Archive for August 2012

Why I Love My New Sewing Machine.

8:45 PM 1 Comments A+ a-

Reason #451

Stitch #16. The perfect way to finish a facing without a serger...

Happy Friday!

PS how much are we all geeking out over Gertie's new book? Can't wait to make the zipper front dress!

Parade of Dresses: Day 2 Gingham Hazel

1:03 PM 4 Comments A+ a-

Confession time. I made this dress to wear to a "western" themed rehearsal dinner for the fiance's cousin in mid-July and I'm just now blogging about it! Yikes y'all.

Anyway, the invitation said western so I immediately thought of this piece of pink gingham quilting cotton that's been hanging around in my stash for a hot minute. It's medium weight and a little stretchy so I thought it would work well with the Hazel pattern. Plus I think I saw someone else make it in gingham. Maybe? Can't remember...

As always with Colette patterns, the dress went together really easily, I even was able to use my favorite french seams on the bodice pieces (although it wasn't easy, see picture below). I'm really appreciating the fact that my skills have finally caught up with my need to sew things really quickly (aka my ADD). I'm able to turn out garments that are finished really nicely in SO much less time than it used to take me! I guess practice does make perfect(ish)!

 
 



So here's my complaint. You knew I'd have one right? I can't remember what size I cut but I know it was a size smaller than my measurements said it should have been. I checked the finished measurements and thought it would fit snug-ish but with enough ease in the bust and hips for comfort. I even used less of a seam allowance at the waist to make sure I could breath easily. Turns out, I should have listened to Sarai and gone with the size she recommended. This sucker is tight! And a little shorter than I like too. I felt slightly hoochy hanging out with the future in-laws in this dress. Luckily they've known me long enough to know that I'm not too trampy...

Here are a few detail shots that are way better quality than the full body shots. I seriously have to figure out what's going on with my camera...


 
 
A few more dresses to show you, then maybe I'll be back to real time! Hope you're having a good week! I'm working from home with an eye infection. Yuck. At least the week is half over!

Parade of Dresses Day 1: Darling Ranges

3:08 PM 2 Comments A+ a-

So today starts the Parade of Dresses that will be taking over my blog in the next week or so in order to catch y'all up on the sewing I've done over the past month!

The first dress up is the ever popular Darling Ranges Dress by Megan Nielsen. (Please forgive the crummy pictures)


I made my version sleeveless out of a thin, poly navy and white polka dot material (from an estate sale) that I'm pretty sure was supposed to be lining fabric but I couldn't resist the print. The material was a NIGHTMARE to worked with! It pulled and picked and the buttonholes are the worst things I've ever done in my life but I've still worn the dress probably 6 times in one month, so obviously I like it anyway.


I cut out 2 more of this dress in more appropriate, less miserable fabrics that I think we'll be perfect for fall!


All in all, as everyone knows it's a great pattern and I can't wait to make more!


In other news, did you see Gertie' new line of patterns for Butterick? I just got the email from Amazon saying my copy of Gertie's New Book For Better Sewing shipped today, and then I check Google Reader and now there's even more Gertie goodness hitting my mailbox soon! Congratulations to her, what an accomplishment!

Victory!

9:52 AM 7 Comments A+ a-

Ok, so I've been pretty MIA lately. I've been sewing and cutting and buying fabric and such but somehow the blogging part has been left behind. So in the next few days I'll be photographing my latest projects and writing posts and hopefully by next week I'll be back to posting regularly, but a girls gotta take a summer vacay sometimes right?

Anyway, despite my lack of blogging lately, I couldn't help but post this the minute I saw it. Victory Patterns has released their new collection! It's called the Niagra Collection and it's fabulous!

There's the Satsuki...




the Simone...



the Roxanne...



and the Nicola!



Aren't they lovely? The Nicola is my favorite (in part due to the fact that my middle name is Nicole), but the Simone is a close second. They're coming home with me today! Once again, the patterns from Victory are beautiful and super unique to the pattern world. It's so nice to see unusual  silhouettes and such on-trend styles! As always, lovely job Victory Patterns! Can't wait to see what the sewing world does with these patterns!

What's your favorite?
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