LOLA

Tag: diy

  • No. 39 The desert sunshine, Happiness, and Lola made a Lolita

    Yall how is everything? I’m doing well; woke up and had a slight crisis but everything seems to be on the up and up again. I’m usually super organized and I just want everything in order. Sometimes things just happen and I promise you it drives me insane! I have to remember that life has lemons, but I love lemons and lemonade! Bring on all the life! Now let the ranting about my new coat begin!

    Now y’all know that where I it’s usually always very warm and sunny but I just love, love, love making coats and other outerwear. Yeah I hardly get to wear them but when I do they are soooo darlin’ and actually keep me toasty too! I’ve made a few coats before; I have a trench coat that is fully lined and a shorter trench that isn’t. My new coat is fully lined too and it’s only because it looked cuter that way. I make a lot of mods to my projects because of where I live. I used silky lining fabrics on both versions of this coat.

    I’ve made this pattern before years ago and tbh I literally just winged it. I hadn’t made a pattern as extensive as this one at that time and the coat showed it. I loved it so much despite its many mistakes; in fact it’s up next for some mending to fix it up. I knew I would make the coat again and I knew exactly what modifications I wanted to include when I did even back then. Sifting through my fabrics is how this coat came to. A new dress was up next but the fabric I used for the coat was standing out. Of course, just like that my whole motion was changed and a new coat idea was on my cutting table. My Lolita pattern had been on my mind for a couple weeks too so I suppose my new coat was meant to be.

    When I made the coat originally it was kinda too big for me. If I was able to layer in the cooler months it would be perfect. But when I took photos wearing the first coat I was wearing thee thinnest knit top this side of the strawberry patch! No layering necessary! (it was in December too) This reminded me that I could take the coat in a bit to make it more fitted. The pattern is designed to look more tailored already which helped a whole lot. The length was another thing I remembered I wanted to modify; I shortened it quite a bit by taking almost five inches off the hem. (I want to wear a mini dress with thigh high boots with the coat). I also changed my mind, probably too many times about the closure. I added a smaller button but when I put it on I wanted a much bigger button. Just today I finished the new button/buttonhole mods with a bigger button/buttonhole. Tried it on and let me just say I LOVE it and the mods were exactly what the coat needed to fit me how I wanted it to. Now I do want to add that the pattern sizes are super inclusive with the smallest size being a 2 and the largest being a 24. The flounce is the star of this coat; it’s the flounce pattern piece for me! I already gave it the final press and hung it up in my closet.

    The pattern of the hour is the Spearmint coat from Lolita Patterns; pattern #5013. It debuted in 2013 and it has been a favorite of mine ever since. On Pinterest I had pinned a wool baby pink coat that looked exactly like the Spearmint before I knew the Spearmint coat existed. I went looking for a pattern to make a similar one for myself. The indie patterns companies did NOT disappoint. I sewed up view A and size 16 again; that size eliminated the need for me to worry about the bust area fitting well. The coat pattern has 18 pieces though *gasp*. I must include that this pattern is not beginner friendly either; it’s rated four out of five for difficulty (the difficulty of the Lolita patterns are measured in skulls and this one has four out of five skulls bolded) This pattern has some of the coolest pattern pieces though. I’m glad it’s in my stash and it’ll remain one of my faves to sew up.

    Okay I’ve rattled on and on and I still have a whole lot to say but I’ll stop myself because y’all know how I am about sewing! As always if you have any questions or comments share em with me. I can talk sewing any day, any time and I never get tired! This was a slower sew so I was able to get a lot of progress shots. I can’t ever include them all but I always share the process of all my makes on my other video socials. Let me know if you wanna join me elsewhere; I share my handles!

    LOVE,

    LOLA

  • No.38 Summa Fashion, a pair of shorts, and shine

    Hey y’all hey! I’ve been in my sewing space tinkering around kinda on a daily basis nowadays. I am making sure I keep that UFO basket somewhat clear. (I may be weird but I love mending clothes) Currently thinking about pulling an all-nighter because I have this idea for a mini dress for the cooler weather in my mind that will not let me rest. I also pulled out my Marfy book and my Merchant & Mills Workbook too! I have so many ideas I’m having a huge creative block right now. So I decided I should blog then sew.

    Now this rant is about a top and shorts combo I whipped up last month. I really do try and choose fabrics for projects but my fabrics have always chosen for themselves. I’ll pull out a piece of fabric and a pattern then end up sewing with a completely different piece of fabric and pattern. I’ve even made a jumpsuit out of tablecloth fabric! Earlier I was all set to take photos and blog earlier but when I pulled out the heels I wanted to wear in the photos I was surprisingly reminded that the last time I wore those heels I had fun! LOL! They were damaged and scraped along with a little dirt. I’m going to keep and refashion them somehow; I still like ’em a lot. I did a video blog of the outfit on my Tiktok and Facebook accounts if you guys are interested in seeing the outfit in action! (Come say Hi on Tiktok using: @lolastitches15 and on Facebook using “Lola Bunnee”)

    Now where I live it’s still going to be over 100 degrees or the next couple weeks. I quickly decided that I wouldn’t start sewing for the cooler weather just yet and show this outfit since it made more sense. For the top the pattern I used is Simplicity S0399 Summer Fashion Super Jiffy. It was just one huge pattern piece; the shorts had about five pattern pieces. I made the shorter version of the top because I wanted to show my shorts off too! I used a fabric from my stash that I snagged from Fabric Mart a while ago. The fabric is just so pretty; it’s described as a “Sky Blue 100% Polyester Corded Stripe Netting”; I had three yards. For the shorts I used another fabric from my stash but I have no idea where I bought it from; I had about two yards. Usually when I can’t remember where I got the fabric from I found it on one of my thrifting trips. The pattern I used for my shorts is Simplicity 1165 View B. Both pieces can be worn separately but they do match as I used the mesh I sewed the top with for the shorts pockets. (One of the pictures I added shows the matchy-matchy thing these two pieces have going on)

    I’m starving so bad right now and I wanna have frozen yogurt for dinner so I don’t get lazy for this evening’s sewing sesh. But I have chili fries and a cheeseburger on the brain too. I’m going to try and wrangle some of these ideas down to one or two and find some fabrics that wanna help me! I’ll stop rambling now because I can go on and on about anything sewing. Of course I’ll add a few photos following this chat and until next time y’all!

    Love,

    LOLA

    Creating and watching murder shows per usual LOL

  • No. 35 A Lola, a beachbag, and poplin sunshine…Did I mention zombie nurses?

    **clears throat and taps mic** Is this thing on? OMGGGG guys how is everybody? Yall know my life is like a movie and I cannot make up anything that happens on any given day! I won’t go into too much detail about my life’s happenings but I will share that I recently moved from my old place! I wanted to move so bad from that area and complex with a whole host of reasons why; I no use in going into ’em now because I’m already gone. Long story short I’ve been in my new place a little less than a month. I absolutely love it around these parts and my new sewing space. It’s pretty much sewing central just as I imagined when I decided to move. I always apologize for the long pauses in my blogging and sharing stuff and I’m here to do that again. Forgive me y’all! In my defense I thought my laptop was broken. My GRANDdaughter was using it one day and my GRANDson leaned on it and needless to say we all figured that was all she wrote. Or so we thought. But I didn’t get rid of it, I put it back in its storage bag and put it away. I couldn’t just throw it away for some reason. That was months ago. Fast forward to last night I took it out of the drawer and plugged it in. It powered right on! I was so happy because I love my little laptop and I really didn’t want to get rid of it or have to buy a new one. Okay now on to the patterns of the hour and a little bit about ’em…Even the newbies know I have a ton of patterns. Like a literal ton of them. For some reason I just could find no inspo in not even one of them. Sometimes I get like that. When that happens my go-to for sewing ideas are my sewing magazines and books. They never let me down. I ended up sewing a new beach bag and dress with same name as yours truly! If you’ve a sewing maniac like me you’re aware of all the sewing magazines on the market and have a few favorites. One of my favorite publications is Simply Sewing. I ended up pulling out Issue 44 and whipped up two of the patterns that it featured. The patterns of the hour are The Lola Dress and The Beach Bag. The bag is hugeeeee; its already one of my favorite bags I’ve sewn. I used a hounds tooth denim for the exterior of the bag; it was already in my stash. The dress I created out of a yellow-orange cotton poplin I’ve also had in my stash for a long time. I never throw fabric away; even its its “ugly”. My motto is one day it’ll be perfect and for the Lola dress the “ugly” fabric absolutely was. I started both projects on the 26th (of this month) and they were both fun, easy sews! But the star of both pieces are the zombie nurses! I lined the bag and the dress with a piece of “Beauties and Brains” fabric which is another piece I left in my stash until just the right time…Wait till y’all see the pictures!

    Now let me stop rambling because y’all know I can go on and on…I snapped a few pictures of my new makes and I’ll include ’em below. Yall can literally see the zombie nurses through the poplin on the dress which is quite literally my favorite part of the it (besides the pretty color); I’m glad my idea worked out. The set is giving Summerween which I don’t mind because Halloween is another one of my favorite days. *Good Friday and St. Patrick’s Day are a couple other faves of mine* I gotta check on dinner too; it’s in the oven. See now I’m talking and talking again lemme show y’all these photos! I’ll be back soon I promise!

    Love, LOLA

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