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.  

Still summer in Texas with a Delphi Layered Maxi Dress

Delphi Maxi dress by Named with Girl Charlee fabric

Pattern:

Delphi Layered Maxi Dress by Named

Shrug from the book Just for You

Fabric:

Ikat print jersey knit from Girl Charlee 

Coral is a bamboo rayon knit jersey

Construction:

This is a great pattern, so I only made a few minor changes. 

1.  Knit stay tape in the hems of the top and bottom.  I also used the stay tape in the straps to keep them from stretching out.

2.  I like to use clear elastic in the waist of a knit dress.  To make this nice and clean I will use a basting stitch to stitch the clear elastic to the wrong side of the skirt.  In this case, I layered the clear elastic, wrong side of the skirt and the right side of the top.  The clear elastic was cut to the length of my daughters waist.  I will also pin the elastic in quarter sections so that I don't end with uneven gathers in the elastic.  Then I serge over the seam.  

3.  I sewed the straps onto the back and then folded them to the front and topstitched.  

My daughter is growing in height, but is still slim.  I used an extra small size and adjusted the shoulder straps and waist to fit her.  She loves this dress.  She wore it to school the other day and is planning to wear it to church.  

Back of Delphi Maxi dress and shrug

Cute top to the maxi dress.

She loves the back!

I'm back from a whirlwind summer with my own pattern for a tunic

My RTW copy of a new favorite tunic.

Wow!  The weeks have been flying by!  I had no intention of breaking up my regular posting, but my summer was full!  Full of new fun and adventures.  

Pattern:

Self drafted from a tunic I bought and loved to wear.  

I laid it out and traced off my pattern.  The back has an key hole cut out.  After tracing off the pattern, I added my wonky shoulder adjustment.    This pattern fits so well that I am adopting it as my bodice  knit sloper.   The back keyhole needs a narrower band than I used.  Guess I'll have to make a dozen more to try out that idea.  It takes about 90 minutes to cut and sew this top.  Neck and armholes are finished with a 1/2" band.  The hem is coverstitched.

Fabric:  

Gray with purple floral ITY fabric

I will show you my summer sewing travel pictures below.  But my fabric was from Stretch Text in Montreal.  Brand new for fall.  And $3.50/meter.

Back pattern pieces.  Notice the difference in shoulders.

Pattern front. 

Back view

Yes, I love this tunic

Next time I will use a smaller trim to do the finish of the loop.

It fits like a dream.

 Over the summer we traveled to New York City, Montreal, and Quebec City.  

In New York City we hit the Garment District and all the fun fabric stores.  My daughter was my partner in crime that day.  (Or at least she carried one bag.)

After all the retail fabric in New York City, I decided that my three hour fabric shopping time limit would be spent in the warehouse district in Montreal.  Thanks to two Canadians who wrote up detailed directions, I ventured out on an adventure.  (refer to http://closetcasefiles.com/fabric-shopping-in-montreal/ and http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/other/montreals-crafty-directory/143103)

So I left my hotel with three hours to hit the Chabanal District.  Armed with a map and a taxi driver, I made it my destination in 30 minutes.  Since both references talked about Globe-Tex, I headed there first.  The place was great.  The people were great.  The prices were great.  The fabric was great.  I burned two hours here and filled a suitcase.  They were kind enough to hold my large purchase while I ran downstairs to Stretch Text. That is where I bought this fabric for my tunic.  All the latest fall ITY fabrics for $3.50/meter.  The lady at Globe-Tex was so kind, she called me a taxi to get me and my fabric back to the hotel before we were scheduled to join the Montreal circus.  My fabric cutting guy carried my fabric purchase from the fourth floor down to the taxi.  Great customer service for this Texan.  If you happen to find yourself in Montreal, TAKE AN EXTRA SUITCASE and GO TO GLOBE TEX.  Enjoy my trip in pictures.

Iconic statue at the beginning of the Garment District.

Spandex House

My daughter was amazed at all the fabric in Spandex House.

We tried to figure out how to fit this in the suitcase.

Zippers, zippers, and more zippers

Shelves of white for dress shirts. Did you know there were that many whites?

My daughter loves the dress forms.  This was at Mood.

My partner in crime at Mood.

She wore out at B&J Fabrics.

Joining the circus in Montreal.

Warehouse fabric shopping at Globe Tex in Montreal.

How do you fit that in a suitcase?

The fabric in my tunic was from the back wall of Stretch Text.

Rock Climbing near Quebec City.

Rock climbing at Victoria Canyon near Quebec City.

Summer's Hot, but Cotton Sateen is not

It is steamy hot in South Texas.  My hair dropped its curl within feet of the back door.  My son snapped a few photos and said they had better work because it is TOO hot out.  Glad they almost turned out perfect.

Pattern: 

Simplicity 2248

This pattern, fabric, and piping was becoming a shelf staple in my sewing room.  I can't tell you how many summers I have just moved it and made something else.  I am SOOOO glad I didn't give up and I am SOOOO much better at fitting these days.

Fabric:

Cotton Sateen from Oliver+S sold years ago at Joann's.

Royal blue Bemberg lining

White petite piping

Construction and Fitting:

Sewist beware!  I started reading the pattern and immediately knew their directions would not work.  They wanted piping added and then pieces sewed together.  I know that "just doesn't work."  So, I rearranged the order of construction to allow sections to be sewn together and then the piping added. 

It is totally lined the dress.  Even part of the sash is lined with Bemberg because this dress is a fabric hog.  I had less than a fat quarter left of fabric.  I'm glad the sashes criss-cross because they hide the mismatches of fabric.

I was drawn to this pattern the year it came out and was featured on the front of the Simplicity pattern book.  I love piping and fell in love with the details.  When I looked on Pattern Review, the sashes looked skimpy.  I had already cut mine out and it made me worried about covering the bust area completely.  I used 1/4" seams on the sash to give me all the fabric I could get.  I am pleased with the result.

Pattern changes for fitting:

1.  Shoulder slope correction

2.  Swayback adjustment

3.  FBA to the princess line

4.  Added fabric to the underarm seam (AND I AM SO GLAD I DID!)

5.  Raised the front neckline