wendywears portfolio

Here is a partial portfolio of past wendywears goods. Use this as a reference when ordering custom items. Click below for the portfolio.

The Elephant Hawk Moth Clutch was given to Jill Bliss as part of a trade earlier this year, but I still have a tiny bit of this fabric if you like it.

Lesley's shoulder bag and today's outfit

The "Lesley" Bag
Materials:
+ powder blue men's corduroy pants
+ thrifted crazy floral print curtains
+ vintage powder blue cotton curtains
+ white sheets from Wella's
+ thread

Yes, I'm still enjoying making fabric yo-yos as you can see. Tip: save the flat-felled seams from your discarded, dismantled jeans/pants; they make great purse handles and headbands when braided together.


I'm wearing...
+ black blouse and white linen eyelet tank (from Paris from my dad & stepmom) - and the black top is too tiny! darnit.
+ vintage "Glance Bond LONDON" all cotton skirt with thin self-fabric belt, recently found at CASA Thrift Store
+ tan airwalk flipflops
+ hair in need of a cut, badly.

My personal carry-all.

This is a design I created, inspired by a project idea from a 70s publication of Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, which I HIGHLY recommend. I think this is my first completed project using fabric yo-yos! How I love them!

This bag perfectly accomodates a 1" binder packed with ideas and sketches, a thick fashion magazine, wallet, keys, and a whole lot more.

Materials:
+ vintage grey/yellow textured curtains
+ crazy floral print curtains
+ powder blue cotton curtains
+ powder blue corduroy pants
+ brown corduroy pants
+ red eqyptian cotton sheets
+ black lacey trim
+ black bias binding

This took me weeks to complete because I'm so picky. I'm quite pleased with the results, though. You may see more of these in the future. And of course, if you want one, contact me and we'll work out the details :)

thrifted ethnic shift dress

After a trip to the CASA Thrift Store - which is my new favorite - I found this bold print shift/thing in the underwear section. After seaming-ripping everything, I discovered the name Comatex S.A. along one selvedge and that it's 100% cotton.

I'm going to remake this into a more flattering dress for myself. I need a simple all cotton dress! I'm using Butterick 6341 for the neckline and sleeves and McCall's 2094 for the dart placement.

I drew up a new pattern on white paper and started a muslin. I have a feeling that it is going to be too big, and if that's the case, I'll re-draft and re-cut everything. Stay tuned for the final product. I promise it will be modelled in a prettier place.

relaxed to skinny

My mother bought these Gap jeans for me about 3 years ago at a thrift store. After shrinking them, it became apparent that I needed to lower the waistline. I removed the waistband, replaced the zipper-fly with velcro, and tapered the legs (and added some length to the legs, with slits on the sides). The skinnyfication was not as hard as I thought it would be. Overall satisfaction with reconstruction: 7 out of 10

new bag for April and Peter

click on the photo to view more photos


April and Peter are about to have a baby. This is the bag I made for them to carry around their baby items + personal stuff like wallet, cell phone, keys, etc. It took a long while to complete because I was making it up as I went along.

materials:
floral curtains
blue table runner with neat raised pattern
striped bedsheets
vintage button from grandma's button tin
blue satin ribbon
batting
blue bias tape
acrylic felt

dress #1 prototype

(Check out all the full-size photos, and please e-mail me with any feedback :) I don't have many people around here for second-opinions.)

I want to make a dress! I have a beautiful blue patterned pillowcase I'd like to use for the body and a large rose/pink fabric napkin I want for the upper portion.

Inspired by suzdeth's tutorial for a smock top, I started working on this mock-up made of bed sheets a few days ago. Of course with a pillowcase there's only so much fabric to work with, so to get used to this, I cut out 2 pieces from the sheets that are the same height as the pillowcase and half the width of the pillowcase when seam-ripped and laid flat.

I think this design would look at lot better if the main part flared out from the top band instead of going straight down. Does that make sense? Right now, it's just a straight tube that's gathered at front and back to fit the top band. The pillowcase I plan to use is patterned so perhaps that will distract the eye from unslightly bunchiness? I don't want to put a contrasting belt all the way around because that would take away from the pattern on the front of my pillowcase for final version.

Questions:
1) Have fabric ties in the back?
2) Make flared instead of straight?

If I make it flare out, I will have to add fabric panels of some sort to extend the sides of my pillowcase pieces - but I rather not :-p

Changes that will be implemented for my final version:
>> longer shoulder straps by an inch or so
>> add a lining (these white linens will be the lining)
>> might add another panel to the bottom and tack on a few horizontal layers of black lace

Abstract Flower Brooch and Thread Collection

I was inspired by mollychicken's tutorial for simple fabric brooches. I made this one (my first) for my mother recently - hopefully she got it in the mail! I plan on making more of these soon, and also hairclip versions.

Specs:
+ multiple layers of materials from the following sources:
- suede scraps someone gave me
- egyptian cotton sheets
- cotton landscape print
- backside of stretch denim jeans
- fabric covered button from grandma's stash
- vintage sky blue cotton curtains
- brown cordouroy pants
- brown embroidery thread
+ about 4" across
+ 1-1/4" steel nickle-plated pin back



And as you can see, this is part of my thread collection. I have a lot of wooden spools (most with little/no thread) that are up for grabs if anyone wants to trade me something for them :)

About two years ago on eBay, I won an auction of thread and small sewing-related knick knacks. I haven't bought a lot of new thread; this photo shows mostly someone else's old things.

ridiculous shirt made cute

My grandmother-in-law knows a "plus-sized" older woman who loves crazy prints and crazy designs. I got a heap of her clothes. This is first reconstruction from this stash.

I removed the 3/4 length sleeves. There are three tiny pleats at the shoulder, on the front, hidden under the collar. This causes some puffiness. I applied red, double fold bias tape to the armholes. Taking in the sides proved to be a bit difficult; twas my first somewhat successful altering of a woven fabric garment with a zipper in the back.

It's my new favorite shirt. Click for larger image.

A stuffed animal friend for Jeremy.

Four-year-old Jeremy came to visit the Bakery today. I recieved the pleasure of helping him create some ultra sugary-sweet treats: cookie sandwiches filled with buttercream icing and then magnificent vanilla cupcakes, complete with colored sprinkles and maraschino cherries. I presented him with the little stuffed animal friend I made for him; he held it close to him and smiled. I hope it provides him with some comfort.

My first attempt at a stuffy-stuffed animal thing - and yes I was inspired by Hillary Lang's much more wonderful Wee Wonderfuls.

This is the last bag I made. It used to be padded scarf-thing, fresh out of the 70s. I'm guessing it is polyester, as are most things from the 70s.

I tried my hand at some free-hand abstract machine-stitching on the flap to secure a piece of velco. What do you think?



I made this bag for myself, but I'm not going to use it. A few days after I made this bag, we went to the Army/Navy store in the area, and I bought myself a less-than-four-dollars belt bag. It suits me.

Hand-warmers for Robby

Well, this was all Robert's idea - I sewed these little pouches up for his poor cold little hands. Better than driving to Walgreens at 12:30am for gloves? He thinks so :)

They are filled with white rice. Stick them in the microwave for about 30 sec, and you're good to go.

The bag I made for Tracy's niece

A lady I work with wanted me to make her niece a bag "girly" bag for christmas, and this is what I came up with.