The Candy Plaid Dress

The description on Fabric Mart's site used words like "blueberry" and "strawberry" to describe this plaid. Its colorful, its lovely, its almost impossible to be sad while wearing it. I've pretty much written everything I can about this dress, so here's photos!

Some stats:
Time to make: Oh, given fitting about 40 hours, but a second one with no pattern matching would probably take about 10 or so.
Cost: The fabric and lining together set me back about 24 dollars.  For a silk dupioni fashion fabric and rayon lining. Notions were from my stash.
Make Again? Yes!

Check out that pattern matching.  I totally rule!

What's that, its not lined up on the side skirt but still looks right? How does that even happen?

This dress would totally rock a crinoline, too, but since its for work, that'd be kinda obnoxious.

Check out my matching belt! I used fabric cut on the bias with Sunni's Stella Kit. These are totally awesome, go buy some!

I decided not to do a hidden zipper. This fabric is so loud, how'd you notice anyway? Also, I'm proud of my belt loops.

And with a twirl and clicking of heals I say have a good day! I hope this cheers you as much as it did me.

Living in Wadder-rita-ville

Wader-rita-ville is like Margarittaville* except there's more vodka and less tropical beaches.  And a lot of wadders sitting in the corner as everything I seem to be attempting to undertake for me lately has turned into a frustrating waste of fabric.  So, Lesson number I've-lost-count-at-this-point:  I have curves and no matter how hard I try to make it fit, garments like this one will look like over-sized sacks made out of pretty fabric. I seriously didn't even want to take pictures with it on, it was just that sad.  Non-poly fabric won't help any.  I need more 'shaping' in my garments, and that's that.   Here's some photos of some of the mods I made:

Hastily snapped photo

As you can see, there is a significant y-bust alteration that added a dart.  I also added a quarter inches to all the seems.  I FORGOT to cut it out with seam allowance so it was tight through the shoulders. something I could fix.  What I could NOT fix is the fact is that its suppose to be a slip-on blouse. I might have been able to "tuck it in" and make it wearable. But to make it not pool up over my backside would have required widening at the hips an amount that was just absurd. And then take a sway back adjustment.  In other words.. too much damn work for a style I shouldn't be wearing anyway.  So back to plan A.  Wait for another Vogue Pattern sale and get this one:

Vogue 8722

OH HEY THEY ARE ON SALE!  I tried to get this one at JoAnn's during the last 3.99 sale but they were out in my size.  This is what happens when you don't descend upon them as they  open of the first day of the sale.  POOOP.

So after this rather disappointing failure, despite the fact I managed to churn out a halfway decent looking project, I sewed up  a bat-wing blouse from this free burdastyle member pattern out of some gauze knit i got at fashionfabrics.com for some absurdly stupid cheap price.  As a side note, don't stick rayon gauze knit in the dryer.  It shrinks, but only on one side and its... weird.  Lets just say to get "on grain" i had to cut it at a 45 degree angle and I had given up hope before I started.  Wouldn't you know I kinda love it and now I want a bunch of them to lounge around in with my yoga pants. 

Sooo.... yeah. I'm feeling kinda discouraged on the "things I can actually wear out of the house" front. I'm sure I'll pick up again and move on. So in the meantime, I give you the most awesome heaping pile of bizarre I've seen in a while.

You can buy her hat here.
You're welcome.

*As a funny side story, I am allergic to Tequila. It sort of took a while for two and two to connect as I thought it was just the mix of alcohols in a Long Island that made our designated driver stop the car so me and my best friend could hurl over the side of the I-75 overpass.  (Another side note, the propensity of goths to wear corsets to dance in makes vomiting physically problematic.)  AHHHH... the days of misspent youth.    In any case, it wasn't until later when I started breaking out into a rash every time it was time to do shots well... that ended that.  Then Dad happens to mention he has the same problem, and oh yeah, don't eat any guava products.  

In Which I Butcher an FBA...

Well, as my trip to NYC (and my birthday) get closer I am filled with the overwhelming need to make a summer dress. This particular dress has been in my idea book for some time now and one of the things niggling at my brain to work on.


This particular pattern was an impulse buy as I was digging through the Vouge 3.99 pattern sale at JoAnn's. It looked like a great way to make the light and airy dresses needed for The South. And then came the idea of layering or lining sheer (and semi-sheer) fabrics from Threads #154.

So V8645 is basically an A-line Grecian style dress. Using the Palmer and Pletsch methodology I used size 18 based on my upper-bust measurement. And because this style of garment has very little need of 'fitting' I am not doing a toile and just doing a tissue fitting.

The tissue fitting told me two things. One: I needed to add 4 inches to the bust line and two, I need about .5 inches for the back.


I went with the Y Bust Dart Alteration* (p. 146-147 Fit for Real People) which is used for needing more than 2 inches in alteration. This also adds a dart to the front for shaping, which it seems I just can't get away from. Weee. Despite my fancy new washers paper weights, I still had to do some taping, which I also managed to iron, causing it to shrink and warp the pattern. *headdesk*


I widened the bust two inches to total four when all is said and done. I haven't quite decided how I'm going to add the .5 inches to the back. I only need it for the upper back. Wait, I think I just found the HOW on page 120. I <3 this book. So in any case, this is what I'm working on and I hope to have it done before Monday (I'm leaving on Wednesday after work).

I also have a second, more fancy, version of this dress planned with TWO sheer silks are layered. That one will most likely NOT be work appropriate, but we'll see.

*For a dress that is one long piece in the front such as this, I recommend cutting at the top "lengthen or shorten here" marking. That way you can make the adjustment to the top half and then tape the rest of it back on, cleaning up any of the cutting lines in the process.

I'm not dead yet!

But I just might be by Christmas. Well no, not really. The seasons really do effect my mood and after almost a month of the entire household having one illness after another I just wanted to crawl into bed and hide under the covers. Except a couple Friday's ago I managed to go out dancing with some girlfriends and ended up with a new friend. And a commission. Probably the ONLY kind of commission I'll take cause its a SCARF. Seriously, scarves are a strip of fabric, how bloody hard can that be?

How did I agree to doing this? Don't ask, that's classified information. But let's just say that this friend really likes Burberry Scarves, which are "HOLY CRAP $200+ FOR A STRIP OF FABRIC REALLY?????" expensive. I can get you two yards of nice cashmere for half that. But since he wanted it to be the same colors in a plaid this involved going to my favorite fabric store in downtown Atlanta. And since my niece and sister were in town for Thanksgiving I got to drag them along. (My niece looking through the shiny section. All together now, OOO SHINY!)

That's my family for you. They come into town and we go to the fabric store, or the music store (like, the kind that sells SHEET MUSIC, remember that stuff?). Or comics... Geekiness is inherited, of this I'm certain.

Anyway, I also was there to get some cotton velvet for a cropped jacket, or bolero, whatever you want to call it. But after combing through the massive table full of wool suiting weight material I found what looks to be a perfect match. Its a Pendleton Wool, very VERY soft. I was hoping that I'd have enough left to make a skirt but I'm making it double thickness so no.. no dice. But there it is to the right. They had several bolts of the stuff so I might just go back for more. As it is I can probably make a plaid skirt for Felicity.

OH, you want to know if I've been sewing other things? Why actually I did manage to make a few garments but I can't post any pictures because I don't have a way to take them myself and good lighting + me + husband at home don't happen often at the same time. If anyone wants to donate a decent camera with timer and tripod to the cause it would make me REALLY happy!

The two days before I went dancing I had an overwhelming urge to make a black and white polka-dot knit dress. I finished the dress in time for Friday night thanks to a wonderful bout of insomnia. That would be View C from Vouge8679. The dress was apparently successful since I made a new friend the night I wore it out. I also made a black double knit skirt from View E on Vogue8672. I've decided that this skirt adds +10 to my charisma bonus and must be worn with caution. I'm still gonna make more.

All the kidding aside, though, I have found myself somewhat crippled by the skirt I want to make inspired by Oscar de la Renta. Knowing I have everything needed to make the skirt while at the same time feeling overwhelmed by the undertaking has led to a lot of delaying on other projects or avoidance of sewing altogether. Friday and Saturday this week I took a deep breath and dove in. Cutting out the fashion fabric proved to be a feat of geometric proportion. But I did it and I serged the edges, got the lining pattern drafted and cut out, and also cut out the fur (fake) trim for the bottom. I will say that this is probably the nicest faux fur I've ever worked with. Last thing I did last night is trim the seam allowances and it kind of felt like I was snipping fur off of my cat. So I'll try to take some construction pictures of that and I will feel so much better once I have that silly thing conquered.

Weekly WTF: Dr. Who?

So I get the alerts for new pattern releases. What sewing nerd doesn't? And when looking through the coats I saw V1213 (above) and thought, BUH?? So... you know when you are doing your best to use as little fabric as possible when cutting our your pattern and you are left with these very long maybe 12 inch wide strips of fabric and you think to yourself "What in the WORLD am I going to do with this?". When its too much to consider a real scrap, but not really enough to make anything else with... Well, I guess maybe some kids clothes. But how many 7-10 year old's do you know that think "Oh hey, wool trousers, THANKS MOM!". Not so many, I'd suspect.

Well, KOOS Couture for Vogue Patterns just gave us the perfect solution. That's right, here's a coat that will not only use up that pile of leftovers but it will WOW the competition. Or confuse them. Grandma might clean her glasses a couple times just to be sure she's seeing things right.

But you know what, I'm gonna get this pattern. I think it would be awesome with this scarf. At the very least I could walk around asking people if they've seen a blue phone box recently.