June 2013 | Full-Time Vixen

Monthly Archives: June 2013

A Scarlet Skirt – McCall’s M6438

June 17, 2013 • 10:39 PM

I made this skirt last summer for a “modern Velma” costume I wore to a Geeks After Dark event (more on that later). This skirt was a quick make and is now one of my favourite garments because of its simple versatility and because I can wear it to work!

The pattern is McCall’s M6438 which is a super easy skirt pattern that comes with four variations. I made view A but with a few modifications. I doubled the width of the waistband because I love the look of wider waistbands and I changed the zipper insertion method. I inserted an invisible zipper because I prefer this type of zipper and inserted it to look more like a ready-to-wear skirt. Here’s a photo:

The zipper goes up to the top of the waistband and I don’t have to fiddle around with sewing an overlap and then adding either a skirt hook and eye or button. I have nothing against overlaps on skirts or pants and love that look as well. But for this garment, I had a certain “vision” in mind so I skipped all those steps. It’s neat and tidy on the inside too.

I didn’t really save much time because I hand hemmed the skirt with seam binding and a catch stitch. Looks so tidy eh? Tasia has the best tutorial over on her blog.

Outfit details: The shirt was thrifted, the tights are from Dysfunctional Doll, and the shoes from Aldo.

EDIT: I wore this skirt to work today and one of my co-workers asked me if I got it at Banana Republic. ^___^ Nope!

Here’s a bonus photo of me as Velma or what happened to be a very loose interpretation of Velma from that evening at Geeks After Dark.

If you’re wondering what Geeks After Dark is, it was an event that would be held at The Cellar nightclub in downtown Vancouver about once a month or so and featured a nerdy theme each time. Star Wars, Disney, British Sci-Fi, you name it, they did it. There would be nerdlesque (which is nerdy burlesque), a trivia contest, costume contests, and then dancing part of the night away to “geeky” music like the Space Jam theme song and the Mortal Combat theme (techno remix!). It was one of my favourite things to do ever! Then the event organizers split apart due to irreconcilable differences and the new incarnations of Geeks After Dark are known as Geekenders and Mastergeek Theatre. I haven’t really been to these nerd events in a while but will probably go to Geekenders at the end of this month. It’s good to go dancing!

So there you have it, the cat’s out of the bag for the whole internet to see — I am a raging nerd. My friends already know this of course but I knew I couldn’t hide it from my blog for long. Nor did I want to hide it! I’ll have to do a feature on one of the costumes I’ve sewn later on.

Spiffy Elbow Patch Mending Project

June 7, 2013 • 6:48 PM

My friend Victor asked me a while ago if I could help him mend one of his shirts. He had worn out the elbows in this blue casual button up shirt and was wondering if I could put elbow patches on them.

He had tried sewing the holes shut himself but as you can see, he does not quite have the skill to give it that professional finish. He told me he’d just been wearing the sleeves rolled up anyways so no one saw his “handiwork”.

So I undid his handiwork and surveyed the real damage.

I had to think for a while how I was going to go about this process. I came across this blog post: http://ohsnail.blogspot.ca/2012/02/how-to-make-elbow-patches.html

It was very informative and was the tutorial I liked the most. You see, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to finish the edges of the elbow patches. Use a turned under hem all around? I had a feeling it wouldn’t be as clean a finish on the oval shaped template I was using. For a square, rectangle, or more angular patch shape, that might be just fine.

The tutorial I found is ingenious though – make the patch out of two layers of fabric and sew them right sides together. Then leave a gap so you can flip it inside out after pinking the edges and iron that sucker down so it’s perfectly flat and oval. Then hand stitch the open gap.

I then hand stitched the oval elbow pads to the shirt with my trusty uneven slipstitch. I couldn’t use my sewing machine because the sleeves are much too narrow to jam into it. Plus the hand-sewing looks just lovely. I also used a whipstitch on the inside to sew the hole down to the patch. You can’t see it on the outside because I took care not to pierce the upper layer of the patch. I preferred the slipstitch to the blanket stitch for a more modern look. So many of the patching tutorials I came across recommended the blanket stitch. The blanket stitch is a little too rustic or crafty looking for my friend’s sense of style.

Now I know I keep mentioning this slipstitch of mine and for those not in the know, you may be wondering what it is. I scanned my Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing (I have a pristine copy of the older edition from the 70s, it’s amazing!) and provided the section on slipstitching below. If you click on the image, you can see the full size scan.

I learned how to do this hand stitch back in high school. It is one of my most used hand stitches because if you do it right, you will have a truly invisible and sturdy seam. I often use it to join the inside of the waistband or a facing to the interior of a garment for an invisible finish and prefer this to stitching in the ditch whenever possible. I prefer hand stitching for finishing off my garments to give it the nicest interior I can. Hand stitching is also such a soothing task and I’ll often sit and listen to Ted Talks or documentaries for a quiet moment to myself.