DIY lace-up back pants

The inspiration for these little darlings came from the Bella Señora Lace up pants by Kitten D'Amour as seen here: 

Needless to say they are stunning and add a little oomph to what would otherwise be plain work pants.

However, as with many others fond of sewing, I looked at the picture and the $159.00 price tag and thought to myself "I could make that!" So I set about giving it a go. 

I purchased a pair of $20 cotton twill pull-on pants from K-Mart as well as some large eyelets from Spotlight. I opted to use red ribbon instead of black (mostly because my Spotlight store was sold out of black ribbon in the width I needed! But I like the contrast of black and red so it worked out! 

After much deliberation I decided instead of using the cut out effect as in the inspiration picture I could not cut out any of the leg and opt for a high contrast effect with the red on black. I wanted a mid calf lace up look so I marked 20cm from the rear hem along the back seam of the pants. I then unpicked both back seams to this point. I marked 2 cm out each side of the seam. Then along this line every 4 cm for where I would insert the eyelets. 

I then proceeded to insert the eyelets, sewed the back seam up again and threaded through my red ribbon.

And just like that I have some slammin' new duds! 

Style Notes:

Love Moschino - Cropped Cardigan With Red Bow Detail - AUD $343.00

Alannah Hill - My French Lover Lace Top - AUD $199.00

Felicity Jewel Point Ballet Flats - Forever New - AUD$69.99

Thanks for reading!

Please feel free to comment, share and pin! 

Blog Renovation!

As you would likely have noticed, my blog has undergone a pretty significant makeover. Namely because I have made so many new things - yet have not blogged about any of them. Why? I thought about why for a long time... was is apathy? stress? too busy? the fact that I was thinking for so long about why? Not that you will care - but hey, it's my blog so I'll tell you anyway! :p No... I think it's that I just didn't like my blog. Visually. It was impersonal, generic and ultimately "blah". It was a layout direct from the blogger vault and it represented nothing about me personally or creatively. It struck me that is was quite a paradox to have a blog about creativity when the very blog itself was far from it. So I've taken it into my own hands to create some nifty new visuals that are uniquely me in the sense that I have created them myself and that they reflect the farrago and miscellany of my life. As garish as they may be - not to mention predominantly pink - a colour I have both despised and feared at various points throughout my life (figure out that one Dr. Phil).
There is still work to be done of course - but it is all uphill from here (I hope). Keep a sharp eye for fresh posts of creative goodies and my rambling annotations (of pure awesomeness!).

Until then!

Simplicity 2451 skirt

 

 Finished Skirt 

So I realise I have about a million and one things to upload on here - but I thought I would start with my most recent effort this weekend. All up this probably took about 8 hours. I had been looking for a nice skirt pattern and opted for this one because I liked the unique shape of the yoke and the concealed pockets. This is Simplicity Pattern 2451.

I made view D

I had found this pretty floral printed quilting fabric that I really wanted to make a skirt with (I usually team with black tights so knew it would contrast well)

See pics below for the journey :) 

  
First I laid out my pattern pieces on my folded fabric and pinned down. Then I cut them all out. remembering this time to cut my notches. Sometimes I forget and just slice away. Then I went though the process of marking the lines for darts, pleats and circles.

I then pinned the pleats at the front and machine basted.

 Next, I pinned the pockets to the front of the skirt, stitched on and understitched the seam. 

See below for understitched pockets

 

Then I pinned the pocket facing to the pocket and stitched on.

 

 I made darts in the back two pieces and stitched together up to notch (leaving room for zipper insertion.

 Finally, the back and front were ready to come together - and I stitched the sides.

 I applied fusible interfacing to front and back yoke pieces.

 I finished my seams by pinking (overlocker on the fritz and it is not really a fraying fabric) so it was okay.

 Even though the pattern does not call for it, I decided to insert a lining as well as I didn't want the cotton to catch on my tights. Plus it was quite thin and I thought this would finish it off better. I'd never done a lining before and there were no instructions since it's  not part of the pattern so I just winged it. re-cut the pattern pieced but pinned the pocket front on so that it would be the right size.

 This is the cut out front piece still pinned to pattern paper

 I then applied pleats, darts, stay-stitching and joined all pieced of the lining together. I inserted it inside the skirt and pinned then machine basted.

 I stitched the front and back pieces of the yoke.

 I pinned the yoke to the skirt.

 I then pinned in my zipper and stitched. I realised here that the zip was too short. The pattern instructions call for a 7" zip - so that is what I purchased, however it became clear that I need an 8" zipper. When I raised the zipper and the seam the skirt wouldn't fit over my bum, and when I moved it back down there was about a 1" gap left at the top. Eventually I overcame this by adding some pink ribbon to make a bow at the back as well as the required hook and eye closure at the top. It's quirky, but I like it.

 I then pinned and stitched on the yoke facing.

 I was going to finish my edge as per the instructions but didn't like the look of the stitches at the bottom being visible. So I applied a heavy duty fusible hemming web in first a thin layer at the bottom, then I folded this up and applied another layer to finish it off neatly. 

 

With the lining, I trimmed it to length then folded up twice to neaten the edge and did a straight stitch.

 

See images below of finished skirt. It was hard to find appropriate lighting to shoot the skirt. I also couldn't find many images I liked of it. It definitely looks much better in real life.

 yoke/pleats

 Close-up of pleats.

 Pocket.

 Back with emergency bow added :p

  The creases in the back are from my top underneath.

Overall, this was a really simple to make skirt (with the exception of the zipper debacle) I am definitely going to make this again. I would love to make it in a 1" black and white houndstooth wool. Perhaps with some black piping around the yoke. Definitely going to use a longer zipper next time though.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Please feel free to leave comments :)

Alyce x

DIY Home-made corset/bustier

I decided a while ago that I would like to try and make a simple style corset/bustier with polyester boning and a hook/eye closure at the front. This type usually gives a slight shaping to the waist/hips rather than completely reducing/reshaping the waist like a steel boned corset with a solid husk closure. I had disassembled an old one I previously bought to see how it was constructed and then reassembled using some of the same pieces - however the back lacing was damaged and unusable. I wore it out one night with the back stitched together and a jacket covering the back! I then decided I would try my hand from scratch. I went to Spotlight and selected a nice colour satin which I liked and the other matierials I wished to use and got to work from there. The final result is as follows (apologies, but the photo is a selfie):

 The above is pictured with jeans, but I think it would look much nicer underneath a high-waisted pencil skirt.

 The following images are what I took as I went through the process of completing the bustier: 

 I decided to sort of 'cheat' since I wasn't after a really defined 'cinched' look. Cheating and skipping steps usually leads to trouble - but I was just experimenting so I decided to anyway. Usually a corset is assembled by multiple, curved pieces being assembled with boning inserted at these seams. I skipped this step and simply traced a large fabric piece from a corset I already have. Then I pinned a thick ribbon along where I wished to place the boning and stitched.

After I had sewed each strip of ribbon, I then inserted the boning and pinned an iron-on bias tape to the edges and applied. Now, this did cause some trouble with the final result. Ordinarilly, I would have used a sew-on bias binding to ensure a good amount of flexibility when wearing. However, the particular satin that I selected to make this corset was very delicate and was fraying like crazy. I'm talking up to 2 or more centimetres. So I could apply a fray stopper - my only way to salvage what I had already done was to apply an iron-on bias tape - the glue of which sealed the frayed edges and stopped more damage from occurring. Unfortunately, the iron-on tape has very little give and therefore reduced the flexibility of the pieces significantly.
 

  
After each piece had been boned and the raw edges sealed, I went to work making the back tabs with the eyelets which would be laced up. I had to try and repeat this process several times with a very sturdy and quality satin. This was bridal satin. All of the other types I tried ended up tearing when the eyelets were inserted. The eyelets were a bit of a pain. I don't have an eyelet applicator and the little tool that comes in the pack is tricky and needs to be hammered. I left many a dent in my counter top doing this!

The iron-on bias tape had a matte finish which didn't match the rest. Since the edges had already been stiffened beyond salvation with the iron-on bias tape I decided to use a thick satin ribbon to finish the edges rather than another bias binding.
 

On all of my bustiers with a hook and eye closure there was no boning where the hook/eye tape was - however mine just felt too flimsy, so I inserted some boning. As you can see from my picture - I used double boning for extra strength. I had also inserted some ribbon through the eyelets to check how it was sitting.

 Then I pinned on the final ribbon edging and the hook and eye tape and sewed on.

I bought a nice scalloped-edge black lace to apply to the top edge. I pinned it to the top and stitched on one row at the top and another following the shape of the lace down lower.

 I inserted the ribbon through the eyelets.

And voila! The final product! Front side:

Reverse side:

The next corset I make I think I am going to play by the rules. I am not unhappy with this one but I do prefer a good cinching/shaping corset and I think I would like to try that. I have certainly learnt a lot from creating this one and have recognised what I would do differently next time. Namely, use a good, strong satin to prevent the fraying nonsense which nearly ruined it!

I hope you enjoyed reading how I made this - If you have any questions, please leave me a comment!

♥ Alyce x