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Me-Made-May ’14: Week 2 Round-Up

Happy Friday, everyone! One week down into Me-Made-May – and time for another round-up!

5/3, Saturday
Dress: Fabulous Silk Birds
Slip: Ruby Slip
Shoes: Jessica Simpson

My baby brother graduated college on Saturday! Here I am with all my siblings – of course, I’m the shortest one (and this photo is a little misleading because I’m standing on an incline. I’m actually a good 7″ shorter than my sister, who in turn is shorter than my brothers, ha). I used the graduation as an excuse to pull out my favorite Me-Made to date – the Fabulous Silk Birds dress (I don’t name all my handmades, but I named this one! Because it’s fabulous!). I love love love this dress – I always feel so, well, fabulous in it 🙂 Plus, wearing this dress means I get to wear my equally amazing 4ply silk slip (note to self: sell organs and buy more 4ply silk asap), which is always a plus in my book 🙂

5/4, Sunday
Dress: Seersucker Anna
Shoes: Born
Belt: Thrifted
Sunglasses: Franco Sarto
Purse: Scarlett Begonia

Wore this to go plant shopping and ice cream eatin’ with Landon. I realize that I have this dress styled the exact same way I did in the original FO post – I guess I’m not very creative when it comes to pink seersucker! Anyway, love it and it’s great for hot weather. Also, if my hair looks brighter than it did the day before – that’s cos we redyed it 🙂 I slept in the dye so it’s SUPER bright now haha.

5/5, Monday
Tank: Target
Skirt: Cascade
Shoes: Jessica Simpson
Necklace: Handmade by me

Another favorite me-made! I LOVE this skirt, and everyone else seems to love it too – I’ve literally been followed around retail stores over it, multiple times. It’s the perfect marriage of pattern and fabric (and, before you ask – the fabric came aaaaall the way from Macedonia. My BFF picked it up for me while she was living there a few years ago. Wish I had more of it!), and it’s just so fun to wear. I feel like Shakira, and I mean that in the best way.

5/6, Tuesday
Dress: Emery
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Born

Can’t ever be sad when your hair matches your dress 🙂

5/7, Wednesday
Dress: Lady Skater
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: xoxo

ESPECIALLY if that dress has tigers printed on it!

5/8, Thursday
Top: Briar
Skirt: Moss Mini
Necklace: Thrifted
Shoes: Keds

I took some advice on styling this skirt and went with a tshirt that has a looser fit – and I LOVE how it looks with this skirt! Especially the hemline on this Briar – hi-lo hem gives it the look as if it’s tucked in, without it actually being, you know, tucked. The whole outfit is totally comfy and I’m not gonna lie – I felt pretty good about it all day.

5/9, Friday (that’s today!)
Top: Advance 8511
Pants: Thurlows (but skinny!)
Shoes: Born

I actually had a different outfit planned today – I wanted to wear a skirt. But then I stepped outside, noticed the chill in the air, and decided to wear my red Thurlows instead. No regrets!

All in all, I think I had a pretty successful first (full)week of MMM! The changing weather has been a little tricky, but I’m working on a lightweight trench coat right now that will hopefully get me through the chilly mornings and occasional rain (actually, the trench is done – I’m just waiting on the buttons to be delivered!). How are y’all doing with your pledges? Find any fun outfit combinations or gaping holes in your closet yet?

Oh, just a few more announcements before I sign off for the weekend:
– If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to enter in the Colette Guide to Sewing Knits Giveaway! I’ll be drawing the lucky winner on Monday morning, so you’ve still got time!
– My girl Elizabeth is looking for part time seamstresses to help her with some sewing work. If you’re in the Nashville area and would like to sew on an amazingly fun industrial machine in a gorgeous studio (I’m not even kidding about either of those – that’s me in her studio on 5/6!) for a lil’ extra cash, send her an email at hello@elizabethsuzann.com. I’m currently doing part time work for her on the side, and it’s super awesome because we listen to 80s music and watch Nicolas Cage movies. I have no intentions of quitting; her business is just growing very fast and she needs more help! All levels of experience are welcome – we’re not handbeading couture or anything here 🙂 – but you must already have a basic understanding of clothing construction and know how to operate a sewing machine. Bonus points if you’re a speedy sewer!
– My class at Watkins, Introduction to Fashion Sewing still has a couple of spots open, if you’ve been on the fence about signing up. DO IT NOW, GO!
– Aaaaaand, Nashville’s newest/cutest fabric store, The Fabric Studio, is finally open and just released the class schedule for June! I’ve got a few gigs there as well – Learn to Sew the Colette Ginger Skirt, All About Zippers Sewing Lab, and Apparel Patterns Demystified (seminar/info session)! I’m really excited about all these classes – excited to share my knowledge, excited to teach, excited to meet other sewers in the area! I think it’s gonna be fun! 🙂 Also, I promise to stop spamming y’all about my classes now 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Tags: 4 ply silk, advance, Anna, briar, Cascade skirt, Emery, I am fabulous, Lady Skater, Me Made May '14, moss mini, silkkk, Thurlow

Comments 30 Comments
Categories Me Made May

Completed: A Totally Sheer Anna Dress

21 Oct

I swear, this is my last Anna dress for now!

But I mean, look at that fabric – can you blame me? That shit was meant to be amirite?

So, this fabric is pretty amazing. I actually bought it way before the pattern was released, with no real project in mind except that I HAD to have it. I found a lonely yardage stashed away at my new work (obviously this was before I started working there, when I was going on weekly visits and soaking up little sewing tricks and tidbits by osmosis) and took home 3 yards.

You can’t really tell in the pictures since I am wearing a slip underneath, but this fabric is quite sheer. I’m not really sure what the content is, but it feels (and sews and presses) like a silk organza, maybe with a tiny bit of poly blended in there. For being a sheer fabric, it has a surprising amount of body (again, like an organza). When I first started sewing it, I wasn’t sure how it would look as this dress -the pleats were sticking straight out over my boobs! Fortunately, they seem to have toned down a little, ha.

I just loove the print! Little brown leaves, covered in some kind of flocked something (I say flocked, but it almostttt feels like super duper short fur. They’re like, hairy, haha. Oh man, I’m making this fabric sound disgusting right now) and then outlined in sparkly black flocked something. To sum it up in one word: magical.

Speaking of things that are magical, I feel like I’ve been using that word a lot lately. I should probably come up with some new adjectives.

For the pattern itself, I didn’t make any changes apart from the tweaks that were there from my last two versions. I sewed the entire dress using french seams, except I did serge the seam allowance next to the zipper (hairy fabric means sheddy fabric, ugh).

Ah! There’s the slip! 🙂

The neckline was a little tricky thanks to the sheer fabric – I didn’t want to use a facing because it would show through, and I didn’t want to line the dress because duhhhh what if I decide to go all undiesonly.com (lol does anyone else remember that website HAHA) and I can’t because the dress has been lined? I decided to bind it with a strip of black silk organza cut on the bias. Boo on me, my silk organza was actually grey, not black (the hell?) so I had to turn it to the inside and that’s where things went a bit… wonky. It’s ok, but it’s not my best work. If you have a hankering to make a sheer Anna, buy matching silk organza and bind the edges like you normally do with bias tape. It makes it easier to miter the V for a nice sharp point. Just a tip!

Also, while we’re being honest with one another, I should let y’all know that I put that tiny bow+button on the neckline to cover my less-than-lovely v-point haha. And of course, now I’m noticing that it’s totally not centered at all and it’s making my eye twitch.

I guess it’s tacky to show my bra straps, but idgaf.

All french seamed and shit

Here you can really see the texture of the fabric. Also, isn’t that button on the bow so cute?! I got it in a box of tiny deco glass buttons. This was the only one, so I’m happy to have found a use for it 🙂

Despite the french seams and fiddly neck binding, this dress came together VERY fast. Which is good, because I needed it for all the weddings I went to this month (three! Seriously, October, what’s up with that?? Don’t worry, tho, I caught 2 out of 3 bouquets… poor Landon HAHA). I mean, yes, duh I have tons of dresses, but I wanted a faaaaall dress. And here she is! And yay!

A couple more things before I let y’all off the hook! One, we have a winner for the ChatterBlossom Giveaway! Random number generator says…

Ding ding ding! Congratulations, Uglybeat! Expect an email from me about right… now 🙂

For the rest of you who need consolation for not winning, may I remind you that the coupon code is still good for the next week! Lladybird15 gets ya 15% off your order through 10/28 🙂

And because everyone loves coupon codes, we’ve also got one for my newest newest sponsor, She’ll Make You Flip! Use the code LLADYBIRD20 to get 20% off your entire purchase through the end of 2013. Meaning, someone buy this 1940s dress pattern before it accidentally ends up in my shopping cart, thanks 😉

Happy Monday, everyone!

Tags: Anna, completed, dress, Fall/Winter 2013, giveaway winner, sheer, winner winner chicken dinner

Comments 46 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: A Luscious Silk Anna

28 Aug

Hey guys. I would like to introduce you to Anna, my newest piece for the Mood Sewing Network.

So, Oona and Sonja originally planned this silk challenge, in which they both would make Anna dresses with a notoriously difficult fabric. Once I got wind of what was going on, I walked straight into that party and invited myself to be the third wheel. I can’t help it; I love being part of a Mood Fabrics sandwich. Especially when it involves Thakoon Crepe de Chine. I mean, COME ON.

So, as we all know at this point – this is the Anna dress, the newest offering from By Hand London. For mine, I decided to try my hand at the maxi version with the slash neckline, after getting good results with my wearable muslin shorter version. Since the dress itself is very simple, it was the perfect excuse for getting my hands on the aforementioned silk Crepe de Chine.

I’ve never sewn with this type of fabric before, so I was admittedly a little nervous. Would I regret my decision?

Really, though, it wasn’t so bad! The crepe texture of this fabric actually made everything a LOT easier – it gave the pieces something to “grab” onto (as opposed to being all slinky and slippery all over the place). For cutting, I did pin my selvedges together to keep everything intact, and I used a lot of pins on the actual pattern pieces as well. One protip – make sure you use silk pins; this stuff is very delicate and normal pins may leave holes! I also used a microtex/sharp needle on my machine. The fabric fed through very smoothly (again, thanks crepe, for your grabby lil hands!) and it pressed with very little fuss. I like this stuff!

Construction was very straightforward. I finished every seam with a french seam, and tackled miles of blind stitching by hand along the thigh split, sleeves, and bottom hem (I just want y’all to know that I watched the Great British Sewing Bee while doing this, and as a result I am celebrity-in-love with Patrick. Don’t tell Landon.). The facing and zipper edges are finished with pinking – I actually deliberated on this a lot, pinking isn’t necessarily my favorite seam finish, but I felt it was important that the edges were not detectable from the outside of the dress as this silk is very thin. Fortunately, it doesn’t want to unravel much so I’m not concerned about that.

I also stabilized the slash neckline with scraps of selvedge from the silk – just pinned them within a bit of the seam allowance and staystitched them down with a tiny stitch. Keeps things nice and gape-free!

“Hold the phone, Lauren – did you say thigh high split???”

Uh huh, I sure did.

Truth, I normally don’t have much of a reason in my life to wear something like a floaty silk maxi dress with a thigh split. However, it was a fun project and I am totally fine with scheming up date ideas as an excuse to give this silk lady the exposure she deserves! Do you think eating pizza in this dress would be the worst idea ever? 😉

Now, I leave you with some walking photos. What would this post be worth without a couple action shots, amirite?

WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT HOW THAT SILK FLOATS AND FLOWS.

Finally, here I am giving my best Angelina Jolie impression:

What do you think? Silk Anna yeah, or Silk Anna fuck yeah?

Psst! Mood Fabrics is running a one day flash sale for 20% off fabrics sitewide! If there was ever a good time to dip your toes into the world of silk, that would be now.

Tags: Anna, By Hand London, completed, Crepe de Chine, dress, hot damn this is my jam, maxi dress, Mood Fabrics, Mood Sewing Network, silk, Thakoon

Comments 81 Comments
Categories completed projects - new, Mood Sewing Network

Completed: The Anna Dress, 1

19 Aug

Thank you so much, everyone, for your overwhelming support this past week. My recovery is going well (although I’m still not clear to lift anything that weighs more than 10lbs – that includes my CAT! HAHA! Oh well, I’m sure she’s happy about that, anyway), and I’m back to work and back to… sewing!! Yeah!!! Well, sort of. I promised myself I would take it easy (aka: laying, knitting, snoozing) until Friday, per Doctor’s orders, and only then could I get back in the sewing room. Lucky me, I woke up on Friday morning with a fucking cold! So, needless to say, the past few days have been a haze of cold meds and even more snoozin’. I’m functioning, albeit slower than normal.

But hey, look, I have a make to share with y’all today!

Ok ok, before you flip your shit on me – I finished this dress before the surgery! Haha! I actually wore it to work the Friday prior; it’s just taken me this long to take photos. Speaking of which – if I look a bit extra happy in these photos… cold meds. That is all.

This is the Anna Dress, from my friends, the babely babes, over at By Hand London. I’m no stranger to the patterns from this line – I can proudly say that I have sewn every single one of ’em, yeah! – but I gotta say… Anna is my favorite. Based on everyone else’s gushing about this particular pattern (here is where I was planning on linking my favorite Annas, but again, cold meds. If you made it, linky up in the comments pls!), I’m not alone. Anna is a WINNER!

Am I allowed to tell y’all that I actually saw this dress waaaaay before I was announced to the hoardes of blog readers? Truth! Elisalex showed me a sneaky peeky while she was in Nashville back in May! I have been dying to get my hands on the pattern ever since! I love my short version, but I am SO EXCITED to try out that thigh-high split, peeps.

I opted for a very simple version for my wearable muslin, in a classic seersucker from Mood. This is one of my last pieces of fabric from the NY stash, btw. I’ve held out on making this up because it’s a stretch cotton, and we don’t play well together. But I think stretch cotton works fine with this type of dress, as long as you’re ok with how the bodice looks in a slightly structured fabric. I like it!

My Anna is the short version, with the slash neckline. I cut the size 2/6 and shortened the skirt about 5″. I found that the back was rather large on me – I just pinched out the excess along the zipper line. Oh, I also put in a lapped zipper because I didn’t have any invisibles on hand. Sue me!

Since my fabric is stretchy, I stabilized the neckline facing with a bit of non-stretch cotton. To do this, I just cut a second facing piece from the cotton, sewed it to the seersucker facing (as you would a sew-in interfacing) and applied the facing as normal. This keeps the neckline nice and smooth and secure!

The pattern itself was an absolute delight to put together. There’s a reason why this pattern has so many fangirls – especially considering how short a time it’s actually been available on the sewing market. There aren’t a lot of pieces, and what is there is super simple to put together. I think this would make a great beginner pattern, whether you’re a beginner at sewing or a beginner with a a certain type of fabric (meaning: yes, you should make this up in silk!)

I should probably tell you that I already have a couple more versions planned. Better get used to this dress! Ha!

Oh, one more thing before I tear outta here… our giveaway winner!

There were 230 entries in all (accounting for duplicates), and you ALL made me hungry (special shoutout goes to Marchelle who linked me to this lemon cookie recipe from Martha Stewart… I will have y’all know, I made this yesterday and they are delicious aaand I’ve already eaten about half of them, ha!). Random Number Generator sayssss-