Just under the wire

Hello! As usual, I've been gone a while. I've got about 12 unblogged makes to post, but I've been really bad about getting pictures. Rather than catching you up on all of those, however, I'm posting my very latest make, hot off the presses. The July theme over at The Monthly Stitch is "spots and stripes," so I forced myself to finish this one today so I could blog about it there. 

The bodice is my tried and true Simplicity 4070, without the fitting issues under the bust that plagued my last one. The skirt is my go-to circle skirt. (Note to self: I maybe need to take a break from circle skirts, especially with shifty fabrics. It took forever to even out this hem, and then even longer to sew it. Ugh.)

Complaints aside, I really like the way this dress moves and think I'll really enjoy wearing it. I should probably shorten the straps just a bit, though, but...that seems unlikely at this point. 

I got the fabric at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston, IL. It's my new go-to store since Hancock Fabrics closed. Their quality is okay, but their prices definitely can't be beat! This was a splurge at $4/yard!

Looking at these pictures now...I'm really loving the fit of this one! To be totally honest, I've been having some body image issues lately. While I didn't really like my face in any of the other pictures I took, I do like how this looks on my body! That's one of the joys of sewing your own clothes, huh?

I think this is a first for me - on-theme for the Monthly Stitch, and on-theme for the Stashbusting Sewalong! What have you been making lately? Anything you finished just under the wire?

Flowers to the max!

(I am really really sorry about that title. Not sorry enough to change it, but...sorry.) For once I've got a seasonally appropriate garment to share, woohoo!

Although I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this pattern lately, my "tried and true" Simplicity 4070 bodice came through on this one! All in all, this dress only took me a couple of hours, and was the perfect palate cleanser after a recent sewing fail.

I picked up this fabric last year after I fell off the wagon with my 2014 stash bust, and before I signed up for this year's try. It's a pretty sheer cotton with swiss dots and, of course, flowers! I think it was only $1.50 a yard at the Vogue Fabrics warehouse sale (minus an extra 15% off coupon!), and I'm glad it hasn't lingered in my stash like some of the other goodies I've picked up there over the years. (The spring sale was this past weekend, and I'm immensely proud of myself that I only picked up 2 new pieces (okay, okay, aside from some Simpson's quilting cotton for my mom (FINE, it's mostly for me))). 

As usual, I had to do my cross-back straps - these things really are a lifesaver that prevent me constantly needing to pull them up. The skirt is basically a big pleated tube, but after wearing it for a day, I realized it was kind of hard to walk quickly or take long strides in it, so I added a slit (which I did completely wrong, honestly, but hey, live and learn).

The top's completely underlined in mystery white fabric from the stash, but the bottom's only underlined to the knee (which didn't show up in any of my pictures, oops). 

 

I love maxi dresses, I really do, but I kept catching glimpses of myself while we were out shopping and was worried I looked frumpy. I think the pictures look fine, but...I don't know. Does anyone else ever get that feeling?

(Also, though I have not managed to take a single picture of it (outside of new posts), Me-Made May is going well! I've got a couple more pieces to throw into rotation before the end of the month, but I'm confident it won't be a problem.)

That 70s Dress

Is it just me, or are the days racing by? I can't believe how fast this spring is flying already, or how lucky we've been weather-wise recently. When I was home for Easter I took advantage of said weather to get a few pictures of one of my latest makes:

I really can't decide if I love it or hate it. My mom's first reaction upon seeing it was, "That looks like something my mom would've made me wear." Gee, thanks! ;-)

I grabbed about 2.5 yards of this border-print linen at a garage sale last year. (I'm now regretting some of the things I passed up, considering how cheaply they were letting them go for.) This fabric was clearly from the 70s, and there were quite a few sun-damaged spots. I had to get a little creative with my cutting, but overall there was more than enough fabric to work with.

I wanted to have this done in time for my Puerto Rico trip...last October. That obviously did not happen, ha. I used Simplicity 4070 for the bodice, which I've been thinking of as one of my TNTs, but considering the fitting issues with this one (way too big!) and the last one (way too small!), I think it needs to be stripped of its title.

Along with using the border print for the simple pleated skirt, I thought it might be a nice touch to use it on the straps, too. Kind of pulls the whole thing together, at least theoretically.

Looking at these pictures made me realize just how bad some of the fitting issues are. Honestly, though, I don't know if it's worth fixing. I'd love some honest opinions here - too kitchy, or potentially cute?

Pinterest knock-off, for real this time

My latest creation is finally here!

[Please forgive the wrinkles, this survived several days of wear and a stint on the floor, oops.]

A while back, I was gushing about this pin:

When I was more committed to stash-busting, I'd made what I considered at the time to be a pretty okay knock-off. I like that dress and wear it a lot, but it still wasn't quite what I was looking for. Since then, I've been searching high and low for a better match to the fabric in the original dress (and one that would go with a jean jacket), and finally, gloriously, Hancock Fabrics saved the day! 

This is my tried-and-true fitted version of Simplicity 4070. I've finally got the fit close to perfect, but I can mix up the skirts enough to make it look different each time (I hope).

I didn't bother with pattern matching because I only bought 1.5 yards of this and there just wasn't enough left (which is also the reason for the A-line skirt rather than a gathered or pleated one). I got this for a decent sale price ($8/yard), but it's still more than I typically spend on fabric. Like I've said before, I'm still learning, and am way too scared to invest a bunch of money in something that might not work well. Luckily, I think this one does. :)

[Again, sorry for the wrinkles! That...does not look good, but the hem IS straight, I promise!]

The straps on the original version keep falling down (as do pretty much all straps ever), so I decided to cross them, which I think is a fun little detail. 

Other than the fact that this seems to need constant pressing, I really really like it! The pin is officially knocked off.

A win and a lose

First up, the win: another pair of Tania culottes, of course!

Honestly, though, these were almost not a win at all. This fabric (picked up at the Textile Discount Outlet for $3.50/yard) is suuuuuper slippery, and since I can't find a blind hem foot for my machine to save my life, I had to stitch that slippery sucker down twice and hope for the best. Thankfully, I think it worked out in the end.

Cute print, no? Unfortunately, it wrinkles more easily than I thought, but...eh. Good enough for who it's for.

Now for the fail: 

This is the bodice of Simplicity 4070, with some adjustments made after fitting it the last time, and a little self-drafted gathered peplum flounce added on in place of a skirt. It's not terrible or anything, but why oh why did I think that sewing a peplum top would be a good idea when I've hated literally every other peplum everything that I've ever tried on? Don't get me wrong, they look good on some people but I...am not one of those people.

I was inspired by ModCloth's Third Street Promenade top and couldn't resist giving it a go myself: 
 

 

I think the Simplicity bodice is a really great match for this, don't you? Too bad it's not my style.

I made this out of some quilting cotton stolen from my mom's stash, so yay for a semi-successful stash bust on this one at least, right?

I got really tired of the straps on the other one falling down, so I decided to make these crossover straps to avoid that (and also provide a little visual interest). 

I'm not ready to throw this completely into the fail pile - I'm still hoping to make it into something slightly more wearable, probably by removing all of the gathers and making the whole top a bit more streamlined. Time will tell if I can get around to that, though - I've got a crazy-busy month coming up!

What do you think of the peplum trend? Temporary fad, or here to stay? And would you/do you wear them?

Me-made May, Week 4

We're nearing the end, guys! As much as I've enjoyed this month, I'm also getting a LITTLE tired of my me-mades and am ready to break out some other wardrobe favorites for June. We'll see what happens this week/weekend, but I just might have one or two more me-mades to add to the rotation for the final week (if I can figure out that silly Cynthia Rowley 2250)!

Day 19: My New Summer Dress
Day 20: Tania culottes part 2, altered RTW shirt, RTW denim jacket
Day 21: More denim jacket love, self-drafted maxi (I cannot get enough of this dress, despite a couple of issues I've realized that I need to fix after so many wears)

Day 22: Tania culottes part 1, RTW jacket and cardigan
Day 23: Self-drafted dress (which I'm still wearing despite the issues because I LOVE it with that mint cardigan). Switched up the belt for a better look, I think.

Day 24: Repeat of day 21, but I forgot to take pictures because I was visiting friends out of town. :)

Day 25: Tania culottes part 2, but shortened! After seeing the pictures from Monday, and realizing that the back wasn't even at all, I decided to chop off quite a bit of this skirt. I just felt that it was looking far too dowdy, and who wants that? Had a moment of panic that I'd cut it too short in some places, but I think I finally got it right, and I like it a lot more now!

Day 26: Did not leave the house nor bother to get dressed, oops. Still way ahead of my 5 days out of 7, though!

What about you guys - if you've been participating this month, are you ready for it to be over?

New Summer Dress

I did it - I made one of the dresses I talked about in my last post!

In that post, I said that I was DYING over this outfit and wanted to try to knock it off: 

Well, my look obviously looks NOTHING like this, but I still love it! (That being said, if I find some blue floral fabric like that, I am snapping it up RIGHT away to make another one of these.) Part of my love for this dress is due to the fact that this is my first completed make from a commercial (big 4) pattern! I did try it on with my jean jacket, but it didn't really work, so I switched it up with this new ivory cardigan instead.

[I swear I'm not pissed in these photos. I still haven't perfected posing and smiling for these photo shoots. But isn't the mural awesome?!]

I used Simplicity 4070, view A for the bodice, along with some small-print floral quilting cotton. The skirt is self-drafted with soft box pleats some heavy knit fabric from my stash  (with probably enough left over for a skirt on another dress!). 

I obviously added some straps, which are still a bit too long, and used some heavy cotton lining I recently bought. Despite the heavy knit skirt and lining, I think this will be a very light, wearable dress for summer. 

I used a double needle for the hem, but didn't get it quite right since I couldn't figure out how to keep the threads from twisting. I do think it makes for an interesting detail, though. I used white thread because I didn't have a blue that matched closely enough - I thought complete contrast was better than not-quite-matching, though I might go back and redo that at some point.

I don't have a good close-up of the detailing, but I am SUPER proud of the topstitching on this make. (And though they look like polka dots in this picture, they're actually little flowers.)

Other than that, I cut a straight size 18, and it fit pretty well right from the pattern. The only issue I had was with some underarm gaping, which I think you can tell from these pictures that I fixed pretty well. :) This happens to me with a LOT of store-bought tops I buy, and it bugs the heck out of me. Luckily, I can fix it pretty well myself these days. For this dress, rather than ripping the whole thing apart, I just added some underarm dart-type things, which smoothed out very nicely. 

I definitely think this will be a go-to pattern in the future, especially once I modify the pattern pieces a little to match where I took this dress in.

(There are no pretty pictures of the inside, because it's really not all that pretty. The one picture I had of the back was also really blurry. I think my zip insertion is still a bit wonky, but the friend who took these pictures assured me that it looks fine, so yay for that!)

I know a lot of people have some very strong opinions on using quilting cotton for garments, but I figure it's good for me to get some practice with whatever's lying around. Once I make my way through my stash and allow myself to really start buying again, maybe I'll sing a different tune. What are your thoughts on the debate?

Sewing plans

As always, my eyes are bigger than my stomach (or in this case, my plans are more ambitious than the time I have to finish them), but I have been seriously lusting over some outfits lately. The first two are indie patterns - the By Hand London Anna dress, and Megan Nielsen's Cascade skirt. However, since I'm on my self-imposed stash busting diet, I kind of feel guilty shelling out the cash (and adding to my stash) for these two patterns. I thought maybe I could recreate some similar looks for this summer, and once my cash flow is a little better, support both of these indie designers with some other pattern purchases. 

For the Anna dress, I'm thinking some good substitutes for the bodice might be: 

New Look 6156 (View A)

Pros: Similar shape, boat neck, solid back
Cons: No sleeves (but shouldn't be too hard to extend them, right?)

Butterick 5880

You can't really tell on this line drawing, but when it's sewn, the bodice actually looks really similar to the Anna bodice. 

Pros: Sleeves, boat neck (minus those little cutouts), similar overall shape, solid back
Cons: Different bust darts

Butterick 5605 (View C)

Pros: Sleeves, somewhat similar bodice/bust shaping (in the pictures of the made garments)
Cons: Now that I look at the line drawings, the bust shaping isn't all the similar, and it doesn't have quite the boat neck that the Anna does. The cutout back and the sleeves would also have to be redrafted a bit.

Now that I look at this one a bit more...what was I thinking? It's definitely not a contender.

I think I'll try #2 for this one and see how it goes. If it sucks, well, lesson learned, right?

I'm thinking (crazily) of trying to self-draft the Cascade skirt...or, you know, just shell out the $12, I haven't really decided yet. (That being said, I DID just get an offer accepted on a house, so every cent counts!)

(This has been a little rambly, sorry about that!) The last look I've been lusting over is one I saw on Pinterest a while back: 

 

As with everyone else in the northern hemisphere right now, I'm totally in love with florals. While I would love to find that exact same print, I should probably make more of an effort to keep to my resolutions. I found some navy quilting cotton with a (small) floral print in my mom's stash, so I think I'm going to attempt to make the bodice out of one of those two, using Simplicity 4070:

Maybe view E with some straps? (I thought I had a million patterns with a sweetheart neckline, but apparently that is not the case. This is really my only stash pattern that comes close.)

I know I don't have enough of that quilting cotton for a whole dress in this fabric, so I was thinking of doing the bodice in that and the skirt in a solid navy I have in my stash - I think it's a heavier knit, so a waist stay would probably come in handy here. What do you think, is this a good match?

What're your upcoming sewing plans?