Anatomy of an upcycled costume - Mermaid parade 2013

I bought this cheap, crappy, glittery t-shirt dress from Forever 21. I decided this year's mermaidspiration was mariachi, and I thought it would be a good idea to try to use the fabric from the dress to make a bolero and hot pants.

 I cut the dress across the waist.

Then I cut straight down the front to make a cardigan shape

I have saved this pair of boy-short underwear forever... I trace the front and the back to use as a pattern for hot pants.  The skirt of the dress had JUST enough fabric using some creative geometry.

I gathered the front of the cardi, creating a bolero shape, sewed some trim on the shorts and the bolero, and then sewed a closure on the top.

I free-handed a tail shape (2 pieces), served inside out, them stuffed with batting the same shape.

A long rectangular sash around the top finished the tail.  ¡Olé!

What do you do when you've got a month off?

You finish all the dresses that have been waiting patiently to be finished.


This dress is called "coffee date dress" and it was really easy to make. I finished it in an afternoon. (Well, sort of... I still need to work out what kind of belt I want on it, and I have to finish the hem.) The original pattern has a great ruffle on the neck, but since the fabric is a bit busy as it is, I though I would leave it out this time. I cut a size 36, but I needed to trim down the skirt a bit. The pattern is FREE, and I'm sure I'll make it again. Next time, with a sleeve and a ruffle.

http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/coffee-date-dress-multisize-sample


This is a butterick pattern, and I have to look up what number it is. The dress is pretty enough, but butterick patterns (and vogue patterns) just don't fit me like Burda. I'm not curvy enough, and I can't make a vogue or butterick without some serious altering.

Oh, and with the extra fabric from the green dress I made this adorable bag. And no, I won't wear them at the same time.


http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html

Mermaid Parade 2008

Every year, my mermaid parade costume is inspired by something that I enjoyed or did or saw that year.

This year: TEXAS.

Complete with chaps (everyone keeps saying assless chaps, which is redundant, but fun to say nonetheless) sequins and an Elvis-flair, I was definitely the shiniest mermaid on Coney Island that day.

Strangely enough, my belt buckle, the only part of the costume I did NOT make, was almost as popular as the rest of the outift.

Countdown to Mermaid Parade....

I have been trying to make a sweater that embodies the spirit of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade for a couple of years now, and I think I finally did it...

The sweater pattern is from Stephanie Japel's fitted knits, and the mermaid is adapted from the Stitch & Bitch mudflap girl.

I *heart* the mermaid parade. Now that the sweater is finished, I have to get working on the costume...

Easier than baby sweaters... DOG SWEATERS!

I made this sweater for a friend's dog when I was in Brazil this summer... but it wasn't cold enough for her to wear until recently.

I used the pattern from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation in a double-thickness sugar-and-cream yarn that I got in a gift exchange a while back.

Now if I could only get my cats to wear sweaters I'd be set.

Baby Wrap Sweater

From "Natural Knits for Babies and Moms" by Louise Harding

I've never seamed a sweater. All the sweaters I've made are in the round, so I figured I'd give it a try on a baby sweater.

The sweaters in this book are very basic and very cute. All my friends seem to have boys, so I'm not sure who the recipient of this will be, but it's cute as hell. Now I've just got to make one in my size.


The yarn is a pretty cotton I picked up in Buenos Aires.

Halloween Costume 2007

It was a vintage repro bathing suit costume from the 1890's. So comfortable, and the pattern (Folkwear Patterns) fit me perfectly.

Of course, everyone just thought I was some sailor girl.

Fifi

"Fifi" is the name of this sweater from FrenchGirlKnits. Instead of using the suggested Rowan Calmer ($12 a skein), I used Valley Yarn's Goshen ($3.99 a skein). Not only cheaper, but the modal in the "Goshen" is really nice, making the cotton very silky, I'd imagine more than the acrylic in the "Calmer" at 3 times the price.

Modifications:
Although the pattern called for 5 skeins, I used 6, making the top longer than suggested and making the sleeves a bit longer as well. It's knit top-down in the round, so you can try it on as you go. I went from a size 7 needle to a 6 in the midriff, cinching the waist a bit. The original pattern calls for the ribbing to start at the bustline, which my friend Michelle and I both thought looked a little dumb, so I started the ribbing under the boobage. I also couldn't tell if the center cable was supposed to be in the back as well, so I omitted it. Now it's easy to differentiate between the front and back. Of course, with my killer A-cups, I didn't need to add any short-rows for ample busts.

It's a really easy and fast knit... only took a couple of days! (Will add pic when I get some light...)

Montevideo, Uruguay

I have a couple of colleagues from Montevideo, and the last time I came to Buenos Aires, each of them asked, "Did you go to Uruguay?"

So, after our little side trip to Rosario, Mark and I decided to go to Montevideo.

We took an hour long ferry ride and a 2.5 hour bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo. It is freezing cold, and considering that we´re right on the River, it's especially freezing. Right now, I´m wearing three long sleeve shirts, two pairs of socks, the hat Johanna made me in Brazil, and my leather coat. It's not quite cutting it.

The hostel faces Plaza Independencia, in the center of town. The hostel is also freezing cold. It's in an old building, no insulation (although we're starting to think that there is no insulation here at all, anyway). There's a space heater which warms the space immediately in front of it. But the hostel is cheap and clean, and that's all that really matters.

We have to change our money to Uruguayan Pesos, totally different from Argentine Pesos. When we arrived at the bus station, there was only one ATM machine, and it didn't operate on any of the cash systems our money cards use. They primarily have a system called RED or Banelco, where we use Cirrus, or Star.

So Mark changes USD$60 to Uruguayan pesos just to get us in a taxi, and perhaps some dinner. The conversion rate is not an easily calculable 2:1 like in Brazil, or 3:1 in Argentina. It's 23:1. 23 pesos to the dollar. I'm not quite good at dividing by 23, nad dividing by 25 I can do, but I hate estimating.

We are tickled by the big McDonald's sign that says "Delicious and with low prices" and right underneath it it says, "Extra crispy sandwich, $40". The fact that the Uruguayan peso uses the same exact symbol for the USD makes everything look very expensive. Our dinner last night came to $700 and it was all we could do to stop ourselves from cracking up.

It turns out that it is exceptionally difficult to use an American ATM card here. We had to go to 10 different banks to find one that would give us money. And yet, there are 10 money exchange places on every block. And, most of the ATM machines give you the option of taking out USD, whether you use an American bank card or not. Many of the stores, not even touristy ones, give quotes in USD as well as in Uruguayan pesos. We can't quite figure this out.

There is a small pedestrian boulevard. There is not much of note. Actually, there´s not much going on in town at all. We went out last night, and the only stuff that seemed to be open was a couple of obars, pizza places, and strip clubs.

Oh, and the casino. Right around the corner form the hostel.

I'm not a gambler. I actually hate it. I know I'm going to lose, so what's the point. Mark isn't either, it turns out. But there was nothing else to do.

The casino was tiny, NON-SMOKING (awesome), and most importnatly, WARM. We get $100 (uruguayan, about USD$4) in tokens. We shared a machine, playing video poker and video roulette, and worked out strategies on every coin, just for entertainment's sake. It was strangely enough, hilarious. Every time we won, I demanded it cash out, just to hear the sound of the tokens. We played for an hour before we were bored. I really don't know how people do this all night. We turned our $100 into $400, laughing so hard because it looked like so much money, but it was only about $13.

To celebrate our big winnings, we went on a search for hard cider (about all I like to drink), walking for what felt like forever before we found something that was open. The cider cost about USD$2. We had to sneak it back to the hostel, hard to do because we can't seem to figure out how to open the large, old, big, wooden door to the hostel that you have to pull, then push (we got yelled at for shoving it open with the force we thought it required). The cider tasted like it was apple juice and vinegar strained through pantyhose.

We did manage to get a good dinner that night, at a parilla called "El fogón"... an order of pulpo a la gallego (octopus) and an entrecote, a banana liquado and the most delicious and large piece of dulce de leche semifreddo, drowned in hot chocolate sauce we couldn't finish between us. The meat portions are smaller here, just as tasty as in BA, and more expensive but still very reasonable.

We also shared a "Pamplona de cerdo," a cheese and bacon stuffed pork roll on the grill at the mercado del puerto, kind of a small south street seaport. The best part was that we were sitting right in front of the parilla dude, and we just watched him fling meat around while we were eating. It was like watching a sushi chef in action.

Interesting was the trip to the Manos del Uruguay store. It's my favorite wool brand. It's made in a cooperative in Uruguay, and the yarn is thick and thin, very soft for wool, and it comes in the most beautiful variegated colors. In the US, it's USD$13 a hank. There are a number of Manos stores in Montevideo, and they only sell wool in one of them. The stores are dedicated to sweaters and handicrafts made from their awesome yarn. We get to the store that sells the yarn, and all they have is a huge bin with whatever leftover yarn they have from making the sweaters. There was a Uruguyan woman there, and when she heard us speak english, she went on a rampage. She ranted about how much it costs in the US, and how it's totally ridiculous that they don't sell the actual yarn in the stores, but whenever she comes to visit, she buys a ton of it anyway, at U$400 per KILO, about USD$17. You can get a kilo for a little more than you would pay for a hank, which is about 200 grams. I bought 2 kilos.

All in all, not much going on in Montevideo. We'll be happy to leave first thing in the morning.

A gem of a day

Today is my last full day in Salvador. I'm feeling a throat infection coming on, so I decided to meet Sinead for a lovely lunch at a kilo place that has a nice patio down the block.

She says, "My pousada owner recommended this secret place just across the way from your hostel. I want to look at some at the imperial topaz that are only mined in Brasil."

We ring a bell. We have to pass through three different locked doors. We are met by this lovely woman who speaks perfect English. She brings us through this very exclusive looking showroom and says, "Do you have some time, or would you like to just see the stones?"

It's Brasil. Of course we have time.

She orders one of the workers in the store to bring us cafezinhos. Proper espressos. They brought it to us on a tray.

She goes through a half-hour presentation of the history of mining of emeralds in Brasil. She shows us pictures, on her ginormous flat-screen computer monitor, of their particular mine and their workers, searching for emeralds. The shows us rocks that have emeralds in it. Rocks that don't. She explains that you need very specific conditions to produce an emerald. The black volcanic rock and the white quartz must press together to form the emerald. It was like "the miracle of birth." The birth of an emerald.

She then rings for Francois. He is the gem expert.

Sinead says something about not being sure if she is actually going to buy something. I said I was only there to accompany her. He says something about not being a salesperson, really. The gems sell themselves. Sometimes you have a stone that's been in your family for 17 generations, and one day the owner walks in. Most people come in not having any intent to buy anything. Usually they walk out with something. Or maybe they don't. No bother.

He brings out a tray of quartz, organized in a grid. He turns on his electronic scale, which is attached to the computer, and the weight and conversion chart to dollars and euros appears. The quartz is, well, quartz. Practically glass. Unremarkable.

Followed by topaz. Blue topaz, the only stone they carry that's not mined in Brazil, and whose color is not natural.

Then a tray of tourmalines.

Amethysts.

Followed by aquamarines.

Traysandtraysandtrays.

He has a tray with nothing on it save a piece of white butcher paper that lines the tray. From each tray of stones that emerge, he takes a stone that elicite an "ooh," weighs it, places it on the blank tray and writes the price next to it. By the time we're done, we have a tray in front of us of the prices and varieties of all the stones we really liked.

He works his way through the trays, from the basic quartz to the ultimate... the emerald. He showed us emeralds that costs 1700 dollars a carat. He showed us topaz that cost $5 a carat. He put some of the more expensive varieties next to less expensive. Sometimes there seemed to be a difference. Sometimes there did not. He emphasized that if you cannot tell the difference, get the cheaper one. He says that for most people, the sentiment of the gift is much more valuable than the cost of the stone.

He is the anti-salesman.

He is witty, funny, charming. He knows his shit. In a tray full of stones, if one gets out of place, he can look at it and just know where it belongs. He doesn't pressure us in the least. He speaks 6 languages. He has been doing this his whole life. I can't imagine EVER BUYING JEWELRY IN ANY OTHER FASHION.

I needed a bathroom break and a second espresso.

Sinead couldn't decide. She had an appointment, leaving me there alone, enchanted, poorer than I was yesterday. She's be back, though, ad I know she's at her dance class, dreaming of pink kunzite.

Oh, did I mention that they can make the setting of your choice, in silver or gold, in less than a day?

I must have something.

This kind of personal attention, in New York, is unheard of. Not that I have ever BEEN in a store in New York like this, but I imagine if the owner spent TWO AND A HALF hours of his time educating you, browsing with you, letting you go back and forth... Once you've picked a stone type, he calls his worker in the back to bring packages of the stone in the same shape, different sizes and qualities... We saw millions of dollars worth of jewels. I would imagine that if you didn't buy something, they would be quite annoyed.

I'll never know if Francois would get annoyed, as I did not walk out empty handed.

In the end, I practically apologized for not being able to afford more. I fell in love with a bicolor green/pink tourmaline that I could just not justify for myself. It's ridiculous that my last day in Salvador I spent shopping for jewels indoors, but it was one of the most fun days I've had here.

D.Klay Gems and Arts
Largo da Cruz do Pascoal #27
St. Antonio alem do Carmo
0055-71 32428188 or 3241-2320
Salvador - Bahia - Brazil CEP 40301-405
www.brazilgems.com.br
dklay@terra.com.br

Interweave Lotus Tank and Burda Flounce Skirt

It's really shocking when you make something and it actually fits....

Lotus Lace Tank from Interweave Knit Summer 2006

I got very sloppy with the seaming in the construction, but if it drives me crazy, I'll put some rhinestoney shoe clasps where the straps meet the body, near the armpits.

I made it with some emerald-green cabled mercerized cotton I picked up in Florence last summer, with a size 4 needle. Size 4!! The lace pattern took some time to get right, 'cause my A.D.D. self couldn't focus on the 16 line repeating pattern.

The sweater is worked mostly in the round from the bottom up, so it was pretty easy to cast on fewer stitches and just work fewer repeats of the pattern. Then I worked the straps almost according to pattern so they would be long enough.

Denim Flounce Skirt, Burda June 2006.
I had made this skirt in houndstooth a while back (still haven't taken a picture of it...) and it fit so great I made one in a dark wash denim. I love the flounce and the v-shaped back.

The front is just as cute, but in the picture Rik took I look like I've got a serious spare tire going on. Very unflattering.

A perfect outfit for a gorgeous spring day... even though most of it was spent inside watching a very awful Spiderman 3 (Kirsten Dunst getting hit in the head was the best part of the movie. What the HELL is it with her? Who did she sleep with to get famous?) and eating a very delicious steak and the best latkes ever at Sammy's Roumanian.

A sewing success...

From the January 2006 Burda Magazine.

Last year, my mom got me a year subscription to BURDA magazine, the same company that makes Burda patterns. The magazine comes once a month.

I like Burda's patterns... they seem to fit me OK, the couple I have made, even though the patterns do not include a seam allowance. I hate that. You have to cut the patterns out, and then add 5/8 inch to some places, 1/2 inch to others. Bah.

The instructions in the magazine are minimal, except they include a more detailed "sewing course" for one pattern a month. You sort of have to know how a skirt gets sewn before you can follow a skirt pattern.

So I was really excited when I got this to fit. I eliminated the lining, because I got lazy with all the cutting. The fabric is pretty substantial, a burnout velvet polyester blend I picked up only a yard of when I first started sewing. At the time, I only thought skirts would take a yard. Silly me. It's perfect for a pencil skirt, tho! Fits like a glove.

New Year's Eve photo of decapitated me, below.

Geisha, "helping."

Close up of the fabric

Scarves!

I bought this yarn with my mom in mind in Italy, and I wanted to make this braided scarf from Loop-d-Loop, but it just wasn't working for me. Something about the weight of it. Of course, at this point I had already pulled four skeins into one, discovering that it's a real bitch trying to undo it.

Actually, it's almost impossible.

So here I am, stuck with a very heavy cotton yarn. I fashioned this out of it instead. It's got a fun silver strand running through, and if my apartment had any light whatsoever, you might be able to see it.

The color reminds me of this sweater my mom made herself in the early '80s. It was lavender and had victorian sleeves, and I loved it to death. I think she let me wear it once.

I'm posting now, and I know she's going to see it before I give it to her.... Happy holidays, mom! It's just one of your presents anyway.


This scarf was my first attempt at lace... it's knitty's "branching out" pattern, done in 2 skeins of Webs Deerfield in Lizard Green, size 9 needles. I love this yarn. It's super soft. It's wool and alpaca. Yum.

I'm a sucker

Lat year, I spent some time knitting while my students were taking tests. A number of them, of course, wanted me to make them something. If I made one for one of them, then they'd all want something, so I said "next year, when you're not mine anymore."

Now it's next year, and one girl Molly, is making me keep my promise.

Here's Molly's pink hat, made almost exactly like my purple cabled hat from the same wool in light pink.

Now I've got to hide from the rest of the girls in that class...

Lime Cabled Scarf

Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky in Lime (a little more than 2 skeins to make a 5' scarf)
Size 10.5 Needle

CO 30 stitches
Row 1: K2, P2
Row 2: K the P stitches, P the K stitches.
Row 3: K1, P2, K6, P3, K6, P3, K6, P2, K1
Row 4: K3, P6, K3, P6, K3, P6, K3
Row 5-8: Repeat rows 3 and 4 TWICE
Row 9 (CABLE ROW) : K1, P2, *C6F, P2*. Repeat between stars for a total of 3 repeats. K1.
Repeat rows 4-9 until the scarf is the desired length.
Repeat rows 5-8.
Repeat rows 1-2
BO loosely.

Purple Cabled Hat

Made with the leftover "red-purple Berkshire" yarn from Valley Yarns, one skein (I think!!), size 10 circular needle (size 9 for the ribbing at the bottom.)

The pattern was improvised from "Basic Cable" from Stitch 'n Bitch nation:

Changes I made:

• c.o. 70 stitches
• the rib is a 2x2 knit
• the cables are made of 8 knit stitches instead of 6
• 2 purl stitches in between the cables
• I decreased somewhat randomly until it was finished.

Happy Halloween!

How I adore Halloween. Any opportunity to make and sport a costume... I look forward to it for MONTHS!! And, being that this past Mermaid Parade was a rain-out (for us, anyway,) it seems like forever since I've donned some get-up.

I fell in love with the Rennaisance Pattern Flamenco costume from Denver Fabrics, and bought the pattern probably about a year ago, but the 8-yard fabric requirement was daunting. Even if I was lucky enough to find something that was appropriate and $6 a yard, we're still talking about $50 for something, that, with my mediocre sewing ability (and even more pathetic altering ability), might not even fit.

So, I had a back-up costume in mind, but I ventured out into the Garment District hopeful, optimistic.

I found this black and red polka dot cotton twill for $2 a yard. 2$!!! The only drawback was that it was a heavy cotton twill, so I knew it would be forgiving, easy to sew, but heavy as hell. And it is.

But for less than $20, I have this glorious number which I am SO EXCITED ABOUT!!

The pattern took 2 afternoons to cut, because it has about a million pieces, but the instructions were so easy to follow. Turns out I didn't need all that fabric, anyway, because I'm so short that I can only have two tiers of ruffles according to the pattern. I diverged from the instructions and managed to get a third row of ruffles on top of the two tiers. It turns out that the cotton twill was a great idea. The ruffles are very stiff, so I wouldn't want to dance in it (can't dance Flamenco anyway), but it has an exaggerated, almost cartoony feel that's perfect for Halloween. I cut according to a size S, but I think I'm actually an XS, and I still might have had to cut it down.

I found a rebozo in the discount district around 28th and Broadway.

Happy Halloween!

UltraFemme

From "Stitch and Bitch Nation"

(2) "Lt grey" Valley Yarns Stockbridge Yarn 50% Superfine alpaca/ 50%wool (size 7 circular)
(3) "Frost Grey" Valley Yarns Deerbridge Yarn 80% Baby Alpaca/ 20% Silk (Size 5 Circular)

The lower ribbed part was with Stockbridge, according to instructions. The upper portion was with the Deerbridge (so soft!!), using a size 5 instead of 6. I didn't increase as much as the pattern stated for the upper portion, and I had to do an additional round of decrease at the neckline, which made it gather a bit on top.

Still, I like it!! The best part: I actually estimated the right amount of yarn!!

What I did on my Summer Vacation

I knitted. A lot. I probably tore out more than I created, but I can't stand to see mistakes. And evidently, I hate making a gauge swatch.

I ripped out the Mudflap Girl sweater (the pattern to which I appended a tail, so instead of "Mudflap", it's Mermaid...) three times. I just wasn't liking it and my intarsia is the suck. I'm changing the directions so that it's knit in the round, so there'll be almost no purling. Instead of intarsia, I'm going to do the mermaid in duplicate stitch. Wish me luck- it'll keep me busy during the 6 hours of meetings I'm going to have to sit through when school starts up again next week.

But I did have some successes- a couple of simple sweaters I liked, and I'm onto cables. I love cables.
This is the Ballet-T from Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham. It's made from two skeins of Malabrigo Yarn in Colchina. It's a soft variegated wool made by a woman's cooperative in Uruguay, so I can feel socially conscious while I'm scratching the hell of of myself.

I also made the same sweater in an acrylic (but soft like a t-shirt) yellow tape yarn for my friend Chris' baby. The edge is crocheted in a grey thick-and-thin yarn, so it makes it look rippled. Grey for a baby? Why not? Hopefully it will appeal to my friend Chris' city girl sensibilities.

These are my first venture into cabling: It's from Knitty online magazine's latest issue. The red on the left is Katia Idea Jeans ribbon that I had left over from last summer, and the glorious yarn on the right is some Italian ribbon yarn my mom couldn't seem to work with years ago.










And the latest, finished just yesterday, the Basic Cable hat from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. Made from two skeins of Valley Yarns' Stockbridge (wool/alpaca, very soft) in Camel, from WEBS. He doesn't even know yet! Hopefull it will stretch to fit his large head. If not, I guess I've got me a brand new hat.








I also sewed a bit, but I bought fabric to sew with than patterns completed. I really need a real dress form. The one I made melted. I didn't do enough duct tape layers, I think. But I did manage to finish this skirt, made from Burda magazine. The soft pleats actually go in the back, and the front is plain a-line.

















I've still got this long weekend before my work tears me away from my craftiness.