So We’re Doing This

***Editing to add that this morning the site was not up, but I managed to rectify that and it is in fact up now! Here we go!***

I’m happy to report that I’ve gotten pretty much everything together on my new website (for the moment), and today I’m going to figure out how to pay for redirection from this site (Annabelle’s Project Overload) to the new one, as well as migrate all of you lovely followers.

However, in my research on migrating followers I saw that some of you that subscribe through email will not get updated, so this is a little note to let you know that if you want to keep hearing from me, I’ll be at jessicasmithcreates.com/blog/…

Hope to see you all there!

Big Changes Coming Soon…

Hey all!

I’m currently working on a few big projects, namely creating a new website and hopefully an Etsy business, as well as a couple new costumes in time for Dragon Con.

As soon as this is published, I’ll be back to trying to figure out how to migrate this blog over to the new website, but with a key difference.

Annabelle’s Project Overload has been my baby for the past few years, but I have a confession that early followers may remember. My name isn’t truly Annabelle Smith, but rather Jessica Smith.

I’ve always felt that my given name melts into the background, as its reasonably common, and for a while I wanted to have a more uncommon (but not suspiciously so) name, so my alter ego of Annabelle materialized.

But I’ve reached a point in my real life career at which a website is advantageous, and having my real name on it is important. I don’t want to split my life in half, however, so I’m working on incorporating the posts I’ve lovingly crafted here into my new venture.

Honestly, I don’t know what this means for you, dear reader (too much?), but if you’re interested in following me to my new site, stay tuned and I’ll keep you posted. Those of you who follow me on Tumblr, I’m equally confused what’s going to happen there too, but I’m adding it to the list!

Have a lovely weekend, and I’ll see you (hopefully) on the other side!

Birthday Dress 2018

Remember when I made a shirtdress a few years ago?

I still love that dress and I wear it a lot, but there was an incident that made me not want to make another right away. I had made it for Indie Pattern Month 2016, I think, and when I posted on the Monthly Stitch site I got a comment that was… less than flattering. I had gushed about how well it fit “out of the package,” and I can argue both for my point, and theirs. On the plus side it closed without gaping without changing any pattern pieces and felt so comfortable, on the minus I needed an FBA and a substantial swayback adjustment and the fabric shows every wrinkle (including the gathering) that exists but doesn’t need to be emphasized.

The Monthly Stitch moderators are amazing, and Melissa removed the comment before I even saw it and sent both me and the commenter an email, and informed the commenter that straight up insults are not allowed and are unhelpful. Especially to new sewists. Now, it hurt me a little to be called a new sewist, which was a bit prideful, looking back, but it really is true. Now looking at the pictures of the dress (as my body has changed a little so it fits differently now), I can see where the commenter saw problems even if I now know that the suggestions they had were unhelpful and somewhat incorrect. For the record, looking at pictures of someone else on the internet is no comparison to fitting in person.

It’s a couple years later, and the comment and email discussion still hurts, but I decided this year I was going to make a new one for my birthday to remove the bad feelings associated with the first.

So.

Now for the fun part.

The birthday dress itself!

I bought this sunny linen from Joann Fabrics a couple months ago, and I didn’t have a plan, but then I remembered the Vintage Shirtdress pattern from Sew Over It. It was time.

First I altered the pattern. I made a swayback adjustment, made a small FBA, took in the armscye by a smidge, and lengthened the bodice by about an inch. I think the fit is much improved! I like the loose waist on me, since it means that gaping is less of an issue, especially when I have a big dinner! Also, belting it has happened when I want to look sleek!

Cutting and sewing went smoothly for this one. I machine sewed the bias to the armscye, and hand sewed the hem facing to the dress. I also used the t-shirt heat press (and vinyl cutter) at my local makerspace to put grey vinyl flowers on the front bottom of the dress!

Oh and pockets. I reinforced the pockets by drafting them to reach the waistband, and it makes them so much better!

The buttonholes went well, though I think I positioned them a little too far out from the edge, but it’s too late now! I don’t get gaping, persay, but the fabric does jut out a little strangely particularly around the waistband, and the top button is fond of unbuttoning itself. I’m going to put some hooks and eyes into the top of the dress to help with that…

I love my birthday dress, and now I know that any fitting issues that you or I may see is something I can work out in the future!

For some reason I decided that I just had to show you guys my new bonsai plant too… Enjoy my only slightly not-derpy picture with it!

Long Tania Culottes

Why hello there!

You were lured in by my first couple posts in a while (plausible), or perhaps by the lovely pics of the culottes in the pictures (perhaps less plausible), or because you did a double take when you realized that I wasn’t in fact going to be talking about my Ariel costume, but about a piece of clothing… Don’t worry. I’ll talk about the rest of the costume at the end!

My 2016 Ariel costume involved a floor length deep blue skirt that was maybe a quarter circle skirt out of some lovely but incredibly flimsy rayon. So I made an Onyx shirt out of it a couple months afterward.

So when I decided to attend DragonCon again in 2017 I wanted to update my Ariel costume, and that meant making a new skirt.

But Ariel is all about getting legs! Why does she get legs, and then suddenly start wearing a tube that she could’ve worn with a tail anyway!

So my theory is that she would be much happier wearing culottes. Still loose and flowy without being a single tube. Two tubes for the win!

Okay, that’s enough now…

I had recently downloaded the update to Megan Nielsen’s Tania Culotte pattern, and had pieces together the knee length version (I think) of the full circle culotte pattern, as opposed to the tapered version.

So I took some of the rayon lawn that I used with my 2017 Birthday Dress and cut pieces a little larger than the pattern pieces would require, and then I dyed them using either Procion Royal Blue or Moody Blue (Moody Blue was a specialty color that doesn’t look like its still available), which came out the perfect sky blue (perhaps because I didn’t use enough dye, as I’m looking at the instructions). I think I used glauber’s salt in the mixture, which is suggested for evening out the color. And urea, now that I think about it. I was dyeing a couple things that night, so I’m not sure..

The fabric dyeing went well, but then I laid the pieces over the rungs of my drying rack, and that left lines in the fabric… Oh well!

Then I took the fabric pieces, ironed them heavily and cut out the Tania culottes pattern for real this time. Sewing together was pretty simple, as I’ve made it many a time before (I mean, at least twice). I did have to make really big darts in the waistband, and I put in pockets… They were messy. The waistband was something I over-interfaced, because I knew it had to hold up (literally) when the rest of the garment was so flowy.

This is the time to remind/let you know that this rayon lawn is not meant for real garments. I was just silly to have tried it. I seem to have a habit of trying to force thin rayon into skirt like jobs… Hmm…

Once finished, I wore them to work… Which worked okay. The problem arose that they are so flowy that they got caught in my bike wheels. As in grind me to a halt stuck between the brakes and the wheel.

Every time I got in a car I was at risk of tearing the fabric. Especially around the back seam area. Not the seam itself, but the area next to the seam. I had already repaired that area once before DragonCon, and by the time I got to the Marriott apparently the hole had reappeared… Oops? Thanks lady on the escalator for letting me know so carefully!

So this was retired about a month after DragonCon, though it was my ultimate favorite swishy swishy make. Fabric eater, I think this had over 3.5 yards in it. But I will be looking into making this again soon, out of a more durable fabric. Maybe I’ll make the tapered version, but I really like the deceptive nature of the circle skirt variation. I had to prove to a number of people (not at the con but in life) that it was in fact “pants”).

So details on the rest of the Ariel costume… Same corset as 2016, but I made a new shirt. I altered the Onyx top pattern to lengthen and widen the sleeves and I embroidered these adorable waves along the neckline. I also made a Flounder plushie who is my new favorite (don’t tell my fox-squirrel), especially because he looks so terrified. I carried him around in a basket, and when one young boy was nervous to come up and touch him, I told him that Flounder was scared being out of the ocean… I’m not good at coming up with things on the spot, so my new and improved quick thinking came in handy. Hopefully it sticks around…

This year I plan to also make a Sebastian plushie. I had all the fabrics ready with the Flounder stuff, but I just didn’t have the time to make it!

 

 

Nettie Tee Dress

This post is going to be short! In late October I went on a cutting spree where I cut out a tooooon of garments, some of which have still not been sewn up…

This was one of them. I took my altered Nettie tshirt pattern (standard versions of which don’t even get a mention on the blog because its my go to for daily t-shirts), and just extended the hem as far as I could. I gave it a flat hem, so the sides do hang down a little lower than the front, but I kinda like that.

This fabric is one of my last pieces from a Hancock Fabrics going out of business shopping spree.

When I was getting it cut, the lady blanched and said,  “I don’t know who would ever find this an attractive piece of fabric.”

And I replied, “Well it kinda matches my hair.” I think she realized that she had said that thought out loud and didn’t say anything after that… For four more cuts.

It’s a polyester textured lace pattern in a rust brown. Which does mean that it has holes in it, so I have to use a slip. This one is made from a cotton broadcloth, and is cut on the bias. It peeks through just a little, and I love it!

Oof, the drag lines make me look pregnant… “Contorting” to get this picture made those, I promise!

Simple sweet dress, easy to sew, easy to wear, I wish it had pockets, but I still haven’t figured out how to make that happen for this design…

Birthday Dress 2017

Okay, this dress is only about a year and a month old… That’s not too bad, right?

Starting in 2016 I decided I’d make myself a special dress around my birthday, and it’s never been quite a standard dress. Meaning, I don’t plan on just taking a straightforward pattern and making it…

In 2016, I was still working out some pattern-hacking, and I made a sleeveless Nettie dress, with a handkerchief hem, out of a lovely slinky knit that looks like black lace on a green background.

Last year (2017) I went a different route, and decided to try my hand at dyeing fabrics. I read up on fabric-dyeing and decided to buy a 10 yard cut of this lovely rayon lawn. Now… I didn’t really read the description, so I didn’t quite process that it wasn’t really meant for garments. Word to the wise, its very thin, shows nearly every line underneath, and tears fairly easily. I’m sure for its intended purpose (linings and undergarments and draperies and such) it works well… I haven’t quite gotten to use it for those yet.

No, I wanted to use it to make a dress.

Specifically the dress outlined in a post on DaughterFish’s website called the Future Dress. (Unfortunately it looks like the DaughterFish website is down, so I can’t link it.)

If I remember correctly, this future dress is originally the creation of a designer in the earlier 20th century, and is so simple in its ingenuity. Basically, *you take three shapes (two trapezoids and a triangle), to make a huge triangle and then repeat from * until you’ve got four huuuuuge triangles, which make up the neckline and armscyes. The dress is loose and flowy until you belt it, and then there’s a cute amount of volume emanating from the belted area.

I chose to keep the shape of the four triangles post bias hanging, rather than cutting it off around my knees. Last spring I was trying to think over life choices, and I didn’t want to spend extra brainpower figuring out how best to hem it, so I left it raw and uncut.

My memories are telling me that I waited until after I made the dress to dye the fabric, which is not always recommended. I chose to use Emerald Green Procion dye, without the add ons used to keep the emerald super vibrant. It worked, overall, and I ended up with a very pastel spring-y dress. Not what I wanted, but pleasant enough for a birthday.

The favorite comment I got on my birthday (since I foolishly forgot to tell my employers I wanted to take off), was that I looked like a fairy. Which I will always take as a compliment.

A couple months later I ended up dyeing another project a lovely Royal Blue, and decided to over-dye a bit, and ombre dye a bit as well, to give it the darker look I craved. And that’s how you see it today!

I like this dress, and I’m curious how it’d look with a bit more opacity to the fabric and with perhaps a weightier fabric, since this fabric floats like a very heavy feather. But it takes soooo much fabric, that it’d have to be a sale fabric and kismet… But maybe one day!