50s Eyelet Amazeballs Dress. And Cheongsam.

Holy eyelet, Batgirl.  And shaped bias!  I'm very nearly speechless. And salivating.

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AND it has a sweet matching bolero, with scalloped edges to echo the shaped bias, which throws me fully into incoherent territory.

Can you imagine what else was in this girl's amazing wardrobe??  I wish I knew!

From the same Etsy shop, RococoVintage, comes this gorgeous cheongsam.

Tiny umbrellas!?  WHAT?!!  Shannon has always been more the cheongsam type than I, but this dress has completely won my heart and soul.  Must. Have. One.

So now I'm on the lookout for a cheongsam pattern. I've almost positive I don't have one...although I do plan to go through the (*cough* extensive *cough*) vintage pattern stash later today to make sure.  (It wouldn't be the first time I purchased a vintage pattern twice. Ahem. Three times.)

These are all possibilities for my ebay saved searches (wish Etsy had that feature!)

Simplicity 1447

Butterick 7718

American Weekly 3104

Advance 7906

McCalls 3527

I've been getting back into the swing of things sewing-wise lately.  You might have noticed the mojo is kicking it up a notch.  I'm both excited and (to be honest) a little nervous to start new projects right now.

I'm at least a few sizes smaller than I was last time I sewed something (back in the spring?) and pretty much everything I have made in the past 12-18 months is too big.  Dresses I can fake it with a cardigan and/or a belt, for now.  But most of my skirts with fitted waistbands are now in the "mending" pile, waiting for a new waistband solution.

Soo...I've put sewing on hold for a few months, not sure how much energy I want to spend fitting items that might not fit in another 2 or 3 months.  You know how we all love our stash.  BUT I'LL NEVER EVER FIND A FABRIC I LOVE AS MUCH AS YOU!!!!!!

Am I right?

Awesome.  Now that Taylor Swift song is stuck in my head.  Bah.

Anyway.  The good news is...I can sew all new clothes!  And, a couple of things that haven't fit in years and years, from the far recesses of my closet, are in rotation right now.   (I don't make a habit of saving clothes that don't fit though, so after I lost weight this year, I literally have almost nothing to wear! I look like a hobo most of the time.)

There are still three pieces I'm longing to wear that I saved because I loved them so much when I made them.  One is a black crinkle rayon Milan dress (Textile Studios), one is a crinkle rayon sleeveless column dress in bright, delicious turquoise (an Adri Vogue pattern from the late 90s), and a simple cream with black polkadot skirt, no pattern, with a sweet little ruffle at the hem.  I actually remember the last time I wore that skirt and it has long been my favorite "go anywhere" skirt.  Skirt, I have missed you!

And the day I fit into all three (it will definitely be the same day, they're all from the same identical time frame), we're having a huge blog party and I'm going to give away a buttload of patterns and fabric and books. Or something.

Now I leave you with two more RococoVintage dresses, so classic and timeless that I'm already plotting in my head to knock them off.

Happy Saturday!

knits and stripes and patterns, oh my!

I have finally broken my fabric fast and purchased some goodies, no thanks to Kristine who turned me onto Girl Charlee Fabrics.  I'm probably most excited by finally having my very own chevron SOMETHING...  Even if I'm late to the chevron party.  I got the B&W chevron knit:

Just what to make with it??  I saw an adorable skirt on Pinterest, but I've seen some cute tanks (a'la the Sorbetto) and even a few cute dresses. With a busy print like that, it would need to be something simple.  This is cute:

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 Hmmm.  Taking suggestions now.

 Then I caved to the pressure I always feel from nautical-esque stripes.  Stripes, why do I love thee??

And this glorious stripe with a floral...I'm seeing a dress with a swirly skirt.  Maybe something that wraps around?

This is pretty, maybe more swish in the skirt...  Pattern suggestions??

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And lastly, two small prints for (probably) more tees.

  Won't they be pretty in something feminine and girly?  Maybe that ruched center tee from Burda Style a few seasons ago.

 Or the Jalie sweetheart tee:

Good news...the Burda and the Jalie are already muslined.  Bad news...I want to start with the dress. Ha. Story of my life!

Hope you're having a lovely fall weekend!

Sorbetto Maxi: In Progress

A peek at what I've been working on the past few days...

The pattern is the free Colette Sorbetto tank top, lengthened 36" to "maxi dress" length!  I gathered the front instead of pleating, and added a smidge of width at the name (grading to the armhole edge) so that I could add a drawstring waist.

The fabric is a cotton law that I got from Fashion Fabrics Club quite a while back...maybe even last year. 

For the drawstring, I decided to do an exposed casing:

That was a lot of skirt to tuck out of the way while trying to pin/sew in place, let me tell you!

Just needs a hem, and armhole bindings and it'll be ready to wear!  I'll snap some photos later this week to share of the finished dress. 

In bloggy news...
You might notice a new Crowdwise widget on the right and a new ad disclaimer on the left.  I'm about to collect my first "earnings" check from adsense or amazon (I can't remember which).  This blog has never been a "money maker" for me, nor do I ever expect it to become so.  I already work full time, so I've never needed this site to be an income generator. However, if a few clicks can earn pennies for charities, I'm all in!

I've been pondering what to do with the ad monies, small though they may be, and have decided to set up a Crowdrise page.  My chosen charity for the foreseeable future is Mary's Meals.  Mary's Meals provides one meal per day in a school setting to poverty stricken children in several countries around the world.  Their mission is two-fold, to feed the hungry who might otherwise go unfed, and to do so in a school setting so as to provide a tangible way to climb out of poverty: an education.

If you're unfamiliar with the mechanisms of Crowdrise, my donation site is set up to forward all monies donated to the Mary's Meals USA charity by default.  I never see or receive those donations.  BUT if you feel motivated to donate to this very worthy cause, I'll see and appreciate and send you virtual XOXO!

Otherwise, anytime you click an ad on the left sidebar and purchase something from an affiliate, I receive a few pennies on the dollar.  I will personally forward all ad revenue to my Crowdrise page as those monies come in (and keep you updated!)  In fact, I've already sent in a $20 donation from my Mr. Rebates account earnings for the month of July!

Happy Monday everyone!

Simplicity 1800: In Progress

I'm pretty enamored with this pattern right now:

I love the multi-cup sizing (need to lay it out over my "sloper" and see what the differences are) and I LOVE the neckline.  So cute! 

I love the deep pockets and the cute skirt and the sleeve options...(cough*Kristine*cough  SLEEVES.)

It seems no one on the internets has made this one up yet.  Guess I'll go in blind!

I have several cotton lawns and shirtings stashed. I'm guessing the lawns are too light.  I have this rayon burnout-y blend too:

It was a steal at $1/yard several years ago.  It's probably appropriately aged now.

Of course all of this is probably moot until the weekend, when I have a nice stretch of time to get started.  But a girl can dream.

The Muppets Dress: Vogue 9668

So I've spent the past 2 days working on my Amy Adams-inspired Muppets dress.  And....here's where I'm leaving off on this one for a while.  Complete with crappy early morning indoor photo:

Looks great pinned on the dressform, even before sleeves and lining, right?  And it looks beautiful IF I don't zip it up all the way.  It's too tight!  Ack. 

I ended up using this Vogue 9668 pattern, as I mentioned before:

I cut my high bust measurement and added a 1" FBA and it fit REALLY well through the front.  And that neckline!  So flattering.

This seersucker fabric is beautiful! (The fabric for this project was provided by Online Fabric Store).  It has a lovely drape and is lightweight and perfect for summer.  I love the color too... a deep brown and white stripe.  I'll definitely be purchasing more of this, in some of the other colors.

Back to my too-tight dress.  I did do a tissue fit, which seemed perfect.  I tried sewing smaller side seams but it I needed MORE ROOM.  I have no idea what happened.  Unless, as Kristine mentioned yesterday when I was whining, I made a cutting error.

Too late now!  Well...not entirely too late.  If you look closely in the bodice photo, I tried adding a horizontal striped "gusset" (a'la this helpful article on Threads).  I decided to do a full-length strip, because I was hoping it would look like a design element.

Meh.  Right now it looks like the dress was too tight and I added a couple of contrasting strips of fabric.

But maybe I'm too close. In any case, I'm setting this project aside while I mull it over and gain some distance.  (Good news...the invisible zipper was PERFECT.  Of course.)

Moving on to a new project...which I haven't picked out yet!  I'll keep you posted!

In Progress: The Muppets Dress Pt 3

What a lovely, lazy weekend!  It rained mostly, so I stayed in and did warm snuggly crafty things.  And napped.  I might have napped.

First up, dress progress:  I played with pattern adjustments, worried about losing the entire vintage pattern in the process, and realized something super obvious:  I already have a pattern EXTREMELY close to the inspiration dress in my stash!  In the words of Homer, Doh.

Inspiration Dress:

And...Vogue  9668:

Here's the line drawing:

And the sleeves from Vogue 8554 are also a perfect tulip match (the dress is cute too):

So at this point, I'm trying to decide whether I want to do more tweaks to my New York pattern tissue, or start from scratch with the Vogue.  I'm leaning toward trying the Vogue.  I love the neckline and the midriff band, and the circle skirt is already present.  And the sleeves!  I'll use those sleeves regardless.

I did pre-wash my seersucker fabric though!  In case you're just joining me, I have the stripe in Espresso:

Now it's Monday again and back to work!  But I have Spring Break next week, so my plan is to make real progress.

I leave you with the cutest pincushion ever:

Isn't it awesome in it's tiny bird basket glory?  And my flower head pins look so happy here.  I got it from Beth's Bagz on etsy.  It was REALLY hard to pick just one, but I love birds, and the little basket won (over a poodle who was seriously calling my name). 

Happy  monday!

In Progress: The Muppets Dress Pt 2

Quick update on my vintage seersucker dress!

This weekend I was able to grade up my pattern piece and muslin the bodice.   I started out with a pattern size of 34" but I need a 38" bust (with a 1-1/2" FBA).

I usually use the pivot/slide method of grading, but since I needed to add more than 2 inches to the full bust, I did this in increments. I added a 1" pivot/slide adjustment and then used that pattern piece to add another 1" pivot slide.  This isn't technically the correct way...and an incremental slash/spread would probably be better.

The pivot/slide is pretty quick, and that quickness seduced me. 

Long story short...after grading up 2", I decided to go ahead and do an FBA to add a bust dart.  I decided not to rotate this into the front bust gathers, because I usually get a much better fit with a bust dart.

And here's what we end up with...

 

Can't see much, huh??  Well, you could click the photo and see it larger.  It's not huge, but you can definitely see more detail.  I guess I should have chosen a solid for my muslin fabric, huh??  The darts ARE on the outside.  I typically sew them on the "right side" so I can see changes better, when I do a muslin.

Here's a closeup of the midriff band:

That's a crease in the center of the midriff, not a seam.  I didn't bother pressing anything at this point.

And here's my goof, the neckline/center front ruching:

That's a fairly high neckline, huh?  I was confused at first.  Here's the pattern envelope again:

Being a 1940s pattern, the tissue is unmarked.  I've used lots of unmarked vintage patterns before; once you get the hang of "reading" the dots and perforations, it's pretty simply.  Where I goofed was not realizing some of those dots on the bodice piece were placement dots to cut the square neckline.  Whoops.

Once I figured that out, it looks pretty good though.  The neckline is higher than I expected, even considering I was doing the more "modest" view. 

As for fit...it's close.  The back is a smidge too tight, so I'll be doing a broad back adjustment (sigh).  The bust, armscye and back neck all need lowering by about 3/4".  Pivoting/Sliding doesn't change the shoulder height of a pattern, so before I lower anything or add to the bottom anywhere, I'm going to add 1/2 to 3/4" to the shoulder and re-do a quick muslin.  That may solve all my fit issues right there! (And had I graded it "correctly" to begin with, I would have added that height anyway). 

Obviously I'm cheating again by just adding in that one place (lazy!) BUT in my defense, since I typically petite bodices anyway, I will probably find success just adding to the shoulder seam.  If I added that incrementally throughout the bodice, I would likely end up with too much length in some places.

A parting shot...still terribly hard to see anything.  Muslin Two to come later this week! 

In Progress: The Muppets Seersucker Dress

A few weeks ago the very sweet Lisa from Online Fabric Shop emailed and asked if I might be interested in doing a blog project with them.  Of course any time someone wants to send me pretty fabric (with a hefty dose of blogflattery) I'm in!

I was asked to choose a piece from the new Robert Kaufman seersucker fabric line (which you can view here).  I chose this one, the Espresso stripe:

Probably not what you expected from me, huh?  I'm branching out.  Ha.  I love seersucker, especially in warm weather.  And as much as I love bright, summery colors, I thought the deep brown and white of the Espresso colorway was a little more sophisticated than the bright turquoise or lime that originally caught my eye.

Although I reserve the right to use bright turquoise or lime or hot pink seersucker in the near future.

The fabric arrived about 10 days ago and since then I've been poring over my vintage patterns and Modcloth and Etsy and Flickr and Pinterest... well, you get the picture.

My criteria was...

• I want to make a dress
• Vintage pattern or vintage styled
• Fitted bodice, fuller skirt (i.e. not pencil, but gathered, a-line or circle are all fine)
• Plays well with Stripes
• Interesting detail.  Vague, no?  Usually a vintage pattern has some amazing detail that "makes" a basic dress pattern special.  Pleats, tucks, trim, rick-rack, flounce, embroidery, tabs, button detailing, interesting gathered treatment...  

Ok.  So...  These four dresses were favorited and gazed at enough to save the images:

Modcloth

Erin, Dress a Day

Anthro?

Stop Staring

 And that last one.  Wowza.  It has all the features I'm looking for...striped seersucker inspiration already in place for visualizing the finished product (heh), fabulous "interesting detail" in the form of gorgeous bodice, piping, buttons.  Bonus features: V-neckline, good for busty folk, AND midriff band, good for those of us who need the illusion of a smaller midsection.

The slim skirt, while adorable and ooh-la-la was not for this particular project, so I envisioned it with an a-line or circle skirt.  And immediately remembered this:

Oh dear vintagey Muppets wardrobe, how could I forget you??  This dress has been in my mind's "to-do" list since last spring when I first spotted pictures of it online!  And it's simply perfect.  I spent a great deal of time last summer trying to find a pattern to knock it off too.

I never did find a pattern that has ALL the features of this gorgeous dress, but New Look 6886 has a similar feel in View A, gathered front bodice, cap sleeve (the original has a tulip sleeve), and circle skirt:

 Not crazy about the angle of the cap sleeve though, I can see bra-strap issues.

`Then I found this vintage New York 662 on ebay (terrible photo, but apparently it's NOWHERE online):

 The bodice is correct, and I even get the addition of my flattering midriff band.  I like the square neckline, but a "sweetheart" modification would be easy to alter too, like the original Muppets dress.  The sleeve would be easy to adjust to tulip.  And the skirt could be swapped out for a circle skirt (from the NL pattern!)  I think we have a winner!

Downside is grading the vintage pattern to fit, but that's just boring "work", not an impossible task.

So that's where we are today...grading up this vintage New York pattern bodice, and slamming together a quick muslin.  I'm not very excited about the grading part, but I'm excited about everything else!

Stay tuned. :)

Dressperation.

The one where I show you pretty pictures of things I have not made...

Links to all images can be found on my Pinterest Style board.

[ps: thank you all soooo much for the well wishes!  The foot has progressed to a lovely shade of aubergine, with mottlings of deep magenta. It's rather pretty.  If not painful and annoyingly couch potato-inducing.]