Hi everyone! Finally able to post my little bag tutorial.

A lot has happened this week, including finding out my parents are moving back to Australia. For those who were not aware, I am originally from Sydney and moved here in 2009. My parents are leafing without me this time which is kind of sad. But oh well! It will force me to be independent at least. Well, semi-independent.

I also just have to express that I am ridiculously happy that Djokovic beat Nadal. I find his brattiness strangely endearing. I don't know. I also just think he looks like a sweet dinosaur / lizard.

Anyone know what I mean? I just like him.

SO ANYWAY, on with my tutorial.

You will need...

A sewing machine, tape measure, fabric scissors,zipper, outer and lining fabric (I am using grey wool and black cotton)

What you must do...

Cut a long strip of each fabric. Folded in half, it should be a little bigger than  you want your bag to end up. Your lining fabric should be slightly shorter by 2 inches or so.

Cut a piece of lining fabric about the same width as your zipper and twice as long as the depth you want your pocket to be. About 10" should be about right. Zig-zag the edges. Fold in half and sew up the sides, leaving about 1cm at the top of the pocket.

At the open edge of the pocket, sew one side of the zipper to the inside edge of the pocket. Do the same for the other side. After doing one side, it should look like the picture above.

After doing both sides, it should look like this.

Keeping in mind it will eventually be folded in half, cut these slits in your lining fabric where you want your pocket to be. So, just in case you have no idea what this diagram means... do one cut in the middle, about the length of the zip (not including the base), another two tiny cuts across the ends of the first, and even smaller, virtually minute cuts off that. You should now have four little tabs in your lining which you will use to sew the pocket in place.

Wrong side of the fabric facing upwards, take the top tab and sew it to the top side of the front of the zipper. Hoping this makes sense to you but you should be able to work it out in practice.

Do the same to other tabs and you should end up with something which looks like this when your lining is the right way round.

This is to attach to your lining fabric at the top (the reason why it was cut slightly shorter). Using the same fabric you used for the 'outer' part, cut two strips (about 3" or so wide?) and the same length as the width of your main pieces.

Sew the ends together to make a tubey-circley thing.

Right sides together, matching up the seams, sew your tubey circley thing to the top opening of the lining.

You should now have two pieces which are about the same size. If either is longer, give it a little trim. They should be about the same size but the lining should be ever so slightly smaller.

Cut two strips of fabric, twice the width you want your straps / handles to be and however long. UP TO YOU. 

These are two ways you can sew your handles. I did mine the first way because the fabric was too heavy to turn inside out. The second way involves folding the strip in half, sewing along the length, turning it inside out and pressing it flat.

Line the two open edges of the outer and lining. They should be turned inside out and the right sides of the fabric should be pressed together. The ends of your straps should be between both, where you want them to end up. Use your tape measure to make sure they are in the right place! Sew through all the layers of fabric, leaving a small hole.

Turn it inside out and it should look something like this!

Get yourself a needle and thread, preferably in the same colour as your outer fabric if you haven't already been using some.

Starting from the inside, sew little stitches along either side of opening, pulling the thread as you go so the hole closes but the stitches are hidden. Iron the whole thing and you're finished.

You could also do this without lining, with the zipper on the outside, with normal pockets, whatever. This is just because I personally wanted a bag like this.

Here is one I made without lining. Yoop.

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Also, here are a couple of recent outfits:

Scarf: made it (it's just fabric)

Brooch: Primark

Watch: Asos

Everything else: vintage

Cardigan: Uniqlo

Skirt: sister's

Dress: vintage

Watch: Asos

Bag: Primark

Sandals: not sure, ridiculously old

And and and also thankyou PerhapsDaily for making her dress using my tutorial. So exciting to see!

Bye!

(:

Hi everyone,

Go to Ventricular Projects to see my post about inspiration / things I'd like in my wardrobe.  There are four other ladies who have been posted for you to follow also!

Hmm!

After trying and failing to make time to sew, I have come to the conclusion that more tutorials are impossible during my exam period. Probably should have waited to start my blog until after I finished college, but oh well. I have one little tutorial that I took photos of ages ago and never uploaded, so I will post that at some point this week. I am studying 9am - 7:30pm every day and unfortunately just do not have the energy to do any sewing in the evening.

So I suppose this blog is on semi-hiatus? Maybe? I will try to post my little bag tutorial this week, so maybe not. We'll see! Just thought I would let you know the reason for my few updates. Hopefully I will be able to post two or three times a week once my exams are over and I have nothing to do but make things haha (:

Weeeelp here are some outfit photos. I usually post these on whatiworetoday2 on livejournal but will keep them here for now. I had to awkwardly go through pictures of me in the library and people kept walking past. I was like constantly flipping screens so people wouldn't think 'why are you looking at pictures of yourself' and 'what, you don't look like that - you have glasses and messy hair and you are wearing two navy blue things at once why would you do that get out of this library' YOU KNOW. Seriously though, I am wearing two navy blue things at once. Oh and I just saw someone look at my screen. I feel like creepy secret unfashionable blogger girl.

Cardigan: Uniqlo

Shirt: sister's

Watch: Asos

Dress (top): made it

Dress (underneath): H&M

Shoes: Ebay

(WORST PICTURE EVER SORRY excuse my dodgy extensions and strangely awkward way of standing, my boyfland was being a douche and this is my annoyed-but-trying-to-look-reasonable pose)

Coat: made it

Shirt: Uniqlo

Dress: vintage

Shoes: Ebay

Bag: vintage

Anyway... just before I leaf, I have to express two things:
1. I am, for the first time in my life, trying to grow my nails. I do not even remember a time when I didn't bite my nails so... this will take a while. They've grown about, what, 2mm so far? I'm still proud. I WANT TO BITE THEM SO MUCH but trying to tell myself it'll be worth it when I have nice normal-person nails. I would take a picture but they look a bit disgusting for some reason. Hopefully they'll sort themselves out over time :|
2. I turn 20 tomorrow!

GOODBYE

Tutorial: wrap bodice #1

I guess I was lying when I said I'd post this 'tomorrow'! Well here it is now. I'm calling it '#1' because I may make a different style wrap bodice at some point in the future. You can probably buy a pattern for this or something similar, as most of my sewing knowledge comes from patterns I've tried in the past. I believe one of the first patterns I ever bought had a dress with this type of bodice. I always advise (when people ask) to use patterns at least *sometimes* when teaching yourself to sew. It really really helps, especially when you're making something quite complicated. You may or may not find this relatively complicated but I tried to take as many photos as possible so you can see everything that's going on.

What you need...

Fabric + lining fabric. I can't really advise you on how much fabric you need because I don't know what you want to do on the bottom half. Maybe about 2m would be safest?

Sewing machine, thread, scissors, pins

What you must do

Fold over your fabric and draw this shape on it (PIECE A). Draw it out on paper first if it's easier. Now I'm sorry this (a)(b)(c)(d) thing is really confusing, but honestly this should make sense when you draw it out on paper haha.

(a) width of shoulder strap + 1"

(b) this is part of the armhole but not the whole thing, this should be easier to figure out when you've done the other sides. In my diagram I for some reason made the armhole longer than it should be. Refer to my picture below for a better idea of what it should be like haha. SORRY FOR BEING REALLY BAD AT TUTORIALS.

(c) approx from just above your bust to your waist line, more or less curved according to your chest size + 1-2"

(d) this is approx 1/6 of your waist. It should follow the general shape of your body, I suppose. You could always make this wider and trim it down later. + 1"

When you cut this out on your folded fabric, you should get two opposite pieces, like so!

Now you have to cut out your side pieces (PIECE B) also on your folded fabric. As you probably figured out, (b) is the rest of the armhole. Just to check you've got the size right, (c) should be the length from about 1" below your armpit to your waistline (+1-2" seam allowance). (d), when taken together with (d) from the other piece and (d) from PIECE A (add all the widths together but only using one of PIECE A) should be 1/2 your waist measurement + about 3". (c) should be curved according to your bust.  If all my talk of measurements is ridiculously confusing, better make it a little too big so you can take it in later. As above, it should all vaguely make sense when you draw it out on paper haha.

Now make sure you have x2 PIECE A and x2 PIECE B from your lining fabric. You should end up with eight pieces.

Pin PIECE A to the lining with right sides together and sew along the dotted line. Do the same for the other piece.

The seam should look like this when you turn it inside out. You can now trim and overlock or zigzag the seam if you so desire!

Turn the piece the right way round so the lining is on the inside but the seam is hidden, like above. You should now iron it so it sits nice and flat.

Now you have to make two shoulder straps for the back. These should be about 5" long, 4" wide but it depends on what you like / what fits you best / how wide you cut the shoulder on PIECE A. You can always trim them later. Open up your PIECE A so the lining and fabric are flat, side by side. 

Pin one end of the strap to the opened out bodice piece, right sides together. Sew! When you open it out, it should look like above.

Fold it in half so the lining is on the inside again, press!

Just to see how you're doing, when you cross both PIECE As together, it should look like this now i.e. vaguely like a bodice hoho

Line up the edges of PIECE A and PIECE B that are next to each other in the picture. Lay your PIECE B on top of PIECE A so that the edges meet, right sides together, and sew along that line.

Do this on both pieces and it should look like this when you turn it inside out.

Do the same with the non-lining pieces and it should look like this when opened out flat!

Fold so the lining is inside, press your seams, cross over both pieces and it should now look like this!

Focusing on the yellow line in the picture, turn inside out and pin.

Sew along this edge.

Probably a bit of a pin overload here but pin one side of your bodice to the PIECE A/B seam and sew along it. The seams should match up.

Do the same on the inside but make sure you only sew through the inner PIECE A and the lining of the outer PIECE A so you don't see the stitching on the side.

Forgot to photograph this part but cut two of PIECE C (another two for the lining). The bottom edge should be half your waist measurement + 5" (this is going to cross over) and the left edge should match up with the side edge of PIECE B. Sew the lining to these in the same way as you did PIECE A. Sew darts according to the markings.

It should look like this. Press.

Join PIECE C to PIECE B like so, lining to lining, non-lining to non-lining you know you know

Turn inside out, and stitch along the dotted line (around the arm hole) on both sides.

Turn inside out and it should look like this (except hopefully better once you iron it hoho)

Make sure the very edge of your back piece is sewn up (turn it inside it out and sew along the edge).

Now, I haven't actually done this so I don't have photographs for you, but because this crosses over, you shall need a button or two. Your sewing machine might have a button hole setting, but if now, set your stitch to zig-zag, very very close together and narrow. 

Here is a good tutorial for buttonholes, but you do not need a particular foot or a sewing machine with a buttonhole setting to make a buttonhole. Just use your small squished together zig zag and sew in a narrow rectangle (my buttonholes are generally like the one on the left in the picture), making sure it is long enough for your button of choice to fit through. Use your scissors to snip a little hole in your rectangle. Line up your button on the other side, sew it in place with a needle and thread. You should now have a perfectly good button and buttonhole. Repeat for however many buttons seem best and your bodice is now finished.

Refer to my 'easy summer dress' tutorial for how to attach your skirt. Leave one side seam of the skirt unsewn at the top few inches and maybe add some more buttons or a zipper. Hopefully my less next semi-complicated tutorial will make a bit more sense haha (: