Fabric Challege - Vogue 9292

Happy September!!!!!  I am a little late to the party.  But hey, better late than never.  At Sew Camp this year we received 3 yards of this Soft Black/Warm Stone/Off-White Cinnamon Cotton/Lycra Double Border Floral Print Sateen Twill Milly print from Fabric Mart for a sewing challenge.

My biggest dilemma was picking out what I wanted to make.  Originally I was going to do a mash up of a Burda pattern with a  cool sleeve I saw on Instagram from twistedangel.sews.

In the end,  I decided to go with V9292 due to time, and well, I have wanted to sew this pattern up for quite some time.

If you don't have this pattern in your stash, please get it.

It is an easy pattern to sew and the design is timeless.  It reminds me of the dresses from the 1950s, and lets face it, those ladies had lots and lots of style.

This dress is not lined. But in making this version, I can easily make a lining with the dress pieces provided if I want to.  The pattern comes with neck and arm facings. 

It doesn't hurt that this pattern also has pockets,

and I am loving it. 

Had my car keys in here so I am not routing through my purse to find them.

Another feature of this dress is the sexy/proper factor.

Hey I can go out to an elegant function or dinner with my husband and show the cleavage Saturday night,

then turn around and be prim and proper on Sunday Morning. 

Hey there is no walk of shame here. 
I hemmed the dress by hand, would have liked to use some lace, but didn't have any handy and didn't feel like machine sewing. 

I had originally wanted to make the longer version, but did not have enough fabric, so, that just means I get to make another version of this dress when the right fabric peaks my interest. 

But until then, I'll just enjoy this one.   

One of my favorite TNTs for Summer- McCall 6559

Good Morning !!!!!!  As I sit here finishing up by breakfast and the end of my 4th of July weekend, I'm thinking about my recent experience at Sew Camp and the lovely ladies I got to spend time with.  First off, I want to thank Carolyn of https://sewingfantaticdiary.blogspot.com/ for all the lovely photos.  Girl we go way back and you could have spent more time sewing, but instead wanted to make sure all of us had enough photos so that all we had to do when we got home was type and post.  Thank you, thank you!!!!!

During camp I got a chance to do a little bit of everything.  I even had to leave and sing at a wedding while I was there.  It cut down on my sewing time, but I still got 5 pieces done, and my summer wardrobe is a little refreshed for it, which makes me happy.,  I have not been able to get any sewing done, and that weekend reminded me how much I've missed it.  Fabric Mart was a blast!!!!!!!  If you ever get a chance to visit in person, please go.  I have a very bad addiction to fabric.  It's a place I need to not frequent too often  as I purchased over 60 yards of fabric. (SIKE!!!!)  Who am I fooling.   Hey, this addition is better than other additions and it helps me with a useful skill, so I'm not going to complain.  I'll take pictures and show you what got purchased in another post.  I shipped my box home this year and to tell you how fast they were, the box was waiting for me when I arrived home.

Anyway, I don't want to keep you guys waiting any longer.  One of the garments I worked on at sew camp was McCall 6559.

 I think I've had this pattern forever, and it is definitely one of my favorites.  I love this maxi dress.  I also think everyone owns this pattern.  To tell you how old this pattern is, I think it's been around since 2012.  Someone please confirm this for me.  If you don't have it,  get it as it's a classic and should be in everyone's stash pile.  It's an OOP pattern, but I'm sure it can be found online if you search for it.  This maxi can be worn out to a summer party or function dressed up, it can be worn casually around on a summer day and it can be worn around the house just lazing around or worn to bed as a nightgown.  It all depends on your fabric choice and how you want to wear it.

This time I chose to wear this beauty casually.  My fabric choice is a cotton knit that I've had a few years that I picked up at Jomar.  The fabric is very comfy and I love the feel against my skin.  As simple and easy as this pattern is, it's a good piece to ease into when you feel like sewing but don't want to work on anything complicated.

Because I was going for a more casual look, I chose to do the racerback version for the back of this maxi which is taken from views E and F of this pattern.

I'll be making at least 1-2 more before the summer is over.  I hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend and your summer.  I'm off to go do some spinning as Tour de Fleece started yesterday.  I think I'll also be wearing my maxi today.  Let me know what you're up to.

Enjoy and be blessed!!!!!

Andrea

My Sunday Sweater

The Sunday Sweater by PetiteKnit came up in my Ravelry feed in December and it was love at first site.  I knew I just had to make it.  My yarn stash  is abundant (and lets not talk about my fabric stash) so I knew that I wanted to work from it to make this sweater.

This pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn which is knit on size 8 and 10 needles.  The yarn I chose to make this sweater is Lion Brand Scarfie.  It is a worsted weight yarn.   I had 2 skeins in my possession and only had to buy one extra skein to complete this sweater.

This is the year for stash busting  and I intend to try and stick to it except for Sew Camp or anything to do with spinning.  I'm even cutting back on pattern purchases as I need to focus more on pattern drafting.

Anyway, one of the things I love most about this sweater is the detail on the upper part of this sweater

 and the fullness of the sleeves

In all the years that I have been knitting, I don't recall ever knitting a worsted weight sweater.  I know that sounds weird coming from me, but it's true.  I've mostly know either dk and aran weight sweaters.  I am still trying to figure out how that happened, because I've learned that I love knitting worsted weight sweaters while making this one, because, let me tell you, they knit up fast, and I LOVE IT!!!!!!

This sweater is worked top down and the great thing about that is that you can try this sweater on as you knit it to check for fit and length.  I liked that a lot.  Being a tall girl, I always have to make my sweaters longer in the body.  I added an additional 2 inches I think in the length from what the pattern required. 

The other change I made in working up this pattern was in the amount of stitches I picked up at the armhole area.  If I had worked the pattern up using the amount of stitches the pattern stated  to pick up, I would have had a couple of holes that I would have had to sewn up, I have learned that in following the pattern I'm working on, it's okay to pick up a couple more stitches to avoid any holes and still work the pattern accordingly and in finishing up to knit the sleeve(s), I don't add any additional stitches than what the pattern originally required for the sleeves.  After all the increase rows were made, I then knit a total of 16 rows before doing the decrease row for the the wrist shaping. 

After all these years I am still working on making more garments in color.  A friend told me a long time ago, that I should put more color in my life because I had the complexion to pull it off.  I still like to wear black, but I can say that I have ventured out.

If you are interested in a new knitting project and want a fairly quick knit with a little detail and stylish flair, try this Sunday Sweater out. 

 

My Easter Dress - Sweet Charity Part I

Last Summer and Fall I had the pleasure of taking 2 ause their comfypattern drafting classes at Sew Pretty Studio.  During my second term or Pattern Drafting 2,  we worked on starting a collection and had to design 3 outfits.  This dress was the first sketch I drew for class.

As Easter drew closer, and Sew Camp (I'll talk about that in another post) was fast approaching, I had to think about my fabric choices, as I knew this was what I wanted to work on while I was there.  Originally, I thought about making this dress in a scuba knit, and may still do that in the future, but for some reason I wanted to work with a woven material.  My instructor, Michelle, and the owner of Sew Pretty Studios says, knits are too easy to fit and are very forgiving.  Wovens  are more challenging and you have to work harder for that fit.  Plus, she's a seamstress and does bridal wear normally.  Since I do knits, regularly, because they're comfy, I decided to pick a woven fabric.

I am proud to say that this fabric was picked from my humongous fabric stash.  I chose this tweed boucle fabric which I purchased from Karlin's Fabric Store which used to be off of Market Street in Philadelphia, PA.  I'm sad to say that unfortunately, Karlin's has been closed for sometime, but he had some amazing fabrics.  Anyway, I digress.

I chose this cotton boucle.

At Sew Camp, my fabric was run through the dryer with a wet cloth to take out the shrinkage.  I'll dry clean the dress from here on out I think because I want the color of this fabric to stay rich and well preserved.  After it came out of the dryer I then laid my drafted pieces out on the fabric for cutting

and later drafted the  facings for the dress as I had not drafted them yet.

I was able to get the dress and lining cut out and sewn together at camp but attached them together when I got home since I did not have enough time to complete it while there.

I'm going to stop here for today as there are some really cool details I put on this dress and I don't want to forget anything.  Plus there are a couple more pictures I want to take., but here's a sneak peak of the finished dress.

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!!!

Playing catchup Vogue 1261

I have wanted to make Vogue 1261, an Alice and Olivia design, for a very long time.  Better late than never, since the pattern is now OOP.  

I made the cowl neck version first.

 This is an easy and fast make.  I literally sewed this baby up in no time at all, the last Sunday evening of January.  I wanted something new to wear to work the next day, and I made the whole thing on my Bernina Serger.

If you haven't made this top or have it in my stash and have thought about making it, please try it.

Thank You, New Look 6378 and Burda 6764

First off I want to thank all of you for the wonderful comments you left me on my last post.  I loved working on that dress and was very happy with how it turned out, so thank you again.

I wanted something new to add to the wardrobe that I could wear out and to work depending on how I styled the garment.  I started with New Look 6378.  After seeing Andrea's version, I knew I had to have one of my own.

This was also great way to stash bust I had this fabric for a very long time and didn't know what to make with it.  I'm so glad the fabric finally talked to me and said this is definitely the garment I want to be.  

I apologize for the grainy pictures but they were taken at the end of the night and the lighting was  not the best.  This was one of the easiest and quickest garments I ever put together and it was all done on the serger.  Only 3 pattern pieces were used.  I serged all the seams and did a 3 thread rolled hem around all the edges.  

The second garment I made was Burda 6764. View B

This version consists of 4 pieces, the bodice front, back, back band and front band/ties.  This is another quick garment that sews up in no time at all if you want a cute little something to wear out at the last minute.

I wore it as a halter as I just liked it better that way.

I definitely sew a few more of these in my future.

Vogue 1471

When I saw Vogue 1471, I fell in love with it and knew I had to make it.

 

It is a cocktail dress by Nicola Finetti. I wasn't familiar with this designer so of course I had to check him out, and I must say that I do like his style. He is an Italian Australian fashion designer who launched his fashion label in 1995.  This dress is from his 2015 Pre-Fall collection.  He calls this a Miyake Lace V-Neck Dress.  I thought the dress was very striking and I love to dress up when I have a wedding to do or go to. Since I had girlfriend getting married this past weekend, I thought it was the perfect choice.

My first obstacle was finding the fabric.  I didn't have a lot of time.  I made several phone calls and and the problem I came up against was that I could get lace in a 2-way stretch knit, but not with a scalloped edge.  I even went to JoAnn's and came up empty.  I ended up getting a scalloped edge lightweight nylon lace with minimal to no stretch.  To compensate for not having the 2-way stretch, I cut the pattern pieces slightly larger, hence that is why my skirt is longer than the original pattern.  I'm contemplating taking off the ruffle skirt to shorten the regular skirt,but haven't decided yet.  Below is my review.

Pattern Description:

Lined dress (cut on crosswise grain) has close-fitting, underlined bodice and midriff, plunging V-neckline, long sleeves, double-lined skirt, hem ruffle, and exposed back zipper. Purchased trim.

Pattern Sizing:

 A5(6-8-10-12-14), E5(14-16-18-20-22)

I cut between a 14 and 16  to compensate for not having any stretch but normally cut a 14.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Yes it did, but I modified the skirt and made it longer to compensate for the lace fabric not having any stretch.

Were the instructions easy to follow?

The instructions were well written and I followed them to the letter.  I love Vogue patterns because they are a wealth of information and they always teach me something new.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I loved everything about this pattern.  The dress is classy and makes you feel  sexy at the same time.  I liked that the dress was underlined and then lined.  Before you started sewing the dress, you had to underline each piece of the lace which was treated as one piece of fabric after basting and then on top of that, you had to line the dress after that.

Fabric Used:

I had a hard time finding 2-way stretch lace with a scalloped edge.  I called all over the place and ended up using a nylon lace with a scalloped edge with, minimal stretch.  For the underlining  and lining I used a taupe rayon knit with, 2-way stretch instead of tricot.  I fell in love with the way the taupe color looked under the black lace and thought it would look good with my skin tone.  I got both pieces from London Textiles.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

I omitted the exposed zipper and used an invisible zipper.  To compensate for not having the stretch in the lace, I cut my pieces slightly larger to make sure the dress would fit.  I also made the skirt portion longer as I did not have enough time to make a muslin, before cutting this dress out.  The model in the photo does not have a large cleavage.  I on the other hand do have cleavage so I had to sew up the front a little bit, and my cleavage still managed to make an appearance.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

This is a dress that only needs to be sewn once, but I actually want to sew it again with a 2-way stretch lace without a scalloped edge and I think I"m going to do that.  I definitely recommend this dress to others.  If you have never sewn with lace before, this is definitely the dress to try it on.  Every girl should have a bit of lace in their closet.  Go for it.

Conclusion:

I love everything about this dress.  As I said before, it makes you feel sexy and classy at the same time.  This is definitely a keeper.