Lace Christmas Dress

Stylish Fabrics Olive Rebecca Stretch Lace

Fabric:

Olive Rebecca Stretch Lace and Olive Rayon Jersey (Lining) from Stylish Fabrics

Pattern:

Self drafted the dress. 

Stole the sleeve from Pattern Review's Winter Street Dress pattern.

Construction:

This was a super fast project.  NO HEMS!

The lace is beautiful.  Hangs so well.

I order a huge batch of ruby and olive fabrics from Stylish Fabrics. 

 I LOVE that each type of fabric matches.  

Close up of lace

Christmas Dress 2016

Merry Christmas!

Sew Over It Heather Dress

Sew Over It Heather Dress

Pattern:

I snagged a couple "Sew Over It" patterns on their Black Friday sale.  

This one is the Heather Dress.  Used the 3/4 sleeve variation.

Fabric:

Plum rayon/nylon/elastic ponte knit from High Fashion Fabrics

I used both sides of the fabric to get the color blocking.

Fitting Notes:

This is my first pattern to sew from Sew Over It.  

I can't say enough how well this pattern was drafted.

I only made two alterations.  

1.  My wonky shoulder adjustment.

2.  The sleeves were very snug, so I added about an inch in width.  I have big arms.

Alterations I should have made:

1.  Slight alteration to accommodate full bust.  It isn't earth shattering off, so I'm not sweating it.

2.  I thought I was still having knit sloper issues, so I spent the morning fine tuning and truing my sloper.  That beautiful bunching in the lower back is in need of a swayback adjustment.  I will be making that adjustment to my pattern.  There is a picture of the front and back pattern pieces with my sloper.  

Final Notes:

I usually alter lots of areas on patterns like this, but this is an almost winner out of the envelop.  

That is amazing.  

The pockets are just right.  They hang correctly.  

The whole dress goes together very quickly.  The only problem is deciding how many of these you can add to your wardrobe.  And which colors!  

I wore the dress on field trips to the Houston Fine Arts Museum and loved  how comfy it was.

Pockets!

Statement Jacket, Vogue 1262

Vogue 1262

Fabric:

Rayon novelty knit from Globe Tex in Montreal.  This was one of my fun finds this summer.  I hated to chop the pattern into small pieces so the choice of this pattern made lots of sense.  I think I paid $4.50/meter for the fabric.

Pattern:

Vogue 1262  This pattern has been around a while, but you need the perfect fabric for it. Since this is a novelty knit, I wasn't sure how it would behave so I dropped the pockets.  I didn't cut two sections (top and bottom) but taped the pattern pieces together.  This eliminated one extra seam.  I also attempted lowering the shoulders.  The pattern pieces are not your typical kind, so altering the shoulder got a little interesting.  Some parts were altered in the moment.....but it all worked out.  I don't have mounds of fabric under my arms nor wrinkles in the back.

My teenage son took my pictures on a cold, wet day.  It was a one photo shoot kind of day.  Now, it is almost 80 degrees.  Glad I got to wear my statement jacket to a party.

Bohemian Top with McCall's M71258 & Stylish Fabric

McCall's M7128 & Stylish Fabric

I ordered this COOL lace about a month ago from Stylish Fabrics and was determined to use the one yard I had to make something that highlighted the lace.  I think I did it.

Fabric:

Cotton jersey from Stylish Fabrics

Matching lace from Stylish Fabrics

Pattern:

McCall's M7128, view B

Alterations:

1.  Took out the notch in the center front.  I felt it would have been way too low.

2.  Added a few inches in length.

3.  Changed the construction order to allow a clean finish on the lace.  I still needed to do a "fix" to keep the seam tape from showing.  I felt the neckline would stretch if I didn't stabilize it.  

3.  Should have cut off the flappy side pieces and put together the front in four pieces.  It is hard to install this panel in knit.

4.  I made a new alteration to the shoulder and my sloper slipped without my knowledge and there is a little difference in the waist reference point.  Something I notice.  It also impacted the back length making it to wrinkle a little.
5.  Took out about 6" in width from around the waist.  That was after I went down to a size Small because I was using a knit.

My thoughts:

I am annoyed that my sloper slipped and caused me to miss the back fit from being perfect. 

I love the matching of the lace and knit.  I just wish I would have ordered a better quality knit.  Cotton knit just doesn't drape as well as something with poly in it.  I love natural fabrics, but I am coming to realize that the rayon/nylon blends and ITY just hang so well.