Sand Dollar Gala Dress

The Gala was great!  The dress turned out well and I was really happy with the style and some of the design elements.

I used an African Wax Print (I don't remember where I got it), but I've had it for a while.  I have a whole collection of African Prints but this is only the second item that I've made for my self with them, and I love it.  The second fabric that I used was a brocade that I bought from FabricMart while they were going through their A-Z sale.  I really like this fabric as well, it's decently lightweight for a brocade and I'm glad that I have enough for another project.  I was pleasantly surprised when I realized the two fabrics had similar patterns, hence the name "The Sand Dollar Dress"

Please excuse the lack of seam matching. But the fabric matching makes up for it!

As stated in my last post, I used Simplicity's Project Runway S0571 in a size 14.  I'm learning that I don't like the ease that's built into these patterns and I'm going to start tracing a size down for the bodice. I probably could have fixed this with my muslin but I still need to work on using my muslins for fitting.  I've noticed that I tend to use them more so to get through the sewing instructions and understand what they want me to do than for actual fitting and adjustments. 

The best design element of this is the ingenious way they did the sleeves.  To help keep it off the shoulder and keep it in it's place, there's a covered elastic band inside of the sleeve.  I made mine a little loose, so I'll have to take it in, but the theory is great and I can't wait to see how it works on other creations. 

This was my first time color blocking. The pattern already had princess seams on the front bodice but it only contained darts on the back bodice. In order to continue with the blocking on the back of the dress, I had to change the darts to princess seams.  I can't find the tutorial I used (it really took me too long to write this post), but it was pretty simple and worked well.  I also blocked the sleeves, as you can see, so that the black fabric line continued into the sleeve for continuity.  The blocking of the skirt was simple, I just cut a line straight down from the center of the pleats.  Since the two fabrics had different weights, they hung a lil differently, but the end result was still good, imho. 

All in all, it was a good night and a good make. I paired it with a tulle skirt, a wide elastic belt, bronze pumps and chunky pearls and I received lots of unsolicited compliments (the best kind).  Thanks for reading and hopefully you'll see me on here sooner than later!

All photos of me in the dress were taken by J.Lamothe Photography.  And of course had to add a pic of the ladies.

Nettie Dress

Thanks to Heather and Wanett, I was able to get my hands on the Nettie pattern!  Thank my sewing life for bloggers, sewing meet-ups and an extremely giving and kind sewing community. I have a few things lined up for this pattern but this is the first one.  I whipped this up in a few hours, outside of taping and cutting the pattern out.  The most difficult part for me was attaching the neckline binding. I probably could have made it tighter in the shoulder area; it's a tad loose but it's still wearable. I used the binding lengths suggested by the pattern which Heather states is 90% of the length. Next time, with the low back, I'll probably reduce the percentage to 80-85%.

The main fabric is from Girl Charlee.  This was actually my first time having to deal with stripes and I think I did fairly well.  Even the arms match up!

The shelf bra works surprisingly well.  I had my doubts when I was inserting it, but I like it.  I used a swimwear lining fabric that I bought from Spandex House.  I'll be adding cups (or pockets for cups so I can switch 'em between this and future dresses) when I have time even though it's totally wearable now as long as it doesn't get too cold.  ;-)


I'm excited for this dress and I can't wait to wear it out in the wild!  Be on the lookout for the other variations!

True Silky Blue

So this is waaay late. Sorry, last year was rough and I haven't been creating as much as I would like. I ended up taking a day off from work to work on this dress. It was a good day, sometimes I forget how much like to make things and how much and long I can focus on something when I enjoy what I'm doing. 

I was a little nervous getting into this pattern. I haven't seen any reviews on it online and the ones I did see did not have a ringing endorsement. I cut into my muslin feeling confused. The instructions keep referring to the pieces by names that don't exist, notches were in the same category and they kept saying weird things like seam numbers. Then I had a revelation, those numbers by all those circles actually mean something, those were the seam numbers! I don't think you all understand the amount of relief that went through my head; all of a sudden everything made sense (there might have been an actual trumpet fanfare sounding in my head).  Yay for muslins!

The fabric arrived the Tuesday before the wedding, as expected, and it was exactly what I wanted, a nice lightweight silk which felt great between my fingers. There were some white stripes in the material which went away with the first ironing. I cut out all my pieces and immediately went to work. Things went pretty smoothly. It wasn't until I went to zip it up that I realized I might have cut too large of a size. Luckily it seemed to pull together well with just taking in the back seam. However, I must note this, when making a strapless dress, especially one with weight that you plan to dance in, it's not a bad thing for it to be very fitted.  It took a few tries to get the boning right, but this second time (first while making Gertie's pencil skirt), went smoother and adds the right support to the bodice.

I made it a tea length dress and used some African print fabric for the waist inset. I mixed and matched the pattern. Originally it called for the waistband to bet touched to go with the rouched bodice but I needed something more simple to show of the print off the fabric. If I had time, I would have made a purse with the same material to wear with it but I was cutting it close and just haven't gone back to that project yet. However, I did splurge with my time and decide to add some piping with the same material. 

I made the rouching on the bodice with the baste and pull method. That part turned out well though it did take some effort to ensure that they were spaced well. Next time when I'm not pressed for time (if that ever happens) I'll try using the ruffler that I've owned for almost 3 years (I bought a kit of foots for the invisible zipper and haven't used ANY of the other feet yet.)

The silk itself was pretty easy to work with. This pattern used a LOT of fabric with the skirt being gathered at the waistband and lined. I had some issues hemming the lining of the dress, my machine started chewing it up so I left out unhemmed for the wedding and just using safety pins to keep out from peeking out. After the wedding I called a few swimming machine repair shops about a tune up and one VERY nice repair man suggested I try changing the tension before I brought it to him. Guess what: it worked. I felt like a fool floor not having played with that earlier but I was able to roll been the rest of the lining with no issues.

The dress wore well the day of, I'm glad I spent the time making it and I hope you all like it as much as I do!

Under Pressure

So it would seem (and by seem, I mean that it's totally true), that I like to procrastinate and work decently okay under pressure.  My previously mentioned friend who's getting married in a few weeks (3 weeks), asked me to be the hostess/greeter of her wedding.  She was kind enough to give me free reign to create my own dress. The two dresses that her brides maids are wearing are these.

My thought is to make something similar.  I found a pattern at JoAnn's, Burda Young 7388, that is carries some of the same style elements.

I'm going to do a mix of the two, a gathered sweetheart neckline bust but a flat waist and a gathered skirt.  The material is a dark blue silk dupioni from fabric.com and will be lined with a black polyester lining. I'm actually going to belt the dress with a blue African print fabric that I bought and I'm hoping it's not going to look like too much with the gathers and the belt. And I was thinking of piping the top of the neckline and the seams for the waist in the print fabric to tie everything together.

I haven't seen too many people make this dress up on the interwebs and the ones that do seem to run into some issues with the pattern pieces.  I'm going to muslin this up since this is the most expensive dress I've had to make since I started and take care of some fit issues in the bodice.  It's boned and I'm not too adept at it, only used it once, so we'll see what happens.  All in all, i'm excited and a bit worried.  Fabric should be here in a couple days and then it's off to the races!  I'll let you know how it all goes!