black, pink & white scrap dress

or: THE MOST FABULOUS THING I’VE EVER MADE. probably.

i’m so happy with it! i can’t wait for an excuse to wear this.

SO MUCH work & time & materials went into this. i started it the sunday before last, worked on it for four whole days straight, then one of the lenses of my glasses broke & because of all that led to, i couldn’t work on it as much as i liked for the rest of the week. i was away the weekend & then spent the greater part of the past three days on it. & now it’s finally done! i think.

it was such a massive project, i loved the whole process. i should make things like this more often.

looking at this picture, i might add some more to that side…

this whole dress started with a bra. a lovely pink one with black lace i had never worn, would never wear & couldn’t bring myself to get rid of. while i was fanatically getting rid of loads of other crap, i thought why not use it in a scrap dress i would wear? i had so many pink & black scraps i could use for it. so i went through my box of scraps & failures, to-be-reconstructed pile, the debris at the bottom of my sewing box, my accessory boxes, the bag i had just packed for the clothing bin, the suitcase of stuff i was going to sell & this was what i found:

i didn’t use all of it, but definitely most. despite how fanatically i emptied out my massive closet, there is no way in hell the finished product will fit.
one of the things i unearthed in my box of scraps & failures was half of the beginning of an ill-fitting corset. that & the bra & an atari teenage riot shirt i had forgotten about, formed the base of the bodice. i pinned them to my dressform, which is lovely & alterable & i had already set to my size. to that base i added some matching scraps, decorations & a zipper i had never used, molding it all into shape on my dressform. i almost always work with patterns drawn beforehand & that was quite nice to do for a change. thank you artemis, for introducing me to that other way of making clothes.

here are the only in-progress pictures i made:

(some of those things i removed, lots of other things were added)

at the front i only added a couple of longer pieces to flow into the skirt at that point. when it was to my satisfaction i took it off my dressform & sewed all the way over the scrappy parts to make it a whole piece. the bra part was later hand-sewn to it. quite a lot in this dress is hand-sewn, mostly in the skirt part.

then i left the top for what it was & started on the skirt part. that was the most work, of course. for those scrappy skirts you always need more than you think you do.
for the base of it i used cut pieces from an old flared pinstriped dress i made, an old poison industries dress i never wore & a pink petticoat i made with too little tulle. i’m so glad i finally found a use for that poison industries dress. i bought it in an emergency (one of the hottest april days in the history of the netherlands in a full v costume) at the elf fantasy fair four or five years ago & hadn’t worn it since. i started with a full piece of the skirt cut from it, pinning it to the back in an upwards curve. i added some more long scraps of fabric to the front.

then i cut the petticoat in half & gathered it into about half its size. it made a nice base for the other half of the skirt part. in-between & above i added parts of the pinstriped dress. then it was a long, long process of adding smaller scraps to it all. among those scraps are a black with white print bandanna i bought at some random bazaar in surinam & was a sort of signature of mine throughout my childhood & early teens, a pink polka dotted sheer scarf i got for free with a copy of cosmo girl & i had worn to death in lots of different ways when i still loved pink, the sleeves from that old laughing vampire dress & fabric samples that were too small to use for anything else. at some point i sewed together all the base parts of the skirt to make it one piece. i also added one tier from the poison industries dress to the other side & continued pinning & (hand-)sewing the scraps in co-ordinating layers.

when i was done with all that, it still seemed like something was missing at the front. so i fell back on one of my old trademarks, a bow. i made it out of the lining of an old hell bunny dress, also bought in an emergency, for a party in 2008, because i had ‘nothing to wear’, & never worn again. the painfully cute skull fabric is from that same dress.

then i went on to the top of the bodice. i bought some new lace for that, my supply was very low. it was pretty hard to find a good way to sufficiently disguise the origin of the cups, but, after looking through my inspiration folder from gibbous, i think i succeeded quite well.

besides lace & a ruffled bit of a fabric sample i bought for that old fashion course of mine, i also used half of the top of a tank an aunt gave to me because she didn’t think she’d wear it after all. for one of the straps i used a whole strap cut from my pinstriped dress, with some scraps sewn to it at the front. for the other i first only used the elastic strap attached to the glittery top, but it looked so small & awkward next to the other one. so i added half of a garter belt bought in the wrong size & more of that fabric sample used for the front. it turned out super cute.

to top it off i added some beads to the front top. they were from a bracelet i got for my sixteenth birthday from some of my favourite people at the time, loved & wore almost every day until it tragically snapped at an arch enemy show some years later. at the back i also added another, open, zipper & one of the strange wheel things i got with my serger & never discovered the use of.
i was planning on adding lots more of those small things, but everything else i added seemed to detract from the perfection of it.

some suggestions if you want to make your own:
+ gather as many different materials as you can, at least twice as much as you think you’ll need
+ the higher quality your materials are, the higher quality of the end product
+ specifically for the skirt part: the more light, sheer, shimmery materials, the better it will look
+ also for the skirt part: don’t just bunch all the scraps together at the top, work in layers; it’s easiest to start at the bottom with these
+ the more smaller pieces you use, the better
+ for molding on a dressform: keep in mind that you’ll have to remove your clothing from it in one piece, don’t stick your pins in the body
+ preferably pin in a way that you don’t have to remove your pins & they won’t hinder you when sewing
+ more is more.
+ if you’re using clothes that still look good on its own & you’re hesitant to cut them up, just start cutting; staring at them for hours on end is not helpful
+ don’t just do some random shit, it’s better if you have some sort of base/rhythm/recurring theme
+ keep track of your pins! it’s very easy to lose them &/or get them stuck in the patchworky parts
+ use old, existing things in a completely different way
+ surprise yourself
+ feel free to change things you’ve already pinned or even sewn; our first ideas aren’t always the best
+ be patient
+ it’s better not to listen to very energetic/aggressive music when you work on it
+ if it starts to irritate you, step away, take a deep breath, have a cup of tea, go back to it at a better time
+ don’t forget to change to thicker needles for thicker parts
+ if you can’t decide between this way or that way, pin & take pictures of both & decide later
+ serge/zigzag edges where you can; you don’t want something like this falling apart on you, do you?

thanks so much for looking & reading!

etsy exceptionals

as you loyal blog followers might have noticed, i have recently been reborn to darkness. the 10′s & 30′s of the past century also hold a new fascination over me. this collection started as me leisurely browsing through etsy for things to buy. i unearthed such wonderful items, i had to share. besides, i haven’t done one of these features for far too long.

enjoy!

striped long-sleeved trapeze top! with a sort of pattern

made this yesterday. i’m so happy with it! it’s obscenely comfortable. & still looks awesome.

(i know, my expression suggests otherwise. i was not as enthusiastic about taking pictures of myself. tripod issues.)

i nicked the text from an old, very worn the blackout shirt. it made the front a little stiffer than i planned, so it doesn’t fall as nicely as in the back, but i ended up liking that. & it’s not like it lessened the comfort level.

the eyelet tape & D-rings on the shoulders was something i thought of at the last minute. in addition to being pretty, they also have the function of strengthening & keeping the shape of the shoulders. with those raw edges there is a slight risk of it stretching beyond recognition.

it’s so nice & wide. i could live in this forever.

this was the first time i ever made something like this. with the exception of skirts, i usually make my clothes super fitted. this was nice to make for a change. & somewhat challenging. i only had the vaguest idea of how to get the shape i wanted. when i was cutting the fabric i pretty much just winged it. it could very well have turned out atrociously & to be a total waste of that nice fabric. but it didn’t (:

this was how i cut the fabric for the main body:

i used a regular fitted shirt pattern for a reference, & for the unchanged armholes, & tilted the hell out of it. i also placed it a little off the fold, to get that extra width at the bust. it was roughly 33.5 cm from the armpit & 55 cm from the widest part at the bottom (before the flared tip) to the fold. the flare was about 30 cm down. for the shoulder/neck opening i just followed the line of my original pattern to the end. when i was sewing i simply left 24 cm in the center open for the neck opening. i liked that straight line.

for the sleeve i used the matching pattern, only adding some to the bottom for a slight bell sleeve. at the wrist i made it as wide as at the armpit & made one side about 12 cm longer (that was as long as the remainder of my fabric allowed, but it turned out well).

putting it together was very easy. just sewing + serging all the sides shut & then sewing + serging the sleeves to the body. i wanted the edges raw. & then i topped it off with the text & eyelet things.

i want to make more of these! perhaps also without sleeves. or a cardigan version.
without sleeves it would probably be wise to make the arm openings bigger.

thanks for looking! & reading! if you want to make one yourself, i hope my pattern & mini tutorial were helpful!

i’m alive!

& all that drama.
anyway, i was purging my closet of the massive amount of clothes i’ve outgrown stylistically recently & with all that cleared space & room to improve my wardrobe, i was inspired to sew again (: after almost half a year! my sewing machines were so dusty. where does time go?

first in an upcoming sewing spree is a reconstructed dress.

before:

that classic laughing vampire dress that so many of us european goths owned or considered owning at some point. as much as i loved it, i didn’t wear it more than once. which is probably a good thing.

even now it was actually pretty hard to cut up. i kept thinking what a shame it would be to waste such a pretty dress. & what to DO with it? i was questioning all my ideas for hours.

after:

but in the end it became much cuter & wearable on a daily basis. i love it more now ^-^ it’s so much lighter & more practical. especially lighter! the clowns who designed it obviously didn’t consider how the massive weight of such a large amount of fabric that heavy would affect the shape of the dress. if i had worn it more often it would probably have stretched completely out of proportion. but now it’s nice & light. i added elastic on the inside too, because it still stretched too much for my liking at the waistline.

the fabric really isn’t captured very well. it looks SO MUCH better with the naked eye. i love that fabric. i could really use more of it in my wardrobe.

[subtle plug] & since you’re interested in the clothes i make, a lot of what was purged from my closet is what i made myself, in excellent condition & for sale at a super low price. also some clothing from other diy designers & some odd vintage. i put all the good stuff in an album on my facebook page thing. take a gander! you can e-mail (maraleopard [at] gmail [dot] com) me if you see anything you want. everything that’s not sold before may 16th is going in the charity clothing bins, so bid now or forever hold your peace. [/subtle plug]

thanks for looking & reading & your continued support! have a fabulous day/night, wherever you are.

ps. i didn’t mean that bidding literally. i don’t like haggling over prices.

etsy exceptionals

once upon a time there was a girl who lived all alone in the forest. she used to live with her loving parents. they had a vision of living in harmony with nature, living off the land like thoreau. then they were mauled by bears and died. it had happened when the girl was still very young, so she basically had to raise herself in the wilderness. as a child she was quick to accept these things, didn’t consider them strange. she couldn’t even comprehend the concept of ‘strange.’

her mother had been a ballerina and avid collector of vintage and their cottage was filled with beautiful things. the girl loved delving through these and dressing up in those old clothes. her favourite was a pastel tattered lace dress. especially with the woods surrounding her, it made her feel like a fae. she would often go exploring them all dressed up. if another human ran into her, they might actually think she was a fae. with her pale skin, big, round blue eyes, leaves tangled in her long hair, the magic in her innocence.

she liked to sing with the birds. they were always most friendly and accommodating to her. sometimes she thought she could understand exactly what they were saying. she also liked to climb up in the trees to them. one day she fell and broke her wrist. for lack of anything more suitable she fashioned something out of ribbons and scrap fabric for it. she was still in dire pain, but at least it looked lovely.

among the few things she had learned from her late parents was basic drawing. every day she drew in one of her mothers blank hand-made journals. her mother had shelves and shelves filled with them, she thought they looked oh so charmant. it was the one french word the girl knew. her mother had been fluent in it.

in her simplicity, the girl was the happiest around. she had never learned to be sad or unsatisfied. if you told her “ignorance is bliss,” she wouldn’t know or care what you meant. she wouldn’t know a lot of things. she wouldn’t know what a car is, wouldn’t know about mathematics or shopping centers. yet in her happiness she was probably among the wisest. she had discovered the secret so many people spend their entire lives searching for, the secret that there wasn’t one. it was a conscious choice. and that’s why she lived happily ever after.

ps. if you have an account on etsy, please comment & click on items in the treasury form of this, so they’ll get more exposure.