Polka Dot Dress

This is another dress I sewed over the summer. I thought the Maryy pattern from Burda would be a fun easy pattern for a summer dress. And it was for the most part. The pattern was fairly easy to follow, I tend not to use the instructions and this was great with minimal pattern pieces.

The fabric was another I found at Walmart. I’m glad to see the Walmarts are slowly adding back there fabric sections, but I seem to remember the fabric being slightly cheaper. If I had known that I would be paying $6 a yard for this, I would have headed to Jo Anns. 

This is a cotton and it would have been better if it was a tinch lighter. I found it was more flattering to belt this dress, which is fine by me. Always being cold generally means I’m wearing a cardigan anyway. I just so happened to have one from Old Navy that matches fairly well.

I had to add some fabric to the bust. Apparently I suck at measuring things and when I first tired on the top portion of this even adding the zipper wasn’t going to help me any. That was an easy alteration and I’ll remember to remeasure the next time I make this and make the part that covers my chest larger as well! 

The problems are easily fixed by wearing a camisole underneath the dress, which works out perfectly! I also altered this to work as a halter. This was me not following directions and wining it. I think at that point I had lost track of the instructions because they were buried under something.

I’ll definitely make another dress with this pattern. It’s such an easy pattern and I’m very fond of the dress, even if the fabric is a bit heavier than I would like it to be.

Gone Green

I attempted to find some spare time over my weekend to sew... Attempted. I had to work, volunteer, and hang out with friends I hadn’t seen in forever. Sewing sadly did not manage to squeeze its self anywhere in those topics, much to my dismay. I do believe my day needs about 6 more hours in it so I can have relaxing/sewing time. Not going to happen anytime soon.

I did manage to finish a dress I’ve been working on! I see your faces, you’re asking: another dress? Seriously Kat, another dress?? Hmph, would you rather I had sewed a tent? Oh, no, no you don’t like that idea? Good.

This dress gave me problems. We had a long battle, but I somehow manage to win (I may have cheated and threatened it with fire... but I WON!). The dress is from McCall's 6070 and I didn’t have to alter it in anyway, which made me happy. It was the freaken elastic that gave me problems! For part of the pattern elastic has to go around the horizontal panel, top and bottom. So I measure the elastic out and cut it to its specified length. All was good, it was great, then I fed the elastic through the tubes I made and there we ran into issues.

Did I sew the channels to narrow you ask? YES.... I can hear your laughter and your mocking, to which I glare. I got very friendly with my seam ripper and fixed my narrow channels, no problems the second time around. So you’re thinking I’m good to go right? NOPE. The elastic was too long. I pinned the elastic together and tried the freaking thing on to attempt to pull the loops of elastic that were sticking out of the channels, think that did any good? Noooo! I had to cut 9 inches of elastic off each piece!! NINE INCHES!!!!

After figuring that out, swearing, and sewing things togther it went great. I had to cut some of the length off so I didn’t look too short (I’m 5’4” just at the petit cut off) and then hem. The dress doesn’t technically have sleeves which makes it great for when I’m moving down south, I can stay cool and look cute.

Along with zippers, elastic has made its way onto my “EVIL NOTIONS LIST.” ENL for short. Stupid elastic...

Remnant Dress

I don’t know about where ya’ll are from but it’s been way too hot where I am. I have another dress to show you, this one is the same pattern as the last one and it was made in September. It's no where near as formal so I can wear it out a little more often, or at least I can wear it to work. I fished through the remnants to find the fabric and purchased them on a whim, thinking “I’ll find something to turn this into!” And something I did turn it into.

I modified the bodice a whole bunch as the pattern was waaaay to large for my girls. The zipper was taken out no less than five times so I could mess with the bodice and attempt to line things up, which didn’t exactly happen. I do wear this one with something covering my shoulders as most of the time I’m too lazy to drag out my strapless bra. So it all works out in the end. I don’t have to wear an uncomfortable bra and I can hide my mistake in lining this up!

I’m currently working on another dress, but I’m having some small issue with the elastic I’m using on it. Hopefully I’ll have things worked out soon so I can get pictures in that. Then those pesky shorts should be to follow.

All Dressed Up and No Place to Go

I did a little bit of organizing in my closet today and managed to stumble across one of my dresses that got me back into sewing. The black dress was made my junior year of college, so only 3 years ago. Yikes, it’s been that long? Doesn't seem like it's been 3 years...

I made the dress for formal recruitment at my college, I was part of a sorority and we needed to have black dresses. Mind you, the year before we had to have RED dresses, which I still have, but our Headquarters changed what color all chapters had to have. Ever so kind of them... I spent the whole summer trying to find a black, strapless dress, that fit me well. Oh, and the dress had to be knee length. I came up empty handed for 2 months, so I gave up searching and went to JoAnns for a pattern and some fabric.

Aside from some minor holes due to sewing over misplaced fabric I love how this turned out! I added the black ribbon in the middle to cover the awkward seam that appeared. It was also my first time using boning, that was a very interesting experience. What I used was some type of plastic boning that JoAnns no longer sells.

I’ve worn this dress twice, yes twice. It’s too nice of a dress to wear to church or anywhere casually. I’d love to find someplace to where this to in order to get some more wear out of it, that probably won’t happen anytime soon, but at least I know I have a killer dress resting in the back of my closet.

The Blues Got Me

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've made the Hope Wrap dress before. I haven't had time to get a picture of it because it's been sitting in the back of my closet. I haven't worn it since I finished it in, oh March? The dark blue color makes me think it's more of a fall/winter/early spring deal. Although, I tend to ignore what I should wear in what season, so this might make an appearance sometime this summer if it gets cool enough.

I think this dress turned out a bit better than my white one. There isn't as much problem in my chest area, I still chose to wear a cami under it though. I can't get away with not wearing one at work or church. This fabric was something I found on clearance, and of course I have extra. And this time the hem isn't as horrid! If I fiddled with the back of the dress it would hang straight, but I don't have a full length mirror in my room so I just threw the dress on to get a picture not thinking about the back of it.

Speaking of backs of dresses... A little amusement from my work. I had to work in the dress department of the store that I am employed in, not too odd. But a lady came up to return a dress I had just sold to her because "the back of the dress was longer in the back." My knee jerk reaction was noooo, reaallly?? You don't have a butt to cover? And then I realized the back of the dress was about 4 inches longer than the front, to which the lady responded she couldn't be bothered to hem the dress... At least my work keeps my entertained.

Hold Me Tight

So remember the fabric about a month ago that was just sitting by my sewing machine? Well something finally got done with it! Actually, I've been done with it... I made a lovely wrap dress out of the fabric!

I still need to fiddle around with the dress a bit more as it doesn't like to stay put in important places. It only looks slightly shorter in the the back, I didn't adjust it properly when I went to take pictures of it. The dress is so simple to make, it's the Hope Wrap Dress pattern found on Burda. I just need to remember to make it a slight bit bigger so it covers my chest a wee bit more.

Overall, I'm happy with the result, not matter how it hangs at the moment, I can always adjust things, which I have to do anyway. This is my second Hope Wrap dress, yes I like it that much. And when I saw this fabric I knew the pattern was perfect for it. I do have some fabric left over, which I'm thinking is going to get turned into a shirt... One of these days I'm going to get around to drafting some patterns out of clothes I already have.

Made in the US of A

So Happy Fourth of July all. Today I present to you something I'm actually wearing today! I hear that gasp of surprise. Me, actually posting another picture of an article of clothing I made? Yes sirree, here's a dress I made based on Simplicity 2884. I originally made the dress with fabric remnants, but this started out with a lovely liliac skirt part and the light blue bodice which we see here. My mother pointed out the colors didn't go together. With that comment I set the dress aside for months and months and months.

Back in May I happened to be looking through the scraps of fabric again (or should I say as ususal) and stumbled upon some light blue fabric that I though would look great with the halter dress I had started to make back in, oh December. What I was doing making a halter dress back when it was snowing is another issue in and of itself. It just so happened that the fabrics matched perfectly and the remnant I bought was the right length for a skirt!

I swear the skirt's not crocked, it just looks funky because of me rushing in front of my camera... At least that's the story I'm sticking with, I could also blame it on my awkward posture, but we'll put part of the blame on the camera. I have to go into work yet again hence the cardigan.

I did have some troubles with the zipper and bodice. I'm not sure who Simplicity thinks will fit into their dress, the measurements fit my waist, but not my boobs. I took a lot of time attempting to fix the fit on top, which meant taking the zipper out and putting it back in about 5 or 6 times. I hate zippers... So the side looks like this:

Overall, a little rumply from the sides and the back, but it's wearable, especially with the cardigan over it. The next time I make this (and there will be a next time pattern, watch out) I'll spend some decent time measuring my chest and making adjustments to the pattern. I'm not sure who has such a tiny waist and such big boobs, but it's definitely not me.

And from this last picture it does look like I need to take some of the length off part of the midriff. Hm... Do I really want to take out the zipper again?

Corduroy Green

I have ignored posting for far too long! I've been a bit busy the past week. My summer class at my community college has started, eating up 3 of my nights and then I've been picking up hours at work (good for the paycheck, just not my sanity). Reven kindly pointed out I hadn't shown anything with sewing so far, so without further ado: the project that got me back into sewing this past year!

The corduroy dress is from the Simplicity 3673 pattern. My friend Alda pointed it out for me, saying she could see me in it... I ended up completing the dress in September/October of 2009. The dress is suited for the colder weather, which works out quite well half of the year!

I received a handful of compliments when I wore it to work a few times. I had to show one of my friends at work the lining to prove to her I made the dress. It's an odd compliment when someone doesn't believe you've sown the object you're wearing. See, the lining is a wonderful purple color. I had some left over fabric from another project and used it as opposed to buying new lining, it worked out well.



If I were to make this again I would adjust the neck a little bit as it gaps off of me. I did adjust the hem when I made it. Dresses that go past my knees make me look a little bit shorter than I am.