Christmas Dress 2015

This year's Christmas dress! I've made one every year for the past few years. This year's dress is made with vintage children's fabric (cotton), self lined in the bodice and lined in satin in the skirt for extra puffiness. Pockets for stuffing extra food away for later.

The print is actually tiny blue flowers with little green leaves.

Worn with the usual Christmas mouse earrings, although they're a little blurry here.

The Winter is Coming dress

No, this dress does not have anything to do with Game of Thrones. But it is the last summery dress I'll be making this year.

 

 I usually make at least one coat every winter. Last year I got carried away with summery dresses and made nothing else (almost) all year. By the time we got through winter and summer came around again, I was kind of annoyed at myself.

So here is the last summer dress of the year.

I absolutely love the fabric I've used for the bodice. The print is just beautiful. I have a feeling it would also look amazing with a skirt in a rusty red colour. I don't completely love it with the blue skirt of this dress, but it will do.

For some reason the skirt came out really tight. It fitted really well at the waist but there was a lot of seam allowance along the zip, which I had to let out. I haven't tried sitting in it yet so I'm going to assume it will not actually split open when I do.

I have crazy cat lady hair in these photos. I started with my hair in a bun, decided it was boring, so I took it out and it just fluffed up everywhere. I still have one short side from when I shaved half my head a while ago; at the rate it's growing it should be shoulder length by the end of the year.

And just to prove I really am going to make wintery stuff for winter, here is a little sneak peek of a coat I've started on.

F*ck off summer. There is velvet and fur and silk in my future and I must wear them.

Valentine's Day dress

 Now, I certainly don't need an excuse to make a dress.

Oh, it's Wednesday! Better make a dress!

A blue car! Time to make a dress!

Etc.

However, having my first Valentine's Day date with my boyfriend is most definitely an excuse to make a new dress.

 

For this one, I used New Look 6587, view E. I've made this before, and I found it way easier and less fiddly to just insert a zip up the front, rather than time-consuming and more-difficult-to-undo (ahem) buttons.

I love the bodice style. It's almost corsety, and it's a good one for getting a really fitted, er, fit. The material has a slight stretch so it was quite comfy. 

It's not really easy to see but there are two large patch pockets on the skirt.

I think the camera or the light washed this out a bit. I had 10 different shades of red and pink on my nails. 

We went out for dinner, which was delicious, but I was just waiting for dessert... because I knew I was having salted caramel creme brulee *makes Homer Simpson drooling noise now*

I might have been spoiled a bit, too.

<3

Movie 'college' dresses

I wasn't supposed to buy any new fabric, having accumulated a lifetime's supply in my sewing room, but I couldn't let this beautiful stuff pass by. 

It was called Movie College print but I'm pretty sure they meant collage.

I thought I'd make one dress but ended up having enough for two! How terrible! Not!

First dress.

 

I used this New Look pattern for both bodices. For the first dress, I used the bodice from view D. I just used a long rectangle for the skirt and gathered it onto the bodice. It's a really easy, cheaty way to make a skirt.

 

I love how the print sits across the bust. I actually didn't plan that.

Then I used this gorgeous pattern I found in an op-shop to make a jacket to wear with it. 

 

 

The pattern of the jacket is boxy and hip-length, so I cropped it at the waist, and added a couple of wide darts at the back to make it more fitted. I also lowered the neckline by a couple of inches.

Dress number two.

For this I used the bodice from view B. I can't remember where I got the pencil skirt pattern from but it's pretty basic anyway.

I made the skirt in brown, as black was too harsh. The black in the 'college' print is actually faded to brown, so the brown skirt works better.

Oh, this? I'm just practicing my over-the-shoulder-and-over-the-glasses gaze. You know.

xx

Twins

Seersucker is one of my least favourite fabrics. The texture is just weird, like it's constantly in need of an ironing. The print of these fabrics won me over the weird bobbliness. 

This is the same pattern as my Christmas dress. I didn't want to make the two dresses completely identical though. The red reminds me of a vintage table cloth, so I decided not to use it for the skirt. Nothing says sexy like a dress resembling a table cloth.

The skirt is cotton drill, which is one of my favourite fabrics to sew with. No stretch, nice and firm and it holds a structured shape very well.

The blue version is my favourite of the two. I don't wear bright red a lot as I don't think it's terribly flattering on me. The cooler blue is lovely. This one is actually lined, because the skirt is very sheer.

The neckline of this pattern is cut straight across, but I altered it for this one into a slight sweetheart neckline.

I do like my new posing couch.

If you're wondering where my new tattoo went, I made these dresses a little while ago.... this is a catch-up post from my blogging break last year.

 

Favourite vintage McCalls pattern

Lately I've become a little bit obsessed with this McCalls pattern from 1958. It is a very simple, easy to make pencil dress. 

It consists of three main pieces; the front, which is cut on the fold, and the back, which is in 2 pieces. Then there are the straps and the facings (Joy! It's not lined! Or rather, the pattern seems to call for lining AND facing... complete waste of time in my mind)

Just going off track for a second, I absolutely hate lining things. It's like making two of something but ending up with only one. I don't mind lining coats; you're supposed to see it then, so you can make it pretty and part of the garment. But lining a dress? I mean, maybe a winter dress, so it's warmer. Otherwise, No.

Anyway back to this amazing dress. I've made a few now, so rather than bore the pants off anyone who still reads this blog by ranting about it over and over again, I've decided to show off everything at once.

First up: Blue florals.

This first attempt is not quite right. It looks nice and the fabric is very pretty, but I didn't get the sizing right. The pattern is a size 16, and it's not too far off a modern size 12 as far as I can tell. I took in the seams and altered the darts a little, but it's still a little loose, especially around the bust. 

I suppose I could fix it, now that I've made a few and I know what I'm doing, but, meh... I don't really want to. It's wearable.

Second attempt: School plaid.

Yes, this looks like school uniform fabric. However, it does not look like MY school uniform, so it's ok. As you can see, I got the sizing and alterations right this time.

Then I made this dress pattern version, which I have a feeling I've already posted up here before. Just in case I haven't, here it is (possibly again).

I'm not wild about this version. The fabric is nice but it feels too busy. I feel like it doesn't do the pattern justice.

Final and most recent version: Barbie pink.

I looooove this one. The fabric is stiffly stretchy (is stiffly a word? It looks weird but I'm not being asked to spell-check it) and really comfy. The top edge around the bust is really firm, so I can't take any deep breaths when I'm wearing it. There must be too much stitching up there for it to stretch properly, or maybe I just didn't allow the fabric to stretch when I was sewing it.

 

I will probably make more of these dresses.