Holiday Dress 2015!

So I managed to piece together the majority of the dress. I still need to do hems and waist bands BUT it's at a good spot that I feel like I can walk away for the night. I'm very happy with how it's turning out so far. I am absolutely going to find every occasion to wear this that I can because it's adorable and fun.

New Project: Leanne Marshall 1353

I have been thinking for weeks what i want to do for a dress for the holidays and I've finally come up with some that is both holiday friendly but can also be worn on other occasions. So my initial plan was to do a short fitted dress and then put a removable full circle skirt on top that I can choose to wear separately.

I'm using Leanne Marshall as a base and i'll adjust from their to make it the shape I want.

I'll also be doing a shimmered blush with a black lace overly for the dress and just the Blush for the skirt. I'm excited to get started!
Be sure to check back! hopefully I'll get some updates posted soon!

Denim Skater Skirt Overall

So after working on a very time consuming project such as a wedding dress it's nice to pick up a project that can easily be completed in a couple days. This was my first time working with overall hardware and i can absolutely say, if the package says to put the pieces together using a hammer you better use a hammer.

So to start I took a regular circle skirt, cut at an 18" length. from there I took care of the hem which I chose a half inch rolled hem to keep any fraying to a minimum. I also elected to do the double decorative stitching that you see in many denim pieces.

From that point I cut out the rest of the pieces based on the measurements I collected. The pieces I cut were a 4" wide strip for the waist band, a 12"x 12" bib, 2 straps that were 4" wide cut at about 32" and cut down later and the a 5"x3.5" rectangle for the pocket. from there it was all piecing together!

I ended up cutting a seam down the back of the skirt and putting in a zipper, The straps are crossed in the back about 3" from the zipper. and voila! a simple denim skater skirt overall!

A Wedding Dress? A Wedding Dress.

So I've taken a bit of a hiatus from the blogging about my projects because of starting a full time job and still putting time into sewing. I'm just glad to be back on here sharing my projects with all of you. so while I was away I made a wedding dress for a family friend and it was my first experience with a formal dress that was designed to fit how she wanted with the details she always dreamed of for her wedding.

The fabric she chose was a champagne satin and a white organza with floral embroidered detail. stunningly beautiful but honestly was a bit of a pain to work with because of the fabric being so fragile. so after the initial muslin mock up we proceeded with the open back, floor length wedding dress.

Once pieced together the dress had a lot of finishing detail work that was a real challenge for me because we wanted to showcase how beautiful the organza was but not have any bulky rolled hems. The final decision we ended up taking with finishing the edges with a really small zig-zag stitch and then melting the edges to lock the stitch in place.

After a fitting we ended up adding a panel on either side of the open back, to firstly showcase the organza more and to make the dress a little more sturdy and moveable. Overall the dress turned out beautiful, it was a great match for the location and she looked absolutely beautiful for her wedding. 

Project: 1960s Shift Dress

Shift Dresses are definitely a huge fall fashion staple and I am all for it! typically I am a Fit and flare type but seeing all the A line and shift dresses at work has inspired me to make one of my own, mostly because of all of them being too short for me. So I sat down with 3 patterns of 60s shift dresses and after an hour of weighing pros and cons of each pattern I chose the 1967 Simplicity 7119.  I chose this because of the detailing at the neckline underneath the peter pan collar. I chose some black linen and white lace and went to work.

After completing my project I now have a new appreciation for Shift dresses. They are Unbelievably easy and they are SO comfortable to just sit around in. They also seem to be very hard to mess up. even with the detail work under the color (which because it is in black is a little harder to see) this dress only took me about 2 hours to stitch together. I considered making long sleeves in lace because of fall weather and then instantly realized that it is still in the 80s outside and in the foreseeable future is following that trend. so maybe my next shift dress will have lace sleeves, but this one not so much.

Return to Project: The House Coat

so after a day of working on a futuristic dress for my sister I figured it was time to go back to the past and work on my 1950s house coat. so where I left off last was that I had the lining done for the the house coat and the bodice of the exterior done the sleeves and skirt had not even been cut because i gave up in a rage against my overly dull rotary cutter blade which has since been replaced. Since I got back to work on it I have made some more fun strides on it.

I got the Skirt and sleeves cut and attached to the exterior and I have attached the lining to the exterior (half way). I still have things to do as far as piecing it together as well as pieces to cut out but  it's getting there!

Progress Picture of the day (with a reversible view!) :

project #2 is almost complete

so a few hours later from my last post about simplicity 1325. I am almost done. all thats left is sewing in the zipper! SO with out further ado, my project of the day in its (almost) complete state!

which means!! I can now get back to my house coat...maybe I'll get that done....eventually... just kidding. it'll happen soon!

Project Break for Simplicity 1325

So I, like many others, am incapable of working on just one project at a time. so for the moment my House coat is on hold. This weekend is an event where my sister and I are dressing up in Past and Present for a ball situation. so I am creating a dress for my sister out of blue lame and a fun blue netting kind of fabric and adding some silver ric-rac. I have the pieces cut but I have to spend some time sewing it together today since it is my only day off.

so we're making the dress out of Simplicity pattern 1325

It's a rather odd fabric to work with. i wouldn't say it's hard but it isn't easy. So far i have the top together and once i get past my lunch break i'm going to try to crank out the rest of it so that i can get back to my house coat. :)

but here are some pictures of the project so far:

definitely different than what i'm used to in my projects! but lots of fun still.

The House Coat: lining

So I continued work on the lining of my house coat in the beautiful hot pink flannel backed satin. I put it on and it's every bit of luxurious that I expected. It's so beautiful and comfortable, in fact, that I have decided that I may attempt to make it reversible. it shouldn't be too hard...but then again who knows we'll see what happens once I get the outside done. but here is a sneak peak at the lining...inside out because it's just so pretty!

the skirt is so full that it fits over the vintage wedding dress on my mannequin without struggling to keep it closed! 

The House Coat

I had the day off and was finally able to get a lot of stuff done around the house. I cleaned, I cooked, and I crafted so all-in-all it was a great day. I even got my pattern and thread shelf all pretty (those big binders hold all my 1940s-1970s patterns (some reprints mostly originals)).

I spent a good chunk of the morning trying to understand the proper way to enlarge a pattern, it was very intimidating. But after finally sitting down and doing the math I trace the pattern onto some brown craft paper and got to work. I really did think it was going to be a lot harder than it was but I put the pattern together and then created a mock up of the bodice which fit perfectly the way it should, though I may add another inch into the arms for comfort. women size 12 patterns from the 50s are never meant to fit my body and now I can confidently adjust the sizing. Here is a look at my newly hung project board, definitely glad I got this!

so now I have the bodice mock up done and it is ready for me to jump in and get the full project done. I'm thinking of starting with the lining so that in case I mess up I can just do it all on the inside. :) But I will say, this pattern is in terrifying condition, I've never worked with a more fragile pattern before. I'm just glad I was able to get it traced so if I ever need to make it again I don't have to pull out the 60 year old pieces of pattern tissue. On my next post I'll try to remember to post a picture of the font bodice, it was a mess to pull out of the envelope.

My Next Project: Vintage Butterick 6418 The House Coat

So I'm going to be starting a new project from one of the patterns that I got at Creative Reuse. Vintage pattern Butterick 6418. I have been searching everywhere for a housecoat pattern that I could make that was one with a shape and not just a giant shapeless blob. I've been on this mission ever since I saw this post on Polka Polish. I've been lusting after this coat for a year, her use of floral satin with a fleece lining was so stunning and I knew I had to make one for myself. so now that I've finally tracked down a pattern it's time that I put my hands to work.

Since it's already Spring and we should all be hoping for some kind of warm weather I decided to go with a much brighter floral pattern than She did, and also so that I can feel comfortable wearing it well into Spring and Summer I am going to line it with a flannel back satin. The pattern that I got my hands on is unfortunately a 50s size 12 which is a waist measurement of 25" which I can confidently say I am not. so I am going to do some resizing before I cut any of the satin which won't be a huge deal.

here is a sneak peak at the project!!

Pattern Treasure Trove

I've mentioned before that there is a place in Pittsburgh called "The Center For Creative Reuse" and it is my favorite place to go. Vintage patterns tend to run upwards of $10-15 on a good-day. well at Creative Reuse they were having a sale and I managed to pick up patterns from the early 1950s-1974
 I paid $2 for 20 patterns. so basically I have been building an amazing vintage pattern collection.

my other amazing goodwill find!!

SO i had mentioned in my other goodwill pose that I had another find at the goodwill outlet. well here is my post about it. I don't have a fantastic amount of information about it but i found a 50s/60s blue home mark sewing machine. it runs very smoothly, it was a little confusing to thread at first but once I figured it out it was super quick. The machine, like my other vintage machines, is a little loud and very heavy. but it will look beautiful next to my pink Necchi Super Nova Julia. The best part about this Goodwill find is that it was only around $25.

The only thing I can say though is that the chord is deceptively short. I went to shift the machine a little and the chord popped out of the plug and I had to take a trip to the circuit breaker...oops. But LUCKILY I had a screw driver close and vintage machines have easy to fix wires so I got it all put back together so all is well.

Goodwill Treasures!!

When I say Treasures I really mean treasures! I'll tell you about my favorite find today and once I get more information on it. But my first find has left everyone speechless! so to tell a long story short I was at a goodwill outlet and my mom and I had been there for about 2 hours and we were waiting for one last bin rotation before we left. As they were bringing out the bins I could see a giant pile of tulle in on of them. I was assuming it was a crinoline so and I was searching for one so I figured I would run ahead and grab it. once I got to the pile I picked it up and it was a handmade vintage wedding dress. from the style of the dress, based on neckline, waist line, and the age of the fabric I'm taking a guess that this dress is from around the 1950s.

If anyone has anything different to say about the time period of the dress feel free to enlighten me. but regardless this dress is an amazing find. 

the way Goodwill outlets work is by the weight of things. you put everything on a scale at the end and then they price it from there. Because the dress is made of tulle, chiffon and satin so it weighed enough for this stunning dress to end up being $1.50. 

amazing the things you can find at a goodwill.

Another Project Catch up

Once I graduated and moved back home I started having a lot of free time. So I made Butterick 5603 (B5603)

 I chose to do the middle dress with the double bow in the front and a V back. It took some time to get the lining in place. I ended up do a cotton blend navy blue with white polkadot and it turned out to be adorable. I ended up going down to South Carolina a few weeks ago and it was the perfect temperature to wear it out. I'm beginning to think that I don't like side zippers, this dress is proving that to me. But I've had nothing but compliments on it so I'm happy even if it is a pain to zip up.