Fitting the birthday dress...

I'm here today to talk about my birthday suit!

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No, not birthday suit... birthday dress!

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Closer, although I do not expect my birthday to be quite so elegant. But before I talk about my birthday sewing schemes, it's time to highlight another fellow blogger I admire. Today it's Cathy from Treadling in Benin.

Cathy works for the Peace Corp as an art teacher, and she is documenting her sewing projects made on a vintage treadle machine. I am in awe of how quickly she plows through projects and makes it work - often with limited resources and of course with only a treadle sewing machine. Super inspiring! It makes me feel guilty for not getting my own treadle machine up and running. She also does interesting posts on sewing professionals in Benin, and I find it really cool to see how sewing is done in another part of the world. Check her out!

On to the birthday stuff. Remember this fabric?

It's a stretch cotton sateen and an impulse purchase from Fabric.com, necessary for meeting that $35 mark and getting free shipping. Ohhh how dangerous the temptation of free shipping can be. But I have no regrets. The print I think is even prettier than the photos on the website indicated. I looove it. When I clicked "buy" I thought it would make some great shorts or a skirt, but before long I was dreaming of a special dress for my birthday instead. Separates are practical, but I want to make it into something fun.

My inspiration, at first, was this Betsy Johnson dress which I thought I could rip off by modifying Colette Patterns Lily.

But looking at all those seam lines on Lily, I realized it would be a nightmare for matching up my zig-zaggy print. Also, Lilly doesn't have the sweetheart neckline that I covet. Enter Burdastyle 04/2013 #116. (Why can't they just give their patterns a simple number code?)

dress pattern on Burdastyle.com

Ahhhhh! Isn't it adorable on that model? She looks like it's her birthday. I love this pattern. I love the neckline, and that the straps are incorporated into the bodice. I like that the skirt doesn't require pattern matching except in back. Using a ribbon belt means I won't have to worry about pattern matching between the bodice and skirt. And if I use contrasting black panels for the sides of the bodice, ala Dixie DIY and her adorable Elisalex dress...

check it out

... then I won't have to pattern match there either. Can you sense I'm terrified of pattern matching? Well, I am.

Being a smart cookie, I decided to make a muslin. I had read Kathy's review of the pattern here.

She had issues with the straps being spaced too wide. And since I am scheming to make a pair of shorts or a skirt with the leftover zig-zag fabric once this dress is done, there's no room for error. So muslin I did.

First off, Burda messed up on a few of the pattern pieces. Stuff just didn't line up right when I went to tape everything together. See?

PDF patterns can be a pain. PDF patterns that don't line up properly... even bigger pain. After taking a lot of measurements, I decided that the center front line on both the front and back bodice pieces was misplaced on two of the pages. I moved it inward as indicated by the pink arrows:

After that, everything sewed up just fine. Here's my muslin of the bodice:

Blurry photo. Sorreee. Also, my belly button. Also, doesn't this muslin match my shorts well? I cut up a pair of stretch jeans from Goodwill to make this. I hate wasting a lot of money on muslin fabric. The jeans were cheap and expendable. Hopefully the stretch factor is comparable to the fabric I will be using. Anyway, I cut a straight size 40 for this muslin. I am around a 36.5" in the bust, and somewhere around 31" in the waist. Maybe I could have gone down a size, given the stretch material. But I decided to alter the size 40 instead. I pinched out some from the center front, as you can see. I also concur with Kathy about the straps - I decided mine need to come in a little. Here's the back...

See, the straps could come in towards the center a little in back as well. Also, maybe I ought to take a little off the bodice length? It's hard to tell without having a skirt attached, but I didn't have the fabric to muslin up the skirt too. Or the patience, for that matter.

Here's how I altered my pattern pieces. Trimmed off some from the center of the front bodice piece...

Angled the top of this pattern piece in a little (about 3/8") where I want the strap to move over. The new stitching line is indicated by the blue arrow and that strip of paper is what I removed...

I angled the pattern piece for the bodice sides in a little. The original pattern piece is underneath in the photo below and I'm tracing a new line on top, indicated by the blue arrow again.

I had to shift the whole strap over too. This photo doesn't demonstrate too well, but the pink arrow is pointing to the old strap lines. I tilted the pattern piece a little towards the center of the body so I could trace new lines.

You can kinda see the difference in the photo below. New strap is on top, old strap is on bottom. It's a pretty small adjustment. Hopefully it does the job.

And I repeated this same process with the back bodice side piece, bringing the strap a little more toward the center but keeping it the same overall width.

And of course then I had to shave a little off of the center back piece, which I forgot to photograph. I hope this makes sense. Pattern alterations are so tricksy.

I'm excited to start on the real deal! Just have to wait for that black contrasting fabric to arrive. Oh hurry up UPS....

McCalls 6550

I have a finished project to share! But first, I'm gonna keep my promise (since I just made it today) and share a blog I find inspiring. I just discovered it today...

Jolies bobines is written in French, and Google translate only gets me so far, but the pictures say a thousand words. Check out these lovely makes...

...and those are just what's on the front page of her blog right now. Impressive, no? I particularly like the dress in the center, because it's a color combo I probably wouldn't think of and I think it looks great. I foresee some time lost surfing her archives in the near future.

Now, on to a project I finished a while back...

The pattern is McCalls 6550, a vintage pattern from the 70s.

I should have graded this one up a size, but instead I just added some length and a little extra at the side seams. Next time, though, I will do it properly. I think the fit would be slightly nicer if there were some extra fabric gathered at the front yoke/shoulder/whatever you call that area. As is, it pulls across the bust a little. I don't think it's too noticeable, but I think to stay true to the design of this top it should fit a little looser. Despite that, I consider this one a success, and I've already gotten a lot of wear out of it. I can definitely see myself making more of these as it doesn't require a lot of fabric (I only used 1 yard), it's a great lightweight summer top, and it layers easily.

I put a lot of little blue buttons down the front. It was a lot of buttonholes, and my sewing machine doesn't like buttonholes so much. In fact, whenever I have to do buttonholes I contemplate buying a new machine. Someday... I didn't put in the casing for the waist tie, but I did stitch up a tie to wear with the top. Mostly I've worn it without...

Cool plants, huh? I took these photos with Josh at the greenhouse on campus. I thought the greenery was a good accompaniment to the fabric, which is a voile from Amy Butler's "Soul Blossoms" collection.

Check out the pretty orchids! I liked these little cement pools of water plants. They even had fish.

back view

Want to see some more plants?

It was very inspiring to wander around the greenhouse while thinking about sewing. There are so many interesting patterns and shapes and textures in a greenhouse. If I ran Project Runway (don't get me started) I would definitely have a greenhouse challenge. Just think if they were to design prints here, or do a challenge where they had to play with shapes. I would loooove to see what they came up with.

Do you draw inspiration from nature when you sew?

Quick and Dirty - Simplicity 1887 again

Ahhhh! I can't believe April is going so quickly! I can't believe it was March when I blogged last. This has been a busy busy month so I'm going to give a quick and dirty report. No fluff!

Back in March, I was needing something quick and easy after spending so much time on my Minoru. So on a lazy Saturday I decided to make some more shorts from Simplicity 1887, to lure in the warm weather. (Here's the shorts I made last summer.)

Close up!

I used some rayon/linen leftover from my wrap dress. I added the ties at the waist this time, but made them a little shorter. I've always envied people who have a really well-fitting pattern and are able to whip up new versions at super speed. Don't get me wrong - puzzling over a pattern, fumbling through new techniques, throwing projects on the floor in frustration - those can all be very gratifying. But instant gratification is nice too. So I was hoping these shorts could be my new "quick and easy" project. They ended up taking all day. Oh well! Next time I make them it will be even quicker.

I left the pockets off the back. I thought about welt pockets, but then it wouldn't be an instant gratification project.

I also did the can-can for my photos in an attempt to make them more interesting.

Blurry foot! Sorry for the photos... perhaps I should not have photographed my printed shorts in front of a plaid couch. Perhaps I should learn to pose for the camera like a proper blogger. Whatever! I said it would be quick and dirty!

Summer Sewing Schemes

Usually I laugh at people who complain about the weather. I'm a hardy Montana girl, and people in Indiana are whiny babies about the cold. Then again, people in Montana are whiny babies about the heat. But even I am growing weary of the cold as April approaches. Instead of this...

I guess it is nice to get a lot of wear out of my new Minoru...

isn't it almost time for some of this...

...but shorts and blouses are sounding awfully nice

Oh man... remember what grass feels like on bare feet? Can't wait! So I'm sewing and scheming for the weather I want. First up, I'm working with some prize fabric i bought during our trip to Maine last summer - a voile from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms collection. This particular pattern is called "Night Tree" and the color is "Lime Peel." 

image from here

I'm attempting to make McCalls 6550 with it, a blouse pattern from the 1970s.

I was going to make view C, but I have run into some... difficulties... which may necessitate making sleeveless version view D. And it's all because I was too lazy to try my hand at pattern grading. Shame shame. On a different note, I would like to loudly proclaim that I love 70s sewing patterns. I LOVE THEM! Moving on...

I went on a small, online fabric shopping spree last week when I discovered I had a positive PayPal balance from something I returned. Do you ever do that? I know it's not really free money, but I decided to interpret it that way. Fabric.com was having some good sales (20% off your total purchase) as well as free shipping on orders over $35. I spent a delicious hour perusing the sales, imagining different possibilities and playing with yardages to keep it within my PayPal amount, and finally ended up with these:

don't they look enticing on my newly painted table?

From top to bottom we have a striped black cotton gauze, Robert Kaufman's Carolina chambray in black, Robert Kaufman's Essex linen in ivory, and a cotton stretch sateen ikat print. I'm always a little nervous whenever I buy fabric online, so I usually try to stay with names I trust or - even better - specific stuff mentioned on Pattern Review. Kaufman seems to be a good bet and never very pricey. The gauze and the ikat were gambles... but I think they paid off!

Here's the gauze held up to the light, to show it's cool stripey pattern. I'm thinking about making this into a pleated top, like this loose fitting t-shirt from Salme patterns:

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But I also saw this blouse on Etsy, which has made me think twice about how to use this fabric.

and you can still buy it....

Don't you love that asymmetrical collar? And the flower embroidery? I would love to try to recreate this, and Burdastyle has a blouse pattern that's quite similar...

I love finding patterns that match up this well!

Moving on to the ikat print...

I really love the colors in this. I was thinking about being very practical, and making shorts or a skirt that would get a lot of wear. I'd like to try Grainline's maritime shorts, or the paperbag-waist skirt on Simplicity 2413:

Orrrr I could make myself a birthday dress!

The dress on the left is a Betsy Johnson number, and I happen to own Colette Pattern's Lily. Now picture my zigzaggy ikat in place of that floral print, with black accents... and maybe I'll reshape the neckline to mimic the sweetheart neck on Betsy Johnson's dress. Hmmm.....

What's everyone else dreaming of for spring? And anyone want to weigh in on my sewing decisions?