Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

Given my focus on the bikeability of my skirts and dresses, it probably won't surprise you that I sew for my bike as well.  I am a commuter-, shopper-, and pleasure-biker, so weight is not an issue for me.  I'm not fast anyway, what's a couple extra pounds?  So for cargo, I looooooove my Wald baskets .*  They collapse when not in use and are easy to fold out when I'm doing a big grocery shop. *Please note that I have no financial or other connection with any of the products or sources listed in this post.  I really do like the baskets that much as a plain ol' satisfied customer. Baskets are more stable than panniers and a bajillion times easier to use.  I found detaching and reattaching panniers a real pain, they are enormous to carry into the grocery store (or heaven forbid a restaurant or bar where you don't want to leave your stuff sitting outside), and I had a pannier pop off my bike in Logan Circle once.  With the baskets, there's no detaching and...

One of the things I did for my Seersucker Social outfit was to make a matching belt for the first time. I am so hooked! I used a vintage belt kit that I got in a big bag of random sewing crap at the thrift store. The kit contained belting, a two piece coverable belt buckle, a hook for the buckle, and even the eyelets for the belt. I started by interfacing the fabric for the buckle. I was using a bit of lightweight and fairly sheer swiss dot batiste (purchased in Vietnam and made into McCall 5426 ). The interfacing gave it a little more heft and opacity. I placed the top part of the buckle on the interfaced side of the fabric and traced the holes . Next, I cut x-es into the corners, so I could fold the fabric up into the belt buckle. The only thing missing from my vintage kit was the piece of adhesive used to glue the fabric to the buckle.  I used a spray adhesive instead. Once you've sprayed your belt buckle with adhesive, place it onto the interfacing side of the fabric an...

A while back I published my all-machine clean-finish bodice lining tutorial . I have used this method on every sleeveless dress and top I've made for the past several years, but when it came to my Seersucker Social dress, it wasn't going to work. The all-machine method requires three open seams:  two side seams and a front or back.  Burda 05-2011-108 is drafted with a side panel rather than a side seam.  While you could theoretically leave the side front or side back seam unsewn, there would just be too much fabric to pull through the strap tunnels (especially the home dec fabric I was using).  The method generally prescribed by the Big 4 is nonsense.  Here is the alternative to the all-machine finish. I lined the bodice of this dress with an Ikea Knoppa sheet, a lightweight cotton-poly batiste (and only $1.99 for the sheet!). Because my fabric was lightweight, I fused strips of interfacing to the neckline and armscye (a little hard to see because it's white-...