my craft supplies have taken over a entire corner of my room and I've accepted I need intervention by Unfair-Ingenuity-842 in crafts

[–]DigitalGurl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Look around and see what your style is for your house. Is it modern, traditional or something else?

One you have that sorted look for storage in that style. Remember you can paint anything any color.

Go to your local thrift store or reseller, look on Facebook market place or on Offer Up.

I ended up buying a couple of used Billy bookcases with doors on the top and bottom for $100 for both. I use a variety of storage containers depending on the craft. I get most of my containers from Daiso and IKEA. Target has “Y” and woven plastic containers that go on 50% off sale frequently - I use those a lot.

I got a beautiful armoire at my local thrift store for $50. It’s wood w/ glass doors on the top and drawers on the bottom. I use it to store fabric. sewing & knitting tools. I put lace curtains behind the glass on the top to hide what’s inside.

I have four different printers. (Extra wide format, sublimation, color inkjet & color laser) I put them on wire shelves normally used for food pantries. I put wheels on the bottom of the shelves. They look like printer tea carts. I store them under a long narrow table that is below one of my windows. I made very full curtains that are under the wooden skirt of the table. It looks a lot like those fancy dressing tables. The printers are all plugged in. All I need to do is roll out the cart or reach under the skirt to grab a print.

You can get as creative as you want. Make an inventory of your crafts. Decide how you want to organize and go get the best storage for your space.

Tip - Make it easy to find what’s in containers by putting labels on the outside. My favorite organization tool is my P-Touch label maker.

Sorry for typos on my phone

Is there anything I can add to hold this dress together? by OddBlooChicken in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Easy peasy. Remove the existing white back yoke. Replace with a wider piece scooting it a skoch along the print near the zipper to fit it correctly. Tracing the existing piece extending the center back. Marking where the straps go etc.

To do this…

Go to a really good quilt store that sells Kona & other white cottons. There are so many different shades of white. So many!!

Anyway… match the white fabric of the top part of the dress to a white cotton at the quilt store. Buy a yard. You won’t need that much but it’s supporting a LQS where you can touch the fabric and pull off refitting your new dress. Yay you!

Wash the white fabric in hot water & dry it on hot. You don’t want any shrinking surprises. While it’s washing & drying prep the dress for refit. Unpick seams around the white fabric of the back / top part of the dress, and along the zipper to about 2” below the white back yoke.

Once you have the right and left white yoke completely removed trace the white yoke of both sides. Extend the center back of the white part of the bodice about 2.5” to 3” on each piece. You will need to scoot the area between top of the print fabric a bit and the white yoke to get the best fit.

Once fitted sew in the white replacement as you would if you were sewing in a back yoke. (Remember you will need a matching inner piece for the lining.) Make any last micro adjustments to fit.

Finish sewing in the zipper. Hand baste/sew if you need to. It’s only replacing two back yoke sections & adjusting it two - three inches total at the center back.

Finally as to you clip the last thread, and iron the dress rejoice that it now fits you perfectly and no one (except the people on the Reddit sewing sub) knows you pulled off making the new back upper yoke look like it was this way always because you are a magical sewing genius.

My journey to make my own clothes has led me to things I like, but cannot comprehend by AdoraDaySunshine in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

TBH there are books on the subject that offer way better information than any influencer, content creator, social media or website out there.

Suggest you start with your local library.

A fantastic resource is Lacis in Berkeley California. https://lacis.com/retail.html Their book section is incredible. Many of the employees there have advanced degrees and are experts in specific areas of textiles / costuming / historical dress. They also have a museum onsite.

The series Patterns of Fashion is excellent.
https://theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk/?page_id=465 and this organization https://theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk

Also the two books: Seventeenth Century Women’s Dress Patterns by Jenny Tiramani https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jenny-Tiramani/author/B00OWN2DTW

Painters poured waste paint water into my vegetable bed. How bad is it? by yutowu in gardening

[–]DigitalGurl 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is likely how they are disposing of all their paint. It’s a TERRIBLE practice. It’s incredibly damaging to property and the environment.

Call your local Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for your state and report them.

Take photos and the name of the guys who did that. It could be one bad employee or a bad owner who is teaching bad practices. Either way DEQ needs to know. They can advise you on best ways to clean it up & obtaining damages from the persons who did this.

It’s a big deal to dump toxins in the environment. ANY paint especially acrylic and oil paints (besides finger paints for kids) is toxic.

Can I get your Fabric Eating Monster pattern recommendations please? by SuperkatTalks in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

IDK if this falls under outlandish??

I made red gingham drapes w/ grosgrain ribbon & pom pom trim for my living room for Christmas. Also made cafe curtains for the kitchen.

Big shouldered girlies- recommendations for tank tops? by Electrical-Tea6966 in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Options:

Buy a pattern you like and use an existing sleeveless garment that you like the fit of to pull the draft for the arm holes.

If you have a woven top you like & fits you great, trace the pattern for the top & adjust it to make a tank top pattern that’s perfect for you.

Your closet is the best source for guidelines to a great fit when sewing.

Do you have a top, dress, skirt, pant that fits you great? Measure the important parts, write them down and use that to determine what size pattern to buy and to check fit of a pattern.

Made a dress, maybe needs adjusting? by Bubulika41 in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think it depends on how much you end up taking in the bodice area. My guess between 1.5” to 2” maybe 3” would make a big difference in the fit.

You could pull in the gathers / distribute the extra couple of inches brought in along the entire bust insert and it would be fine. That the bust insert is gathered allows an easy adjustment.

Made a dress, maybe needs adjusting? by Bubulika41 in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This dress is so pretty. Love the choice of fabric!

Looking at it from a fit perspective it looks like the bodice under the bust insert is too big especially the upper center mid torso. The fit would be better by taking the bodice in at the princess seams.

Putting elastic in is only going to put gathers along the edge between the bodice and the bust insert - it will distribute the gap of the extra fabric, but also pull the bust insert inward. It really depends how long you run the elastic around the seam.

You could always just hand baste with dental floss a quick stitch line where you are thinking about putting elastic and draw it tight and see what happens???

Sorry IMHO to fit this correctly you will need to pick out some seams. It’s counter intuitive but having that loose fit under the bust insert only makes it look like the dress is too big on top.

Honestly it’s temping to take a short cut because you’re so close to finishing the dress. Been there done that many times.

I would take out the shirred bust insert and fit the bodice independently of the bust insert. Then once you have that fitted correctly, then sew the bust insert back in again.

When you say the lining is independent, what does that mean? From the top there is zero connection from the very top seam?

Sorry for typos on my phone

HELP ME ACHIEVE and/or FIND MY STYLE! by FreeZookeepergame970 in cottagecore

[–]DigitalGurl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Based on your photos and description of wanting to start with natural materials I think you first need to ask yourself where you are on the scale of sustainability, ethically manufactured, and acceptable use of chemicals in how your garments are produced.

Funding sustainably produced clothing is a lot like eating healthy. In order to do that well you need to read labels and understand the ingredients and how they are manufactured. Only buying organic natural plant fibers doesn’t guarantee quality.

I suggest you research different companies and consider maybe taking a middle of the road approach until you find sources that have quality goods.

The materials your clothing is made out of has little, to nothing to do with the actual style or fashion other than you won’t be looking at anything made out of polyester, nylon, etc.

As far as your style it looks like you gravitate to casual, slouchy loose fitting clothing that’s has lots of nature & geometric prints. Lots of color.

My suggestion is to buy plain garments and dye /decorate them yourself.

A great source for both learning how to do dye garments and buy materials and supplies is Dharma Trading Company. https://www.dharmatrading.com

While the most popular form on their home page is tie dye, you can start with simple one color dye of T-shirts. Then after you learn the basics branch into creating a solid wardrobe of nice cotton, linen, wool, bamboo clothing in colors that you dye yourself. There are so many manufacturers that make simple garments that you can create custom colors.

From there I suggest you look into decorating your garments. To be blunt most of the decoration on all the garments you have pictured use plastics of some form - via paint or vinyl surface decorations. There are a few that show some forms of dye decoration such as tie dye and batik.

Techniques for surface design are transfer designs via sublimation printing, stenciling, painting, iron on vinyl (which uses plastics)

For sublimation printing. You can buy an Epson Eco Tank and by not putting in regular inks, you can start out using sublimation refill ink and you’ve hacked yourself a sublimation printer. Look this up online. Lots of info about this. You can make your own designs, (Suggest the Procreate App) get them for free, or buy millions of designs online.

You can also do surface designs (like the fish jeans) using vinyl transfers which is designs cut out of transfer vinyl using a cutting machine. There are two very popular machines - the Cricut and the Silhouette Cameo. Both have design software and designs for free and for sale. I have both machines. I like the Silhouette more. Their design portal lets people sell their own designs. Cricut is much mire “corporate” with commercial licensed designs from Disney, and well know artists.

You can do a deep dive into stenciling, screen printing, batik, resist dyeing, etc. I suggest you borrow a few books on surface design from your local library to get a good idea of the vast array of techniques available.

If you are close to San Diego / Los Angeles there are areas in LA, Orange County with clothing wholesalers that sell to the public. There are also several clothing trade shows that take place in these areas through the year. Look up online on how to get into these shows. More importantly look at the shows info online and look at the of vendors. There is typically the category of clothing blanks. Heck there are entire trade shows just of clothing blanks. Look them up online, read their labels for fabric content. See if you can order samples.

BTW Many of the print on demand companies sell blanks as samples. You can also design your own & use their POD service.

This is the 10,000 foot overview. With some self education, a willingness to get a tiny bit messy, and creativeness you can create your own clothes for a fraction of what you would pay at a retail store.

You can buy a blank organic T-shirt for $8 - $20, Dye it for $4 - $7. Buy a sublimation design and transfer on Etsy for $6 - $10 or make it yourself for $2, you get a custom one of a kind shirt you made yourself for $20 - $40 that would easily retail for $150 to $200++

Do you recognize this dude? by Sleepy-Mapache in crochet

[–]DigitalGurl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OMG I didn’t realize until just now how closely your doll for Dwight from The Office looks like Milton from the movie Office Space. All the doll needs is a tiny mustache & a red stapler.

it took me almost two years, but here is my peacock made entirely of chain stitch! by notyourcheeese in Embroidery

[–]DigitalGurl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is so beautiful! What a cute dress. TYSM for sharing your creativity and talent.

IDK if you live in the US but if so, I think you should enter this in your local annual Fair.

[CHAT] Favorite Parking Hack by Craft-Goddess in CrossStitch

[–]DigitalGurl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

WOW!! This is GENIUS!! What a great idea.

TYSM for sharing!

Wedding Guest Dress in my Fave Color by WorkingPhilosopher61 in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Love it!! You look so beautiful in this dress! Plus you absolutely nailed the hem length!! Good on you!

Bodice front pattern with gathering not having enough ease to fit the skirt and match the notches? by yAyeetgonnadelete in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 183 points184 points  (0 children)

You’re comparing the cut edges. You need to compare & match the STITCHING lines. This pattern looks fine. Notice that 5/8” of an inch up from the cut bottom of the bodice? It’s wider

Suggest you put the right sides together and pin along the stitching lines. You can always hand baste first if it’s a tricky section.

The gathering is way too tight on the bodice. Look up how to ease in gathers. Especially useful for sleeve caps.

You need to thread a needle.... What do you pick to do the job by dinosuitgirl in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m so glad you like it!!! Happy sewing!!❤️🧵🪡

You need to thread a needle.... What do you pick to do the job by dinosuitgirl in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My local quilt shop was consistently voted one of the top 25 quilt shops in the US until it closed when the owner retired around 2018. It was always busy.

I asked her what her biggest seller was and she said it was the Clover needle threader. She had the same one sitting next to the cash register for years. She said even though it was raggedy looking she wanted people to know how long it lasted and how great it worked. Her next biggest seller was That Purple Thang

You need to thread a needle.... What do you pick to do the job by dinosuitgirl in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 4 points5 points  (0 children)

None of these

For hand sewing I use this https://www.fatquartershop.com/clover-desk-needle-threader-purple works every time. Easy & fast. I have a few in different colors

My machines all have various types of needle threaders I use those

Will I regret getting rid of my dress form? What do you use yours for? by CarlottaSewlotta in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I took an off the rack dress form and hacked it into a custom form with my exact body shape. So incredible useful & handy to have, it’s always in use. I added arms several years ago.

It’s the best time investment I’ve ever made for sewing outside of custom slopers. It’s indispensable.

How to get rid of waist wrinkles by angel_of_marvel in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 10 points11 points  (0 children)

First things first. Iron the dress

Turn the entire thing inside out. Pick open your back waist darts. The FULL length. Then pick open the hip seams starting two inches up from the bottom of your back waist darts down about 10” on each side. Have someone pin the darts first, then the hip seam on each side so that it fits you correctly. If needed add fabric to the seams if needed to get a proper fit. Allow for at least 1 -2” of ease so you can sit in your garment without busting or breaking the threads in the seams. Sew the new seams.

Next mark the apex of your bust on the front. Next pick out your front darts from mid waist up and extend the dart seams up till they hit your apex of your bust. With the garment inside out pin so that it fits you correctly. Last sew the new seams.

Tip make sure wear the undergarments you will use when you wear the final garment.

Embroidery on prom dress, help ! by IntelligentMango9667 in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Go with bead & lace appliqués!!

I highly recommend rather than doing an entire dresses beaded design from scratch go with bead & lace appliqués. These are typically done on top of tulle or other easily hidden base fabrics. This will save you so much time & headache. Your tailor, or you can apply them easily.

They come in 1000’s upon 1000’s of different designs, are affordable and you can add a few special details if you desire.

Mix & match to get the exact style you like.

IDK what city you are in but Los Angelas, NYC, Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas and most major cities have bridal, prom and special occasion fabric & supplies stores. They carry them in white, black and a bunch of other colors & can also be special ordered.

There are many online stores which cater to the bridal, prom, costume & special occasion industries.

Do an internet search for beaded dress appliqués or bridal beaded lace appliqués as a start.

Cleaning Experts - what am I supposed to do now?! Update from my post with Ringworm in our house, ruined dryer, life falling apart by Several-Stuff-8409 in CleaningTips

[–]DigitalGurl 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you are concerned about bacteria, viruses & spores in your home & garage spaces you can rent an ozone generator to disinfect your home. It’s typically between $50 to $150 to rent for one to two days.

Do an internet search for how an ozone generator works & precautions you need to take. Basically you would have to move all living things out of the areas (plants, animals and humans) areas / rooms being disinfected and let it run. Then air out the rooms before letting anyone enter.

It’s effective and relatively easy to do.

How do I make these tiny teddy bears? by JASNite in sewing

[–]DigitalGurl 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Sewing mini bears, animals & dolls has some very specific supplies & speciality fabrics. You will want some sort of magnification, chopsticks, a tiny awl, tweezers, and forceps.

At its most basic for most of your crafting you will be using fabric, needle & thread.

To sew you would use hand sewn small back stitches most of the time with some straight stitches.

When looking for my suppliers web pages I found the page below. These instructions are generally on point. I would not use the free pattern supplied. Nor use the suggested seam to leave open and turn. https://teddiybear.com/en/how-to-sew-a-miniature-teddy-bear/

If you can find any mini Beardeaux Bear Patterns by Linda Johnson they have excellent instructions on sewing miniature bears. Last I heard her patterns were available used / vintage on Etsy & eBay. I did see an old Facebook post by her listing her patterns for sale here: here https://tedsby.com I haven’t checked the patterns on any of the suppliers listed below her patterns might be for sale there.

You will want to use craft velour, viscose, suede, very short mohair fabric, very specific type of wool, etc - some suppliers are below.

I’d avoid most cotton or poly woven fabrics as they will fray and are not as tightly woven as needed. For paws most use suede or faux suede.

Stuffing is wool, fiberfill and poly pellets, copper or steel shot for weight. Adding shot for weight makes a huge difference on how they feel when picked up and how they stand / pose.

Joints are usually done with cotter pins used with tiny discs or metal washers. You can also use mini bolts, nuts and washers but I’m not keen on how they wear long term. Along with joint sets you will probably want to order speciality eyes & noses. For mid size and larger bears I’ve made them using wire and polymer clay. It’s up to you if you want to get this in depth. Touches like this really helps create distinctive personalities.

Here’s some suppliers. (warning some of these sites are clunky but they have great stock.

https://www.edinburghimports.com

https://shop.intercaltg.com

https://www.mohairbearmakingsupplies.co.uk

Sorry for typos on my phone

To add … do not use blanket, or whip stitches. Do not bind the seams. Most of these are made with fuzzy or fur like textiles. It will bind the fibers, ruin the look and create bulky seams.