31 August 2013

Pattern and Fabric Selection Cotton Sew Along Part 1


I've decided to try and make something for fall for myself. I'm a little stressed out and I think that making something non-wedding might help to calm me down. Plus, who doesn't love cotton?? And vintage dresses?? You KNOW I'm in on that one. So I've committed to this sew along, now to pick out a pattern to sew. The sew along states vintage as 20s-70s. That suites me just fine as I'm a 30s-50s kind of vintage girl. So on to looking at my fabric. At first I wanted to do the red dress with the black trim, then found out that I did not have enough of the red. Booo. Maybe later I'll go to the store. (after I whittle down my current fabric stash)

These are the patterns that I picked out initially. The one on the top left I would  have made but I found I did not have enough of the fabric that I wanted to use.

These are my initial fabric choices. I was trying to match two of them together to do the pattern in the top left of this picture. I have a big tote full of patterns. so I had a lot of choices.




I decided to go with this plum one here.

















These are the two patterns that I've narrowed it down to thinking about using. Unfortunately most of my fabric that would work for this is mostly remnants of pieces that were from other sewing projects and I need  2.5 yards for the one on the left and 6 for the one on the right. I think that the dress on the right needs a little more stiffness to it so I may hold off on making that one for now. I do want to make it, but I'm not finding anything in my stash to make it with...unless I cut up a sheet (again). Which I thought about, I rummaged through the linen closet and did not find anything that I wanted to give up sleeping on yet. So, looks like we have a winner by default. Don't get me wrong I love them both, I just love how I chose one over the other based on not having to go to the store again.
I can't wait to get started on this project. Sept 1st starts the sew along. (Which is tomorrow!!)
I've decided on the purple-plum jersey cotton. It should drape well, yet take the gathering in the seams without looking too bunched up. It looks better in person than in my photos.

This comes from Rochelle's blog which you can see here.
So, are you going to join too? What do you think of my selections?


25 August 2013

Making a Spring dress

OK, I'll admit that I've had this dress done for a very long time.(Spring time) I have not had time to post it because I have been in school. I am very close to being done. I am looking to graduate in May of 2014. So Fall and Spring and I'm out! Then we are getting married in June 2014! I'm still working on planning for that one and I'm very excited to actually BE married now. I also learned that I don't like party planning.  But, let's get back to what you are here to see, right? Spring dress-2013.
I used a Vintage Vogue pattern.
 I really loved this look in the yellow, but sometimes yellow doesn't look too good on me so I went with green. Here is a picture of the fabric and my Grayson. He was trying to help me out. Isn't he a cutie?
I digressed with a little cuteness, but on to the dress.
I made a muslin for the top, because I wasn't sure where I needed to adjust it. I always like to make a muslin, unless I'm making something super simple. Especially on tops, because I have a lot of fitting issues there. So here is me in my muslin. 
I think it looks pretty good. But I did a few adjustments in the back because it was a little gaped.  One more picture and then I cut out the pattern and get to sewing.
I was being a little silly here, because

Well...I'm just silly. On to the cutting. This pattern is fairly straightforward. I had to adjust the shoulders and the darts a little because I am a bit larger up top than the standard sizes allow.

Here is Grayson and me cutting the fabric. Yeah, everything is covered in cat hair by the time I finish, but it is washable and I love him too much to kick him out. Although when making my wedding dress, he is not allowed in the room. More on that later though. 


I would recommend this to beginners, even if you don't make the muslin *screaming inwardly* for your self. I love to make the muslin though. You can get out all of your mistakes and learn how to make the pattern correctly here. If you do it while you are sewing with your good fabric it may cost you more money later. If you are using cheap fabric though, go for it. I do that sometimes myself. 

Now for the final pictures of me in the dress. 
Grayson was there the whole way through so I thought I should take a final picture with him.    Outside was a little bright, so I took some more inside photos. I hope you enjoyed my version of this 1930's dress. That button has daisies on it also to keep with the flower theme. I am eventually going to make the belt in the same mustar-y gold color. But I like it without it too. Now to find some shoes that will look good with it. Maybe I'll just make my own?








In this picture to the right  you can see how I used the darts to make the bodice fit my body shape better. 
This is why I say to make a muslin. 
Thoughts or questions? I'd love to know what you think.