Okay, yes, there are a TON of licensed fabrics out there for my nerd fashion needs, but sometimes I have an idea and I need to create my own! Spoonflower.com is the best site for custom-made fabrics on the market, in my opinion. And it’s oh-so-easy to use which makes it even more appealing!

The first thing you do is make a log-in account. Then click Create Fabric. Upload your design. Pick what fabric you want and how many yards you want and Voila! You have your own custom made fabric coming your way.

​You can choose to sell your fabric design as well, but I don’t use this feature. First off, even though it is my own artwork and drawings, some of the things I draw are from my favorite movies, TV shows and books. I wouldn’t want to get into any licensing issues and they have a strict policy against using unlicensed images. Since I’m making clothing for my own personal use and have no intentions of selling any of the fabric or the clothing, I feel like I’m safe. 

The first fabric I ever designed with Spoonflower.com was using an art piece I had drawn a few years ago called, “Buffy in the Scythe.” I’ve never found a licensed fabric for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I really wanted to make my own. I certainly have an insane amount of Buffy t-shirts (thanks to TeeFury) but I wanted to wear something more feminine and the only way to do that is to make it myself!

Also, being an author, I wanted to make some clothing out of my own cover art, just for fun. My first book, Riser, has a blackish purple swirl on the cover so I added those to black and purple stripes. I also took all my covers and made them into a stripe. (I’m kind of on a stripe kick lately!)

​But my favorite so far is my Harry Potter inspired shirt, made of stretch-jersey. I chose to make maroon and tan stripes with a golden snitch for my Gryffindor Quidditch pride! But I could change the colors of the stripes for any of the houses if I wanted to!

I recently made Battlestar Galactica fabric (can’t find that in JoAnnes!) to make a dress I’m going to call “The Fleet.” It’s shipping now, so I’ll be sure to post the results of that one in the next week or two!
 
Bottom line is: Spoonflower.com is awesome!

​Fit and flare is my absolute favorite style of dress. It’s flattering to everyone! Put a little ¾ sleeve sweater over the top and you’re ready to go anywhere.
 
When I purchased this Daredevil fabric I knew I wanted to make a dress out of it. I love the design and the color scheme so when I saw this New Look Pattern I knew it was a perfect match.

I don’t necessarily recommend what I did with the pattern, but for me, it worked. The pattern calls for interfacing and a lining in the bodice. I chose not to use either. I did this because I wanted a nice, light dress for summer. Whenever I make a shirt or dress with a lining, it always makes it a little too hot for me.
 
Since I have a serger machine, I sewed an edge along the neckline, armholes and bottom of the dress so I could easily fold the fabric to hem. 

The only reason I don’t recommend this for everyone is the simple fact that some people really like the stiff structure that interfacing and a lining give, especially with this style of dress. I, personally, don’t feel that it’s needed, but I think it looks great either way. 

The second thing I changed about the pattern was: pockets! I have to have pockets on my dresses, it’s a thing with me. I feel weird without pockets. So I borrowed a simple pocket from another pattern and added it to the dress.

​Overall though, the pattern was easy to use and I liked the way it turned out!

​Here’s a timelapse video of how I made it!

As you can tell I’m really getting obsessed with these licensed fabrics. (I’ll have a Dare Devil and Zelda dress review blog coming soon!) But when I found this Punisher fabric I knew I had to make something out of it. 

​I decided to go for a simple dress. I like the juxtaposition of a masculine fabric being turned into an overly feminine dress pattern, hence the princess sleeves.

The Punisher is one of my favorite comic book characters. (I’m all about revenge! It’s why Westerns are my favorite movie genre!) And I especially love the portrayal of The Punisher on the Netflix series, Dare Devil. I was more than thrilled when I discovered this fabric at JoAnnes. I was actually on my way out of the store and it happened to be in a separate bin! So I guess it was destiny that we found each other :-)

​The pattern is as simple as they come, which was why I purchased it. I wanted something quick and easy. From cutting to final hem, it took about an hour to make so you can’t go wrong with that!

​The pattern consists of 4 pieces: Front, Back, sleeves and neckband. Since it’s a type of tunic pattern there isn’t a zipper either. The pleats are very easy as well, with a quick baste stitch to hold them in place, all you have to do is sew up the back, sides, neckband and sleeves! And voila! You have a dress!

​I like to give it a little more shape though so I made an elastic belt. This is quite possible the easiest belt you could ever make. Just measure your waste, cut the elastic to length, sew it up and you’ve got yourself a belt.
 
Here’s a 30 second video of me sewing this little number together!

​I’m one of those people who loves wearing comfortable clothing all the time. My problem over that last few years is that I’ve gotten extremely lazy with my wardrobe choices. My version of “comfortable clothing” has pretty much equated me to me looking like a slob (i.e. sweats and a tank top). I try to fashionably nerd it up a bit by wearing TeeFury tanks (I turn my t-shirts into tank tops), but all-in-all a nerdy-tank and sweat pants has pretty much been my day-to-day wardrobe for a very long time now.
 
That’s why I’ve been on a sewing frenzy the past couple of months. My goal is to create a wardrobe that consists of three things: comfort, nerdiness and style. I’ve been having a lot of fun with this, especially since I discovered the obscene amounts of licensed fabric at JoAnne’s and the best website ever, Spoonflower.com (you can make your own fabric desgins!)
 
I’ve been sewing since I was seven-years-old, so I’m no stranger to a sewing machine. The past two decades I’ve mostly sewn nerdy bags/purses and cosplay clothing, so I’m super excited to finally make clothes I can wear every day.

​​The first item on my list was to find a cute tunic pattern so that I could wear leggings. Easier said than done. I wanted my tunic to be the length of a short dress so I don’t have to worry about the leggings being see-thru or any other horror fashion faux pas I’ve seen on the Internet.
 
I liked Simplicty Pattern 2365 because it had the right length and I really like the French pleating on the front. 

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My only problem was that I didn’t like the sleeves. I’m not a fan of the button-strap sleeve. I did like the princess cut in view B though, which gave me the idea to use a different pattern: New Look 6732 I had used for cosplay (I’ll definitely write a review of that awesome pattern in the future!). I love the sleeves on that pattern, so I decided to mix and match patterns. 

​Instead of doing a cuff or hem on the sleeve though, I chose do use 1/4 inch elastic. (In the case of the red tunic I sewed three hem slots for the elastic to give it an almost cuff-like appearance.) I made two of the tunics short-sleeved and the red one 3/4 sleeved. I chose to do a solid red so I could wear leggings I designed and created on RedBubble.com. Pictured here are my Shadowhunter Love Rune leggings! (I’ll be doing a blogpost on RedBubble as well!)
 
As for the other two tunics: I chose to do one with licensed Star Wars fabric and the other with fabric I designed on Spoonflower.com of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer drawing I had done years before called, Buffy in the Scythe. 

Aside from the sleeve swappage, I stuck to the pattern’s instructions. The French pleats were a little bit of a challenge. They weren’t difficult, just tedious and time consuming. Oh the things we do for fashion lol!

​The collar proved a bit a challenge as well. It ended up being slightly too long. This is because of the French pleating. I used too much fabric in folding my pleats, hence making the neck length shorter than the collar. But it was a simple fix. I sewed the collar to match the length of the neck and it fit perfectly.
 
I’ll probably make more of these tunics as they are extremely comfy and easy to make. And the best part is I can wear my leggings without looking like I’m perpetually going to a yoga class!