dress – Dresses & Me

Dressed in Leather

I got given this dress a while ago. It’s a beautiful leather dress with tassels and a sort of scaly luminescent leather insert. I absolutely love it, however it didn’t quite fit right. A little too short for my liking, the straps needed to be altered and the lining was puckering funny at the back where it connected to the leather. Nothing major, but just enough that it stopped me from wearing it. I think I put off fixing it for so long because I was a bit scared of sewing leather.

I have a wedding to go to so I have finally motivated myself to ‘make it work’. I got a leather needle for my sewing machine and put my head down.

Its a bit of a mashed job. The lining doesn’t quite make it. But the skirt is now a tad longer.

The finished product… A dress for the wedding.

Who else has that perfect garment in their wardrobe they just haven’t renovated yet?

2nd Secret Santa – Squared

I decided it was easiest to give my Secret Santa recipients a slip dress each. That way I could tailor it to their tastes so that hopefully they were really unique gifts. This is my second dress – made for my brother’s girlfriend, Steph.

My Mum showed me this top, basically a square with some arm holes and a neck hole. Simplest style I have ever seen! I traced a quick pattern, with a few alterations and cut the fabric out, a lovely light fabric with mini hearts all over it which I got from Centrepoint Fabrics in Auckland.

Again I didn’t know what size my SS recipient was so I made the pattern quite big and added ties at the back so it could be worn tight around the waist, for a more fitted look. Or alternatively loose and draping.

This was honestly the quickest and easiest pattern I have ever sewn. The hardest part was sewing the facing around the collar. And the best part, it doesn’t actually look like a square sack once it’s on the figure.

Has anyone else sewn one of these square dresses or tops before? Or a pattern of equal simplicity?

I am very keen to keep making this pattern. I can churn new outfits out in 2 hours tops (including the trip to the fabric store)!!

Secret Santa

I made this pattern for a simple shift dress for secret santa at my work.

Does anyone else make their own patterns?

I had to guess what size my boss was. It would have been pretty obvious if I started measuring her up during morning tea! She tried it on straight away and it fit! Phew. Here is the outcome.

The fabric was what really made this dress. A cotton/silk blend from The Fabric Shop. I think the most important thing to consider when making something is what fabric to use. As my pattern making skills are not amazing, the beautiful fabric covered up all the indiscrepancies. I have definitely chosen the wrong fabric for a garment many times before. Luckily this time it worked out.

Mad Men Sewalong – Progress!

Over the Easter weekend I finally made some progress on the dress I’m making for Julia Bobin’s Mad Men Dress Challenge. Ages ago I let you know that I was going to attempt to recreate Betty Draper’s cocktail from the season 4 poster.

I will be using this navy, teal and gold brocade that I bought of Etsy at the begging of last year. I’ll be making this dress using a vintage pattern – McCalls 6564 circa 1962. Last time I made this dress I made it out of a deep blue velvet and I loved it! I still wear it, but it is definitely a winter dress (we’ve been having quite the Indian Summer here in New Zealand).

So what have I actually done since we last touched on this topic? WELL ACTUALLY (she said a little too defensively) I made a muslin. I know – I never make muslins! I convinced myself to do it by thinking that I could use said muslin as the dress lining if there wasn’t too much to change. And as it turns out all I did was take 1cm off the shoulders and subsquently lower the neckline and the armholes to match.

If you look closely you’ll see that the dress has bust darts, plus two darts on either side at the front and another four on the back. It has quite a high neckline and a deep V-back. Do you know haw many tailors tacks that is? Approximately a million. However, I decided as it was a long weekend that I would diligently put them all in – I know – you’re all so proud of me.

Who else is doing Julia’s Mad Men Dress Challenge?

Confessions

I have a confession to make. I accidently-on-purpose bought 11 patterns during the recent McCalls/ Vogue/ Butterick sale.

W O W I’m not making any apologies!

The thing is that in New Zealand patterns are – too put it mildly – horrendously expensive. To buy a normal vogue pattern, such as the one at the top of this post, would cost NZ$33. To put that in perspective, that’s US$27.36. A “Vogue Easy Options” pattern is NZ$25. Hugely expensive right? So when they were reduced to US$2.88 how could I resist?

To combat the cost of shipping I used a a service called ship2u to make the postage cheeper (McCalls was going to charger me $55!!) I’ll let you know how that turns out.

So when I saw the massive sale that the McCall’s company was having I had no choice but to buy at least a few…

I mean who doesn’t need a new work shirt ? ? ?

And a skirt to go with it . . .

Or maybe a second – I do work FOUR days a week you know!

And of course I needed some sensible trousers comme ca

Having another party dress never hurt anyone, right?

OR another one. . .

And it is e s s e n t i a l to have a loose summer dress/ top to throw over your togs at the beach in this harsh Antipodean sun

And getting into knit fabrics really was one of my sewing goals for the year – what better opportunity than now to achieve goals?

So I thought I’d buy another just to get some good practice in.

Reasonable enough right?? Or is sewing becoming an obsession? Am I loosing perspective?!

Small Pattern Companies

Recently I’ve been thinking more about the sewing patterns I use. I’m increasingly finding that The Big Four have been somewhat limiting and even a bit naff. This probably sounds a bit harsh. I mean, the Big Four have served me well thus far – in fact all the patterns I’ve used have been McCalls, Vogue, Butterick and Simplicity. But recently I’ve been doing some exploring on the interweb and found two smaller pattern companies who I really like.

The first is Victory Patterns. They are pretty, feminine and summery. I particularly like these patterns:

Simone

Chloe

Satsuki

The other pattern company I was super excited to discover was Salme Sewing Patterns. I really like their patterns because they look feminine without relying on nostalgic devices like full skirts which makes them really wearable. These are the ones I like.
Peplum Top

T-shirt with Pleats

I was also attracted to these Rompers

I’d love to hear of any pattern companies you’ve discovered!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Coming up this month is Dresses and Me’s six-month-aversary. To celebrate this momentous occasion I thought I’d pick the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the things I’ve made so far this year. Without further ado…

The Good

My Bow Dress, My Sister’s Vintage Pattern Dress and my Mad Men Skirt are my favourites so far because they went together easily, I’ve gotten heaps of wear out of them and I (or in the case of my sister’s dress) she actually likes it!

The Bad

My cape is here because I thought, for a long time, that I had bitten off more than I could chew. It is getting there, but I was not counting on felted wool being as hard to manage as this is! Seriously – rangling it is a real endurance test!

The only reason my orange singlet isn’t in the catagory below is that I love the silk I made it out of. However, this top ended up the Bad because of my experience with the bias seam binding – disappointing.

The Ugly

I don’t even know where to begin with this dresss. Click the link to read all about the failblog that this was. And in case you were wondering – yes, it is still unfinished.

I feel a bit mean for putting this dress in the Ugly category. I was so proud when I finished it because it was the first dress I had made since I took up sewing again and the first dress I had made in about 6 years and I made it in about 10 days flat (record!). However, when I look at it with my six-months-more-learned eyes I wish I finished the seams in some way and that I had lined it. It’s ugly on the inside.

So that’s my last six months. I’ve made a lot of other things too and learnt
so much in the process. Thanks for reading this blog and all your words of support!

What have been your favourite items you’ve sewn this year?

Blue Dress: Finished!

Here’s a photo journey of the Blue Dress (here’s where we left off from):

I sewed the facings to the bodice:

I pinked the edges around the arm and neck holes:

I finished the side seams:

Shortened the straps by about 3 cms:

And slip stitched the facing down:

Bodice finished:

I folded and pressed 1cm, then folded and pressed an 8cm hem.

Pinked some more:

Sewed the hem down:

And then the dress was finished:

HOPE YOU LIKE IT SISTER 🙂

Blue Dress II

So… not a great deal of progress has been made since my last post about the blue dress I’m making for my sister’s birthday.

I have pinned the pieces to the linen and measures 1/4 inch around the side seams as I needed one inch added to the bust and waist.

Please excuse the hideous retro carpet in our flat.

I then pinned the pattern to the lining and added one inch around the edges. I was intending to finish the seams in the same way as Did You Make That? did here (such a smart way to finish). Unfortunately, I only remembered about this on the bodice front and clean forgot when I was cutting the pieces for the back! *cries*