Malotke Sews

Who's ready for auditions? I'll be sitting in with the director to see who all has come out to audition for these shows I'm pretty excited. We'll have call backs tomorrow and the cast will be officially decided on Monday morning. I start pulling costumes on Wednesday so I'll be able to post more about the design process. Stay tuned!

My geometric print dress is finally finished! However, it does NOT fit very well. I thought I had adjusted the pattern to fit me better. This finished dress is very unflattering to my figure. I have been in the process of loosing weight and I guess since I had cut out my pattern pieces I have managed to loose a bit in my measurements. I really love this print and the colors are so different than what I typically use in my closet.  My plans of now are to: take in the shoulder seams (they're currently pinned in place for these pictures), remove the zipper, take in the back and side seams, and redo the hem. It needs to be about a whole size smaller, which is why I will be taking a little bit out of all three seams (back and both sides).  In addition to taking in those 3 seams I plan on adjusting the princess seams just a smidge. Think more dart like than actual seam line. Essentially I am making a whole new dress, or at least that is what it feels like I'm planning on doin...

With the time crunch of my show starting I've been trying to cross things off my to-do list and get projects off my desk.  I've had a pair of dress pants for probably the past 8 years and the hem of one of the pant legs just now came undone. Instead of fixing it right away I have just put some safety pins in the hem and carried on with my life. It's one of those things that you know will take less than 5 minutes but you keep pushing off. Well today I just sat down and stitched the hem. I didn't bother to do anything fancy so a simple black stitch and I was done. It's times like this though that I wish I had a blind hemmer. My hems would look more professional and also basically invisible. And now on to the next project!

Finally getting to cross things off my to-do list starting with this Geometric Print Dress. I had basically adjusted the pattern pieces, cut the fabric out, and left it alone. My show has auditions this coming weekend and a production meeting later this week. With the potential craziness coming up soon I felt I needed to finish a bunch of projects I've had laying around. I cleared off my desk, organized my supplies, and started to work on finishing this dress.  I started off my serging all of the fabric pieces (except for facings). Then, since I'm using a commercial pattern, I started following the directions. I stitched the bodice pieces together, then shoulder seams, and then it time for the facings. After sewing the facings it was time to do the side seams.  As of now I have a complete bodice without the zipper. I had originally wanted to use the grey zipper shown below, but that was when I had planned on just making a skirt with this fabric, not a dress. I really li...

Art Gallery- Shell Blaze Knit in Night A while ago I entered a contest with Seen & Sewn Patterns to promote one of their latest patterns (check out their Aspen Tank !). I had tested the pattern & loved it so I was happy to help promote it. I ended up winning the contest and the prize was exactly what I needed in my life- more fabric. I got to pick a fabric from D&H Fabrics Co. and I would get 2 yards of it. The one I picked ended up being sold out, however I had a really hard time selecting one so I was happy with my backup choice. With my show's start date coming up I've been tidying up my work area and realized I haven't done anything with this fabric yet. It's a lovely print and feels great so I am leaning towards making myself a 1950s ish style dress to go perfectly with my show's opening night. However, I still have a few projects to finish up first before starting a brand new one. Right now I have a few alterations to make to some of my w...

Drawing menswear. Not one of the best pictures, and it's before coloring, but here are some rough sketches for a couple of the men characters in Servant of Two Masters . I met with the Director of the show last week to go over all of the ideas I had and to make sure I'm on the right track. This is my first show with Parkland College and I don't want to disappoint- it's also the first show of the season so I want to help make it an amazing start! There are a few characters that could be cast with male or female characters, so those are mainly just ideas and could work for either gender. I would really enjoy a little gender bending for this show, I think it could work out well. As I've written before, my sketching process is a little funky. I like to do quick sketches, write out all of my ideas, and go from there. I then pick my favorites, add color, and then focus on fabrics and patterns. As of now I have 2 characters I need to tweek their looks just a little ...

Similar to the makeup bags I have written about, this little bag was constructed in a similar way. I chose several fabric swatches that I liked together and then laid them out on a cut piece of silver lining fabric. Then I pinned the swatches and sewed them to the lining. I used white thread and a straight stitch to piece the bag together. After I had essentially a double sided rectangle, I sewed the zipper and sides.  It's a small project, fairly easy and quick. I've made quite a few of these so they're no longer time consuming. I did have a few that I messed up by trying out different construction methods. I found one that works well for me and I intend to make a few more with the swatches I have left. Finished bag: Front & Back sides.

First step: Pick a zipper to get a general color scheme. Then figure out which swatches look good together and which patterns work well without overpowering the others.  Next sew the little squares together with some overlapping others.  Stitch the two sides to a single piece of cotton, giving the bag a nice lining. For this bag I found a scrap of brown corduroy from an old show I worked on (saved some scraps for my portfolio) and used it to add some more texture to the bottom of the bag.  After I sewed the extra piece to the bottom I then added the zipper and voila! Finished a tiny makeup bag, or coin purse, or just small miscellaneous bag. For this bag I followed the same general plan. Pick a zipper, lay out swatches, sew swatches together, add a lining, and finish by sewing the zipper to the top. Here they are together, two colorful makeup bags. This type of project is something I can do in a day and feel as though I really accomplished somet...