Hallelujah! I have found my sewjo again! I have tried a couple of new patterns lately with great success and now have renewed confidence. I also went off my fabric fast with a bang, but in my defense, did have plans for almost all of it… You’ll see some of those lovelies tomorrow for the Wordless Wednesday post.

For now though, I’ll start with the additional vending things that I made. The show itself, Detroit Raks, was excellent and I was excited to see all the local dancers participate. I did very well vending too and had lots of people jazzed up about my costume pieces. It was funny though, I stayed up way too late to make three more things and one of those things was the first thing to sell!

It was this little dino skirt.

I call these “hip skimmers” based on a pencil skirt pattern. I came up with them one day after work when I went to class, but had forgotten to bring dance clothes to change into. Luckily, I happened to be wearing a stretchy handmade pencil skirt and leggings, so just hiked up the skirt a little for ease of movement and it looked super cute! So of course, I made more to try out to vend.

The lace one is see through, which garnered a surprising amount of comments. I assumed everyone would know it was really to be worn over leggings (I was wearing one to demonstrate,) but people seemed confused. The red fabric is awful to work with! I ran out of three three times and gave up on the third time. It looks cute though. I have a couple more, but these were the ones that I actually got pictures of.

I also made new hip skirts, one of which has been adopted into my costume stash. I mean, really, when it looks this good with an existing costume, it definitely needs to be mine.

It’s dreamy! It’s backed with a gold fabric, seen here. It’s crackly, but hard to take pictures of.

Here are two more.

The black one is also calling to me, but I really am going to try to sell it first. I can’t find the peacock fabric at Joann’s at the moment, so really do only have one additional one. I’m hoping to get my Etsy store up again. It’s currently closed for renovations and evaluation.

Also, on my completed, but not really for me list are my cutest doll clothes so far, the bathrobes! Aren’t they just adorable?!

I now have three dolls, so I need one more, but these are a good start. One of the few boy dolls that I have seen went on sale and I figured it would be helpful to have a boy too. I have a couple of boys who love to play with the doll food and tell me which clothes to put on which girl doll, but refuse to interact with the girl dolls and I’m wondering if they would use a boy doll. I made a couple of more neutral shirts and pants too, just in case.

These pants are made out of sweatshirt material that I promptly used the stretch the wrong way for, so I am interested to see if they will actually go on the dolls. I haven’t tried it yet. The office dolls are all slimmer than my Kirsten doll. I do have a collared shirt pattern to try and have a bunch cut out, including a linen one from scraps of my Ren Fest shirt.

I made a second leotard too and I’m going to use a different method for putting it together if I ever make one again. It’s a little wonky, but decent for my first one.

It’s funny, some of these patterns use techniques that are intimidating to try on bigger clothes, but easier to try out on smaller pieces first. I definitely feel like my skills are growing just through the sheer act of sewing pretty continuously.

I have sewn some things for me too, not just for other people. I made these spectacular leggings on Saturday, when I was missing aerial yoga, due to vertigo and a headache. I thought spinning around might not lead to happy things. These leggings did make me happy though. They’re electrifying!

They have a black waistband, you just a can’t tell. They are cotton lycra from Timeless Treasures. I’m actually a little disappointed in the quality of the fabric. I have worn them once and washed them inside out and they are pilling on the inside of the thighs already! It also doesn’t have as much recovery as most cotton lycras have. The pink is from Purple Seamstress and is fabulous, but I don’t know that I’ll be buying that company’s knit again. It makes me very sad, as the constellation fabric I wanted is from them, but if it’s going to be bad quality, I don’t want it! They will be cute for as long as they last though.

This is a new pattern, the Brunch Blouse from Patterns for Pirates. I have had this pattern for quite some time, but was all intimidated by how good it looked on everyone who made it. It’s two pieces… Four if you do the optional chest pocket and the Henley button placket on the neck.

It’s supposed to be dress length, but the hip curve was hitting down by my knee, so I shortened the pattern by an inch (measured and everything! I was very impressed) and forgot to then extend the skirt portion. So now it’s a really cute tunic and I like it a lot. It has bias binding along the neckline and hems everywhere else. I will probably do a binding along the hemline next time too, it would be much neater than just a turned hem. I did discover that I have a blind hem foot on my machine, but I couldn’t quite get it to work and was too impatient to wait. I love it, even with forgetting the bust darts. I’ll try those with the next one and see which way I like it. It’s peachskin fabric, which kind of feels like fuzzier board short material, I guess. It’s super smooth on the inside and very cool to the touch. I wore it all day at work and didn’t get overheated at all. I’m sure it’s polyester. I have a couple more planned and will definitely be keeping this pattern in mind.

Of course, my crowning glory for this sewing round up is the Shark Dress. 🦈

I blame the Husband. Well, and Shark Week. I asked him if he would mind being seen with me in public while I was wearing a Shark Dress and he said he wouldn’t be seen with me if I didn’t make and wear it. I wore it to his theater banquet, where no one even blinked an eye. Here it is!

It is a CKC Amy dress, with pockets. It’s my fourth dress from this pattern and I think it suits me very well. I was slouching in this picture a bit, I think. It has shark lined pockets! My hems went a little wavy on the bodice, so if I used this fabric for anything else, I will bind it or interface them before I sew them. Once it’s on, you can’t really tell. Both fabrics are cotton lycra. The Sharks are from Purple Seamstress and the navy is from Elevated Fashion Fabrics. The sharks are thinner than the navy, so I was glad the bodice is lined. It gave it a little more support.

I adore it, of course! Some of the sharks are emo sharks and look like they are simply undone by life.

I had to order more, because obviously, I know some boys who might enjoy shark outfits… Luckily, they have awesome parents, who might also appreciate sharks. 😉

I’m pretty pleased with my sewing adventures these last couple weeks. I’m still working on getting the basement presentable and organized again. It’s supposed to rain most of the week and into the weekend, so I think that I will do a bunch on Saturday after my staff meeting. Friday, I have plans to can and Sunday is aerial and sewing. Hopefully a productive weekend, even if rainy.

Fancy is giving me this look in an effort to make me go to bed.

She likes to lay on my feet and doesn’t like to go to bed alone at night. I should probably take her advice and head that way.

Have a lovely night!