What Do You Do...

...when you're frustrated?

I have a pretty piece of ivory colored poly/rayon burnout jersey.  Not much stretch but lots of drape, as you can imagine with a poly/rayon.  I had (notice the past tense) 3 yards of it.  Until I totally wasted a yard on a shirt that doesn't fit, will never fit, can't make it fit, etc, etc, boo hoo hoo.  I thought I'd make just a plain tee to wear over a white camisole top, but somehow I got my patterns mixed up or something, because what I just cut out and put together was a 100% fail.  *sigh*  I hate wasting pretty fabric. 

So what did I do?  You mean after I got done ranting, raving and shaking my fist at the sky? 

I made a dress for Daughter instead.  Isn't it pretty?  It's the same boring button down pattern I've been using for a while now.  I really need to get more creative with her dresses.

I have another one in the wings (ha! ha! that's a pun, there's birds all over that dress...my sense of humor is really hurting, isn't it?) but for some reason I decided it would be brilliant to put a gazillion buttons all the way down the front.  The buttonholes are sewn and cut, so there's no going back, but I've been procrastinating sewing on the buttons for over a week.  If I don't hurry up, she's going to grow out of the dress before she ever gets a chance to wear it.  And that would be a shame, because it really is very pretty.

I've got my new Jalie swimsuit pattern, I've got some old nylon/lycra and some new, so I've got everything I need to make new swimsuits for both me and Daughter.  I also got some microfiber to make board shorts for Youngest Son and I've had the Kwik Sew pattern for a couple of years now, so I've got everything I need for him, too.  I'm so looking forward to the swimming/kayaking season and I want to be ready for that first perfect day.

One of Last Year's Projects --Girls' Button Front Dress

Here's one of the dresses I made for Daughter last year but never got around to blogging about.  She picked this fabric from the quilting cottons at JoAnn's.  Okay, so taking a picture of it while she's standing in front of a door that is nearly the same color is probably not my best photography decision of the year.  Nobody's perfect.  I'm a dressmaker, not a photographer.

Anyway.  The buttons are a little too bright, with a little too much orange in them to quite match the red berries on the dress, but that is pretty much the only flaw and I think I can live with it.

When I was younger, I had a number of dresses made like this one.  This is one I call the Shamrock dress.  I made this one about 13-14 years ago (yes, it still fits) but hardly ever wear it.  Daughter absolutely loves the style, which is so much more appropriate for her than for me, so I set about making one for her.  I had to create my own pattern for her dress, as I couldn't find a button front pattern, though I confess I didn't try very hard.  The conversion is pretty fast and easy.

I start with my trusty Butterick 3360, which I have made many times.  This pattern has the front on a fold and a back zipper for a closure.  Remove the center back seam allowance and cut on the fold.  Add a self-fabric facing and interfacing to the center front, and Voila! you pretty much have a button front dress.

The only trouble is all those buttonholes to sew and cut and all those buttons to attach.  But the buttons on the front are alot easier to fasten than the zip at the back which is so hard to reach sometimes. 

All in all, it's a gorgeous dress.  Daughter is very happy with it and has put her order in for another.

Another Girls' Butterick Dress

Are you guys tired of this pattern yet? It's Butterick 3350 and now that I've sewn all three necklines, I believe that I am finally tired of it.  Also, this is the largest size in the envelope, so once Daughter grows out of this, we'll need to find a new pattern anyway.

This is made in a pretty  quilting cotton that I bought at JoAnn's earlier this year.  Very nice and soft and easy to sew.  I love this fabric print, a little old fashioned and antique-y but still perfect for a little girl. The back tie is a double sided ribbon, also from JoAnn's but I'm not happy with it.  I thought for the added expense, a double sided ribbon would be a little more substantial than the single sided or the grosgrain.  It's not.  They made it thin and cheap and I really don't like it.  I'm looking for a source for decent ribbons.  Any suggestions?

I put an invisible zipper in the back of this version, too.  So much easier and nicer looking than regular zippers.  And as I get older and (I hope) wiser, I'm more inclined to enjoy the hand sewing aspects of making clothing.  I say this because I sewed the center back seam allowances of the lining to the zipper and the entire lining waist seam entirely by hand -- and I enjoyed it.  That would not have been true just six months ago.

Anyway, like I said, I've sewn all three necklines:
The plain rounded neckline

The sweetheart neckline

 And, of course, this latest one, which I'm no sure what to call. Which do you like best?

Mini Wardrobe Contest -- A Small Beginning

 I know one thing for sure: I definitely want the stretch linen button down shirt.  And I definitely want to use my TNT Jalie pattern to do it.

The linen is a sand color, with a darker tan vertical pinstripe.  It's been washed and dried on the hot setting, so it's pretty soft and comfortable.  I find linen to be a little itchy at times (am I the only one who finds it so?), but I'm hoping that this piece won't be too bad.



So that's what I'm sure of.  What I'm not sure of is the rest. Should I make the skirt, pants, and jacket combo?  Or should I make one of these dresses in the luscious, flowing plaid wool twill I found while I was hunting out the fabric for the other pieces? 
 

I tried to take a picture of the fabric, but I just washed it and hung it to dry so it's not photographing well at the moment.  But it is primarily a reddish chocolate, with some black and gray.  That doesn't describe it very well.  I'll have to snap a photo once it's dry.

Doesn't matter.  I have plenty of time to decide.  But let me ask you this:  Would you wear a pinstriped shirt (like the fabric above) under a plaid dress like one of the ones on the bottom?

Summer in Review -- Projects #1 & #2 of Not Very Many

It's been a busy summer for me, and while I didn't get much sewing done, I managed to get a little in here and there. I totally failed when it came to the blogging part, though, so I'll try and show you some things in the next week or two. 

First up is Daughter's handkerchief dress. She does so love these and it's a neat way to use a horizontal stripe.  I got this print from Fabric.com of course.  It's a cotton jersey that probably has about 25% stretch.  Sleeveless for the summer and she should be able to wear it through the Fall as well with a sweater. I have some pretty pink acrylic sweater knit that ought to make a warm a cozy sweater for her.

I also made this mauve jacket for Daughter this summer.  It's a very basic round-necked jacket -- I don't recall which pattern I used, though I suppose I could fish it out if anybody really needs to know.  It wasn't a very impressive pattern -- it was an unlined, faced jacket meant to worn over formal wear, like a flower girl dress or something.  I added a lining (which was so easy I don't know why they didn't design the pattern with one) which turned it into a classy little jacket instead of some cheesy little thing that looks like you made it yourself.  I added the pockets as well, since Daughter was adamant that it HAD to have pockets.  The fabric is a bottom weight stretch cotton sateen with a woven vertical stripe, originally bought to make pants for myself (until I realized that pink pants and myself are not a good combination, what was I thinking?). And since it was a pretty plain fabric, it absolutely had to have trim of some kind.  I've had this heart ribbon for a while, and it fit the bill perfectly, especially since the color matched so well.  And Daughter picked out the heart buttons during a visit to Joann's last year.  They've been languishing in the button box, waiting for just the right project.

That's two of the projects and I'm pretty pleased with both of them.

A Gallery of Girls' Projects

Last post was for the boys. This one's for the girls. Okay, girl. Since I only have one daughter.

I made Daughter a couple more of her signature knit wrap dresses. This one is made from interlock from JoAnn's.  My girl is growing up, though, so this will probably be the last of the juvenile prints for her.  She has a classic taste.  When she picks fabric for herself, she tends to choose tiny flowered prints, but she still leans towards pinks every chance she gets.

The stripes are a jersey that I bought from Miss Fairchild over at Pattern Review.  Daughter made all the design decisions, including the length of the skirt and sleeves, and the ruffle trimming the hems.

I also made her a bathing suit, using Jalie's newest pattern.  I bought nylon/lycra fabrics last year, on clearance after the summer season was over, so I had several for her to choose from.  She liked both the pink (naturally!) and the purple, so the Jalie, with it's color blocking, was the perfect choice.  I still can't get over how easy these are to make.  And to think I used to spend $25 every year for Daughter's bathing suits.

This sews up in about 3 hours and as far as I can tell, the elastic lengths listed in the pattern instructions are perfect.  I made a swimsuit like this for myself last year and I found it a little short in the torso.  I made Daughter's using the size that matched her height and the fit seems pretty good.  If the weather would just get nice, we could field test it and know for sure whether or not the fit is perfect.

I also made her a cute little collarless jacket out of pink stretch cotton.  I show you that one next time.  And I realize I never took a picture of my wool melton coat that I finished in March.  I'll take a picture of that one, too.  Just as soon I sew on the button I managed to pull off.

A New Dress For Daughter

I feel a bit as though all the dresses I sewed for myself last month used up all my sewing energy for January and February.  But here at the tail end of the month, I seem to be getting a little of my own back.

 The pattern is Butterick 3350 which I reviewed on PatternReview.com last year.  Read the review

The fabric, ribbon, thread, and zipper all come from JoAnn fabrics.  The fabric is a plain old quilting cotton, but I liked this pretty calico print and the thread is Gutermann.

 Since I've used this pattern already, fabric cutting to final hem only took a couple of hours a day for a couple of days.  Daughter likes this Sweetheart neckline very much -- this is the second dress I've made for her with this neckline.  Both sides aren't perfectly matched, but I'm really thinking that no one is going to notice that.

The back tie is grosgrain ribbon, which Daughter has always preferred to a self fabric tie.

This time I used an invisible zipper for the back closure.  They take a little practice, but are well worth learning how to do well.

I used steam-a-seam to get the lining to hold still at the waist seam, and then top stitched on the right side to attach the lining at the waist.  And I hand sewed the lining to the zipper.

OPML -- Last Dress in Green Wool Jersey

And here is the final dress for the One Pattern Many Looks PatternReview.com contest.  Taking one pattern and using it with different fabrics to create different looks was quite an interesting challenge.  I still have one more color blocked dress that I'd like to make, but time ran out for me and the contest ended before I had a chance to get to it.  I'll probably still make the dress, because I still think it's a good idea and it'll make a fantastic dress, but I might not get to it for a little while.

This one is made in green wool jersey.  I bought this jersey last year (I think) from Fabric.com in four different colors: hot pink, cognac, green, and granite gray.  It's a very comfortable 100% merino wool.  I used the pattern just as it is.  Paired up with a medallion belt, black tights and kitten heels, I think this is a very nice outfit.  I'm wearing it today with my brown Merrel wedge boots, and it looks great with those, too.

Here's the collage of all the dresses.  I had to take the picture off the green one at night, since I just finished it last night at 11.30 -- just thirty minutes before the end of the contest.  I've never sewn so fast in my life.

I'm pleased with these and I've added some nice pieces to my wardrobe.  And they'll be great to wear right up until the weather gets too hot come summertime.

OPML Contest -- Fourth Dress is Spanish Holiday

This dress is made with the pure, unadorned pattern.  I'm counting on the print fabric itself to make this particular incarnation unique.  It's another polyester onion skin, also bought from Fabric.com.

I made a cotton knit underdress to wear with this dress and the Victorian Rose one.  I've already made a pattern for it, though the original was intended to have crossed straps to go under a racerback tank top dress.  I can't cross the straps on this underdress because the neckline of these onionskin dresses is too wide and they would show.  I wish I would have made the straps just a tiny bit longer, as the neckline at the center front sits just behind the neckline of the top dresses.  It doesn't show, so I guess it really doesn't matter.

Now I have just to sew together the wool jersey dress, and I will have finished my entry for the contest:  the black LBD, the Victorian Rose, the Spanish Holiday, the black and red print, and the wool jersey.   If I have time, I want to make yet another color-blocked dress in a black and white print.  But the end of the contest is in two days and I don't think I'm going to make it.

OPML Contest -- Third Dress is Victorian Rose

Here's dress number three.  The fabric is a polyester onion skin from Fabric.com.  I've never sewn (or worn, for that matter) onion skin before -- one of the reasons I bought it was that I wanted to try sewing a fabric that I've heard so many people  talking about. 

I don't like polyester in general.  I don't really like the way it feels against my skin, and it usually makes me feel pretty hot.  But I thought I'd give it a try anyway.  I can definitely understand why people like it, and if I traveled more, I would be more fond of it.  You can fold it up tiny, it doesn't wrinkle very much, and I bet it would dry lightning fast after washing it in the hotel bathroom.

The fabric is a dream to sew, no doubt about it.  It wasn't that fun to cut out, though.  My rotary cutter went through cotton jersey like a hot knife through butter, but when it came to this stuff, there were always threads that somehow didn't get cut.  Trying. Very trying.  I almost lost my temper a few times.

When all's said and done, I got the dress cut and assembled and it only took around a hour.  Truth is, though,  I'm not sure about it.  I like the color--though pink is really not a color that I like very much on myself.  I really like the print, but I think it would suit me more if it was a darker or duskier pink.  And I like the concept of lace sleeves, but I'm not sure that the ivory lace is quite appropriate, even though it goes beautifully with the print.  What I'm really not sure about is that the look isn't just a little too "young" for me.

Let me say here that I've never liked the concept of "dress your age."  What is that supposed to mean?  What does "dressing like 40" look like?  And who gets to decide?  And why?

On the other hand, I don't want to dress like I've just raided my 20 year old daughter's closet.  Because I am old enough to have one (my oldest is a son and he's 22).  And let's face it.  There are some clothes that look fabulous on a twenty something that look downright ridiculous on a forty something.

So this dress is by no means a failure -- I like it too much for that.  I'm just not sure it's for me.  I'll ask you all what you think once I've had a chance to try it on.  I need to make a white slip before I can do that, since the fabric is pretty sheer.  It's not obvious in this picture, but you can pretty much see clear through this baby.

OPML -- Another Dress

I actually made this one first -- because I have many, many yards of black jersey and I wanted to make sure that I was going to like this pattern made up in the shorter length.  And I didn't post it first because it's black and there's not much to see.  When I get all the dresses done, I'm hoping to get one of my photography-savvy sons to take some nice outside pictures.  Which we'll do if the temperature gets above 10F degrees.  Which it hasn't for days.

I didn't really need another Little Black Dress, but I actually really like this one.  It's more comfortable than the other one, though not nearly as elegant.  If I get nothing else out of this contest, I'll still be pleased as punch to have made both this dress and the red-and-black one.  So as far as I'm concerned, it's a win-win no matter what happens between now and the end of the contest.

As for my progress, I've cut two new dresses, though I haven't done any sewing.  The first is in a solid green wool jersey.  Not quite the emerald green that is the color of the year, as they say (and who is they, anyway?) but in a color that is close but a bit duller and yellower.  Hmmm.  Hard to describe.  I'm going to wear it with the gold medallion belt that I wore with the brown maxi-length version of this same pattern.  I had sewing time over the weekend, but no matching thread.  And my car was in the garage, so I couldn't make it to the fabric store until Tuesday.  *sigh*

The second is an onion skin jersey knit.  Rose pink with a Victorian-esque swirling pattern.  I have a piece of ivory knit lace whose color and pattern goes strikingly well with the pink, so I decided to give this version of the dress lace long sleeves.  I'm probably going to have to sew a white slip to go underneath it as well, since I think it's a bit too sheer to wear alone. In theory, it sounds pretty, and it looks nice lying on the table, too.  We'll see if it works when it's all sewn together. 

OPML Contest -- First Dress

So I've entered the One Pattern Many Looks contest on Patternreview.com.   For those of you who don't know, the OPML contest involves taking a single view of a pattern and making it up in with different fabrics, trims, color blocking, hem and sleeve lengths, etc to make many different looks without changing the actual structure of the pattern.

I've decided to use my princess seamed knit dress pattern that I've made several times before, albeit as a maxi dress.  This is a pattern that I've been refining for the past couple of years, and I won't say it's perfect, but I do like it alot.

For this contest, I changed the neckline to a more of a scoop neck than a crew neck.  And I cut many inches of the hem so that it falls just above the knee instead of at the ankle.  The sleeves remain long sleeves, since even Spring in New England is pretty chilly, so that, if nothing else, I'll have a few three season dresses out of my efforts.

This is the first one that I'm sharing.  The picture could be a little clearer -- I'll have to take a few more. I used a deep red cotton jersey with a black floral print for the main body and solid black cotton/lycra for the trim.  The cotton/lycra didn't really want to play very nicely with the plain cotton jersey, but I gave it a bit of a lecture and it agreed to behave.  You have to talk to fabric, you know.  It is often very open to reason.











I decided to use color blocking to make a contrasting waist band type thing in the black, and then bound the neckline and sleeve hems with it as well.  Is it terribly creative?  Not really.  But I do like the effect.  I was wondering what to do with this red floral fabric, and I think this really fits.  And since it's broken up by the black, I don't look quite so much like I'm being eaten up by a bunch of black flowers.  I like it, and I am very pleased with this first attempt.










I can pair it up with black boots, but it also looks good with my high heeled shoes, low heeled shoes, and ballet flats.  A fairly versatile dress.

PR One Pattern, Many Looks Contest

This is one of the (to me, anyway) more interesting of Pattern Review's contests:  Take a pattern and make multiple garments without altering the actual structure of the pattern.  This involves things like color blocking, piping, ruffles, decorative buttons, and other purely ornamental stuff.

Self drafted patterns are allowed, so I intend to use the pattern I drafted to make  this dress.  I am going to change the round neckline to a scoopneck and shorten the hemline to above the knee, but other than that, I will use this pattern just as it is.  Well, okay, I'm also going to color block it in some places to get one of the "many looks," but that is allowed within the rules.

As for the different versions, I'm thinking I'll make the first one in black.  Just a plain LBD with no frills.  It'll be the one that you can compare all the others to. 

One I'm going to color block in a waistband, another I will color block in some  contrast pieces for illusional (is that a word? delusional is and it's kinda the same thing, right?) shaping.  That means I'm going to make a dress that encourages anyone who sees me to believe that I actually have a waist, when I don't really.  My waist is actually just a suggestion.

If I have time, I will probably make another in one of the pretty onion skin prints I ordered last week.  If I like them.  They haven't arrived yet, so there's still time for me to hate them with a passion.

And possibly another with lace sleeves.  Because I just love lace.  Doesn't everybody?

Three to five dresses in just the two weeks left in the contest sounds pretty ambitious, but the beauty of this pattern is that it really doesn't take that long, from cutting to hem.  The longest part is going to be adjusting the pattern for the color blocking, but I have confidence that I can do that pretty quickly.

Knit Dress Baby Gift

So what have I been doing lately?  I have completed a couple of projects, but the cutest one is this one.  A knit dress for the baby of a new mother I know.  She's just under two months old and cute as a button.

I love to make baby clothes.  And collect baby clothes patterns.  And buy baby fabrics.  So it's no surprise that I had everything that I needed on hand and ready to go.

The pattern is McCall's 8574 and includes an entire layette for babies preemie to 21 pounds.  It includes a t-shirt, onesie, sleeper, gown, dress and diaper cover patterns as well as the ever present hat and booties, which if they fit, never stay on a baby anyway.

I made the View E dress with the long sleeves.  I thought about making the booties, but measuring the baby's ankle just now is impractical and besides, like I said, they never stay on.

The fabric is a heavy weight interlock from JoAnn's.  The print was so cute that I picked it up last year even though I don't have any babies in the family and didn't even know anyone who was pregnant.  But, hey! I figured an opportunity was sure to come along some time.

The pattern is intended to either be hemmed at the neckline or use decorative elastic.  I did neither.  Instead, I trimmed 5/8 inch from the front and back necklines and added self binding.  I cut binding strips from the interlock 1 1/2 inches wide and, uh, long enough that I wouldn't have to worry about running out.  Then I folded it in half lengthwise and serged it to the right side of the front and back necklines.  Finger pressed flat and used a 7mm coverstich to finish.  Voila! Nice neckline edge.

I also stitched in a size tag and a 100% cotton tag so that mama could tell which was front and back.  It's not super obvious and new moms don't have time to play guessing games with the baby's wardrobe.

This is my second entry in the Pattern Review Sewing for Children contest.  Though that's just an added bonus.  If I had more time, I'd make more baby clothes.

Review for the Little Black Dress -- Butterick 5664

I apologize in advance for the bad pictures.  It's so hard to take good pictures of black clothes.  And I kept getting this weird halo near the bottoms of the pics.  Probably has something to do with the less than ideal lighting in my sewing room.

This is a basic, fitted and lined sheath type dress with cap sleeves.  It has front and back darts and a center back zipper.  The hemline falls above the knee and it has a wide V neckline.

The pattern is See & Sew Butterick 5664.  It's says "Yes, it's easy!" on the cover.

No, it's not.  At least, not using the instructions.

 I made this in a size 6, grading to an 8 at the waist.  I've made some Buttericks that fit me right out of the envelope, but this one wasn't one of them.

I bought the fabric online and it was listed as a suiting.  It has a slight nappiness, which led to my confusion about whether it is a gabardine or a flannel, but after working with it, I'm now pretty certain it's a flannel.  It has a nice twill weave and a beautifully drapey hand.  The lining is a plain black acetate.

I love the shape of it's neckline, and several people have told me how flattering it looks.  At last!  I've finally found a neckline that looks good on me.  It's not exactly suitable for every day wear, but it's nice to know that I've found the neckline of my dreams for formal wear.  One step at a time.

I had to take in the side seams about 5/8 of an inch to get the dress to do that form fitting thing properly.  And I had to take the side seam in another 3/4 of an inch from the underarm to the waist to get rid of the wrinkles that kept forming between the two front darts. 

I also had to take the shoulder seam in about 5/8 of an inch at the neckline, tapering to nothing halfway along the seam.  This makes the sleeve a little tighter than it should be, but I don't think I'm supposed to be lifting anything above my head when I'm wearing a dress like this, so I think it's okay.

And I lengthened the bust darts by nearly 2 inches.  The back darts extend a little too far down, but as it's not really noticeable, I left them as they are.

I also used an invisible zipper instead of a centered one.  I've only done one other invisible zip and I couldn't believe how easy it was.  I am now a concealed zipper believer.

As for the instructions, they were pretty terrible.  After sewing the sleeves to the fronts and backs of the fabric and the lining, Butterick has you attach the front lining to the front, then attach the back lining to the back.  Only then do you sew them together.  Are you confused yet?  I was.  It seemed so...irrational.

I thought perhaps it was because of the cap sleeves, (having never made anything with cap sleeves before) but after struggling with it, now I think it's just bad instructions. 

I tried to follow them.  I really did.  But I ended up with this lumpy mess at the shoulder seams that I just could not get rid of.  I finally ripped apart the shoulders, and the understitching and everything, machine stitched the shoulder seams (per the instructions, they were supposed to be handsewn last), and handstitched the lining to the fabric at the sleeve and neck edges.  Not an ideal solution and I am not happy with it.  It is, however, invisible when I'm wearing the dress, so I guess I'll get over it eventually.

The hem is stitched with orange lace hem tape.  Just for a little something interesting on the inside. 

And I didn't finish the seams, since this was a lined dress.  With all the adjusting I had to do, it was a good thing I hadn't.

So, will I make this dress again?  Absolutely!  I'd have to lower the armholes a bit for comfort, but all the other alterations have already been transferred to the pattern in preparation for the next one.  Green?  Brown?  A tweed, maybe?  Not sure. I already have a bunch of other projects already lined up, so I won't get to it for a while.  And I want to work on the instructions and find a better and easier way of assembling this.  One that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out.

So, while it wasn't exactly easy, it was well worth the effort.

Woo Hoo! The LBD is Finally Complete!

This was quite an adventure.  Like all adventures, it had some exciting parts and some frustrating parts, but all in all, it was just plain fun.  I have every intention of making this dress again, because I really like it, and next time I'll be able to do it better and faster.  The pattern was good, the instructions terrible.  I'll write a review in the next couple of days.

I am wicked happy with my Little Black Dress, even though it's not as perfect as I'd like it to be.  It's the most flattering neckline I've ever worn, I think, though it's not very practical for cooking dinner or vacuuming or any of the other mundane chores that fill up my days.   But I need a few non-practical pieces in my wardrobe.  That way I can claim that I have to go out so that those fab outfits aren't wasted.


I'm a day late and a dollar short as far as the contest goes, but I like the idea of doing photos to show The LBD with different possibilities.  So here goes:

This is the LBD,  plain with pretty much no frills.  The necklace is a antique bronze tree medallion, the shoes are a leather/houndstooth.  I'll take some closeups of the shoes once my camera battery recharges.

 Here it is with black tights and beaded necklace (different one in either picture).  These shoes are plain black leather with patent leather toe caps and heels.  They're very cute.  It's a bummer the shoes are just not coming out very well.

And here's with a burgundy sweater over the top.  This is pretty warm, considering the dress is made with wool flannel (not to be confused with cotton flannel, mind you). 

Darn it, where are my feet? 

Now since the holiday season is a-coming, I had to do a holiday outfit, too.  Complete with holiday drink and ruby slippers.  Because there's no place like home, you know.

























Hair up? Hair down? Depends on my mood.  And which way it looks better that day :o)






I really wanted to find some fun places around town to take these pictures, but my photographer is busy.  And it's kind of damp because there's a half inch of snow on the ground.  And it's 30F degrees.  It's also nighttime, which could work, but is trickier.  So I had to settle for these definitely less-than-ideal shots.


I'm going to make my pictures more interesting in the future.  Honest.

LBD -- Not Quite Finished

Sadly, I missed the deadline for the contest -- I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  I had to do more fitting than I expected.  Oh, Butterick, why did you let me down.  Lately, most of the Butterick patterns I've tried have fit beautifully right out of the envelope.  But not this one.

And then there was the instructions.  Oh, dear.  Not a pretty sight.  And silly me followed them.  Right up until the point where there were these great big lumps at the shoulder seams that I just could not get rid of.  So, I had to take drastic measures.

Handsewing.  Eek!

All that means that I didn't get my dress done for the entry deadline of November 30th.  But the dress is mostly done.  All that's left now is the hems for the lining and the dress.

Which I'm going to go work on right now.  And nothing is going to go wrong.  I hope.  I feel optimistic about that :o)

Progress on the LBD -- Invisible Zipper

Sitting down last night to work on the LBD, I discovered, to my disgust, mind you, that I had no black 22 inch zipper.  You think I would've checked that.  But I did have a whole bunch of black invisible zippers that I picked up probably because they were on sale.  And I have the Janome concealed zipper foot, still in its package, unused, neglected, and forlorn.

So, I put a concealed zipper in the LBD instead of using the instructions for a centered one.  I've put in only one other concealed zipper, but lack of experience doesn't really seem to matter.  It's a snap to put in an invisible zipper -- at least it is with the concealed zipper foot.  I'm not sure why I haven't been using them for Daughter's dresses.  It seems so sensible and they really are remarkable easy.

This is a really terrible picture, but the best I could do for now, snd I really wanted to show you how nice the zipper turned out.  I'll get the dress on the dress form and take some good pictures once I've made a little more progress -- there are some fit issues that I'll need to address before this thing is even wearable.  I didn't make a muslin, so I'm not really surprised.  I was sort of hoping that this would be one of the Buttericks that fit me like a dream right out of the envelope.  No such luck.

Only two more days to go until the contest deadline, but I think I might be able to make it.  If I can make it fit nicely, I'll be happy, even if I don't get it done in time.  But I'm take my best shot and put as much time into in the next couple of days as I can.

Today, though, I'm going to the Button Box -- an accordion store about 1 1/2 hour's drive from where I live.  I love music and musical instruments, even though I don't play any of them better than mediocre, but I really love accordions.  Especially button accordions, or melodeons as they are called in other places.  Cajun, folk, traditional, polka.  All use accordions as a major part of their sound and I love it!  Will I buy one?  Maybe a used one.  But mostly I'm going to look around and enjoy music store atmosphere.

Autumn Shamrocks? And Les Miserables The Movie

 This dress is kind of a cheat as I've mostly been blogging about projects in progress or at least recently constructed.  It doesn't quite fall into that category, since I made it 12 years ago.  But I love this dress, and I am positively astonished that I can still wear it even after having two babies since then.

This is made from the first pattern I ever drafted myself, traced out from my very favorite flannel shirt of all time.  I made so many shirts using that pattern.  I embroidered the fronts of most of them, as I was very much into celtic knots and embroidery at the time.  Sadly, I didn't keep any of those shirts -- they've found their way to the dustbin of history, I suppose. 

But this dress was basically made by attaching a shirred skirt to that shirt pattern and extending the button placket all the way to the hem.  The fabric is just a plain quilting cotton, almost certainly bought from JoAnn's or maybe that other chain sewing store that used to be around over 10 years ago whose name I can't remember right now.

And I know that it is so not fashionable to wear bright green shamrock printed fabric in November.  So call me fashion challenged. Or that I'm doing Christmas early (it is Christmas green, after all). I only went to the grocery store wearing it.  It's not like I went to dinner or the theatre or something fancy.

Speaking of the theatre, have you heard that Les Miserables the film is premiering on Christmas Day?   I'm generally not excited about what Hollywood produces, but I'm looking forward to this film. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and all the rest of the cast, singing live during the filming.  It's either going to be fabulous, or a complete flop.

The LBD -- Makin' Progress

 
My little black dress is steadily taking shape.  I put alot of time into it this weekend.  Cutting out the pattern pieces, even though there were only 4 of them (8 if you count the lining) took some time since I had to put in all those tailor tacks.


I read and re-read the instructions, and I've never put a dress together like this one before.  The front lining gets attached to the front and the back lining gets attached to the back before the front and the back are attached to each other.  I swore I was never going to follow Butterick's instructions again, but I think I'm stuck on this one because of the cap sleeves.  I've looked at the pattern pieces upside and backwards and I can't think of a better way to do it, even though I don't like it.

As for the sewing, the darts are in all the pieces, and they turned out to be harder than I expected.  The fabric is drapey, making it harder to get the darts just right.  The front bust dart I think I sewed four times and I'm still not particularly happy with it.

Also, I've got the front attached to the front lining.  Here it is pinned onto my dress form but it's really hard to see much.  The last Butterick dress I made the front neckline almost reached my navel.  I'm keeping an eye out for the same phenomena here.  And it's turning out a little slinkier than I thought because of how drapey the fabric is.  But I'm withholding judgement for now.

So all that's left is attaching the back to the back lining, installing the zipper, and then attaching the front to the back.  And the hem.  And hand sewing the lining to the zipper.  You know, little details like that :o)