Butterick 5397: Easy tunic dress

While it feels like all I've sewn this fall is baby clothes, I have managed to squeeze in a few things for me. I've tired to focus on softball projects that would go together quickly so I could get back to gift sewing. I'm in dire need of dresses for fall/winter, so this Fast & Easy tunic pattern was a no-brainer.

I had originally wanted to make it in a remnant of grey doubleknit in my stash, but there wasn't enough to make it work. Instead, I copied the pattern photos and used a deep red doubleknit - so original. Ha! The construction was a breeze though I did have to alter the pattern a bit to fit my pear-shaped body, cutting an XS on top and tapering to a M in the hips. I had added a few inches to the length, then cut off too much when I went to hem it, so it's a bit shorter than I would have like. Not a huge issue since it will always be worn with tights or leggings.

I wore it to work a few times this fall, but after picking up a classic leopard print scarf, it made a perfect Thanksgiving outfit. Comfy and cute - my kind of holiday dress!

Baby Clothes Bonanza for Blondie's little girl

Much like I did for Vino, I stitched up a bunch of clothes for Blondie's little princess. Even though I love pink, I specifically shied away from sewing pink clothes for her figuring that she would get more pink stuff than she knew what to do with at the shower. Let's just say I wasn't incorrect in my assumption. ;)

First up, my favorite baby gift of late - a minky blanket and coordinating Bedtime Story Pajamas from Oliver + S. I fell in love with this ladybug minky fabric last year and bought a ton of it for my stash. It was nice to use some of it for my bff.

I chose a coordinating red and black quilting cotton for the pajamas. While I thought it might have been too loud at first, it got rave reviews from my co-workers, and Blondie liked them as well.

Blondie and Chaz are huge Chargers fans and I thought it was only right that their little girl have an appropriate outfit to wear to help cheer on the team next year. I've made Butterick 3782 before and I still think it's a winner. This particular version was made from a mid-weight white stretch denim and Chargers quilting cotton. I cut everything on single layer to get the patterns situated just so, although I miscalculated a bit on the back. Oh well, at least I made sure to get the logo right on the booty of the diaper cover. ;) Blondie reported back that this was Chaz's favorite gift. I can't imagine why....

Lastly, I wanted to make a quintessential summer dress for the little gal. I stumbled across Heather Ross Mendocino Swim Class fabric in Pacific and absolutely fell in love with it. It screamed summer, but also felt chic and not too childish. The problem, of course, is that this fabric is now discontinued and only sold on the secondary market. Hmph. I really tried to find something else, but I kept coming back to the Swim Class fabric. I finally just bit the bullet and ordered 2 yards from an Etsy seller - one for this dress and one for my stash. Hey, if I was going to go to all the trouble to get this fabric, I wanted some for me, too.

Can I just tell you that not only is this print adorable in person, but the fabric itself is amazing. It's a beautiful crisp cotton with a slightly brushed feel. Even after a tumble in the washer and dryer, it maintained it's character. I really wish I had been sewing when this line was first released. I think I would have bought the entire line, no joke.

Anyways... the dress. I knew I wanted a classic sundress - round neck, sleeveless, big gathered skirt - and ultimately settled on Simplicity 3854. When I first cut out and sewed up the skirt portion, I really thought I had made a mistake. I could have worn the thing as a (very short!) skirt, it was that wide around. However, once I started the gathering and got it attached to the bodice, I fell in love. LOVE! You guys, I think this might be my favorite thing I've sewn to date. Like, I've already warned Blondie that if we ever have a daughter, I totally want to borrow this back from her. I made sure to finish everything with french seams or bias tape so there isn't a raw seam to be found. I really love the juxtaposition of the formal dress shape with the casual quirky cotton fabric. The deep machine hem on the skirt also adds to the balance. This really feels like something that would be sold in a baby boutique, so I was pretty much thrilled to be able to give it as a gift.

One last touch was adding a baby bolero (from the same pattern) in aqua cotton. I think a bit of piping might have dressed it up, but I was very under the gun, so self-bias tape had to do.

Not clothing and I had to break my "no pink" rule here, but I did make her a set of flannel-backed burp clothes. I knew that the nursery was pink and brown and thought she might appreciate that at least one thing that I made matched her theme. Again, this is becoming a favorite baby gift item - easy to make, useful and super cute!

So, it is a damn good thing we had Blondie's shower when we did. The following Saturday morning, at 36 weeks, her water broke and by lunch that day, she was cradling her daughter MJ in her arms. :) I was able to go and see her after Thanksgiving and OMG, she is so teeny tiny and absolutely precious. Blondie and Chaz are smitten and I can see why. Blondie is a trooper and we still made it out for a bit of Black Friday shopping with Sporty where she was able to get a bag of tiny little clothes for MJ. Needless to say, they didn't have a whole lot of newborn stuff on hand so now she is all set for winter. I figure it's only a few years before Blondie's daughter will start to join us on our crazy after-Thanksgiving shopping excursions. Puts a smile on my face just thinking about it. :)

B5466: Spring into Fall?

This is a project I completed in the spring, but never got around to blogging. Why? Well, mostly because I finished it, wore it once and decided it wasn't working for me. Don't you hate it when that happens? Put in all this work on a garment and then find yourself not happy with it by the time it's done. Ugh.

The pattern itself was fine - I made view B, a straight skirt with a narrow waistband. I originally cut the 14, but wound up taking out enough width through the waist/hips that it was more like a 12. The revised skirt fit well through the hips, but the waistband was then too snug. I fiddled with it and sort of fixed it, but it still sat higher on my waist than I like. If I were to make this again, I'd cut a 14 at the waist and then taper in to a 12 around the hips. For this pear-shaped gal, that is so counter to the adjustments that I ususally have to make to patterns. So weird! I added a lining because the fabric felt a bit too flimsy without one and used lace for the hem. The actual construction of this skirt is probably one of my best - all of the finishes are clean and feel very RTW. Which made it even more of a bummer that I was so unhappy with the finished product.

I originally purchased the fabric for a spring/summer skirt. I thought it would be pretty paired with grey heels or light brown sandals and a tank/cardigan combo for work. I even went so far as to pick up a new pastel pink cardigan to match the print so I was all set to have a new outfit to wear to work. Unfortunately, none of my shoe and top combinations seemed to work. My shoe choices all felt too dark or too clunky. The skirt sat so high, that the tanks looked funny tucked in, but looked sloppy or too tight left out. I was at a complete loss on how to style the poor thing to make it feel right. Hence, it was relegated to the back of the closet.

We had our fair share of chilly days this summer (so odd here in SoCal) and I pulled this skirt out on one of those mornings, hoping to give it one more shot before I retired it for good. Something about the cool weather and this skirt finally clicked and I ran for my tall boots. Wouldn't you know, flat boots and a 3/4 length sleeve top gave this skirt a whole new look - one that I felt good in! I think the colors had me hung up on making this a spring skirt, whereas for some reason, it works much better as a fall transition piece - even if the colors don't so much read "fall." What's nice is that the lining makes this lightweight skirt suprisingly warm, and will feel even moreso if I pair it with a cozy grey or pastel sweater for a different look.

Now that we are truly in summer temps here, I've put the skirt away for the time being. But, I'm so looking forward to dragging it back out at the first hint of chilly mornings. I guess I was getting a very early jump on fall sewing and I didn't even know it.

Butterick 5209 Redeux - Emerald City

I'm pretty sad that I've not had much time to spend in the sewing room these past couple of months and the time that I have spent there has been focused on finishing up gifts for others (more posts on those this week as they get passed out to the recipients) or working on special occasion dresses. Let's just say I'm ready to start focusing on some work and play separates for ME! You know, after a few baby gifts get sewn up first. :/

Anyways, we had a family wedding to attend on May 1st and I really wanted to do a short version of the purple ballgown that I made in March. For some reason silk dupioni was stuck in my head as the fabric of choice this time around and I found a beautiful rich emerald/teal silk at Mood. It looks super teal in all of these pics, but it's actually much more emerald in person. The lining fabrics left a bit to be desired, but I finally settled for a gray/green china silk which worked out okay.

With all of the workouts and rehearsals for the dvd shoot, I was pretty zonked and kept putting off working on the dress for more than fits and spurts. By the time the 26th rolled around though, it became apparent that I *really* needed to get the show on the road if I expected to have a dress for the wedding. Whoops.

I was fairly apprehensive sewing the bodice again after all of the headaches I had the first time around. But amazingly, the bodice went together like a dream this time. I was thrilled! The only change I made was to trim about an inch total off the width of the bodice (1/4 inch per side seam) to accomodate my shrinking body and it fit like a glove. In fact, the bust area looked even better than it did with the purple dress - and in a fabric that was much more stiff. Who knew?!

I finished the outside of bodice on Tuesday night and was feeling incredibly confident about the rest of the dress going together quickly. Friday, you know, the DAY before the wedding, was my day to finish the rest of the dress. The bodice lining went in very well and I had what my facebook friends were calling a "tankini" by lunchtime. Which just left me to attach the skirt, add a zipper and a hem and it would be done! This is where the wheels started to come off.

No matter what I did to the gathering of the skirt, the fabric just would not hang right. I looked 6 months pregnant, which would be fine if I was, but after having just lost 15lbs, I wanted to show off the hard work, not hide it under a tent. :/ I must have attached, ripped out, recut and then reattached that dang skirt a half-dozen times. I tried fewer gathers, I tired pleats, but nothing was working. The fabric just had too much body to lay flat when any sort of gathers or pleats or whatnot were added. By 8:30 at night, I was at the end of my rope. In a fit of madness, I ripped out my favorite straight skirt pattern (McCall's 3830) and used the hipcurve to make the gathered a-line skirt into one that was fitted through the hips with a slight a-line flare at the bottom. It still wasn't perfect, but with some tweaks here and there along the waistline it started looking, dare I say it, quite cute. At the very least, it didn't make me look pregnant and was something that I would wear out of the house, as opposed to the previous incarnations of the skirt.

By that point, I just needed to get it done because I had no back-up plan and really needed something to wear the next day. I got the zipper in with no problems, hemmed the lining and left all of the hand work (blind hem and attaching the lining to the zipper) until the next morning.

Here is the front of the dress. See, it looks pretty good, right? I love the color and I love the way the bodice fits. Much better than the purple dress in my opinion.

I'm absolutely loathe to show you this picture, though. See those lines/bunched fabric around my lower back? Yeah, I could not for the life of me figure out how to get rid of them, so I fixed it as best I could and then called it a night. See anything missing?

Um, I DIDN'T ADD ANY DARTS!! For the love of all that is holy, how did I forget that you have to have DARTS in a fitted skirt?! It dawned on me Saturday morning as I was driving back from the gym that the lack of darts was causing all of the issues around the low back and bum area. I obviously didn't need darts when the skirt was a simple drindl, but as soon as I switched gears, I needed to re-engineer the whole thing. Which, I obviously didn't do. I'm still beating myself up over it, almost 2 weeks later.

My problem now is that I was hoping to use this dress over the summer for work events with my husband. What I really need to do is cut a new back piece, but I'm worried about picking everything out, especially since dupioni shreds like crazy. Thoughts? Should I just suck it up and fix it or leave well enough alone?

Even though this wasn't exactly the dress I set out to make, I'm still fairly happy with the overall product. In retrospect, the fitted skirt is more versatile for work events and is still fun without looking like a bridesmaid dress.

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One last funny story about this dress. We're all at the wedding have a grand 'ol time at the reception. I'm standing with Jim and his immediate family, a good song comes on and we all start dancing and bumpin' booties. Fun times, except that my father-in-law (FIL) and I bumped into my brother-in-law (BIL), who was holding a full glass of red wine... that proceeded to spill all down the back of my dress and into my shoe.

We all just froze with shocked looks on our faces.

My MIL and BIL's girlfriend jumped into action, hustled me into bathroom and started dabbing at everything with wet paper towels. They questioned the use of soap, but I waved it off saying that we should just get as much of the wine out as possible and then let the cleaners do what they could to remove the stain. My poor MIL had to get more up close and personal with my backside than she ever wished to. The quote of the night, from my MIL "Just pretend I'm your mother sweetie" before she stuck her hand and arm up the back of my dress to wring out the wine. God Bless that woman. :)

I think all of us had written off the dress as a goner, but we got back to the reception and the party continued. About 20 minutes later, BIL's girlfriend runs up to me and says "Look at you dress!!"

Folks, the fabric had dried and you couldn't see a damn thing! Silk dupioni is like magic fabric or something. If you don't believe me, take a look. Can you see anything?

So, the moral of the story, don't dance around full glasses of red wine and always make sure your special occasion dresses are in deep colored silk dupioni. :D

Final Dress Update - All Done!

I'm not gonna lie, getting this dress done by Saturday was one of the more stressful things I've done in recent memory. I didn't sleep much this week and there were moments when I was convinced it wasn't going to come together at all. Thankfully, by Friday night, the dress was done and Saturday was all about getting pretty before the event. :)

I'll leave most of the sewing details for my review at PR (will get that up later this week), but I did want to note a few things here. This ultimately became a frankenpattern as I used the bodice and midriff pieces of Butterick 5209 , but I modified the skirt pieces from Simplicity 2587 for a full a-line skirt.

The original pattern has instructions for the bodice lining, but I also added a skirt lining from the same pattern pieces I used to cut out the outer skirt. To reduce bulk, I pleated the skirt lining at the top, which turned out much prettier than I was expecting. (Thanks to this great review from The Slapdash Sewist for this idea!) To provide stability in the midriff sections, I interfaced these pieces with silk organza, which gave it a little extra body without being too stiff. Lastly, I added a bit of ease stitching at the outer bust area to help prevent the fabric from gaping when it was sewn together with the lining.

And here is the finished dress:

After my near melt-down on Tuesday night, I actually think the bodice looks pretty good. Attaching the skirt and lining and installing the invisible zipper all went so very smoothly for which I was incredibly grateful - I'm not sure my nerves could have taken any more snafus at that point.

This is the final look - these pictures were taken just before we left for the event last night.

I think it ultimately turned out well. I had to attach the halter straps higher than I anticipated for the bust to sit correctly, which raised the waist seam to above my natural waist. I typically don't love this look on me as I prefer to highlight the smallest part of my waist, but I think it worked out okay. I was comfortable, felt pretty and more than fit in with what the rest of the women were wearing, so I'd say it was a success. And can I just say - I can't belive I made my own dress!!Sorry, even after wearing it all evening, it still hasn't quite sunk in. Even though it didn't turn out exactly as anticipated, I'm still so proud of it and amazed that I was able to put together a full-length gown in less than 2 weeks. :)

While I would have loved to have snapped a bunch of pictures from the event, it really wasn't that kind of night. Trust me though when I say that this was easily the fanciest event we've attended and we were both blown away at the food, drink and decor. Really amazing. I did bring my camera out right at the end of the night to have a quick picture of us taken. Even after several tries, this was the best we could get.

Since I wasn't happy with the above, I had Jim take a quick self-portrait of us, which is marginally better.

We had a great time last night and I felt gorgeous in my dress. Even though it was a rough week, I think in the end, it was worth all of the stress and crazy. :)

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After all of the work I put into getting this pattern right and what not, I'm a bit reluctant to just pack it all away and forget about it. We have a family wedding to attend in May and while I was originally going to tackle this pattern, I just don't think I have it in me to fit a dress that is so complicated right after this project. So, my new thought is to remake the above dress in a shorter version and a bright spring color. My current plan is a kelly green dress in silk shantung. I figure I can put the waist back where it belongs and maybe add some pockets for an additional kick. Not only would I have a dress for the wedding, but I could also use it this summer for one of the many dinners I'll be attending for Jim's work. I know it sounds ridiculous to sew a second version of a very specific dress, but it would be nice to have a version of it that could be worn to more than just black tie affairs.

Dress Update #2

No pictures for this one, I just need to vent. All of the fabric is cut out and last night I finally sat down to start sewing for real. I took lots of deep breaths, pinned carefully and went slowly through the first few steps and things were going fine... until they weren't. That bodice absolutely kicked by butt. Getting the gathers in the bust even and getting everything to meet up well in the center was just not happening. I thought I had it, but when I looked at it from the right side, I swear, it looked like I had sewn it in the dark while drunk. FUN! :/ I eventually got it right after ripping it out and re-sewing several(!!) times. I think if you saw it right now, you wouldn't know that I had completely effed it up at first (and second and third), but getting it to that point was way more work than it should have been. So, I thought I was good for the rest of the evening.

Nope.

When I went to attach the lining to the bodice, things looked so very straight-forward. However, getting everything to come together smoothly at the point in the neckline was an exercise in frustration. When I went to turn the lining inside the first time, it again resembled drunk sewing in the dark. Gah! More seam ripping, more re-stitching and before I stumbled to bed at 1am, things looked, dare I say, quite lovely. Then again, I was seeing double at that point, so who knows what I'll think about it when I take a peek this evening.

I seem to run into these types of things more than I care to admit. Now granted, I'm getting mighty good at seeing the hot mess I've made and cleaning it up rather well, but what I wouldn't give to eliminate these snafus altoghether. So, is this just an experience thing or am I destined to be BFF with my seam-ripper til the end of eternity? Oh sewing divas, help me out here!

Lastly, I'd just like to say that sewing with silk twill is a lovely thing indeed. Yes, it would like to slip around if I really let it, but for the most part with some intense pinning and a firm hand, things go where you want them to go. And all that seam ripping I did last night? The fabric held up like a champ. No puckers. No pin marks. No holes. Nothin'. I can't say enough good things about it thus far. Hopefully I feel the same way after tonight when the skirt is attached and the zipper is in place.

Dress Update #1

Thank you to everyone for the encouragement and votes of confidence on my last post. I ran everything by my sewing instructor, Shaerie, Tuesday night and she also thought it was totally doable. In fact, she even said she would be more than happy to help me fit the bodice muslin over the weekend. Awesome!! The rest of the week was filled with general life stuff, but Friday night I was finally able to get crackin' on everything.

I went out to Mood Fabrics after work on Friday with a short list of fabric types and colors that I was contemplating and strict instructions from Shaerie to find a nice gal working that night and to pick her brain. The person that helped me was great and it was actually one of her suggestions (that wasn't on my original list) that wound up being my final pick. So, here are the pretties - silk twill in a deep purple for the outside and an orchid china silk for the lining:

I also picked up a bit of white silk organza to interface the midriff sections (thanks Lindsey T for the tip!) and to use as a press cloth. The fabric was not cheap and I needed a grip of it, but the cost was drastically offset by the gift card a few of my co-workers had given me for my 30th birthday. A couple of them had been bugging me about when I was going to use it and they were very happy to hear it was funding this project.

Later that night, I started working on the muslin for the bodice. It was late, I was tired, but I still wanted to at least get a first stab at it.

Um, that's not good. Like, at all.

This lead to muslin #2. Better, but still not great.

On to muslin #3. Hey, that actually is starting to look like a dress!

Muslin #3 is what I brought to Shaerie this afternoon. You have no idea how much I was grinning when she looked at it, pinned it on me and then pronounced that I had done "a really great job." :D She pinned in a new waistline and adjusted the center back to fit my actual back, but otherwise no changes were needed. She suggested a little ease stitching around the armholes to prevent gaping, but otherwise, it's pretty much good to go. I'm still sort of in shock and ridiculously excited that I was able to mostly fix the fit problems by myself. The midriff pieces had to undergo some considerable changes to from the original pattern pieces (the ones on top in the pictures), but somehow it all worked out.

Having Shaerie there to confirm that things looked good and to tweak a few things is so helpful. I go back on Thursday to have her help with the hemming - of course, this will mean that I actually need to have a completed dress by then. Eeeek!

Tomorrow the goal is to add the changes to the bodice pattern pieces and to redraft the skirt pattern from the full short skirt, to a floor-length a-line style. And hopefully I'll get all of the fabric cut out as well. But, for now, it's time for bed!

It's official - I've completely lost my mind

I'm plugging along at work yesterday, when Jim calls and asks what we're doing for the evening of March 20th. After confirming that it looks like a free night, he says to block it off as we have an event to attend. Long story very short, he has been doing legal work for a non-profit and we've been invited to their yearly black-tie ball and gala. And we all know that translates to floor-length gowns for the ladies.

Oh boy.

After squealing in excitement over the event, I then started to panic a bit. Really, I have less than two weeks to come up with a dress and get it altered?! Yikes! I quickly perused the offerings online at Bloomie's and Nordstroms and was less than inspired. At which point I started thinking that maybe I could make something. Something simple, of course, but something that I would like and that would cost less than the ho-hum options I was finding in RTW.

And that is when I realized that I might have officially lost my mind - thinking of making a formal gown in less than 2 weeks. :/

I poured through the pattern books last night and after rejecting a few options because they didn't really scream "gala" and others because they were too intricate for my current skill level and time restrictions, I think I've found a good option - Butterick 5209, a '47 retro pattern:

I would take the skirt to the floor, but otherwise, I think the halter style and open back would be very pretty and classic. I also like that the bodice and midriff come with lining instructions, so I would just need to add jerry-rig a skirt lining. I am seeing my sewing instructor tonight anyways, so I'll run my plan by her and see what she thinks. My goal would be to get a muslin done by then end of the week, get the fashion fabric Friday or Saturday and then work like a dog to get it all done in time.

I have a pair of black Stuart Weitzman D'orsay pumps that I'm planning to wear, so the dress needs to match those, for sure. I'm currently debating whether to do a deep jewel tone for the dress (teal, plum or crimson) or go classic and opt for black or a deep gunmetal grey. What do you guys think? Either way, I will likely choose dupioni or shantung silk, but that could change after tonight.

When Jim heard that I was trying to actually make a dress, he just shook he head, smiled and said that he knew that was going to happen. Heh. Guess I'm not much of a surprise to him anymore. ;)

So, any tips on sewing formal dresses or this pattern, in particular? I'm equally scared and excited by this project, but forsee that it's going to be a very long 2 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for me, folks!