Vogue 8870 - Summer Time!

I absolutely LOVE this dress!!!  I have been working on it for a couple weeks despites it's Very Easy status.  Unfortunately I came down with a monster cold just after cutting it out.  Happily though, I now have a part time job outside the house and am sewing more and wearing real clothes!  Yeah!!!  I never realized how much joy I get out sewing, fashion, and wearing pretty things.  LOL

Ok, so this dress is very easy.  I bought a bunch of rayon challis from FabricMart a couple sales ago and I actually bought this fabric for this dress...that never happens.  It's very thin and floaty but not see through, turned out to be a perfect choice.  I think anything stiff at all for this dress would create a shelf look at the hip no matter how thin your hips are.  There is a lot of fabric there to give the blouson look.

The pattern has raglan sleeves, wrapped bodice with facings that actually work nicely, and the high low hem.  I can't honestly say which hem I cut, I think I cut a combination of them accidentally.  This went together very easily.  I decided because of the lightness of fabric that I would do all french seams and I'm very glad I did.  They look so nice and add some stability.

This is a straight Large size.  That was the smallest in the envelope.  The Large pretty much matches my measurements.  I usually go with a smaller size in the shoulders though and could have done that with this.

I did not make any pattern alterations but if and likely when I make this again I will.  I'm always in a quandary on how to fix the fact that I'm short waisted but very full busted.  The length on a bodice is usually ok for me adding in the extra needed for the bust but sometimes it doesn't work quite right.  So, I think I will raise up the shoulders on this next time and add at least an inch, maybe 2 to the bodice.  It hits right at my natural waist, which is unfortunately right below my bust.  I'm not sure you can see in the photos but it's kind of pulling the bodice forward on my shoulders.  It's not the end of the world on this one but I'd like to make it better for the next.

I know the high/low hem is on trend right now but this is a great basic dress and you can always change the hemline.  I'm always looking for cute things to make that look good on me in wovens.

Thanks for remembering me!  LOL...it's been so long since I've been sewing and blogging but I plan to keep up on it again.  I have another dress sewn already and one on the cutting table for more posts shortly!

Here are a mixture of pictures, some with a belt, some not.  I really like it with the belt.

McCalls 6700 - Bloom!

I got this fabric in a mystery bundle from FabricMart.  I love me some mystery bundles.  Sometime they are bad...oh so bad, but then you get a gem like this out of nowhere!  This reminds me of the fabric I used for my Colette Macaron.

Colette Macaron

I'm a sucker for panelled prints and I love the bright flowers on the black background.  So I got three panels of this polyester knit.  In all honesty, it's a big rough.  There are some flawed color patches which at first I thought were dirt but they did not come out in the wash.  Hence, a bad dye job or a machine malfunction.  Despite that, I wanted to use this for this dress.

The panels were a bit too narrow for the skirt so my skirt is a little smaller width wise, no biggie.  And to make the bodice, I had to cut everything out in single layer to get it too fit.  I didn't even have enough fabric for the little ties that it's supposed to have.

I thought I would be smart and put clear elastic along the neckline to stabilize it because this was pretty flimsy.  Unfortunately, it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.  If I make this again, I will just leave it alone.

I do really like the gathered shoulder seams and the neck has decent coverage.  I did have to tweak it a bit though but I always do.  I made an 18 in the body and a 16 in the shoulders.  Still working on that extra weight that I've added.  I could have easily made it a size smaller though, it's generous.

I'm actually really happy with this dress.  It's a very nice pattern and I could see myself making it again this summer.

Lisette Passport Dress - Simplicity 2209

I've had this in my stash since the pattern came out.  I thought it could be flattering on my shape.  Now that I've made it, I think I was right.  I still have some fit issues and you will see below but it's not horrendous.  The was another test run to see if I wanted to make this out of one of my Liberty of London fabrics.  I think I will wait for something else.

I cut an 18 in the dress with the exception of the shoulders and neckline, which are a 16.  I did not do an FBA, thinking that my full bust measurement was close to the 18 measurements.  I've added weight and my difference between high and full bust, and my waist is not as drastic.  I did shorten the darts points so they didn't land in a weird spot.  In addition, I took darts in the front armcye as it was gaping and I also took a single dart down the center back bodice from the neck down.  I tried two smaller ones but it pulled the shoulders funny.  I'm so narrow in the shoulders that I always have gaping there.  I think it could also be due to my super short waist though as well.  I need to learn better how to shorten a bodice for that issue, yet maintain enough coverage for the front.  In a regular shaped bodice an FBA would help but this is a funky design and I had no clue how to do it.

Despite the tweaking, I am still pulling a bit in the front and there is a big wad of fabric on my back where I should have shortened the bodice.  I was thinking about just taking a horizontal fish eye dart to get rid of it, but I got so sick of messing with it!

I like it, I will wear it.  If I did make it again, I would...gasp...make a real muslin!  I hate muslins but I can't remember everything I tweaked because I did it as I went.  I think this dress has promise but I think for me a simpler bodice that I can do a real FBA would work better.  I love the flared skirt and the neckline is pretty nice too.

 

I love this fabric.  It was in a mystery bundle from FabricMart.  I'm such a sucker for the mystery bundles!  It is a stretch cotton and I only had shy of 2 yards.  It's bright and fun!  Oh and look what my boyfriend got me yesterday...They match!