Dot Dress & Hiatus

My end of summer project was McCall's 5845, a fairly basic sheath dress with a low back that will be great for work.  I've had this dot fabric since I started sewing but was never sure what to make with it.  This dot top/black skirt combination reminds me of (and was probably unknowingly inspired by) Assorted Notions' version of the coffee date dress.

The only thing I changed from the pattern was to raise the back about 3 inches so that it will cover my bra.  Unfortunately I didn't think to check this before cutting out the back but luckily I had plenty of leftover fabric and was able to cut new pieces.  I fully lined the dress (it looks a little hybrid because I used an old dress lining for the skirt portion and made the top new).  I attached the invisible zipper by hand--it did take forever but I love the result!

This is my first time doing slant pockets and I really like them.  I didn't have a pattern but had checked out a few dresses with pockets like this at Ann Taylor and figured they would be easy enough to make...and they were!  This will probably be my new go-to pocket as I'm finding that side seam pockets on fitted skirts tend to splay open too much.

My next project for the fall is a jacket inspired by this one from Gap.  This will be my first attempt at sleeves and buttonholes so it will be quite a project.

This will probably be my last post for a while as I'm starting a part-time master's program next week while continuing my full time job.  Between school and work I won't have much spare time to spend on sewing, but any projects I do manage to complete I'll post here!

Projects

My last few projects have either been from patterns or too straightforward for tutorials.  I made my first (successful) shirt from a pattern, Vogue 8495.

I love the yoke top and especially the sleeves (well way the should piece extends out to a point)!  This fabric is actually the Liberty of London scarf from Target.  They've been getting such great reviews and they're big enough to make shirts!  I got both patterns but haven't decided yet what to do with the darker one.

 My other pattern project was this bag from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing.  I used another pattern from this book for a gardening tote, and had a bit of a tough time following the written instructions with very few illustrations.  But after having done one pattern from her book I found this one much easier to follow and it took surprisingly little time to complete!

The strip of bias tape here is actually the opening of an outer pocket where you can put a magazine or newspaper.

I used a little of my favorite ginko fabric for the inside pocket.

I also made another skirt/shirt to dress creation.  The top I got at Target on clearance and the skirt came from a Betsy Johnson dress that I found at a thrift store years ago and could only wear as a swim suit cover up since it was huge!  I love the color combination and the dress is very comfy!

And finally now that I've been sewing for 8 months I decided to organize my fabric closet (instead of having piles of fabric hidden around the house in various bags and boxes like some very bizarre squirrel).  I doubt it'll last long but it looks great now!

Easy As Pie Dress

I love skirts and dresses and wear them pretty much every day during the summer.  These dresses that look like a shirt and skirt seem like a great middle ground and a wonderful shortcut for those mornings when I have no time and nothing to wear.  Plenty of tutorials have been done about these (Grosgrain, Little Red Roost, Presser Foot has one coming up) and they're so simple you don't even really need one!

I used the standby Freshly Picked skirt tutorial to make mine (I wanted pockets).  I also added a lining, made the same as the skirt without the pockets.  Then it was just a quick two steps to attach the skirt to the elastic and the elastic to the shirt!  I used this great top from Target that I got last weekend (can't find in online).  Most of the other dresses I've seen in this style have been made from tank tops but I prefer real tops especially since I'm looking to add these to my work rotation.

To be completely honest I totally screwed the skirt up the first time I did it.  I didn't want it to be too poofy so I used much less fabric than I should have.  On top of that I lowered the pockets (for absolutely no reason) so I ended up with a too tight skirt with pockets hitting at my upper thigh!  Needless to say I spent a lot of time with the seam ripper, cursing my love of French seams.  Once everything was apart I just added an extra panel to each side, and with the busy pattern you don't even notice the extra seams!

This is definitely a quick and easy way to get a new dress, and even redo an old shirt you don't wear much anymore.  For the next one I want to do something like this (although with a lower waist).  I looked at it at the store and there is (small width) elastic only on the back where the skirt and shirt meet, and the tie is only sewn in on the front.

Snow Day Sweater Dress Makeover

 

The record-setting snow storm that hit the mid-Atlantic this week gave me 2 snow days (!!!) and plenty of time to work on my newest project--except for the 3 hours we lost power Wednesday afternoon.  The snow was absolutely beautiful but after the 15 inches we had last weekend I wasn't even tempted to go out and play.

I've had this gray sweater dress from Express for about 3-4 years now and it's always bothered me to wear it.  I always get compliments when I do but its so overwhelmingly gray and the long sleeves annoy me, plus its kind of itchy.  I decided to spruce it up and change the neckline, since boat collars don't really work for me.

 

I based the idea for the new shape of the dress on this Butterick pattern (that I own but haven't made yet).  I obviously really like this purple broadcloth fabric (since I've used it in the past 3 of 4 projects) and I like the purple-gray combination.  To give the dress a little more flair I decided to use the belt as a ruffle that would just peek out of the side of the purple strips.

I started off by shortening the sleeves to 3/4 length.  I simply measured how long I wanted them to be, cut, and reattached the original cuff.  In order to get the sleeve to fit in the cuff I had to baste it and gather it a bit.

 

Next I prepared the purple strips and the ruffles.  I decided that I wanted the waist band to be about 3" wide (I checked other dresses I own with waistbands), and knew that I would want the 2 strips that make up the collar to form a strip the same width when they joined in the middle.  Therefore the collar strip would be 1.5", joining at the bottom of the v-neck to form a 3" strip.  I marked the design on my dress with chalk, which may give you a better idea of this.

For the waist I cut a strip 4" by 33", and did a double fold hem of about 1/2" on each side.  For the collar I cut a strip 2.5" by 44" and only folded over once (since it was going to be completely attached to the shirt anyway).  Now may be a good time to say that once I was partway through this project I realized that my dress was very stretchy, while the broadcloth was not.  I knew this would cause problems if I attached the waistband all the way around, as I probably wouldn't be able to get the dress over my head and shoulders.  So I decided to leave the waistband unattached in the back, and I'll show you the rest of my solution a bit later on.

After cutting the purple strips I was ready to prepare the gray ruffles.  I cut the belt in half (it ended up being 1" by 67").  I decided to use 1.5 times the length of the purple strips for the ruffles, so I used 1 strip for the collar, 3/4 of one for the top of the waistband, and the rest plus some extra strips I cut from the leftover sleeve material for the bottom of the waistband.  I then made a ruffle with each long strip, gathering them enough so that they were the same length as the purple strips.

Next came the pinning...and repinning...and more pinning.  And between each step trying on the dress and getting hundreds of tiny stabs and scratches.  My arms look like I was mauled by a very weak and dull-clawed kitten.  But I finally got both sides of the collar pinned correctly and I sewed very close to the edge, slightly overlapping the 2 strips in the middle. 

The final step was to add the waistband.  As I said earlier I realized that I would never be able to get the dress on if I attached it all the way around, so I decided to leave it unattached on the back.  In order to do this I first pinned the front and 2 inches around the back.

Then I hemmed the top and bottom of the waistband that were not attached to the dress, going right up to where it would join the dress but being careful not to go too far.  I left the ends unhemmed since I knew I would have to remeasure and do them last, once everything else was in place.  Next I sewed the waistband top and bottom to the dress and tried it on.  Luckily I'd left enough room in the back and was able to get it on!  With the help of my boyfriend (who marked where the 2 ends should meet) I was able to finish the back, hemming the edges and adding 3 hooks and eyes so that once the dress is on the belt can be "buckled" in place.

This is what the back looks like when the dress is on.  By looking at it when its off you can see just how much the dress stretches!

I'm really happy with the way this dress turned out and it was definitely a great way to spend my snow days!  You may not be able to tell but the waistband and vertical strip only ended up being about 2 1/4 inches wide, instead of the 3 I was going for.  I must have used more fabric than I meant to when hemming.  And even though this didn't really help the itchiness problem I'm sure I'll wear it more than I did before!

My First Pattern

 I've been hesitant to buy patterns thinking that they will be too complicated and confusing but I actually found this one to be fairly straightforward.  When I first opened up the package and looked at the instructions I was a bit worried, especially since I didn't know all of the terms, but once I took the time to go through them slowly and was actually working with the fabric I found it to be pretty easy.  The hardest part was cutting out the fabric, since no matter how many times I looked at it I could not figure out how the diagram of how to place the pattern pieces on the fabric was supposed to work.  So I just cut out the pattern pieces and fit them on the fabric in my own way which worked just fine.

The pattern for this dress was unlined but I decided to do a lining since the gray fabric is fairly thin.  I spent a lot of time looking at dresses I had bought that were lined to figure out how it should work.  In the end it was really helpful to do a lining because a) it was sort of a test run before cutting the outer fabric to make sure all of the pieces were big enough and b) I didn't have to hem or make a different neck interfacing piece.

The hardest part of the dress (besides the cutting) ended up being the zipper.  The way I learned how to attach zippers is incredibly easy but I didn't realize until I was at the point of attaching it that I had already sewn up too much of the back.  I ended up having to undo that sewing and then put the zipper in the way I know how, which took a lot of time but was worth it.

I wore this dress to work last week and it was great--very classic and simple but easy to accessorize and the fabric is versatile enough that I'll be able to wear it almost year round!