Tag Archives: simplicity

patterns: spring 2011

13 Jan

i’ve lost my sewing mojo. i can’t bring myself to bother – partially because i prefer to sew in my underwear (makes fitting easier), and my sewing room is freeeeezing. and our gas bill was over $300 this month! double bummer!

anyway, i’m already dreaming of my spring wardrobe – nice, because i’ve barely made a dent in my winter wardrobe EL OH EFFING EL – so wasn’t it nice of vouge & simplicity & mccalls (but not butterick, shame on you!) to release their spring 2011 lines?

at least they don’t suck as bad at the winter patterns did. i mean, honestly now.

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vogue 1161 – work in progress – + flea market finds

28 Jun

so i started trying to hammer out this vogue pattern over the weekend:
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vogue 1161
i know it doesn’t really look like much, but there are a lot of neat design lines (WHY would you style the dress with leopard print fabric that hides the seaming and details? WHY?) that i thought would make a hot little cocktail dress. you know, for all those cocktail parties i don’t go to.

anyway, the fabric calls for something slinky and silky, so i went with this rich orange silk:
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also, btw y’all, i hate sewing silk and i really am going to swear it off soon.
reasons why i hate silk:
– it unravels worse than anything i’ve ever seen before. just during the process of cutting and marking my fabric pieces, i have probably lost over 1/2″ on all seam allowances due to the silk unraveling and being a bitch. this dress prob won’t even freakin’ fit by the time i am done with it AUGHHH!!
– it is a bitch to cut – it shifts and slides and hates on me. i tried cutting on paper, i tried cutting one layer, i tried pinning the everloving hell out of it… it must be some kind of shape-shifter because it would NOT stay in place. the only thing i didn’t try was my rotary cutter – because, 1. i hate my rotary cutter; 2. the blades are dull; and 3. i hate my rotary cutter bc i don’t actually know how to use it – but my scissors are pretty freakin’ sharp soo i don’t know. anyway. cutting sux, y’all.
– ironing makes me sad. i learned very quickly that, even though my rowenta has a “silk” setting, it wrinkles and puckers the crap out of my silk and apparently i need to use a press cloth. whoops! the iron isn’t hot enough to totally flatten those dang seams, which is a bummer because i am an seam-pressing fiend every other day of the week.
– i had to buy a marking pen because my wax ~tailor’s pencil~ was too hard and bore a tiny hole in the fabric, crap.

but you know what? at least it is a pretty silk.

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simplicity 3673

24 Nov

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this is simplicity 3673. normally, i’m not a big fan of simplicity patterns (their sizing is always a little off – more on that later), but i like this vintage reissue from the 50s. i also had this fabric:
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that i bought at a yard sale for $1. paired up with a vintage zipper from my stash (i always buy them for pennies at the thrift store, and i actually had one on hand that was the correct length AND color… pretty convenient!), this dress was super cheap/easy to make.

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