Simplicity 2907 - Aqua lace toddler dress

After using stretch polyester lace a few months ago, I decided to try some cotton lace for a summer dress for Rachel. This fabric is from Mood and has a nice weight to it - not too heavy but substantial enough for a dress. It was very easy to work with and ironed well. Of course, being lace, it needed some type of underlining. I tried it atop lots of different colors and finally chose a dark teal cotton.

I chose a simple pattern for this dress in order to show off the lace. I cut a 1/2 for the width and a 1 for the length - just like the last dress I made for her - but it is a little big. Apparently I am still learning toddler sizing.

Finding buttons to match this aqua color was just about impossible. I did find some aqua flower buttons that matched but did not want to sew flower buttons over floral lace. Then I had an epiphany and decided to do contrasting brown ones. The ribbon belt brought in more brown and I love the little bow in the front.

I sewed all of the underlining to the lace first, then constructed the dress as instructed. Because the collar has 4 layers to it - lace and underlining times two - I left off the interfacing. The hardest part of making clothes for little people is always setting those tiny sleeves into the tiny armholes. It's not the fabric ease that's hard for me, it's getting my machine foot in there. I always get poked with my pins a bunch of times during this step.

I really like the peaks of dark fabric that can be seen at the sleeves or hemline when my daughter wears her dress.

The inside seam allowances were trimmed to about 3/8" and finished with the overlocking stitch. When I sewed on the ribbon belt, I used brown thread in the machine and aqua in the bobbin to keep all the inside threads the same color.

I used Simplicity 2907. This is a pattern I bought several years ago, then wondered why I'd purchased something so plain. It worked really well for the fabric, though. I doubt I'll be using it again since the sizing is so loose on her and I'm not in love with any of the other views.

Sewing little girl clothing is a little addicting!

Summer Vogues!

Whew! There's only so much negativity I can take. Thanks for everyone's supportive comments per a peculiar listing on etsy. I've had to turn on comment moderation to stop the nasty comments from the person who stole my pictures, but please leave your comments and I will approve them quickly.

To clear the air, lets talk about Vogue's new summer patterns! (And BTW, as I am not making any money from posting Vogue's pattern pictures, and am actually offering them some free advertising and links to their website, I am not breaking any copyright laws.)

Vogue 1350

This is a Rachel Comey shirtdress. The lines on this dress are interesting and I love the fitted shape. I'm picturing it in a solid color to showcase the design.

Vogue 1352

This is for a knit. I love the lapped fronts and neck binding. It's an easy dress to throw on and look cute without much effort. I have a lone leopard belt that I never can figure out what to wear with, so I think I'll choose my fabric with that belt in mind.

Vogue 1353

If I could reach into my computer screen and pull this exact dress out and hang it in my closet, I would be ecstatic! I do so love a neckline with visual interest to give some oomph to the small chested. This dress is by Kay Unger.

Vogue 8902

Another great design with awesome construction lines! Also, the sleeves have little gathers at the neckline. So many possibilities! I like the directional stripe example, the solid shown here, and the colorblocked ones.

Vogue 8903

Ooh, a shirtdress for knits! Wouldn't this be lovely in a silk jersey? I have the perfect royal blue silk jersey in my stash. Front pockets give extra oomph to small girls too. Plus, check out that collar with collar stand! Super cute!

Vogue 8904

This dress reminds me of one I attempted several years ago but ultimately abandoned. But oh!, how much do I love this one with different color stripes?! I think I need two, one with sleeves and stripes and one sleeveless in a solid color.

I thought the photography for this pattern release was really nice. They show the garments from every possible angle so you can really get a feel for how it will fit. Anyone have any favorites that I missed?

A peculiar listing on etsy

Anyone remember when Selfish Seamstress Elaine did a post about idiots on the internet? Reader Irene just alerted me to the following listing on etsy, and I found myself in the same predicament:
 

Can you believe that?!! I wonder if this has happened to me before and I just didn't know about it. As you can see in the light green highlighted area, I have reported this seller to the Marketplace Integrity team, so hopefully they can get it taken down quickly. I've had nothing but good experiences from purchases I've made on etsy (mostly bows). Do these crooks really make money off unsuspecting people wanting custom dresses?

I particularly love the "85% refund if dress does not fit you" statement. It seems so authentic, right?  People taking advantage of unsuspecting individuals via the internet makes me so angry.

Simplicity 1624 - Cynthia Rowley ruffled toddler dress

I haven't sewn much for my daughter in the past because she's always been so tiny and I didn't want to have to figure out how to alter patterns down to her tiny size. Plus I just wasn't tempted by many of the baby patterns out there. Now that she is 2 1/2 years old, though, she is finally fitting into toddler sizes, of which there are many cute patterns that I am excited to sew up. This is the new Cynthia Rowley dress pattern Simplicity just released for spring. I made size 1/2 for the width and size 1 for the length.

The fabrics I used were leftovers from this skirt which I made way back in 2008. I haven't worn that skirt in ages as it's not really my style anymore, but still have it around somewhere. I saved the remnants because I loved the fabrics so much and had just enough to eek out this dress! (Although I did have to piece the ruffles a bit in the back.)

This face cracks me up!

I love ruffles on little girl's dresses but gosh! - they are SO MUCH WORK! Hem the bottom edge, finish the top edge, two rows of gathering stitch, pin it just right and stitch times four! I'm sure I will do ruffles again, though, they are so adorable on a little girl. (Just maybe not the next thing I make for her.)

I used white thread throughout, which I really like against the black. The neckline and arms are finished with self bias binding.

The back has a slit with a button & loop closure. It's a snug fit to get her arms through but fits loosely once it's on.

These fabrics held up really well. I sent Justin outside with the camera after church on Sunday, and she'd had it on for at least 3 hours by that point without much wrinkling. Didn't he do an awesome job on the photography?! Much better then my last attempt. I think he will be my new baby photographer.

The patten calls for a fabric loop but those are always a pain for me and I much prefer a thread loop.

For the inner skirt I used some white muslin I had on hand. I was making this dress from fabric fumes, and it never shows from the outside. I made french seams for the sides and shoulders. You can see a double row of stitching at the top of each ruffle - one to sew it to the inner skirt and the other to tack the top of the SA down.

I am not in love with the rest of the pieces from this pattern, but you may see the dress again in a year or two when she grows out of this one. And how fun to have a designer make a line for toddlers! I hope they release some more in the future.

Vogue 8615 - Light green floral dress

I spotted this floral on Mood's website a few months back and thought it was really pretty. I'm gravitating towards large florals these days and I liked all the empty space around the flowers of this print. It's described as a silk and wool blend (silk mikado) which intrigued me. It's also an Oscar de la Renta fabric, so I knew it had to be luscious.

I chose Vogue 8615 for its simplicity and flared skirt. (Honestly, I wouldn't have looked twice at this pattern were it not for the beautiful black and white houndstooth example on the Vogue website.) I tweaked a few things on this pattern:

1. Added 1" to the sides of the neckline to enable me to wear a regular bra.
2. Added 3/4" to the length of the bodice to accommodate my long torso.  
3. Cut the bodice front on a fold.
4. Revamped the sleeves by allowing 1/2" more room at the upper arm and trimming some off the sleeve head.
5. Assembled the dress and lining separately, then attached at the neck. They have some other weird instructions for the sleeves that I chose to ignore.
6. Added a hem facing to avoid the 5/8" double fold hem the instructions include. I am not a fan of that type of hem unless I'm using a shear fabric.

I love these sleeves. They have little darts at the elbows and are the perfect length for a spring dress.

The back neckline has a little plunging V. My zipper went in without incidence, thank goodness. After my last skirt I did not need any more zipper drama.

I don't really get that excited about pockets in dresses like some people do but I thought I would put them in to see what all the hubbub was about. Maybe if I ever wear this dress to a wedding and don't want to carry a purse they might come in handy. Otherwise ???

I made a muslin of the bodice in order to perfect the fit. I started with a 10 at the shoulders and bustline and tapered to a 12 at the waist. It was still a little droopy under the bust so I pulled in a little more fabric there. In order to avoid pointy headlights I curved the darts slightly at the bust point. I was also careful to avoid any blooms at the bust apexes while cutting out the bodice front.

Dressform pictures:

I think this light green celadon color is so pretty and unique.

Here at the hemline you can see the facing I used in lieu of a 5/8" double folded hem. I stitched green lace hem tape to the top of the facing and slip stitched it to the dress.

The full lining is pale green Ambiance, also from Mood. I love the feel of the soft and smooth rayon lining but don't love to cut it out. Except! I have just discovered that it can be ripped from selvage to selvage to get an even grainline, which makes cutting it out soooo much easier. You might already know this but I was so excited to figure it out!

I did do the double folded hemline for the lining, which took a really long time. This is one full skirt!

This is actually my second go around with the fabric. The first time I ordered it I cut out a fitted sheath dress and spent forever laying it out so that the flowers didn't look too cut up. All was going smoothly until I tried it on halfway completed. It had shrunk along the seamlines where I used steam to press it and also grown in width. Fitted it wasn't. However, I loved the fabric so much that I re-ordered with a totally different dress in mind. Instead of princess seamed and straight I went with darted and full. In order to avoid any more fabric shrinkage on the new yardage, I put it in the dryer with a wet hand towel and dried it on high. What little bit it shrank from the steam in the dryer was totally unnoticeable. This will be my go-to method for pre-treating wools from now on.

Red leather skirt

I've had this red leather in my stash for a little over 2 years. There were three skins to start off with, then I made this dress last year and used up a whole hide. (It was suppose to have sleeves but they ended up pulling the dress oddly so were discarded.) For the remaining two skins I knew I wanted a skirt. There wasn't enough leather for anything with fullness so it had to be some sort of pencil skirt. But, being me, I didn't want plain and simple. I'll do simple if my fabric is busy but with solid colors I really like complicated designs.

This is skirt 116 from the September 2010 Burda. I love this design so much. There are no darts, and the shaped pieces fit together and mold around the body. It's totally unique. (I also love the dress version included in the same magazine - don't know when I'll get around to it, though.) Leather is totally unforgivable to sew with. Once it gets a hold punched through it with a needle there is no getting that hole to go away. I made a muslin to perfect the fit and found I only had to let the waist out a bit at the top side fronts. I let out a total of 3/4", which is a typical alteration for my somewhat square shape.

The fit of this skirt turned out really nice. It is figure hugging but not too tight. I shortened the pattern to hit right above the knees and had to remove the vent because of material shortage. As long as I don't try to climb any super tall steps it's not at all restrictive to movement.

I have no dressform pictures to show you the details because I could not get it over my dressform's hips. The reason for this is that the bottom is slightly pegged. Arg! Here are the front and back seaming details with the skirt flat on my bed:

Everything was going smoothly until I tried to put that zipper in. The first time I pulled the leather too much and ended up with a dimple below the bottom of the zipper. The second time looked better but I could see some of the holes from the first attempt and it no longer felt very sturdy. I took a day off to calm my nerves and ponder what to do next. Next day I ripped out the entire vertical seam, applied some iron on interfacing to the edge where the zipper was going, and re-stitched the seam taking a slightly bigger seam allowance. And would you believe I stretched it too much again and had yet another dimple at the bottom?!!! Out that came and I tried it once more, gritting my teeth and praying for mercy. It is still not perfect but oh well, I am not attempting another go.

I lined it with red Ambiance from voguefabricsstore.com. The directions did not call for any but I added interfacing to the top edges of the skirt. I really appreciated the separate lining pattern included with this design that didn't force me to reuse all the pieces that make up the front. Leather glue was used to affix the bottom hem in place.

I love my skirt! The leather is incredibly soft and buttery feeling. Hopefully I won't have any trouble creating outfits around this bright statement piece.

Here is the line drawing from the Russian Burda archives:

Sadly I did not get around to making an Easter dress this year for me or my daughter. I couldn't decide if I should make something warm or summery because the weather here tends to be unpredictable this time of year. Oh well, I've lots of pretty dresses to choose from. I'll check the temperature tomorrow morning and go from there. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter Sunday! I'll be cooking Easter lunch for my dad and immediate family and thanking God for the resurrection of his son Jesus!

Green + gold lace statement skirt

It's lace month at the Mood Sewing Network and in the past few months there has been a flurry of excitement and activity concerning the picking out of a choice piece of lace. I did not participate in any of that excitement, though, because way back in July of last year I used my Mood money to purchase some exquisitely beautiful green lace. (It sold out quickly so I unfortunately cannot link you to it. Here are some of their other laces.) Oh I had plans! I bought 3 yards and could have done just about anything.

So why are you looking at a plain straight skirt that could not possibly have taken all 3 yards to make? Because I screwed up, people. I had wanted to make a dress but I picked a pattern with princess seams. Despite all of my careful laying out and measuring to make sure this linear lace lined up, a dress with princess seams on the bodice simply will not look good with any fabric that has to be matched along the seamlines both vertically and horizontally. Plus I made some dreadful mistakes while cutting it out. I was very fortunate to be able to salvage the skirt portion. But oh, how my heart aches for that lost yardage!

This is my TNT straight skirt pattern, McCall's 3830, which I used for the straight skirt portion of the dress. I've used this pattern quite a lot lately and you are probably tired of hearing about it.

Thankfully I didn't make any laying out mistakes on the skirt portion, and the pattern of the lace flows nicely across the side seams and back.

I used green bemberg from Mood for the underlining and lining. I tried several different colors but kept coming back to the dark green.

I really wanted to underline this skirt so that the seams of the lace couldn't be seen through the skirt. I also wanted uninterrupted scallops along the hemline. In order to get the look I wanted, I had to sew the lace to the underlining down to the top of the scallop. Then I sewed the bottom of the lace together, clipped the lace to the seamline at the bottom of the underlining hemline, and sewed the underlining together. I pressed the scalloped lace to one side and secured it with some hand stitching. After that I had only to whipstitch the underlining in place. This is a difficult process to describe, but here is what the final outcome looks line:

This picture is of the lace and underlining with the LINING PULLED UP AND OUT OF SITE.

And here is the pattern I used, McCall's 3830:

This skirt is not what I had pictured in my mind's eye, but I do love it. The fabric is very fancy with gold thread woven throughout, so this skirt definitely fits my lifestyle more then a dress would have.