Designs By Cleopatra

Well I just finished this really cute twirly skirt for my best friend's daughter Melanie. I have no little girls of my own so my old friend Audrey kindly allowed me to practice making skirts for her girls. I quizzed Audrey on colors and sizes and with a lot of to and fro to Joann’s (my new hang out) I got some nice material that I think works well.

I made this skirt without a pattern and just followed this tutorial here. I used nice daisy print cotton with a pretty green hem and border. I elasticated the waist and added a long tie finished off at the ends with golden beads and then hand sewed on a pretty sunflower to the side edge. I think it turned out really sweet and now that I know how to make it I feel confident that I can make a few more in different fabrics to sell online.

I am of course making another skirt for my friend’s older daughter. This one will be different and I will be using this pattern here, (skirt B is the skirt shown as an insert) for that one. I bought some lovely flowery corduroy for Rebecca's skirt and I will also add ribbons to the hem. I will post a follow up with picture of that ASAP. I am cutting that out today so I should have something ready in the next few days.

I am starting back at college on Monday and may not have as much time to but I will continue to post my creations as often as I can :)

Well I have been really working hard on my sewing of late. I have so many ideas but need to gain the skills to implement them. I decided to use the Breezy Easy Wrap skirt pattern that came with my Sew Everything Workshop Book I bought. See below the picture of the skirt  from the book.

 I have to say finding well designed fabric in Connecticut is not easy; I feel a trip to New York is definitely in the cards. I did however find a fabric shop that had some very good cotton print... (not Joann’s) and bought some great green and red print fabric there. I had never worked with a pattern before so I was a little daunted. I hedged around the idea for a few days but then decided to just jump in and make it.

The scariest part was the cutting. I measured everything twice well ok about 5 times to be honest and then pinned and cut the fabric. On this project I learned how to make a sports hem, make darts, zigzagged and trim hems. I think the end result turned out pretty good. I have also made this skirt in red and  I will post some pictures of that one as soon as I can.

My next project is making my friend Audrey’s two girls some nice little skirts and then a really nice shift dress for me. Watch out for pictures.

Update on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 5:35PM by Cleopatra

Just a quick follow up to this post,  as promised here is a picture of the red wrap skirt)

Well this is my latest project. I needed a dress form (we call them dressmakers dummies in Ireland) so I looked online and could not believe how much they were. So in the spirit of invention I decided to make my own, I made a dress form out of duct tape.

I got the idea from this website. I bought a wooden rod, 3 bags of Poly-fil, a long t-shirt and 2 rolls of white duct tape.

Ok we chose the hottest most humid day of the year to do this and we all were like baked kippers by the end of it. Here are the highlights in pictures.

Here is me looking hopeful in my long t-shirt. It was really large so I  cut a piece out of the back and sewed it tighter to my body.

Ok the kids get taping, well David did it really, but aren't they cute!. We wrapped duct tape around my body to create the shape of the dress form.

Until I was all taped up....  don't I look great hehe. The things we do for art!

  We cut it off finally and then taped a hanger to a wooden rod. I have to tell you that drink was so good!

Then we stuffed it on the hanger with Poly-fil!

And there you have it Lucy was born. I have a dress form that is an accurate copy of my own body that I can use to help me create designs that fit me perfectly. We all had fun and I think it turned out really well.

I really needed a casual skirt to go with my gazillion t-shirts this summer. I had a pair of old jeans that were way too big on me, so I decided to covert them into a skirt. I cut off the legs at the desired length put them to one side to use later. I then got a seam ripper and ripped out the inseams and opened the jeans right up to the front zipper and to the same height at the back. This leaves the jeans open now with a v- shaped void in the front and back. I then laid out the jeans and used the material from the cut off ends to fill the voids. I pinned everything then tack stitched (baste stitched in American English) the pieces to the voids. Then I removed the pins and sewed all of the pieces together on my new sewing machine. I then ironed, pinned, tacked and then hemmed the skirt and voila I have a new skirt to wear with my t-shirts.

I got the idea to do this at this website . Have a look at the easy step-by-step picture guide here. It’s a great way to recycle old jeans and dead easy.

I had a really busy summer this year. I flew to Europe to see my family and even got over to the UK to see my best friend Audrey. After a year of hard study I was glad to get away but after a trip back to my virtual store, Designs By Cleopatra I realized I hadn’t made anything since November. I happened to bump into Audrey’s avatar Meliana who hasn’t been on Second Life much either and we went on a tour of my store so I could give her my latest designs. After a while of trying things on Audrey said, “Thelma you really need to take this design thing up seriously, in the real world “. The thought had crossed my mind before. But I was daunted by the idea of learning how to sew. I can design virtual clothing but I had never tried to make those clothes in reality. Well I decided to get a sewing machine and a good “how to” book. I ordered “Sew Everything Workshop” by Diana Rupp, which came highly recommended, and a Brother sewing machine on Amazon. I took a trip to Joanne Fabric and got myself a few essentials, signed up to a few rather cool sewing and craft sites (burdastyle.com being one and threadbangers.com being another) and waited patiently for my book and machine to arrive. Well the book arrived first, which is great by the way. It came with 10 original patterns included and I feel I can relate well to the author. Her love of sewing is contagious. I had everything I needed accept the sewing machine. I felt like a girl on a first date waiting for her new bloke to turn up, all dressed up and you know the rest.... Well it turned up today yay!!!!

That's me pouring over the manual trying to figure out what everything is... I was in this position for a few hours hehe. David (hubby) took a sneaky pic.

Finally I sewed my first seam...(well a practice one on an old t- shirt, but hey I got the thing to work).

This is the first post of many to come and my first step on the road towards bringing “Designs By Cleopatra” into reality. Wish me luck :)