Memorial Day Weekend Dress

Okay, so the "name" of this dress is not entirely accurate. I didn't wear this dress Memorial Day Weekend, and I didn't even finish this dress Memorial Day Weekend. However, I got the fabric I used for this dress last year during Memorial Day weekend and completed the majority of its construction this Memorial Day weekend.

My birthday spoils from last year

So there you go.

General details about it's construction:

Source: Vintage Sewing Wiki

Pattern: Simplicity 7011, circa 1975, purchased on Etsy

Fabric: Synthetic border print, which I then hacked apart and reconstructed to make use of the different prints on it. I could have probably just used two different fabrics all together.

Changes made: The pattern is really simple: four pieces to cut for the dress, and then little tabs and facing to cut. I ended up cutting the dress pieces into different sections to help me place the border prints at the places I wanted. I also added a strange little pleat to the front pieces to add extra belly fabric. It wasn't the prettiest alteration, but the gathers/elastic end up hiding it well enough. Not to mention the print. I skipped the tabs, because they felt a little like overkill with this print.

I used flat-felled seams with the border print transplants.
If you look right under the beads, you'll see where I had added the extra pleat, too.

I also added the border print portion to the hem as a separate piece. It cut down on the need to hand-sew, and tied up the dress pretty well. In retrospect, I'm not sure it mattered too greatly either way. It's a little longer than I had planned, but it's a little neater on the bottom, overall. (Just ignore my horrid finishing stitches and poor matchup of seams. Leave it to Buddy to take detail pics of the parts I'm least happy with.)

Overall Impression: The fabric is very light and totally appropriate for a summery dress, so I am happy to have finally put it to good use. The construction of the dress is interesting--shaping relies mainly on the use of elastic at the shoulders and bodice. I would totally make this dress again, a little shorter and with some simpler print just because I think it would have such a vastly different effect. And if you take out all the frankensteining I did with the fabric, the construction would be even simpler. I would even venture to say I'd finish the sleeves with bias binding because it would work well for seam finishes and a nice detail on the outside. I just need to buy LOTS of bias binding for that.

Excuse the wrinkles (skin and dress) from the long drive in the car.

This dress fits the vintage, alterations, and dress categories for the Sew, Baby! challenge, too, I think. :D

And as full acknowledgement, I really am working on some sewing here and there. And I still need to post on Me-Made-May conclusions. Sorry! You'll see more soon, I hope! Third trimester starts Sunday, so I am now realizing how little I've accomplished and how much I have to do to prepare for major life change!

T-shirt Dress, Re-done

Remember in March, when I wanted to make a dress out of these t-shirts? (Apologies again for the poor quality of the pic, but you get the idea.)

I tried to self-draft a dress, which didn't work out well. And what I thought would work for the use of the green really just didn't want to come together either. So, I made a cute green stripy skirt instead, and threw these cut up tees into my pile of UFOs.

I had intended on wearing the dress out of these tees to my Buddy's work party, since they were from last year's party. When St Paddy's Day came and went, the work party actually was postponed for various reasons to this May. So, putting off the dress wasn't a complete loss of plans: I had a couple of months to get something together.

This is what I came up with, using the free One Shoulder Knit Dress pattern off of Burdastyle (thank you dixiediy!). Super comfy and not reliant on making sense of the print on the massacred tees.

My niece is damn cute.

The top was an interesting lesson in piecing, without a dress form mind you. I tried to use as much of the scraps as I had, so there are some awkward places where lines didn't come together the way I had intended. In the future, I'd likely make two separate blocks of pieced fabric to cut in opposing directions to do a more effective chevron effect. I was a little too limited on available fabric to do it with the way the tees were already cut from my last attempt.

However, the dress is SUPER comfy (did I mention that earlier?) and wears well. I added a little pleat to the front for more belly space, but I'm not sure it was really effective. It certainly is off-center, so I just get distracted by that every time I wear it.

detail on the top

Sorry the pics are not formal, but life has been crazy of late. Setting up some photo shoot just isn't feasible these days. Fortunately, life is crazy with family gatherings, so this increases the chances that I get pictures like this to share. ;)

And this maternity dress counts for the refashioned/altered pattern category and dress category for my Sew, Baby! Challenge. Yay!

Bambi Shirt, Deconstructed

In entering into my second trimester and rediscovering this thing that folks call "energy" and this other thing called "motivation", I must admit that the high levels of what I perceive to be energy and motivation may just me being a little psychotically over-ambitious.

I'm not sure. But I think that might be what's actually going on here.

All I know is that I come home frantically thinking about all the sewing I should be getting done, trying to plow through, only to lose myself in the deadline instead of the process of sewing.

I haven't really spoken on Charlotte's concept for Mindful Sewing, but let me just say that it's a concept I aspire to endlessly. Just not accomplishing it very well. Instead, I want to sew like a freight train wants to arrive at its destination.

Such is what happened with my Bambi shirt, which, I suppose I thankfully could not immediately share due to technical difficulties after completing it. It forced me to slow down a little bit.

As stated earlier, I made the shirt for the Sew Weekly challenge based on a picture of me as a child. I wanted to use a picture of me at the age of five wearing a tiiiiiny little Bambi t-shirt. In my mind, it was my muscle shirt, and it was my favorite. I never felt tougher than when I wore my Bambi shirt. I could have sworn that I had a copy of the picture I had in mind a week or so ago, but I was to find I was wrong.

I had to take a quick phone pic at my mom's house yesterday so I could post this.

Anyhow, I'm going to do a quick and dirty review of the deets on the pattern and a confession of my issues with this project:

Details:

Source: Cation Designs

Pattern: Simplicity 9333, won in a Sew Grateful giveaway on Cation Designs. Altered via a tutorial to make it "maternity" that I can't seem to find now, and resized to be 34" bust instead of 36". Alterations include expanding the waist measurement by 2" on each side, lengthening the front, and adding ribbons in a lace casing to provide the ability to gather the sides or let them out.

Fabric:  super soft and bouncy remnant jersey, $7/ yard? (Everything is $7 to me if I can't remember. It's been in my stash for a while).

Notions: stretch lace and a blue button, courtesy of Kat's Moon Munkie Mystery Make package. Grosgrain ribbon. Acrylic paint

Additional: In order to make the shirt Bambi related, besides the tight fit (in some places), I added a print of a fawn silhouette. I admit I am pretty proud of drawing that little fawn myself. The butterfly came later.

Issues: 


1. PRIMARY ISSUE: I didn't do a muslin/toile.

2. I used a jersey that simply was not in existence in the 70s, which means it behaved in ways that just didn't suit the cut of the pattern.

Puffy sleeves, and weird neck pull.

3. Even after taking about 2 inches of ease out of these sleeves, they're still too puffy for my tastes.

4. The back was too droopy on me (see #2), and the zipper was totally inappropriate and wonked out the shape of the back (see pics).

Zipper totally bowing out the back

Excess fabric, wavy zipper, just not working.

Back, taken in. Button and eye/hook added to top later. Better, but I still feel like there's a mild case of scoliosis.

5. The alterations to make the shirt "maternity" spoiled some of the things I liked about the 70s design and any resemblance I originally saw in the pattern for my childhood shirt. I am hoping that the massive amounts of fabric will come in handy later, though.

6. The jersey is quite synthetic, and couldn't handle high temps from the iron, so my original plan to use a freezer paper stencil for the fawn was second guessed. I wasn't sure the freezer paper would stick at the fabric appropriate temp. So I used plain looseleaf, a roller for the acrylic paint, and totally slopped up the process.

7. The jersey was "hairier" than I anticipated, so the edges are muddled on the fawn.

8. I got paint on the shirt where I didn't want it. So I made it a butterfly.

9. In trying to add the lace casings for the ribbon, I overlooked the tension change, leaving me with some sloppy seams. I was too tired and crazed to care to change it at that point.

Conclusion:


Okay, so that wasn't very quick. But it was pretty dirty, right? I mean...

"Ruched" sides

So, I really do like this shirt, overall. Even with my gripes. I am a little scared to wash it with the acrylic print, though. I did heat set it, but we're back to issue #6. The fabric is super comfy, and it does offer plenty of room to grow. I'm proud of my little fawn, and hope to do it justice at a later date on another project. My main lesson in this project though is the idea that I need to slow down. Deadlines are generally arbitrary and never ultimately important. A good lesson to keep in mind when my due date approaches. ;)

I think this project counts as a Sew, Baby! entry for separates, altering patterns, and vintage, don't you?