Fall For Cotton Sew A Long Dress Finished!

It has been a long time since I've blogged.  Twelve days in fact.  I will tell you that I have been very busy and I think that you will not be disappointed.

I have been putting a great deal of effort into making sure my dress for the Fall for Cotton sew a long was a smash.  I didn't cut any corners, even though I have been devilishly tempted, I followed through with hand stitched details, and took the advice I give to my students: "If you don't have time to do it right now how are you going to have time to re do it later?"

In my first post about this fantastic sew along I showed off some of my inspiration and the fabrics I was thinking of.  I went back and forth over what I wanted to do and wether I wanted to use a pattern or make my own.  My favorite inspirational image was this one:

The dress I really love is the blue one.  I just think it is so flattering, I love the neckline and midriff details.  That said I am not the hugest fan of bows and in order to put my own stamp on things I knew I was going to change a few things up.

Next I chose my fabric.  I went with a D.S. Quilts fabric from her Daisy Mae series.  The color of the fabric really popped and I do love a great graphic print:

I looked for some patterns lack-lustily, but in my hear of hearts I think I knew that I really wanted to make my own pattern.  I usually like to flat pattern my new inspirations but for some reason with this project I was just so drawn to draping.  So I wheeled Dressmerelda (what my wife named my dress form) to the center of the room and got going.

After draping and marking the pattern on the form I took it off and the n using a pounce/trace wheel I transferred the pattern to brown paper.  Once I corrected the patterned and trued up my lines it was time to go into a muslin.

I should say that I do not love making muslins so I try to make wearable muslins out of fabric I have had in my stash for a while.  This allows me to get rid of some of the things I keep in my dragon hoard and on the off chance it turns out great I have a new outfit.  As luck would have it my muslin fit like a dream! The only thing I wanted to change was to alter the shape of the contrast piece at the neckline.

After making all my corrections I dove into my fashion fabric.  Since it had this amazing print and pattern I decided that I wanted to make covered buttons from it to add an extra touch to the finished look.  All I did was to take some left over fabric covered buttons I had from my wedding dress and lightly glued them to the fabric, being mindful of the pattern, of course. Then I trimmed the fabric down to within 3/8" of the button and ran a gathering stitch.  Then I pulled the strings and secured my end, then they were ready to be sewn on.

The dress came together quite nicely and I actually even enjoyed taking stuff out and re-doing it so that it would be right.  Ok I think that "enjoyed" was an over statement, but I definitely took pride in it.  I didn't even mind and sewing the facings and hem for a clean finish.  I am so proud, and so without further adieu here is the veritable avalanche of photos of me in this dress:

One of the areas I altered was to take away the bow at the neck line and I changed it for covered buttons and loops.

I love pockets.  Sometimes in what I can only call a fit of stupidity I don't put pockets in the things that I make.  This is always a mistake that I look back on and kick myself for.  So I made sure that in the vein of not wanting feel like an idiot later, I made sure to add the pockets.

This was such a blast and I am really grateful to Rochelle from Lucky Lucille for putting this whole thing together.  I was inspired by the sew a long itself, as well as seeing all of the other amazing entries.  Everyone should be so proud!

It took a while but I finished my embroidered skirt!

It has been a long time in the works but my embroidered A-line skirt for the Super Online Sewing Community Match is finally finished! I am in love and it and wicked proud! Here is a shameless display of the many photos I took of my skirt and all of it's fine details.

'
 I think I'm in love.  Although I must say while it looks lovely, I don't think I will be doing a great amount of bound seam finishing, I think I'll stick to my serger.

Coffee Date Dress becomes Peplum Blouse.

Recently I discovered Project Sewn.  It's a pretty great website that hosts sew-a-longs and fashion sewing contests.  Long story way short, it's awesome.

Their latest sew-a-long is the Coffee Date Dress by The Selfish Seamstress.  It's a free, that's right I said free, pattern available on Burda Style. It's a really cute pattern, yet it remains simple enough that you can really personalize it.

I really enjoyed it although I have to say I do not relish printing patterns at home and taping them together.  Not my favorite thing ever.

I decided a couple things about my version of this fantastic dress.

1. I did not in fact want a dress.  I wanted a peplum blouse.
2. I wanted a 40's esque 3/4 sleeve.
3. I was  not sold on the ruffle but I was willing to give it a shot.

I did try the ruffle but it was not for me.  I am a busty lady and lets just say it did me too many favors in that region.  It had to go.  The last thing this womanl needs is a blouse that makes my girls look even bigger.

Also I don't know why exactly but I just thought that this dress was primed to be a peplum blouse.  I have been looking for the right pattern and opportunity to make one and this just felt right.

I did however run into a little snafu.  During my debate over the ruffle I put it on and then tried to take it off one more time with a seam ripper. I succeeded in ripping a hole in the top right near the neck edge.  So I made a decision, I was going to save it.  One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received was, "If you can't fix it, Feature it."  I took that to heart and that is how I ended up with this detail:

 I love it and I think it's great!  Next thing to tackle was the sleeve.  So I drafted up a pattern and got on it.  On thing I really wanted to do was add fullness at the cap.  Mission accomplished.

It has some great tucks and pleats and it's comfy!

I really love this coffee date pattern.  It was great to test out and make up.  Till next time.

-Caroline

Fall For Cotton: Vintage Sew-A-Long

One of my favorite blogs is Lucky Lucille, and she is putting together a fantastic vintage inspired sew-a-long for the fall.  The theme is Fall for Cotton and the only restrictions are that you have to use fabric that is 100% cotton and a vintage silhouette from the 1920's-1970's.

After going through my fabric I have found three pieces that I really like.

I want to make a day dress, but use very intricate period details.  I'm not sure if that means delicate pintucks or cut work but I'll land on that soon.   First thing I have to do is to go through my research and figure out what I really want.  Here are some of the images I really like.

What I love about the 1940's silhouette is how it accentuates the waist.  As a curvy lady myself I like to call attention to my waist because it's my smallest part.  When your waist looks so small your other assets look so awesome!

Well I guess it's time to get cracking. Check my next step soon.

A surprise? For me?

This may sound schmaltzy but If I could give a gift to every person I know it would be that they be allowed feel loved the way my wife loves me.  

Perhaps I should give a little backstory.  My wife and I are very different.  I am very crafty, chaotic and creative, where as she is is pragmatic, scientific, and a bit of a neat freak.  Before we met she did not know anything about sewing.  My background is in costume design and construction, she didn't know that people did that for a living.  When I told her that I spent my days working for a theatrical costume shop, she literally had know idea that it was something people actually did.  

We've been married for two and a half years now and together for almost four years, and she now knows an ever increasing amount about what I do.  I'm not saying she sews (though she did make the the eyeballs for her Mr. Potato head costume), but she knows terminology and she knows what machines and tools I like.  Once in awhile she'll throw out something like, "Hey that's a nice placket" and I am so impressed that she knows what a placket is.  

Yesterday I was spent the day getting some work done and doing some cooking and she went and hung out with some friends.  I was a little lonesome all day and basically I was being a little bit of a brat, though I tried to keep it to myself.  She came home and said that she had a surprise for me.  She had me close my eyes while she got something from the car.  When I opened them I saw this:

Some of you may know what this is, others of you may be wondering what could possibly be in this simple looking black case.  When I opened up my eyes I knew what this seemingly ordinary case contained.  This is the carrying case for a Singer Portable Electric Sewing Machine 221-1, more commonly known as a featherweight.  Our friend Jenny's fiance Todd has a passion for fixing old sewing machines and this is one of his finds,

These machines began being made in 1924.  I'm still trying to date mine but I believe that it was made prior to 1950. They are beautiful and extremely easy to use.  Not only that but the machine is all metal. You may not know this but for the most part metal machines last longer and function better than plastic machines.  I mean there is a reason that these featherweight machines are around as many as 90 years later and still stitching.  

This case has a tray which sits atop the sewing machine when it's in the case.  It has a spot for bobbins, the petal, and all of the feet.  There are so many feet for this machine and I will honestly tell you that I have no idea how most of them work and I am eager to learn. I'm going to be embarking on a mission to learn how all of the feet work and I will be dreaming up a project to go with each foot.

This machine is white hot and I am currently working on my first project on it.   I am working on another Hawthorn from Colette Patterns, but this time I am going to make the blouse version.  The stitches are incredibly even and the machine is so quiet!

Isn't she a beaut! I will put up a post about my new Hawthorn with special attention on how to make and pattern my sleeve.

I love my wife and all the ways she understands me, appreciates me, and indulges me.