Thunder Cascadia

Zero waste pattern drafting, historybounding, and creating the handmade wardrobe of my dreams

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Little girl said she wanted more skirts, and I whipped this up in the middle of the night. This is made from scraps from a deceased quilter that I never met. I am friends with a woman who was given her whole stash by her son, and my friend passed much of the stash along.

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The little girl's new skirt, made with the entirety of 7/8 tard remnant. The print made me think of Minnie Mouse, and she loves Minnie Moise. She asked if she could wear it when she's older, and I said yes! She could wear it as an adult depending on how big she gets. She's so excited about that, it's wonderful. The top tier is one width of fabric, so approximately 42" around, abd the bottom tier is two widths of fabric.

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The second shift/pettiblouse I made. This is the first time I did the kind of shift construction where the rectangles for the body are larger, and you take the gores from triangles cut out of it from the shoulder to the middle. It has the resulting shape of a trapeziod instead of a rectangle until the waist, with triangles added to the rectangle after the waist. I did the sleeves width according to what was efficient with the fabric. I'm really happy with the sleeves, how they are just a little eased into a narrow band, and then with lace (handmade croceted by an unknown person!) covering it, looks very nice. A wider plain band that was loose I think would have looked stupid, and I like the look of this even though I don't like loose straight short sleeves. I really like it and will do more of this in the future, it is more comfortable than a tighter band and doesn't hurt if it pushes up when I put a coat on top. I was planning on adding the lace to the neckline, but had a hard time deciding what to do about it. Given that this looks so nice under this higher neck vintage dress I just got from my friend Justine, I can totally put it off until later, or not do it at all. I did non-square or non-equilateral triangles for the first time, I initially did squares, but it was far too tight in the bust, and redid it with triangles cut from a longer rectangle. It's not on my body here, but it really fits amazingly perfectly and is probably the exact tightest-fitting and highest-neckline shift possible without it being too tight for comfort, too hard to get over the head, or too tight to get over the bust. I really am amazed at how modern a fit this is. This shift used less than the whole yard of 60" wide linen, and it has some useful rectangles left over for future gussets, etc. The last shift used exactly the yard of linen with nothing left over save the semi-circle cut out for the neckline, and that one is wider in the hips, and has plain sleeves that I don't intend to stick out of the armholes of a jumper.

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This is very historybounding! I made the first of a few chemises I have planned. It is made with precisely one yard of linen with nothing wasted, except for the fabric trimmed away at the neckline. I still need to trim a little more away at the back neckline, you can see the chemise against the back inside of the collar in the green dress I'm wearing. Of course, chemises were used to keep the corset clean, not just the dress. I decided to try putting my bra on top (and I think some of us know that some women go weeks without washing their bra!) I thought it would be uncomfortable and the most hideous thing. I actually like it! Now I can keep my bras cleaner, too!

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A dress in the same fabric as her first Yule dress. The bodice length is exactly as long as it can be with the strip of black fabric I had left. It is a stretch twill with velvet flowers. The bodice is copied from a well-fitting dress of hers, graded up about two sizes. It is the same dress that I used to make the bodice for her largest dragonfly print dress. The red loop trim was my deceased grandmother's. I used exactly all of it, not an inch was trimmed. I've struggled with not knowing what to do with it for years, and this dress is absolutely perfect with it. The skirt is one full width of the fabric, which is a very efficient way to use the fabric, but the strip of the unicorn dress that I had left was a little too long for using up the whole rest of this fabric on this dress. There is a nice wide hem on it, and I used the stretch blind hem stitch on my machine as it is a knit fabric. I experimented and did a 18th century pocket that is a pear shape with a middle slash, and it is sewn into the waist seam and hanging down. The one seam in the side, as the skirt is one full width of fabric, is open for about four inches after the waistband for access to the pocket. I expect the pocket to fare better if she puts anything heavy in it as it is just hanging from the waistband, and the stretchy skirt won't sag down on just one side as would be the case with regular in-seam pockets. I am excited about this new pocket option I figured out! I think it would work better in a garment of mine for going dancing in, as I have liked having low pockets, but the heavy things swinging low in the skirt doesn't work for dancing. I plan to make a 16th or 17th century smock to go with it, to style it as if this were a kirtle over a smock. I am very interested in that fashion right now and plan to make one for myself, as well.

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A tiny 18th century pocket for a three year old. Stay tuned for the dress!

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My dirndl turned out too big and sometimes slips down and shows my bra. I have been struggling to figure out what to do about it for a few years. I don't want to take out the zipper or sleeves to take it in, and then have to redo the zipper or sleeves! I finally made a handkerchief from the 1700s! I struggle to call it a handkerchief instead of a kerchief, but handkerchief originally meant the kerchief that goes around your head and not the tiny one for blowing your nose that goes in your hand, and this was called a handkerchief in the 1700s. It is a triangle that is half of a square yard of linen. I attached the lace with a rolled hem by hand all the way around, it took me three days. I did the lace all the way around so that I can wear this handkerchief in other ways if I want to, though I have no plans to do that right now.

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Repairs to a skirt I got at a store in Japan between the train station and Nippori Textile Town for ¥400 ($4.) It's honestly the best basic skirt and it's too bad the fabric is thin and won't last forever. It's lined in a sturdier satin. I was going to repair this discreetly, but I just bought the dandelion patch at Dumpster Values in Olympia and had no other plan for it. I gave Mara a fenugreek patch I got from there! I looked for another patch to put on another hole, and I have the bee one because I have another of the same bee one on my patch jacket. Almost all of my patches are already on my patch jacket, or are ones I display pinned to my walls. The visible stitching is for looks.

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I tried to put it on like a messenger bag, but she switched it to her neck. She has two other knit pouches I made to go around her neck, that she sometimes wears like a messenger bag! This fits an uninsulated thermos brand food container I got at the thrift store. I prefer soup thermoses to regular water bottles, they of course can be used for water or soup, they are easier to clean, and they are easier to help a baby or toddler to drink out of. She keeps asking for water when out with my partner, which is super frustrating because I know she just does it because my partner will buy her bottled water. My partner won't carry a water bottle with the sling I made for her. My toddler is really excited she can carry water with her now!

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My linen crop top under my jumper that I also made. It goes with a lot in my wardrobe!

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First image is of pulling a single thread in the fabric, when cutting out rectangles on-grain. The second and third show, when sleeves and body are rectangles, when you leave the armscye unsewn, a perfect pair of triangles appears, and you see how the triangular gussets are the right fit for that spot! I was thinking of making a loose linen crop top, to just graze over the tops of my skirts, as I'm a little bored with having shirts tucked in, and having a cropped loose shirt is a way to still have people see my waist without the risk of looking like my waist is as wide as my hips, if I had a loose top down to my hips. But, I am seemingly still preferring it tucked in, than out. I am also not wearing a bra here, and would wear a bra while wearing it. The pinned pleats are temporary, they are so that I can see how it looks on me before I gather the neckline. This is being made with a single yard of linen from Purl Soho. I thought I would use the whole piece, but upon doing my planning, have decided to have two perfectly usable 8" scraps. This is in contrast to the many useless triangle and crescent shapes in the scrap make by making clothes from commercial patterns, the secret is to use all rectangles and triangles, as I have demonstrated over and over on this blog. This is my first time doing this particular way to make a shirt or dress in a zero-waste fashion. I saw lots of gathered necklines last time I looked at patterns (yesterday!), and so here will be how to do it without the waste of modern patterns!

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Oh, it looks even nicer with the lace ironed out!

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This is my first time handsewing lace on like this. It looks so nice, even though it's just flannel and not the typical fabric for fine handsewing! I was really amazed. I have been doing rolled hems on hankies as of late, and have been doing spaced apart tiny stitches, with the thread buried in between. I haven't whipped around a rolled hem before, and I was really delighted how nice it turns out with sewing lace on the edge! This is the last of this fabric that I have previously machine hemmed and put a very simple monogram on for presents, and it's not square but I'm not going to square it up and throw away fabric. The lace is from a slip with many holes that I just cut up and made into potty wipes. I have another piece of lace the right size, and another piece of flannel the same size, and I'll make another that looks just the same. It was good fortune that the lace for the bottom front and back edges was just the right length for these hankies!

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Baby H and Baby Doll in the dress and newborn yukata I made from the fabric I bought in Japan.

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A hankie I am in the process of embroidering for my love's friend's wedding, to be held over Twitch this June! I am doing the proper thing of weaving in the ends instead of knotting, and I also did a rolled hem for the first time. It is on the "watercolor linen" from Purl Soho. And also, the new sewing caddy my love bought me!

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A toddler dress intended to be beautiful both inside and out, and using up the last of my dragonfly fabric from Japan to it's fullest. More pictures to come! I want to write out this pattern and put it up on Etsy, it has my favorite finishing techniques that I've had to figure out over years of doing different dresses with mainstream patterns that had instructions I didn't like.