I wasn't sure where to stick this into my PTR.
But it's kind of an important part of this story - so I believe it deserves mentioning - at least once.
You'll also have to forgive me, because I type like I am talking = rambling.
So, if you would have told me a year ago that "in one year, you'll be sewing - and sewing pretty well"... I would have told you, for sure, that you are off your rocker.
In jr. high - I hated home-ec... it was all I could do to get through that class with my fingers still attached. That was roughly 8 grade (but it could have been 9th)... After you hit 35, things like that get a little fuzzy. The point to the story is that I haven't touched a sewing machine since 1988-89.
About 5 years ago, my MIL gave DH her old sewing machine... Since he is military, he sometimes needs to be self-reliant... as in, sewing his own stuff. I told him, right then and there, that this was HIS machine, and don't ever expect me to touch it - unless he would like to see a major catastrophe.
About the same time, my girls started really collecting American Girl dolls - I joined a few message boards - and I always admired the wonderful seamstresses on those boards - what beautiful things they created - and so tiny.
I admired these seamstresses for years - even commissioning some of them to make outfits for my girls' dolls.
Then, last fall, I found the Disboutique thread here on The Dis... If you've never been over there - these ladies are amazing! Consider this your warning though - if you've ever had even the slightest interest in creating something - you will be inspired like you've never been inspired before.
I poured over each and every back issue of the Disboutique thread... with each one - the urge to create became more and more intense... And there are a lot of back issues - I think we are on #26 right now... at 250 pages per thread... that's a lot of reading.
All the while, that ol' machine in the back/bottom of my deepest, darkest, closet (you know the one I am talking about - the one where the door barely closes, and when it opens, you hold your hands up in front of your face as a self-defense measure) was calling to me.... After several weeks of resistance, I opened that closet door, and I waded through waist high mountains of soccer balls, tennis rackets... pushing aside winter coats and boxes of VHS tapes - this is a very deep closet - as it is under my stairs. Finally, after much effort and a lot of sweating - I got myself to the back (with a flash light in my mouth - since we don't have a light in this closet either)... I dug all the way to the bottom - and there is was... A Brother. What seemed like hours later, I waded back through the closet - heavy sewing machine in hand - and out the door. I plunked it down on my desk - the very spot I am typing this - and googled the model #. I was able to find the manual for a newer model - which was very similar to the one I had - and I read it page by page. Then I read it again, being careful to look at the machine and see the parts they were talking about. After several hours of reading the manual and exploring the machine - I felt I was ready for a test drive. So, I hauled the Brother out to the diningroom table, plugged it in (where I discovered a slight issue with the plug - but that's a different story for a different day), threaded it with the help of the manual, turned on the light, ran upstairs and grabbed an old pillow case out of the linen closet, ran back down, put it under the presser foot, and pressed the pedal.... AND IT WORKED!!!!! I couldn't believe it!!! I had just sewed a straight line!!!! All the way down the pillow case!!! And it worked!!! After a few lines - I decided to be really brave (for a first timer) and figure out the zig-zag stitch... so again, I took out the manual and figured out which dials I needed to move - and there I sat - zig-zagging up and down the pillow case until I had managed to sew the whole thing shut a million times over.
The Pillowcase
You should have seen DH's face when he came home from work that day.
Imagine his surprise, to come in the door and see his wife sitting at the diningroom table - with a SEWING MACHINE - a running sewing machine at that. He walked right back out the door, came back in, rubbed his eyes - and honestly I don't think he said anything for hours (speechless, maybe?) - he just stood there, watching me zoom up and down on this poor pillow case... I am not sure if he thought he should take me to the Dr., or if he thought he was seeing things.
I am sorry I don't have any pictures of any of this - I really didn't think, at the time, that this was an important event in my life - but it was. I still have the pillow case - so if you all want to see that - I can take a picture later.
So, trying to make a realllllllly long story short, I started finding free online tutorials about how to make basic doll clothes - I didn't want to waste good $$ on patterns that I would just wreck anyways. So, I made a few circle skirts... but I had all of these ideas in my head, just jumping around - begging me to create - but honestly - I didn't have the sewing skills to create what was in my head. Eventually, I got really sick of circle skirts (that all turned out really horrible too - I still have those, as well), and started drawing my own patterns - again - I still didn't want to waste $$ on real patterns. I was, honestly, very intimidated by them. Then, I had an epiphany, of sorts, which got me past the whole "$$ wasted" attitude... I was always worried about wrecking the fabric, or wrecking the pattern... then I realized... Seriously - how much is a yard of fabric? $4.00, $6.00? Whatever it is, I can "wreck it" all I want to - there's more out there - I can just buy more. The only thing really wasted is my time... So, I cut into that fabric with a vengance - there was no turning back after that.
The first outfit I ever created was Goofy... The whole idea came to me while I was laying awake in the middle of the night - and honestly - all that came to me was his hat. Then I started dreaming about all the little details in his outfit that I could pull into a real outfit. Not a costume outfit, but an outfit that a real girl would wear, and once piece at a time, it came together. All of these pattern pieces are patterns that I drafted, except the skirt isn't my pattern.
Donald came to me, much the same way...
Same with Mickey...
And Minnie (Minnie isn't my pattern here)...
Then Pluto (which also isn't my pattern)...
All of these were made by me between December and January of 2011 - so I had only been sewing for 3 months - max. Totally and completely inspired by the Disboutiquers.
Then came my Toy Story inspired outfits...
And my Princess outfits...
And then I taught myself how to hand applique (from Heather Sue's most awesome tutorial)... This is one of my first...
I really enjoy hand appliques... they are so much fun, and I get to add a lot of fun elements to my outfits... Here's a few outfits from my Villians series that I just finished up...
I've also started redrafting some of my favorite girl sized patterns into dolly size...
Oliver + S Icecream dress that I made for a swap:
With the matching Oliver + S Red Riding Hood cape:
And Farbenmixe's Feliz dress (which is now Megan's)...
And with the Disboutique Project Runway - I've really been working on fine-tuning some of my applique skills... This particular outfit took me 4 days of hand applique - not including the sewing of the actual outfit..
Splash Mountain front - Brer Rabbit...
Back...
I have made quite a few other items... which I will save for another post for another day, since I think I am close to my photo limit in this post. Besides - I need to stop wasting time - and GET TO WORK... the clock's a tickin'...
D~