In 2018 I began developing my sewing skills – something I’d always wanted to do. I’ve dabbled with sewing for a while but only recently started to practice in a daily fashion.
I believe in that old saying “necessity is the mother of invention”, when you have endless options to buy supplies and materials it can become overwhelming because you can do anything, so why do anything at all! So with limited budget and lots of op-shopping, scrounging and YouTube research I am pleased to present this first collection of Do-It-Yourself Fashion Statements fresh from my bedroom design centre.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the pieces.
1) Californian Poppy Overalls
See my earlier blog post It started as a still life for construction details. A cute pair of overalls I made by following one of my favourite sewing stars on youtube Zoe DIY, check her out she has a background in tailoring and promotes her own designs through tutorial videos. These overalls are pretty tight and being made from calico they continue to shrink a bit with each wash, they have a lot of sentimental value for me because they are the first (actually wearable) clothing item i ever made!
2) 25 Pattern Skirt
This pattern of pale greenish grey marks was made to commemorate a special occasion this year. It’s based on the idea of tally marks on stone, like counting days in prison. The bottom “trim” was just an experimental compulsion I wanted to try out, it features a fake “dalmatian” print for a touch of cartoony vamp. I didn’t follow a pattern for this one I just used trial and error construction approach, the zipper is open ended because the skirt is so fitted with multiple darts it’s the only way in or out of the piece.
3) The Double Buddha Dress.
The screen print design is from an original water colour painting, see more in It started as a still life for technical details and inspiration. I followed an op-shop sewing pattern that I purchased for 50c!
4) No Jumping over the Fence Dress
Made from an op-shop pattern I picked up at Vinnies. The pattern is a comment on the restrictive nature of dresses. See the story here. I let the form of the dress be the spark of inspiration for the prints which are punky statements about staying “in line”.
5) Have a Nice Day shirt
This one is a conceptual time warp made from an op-shop sewing pattern from 1971 – read the story in my Embodied Emoji Shirt post. First time doing sleeves and button holes – they’re not so scary! The print itself was a conceptual response to 70s nostalgia juxtaposed with emoji use in contemporary time.
6) Screen printed Nasturtium Culottes
And my most recent project a pair of flouncy Nasturtium screen print culottes, read about the design process on my blog. My first time drafting a pattern to fit my measurements specifically. This one pushed me into new territory and there was plenty of procrastination and avoidance along the way! But i stuck with it an bought them to fruition. Now I’m feeling quite proud.
Stay tuned for more fashion projects in the future, it’s proving to be a fun way to channel my creativity.
*Update 20/01/21*
More DIY Fashion projects 2019 – 2021: See how far I’ve come on my sewing journey!
Tudor Tracksuit
Using a new-millenium era pattern from the op shop and drawing influence from an Elizabethan era table carpet I up-cycled a found red table cloth into a “bleach brocade” tracksuit with a regal air. I recorded the process in a post titled Time Play: Tudor Tracksuit.
Purple Salvia Print Dress
This five colour screen print made by hand with stencils was inspired by a Purple Salvia plant in Mum’s garden. I used a Kwik Sew 3245 dress pattern to transform my print into a pretty long dress. Visit the post to read more about my process.
Patchwork Playstation Play Suit
A quirky re-modelling of screen printed bags made to promote my Redcliffe Revisited painting exhibition in 2019. I deconstructed left over bags and turned them into a playstation themed play suit through trial and error really. This was a fun project that pushed me to get a bit wild with my problem solving skills. See the full story in my original post.
Subtraction Cutting Bubble Dress
This experimental project was a lot of fun and forced me to work in a free form way. I followed Julian Robert’s unconventional yet surprisingly easy garment making method to create a playful and very sculptural dress. Visit the post for helpful tips and tricks as well as a visual guide documenting the process.
Sprial Trousers: The Holy Grail of Pants
This post is one my most popular, drawing interest from around the world almost daily. While not my original design I flesh out the process behind Holly McQuillan’s elusive zero waste trouser design – part of her open source zero waste project Make/Use. In this post I document the trials and tribulations I faced on the way to the holy grail of pants. Using just under one metre of fabric and formed from simple triangle pieces these pants have to be made to be believed!
Tracksuit Revamp
Never quite happy with the skirt part of my tudor tracksuit I decided to remodel it into pants using the spiral trousers method. The jacket was given an overhaul too, inspired by British design duo Junky Styling I followed their UD Jacket tutorial to turn the jacket upside down! The process involved removing and resetting the sleeves with the bottom edge of the original garment becoming the new neck hole. See my attempt at wardrobe surgery documented in the original post Overhauling my Tracksuit: A new Sewing PB.
Vampire Poet Shirt
One of my proudest sewing moments. I designed this pattern completely from scratch and what’s more its a zero waste design meaning when all the pieces are cut out there is no scraps left behind. You can download my pattern and make your own zero waste shirt here using my visual assembly guide to help with construction. Visit my post A Shirt Made Manifest for links and details!
Pull Your Sleeves up Puthia
Another original zero waste pattern design. This time I drew influence from Vandana Bhandari’s fantastic book Costume Textiles and Jewellery of India: Traditions in Rajasthan. Taking the pattern pieces recorded in her book and re-interpreting them into a zero waste design I created a versatile shirt that can be worn many different ways. See more in my post Pull Your Sleeves up Puthia. This was also the first time I was commissioned to make something for someone else, my Sister requested a Puthia of her own and I was delighted to oblige!
Fashion Farm 2020
A fashion shoot which I directed in 2020 at my family’s property West of Brisbane. Fashion Farm 2020 combines fashion and visual story telling to convey poetic statements about identity. All items are hand made using free sewing patterns, retro op shop sewing patterns and even my own self drafted patterns. Each outfit features unique screen printed motifs which speak to the concepts underlying the form and structure of each ensemble. See the whole shoot here!
Marengo Cow Girl Ensemble
This post goes into the details of my villainous Hollywood inspired cowboy design named for Napoleon Bonaparte’s war horse Marengo. Visit A Fist Full of Fabric to see the process from initial inspiration, screen printing and pattern drafting.
Auntie G’s Puthia
My Aunt commissioned me to make her a linen version of my zero waste Puthia style tunic. She had a special request for me to incorporate pieces of a deconstructed rag rug into the design. This project gave my design skills a good work out and my post Technicolour Dream Tunic: Puthia Pattern Hack documents how I did it.
Strelitzia Shorts prototype menswear design
Commissioned by an artist friend these wild duds are a prototype design for men’s drawstring shorts featuring a paper stencil screen print design. Once again the garment has been designed following a zero waste layout of my own devising. See my post Paper Stencil Theory: low waste screen printing to learn more about my DIY screen printing process. I’ll share the clothing pattern soon so check back in the future!
Thanks for stopping by, I will continue to post more of my designs as I make them and I look forward to sharing them with you!
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