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!

Me-Made-May '12, weeks 1 & 2

I had hoped to be all fancy and make a nice little photoshopped summary of my wears for Me-Made-May before posting them on here. But my brain doesn't seem to want to cooperate on this. Or I'm just plain lazy.

So, I post them in little pictures for folks to see in a row. Many of these pieces you've seen posted on here before. There are a couple of refashions (leg warmers and arm warmers from socks, t-shirt yoga pants, a hemmed dress) that I have not posted on, but they are not difficult projects with any interesting stories to accompany them.

Week 1:

Week 2: 

I know I should provide better explanations for each of these pieces, but wrestling with these little thumbnails has taken the wind outta my sales.

Week 3 is far less interesting. I'll post on that in a couple of weeks, to tie up the month with weeks 4 and 4.5. I'm hoping to get a couple new pieces made before then, because I've already hit the repeat stage since some of my other projects are just not bump-friendly. It's fun wearing all of my clothes I've made, but I do enjoy some variety.

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!

Pay It Forward 2012

So, I'm a sucker for participating in things, I think. Marie at A Sewing Odyssey noted that she is participating in the Pay It Forward fun for 2012, and I thought I would also join in. Though I wasn't one of her first three commenters, she kindly has offered to make me something anyway, so I will return the sentiment and offer you lovely readers the same option!

I make no promises that I will get it done in the next four months, pre-baby, but I'll do my darndest. In the meantime, I have the whole year. ;) I actually do have a gift I have to make for someone from over a year ago on another similar agreement, but I'll be good this year, I promise.


To review the logistics of pay it forward:

I will send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this post - the gift will be a handmade surprise by me and I will send it to you sometime in the next 365 days.  All you need to do is:

Leave me a comment telling me your favourite colours (or the colours you hate) and/or your favorite animal to help me make you a gift you'll hopefully love! Please don’t forget to include your email address so I can get in touch.

Mind you, if you are one of these three commenters, you must play along too by blogging a similar post and pledging to make a surprise for the first three people who comment on it.

Are you up for it?

Also, as a side note, I have decided to post my Me-Made-May-2012 outfits via my Instagram account (which will also feed Flickr, so they'll go to the Flickr pool for MMM12 too), if you want to follow me. You can find me under sneakfuzz. And don't worry, if you don't want to follow or don't have Instagram, I intend on doing weekly reviews.

Cheers!

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?

Me-Made-May 2012

So, I'm taking the pledge! Yay! This is my first Me-Made/Self-Stitched event ever, so I'm actually quite excited to join the ranks. :D

I am fully aware that I've (truthfully) painted May to be quite the hectic month for me. With this crazy schedule, my limited wearable me-made maternity wardrobe, and my general n00bness to the me-made forum, I am going to tread lightly. If I can pull off three or more days a week, I will, but I can certainly and safely commit to wearing at least eight items made by me this month.

As soon as I've done my laundry.

'I, Seeks of The Seek Speak, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear at least two me-made or me-refashioned piece of clothing or accessory per week for the duration of May 2012. I also commit to using my stash before purchasing any goods for projects. When necessary, all efforts will be made to purchase needed goods in the most economically and environmentally responsible manner possible.'


 Looking forward to joining the masses of adventuresome sewists out there this May!

First Person to Fall Asleep at the Party

Rearing to go party hardy... with a good book?

All week I've been looking forward to the Pyjama Party hosted by Karen, at Did You Make That? Work was crazy cramped and stressful, my body was tired, and I had nothing else planned for this weekend! (See previous post to understand how rare and aMAZing that is.)

It was only by Saturday morning, as I was doing work at the yoga studio, that it dawned on me that SATURDAY, not Sunday was the pyjama party. And I had nothing to wear. Well, nothing pajama like that I had made yet, at least. And it took me only a little while longer to realize that I needed a nap.

Yesterday consisted of a lot. of. sleep. And a mind that wouldn't stop thinking about sewing.  It's a painful mix, folks. I had a dream last night that I cut before adjusting the pattern. I think it had something to do with these PJs.

Sooo... where is everyone? The party is today (Sunday), right?

It wasn't until the tail end of the day (as in midnight-ish?) that I got some sense of focus and energy yesterday. Good timing right? But at least I was ready to start on my PJs, right before bedtime.

I used a vintage cotton fabric I got in a barter. I say it's vintage because of the design, and because the selvage was much smaller than what one gets these days. I actually had to add some extra fabric to the inner leg/crotch portion of the back legs, because the selvage was so narrow. In truth, though, I'm not really sure about it's true age.

The pattern I used was the lovely little pj pattern that Kat sent me for the Moon Munkie Mystery Make, as I'd mentioned before: New Look 6924. I didn't want pants, so I shortened the length. I didn't, however, actually pay attention to the length between top and crotch. Dangit!

Folks, I could have worn the pair I cut out originally over this belly relatively comfortably. Or my pjs would have been pants with the MC Hammer low-crotch. Either way, it was good I slept on it, because I woke up fully lucid and just chopped off about 2.5 inches from the top. (That way, these would still be loose on the hips, lowish in the crotch, but not re-dik.)

Well, while I'm waiting, I'll just read some.

 As for reading material, I am sadly waaaay too hyper-focused on sewing these days to read any fiction consistently. However, I do make some time to read some books on getting ready to get my little child out into the world with minimal resemblance to the Alien movies. A yoga teacher I know lent me this book, Birthing From Within, and so I'm reading that. Along with another book on pregnancy (The Thinking Woman's Guide to Pregnancy... I think?) and A Dance With Dragons when I stop obsessing about sewing. Birthing From Within is good, as it's about really exploring your own expectations and questions about the birth experience. My main complaint so far is that it has all of these fun-sounding art assignments that I want to do, but am too busy doing other things. At least one of those things is sewing.

*Yawn* Wake me when the party gets here.

I must admit though, that I am proud of this very simple project. Unlike my Bambi shirt, the issues to which I still need to fully confess, I tried to actually think the seam finishes and other details through. I did flat felled seams, because they're the neatest to me, and simply pinked the center seam, since the cotton is so thin. Thank goodness for easy patterns, because it was just what I needed to simply enjoy the process and be more present in the experience.

If you want to see seams and print details on the fabric, I'm sorry, but you have to look at my bum.

I anticipate wearing these shorts around the house a lot come summer, when my prego-self will be hot and grumpy. The choice of fabric continues to gratify me because it's so light and non-assuming and soft. Is it wrong if I wear these all day?

I also plan on making a pair or two of yoga pants as well, but they'll have to wait for when I finish making a dress or two for this week's special events.

Thanks Karen for hosting the fun party! And darn it, I wish I could try that Sweeteeny Tini! Oona, do you think Ruggy would make me a post-labor cocktail? I've got some homemade ginger-blood orange vodka I'm steeping over here...

Still Here

Sorry blogland. I'm still here. Just either sleeping a lot or getting projects done or getting ready for the crazy social blitz that is May. (I've got a work party for hubby, a wedding, a confirmation, a scavenger hunt, extra work hours, midwife appt, and possibly a festival to attend all THIS week!) Did I also mention that I don't really have anything to wear for these fancy events?

Just a few quick notes to let you know some of what I'm up to:

I had a project done as of last weekend, but didn't post because the computer wasn't cooperating with me to edit the photos. Here's my one photo off of Flickr that I took with my phone out of frustration.

It was for the Sew Weekly challenge for a piece that reflected a piece of clothing from childhood. My favorite t-shirt as a child was my Bambi t-shirt. It strangely made me feel like Rambo-super tough! Even at that age, I understood the irony there. BUT, the shirt was done toute suite, mainly when I should have been packing for a trip to NYC. In my rush, and over confidence?, it has proven to be a half-baked project. I was inspired, but not as interested in quality work, and I feel it shows in the way it wears. More on that later, when I do a proper post. All I can say is Mindful Sewing is getting a little harder to execute than I had hoped.

I did enter it in Made By Rae's Spring Top Sewalong, though, as it was all I could manage with one pic and a trip to enjoy. This was my second entry, my first being the Birds & Bees top, which just so happened to be kindly featured over at Sew Country Chick's Sew-&-Tell today! Yay!

I also will have those pajama pants (shorts) tomorrow, a day late for the pajama party sewalong.

Because I was either sleeping or walking around in a stupor of baby growing. And then my sewing machine got all wonky. I've got to get that thing looked at... the stitches were all inconsistent lengths and the thread above the needle would get caught in the seam below the needle. Anyone have that happen before? What the heck is that?!?!?!

I've switched over to another machine, so I'm hoping projects will be finished.

In the meantime, I'm cutting, altering, and measuring (hopefully mindfully, and hopefully in the opposite order listed) for a few other projects in mind. I feel like I'm bursting with ideas, totally lacking in time and energy, and having faaaaar too many deadlines approaching! Sister-in-law's baby shower is in two weeks, and I'm still trying to figure out decoration/favors to do. And that doesn't even cover all the birthdays and Mother's Day. I mean, did you see that week I've got ahead of me?!?

Hope to come up for air and say hi again tomorrow!

Sew, Baby! Challenge (and other projects)

For those of you in the know, both Kat and myself are expecting little bundles of joy to enter our lives come September. We thought it would be fun to create a bit of a sewing challenge for us and anyone else who wants to join, since we are finding our need for a new wardrobe growing every week!

Allow me to introduce the Sew, Baby! Challenge! It is essentially a way for us to make maternity and baby projects with a few categories in mind to help us maintain some variety in our sewing and still meet some quickly developing needs. It will help me focus, anyway. :)

We've broken down the challenge into different categories:

-Vintage

-Alterations (including refashions and pattern play)

-Dresses

-Separates

-Nesting/Baby

I think that the names of the categories are basically self-explanatory, and there will be clearly some overlap. I already have a vintage dress pattern I'm gearing up to make, and Kat is the queen of vintage dresses. As I've stated earlier, I myself will be working as much from my stash and/or free patterns as I can, which means they will frequently fall into the categories of vintage or alterations/refashions. If we can expand our wardrobe and do it on the cheap, all the more resources we can later spend on our little wiggles, right?

The only category that may need some clarification is the nesting/baby one, as it is set up to catch both baby clothes and things like baby blankets, toys, decorations, etc. There is such a slew of projects out there one could pursue to prepare for a baby!

If you are pregnant or know someone who is who you'd like to sew for, you are SO VERY welcome to join in! There are plenty of ways to reinterpret projects and patterns to account for the changes that come with being mama-belly or baby friendly, and I'd love to see what you would bring to the table. If anything, we can consolidate some online resources here as we're progressing on our projects for anyone else to reference.

Besides the Moon Munkie Make updates and the Sew, Baby! Challenge, I wanted to review some other things I'm contemplating/participating in. I received a nice package in the mail from the recent Sew Weekly Circle pattern swap. :) Thanks, Tina! These goodies will come in handy for the Sew, Baby! Challenge, I think. :D

I also am still trying to figure out if I'm going to participate in the Me-Made-May for this year, as I would love to participate but am a little unsure I'd have enough homemade pieces to wear.  It's really just a matter of deciding on what a reasonable commitment would be. I think I can pull off three me-made-items a week, but I am waffling. But, my impression is that this may be the best time for be to participate because of my stash-slashing and need for a new wardrobe. :)

More updates to come! In the meantime, I'm going to try and explore some of the Garment District in NYC this weekend. Wish me luck! (There are just some jersey fabrics that would work great for maternity patterns that I just don't have access to in my stash, you see. SpandexWorld, here I come!)

Moon Munkie Giveaway: Catching up!

Hey folks!

I am a little behind on posts, as I've been really focusing on conquering that sewing room of mine. If I can get the stash down to manageable levels before the wee one arrives, I may actually have a  place to put the darlin'.

Progress is slow, mind you. In part because I continue to get more and more goodies! :) Kat participated in the Moon Munkie giveaway and offered her own little packages to some lucky winners. One of the winners didn't respond, and I was able to step in as a substitute winner.

Here's what I received:

Nice, right? The fabric in the background has species native to New Zealand all over it, and as Kat noted  in her card, I am an avid fan of little critters. The stranger the better. And being the isolated islands that it is, New Zealand is bound to be full of fun little creatures. I already know what I'm going to use some of this fabric for, so I hope to post on one of the finished projects in the next couple weeks (As I've had Kat's package for a couple weeks now.)

And the pattern for pajamas has arrived right on time for me to participate in the Pyjama Party hosted by Did You Make That? I may veer towards pajama shorts, but we'll have to see. I'm sure super comfy pants will be welcome as I continue to become more awkward and ball-like in the next few months. :)

And if you haven't seen the two projects that Maider's posted using the stuff I sent her? She's actually just let us know who won her own Moon Munkie packages, so I am sadly too late to convince any of you to sign up for them. But I do love her innovative use of the plastic craft mesh (for lack of a better term),

Source: Masustak eguzkitan

and I am  especially fond of her refashion of the skirt I sent.

Source: Masustak eguzkitan