Project Mania

So, when you have two fourth graders in your home and they both have huge projects, what do you do? You freaking make them, that’s what. Each had to make an “ancient artifact” and costume to go with it. I don’t have finished pictures of the other costume, but I will soon enough. I do have this one though. She wanted a chinese kimon-type costume with giant sleeves. This, people, is why there has not been much popping up on my blog lately. I could have probably have sewn this in a few nights, but instead, I watched and helped while she sewed most of it (bent over at the waist night after arduous night helping her feed yards of ravelling jaquard through the slloooowwwly moving machine – aaauuugggghhhhhhhh!). She sewed the whole body of the gold robe and I did the black “sleeves”. Joking aside, I was really pleased by her hardwork and follow-through. We spent a little bit of time each night working on this. One night we just spent folding miniature pieces of paper and reading the directions. I’m really proud of her. She loves it and that is what really matters.

We used Simplicity 1573, View F as our starting point. I traced the largest size (8) and made the facing wider. I also added length to the hem and sleeves because she is 9 and looong. When we sewed on the facing, we flipped it to the outside instead of inside. We also made a wider Obi-type belt instead of the thinner one pictured on the pattern. Really, we didn’t change too much about the pattern. I embroidered on the dragons (Korean, not Chinese) at night after she went to bed (109 minutes of stitches per dragon!!!) and then sewed up the black panels and attached them under the arms. Whew. I’m glad that’s done. I will try to remember to post pictures of her wearing this.

 

Isn’t the embroidery amazing? It’s from Urban Threads. They have pages of dragon embroidery! Here’s the one I used. 

 

I actually did get some other sewing done while the embroidery machine was stitching it’s heart out. Stay tuned!

Simplicity 2603 - Draped Cardigan

Wait, what? Did she say Simplicity?? Dawn said that? Yes, Dawn did. I actually sewed a Big Four (or are they the Big Five now?) pattern. Holy shit, Batman. (And why is this Etsy seller selling this pattern for $18??)

 

This picture is from said Etsy seller. Remember this pattern? I made two of them back in 2009 and I wear them all the time at work. They seem to be something I come back to again and again. One is a purple wool knit, and one is a black cardigan. I realize that waterfall cardigans are sooooooo 2008, but if I love it and wear it, why the hell not? Judge not, lest ye suck. Wow, less wine when I’m writing . . .

 

I also decided that I like this fabric and want to be bright all. the. time. Maybe I’m already sick of the Alaskan winter even though it hasn’t happened yet.

 

Behold the brightness.

 

 

 

This is a crappy wrap/tie job, but you get the idea. I often wear the two I have like this. Of course it’s not practical. Of course it will clash with about a billion things I have in my closet. I don’t care. *crossing arms like a toddler and stomping*

 

Sassy pants.

 

Okay, hahahahahhaa. This was a Best Pattern of 2009 pattern from PatternReview.com. I’m so lame.

Squeeeeeeee. I love being the “crafter” in the family!

I love, love, love when people give me things because “I’m crafty” or because “I sew.” I’ve acquired two machines this way and lots of fabric and trimmings. My Necchi is my go-to machine and the Pfaff is a close second. Well, imagine my excitement when I get a Facebook message from a friend’s mom (truthfully, she’s been a mom to me too) asking if I want a bunch of old patterns. Um, yea. Look what showed up on my door step last week. Three boxes of patterns and the best part is that they are my size! There are a ton of kid patterns too but the women’s patterns are a size 8 or 10 which is what I typically make in McKwikVogueRick.

 

I randomly pulled some out so you can see a few of them. They are all from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.

 

Most of them are Buttericks, Simplicity, McCalls, Vogues, etc but there are a few of these pre-KwikSew pattern. This one isn’t even opened.

 

Pretty!

 

 

Most of the patterns are size 8 or 10 but there are a few 12s sprinkled in there.

 

I like the warning on this one. Upper right: Coat cannot be worn over jacket. Oh, dammit! That was my plan!

 

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

 

I love this hairstyle from the 60s. I could never do this with my hair. It’s too fine and too wavy.

 

Two out of three boxes are little kid patterns. I’ll be putting these on Etsy probably. I have no use for them because they are too small and there are so many of them. It would be fun to have a wall of pattern covers though.

 

Okay, this might be my favorite one. I have to say I love the butterfly collar and the ascot. Hee Hee, I said ascot.

 

This one is really cute and I would make it for my kids if it was a larger size.

 

Ra ra! I didn’t look but I wonder if these are for knit fabrics. If not, they would be pretty restrictive. Well, for a cheerleader.

 

Aaaaaaauuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

I think it’s funny that the kid pants are so high up on their little torsos.

 

I’ll let you guys know if I post any of these to Etsy. I know there is a market for adult vintage patterns. Is there any market for kid vintage patterns?

Simplicity 1796 - Wadder (It’s not the pattern, it’s me!)

I still like the pattern, particularly the blue dress with the belt and shoulder pleats. I tried using a light-ish (more on this in a second) denim and topstitched all the pleats, seams, and belt. One thing I didn’t realize about this pattern when I bought it, is that there is no closure. It slides over your head and then relies on elastic in the waist to make a pleasing fit. I still have hopes for the dress. I was thinking a cute little dress like these ones below. Alas, my version was not like this.

 

 

 

 

When I pulled this fabric out, I thought, “Perfect! Lightweight denim. This will be so cute!” Well, it’s too thick even for a dress like this. It might be cute at this weight if it was more fitted but it’s not fitted at the waist so there are lots of thick gathering going on there. It’s also a smidge short in the bodice. I still think this could look great in a lighter weight fabric. A chambray would be really cute, I think. Or a voile. Or a shirting weight fabric. Hmmmmmmmm. With all the great things Burda is putting out these days, there is no lack of patterns to sew! I’m loving them again these days. They lost me for a while. I’m tracing something out right now.

 

I have two cute Jalie things to show you! My kids are all in cross-country running so that gives me lots of excuses to sew exercise wear. I also have my eyes on a few bolts of Nike Dri-Fit fabric. If I get 15-20 yards, I’ll share with you guys at my cost. :)

Simplicity 3503–Gathered Dress

Is this not a cute pattern? I finally bought it after all you bad people out there made the dress. There are 92 reviews over at PatternReview.com and I had to join the party. I want to say I love it but there are a couple of issues.

I made version B (short length, v-neck bodice, cut-on sleeves) in a size 8. My measurements are closer to the 10 but there is a lot of wearing ease in this one!
 

 

Here’s the front and I mostly like it. The fabric is a little washed out (I need to find a better spot with less direct sun) but it looks like stained glass. I bought it from Fabric.com back here. I love this batch of ITY I bought from them.

 

It’s hard to see in these crap-tastic photos but the bodice is a cross v-neck on the front and the back. Because I’m so awesome, I decided it would be a good idea to add elastic to the edge of the bodice pieces to keep my girl bumps inside the dress. Well, good idea gone bad. The elastic is too tight so it makes the bodice pull on the front and the back, not awesome. Man, these are bad photos. I may go search for a better spot on my lawn. Usually the problem is too little light in Alaska, now it’s too much. What new hell is this??? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! Just kidding. Being dramatic is fun.

 

However, it was sort of a good idea. Look at my not-visible girl parts in this random camera-timer-oops-shot. See anything? No, you don’t.

 

Here’s one thing at worries me about the dress. It fits around my girl bumps but then I have armpit sag? It’s not really all that noticeable because of the crazy print but I see it very clearly. If the pictures were better, you could see them too. If you look at the above pattern picture, the shoulders are gathered. I’m wondering if I moved the gathers toward the CF, then the gathers would be more distributed along the bust and less in, well, my armpit.

I’ll go see if I can find a better spot for photos.

Simplicity 2404–Sheath Dress

I think I started liking this dress because of the color. I was lukewarm about the v-neck opening but something really kept bugging me about the dress. I finally made it up and I’m really glad I did. It’s great!! Here’s the boring photo of the model.

 

I made it up in a purple wool crepe. I know, wool. Really, Dawn? It’s May, you say? Well, it’s been cold at night so wool is still appropriate. See that patch of white through the railing by my knee? That, ladies, is snow. It’s been around 30 degrees in the morning and about 50 degrees during the “hottest” part of the day. I ask you, is wool not okay? But, I digress. Is this not a fun dress? The original dress only had two open darts but because I don’t read directions, I am infinitely creative, I have a design feature. The front skirt has a front seam in the CF of the dress. Instead of doing that, I put in on the fold and cut it that way. Well, I forgot about the seam allowance so I had to create another open dart to take up that space. I love how the waist and bodice fit.

 

Here’s pumpkin #4. She wanted to take pictures with Momma too. She’s such a diva.

 

My own addition was this really long exposed zipper. I’m not sure if I love it. But the dress is a win and I’ll make it again. I think the zipper is fun. What shoes would you guys wear with this dress? I’m not sure I like these shoes with it. The zipper is brass and a light gray. I used the directions in this Thread article to help me with the zipper. My zipper is from ZipperStop.

 

Next up, I’m working on a knock-off CAbi skirt.

CAbi Spring 2012 Part I

I have a friend that has one of those parties so I always go. It’s fun to try on clothing and fun to experiment with new silhouettes. I chose my favorites and thought I’d take a stab at knocking them off. I’m cheap, I’ll admit that and spending $70 on a simple elastic-waist skirt makes me cringe.

I took the CAbi pictures straight from their website.

#1 Bella Skirt $69

I really liked this skirt. Their version is a rayon challis border print. It has really large slash pockets across the hips that you can’t see in the picture. It’s really close to this Burda 05-2010-122 pattern below. The Burda one uses a woven and a side zipper where the CAbi one just uses an elastic waist treatment. Same pockets and everything. I would pair it with a rayon challis like the one below from GorgeousFabrics.com. You cost would be much cheaper than $69!!

 

#2 Dreamy Draper $98

Is this not Simplicity 2603?? The only difference is that this one has thumbholes and the Simplicity one doesn’t. Would this be great in a drapey fabric like these rayon slub knits? I’ve made a black one out of this same fabric and wear it all the time. I like all three of the colors below although the cream color isn’t a great one for my skin tone.

 

 

#3 Epic Tunic $89

This Epic Tunic is very much like this Burda 03-2012-122. There are some major differences though. The CAbi tunic is a dolman sleeve and the Burda pattern is set-in. The Burda pattern is longer, obviously.

I found some gorgeous silk chiffons too! I super-ty, duper-ty love that last black swirl chiffon.

 

I have a few more to show you but that’s a lot of searching and linking for one night! I do have a bit of sewing to show you as well. I made something from the May Burda. I think the Burdas from May are my favorites every year.