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Completed: The Tacky Shirtwaist Dress

I actually don’t think this dress is tacky at all – I think it’s kind of kitschy & cute! Landon however, hates the fabric – “that looks like a set of curtains my mother had” – which means that I’ll be wearing this dress a lot around him, just because. I’m a terrible person.

ANYWHO let’s talk about this pattern for a minute. This is Simplicity 2458, a sweet little 1958 shirtwaist pattern that includes a few different options. I went with option 2, but I cut the sleeves & hem significantly shorter than indicated by the pattern – the original hem came down to my ankles. Total frumpsville! I tried to take a picture for lols, but I couldn’t get the tripod far enough away to capture the true essence… so just trust me on this one. Anyway, the pattern was lovely to work with, although some of the instructions were a little dicey. A dress like this uses a LOT of fabric – I think I used close to 5 yards! Fortunately for meeee, this fabric was part of one of my ‘fill several giant bags full of fabric and pay $5 for all of it’ flea market finds, so this dress ended up being cheap 🙂 I’m actually surprised at how well the pattern fit straight out of the envelope – the only sizing adjustment I made was to add about 1/2″ at the side seam under the bust dart. Everything else fits great! There are 10 darts in just the top of this dress – 4 vertical bust darts, 2 horizontal bust darts, and 2 vertical neck darts in the back. There are actually 2 darts in the skirt as well, but you can’t see them for all the ~soft pleats~ hovering at the waistline. Also, I think this dress really needs pockets. I’m not the kind of girl who things pockets belong in all dresses or anything like that, but I feel like this dress would have benefited from some deep side seam pockets. Maybe next time!

I actually really hate the buttons on this thing – I think they are tacky as hell & they make the dress look really cheap. I really need to find some nice turquoise buttons, but these’ll do for now – they were what I had in my stash (and I actually went to the store in search of buttons but WTF why are buttons so expensive?! It was like $3 for two buttons – and now I’m seriously regretting that I passed up all those pretty antique Czech glass buttons at the flea market last month. Dude wanted $1 a piece & I thought that was way too high, but looks like I was wrong. Ok enough with the button tangent.) The off-white belt is my attempt to pretend like the buttons were on purpose. That is all.

Dress with belt:

Oh, do you see where the button placket on the skirt is kind of sinking into the folds? I clearly used much too heavy of an interfacing down there, and it is weighed down as a result. It’s a fairly sturdy, mediumweight sew-in interfacing – worked beautifully on the collar (so crisp!) – but it really doesn’t belong on the skirt. Especially since I’ll probably never unbutton those buttons.

Dress without belt:

This is me running back into my house because I realized it might be a good idea to lock the door.

Came back with a petticoat!

The skirt looked a lot more full in real life, argh.

Also, I found a caterpillar 😀
(sidenote: someone made a snide comment about my septum ring a couple of posts ago… good for you, lady, I hope this picture grosses you out lol)

Instead of a button at the waistline, there are hooks & eyes. This keeps everything nice & flat without gaping! Sorry about the yellow smudges – I tried to edit them out best I could. This is my tip for getting hooks & eyes positioned so they actually latch closed – sew on the eye, and then rub chalk all over it until it has a layer of powder covering it. Close the garment and press down slightly where the hook should go… when you pull the garment open, there should be a little dot of powder that is exactly where you need to sew the hook. So helpful!

Lace at the hem 🙂

That’ll be all, folks! 🙂

Tags: completed, dress, shirtwaist, simplicity, spring/summer 2012, vintage

Comments 60 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Colette Parfait

27 Mar

Damn, y’all. I know I was all pumped about getting my Spring & Summer wardrobe‘s ass whipped into shape, but I didn’t realize I was going to rip through it so fast. WOE IS ME, WHAT IF I RUN OUT OF FABRIC.

Anyway, I made a Parfait! And this fabric… it might even be more delicious than it’s namesake (I know!). I bought 2 yards of this stuff… 4 years ago, I think? I had plans for some shitty sundress, but thankfully went into hoarder mode & it’s sat on my shelf since. It is the most amazing, soft, silky cotton voile I have EVER put my hands on… seriously wish I could cut a little swatch to mail to all of you. It feels sooooo good! And I’m not even a “purple” person (although, for some reason, everyone else seems to think I am. Must be my dark hair?), but I just love the purples & greys in this fabric. Love love love.

I’ve actually made this pattern up before – here’s the Craftster link. This time ’round, I size down to a 2 and omitted the pockets and facings. The top & midriff are lined with a lovely white batiste. I was afraid the skirt was going to be too sheer to wear without a slip (or underlining), but guess what – I have on TURQUOISE underwear in these pictures and ho ho ho I don’t see them at all! I will, however, approach direct sunlight with many precautions.

I don’t have much else to say about this pattern except pay attention to that cutting layout! The majority of those pieces are cut on the fold. I think the fabric requirements are pretty generous, though – I still have nearly 3/4 yard of this voile left. Although I didn’t cut the facings, I don’t think they really take up that much fabric, you know? 🙂

Check out this picture of me – I look pissed lololololol. Honestly, I was just testing the camera to make sure everything was centered and the light was good. But I crack up every time I look at it so I’m going to share my mean mug with the rest of the world. THERE YA GO.

If the left side of my back looks weird, it’s because I photoshopped my (turquoise)bra strap out. Photoshop is so magical, y’all.

I love the button straps, but now I’m wondering if I should have sewn the buttons on with black thread instead.

The under-buttons are clear – why waste a pretty button that won’t be seen??

Bastiste lining 🙂

On a side note, does anyone know how to determine if a fabric is lining fabric or not?

I bought this stuff at an antique mall over the weekend – dots! So fun! But this fabric is totally stumping me! It’s not super slippery like traditional lining fabric, although the sheerness makes me pause (seems too sheer to be apparel fabric). The part that confuses me is that it’s textured. Does lining fabric ever have texture?
FWIW, the fabric is 100% poly. I bought it because it was $1 and, eh, I can use it either or. I guess it doesn’t really matter, but I just think it looks really obvious and kind of tacky when people use lining fabric as apparel fabric. So I don’t want to make that mistake! Thoughts?

Anyway, enough of that blabber. Summmmmmmmer!

Tags: completed, dress, parfait, spring/summer 2012

Comments 62 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Embroidered Silk Shell Top

22 Mar

And another one down!

I don’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but I picked up this silk turquoise skirt at my favorite thrift store about a month ago – at half off, it was $2. And it was plus size, and long, which meant lots of fabric for me to play with. Silk for $2? I’ll take it! I was able to salvage some giant pieces of fabric, plus the lining. And the zipper, for about 5 minutes (until I forgot that there wasn’t a zipper stop and I immediately pulled the zipper off the teeth. DERP.). I know the tag says ‘dry clean only,’ but I washed a little swatch of the fabric in the sink & it didn’t seem to be an issue at all – no water spotting, no weird shrinkage. Anyway, I had enough fabric to make the little top in Simplicity 4400 (which, I might point out, is the very first vintage pattern I ever bought – at the same thrift store, no less!). I was even able to finagle the pieces so that I kept the original skirt hem intact. Yeah!

A word about this pattern (and every other vintage pattern I’ve ever sewn up) – there is still ease in vintage patterns. Lot and lots of ease. Notice the size on that pattern is for a 32″ bust? My bust is actually 36″ – and the top fits me perfectly. I have noticed this a lot with vintage patterns, so do what you will & make a muslin (or tissue fit, like lazy me :3).

To keep this top from being *too* simple, I embroidered a rose by the right shoulder:

I got the design from Hoop Love Vintage Transfers on Flickr – a GREAT embroidery pattern resource! To transfer the design, I laid it over a sheet of wax transfer paper and traced with a pencil. The stitches here are split stitch (on the rose) and back stitch (on the leaves & stems). Oh, and if you are apt to try this – make sure you staystitch those curved seams before you start! It’ll keep them from stretching out with all that extra handling 🙂 I probably should have serged my edges too, since this silk frays like nobodies business, but you know me… livin’ on the edge & shit.

As a side note, can we discuss these wtf directions?

I’ve never seen this before – it’s a dart, but without the dart legs. I have to make my own dart legs. How intriguing!

Ok, anyway, back to my top.

Construction was fairly simple & straight forward. I opted to hand-pick a center zipper (instead of the machine-stitched lapped zip in the directions) and did not topstitch the facings, as I wanted the top to be simple so the focus would be on that embroidery. The top sewn as-is ended up being too billowy for my tastes, so I added vertical darts below the bust for a little shape. I originally planned to wear it tucked but I think I prefer it untucked now! Unfortunately, the arm holes are a little on the tight side but, eh, I think I can deal.

(huh, I really need to re-press those dart tips!)

BONUS: Tucked!

Hand picked zipper – I got a little obsessive & tried to match the stitches up on both sides hahaha

Remember when I said I broke the zipper that came with the skirt? Well I found this one in my stash – and it matches perfectly! Talk about a happy accident!

Pretty pleased with this little top – I think I’ll get a lot of wear out of it this summer. The silk is so deliciously soft, and I just love the color!

Tags: completed, embroidery, reconstructions, silkkk, simplicity, top

Comments 52 Comments
Categories completed projects - reconstructed

Completed: Simplicity 8345; the Daisy Sundress

20 Mar

Hi everyone! Apologies for my bout of silence all week – I found myself feeling ill early in the week, and regulated myself to crafts that involved sitting on the couch with little to no concentration (paint-by-numbers, if you’re curious. HOLY SHIT I love those things!). Despite my best efforts, I spent the entire weekend sick 😦 I did drag myself out of bed long enough to catch as estate sale on the other side of town:

$5.50 for the whole box! There’s about 2 yards of fabric in there (it’s very sheer – almost like cheesecloth – so it’ll need to be underlined), plus the book has lots of sewing-related newspaper clippings 🙂 The house was totally awesome – unchanged since 1961. Beautiful pink bathroom, original kitchen appliances, knotty pine dining room, and orange & green shag carpet!

Anyway, THAT took all my energy – seriously! I got home, crawled into bed, and slept for the rest of the weekend. Being sick sucks, yo.

Then I woke up on Monday morning with a migraine. LOVELY. So I called out of work, slept the migraine off, and tried to make some use of my day later in the afternoon.

So here’s my meager project after a weekend of sick – the daisy sundress!

Also totally approps for the first day of spring, amirite? 🙂

I used Simplicity 8345, a simple sundress with princess seams & a scalloped neckline. This dress was seriously easy to sew up, albeit with a strange order of assembly – you put in the zipper first, then sew the shoulder seams, then insert the neckline facing, then sew the side seams together, then put the sleeves on the side seams, then sew that whole mess to the front/back mess. Kind of interesting!

I did make a few small changes – my first princess-seamed FBA, which was sort of a disaster. Oops. Blame it on poor ol’ sick me 😦 Everything fits fine, but I should have divided my addition of width to both the front & side front panels, not just the side front. My seams are WAY too front & center, and I feel this dress now has the magical ability to make me look both flat-chested & wide on top. Oh well, live & learn I guess. lol.

I also sewed my sleeves up a little differently – they are supposed to be faced. LOLWUT. Who faces sleeves in a sundress? Well, I’m sure people do, but not me! I just hemmed them as normal and omitted the facings. Boring facings! The sleeves are a little tight, I might add. Not a lot of room for movement there, oh well.

I also cut like 6″ off the hem. Knee-length, my ass!

I do like the scalloped neckline. So pretty!

Wanna know the best part about this dress?

The fabric was a BEDSHEET! trololololol

I didn’t have a matching zipper, so I used dark green. Again – stash-bustin’ 😀

I guess there’s not much else to say about this. It’s a sundress. I’ll wear it in the sun. Or something.

And look – spring is already making an early start here in Tennessee 🙂 SO GREEN. SO BLOOMY.

Happy first day of spring, y’all!

Tags: completed, daisy sundress, dress, simplicity

Comments 31 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Cheetah (mock)Wrap Dress

13 Mar

TIME FOR A CONFESSION.

The Leopard Wrap Dress? Well, first of all – it’s cheetah, not leopard. Oops! I still like the fabric, though! 🙂 Secondly, it would appear that my wrap dress is actually a mock wrap dress – double oops! And wouldn’t you know, I didn’t even realize it until I got about halfway through the directions and saw that there was a zipper in there. Yep, even with cutting the pattern, I did not figure out that this wasn’t a true wrap dress! Oh well, I find wrap dresses kind of hard to keep closed, especially with slinky fabric like this – so let’s consider this a blessing in disguise 🙂

That being said, check out my cheetah print mock wrap dress, guys!

I used Simplicity 6268, which I can’t seem to find anywhere on the internet, sry2say. I picked this up a couple of years ago at the flea market – in a bag full of sewing supplies for something like $5. The fabric was given to me by my best friend – her grandmother was cleaning out her sewing room so I ended up with a LOT of this fabric (5 1/4 yards, if you’re curious. And yes, I have leftovers! Lots of leftovers!). It’s not something I would typically buy for myself, as it’s some class of poly and pretty drapey, but I LOVE how the finished dress turned out and it seriously does not wrinkle at ALL. I think this dress would be great for traveling – very wash & wear!

Since my pattern is for a 33.5″ bust, I was afraid I’d have to do some adjusting, but a quick tissue fit showed that everything fit fairly well. I’ve noticed a lot of patterns put extra (excess) ease in their garments – which is awesome for me, because that means I get to snap up all those cute little 32″ bust patterns and they fit fine! HA HA! Like I said, this one fit with no alterations, other than the length. See how short the skirt is? This is after I added 1.5″ to the hem & I used a 5/8″ hem (instead of the suggested 1.5″ hem). This baby was supposed to be SHORT! I don’t mind short, usually, but not with a flowy dress. Especially not a dress I plan on wearing to work. So, if you get this pattern, consider the length.

On a side note, I just have to share this because I felt pretty freaking brilliant:

I ran out of tape, so I sewed the tissue pieces together! I got the idea from Liz haha. And no, I still haven’t bought more tape. Need to get on that.

The tie belt is actually supposed to be sewn to the sides & tie at the back – I ended up sewing my pieces together to make a long belt, and it is not attached to the dress. I think tying it in the front makes it look more like a wrap dress, plus now I can wear different belts if I feel so inclined 🙂 I think cheetah (and leopard!) go with all kinds of colors, so it makes the dress much more versatile.

And can I just point out that I took these pictures after I got home from work – at 5:30! Daylight Savings, I looove you! Plz to stay with me forever, thnx.

I just love the shape… I think it is super flattering. I want to make more of these!

See? The zipper 🙂

The zipper also came from my stash – I think I ripped it out of something I used for the fabric. So basically, this dress was free. Yay free dresses!

I love the little tulip sleeves.

I did end up putting a small snap at the overlap on the bodice, for a little extra modesty. The dress is not immodest by any means – I don’t think the lack of snap would cause a wardrobe malfunction or anything – but the extra security is nice. You know, so I can splay myself across the couch & eat Italian Ice & not worry about the girls getting a sneak peak. Not that I was doing that last night or anything.

Also, it was WINDY outside yesterday! See? WINDY!

So happy with my new dress, even if it’s not really cheetah or a wrap 🙂

Tags: cheetah dress, completed, dress, simplicity

Comments 53 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Colette Pastille

12 Mar

Well you guys, I defeated the Pastille pattern! Wheeeee me!

I actually feel pretty good about this dress – I wasn’t totally crazy about it when I saw the pictures in the book (I think the coral color of the fabric – while lovely, just looks waay too much like the model’s skin. It would have been better suited for a lady with a darker complexion), but I think that the overall shape, if properly fitted, is actually quite flattering. And while it really lends itself well to a print, I think it would make a sweet little basic black dress, since the shape is unique enough in itself 🙂

Fitting… fitting this thing was weird. I already glossed over the process in my last Pastille post, but to summarize – while I pretty much *always* need a FBA, this pattern did not require one (didn’t figure that out until after I’d cut & taped all over the tissue though, arhghhghh!!). Actually, the finished measurements were just wrong – I cut a size 2 and the bust measurement was much closer to 36″, not the 34.5″ the book says. Consider yourselves warned!
The next fitting problem I had was with that damn back… I didn’t take any pictures of my muslin, but it billowed out all over the place across the upper back. I mean, it plain made me look like I had a hunchback. I eventually concluded that the upper back was longer than the front, so I did a 3/4″ swayback adjustment at the lengthen line that tapered to nothing at the side seams. That pretty much fixed it!

The rest of the dress fit fine with no other adjustments.

I actually tried to make this dress without the facings for my first go-round, but those sleeves are way too curved to handle bias tape. So back to facings (although mine are interfaced with cotton muslin, not fusible interfacing). I tacked them down as best I could since they like to pop out; sewing the trim at the neckline also helped. Rather than do fancy finishing work on the inside, I opted to finish the raw edges with a simple serged seam. I wanted the making of this dress to be quick & painless!

There *are* pleats at the bottom of the dress… I think doing those took the longest! I followed the handbook directions & thread traced all the lines, using different colors of thread for the various fold lines. It worked beautifully, but pulling out aaaaaall those threads was a pain in the ASS. No tips for making it go smoother (I don’t regret thread-tracing; it really did make lining up those pleats a breeze), just be prepared to spend some quality time with your seam ripper 🙂

You can’t tell due to my super duper busy printed fabric, but all the darts & seams actually line up perfectly. Just trust me on this one 🙂

I also would like to point out that my hair needs a dye job something fierce (I actually had a hairstylist examine my roots the other day & declare that I’m naturally dishwater blonde – which blew my fucking mind. I’ve always been a brunette, wtf?!). If you’re thinking, “Whatever, your roots don’t look bad!” that’s because I ‘shopped the shit out of them teehee 🙂

The dress looks best with a belt, in my opinion. Wish I had a yellow belt, but the one I have on hand is too neon yellow for this print & the thrift gods have been ignoring me lately in the belt department.

The hem ended up being way too long for me, and I’d already sewn in the pleats, so I just flipped up the bottom of the hem & sewed it to the inside. This is why my pleats are at the very bottom of my dress. I think it worked out fine!

I am really proud of how my zipper turned out! Basically perfect!

This whole dress was a great/cheap stash bust. Feels good to cull that shit down! I didn’t have *quite* a long enough zipper (I think mine was 20″ instead of 24″ or something), so I have to pull the dress over my head to get it on hahaha. Oh well!

So what do you think? Pastille – yay or nay?

Tags: colette sewing handbook, completed, dress, Pastille

Comments 76 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Colette Clovers – The Denim Version

2 Mar

Ok, ok – ONE more jab at this pattern! Who is sick of looking at my butt in Clovers yet? 🙂 Technically, I guess, these are the finished version of my polyester wearable muslin, so do they really count?

I bought this denim right before I swore off new fabric purchases until further notice. It’s a great denim – a nice dark wash, a good sturdy weight, and it has a slight stretch factor which makes them perfect for these jeans. I originally intended on make another pair of wide legged trousers with this fabric, but after lurking the shit out of Sallieoh’s Clover makeover, I decided to go with Clover jeans, with little flare legs. Hence, the polyester muslin.

So here’s the real deal!
(I’m sorry these pictures are bad – we are expecting lots of tornadoes today & it was straight up HAILING last night so I’m actually surprised I was able to catch enough sunlight to shoot these this morning)

I’m not going to hash out every single change I made to the pattern – you can check out my other version if you are just dying for the nitty-gritty, but I will share some additional changes I made with this pair. Here’s a list.
– I cut extra seam allowances on all the pieces since my denim wasn’t as stretchy as my poly. This was a MISTAKE. The pants ended up being way too big & I had to cut out all my seam allowances (and then some!) to get a nice fit. Whoops.
– I wanted to try out flat fell seams on the inside legs, but I cut too much SA off (this was after taking out something insane like 1″ of excess, see above), so I didn’t have enough denim to fold over. What you see are mock flat fell seams. Sorry!
– I stabilized the pockets with this awesome trim I found at the flea market – it’s measuring tape! Eeeheheee! I thought they might need some help to keep from stretching out, plus, it looks fun on the inside! The front pocket piece is red cotton, just to keep things from getting too bulky.
– I’m not terribly happy with the waistband – it digs kind of weird, there is some strange twisting going on on one side, and it was kind of tight so the button was pushed way over to the side (instead of in the center, where it belongs). And there is some kind of weird gap thing over the center back – does anyone know what that’s all about? I guess I needed to taper the waistband with a seam, idk. I don’t get plumber’s crack when I bend over, but I think it looks pretty bad. I may end up ripping out the waistband and starting over.
– There is a lot of topstitching on these pants! I used jeans topstitching thread with a more lightweight blue denim thread in the bobbin. My sewing machine was PISSED during some of those layers, gawd. I was able to struggle through, but now I’m wondering how some people with those little cheap hobby machines manage to churn out jeans. My machine is pretty heavy-duty and even with a denim needle it had some trouble, especially on the belt loops. Lots of cranking the handwheel on my end.
– I like how my belt loops turned out. I do not like that they aren’t evenly spaced at all! Haha! Oh well!

I think that’s it. Let’s look at some pictures instead!

Sorry you can’t see the hem in these!

I decided against doing the traditional topstitching in the back since I was not adding back pockets or a yoke. I know jeans are supposed to have the crotch seam flat felled & topstitched, but the idea of having a line of gold stitching running straight up the middle of my butt (with no other stitching going on back there) weirded me out way too much. So they’re simple from the behind!

See what I mean about the button? Haha I’m so embarrassed! I really should re-do that waistband… but honestly, I probably won’t. I mean, let’s keep it real here.

Pockets!

All that topstiching paid off – I think they look good!

Oh, and I finished my coffee cozy last night! It ended up being a really easy/quick knit, so I stayed up a little later than I should have, just so I could put it on my to-go cup this morning 🙂

(before you say anything… yep, that’s a Hello Kitty toaster. I got it for Christmas like 10 years ago hahah)
If you want to see the pattern/details, it’s all on my Ravelry page!

Ughff I think I’m finally done with this pattern. Seven Clovers (including a few failed muslins) is enough for anyone, I’d say!

Still… I made jeans!

Tags: clover, completed, cozies for everything, denim, knitting, pants

Comments 41 Comments
Categories completed projects - new, crafty things that are not sewing

Completed: Colette Peony – Summer Gingham!

27 Feb

Ok, it’s not summer here, but it sure feels like it – right after I took these pictures yesterday, I pulled on a short-sleeved tshirt & some denim capris and took my bicycle out for a spin. It was LOVELY outside – and today doesn’t look like it’ll be any different. Yay for spring getting a head start this year 😀

Anyway, here’s a little summer sundress to get us in the mood – sorry if you live in a cold climate, maybe you should move to the South 🙂 Ha! I kid, I kid! I can’t wait to wear this dress as God intended – no tights, no cardigan, just some espadrilles and a sweet little rose brooch. I have a feeling this dress will be in heavy rotation for the next few months!

There’s not much to say about this pattern – I’ve already made it twice, so I didn’t have to do any preliminary fitting or a muslin – just cut & go! I did putter around with the pattern, since I had a pretty limited amount of fabric – 1.5 yards of 44″ gingham is exactly enough to cut out this pattern with no sleeves or facings (but still keeping the pockets) in a size 4, FYI. I underlined the entire dress – bodice & skirt – with white cotton batiste to keep everything modest, since my gingham was pretty sheer! Since I didn’t have enough fabric to cut facings, I faced the neck & arms with white bias binding for a clean finish. I did consider lining the dress (as opposed to underlining) so I wouldn’t have to deal with facings at all, but I wanted my batiste to offer a little structure in addition to making things opaque, so I stuck with underlining. As a bonus, it brightened up the colors, too! I also scooped a little out of the neckline so it wasn’t quite so boat-neck, per my inspiration.

I decided to keep the overall look of this dress simple & clean – with pops of yellow to make everything less Dorothy-esque 🙂 The yellow belt is a leftover from my first rooibos (man, I miss wearing that dress! GET WARM OUTSIDE!), and the yellow crocheted rose pin is something I made a couple of years ago when I had this crazy idea I was going to crochet a white granny square afghan with yellow roses. Actually, I still want that afghan, but I have too many projects to finish & I hate crocheting anyway 🙂 Here is the video I used to make the rose, it’s really easy! I still have a pile of these roses that I need to do something with – maybe I’ll give them away. Dunno!

My sewing room is so tiny, but I just love standing in there & gawking, so I thought y’all might like it too!

I cut the pockets out of gingham as well, so they blend in with the sides of the dress 🙂

Oops, I almost forgot – here is a shot of it without the belt! The checks match up pretty well, if I do say so myself 🙂

This is the best close-up I could get – every single other one of my pictures turned out super dark 😦

It cracks me up how my dresses look post-FBA when they are hanging or flat – they have little built-in boobs! HAHA!

You may have noticed that the zipper is bright yellow. I did not have a white 22″ zipper on hand, but I did have yellow! And it goes with my overall theme – not to mention that pretty burst of color when it’s unzipped! I love colorful little surprises like that 🙂

I just wanted to share my check-matching at the zipper. That’s as close to perfect as I could get! I know the checks don’t line up at the waistband – it’s due to the back darts. The fronts & side seams match up, though – you can’t win ’em all!

Yellow lace on the inside of the hem 🙂

The flea market was kind of mehhh this weekened, but I did score at the thrift – look at this beauty I picked up~

100% silk, in the most gorgeous shade of teal – $2! It’s a skirt, but it’s fairly large & long, and the seams are very simple. Cutting it apart yielded about 1 3/8 yard of 36″ fabric – plus the silk lining & zipper. Also, I bought a cashmere cardigan (not pictured) for $4. YUS THRIFT.

YEP.

Tags: completed, crochet, dress, peony

Comments 69 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Cinnamon Slip

21 Feb

It’s a little early for me to jump in the spring clothing game, but holyyyyy mother the weather has been positively spring-like here! Well, except on Sunday – we had “snow” (you know, that weird slightly frozen rain that just makes a slush mess on your windshield? Yeah, ew) and it was so cold, I refused to get off the couch/out of my pajamas. But it’s back to the 60s today and I’m ready for this warm weather to stick around for good! Can’t hurt to make some springy clothes that could be layered to ward of a little chill, eh? Eh?

I got this pattern as a Christmas present from my baby brother (thank you, Matt! You are the best :D) – I really love wearing vintage slips around the house (and, er, sometimes out in public :B) in the warmer months. That’s some dainty shit! Unfortunately, vintage slips are difficult to find in my size… and I don’t care to pay the super marked up prices that resellers charge. I don’t mind makin’ em, though! Especially when it means I can use colors that aren’t pastel and fabrics that aren’t slippery nylon. Whee!

I’ve never sewn up a whole bias garment before – bias skirts, yes, and bias midriffs. Never the whole thing! So this was an interesting experience. The pattern has lots of information on working with bias – including what stitches to use & where. I was a little put off at the suggestion to use a small zig zag stitch to construct everything, but I ended up following the instructions to a T since I figure Sarai knows more about this stuff than I do 🙂 I do like the finished result!

I do have a couple small fitting concerns – the center point of the V is not flat against my body; it sticks up a little. And there are wrinkles across the top of the midriff. I’m guessing I need to cut my next one a size bigger – this is a 2, with a 4 bust, and it fits reeeally perfectly except for those wrinkles. It doesn’t look so bad in the photos but it is definitely noticeable in real life.

The fabric is a lovely cotton voile that I picked up for a steal last summer at my local fabric store – I think I paid like $3 a yard for this stuff! It’s totally NOT my style – I don’t care much for the super sweet florals, or lavender for that matter – but it was sooo soft, it just kind of leapt into my arms. I love how it looks & feels as a slip dress, though! And it made the whole bias experience much easier than if I had started out with a giant piece of slippery silk.

The print *is* a little busy, though, so I raided my stash for trim to highlight that pretty midriff detail. This lavender ribbon matches perfectly – no idea where it came from, or why it was in my stash, but yay for being a stash hoarder!

Here is some ribbon detail. It’s sewn on with a tiny zig zag stitch – amazingly, I had matching lavender thread on hand too! What are the odds?

I made this slip with the intention of it being for around-the-house wear, but I think it really looks like a casual sundress. I can totally see myself wearing this to the park with some flats and a light cardigan. What do y’all think? Strictly slip or approps for public wear as well?

As a side note, here’s a sneaky peaky at my next project – another summer dress!

It’s a Peony, in some gingham that’s been lurking in my stash for about a year (actually, I think I bought it at the same time/from the same sale rack as that floral voile lol). Not sure what I’m going to do with the petersham yet; I do want to incorporate some yellow so the dress isn’t so Dorothy 🙂

And check this out –

I underlined the pieces since they were so sheer. Pretty amazing how much of a different underlining makes! The blues & whites are much more vibrant now!

Tags: cinnamon, completed, dress, peony

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Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Colette Clovers (again!) (but these are modified!)

16 Feb

I guess these are technically a “wearable muslin,” but bear with me here. This is the sixth time I’ve made these pants… and I think I’m finally happy with the fit. We’ve had some trial & error, some hair pulling, and a lot of wasted fabric. But on the flip side, I really feel like a Fitting Guru now *and* I’ve used up a significant portion of the weird stretch polyester that I can’t seem to get rid of.

I completely & shameless ripped these off thanks to two completely different sources. For starts, I found myself in the Gap a couple of weeks ago (totally weird in itself, since I never buy RTW from the mall anymore. Handmade or thrifted, thanks!) and I just fell in love with these high-rise flared trousers. Until I tried them on, that is, and realized they were a whopping 8″ too long on me – at 5’2″ (and a half!), I am shorter than average, but I ain’t that short, y’all! And they couldn’t be hemmed, because then I would have lost all that delicious flare. Anyway, they didn’t fit me too hot (too stretchy, plumber’s crack waistband, smile wrinkles all over the crotch, etc) and they were $69, so I tucked the inspiration away in my head and moved on with my life.

Imagine my delight when I discovered Sallieoh’s fabulous red pair – I mean, look at those pants! LOOK AT THEM. Perfect little trouser pants! I DIE. I immediately put the rest of my sewing on hold because, pants. And Sallieoh was so kind enough to provide a series of very detailed tutorials, which saved me all the trouble of figuring that shit out for myself. Thank you, lady! The only part I strayed from the tutorials was to add a flare to my legs – I used instructions from Patternmaking for Apparel Design (a book I’ve had in my possession for a few years now and never actually used… don’t beat me!) and added a ~9″ flare starting at the knee.

I think my pattern could still use a little bit of tweaking to get it perfect – the back dips a little too much, and I need to get that button tab on the waistband under control. But for a wearable muslin, these ain’t half bad! I am going to make them again in my nice lightweight, stretchy denim. These current pants look fine but the polyester isn’t exactly the most comfortable thing to be wearing against one’s skin 🙂

My apologies in advance for the pictures – navy doesn’t photograph too well! Ughhhhh