verypurpleperson

life
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Machineless week and Bombshell dress online course

We took my sewing machine to the repair shop last Saturday. It was such a hot day (35°C !) and my husband carried the heavy machine through several train trips before we reached the Janome dealer in Asagaya. The man opened the sewing plate, took a look inside and shook his head heavily, which of course made me even more nervous. Anyway he said that it might take up to a week to repair the sewing machine and depending on the problem, the repair cost would be up to USD 150. He would inspect the sewing machine and let us know […]

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life
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My sewing machine is broken (T_T)

That’s my beautiful Janome sitting sadly in my sewing room. Because it is broken! (T_T) I was sewing a pair of jeans for my husband when the needle stopped because of some threads bunching under the plate. I tugged on the fabric to pull it out, then opened the bobbin case to clean it. I’ve done this many times, and usually it solved the problem. But when I put the bobbin back again and pushed the button to hook the bobbin thread, the thread wouldn’t come out! Tried it manually and still nothing happened. Opened the plate, cleaned it, oiled […]

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menswear
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Shot cotton shirt

A shirt for my husband, made with Kaffe Fasset shot cotton in the color Persimmon. You might remember that I won the Best Top Judges’ Choice for the Spring Top sewalong last May. One of the many prizes is this 2 yards of Kaffe fasset shot cotton in from Pink Castle Fabrics. Shot cotton has 2 different colors of threads woven together, creating a special color with certain depth. These pictures don’t do any justice as shot cotton fabric is more beautiful when it moves. The Persimmon color that I chose has orange and red threads woven together. The pattern is my true and tested Negroni […]

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lingerie
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Pretty lingerie set

  Another lingerie set! Nothing really new with them, I use my usual Pin-up girls pattern for the bra in size 30B and Merckwaerdich pattern for the panties. All notions are from Merckwaerdigh at ebay, which is enough to make one bra and two panties. The lingerie set is made with lycra and stretch lace in very soft rose colour. The pattern is for bra with or without underwires, I use underwires this time and they do make the shape better. The stretch lace actually has butterfly pattern on it. I use the lace on both upper and lower cup, so […]

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womenswear
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Fuchsia top

Summer is really here! It’s getting hotter everyday so I made another sleeveless top for summer. There is nothing too special about it, the pattern is top R from Stylish Dress Book 3 that I also used for my previous top. The fabric is swiss dot cotton in fuchsia that I really love. It was actually a thrifted dress that I never worn because it kinda look weird on my body. I should have took some ‘before’ pictures of the dress but I cut it up last night so the lighting wasn’t good. It was a short dress so the fabric wasn’t […]

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womenswear
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Summer shorts and top

I was thinking of making a pair of shorts for summer and decided to make my own pattern as an exercise in pattern drafting. The shorts have shaped waistband, pleated fronts, front slant pocket, and darts on the back side. I also made cuffed legs and used button fly instead of zipper. The fabric is linen chambray with interesting texture that I’ve used a little for the top part of this dress. The pockets are lined with striped linen, also leftover from the same dress. The result is still not too perfect. There were some (very) faint diagonal lines on the […]

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kidswear
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Camouflage print T-shirt

Another T-shirt for Sidra, made with cotton knit in muted camouflage pattern. I don’t really like camouflage print, but Sidra asked me to make something for him in this print. I found this fabric in Yuzawaya, Shunjuku. The camouflage print is a bit desaturated, which makes it not as harsh as the original camouflage and actually I kinda like it! It was in the section for babies’ fabric, so the fabric is very soft and comfortable. I usually use zigzag stitch on my sewing machine for sewing knit fabric, but this time I used straight stitch with special thread. The thread looks like […]

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lingerie
13 Comments

Yet another floral bra

I’ve been cutting up my old clothing again! Here’s another dress that I made last year but I’ve rarely worn since. I guess I have problem with showing bare shoulder…. I cut it up to make another non-stretch bra. This time I added a trim along the bustline, made with white stretch lace. The pattern is my usual one, Pin-up Girls Classic Bra #1230 in size 30B with the same alteration as the previous non-stretch bra. I didn’t line the lower cup this time, but topstitch the seam allowances and trim them close to the seamline. This is the suggested way as […]

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lingerie
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Floral lingerie set

I’ve only made one set of lingerie before, but here I am already starting to make experiment. I wanted to know if making a pair of bra from ordinary fabric without stretch is possible, so I made this yesterday after finishing Sidra’s jeans. You know, sometimes you make something that looks good but somehow you never wear just because you never feel like wearing it. It’s the case of this tube top that I made about a year ago. I think I wore it once after that. It looks good, but maybe I just don’t feel too comfortable wearing something that leave […]

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kidswear
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Boy’s cropped jeans

The newest jeans that I made for Sidra. The fabric is leftover from my husband’s jeans, which happen to be just enough for a pair of cropped jeans. I hate throwing things away! The pattern is my usual self-drafted one, I think I’ve used it for 5-6 times with slight variations. I use red topstitching instead of burnt orange like in my husband’s jeans. Don’t worry about that peeping tom in white shirt, it’s just my husband (-_-) Sleepy-faced boy is going to school. Sidra is crazy about skull and cross pattern now, so I put a little label on the […]

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