DIY Knicker Shorts

I thought I'd only have one DIY to show you this week, but I actually have two! Last night I discovered this amazing blog (link now dead) and on it, a tutorial of how to make shorts. wearing blouse - c/o OASAP blouse #2 - Paper Scissors shorts - DIY bag - c/o Wholesale bag #2 - DIY tights - Wholesale hat - c/o Wholesale shoes - Rubi Shoes I don't want to take the credit for the shorts tutorial so please visit Maycie After Five (link is now dead, use this instead) as her explanation of making shorts is really, really clear and easy to follow. But here is just a little summary of what I did: 1. Get a pair of shorts that fit you really well. 2. Fold them in half and trace around them onto pattern paper (I am cheap and used baking paper, haha). 3. Add about 1cm all around the pattern, then cut it out. 4. Trace the pattern onto your fabric, with the straight edge on the fold. Do this twice. Cut out both. 5. Place pieces front-sides together. Sew all the way up the curved end. 6. Fold up bottom edge on both pieces and hem using an edge stitch. 7. Sew the crotch together by sewing where the dotted line is in the picture. 8. Make your waistband by folding the waist down (just a bit longer than your elastic is wide). Sew all around, leaving a 2cm gap where you will be putting your elastic in. 9. Wrap the elastic around your waist, and take off about 5cm. Attach a safety pin to the end of your elastic. Pull it through the waistband, sew the ends of the elastic together, then sew up the hole. EDIT: When making the pattern, make the waist a little larger than it is on your shorts that you are tracing (so that you can actually get them on). The elastic will stop them from being too big. Also learning how to do darts can help give the shorts a better shape... and avoid bunching! I added darts in these DIY shorts here and they fit a lot better. Sorry I don't have any DIY for that yet, try and find something on google if you're curious! So that's what  I did for my first pair of shorts, which were not knicker shorts (and have now become pyjama pants). For the second pair (the pair I am wearing in the photos) I altered the DIY slightly. You have to be careful here because knicker shorts should not be underwear. I even have a scale. (photos via asos) I don't think mine have crossed that line though, and are still shorts. All I did differently to make the shorts into knicker shorts was to alter the pattern so that it had a shorter leg and a higher waist (see below). This is such a quick and easy DIY, I think I'm going to make about a bazillion more pairs! I need to get myself some shiny, stretchy fabric... xxx Annika

DIY Satchel Bag #2 - Using one belt

I've been having a lot of fun making satchel bags after I figured out how to make them back in this post. This one was slightly different, so if you want full instructions go here, but here's the little summary of this DIY. 1. Get your fabric. Mine was a weird old heavy canvas jacket. 2. Make two identical rectangles. 3. Make two side-strips and one bottom-strip. 4. Join them all up into a pouch. 5. Make a front-flap (using different fabric for the front of the flap) and attach it to the back of the bag. 6. Place your belt on your bag and sew it securely onto the front flap. 7. I then used a pocket from the coat and put it on the front of my bag so it had an extra embellishment. 8. I added a strap which was just an old fabric belt. But you could make a strap by cutting a strip of fabric, folding over and sewing the raw edges together, flipping it inside out and then sewing it onto the sides of the bag. Good luck to anyone who gives making a satchel bag a go, and please email me a photo if you do! xx Annika

Bright Pastels

wearing blouse - Paper Scissors sweater clips - DIY bag - c/o Wholesale hat - c/o Wholesale jeans - Unknown (a store in Sydney...) socks - Vintage shoes - Dr Martens I'm an assortment of pastel colours. And wearing pants. What now - pants? So today I made a second satchel bag, ya'll see it in my next post ;) (or if you follow my instagram (@littlepineneedle) then you would have seen a sneak peek of it already). Thanks heaps for your encouraging comments on my other DIY satchel bag! One more week to go until I'm back at uni so I'm sewing like a mad woman trying to cram in all the things I wanted to get done. I also attempted to make swimmers from a t-shirt last night.. haha and that was pretty much a failure. If I never show all these failed attempts at projects with you guys though, you'll all keep thinking I'm a sewing whiz who can do no wrong, so I won't show you that ;) xxx Annika

DIY Satchel Bag/Backpack

Never have I been as excited about a DIY as I am today. Yesterday, I decided I would try and make myself a satchel bag. When I started I didn't reaaaaally know what I was doing, so I kind of made it up as I went along but I'm super super happy with the results. The only thing I would change is that I might make it a little smaller, but as it is, it's a good size for lugging around uni books. So here's what I made: wearing dress - c/o Oasap bag - made by me! tights - c/o Oasap shoes - Vintage hat - c/o Wholesale The colour inspiration for this bag came from this Dangerfield coat: (source) Which looks a lot nicer in real life than in this photo, and shall one day be mine. I probably never would have put dark-ish green and brown together if it weren't for seeing this coat the other day. I also took photos of the process so I could attempt to explain how I made it. It was fairly difficult so I recommend you only try it if you have some sewing experience. Here we go!: what you need note: your fabric needs to be thick-ish (i used velvet.) the belts should be near-identical (mine are just from a charity store, this is a good place for cheap belts) what you do Cut two identical rectangles out from your fabric. This will be the front and back of your bag. Make a strip of fabric for the bottom of your bag. Make it at least two layers thick so that the bottom of your bag is strong. Sew it onto the bottom of one of your rectangles (the two materials facing each other). Sew your other rectangle to the opposite edge of the bottom strip. Make 2 side strips (the same width as the bottom strip) and sew them onto both sides of the main front rectangle. Sew it all up into a bag-shaped object! Now you need to cut out one rectangle of cardboard to the same size as the front of your bag (but this is terrible and you should probably actually use iron-on fusible interfacing instead). This will help give the bag shape. Insert it into the front of the bag. Cut out a rectangle of fabric of the same size. This will be your inner lining (it'll go over the cardboard). Flip your bag inside-out. Place the cardboard inside the front of the bag. Trim it until it fits. Place the lining over the top, then hand-stitch it to the edges of the bag. Make your front flap by cutting out another 2 rectangles (they need to be the same width as the main rectangles but slightly shorter in height, and with rounded edges at one end). Sew them together first (so you have a kind of pocket), then sew this flap to the back edge of the bag. Use craft glue and thread to attach the straps the the front flap of the bag. Wrap the belts around the bag, then open up the bottom of the bag (at the back) where the belts need to go inside by flipping it inside-out and cutting the threads. Insert the belt then sew it back up over the top of it. If your belts were long enough (only one of mine was so I had to use a third belt) then cut off the ends of the belts and do a similar thing to before, but insert them into the bottom of the bag at the front of the bag. And that's it! I think I will also add a handle to the top and try and make straps for the sides (using another belt - I have so many of these belts, it's a little insane). I hope you enjoyed this DIY! Can't wait to hear what you think of it! xxx Annika

DIY: Circle Skirted Dress

Update: I have uploaded much better instructions for making these dresses here. I'm going to show you today how I make my circle-skirted dresses. These are pretty easy to make, which I suppose is why I've made so many of them! For example, here's four of my circle-skirted dresses below (and they're clearly fun to swish around in too): I'm not going to go through all the steps of the actual construction of the dress, because it would be a monstrously long post (and I'm pretty sure no one would bother reading it all the way through). I am, however, going to show you the main steps I go through in order to construct a circle-skirted dress, in hope of inspiring budding sewers (you will need basic sewing knowledge to do this, i.e. it's probably better if you've made a shirt/skirt before) to give dress-making a go, because this method takes the two easiest parts of making a dress and mashes them together. Basically, making this style dress consists of using any kind of cheap vintage store dress pattern to get a bodice and joining it up to a circle skirt! If you want to know what goes on in the making of these dresses, then read on... what you need 1. a pattern whose pattern pieces for the bodice are separate from the skirt 2. two fabrics which go together and/or clash (depending on what you want) 3. sewing equipment 4. a zipper of about 35cm length Making your bodice Take out your pattern pieces and find the front, back and interfacing (and collar if it has it) pieces. Put the skirt and the sleeve pieces back into the packet - you won't need them for this. Shorten the bodice pattern front and back if doesn't already stop at the waistline. The bodice only need be short! Place the pattern pieces onto your fabric and cut them out! Make sure to place the front bodice piece on the fold so that you get one piece instead of two (unless you want a zip/buttons up the front). Once you have your shapes, sew on the interfacing for the neck/collar. Place the front and back bodice pieces together (right sides together) and sew at the shoulders, and down the sides of the bodice. I get lazy with the armholes, and just fold them inside the bodice about half an inch, notching as I go, and sew them down (though if you can be bothered with armhole interfacing then do this instead - it'll look nicer inside the dress): If the back section is intact, slice it right up the middle. If it's already in two pieces, then that's good - this is where you need to insert your zipper. I am no good at explaining how to do a zipper. Just make sure that the zipper is a little bit longer than the bodice. Follow these steps, and, if you're lazy like me, don't bother with basting - just fold the material over at the edge, glue or pin to the zipper in the right place, and use a zipper stitch or foot (just moves the needle slightly to the left or right of the foot) to sew in the zip. You should have a little bit of zipper hanging out the end of the bodice. This will be hidden by the skirt later on. (Okay, so in the polka dot dress in the photos I continued the zipper into the skirt, but that is not what we are doing here today. We are only having the zipper go down the bodice and not the skirt, like on this dress:) Now you have a bodice. Iron flat the seams and the interfacing. Then put it aside and begin on your skirt. Making your skirt So I don't have to put all the steps here again, follow this tutorial I wrote for making a circle skirt, but stop just before the waistband-adding part. (The material need not be velvet, either. Use any fabric you want.) Then come back here. Attaching the skirt to the bodice This part seems a little bizarre at first but it works! Turn your bodice inside-out. Slide it over your skirt upside-down (skirt needs to be facing up and not inside-out). Pin together. If the bodice is too wide for the skirt, take it in at the sides until the two are just about matching in circumference. (Your skirt should be perfect for your waist measurement if you measured it right.)   Sew together with a normal straight stitch. Don't sew over the top of the zipper - but go right up to the edges of it. Turn the right way around and BAM! You now have a dress (if all went well!) Summary: Make bodice from a pattern. Make circle skirt. Attach the two. Oh man. That was actually probably completely confusing. If these instructions make sense to anyone, you're probably a genius, because I'm pretty sure they're really too stupidly convoluted. Well... enjoy anyway! If all else fails you can skim through the pictures and pretend you're reading a comic book about a sewing superhero. Update: I have uploaded much better instructions for making these dresses here. Hope you all have a marvellous weekend! xxx Annika