Better Late Than Never! The #redoctober Hawthorne!

From the bottom of my heart, I'm so sorry it took forever to get photos! 

So like, this has been finished for weeks. In fact, I finished it the day before Halloween except for the cuff buttonholes. And I have five or six makes, including things I made for the kids, finished PRIOR to this dress than I have yet to take anything but cell phone photos of. I'm seriously slack here.

But you love me anyway, right?

Pattern: Hawthorn from Colette Patterns
Fabric: rayon challis from fabric.com
Notions: 14 Shell Buttons from Lyanwood  $5
              Interfacing - stash
              Thread -stash
Amount of Fabric: 3.5 yards x $7
Total Cost: 29.50
Time To Complete: Five hours. Largely because of the cuffs and the fact that my first collar I stitched and pinked the WRONG SIDE and had to redo it.

Ok, so on with the show!  Somewhere around my 2TB hard drive are process photos but I didn't feel like hunting for them. I started with the size 14 and did a 4 inch total FBA. This is actually my third one but the first one with 3/4 sleeves. And my first time doing plackets! And they came out OK and I can't tell you just how happy I am about that. Oh, hey, I do have photos of that. I was very happy I decided to use light interfacing on the challis because they were fiddly enough as it was. Here's what I pulled from Instagram.

I block fused whole pieces on top of a towel with silk organza as a pressing cloth. The towel is necessary to keep from ending up with shiny patterns from the metal mesh of the ironing board.

I had to do a bit of correction with the lines after the fact. I have to say that the tutorial on doing plackets from Colette's blog has, by far, been the easiest to understand.

Top stitched goodness!

And here they are in all their finished glory! Pretty right? I used matching buttons for the plackets because I didn't want that red to be broken up. Oh, and I added pockets to the skirt because everything needs pockets. Ok, More photos!

Its Llladybird post Number One!

I should mention that I have found my new favorite place to take blog photos. I hadn't used it before because the doors to the storage area under the sun room (aka my sewing room) were rotted and falling apart. The Mister and his brother replaced them this spring. The wall is south facing and gets great afternoon light.

The fabric on this dress makes me super stinkin' happy. For realz. I was grinning like a fool the whole time. When I got most of it done and put it on my dress form I was like "Is this an old lady dress? It sure feel like it could be!" But the lovely sewcialists talked me into not giving up. Its all about making yourself happy, amirite?

And I shall leave you with my second favorite photo of this series. Did anyone else finish red makes late? What do you think of the Sewcialist color themes?

Llladybird Post Number Two!

Sewing Plans! My First "Official" Vlog

So the still image for this vlog is kinda hilarious. Also, I apparently I like to scratch my upper lip when I'm thinking about what to say next. Who knew? But I'm actually enjoying doing vlogs cause I can use my hands when I talk.

One note, the green denim is from Fabric.com, I forgot to add that part. I was also trying to say the red knit would go well with the gauze.

Patterns mentioned by me:

Lady Skater
Sewaholic Tofino, Thurlow, and Salspring dress.
Cake's Hummingbird
Colette's Hawthorn and Jasmine
By Hand London's Victoria Blazer

Ok, hope this wasn't terribly boring. Tell me what you have planned, please?!

VICTORY LAP!

The Classic Pose

I finished the blouse! Well almost. I still have to overcast three seams on the inside. But other than that it is DONE and I'm very happy.  I feel like I leveled up or something. I really should be asleep right now cause I have to work tonight but my stupid internal clock is working against me. So I took photos and edited and put them up here for your viewing pleasure.

Relaxing and reading in five inch heals. 

The buttons on the back of the blouse are vintage glass. I dug them out of my mother-in-law's massive box of buttons some time ago.  And in taking photos I realized I tilt my head a lot.

This photo is to show off my Grandmother's brooch. Its a Phoenix, which is awesome.

What?!

Or not. I dunno.  They aren't my favorite, but whatever. I FINISHED THE BLOUSE. Its so pretty and sumptuous. I'm wearing it with my finished wool circle skirt. Its finally cold enough to wear that thing, too.  I like it together with my corset belt. It makes it feel more modern to me. Anyway. Bed. LATER!

I Totally Made Pants!

I'm leh tired.

Ok, I managed to salvage these babies.  Also, this is the knit blouse I made several weeks back that is a bit large.  But comfy! Its warm and as long as I wear a camisole underneath I can wear it to work. And taking photos of yourself with a self-timer is totally a pain in the butt.  The ones that are in focus and I like I ended up cutting off my head. So the top photo is so you know that I'm not going headless on ya'll. Seriously.

Oh yeah, did I mention I went dark red again?  Here's some photos of the pattern adjustments I made on the pants.  In case you're just jumping in these are the Clover Pants from Colette's fall line of patterns.

Pencil line is where I changed the crotch depth, the two parallel lines are the height I'll be removing in the next pair.

Here the yellow chalk is what i took out on the sides. You can also see where I did a full derriere adjustment.

Ok, so what did I do to the pants?  Well, first off I took in almost an 3/4 inch on the hips. And then I took the center back in about 1/4 of an inch (For a total of half an inch? Make sense?).  I also had to do some adjustments on the front crotch. On my next pair I'll be taking about almost an inch in height for the front because I keep getting that sag that makes you want to yank your pants up. Its annoying but not devastatingly so. This is why I'm dubbing them my wearable muslin.

Headless Photos:

Ok, so this one isn't really headless.

Both these pieces of clothing while not on the top of my list for good fit are probably the most well put together. All my seams are finished. The neck binding on the blouse I was super happy with. I used this burdastyle tutorial.  I highly recommend it if you want to venture into knits. When I make this blouse again I'm going down a size and bra cup (its one of those Vogue Custom Fit deals). When the reviews said it had tonnes of ease they weren't kidding. I had to take in the sides by an inch. I also cut apart the top and bottom halves, took about an inch on the top half off, regathered and then sewed it back together using clear elastic. It probably doesn't help its a ribbed double knit and tends to grow.

Probably the most fun I had was using one of the tailor's tools Mom gave me called "Tailor's Clapper". Which kinda sounds like it would give you an STD. Really its an oblong shaped piece of wood that is flat on top/bottom for pounding layers of wool flat after steaming them so you get a really good crease (I don't think that description helped with the snickering, did it? Ya'll got dirty minds).  I'll take more photo details later but I'm just so excited that I finally finished something and it didn't completely suck. I had to share!

DID I MENTION I MADE PANTS???

Finding Inspiration

So after my last failure I've felt a bit melancholy. Then I got my shiny new Colette Sewing Handbook in the mail.  I confess I ordered it so I could get my hands on the patterns, in particular the Truffle.  I think my favorite chapter of the book is "A Thoughtful Plan".  It ties into Colette's wardrobe challenges in really think about how to make things that work together. And knowing what works for your lifestyle and your body type. Which brought me back to what I was thinking about last post. Don't try to stick my square peg self in a round hole (or round peg in square hole? eh, whatever, you get what I mean).

And honestly, that got me to day dreaming. And poking around on Pinterest, which I'm sure everyone here has heard about right now. I stumbled up on this dress.

dress found here

Which, honestly, I was like OOO!  I love the black and white houndstooth with a pop of red.  Originally I had planned to use the below August 2011 Burda Style dress, but the sizing and instructions made reticent. Not to mention I wanted more sleeve and less... neck thing.

Please excuse blurry photo. 

wool/rayon houndstooth

 So I went looking for an alternative and found the following Vogue V8413 and the perfect rayon/wool blend houdstooth.  Match made in heaven!

Vogue 8413 View C

Now I have one thing to think about.  The other place inspiration has struck is in the form of impulsive fabric purchase.  But I don't feel one iota of guilt. This fabric screams NERD, but is posh at the same time. Pixalated charmeuse print  with random beading anyone?

I made the photo big because it totally deserves it. I've got a Laura Ashley pattern in my stash already that will be perfect for this. Its basically a lined princess seam sheath dress. 

Both of these will take a little time and a few muslins to get the fit right.  So to start I'm going to do a few knit-wear pieces that i know fit, just to feel some satisfaction. First will be this Vogue top:

Vogue 8649

In a slate blue bamboo knit.  And the second will be a pair of yoga pants out of some black sweatshirt knit my Mom left me that has tiny white high heals all over them. 

So... that's what I've been musing over when not contemplating all the crazy news going on here and abroad. Tell me, what has inspired you recently?

Redux

I'm really sorry for the lack of sewing posts of late. I am still trying to find my Mom a decent nursing home near me which involves medicaid. And I have a new work schedule and some projects that have been heaped on me. And some intense work with my daughter to get her caught up on reading. So, in the meantime here is a restyling of my Chantilly from Colette Patterns and a little girl chasing bubbles.

Love to all!

Colette Patterns Spring Palette Challenge

So, after much consideration and thought, I have decided to join the Colette Spring Palette Challenge. I had already put together a "plan of action" of getting my wardrobe spring/summer work ready. I put together an "inspirational board" though I don't know how much it has in common with what I actually want to sew. I am fairly sure about the Bella Pant from Burdastyle, however. I will be using the dusty grey denim from my stash to make those, and probably steal some buttons from my mother-in-law's massive stash. But as you will see in the pictures below, I am embracing the "florals and prints" of this season.

So, in no particular order:

1)Bella Pant in dusty grey denim

2)Colette's Crepe in the blue/grey floral

4)Liz Blouse out of the shabby chic white/pink/blue floral

3)New Look cropped jacket out of the cream/honeysuckle floral (view D)

The gold fabric is a silk jersey and I already have it laid out to make another TNT 3/4 sleeve cowl neck. I'll have enough left to make a tank in View A

of the New Look pattern. And I've already cut that same cowl neck out of this crazy silk charmeuse, but with butterfly sleeves. I adore this print, its pretty wild, but working with it makes my eyes cross in weird ways(also, its slippery). Hopefully it will have the same distracting effect to others when I wear it.

In other news, I did try on muslin #3 and it fit fairly well except I still needed more room in the bust. Le Sigh. The dress itself works into the palette but I don't think I'm going to try and count it. I was getting sick of it so its been set aside so I can whip up these TNT shirts come my next day off.

So I think that's my plan. Make a couple of shirts out of the work horse patterns and then I will start tracing and modifying the other patterns I plan on sewing up over this 10 week period. In the mean time I should probably do some studying for that 'professional life' of mine. You know, the one that pays the bills? That part might be taking some exciting turns soon. I don't know, we'll see.

In the mean time, STAY FABULOUS!

I must be crazy.

I probably mentioned already, but I'm doing the Great Vintage Sew-a-Long of 2011. The pattern I chose is from the early 1940's and the inspiration was from a Ralph Lauren dress of Spring 2010. I can't tell you how many times I've altered this pattern but the copies I traced out now look something like Frankenstein's Monster. I'm about to do muslin #3 and it better damn well fit!

In other news, I need a needle board before I start on my cropped velvet jacket. Mom says she has one I can have, but that means driving 50 miles through Atlanta traffic. Which... I dunno, I find that drive stressful. But its really nice to have a Mom that has all these nifty tools. Though I have learned that using a thick terry cloth towel and having some natural bristle type brush to brush the pile after steaming and then finger pressing works too. Just, ya know, not quite as efficiently.

But aside from just being weird most of the time, I'm now considering joining Colette Patterns' Spring Palette Challenge. To quote one of my friends "wow... you are really into this". Everyone needs a hobby. Thing is, I have already started something like wardrobe planning and I want to get to it. I've pretty much given up on finishing my Lady Grey coat in any sort of timely fashion. I think the fitting/tailoring aspect is a little daunting. After this dress and the cropped jacket I think I'll be ready to tackle the coat. Maybe have it ready for next winter?

Hopefully my next post will have progress pictures and palette ideas for spring.