We're so excited to bring you Episode 3 of Sew Geeky! This month's theme? She's just the girl. just the girl, the Girl U Want - it's Tank Girl! Today I am super excited to be bringing you some epic outfits by Kelley of Casa Crafty as Jet Girl and my very own sister, Betty of Betty Again as Sub Girl! As ALWAYS, and it wouldn't be a Sew Geeky without my awesome co-host, Kat of Sew Chibi who is rockin' it as Tank Girl!


Tank Girl is a hilarious and at the same terrible comic book series that was turned into a movie in the mid-90s. It's based in the fur




My outfit was inspired by Tank Girl's 40 Watt Club costume in the movie, it's also in some of the comics but I love the striped pants from the movie. Its pretty much where my obsession for striped pants comes from I think! I used my own leggings pattern to make these amazing striped leggings. I love them! They a great heavy weight when it comes to spandex, and since I am used to buying high quality leggings I was very pleased to be able to make my very own pair!

They're high waisted, not that I ever wear cropped tops but I feel when I have my body ready for summer (avidly working on this!) I might just be able to start rocking some navel-skimming tees! Maybe. We'll see. Don't hold me to this.


Lol. The shirt is an iconic Tank Girl statement I feel. The 40 Watt Club shirt is something I've wanted to make for a really long time. Like ever since I saw the movie for the first time. It's just a basic freezer paper stencil on the front for the "40 Watt Club". I made this shirt up from scratch, but I really should have used the Union St Tee pattern >:| it's a really great pattern and this shirt is not as perfect as I wanted it to be!



The right sleeve I slashed up, the fabric is super duper stretchy so it hangs low. The left sleeve is just assembled as normal, but I cut out a shorter sleeve from a black tee and sandwiched it into the armhole seam when I was stitching. I really like the double sleeve look! Expect this more ;)


With Tank Girl, pretty much everything in her universe boils down to two things. Attitude & Accessories. Attitude? It was hard to do this pics at first! I'm self conscious about my smile and Tank Girl smiles A LOT so I had to bust out some other silly face and antics and after a while I really loosened up. Seriously the pressure to make things truly Tank Girl-esque was high, it even included a roadtrip with my husband, my sister, my brother in law and my niece for 2 hours to where we knew a tank was to dangle off, muck around on and generally be pretty silly!


For the armwarmers, I cut two rectangles out of the bottom of a pink tee, folded them in half and stitched the long ends so I had tubes that were wide enough to slip up to my elbows. Not something I would just wear everyday, normally, but looking at them and wearing them i actually think I should bust this out for picking-Vince-up-from-school-wear. Whaddya reckon?


The boots are my gumboots/rainboots/wellingtons/galoshes/whateverthehelyoucalltheminyourcountry! They were an awesome score for $19 from Kmart, and I literally wear them every second day. I have Doc Martens, but I love my fake Docs more!


Check out my sister's outfit & details on her blog! She's Sub Girl! Didn't make it to the movie (well apparently she did but she was portrayed REALLY weird. In the comics Sub Girl is like a quieter, pink-haired version of Tank Girl.



I got the military helmet from the Toowoomba Show earlier this year, and I am so so stoked to be able to wear it for a Tank Girl adventure! I used Vincent's pink & orange swim goggles to accessorise them, they originally have black goggles on the helmet but I thought that these bright ones would add more to the childish air of Tank Girl's world!

inspired by this photo

 Head on over to my co-host Kat's Tank Girl outfit, my sister Betty's Sub Girl-inspired outfit and Kelley's Jet Girl outfit (that romper, I do need it!) to check out all of the awesomeness! I seriously had A LOT OF FUN brainstorming with these ladies, coming up with ideas for the photos, I was so excited to do something with my sister that was part of my blog world too. I hope you enjoyed reading about the outfits and looking at all our photos as much as we enjoyed making it all!


Don't forget you can find us on several social media platforms:


Want in on the next Sew Geeky? Send us an email to: sewgeekyseries@gmail.com

Yay I'm on the Union St. Tee  pattern tour also! The Union St tee is the relaxed-fit tee you've been looking for! it's a basic pattern, but it's one of those basic patterns you always need but never have because nothing else ever really fits right or flatters and you JUST WANT TO MAKE A SHIRT. Yeh that, and this shirt takes away all of that because even though everyone is always like "Aw Ari you're so skinny why are you on a diet? Why do you work out?" and I'm like "I'm not actually I just dress for my shape." And my shape is a tree-stump. (And also I enjoy working out and eating right!)

I made myself a tee the other day for Sew Geeky and I really should have used this pattern because I LOVE IT. The fit is not too tight or too baggy, there's a scoop neck or a v-neck option, several sleeve lengths too! It's definitely my go-to shirt pattern now!


It's a Hey June June, so if you have any of the other Hey June patterns ( I do!) sew them up and show them off! You can hashtag them with #HeyJunePatterns on Facebook or Instragram!


 As you can see, I used an existing shirt and used the Union St. tee pattern to reconstruct it. Ahh t-shirt surgery, I will never get old of you! I always buy my 'cool' shirts in the largest size available, just because I know I will want to customise them & the more fabric I have to work with the better! By cool tees i'm talking about the rad graphic tees that your favourite artists make, or the geek tees that are available for 24 hours only!


The original shirt is one I bought from my friend Emma of Emetic Art. She's an amazing artist, and I really love all the pop culture prints she does. We've bought the Wednesday Addams print also! You can catch her on facebook too, and it was really fun watching this Cyrus the Virus (do you get the other reference in that name, hummin'bird?) piece turn into a print and then into a t-shirt!


I'm not a Miley Cyrus fan, at all, but I love this shirt and I love how exaggerated and gross her tongue is in it. It's one of my favourite prints by Emetic Art!


I sewed up the small size, and when I checked the measurements I was really stoked. it's rare that my measurements first within one size so I have to guess or sew the largest or make a muslin and alter it (lol yeh right). Nope. Small it is! No altering necessary!


Anyway! Enough of me standing awkwardly in a cool shirt in front of a cool wall (they kind of give the illusion that I, too, are cool. I hope). Head on over to Hey June to grab your own Union St. Tee pattern and then scoot over to Noodlehead to see Anna who is also reviewing the pattern today! You can see the other bloggers that have participated here.

I got the opportunity to sew up some of the Jocole Patterns for this pattern bundle! I did make the Jocole skinnies, but I did a terrible job and really didn't want to take photos and show them off to you guys as it would be a bad reflection on the pattern and the patternmaker! So instead today I'm just showing off the Ladies Peplum Top from the same pattern company!


I'd never sewn with Jocole Patterns before, but I was in for a treat! The pages I printed came together perfectly, and I sewed up a straight Medium for myself and it fits so well! The instructions were easy to read, well illustrated and perfect for beginner or advanced sewists alike!


I bought this lycra to make some leggings out of, but I kept looking at it when I was looking for fabric for this top! I kept eyeballing it and then decided to cut the leggings out of the fabric, and if there was enough left then it was meant to be.


Obviously it was meant to be! I had just enough to make the cap sleeve version! I had to cut the back of the peplum with a seam instead of on the fold. Normally, i would not think to make a top out of lycra. HOWEVER, these are the days I live in where I wear spandex leggings nearly everyday because Black Milk has enabled me to do so. I'VE BEEN ENABLED. And it feels amazing. This is a very comfortable top and makes me feel super sexy!


Eep snuggles with Jackasaurus Rex ♥



You can buy this pattern a part of a bundle of women's patterns, all the details are here or you can click the button below!

It's not even winter, but some days here it is REALLY cold! (what a huge change from my last post when we were up in sunny Cairns! Ahhh the tropics!) I had this little outfit cut out for Edison before summer left us, but I never got around to sewing it up, even though at the time I was all about sewing for the season ahead!


The dress is made from super soft grey fleece, it has minimal stretch and I used the Bimaa Sweater pattern as a base and used the hood as the neckline (as opposed to my usual love for the cowl neck feature!). The pattern is obviously for stretchy fabrics, so I made this a size up than I normally would for Edison (a size 2) although it's a bit snug because she has the yummiest tubby tummy ever. I lengthened it quite a lot, giving it a bit of an A-Line shape to the bottom. Just before I sewed the sideseams I decided at the last minute to add these weird pockets. I can't remember what my original idea was, but I found these two rectangles in the pile of cut out pattern pieces so I decided to use them!


I edged the pocket openings in a paler grey stretch fabric, like you would do when you bind the neckline of a t-shirt.

Here is a little sketch of how I did the pockets:


Ummm I hope that is helpful? Ha!



I used this corduroy/velvety/stretchy-something fabric for the leggings for Eddie. I just used my base leggings pattern which I've been using a lot lately! I drafted out a size 4/5 for Vincent's gorgeous legs that I will probably upload at some point (the pattern not the legs lol)


She insisted on those shoes too :/ I should hide all her shoes when I need to do little shoots with her and only have matching ones out  haha.

I made the beanie by hacking up an old jumper that has been hacked previously for various projects, and using the toddler slouch beanie pattern (free) I actually whipped up a bunch of beanies last night. This one is a little different, I just cut a semi-circle out of the top crown and stitched the front to the back as usual!


I absolutely love it. I've seen this style around a lot, I need to get some more old jumpers to hack up!


 True story, she was actually bawling her eyes out as I was getting her dressed because I had to take her pjs off and her shoes (the ones she insisted on wearing). She was really upset until I said I needed to take photos of her real quick before we took Vince to school. She pepped up instantly! Ran to the wall and waited for me to get ready. The director for photography was Vincent, who told her how to stand and what to do. He's great. She's great. I love them!

 

We went to Cairns last week, which was a spontaneous and amazing decision! My parents have been travelling around Australia, Grey Nomad style, and they've been gone two months so far which is a really long time! They were due to arrive in Cairns the weekend just gone so we flew up to meet them!


The night before, I was all packed and ready and decided that I would make a go of a shirt I had got to resize down to something and made a new tee for the Vincent! I got it from a friend of mine in a bundle of clothes for me to sort through and use what I wanted to. A lot of was quite large stuff, and this XXL (I think more X's were involved) shirt was definitely my favourite. The back of the original shirt was a little questionable so I made sure that it wasn't included because it had to be age appropriate!


Using the Anytime At All Tee pattern by Shwin Designs I resized this gigantic shirt easily for Vincent, AND was able to add a bit of signature radicoolness for the little dude. Just real quick, this isn't a post for a pattern tour or a anything like that! I got the pattern a little while ago to test it but I never was able to, fortunately I dug it out the other night to give it a try and I really enjoy this pattern!

The fit is comfortable, I believe I used the size 5 and while Vincent is barely just five now and is pretty skinny I really love the way it fits him.



There are other colour-blocking options, as well as a onesie feature for the baby sizes! You should check out Shauna's master post on the pattern to see all the options! It's incredibly unisex, with long and short sleeves and even a ruffle option for the girlier girls!


This pattern is definitely a scrap buster! I'm excited to use all the tiny scraps of cool stretch fabrics that I have stashed in a box for future shirts for Vincent & Edison! Definitely leaving this pattern in the little shoebox I have on the side of my cutting table for patterns I use a lot!