fabric is love fabric is life

This is the sewing/crafting/slow fashion appreciation sideblog of sodasodabanana. I'm not very good but I try hard and that's all that matters.

[sodasodabanana]

I made these plushes of Shaz and Murray using some big bits of fabric I didn’t know what else I could do with, as well as a bunch of scrap fabric for the stuffing. I haven’t entirely finished Shaz’s face or their shirt. I’m definitely 100% planning on making Camille, but I didn’t have the right colour fabric for her skin and I didn’t have the right colour wool for her hair.

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I’m thinking of doing a lookbook with all the stuff I’ve made so far

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Star Butterfly Cosplay

the Dress:

The fabric is from Spotlight. It’s kind of a thick woven cotton with not a lot of stretch, but it was the only light turquoise fabric they had. The bodice was made with the Megan dress pattern from Love at First Stitch, the skirt is a standard skater skirt. There’s a zip on the side right under the armpit. I used Professor Pincushion’s scalloped hem tutorial for the sleeve detail and eventually I will use it on the bottom hem of the dress. For the octopus/jellyfish/whatever that is, I used pink and red iron-on fabric crayons.

the Props:

The bag is an old phone holder that I glued some craft foam onto. The headband is a halloween devil headband that I just modified slightly to make the horns shorter. The wand is made of a styrofoam ball, an old broom handle, cardboard, and crayola model magic. I more or less copied Melanie Rae’s method from her video Star Butterfly Cosplay Walkthrough, so shoutout to her! I still have to modify my gum boots (which I bought today, they’re orange so I will have to paint them) and I’m waiting on the wig (I left ordering it a little late but hopefully it’ll get here in time, if not I’ll just be a black-and-green haired Star I guess?)

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Meg Tries to do an Annika Victoria: Part 2

I succeeded! I made this amazing Killstar-inspired pentagram strap dress using fabric from the awesome company Thread International and I’ve worn it loads of times already. I did the straps completely ass backwards so it took a lot longer than it might’ve, but I powered through! I used a modified pattern from a how-to-sew book called Love at First Stitch: Demystifying Dressmaking by Tilly Walnes. ( The pattern itself was the ‘Lilou’ dress. Also guys I cannot recommend that book enough, the patterns in it are super easy to sew and modify and each one has step-by-step instructions. )

As a bonus: I tweeted that second picture to Thread International so they could see I enjoyed their product and here was their response:

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Got a book yesterday called The Hero’s Closet: Sewing for Costumes and Cosplay and it’s literally the most comprehensive learn to sew book I’ve ever bought, it has really useful information on creating patterns and choosing fabrics and even tells you how to alter clothes and add boning to a dress bodice. It was about 25 dollars and it comes with a lot of patterns and instructions for basic cosplay pieces like bodysuits, tights, capes, boot covers, tunics and japanese sailor tops. It’s so good and when I eventually get back into cosplay this will be extremely useful.

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Meg Tries to do an Annika Victoria, part 1

So if you don’t know, there’s this youtuber called Annika Victoria who does DIY fashion videos and one of her recurring bits is called Make Thrift Buy where she’ll have people tweet pictures of designer clothes at her and she takes you through how to make a knockoff at home. Annika’s a great channel to watch, she really got me into sewing and got me more interested in slow fashion. So in the spirit of Make Thrift Buy, I’ve decided to make myself some fake versions of two items I found online, using recycled and ethically-sourced fabrics.

The first thing I’m gonna do is chop up my sister’s old nightgown:

and make something approximately resembling this top from Lazy Oaf:

I’m also gonna save the collar and lace trim to make some kind of sweet lolita-type babydoll dress since it’s really nice.

The second thing I’m going to make is a dress like this one from Killstar, but maybe longer

but I’m going to use Jersey knit from an awesome company called Thread International, which uses recycled plastic bottles and fairtrade cotton to make an eco-friendly synthetic fabric blend. (which is also mad cheap like?? $9 per metre for this future fabric u guys!!!) I’m really curious to see if it’s comfortable or feels different to a normal poly-cotton mix in any way.

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Here’s a thing that I love doing: getting a whole fuckload of fabric and then making a bunch of matching shit with it. I agonise so much over what I’m gonna pair my handmade clothes with and if I just make two things that are the same fabric that makes everything so much easier for me. This is an outfit I made for myself to wear to the gym. it was my first time making elasticated shorts and, once again, it was made before I had my stretch needle, so the stitching is kind of ugly but this fabric is just so amazing that I don’t care. I’m also making a leotard out of the rest of this same fabric but I’m not quite done with that yet.

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I bought about 5 metres of this super cheap and nasty fake crushed velvet stuff around Christmas time so I could practice working with stretch fabric, and after much pain and frustration, I’ve finally tamed this beast. I haven’t hemmed any of it because the skirt’s really fricken short for one thing and for another thing hemming this stuff is a bitch and a half because I have to put paper under it the whole way around or it’ll catch in the machine. but whatever! I love it anyway!

The skirt was mostly hand-sewn because I made it before I got my stretch needle and I was just tired of dealing with dropped stitches every 0.8 seconds. The top was done with the machine and a little bit with the overlocker. for both of these pieces I used a pattern I made myself using old newspaper and Maths.

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I really wish there was a website where you could just send a picture of your fabric or the old thing you want to upcycle and someone sent you an idea what to do with it because I’ve got so much stuff to work with and 0 ideas.

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A selection of things I made between 2014 and 2016

The top 2 were made with fabric from Spotlight, the bottom 2 with fabric from spoonflower. The shorts are the only item I actually used a pattern for (I think it was Simplicity?? it was like a combined pants/shorts pattern and it was really good, I’ve gotten good use out of it)

Spoonflower’s expensive as shit to ship anywhere outside the US but it’s super worth it,. They’re a really great company with a commitment to sustainable manufacturing. Also their factory and head office are in my childhood hometown so that’s another thing.

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Last Year’s Halloween Costume

- Dress: hand sewn, fabric is from Spotlight. I did it by hand because no way I was putting that faux fur anywhere near my sewing machine. I’ve had some bad experiences with fluffy fabrics.

- Shoes: borrowed from someone else

- Necklace: sculpey

- Bone: papier-mache