out our newsletter, Sparkling Symmetry, to read about and see photos of all the rest of our updates.

Steampunk Oxford Shirts with Ruffles

I've been sewing shirts lately.  I always wanted to know how to make an oxford shirt, so I thought I should start there.  Since I'm a big fan of steampunk fashion, I tried to steam them up a bit with sewing details and my fabric choices.  I've made three so far, all with Victorian ruffles and tailored for a woman's figure.  I like the way the vertical seams around the waist mimic a corset but way more comfy!

The fabrics mostly came from my old quilting cotton stash, which has been sitting rather lonely for the last few years.   It's been fun riffling through my collection, seeing how some of my tastes have changed over the years.   I collected several tropical prints, but I didn't use any of those in these shirts.  I chose stripes, hand dyes, black, brown, and a new Jane Sassaman gothic print (above), and a few other prints, some reversed to show the "wrong" side.

The fabrics are pure cotton (even the interlining) and the ruffles on two of the shirts are pure silk charmeuse. So soft!  I even used the silk in the inside of the collar and cuffs for added softness right where you want it.

I did my best to finish all of the seams nicely to make them last.  I found ways to tuck away every raw seam... Well, except where the sleeve meets the shoulder.  I checked out several shirts in my and my boyfriend's closet, and I learned that most shirts have an interlocked seam at the sleeve cap.  So, I sewed the seam twice (1/8 inches apart), and then picked a fancy overlock-type stitch on my sewing machine, and sewed over the raw edges to finish them.  The front plackets and cuffs (on the long sleeved versions) are finished with snaps that I set on my professional quality snap setter.  I am super happy with how these shirts came out.  I definitely want to make more some day.

What I learned: I finally learned the mystery of the contruction of a shirt collar.  You make them from the top down.   In other words, you sew the collar (or ruffle) first, baste that to the interfaced, outside piece of the shirt stand (the part that sits right next to your neck.  Sew the inside shirt stand to the outside stirt stand, catching the collar in the seam.  Flip the stand inside out revealing the collar (or ruffle).  Now, you sew the whole collar/stand to the shirt: first by machine for the outside seam (of the stand), and a second time by hand for the inside seam (of the stand). Voila!  Easy as pie.  Not really.  It takes me a good long while to sew a collar, but slow and steady wins the race.  These are all available in my Etsy shop in the "Clothing" folder.  I almost forgot to mention, I can now sign all of my clothing with my new woven tags.  They say "beAd Infinitum: hand made by Gwen Fisher" and have my little infinity sign with a needle, thread, and a few beads.  You can see one in the last picture.

Sewing a Sequin Fabric Dress Seams and Hems

My sewing teacher asked me to help her sew some sequined dresses for an upcoming show at our local theater.  She gave me a lime green dress to work on, and here's what I learned.  This dress is "flat lined" meaning each of the major pieces is cut twice... once from the sequined fabric and once from a lining.  Both the fashion fabric and the lining are sewn together with a longish straight stitch around the entire perimeter of each piece.  Thus, the name flat lining, where each piece is lined while still flat.  From then on, both pieces are treated as a single piece of fabric. Since the sequined fabric here is stretchy, she used a stretchy lining fabric.  The lining serves three purposes.  First, it gives the dress some body so that a delicate fabric can gain strength.  Second, the flat lining prevents the seams from showing through the front of the fabric.  Third, it makes a sheer fabric non-see-through.  This technique of flat lining is useful for working with any sheer fabric such as thin silk or lace.  Here is the dress finished, except the back zipper still needs to be set.

I learned that one should be hesitant about making sequined dresses with sleeves since the sequined fabric is fragile and when it rubs against itself (like a sleeve rubbing against the side of the dress) the sequins can catch the fabric and ruin the dress.  Thus, this dress is sleeveless.

The dress came to me with all of the major pieces flat lined, and already sewn together on the major seams.  Plus it had been fitted on the actress, and pinned on the outside with safety pins for alterations.  I marked the inside of the lining with pencil where the safety pins were to mark the sewing line, removed the pins, re-pinned it, and sewed the new seams on my machine, right on the pencil lines.  Then, I removed the stitching on the old seams that had been adjusted.  Then I clipped all of the corner seam allowances at a 45 degree angle.

Because sequins are sharp and scratchy, the sequins in the seam allowances (on the inside of the dress) must either be removed or covered where they will hit any sensitive body parts.  This includes over the bust, under the bust, and under the arm holes. Because this dress is for the theater, and may be altered later, I added lining to these seams rather than removing the sequins.  (In couture sewing, the sequins in all of the seam allowances would all be removed or the sequined fabric would be designed ahead of time to not have sequins in the seams at all.)  Anyways, covering the sequins is faster than removing them all.  To line the seams, use a 2 inch strip of the lining fabric, cut on the straight grain, since it's stretchy.  If using non-stretchy fabric, you should use bias cut strips.  I pinned and sewed one side on my machine, then pinned and sewed the second side, again on my machine.  Then, I used a hemming stitch to sew both sides of the lined seam allowances down by hand.  These edges are sewn only to the lining.  (Alternately, if using a fabric that frays easily like silk, one can remove all of the sequins from the seam allowances, and then fold the allowance over twice, and sew it to the lining by hand with hemming stitch.) For the seams that I didn't cover, I just tacked them open with cross stitch, done by hand.  Here you can see the covered seams.  I cut off the extra lining strips and tacked the seams open after I took this photo.

After all seams were finished, I finished the arm holes and neckline.  When sewing the neckline, start by stabilizing it: sewing a strip of 1/4 inch twill tape centered on the neckline on the inside.  This keeps the neckline from stretching over time. In sewing the twill tape, you need to add ease.  Specifically, add an extra 1/8 inch to the twill tape per 1 inch of the sequin/lining. In other words, the twill tape is slightly longer than the neckline.

The next step to cover the neckline is to cut two 2 inch wide strips of lining fabric (one for the left side and one for the right side). To make a "double bias", I folded the strips in half lengthwise, then pinned them to the right side of the neck line, matching cut edges.  I used my machine to sew a 1/2 inch seam allowance. (Next time, I would move my needle to 3/8 inch SA to make the next step neater and easier.)  When sewing on the lining strips, start at the back (where the top of the zipper will be), and sew to the center front, each side done separately.   I then flipped this strip to the inside, and tacked it down with a hemming stitch. I finished the center point entirely by hand so that it would lay symmetrically because I can sew much more accurately by hand than by machine.  The center front is finished with a mitered corner.  Although the lining is a little puckered on the inside, I think any little imperfections will be completely obscured by the sequins.

I finished the arm holes in the same way as the neckline except I omitted the twill tape.  Also, since the arm hole is a closed loop, I folded one end of the strip inside by about 1/2 inch (before folding it in half), and I tucked the other end inside before sewing the strip to the arm hole.  This gives a neat finish.

To sew the hem, I cut about 1/2 inch of the sequined fabric off the bottom, and double folded the lining up over it.  I sewed the lining here by hand using a hemming stitch.  Then, I folded up the hem inside the dress, (about 6-8 inches, again since this is for the theater and might be altered some day for a different show), and sewed the edge with cross stitch by hand.  You can see the hem in the second photo (above).

All that's left to do is the back zipper.  I gave the dress back to my teacher, so I don't think I'll be doing that part.

I ended up with sequins all over the table, floor, and chairs.  My dining room looked like a glitter bomb went off.  Here you can see the mess I swept up.  Sparkley!