Butterick
Showing posts with label Butterick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Butterick. Show all posts

Sweater Weather

Seriously, you need to make Butterick 5394 (view E) right now. This sweater is awesome. Super warm, cute and kimono-like and crazy easy to sew. Like, less than an hour easy...

I've had this pattern forever but never did anything with it. Then I bought this grey and black checked fleecy softy warm stuff from JoAnns (don't you love my fabric descriptions!) and decided I needed a snuggly warm wrap because I am such a wimp when it comes to cold weather. I'm also a sucker for kimono's and this sweater is definitely in that style...
Huge Sleeves!
Anyway, it goes together crazy fast, needs no alterations and was super warm on a rainy San Antonio day...
Close up of the print...
Hope you have a warm Wednesday!
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Bridesmaids Dress

In reverse order, here is the first of the three dresses I made for last weeks Thanksgiving/wedding festivities...

Prettiest, calmest bride ever! (in the veil we made her!)
I finally finished the bridesmaids dress! (mostly on Monday, with hand hemming in the car on the way to Houston) The bride requested a black strapless dress and I used Butterick 5457 with shiny poly something from JoAnns. The fabric was pretty easy to work with and the pattern was surprisingly simple considering it was my first time inserting boning! (thanks Gertie for the bombshell dress pointers!) The pieces didn't all go together perfectly but it wasn't terrible.


I cut a size 8 and the only alteration I made was to add pockets, necessary in bridesmaids dresses in my opinion...
Blurry close-up of the bodice
 Because of the addition of pockets, I was able to add a special touch in honor of the wedding. The bride and one of the other bridesmaids were my college roommates. There's a fourth too, but unfortunately she's getting her masters in Italy and wasn't able to take off since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving! I wanted to add a memento of our awesome friendship, so I embroidered a heart with our initials in it.... Love you girls!


Final pic of the bridesmaids, ring bearer and flower girl! Sorry for the horribly blurry pics! I'm 100% positive the official pictures will be gorgeous, so I'll put them up when they're ready.


Such a beautiful and fun wedding and I'm so happy for my beautiful friend and her sweet hubby. Salud Estrella and Gabriel!

Next up, rehearsal dinner dress...
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A is for AHHHHHHHH!

These aprons are taking WAY longer than I thought! First of all, despite my previous delusions, making seven aprons was never going to be fast. Secondly, my machine is trying to sabatoge me by skipping stiches and breaking threads right and left despite changing needles, adjusting tension, etc. Third, I'm having weird gapping issues in the bib of the apron. It will not lay flat! Who knew I would have fitting issues on an apron! I only have one completely finished, the rest are complete except for the red piece on top and the bias tape on the sides, so I can still play with the straps to try to fix this problem, but I'm not totally sure what to do. Thoughts anyone?

So ready to get these done so I can go back to sewing things for me! Speaking of, adding another thing to the list of birthday presents I'm buying myself this year:
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A is for Apron


I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled sewing today to work on my first commissioned sewing project! One of my co-workers is a member of a group who plan women's programs at her church. Next weekend they are having a pie making night and my co-worker asked me to make apron's for the six women who planned the event, as well as one apron to give away as a door prize. I'm trying to get the 6 leader's aprons finished for their planning meeting tomorrow night but it's definitely going to be a race to finish! I'm using Butterick 5302 with several quilting cottons from JoAnns. I'm working on them in an assembly line manner and hoping I won't have to stay up all night! Here's what they will look like when all sewn together!


I'm still debating what to do for the door prize apron. Originally I was going to make it out of a completely different fabric from my stash, but after cutting I realized I have enough of the skirt fabric and the blue trim fabric to make another apron. I'm thinking it would be cute to have the bib and skirt in the floral with all blue trim. Something to ponder while ironing endless seams and watching a Harry Potter marathon...

The apron's have definitely been a good project to keep me busy since I dropped the boyfriend off at the airport yesterday for his month long trip. In the 5 years we've dated, he's been out of the country for around 9 months all together, so this definitely isn't new territory for us, but still, it's always hard to be away from the one you love. (sorry for the sap :)
Love these "Keep Calm" posters!

Source: etsy.com via Forrest on Pinterest
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Unexpected Progress!

I had some unexpected time to sew yesterday and was actually able to finish two dresses! The first is a dress I started a million years ago and never finished because I had several problems with the construction. I was inspired by last week's Sew Weekly challenge to pull it out of the pile and get it done! It's made with white stretch cotton from JoAnns and Butterick 5314, view C. Finishing this dress was an opportunity to see how much progress I've made in my sewing skills. Some of the things that stumped me on this dress a year ago were super easy to fix now. It's not perfect but it's definitely wearable. Unfortunately, in the process of being stuffed in a corner somewhere for over a year, the dress developed a stain on the upper left bodice, so rather than fret I pinned on a flower and I'm calling it my Carrie dress after the season of Sex and the City where Carrie wore giant flowers on all of her clothes. I should really bring that back...

(PS sorry for the weird faces I'm making in these pictures!)



Secondly, I was able to finally finish the Fabulously 80's dress! I really thought this one was not going to work out for a while, but somehow it magically came together last night. I'm wearing it today and I completely love it! Apparently it's all about tightening the elastic in the waist... Also, I found a use for this weird belt I bought a while back. Score!




Almost Friday my loves!

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A first...

Drum roll please... For the first time ever, I'm working on a Sew Weekly challenge! It will be a miracle if it gets finished but I'm trying. Also, I took this picture of the fabric thinking it would be a cool "sneak peak", but in reality, the dress is not much more completed than this. It's still just a pile of fabric waiting until tomorrow afternoon to be worked on...


In other musings, I LOVE this version of Simplicity 2250 that was featured on BurdaStyle yesterday. I've made the dress and I've been dying to make the jacket but couldn't figure out which fabric I wanted to use. The denim is genius! Coming soon...



Finally, in the midst of all my other sewing (ps the bias binding on my Sorbetto tank is a NIGHTMARE) I'm thinking about making a dress for a wedding I'm going to next weekend. I think I'm going to make Butterick 5599 in navy blue. Anyone made this dress yet?


Happy Thursday!
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Sewing Updates

So I've actually gotten some sewing done in the past few weeks! But it's hard to get good pictures since I live by myself, so I don't have a reliable photographer...
Anyway, first dress is from Simplicity 2178, a Cynthia Rowley pattern made from a black sheet from Walmart. The pattern is one of the new spring Simplicity patterns and I loved it the minute I saw it. This is one of those projects that I started intending to wear it to an event and didn't finish it, then tried to finish it for another event and didn't, then did finish it in time for an event but decided not to wear it... Bottom line, it still hasn't seen the light of day but it's a really cute dress and fairly easy to put together, except for the weird pleats and gathers on the skirt...

Next up is a top from Butterick 4132, made with a polka dot satin blend from JoAnns. This top turned out cute but was sort of a nightmare to sew! The instructions on attaching the facings and finishing the armholes were crazy confusing and didn't work at all, so I ended up just folding over the armholes and top stitching... Anyway, it's a good work top so I can't complain!
Finally, this dress is from Simplicity 0599, from the Project Runway line. It's made from a black and white linen from JoAnns. This dress is inspired by a dress from the last scene of She's Out of My League, which I of course couldn't find a picture of, so you'll just have to trust me. The straps were a bit of a problem but overall it came together fairly easily. I underlined the bodice and added a lining to the skirt because the linen was fairly see-through. Love the pockets! I'm considering only making dresses with pockets from now on...

Now I'm working on the skirt on the right (the view the model's wearing) in the floral print. I've gotten so far but my now my machine is freaking out when I try to topstitch the bias tape trim. I'm thinking about putting it away for a few days so I don't rip my hair out and either working on the vintage pjs on the left of the picture or maybe something entirely new. I'm having the same issue that I have when I finish all the books I'm reading, there's too many possibilities for something new and I can't choose just one!

Ready for the weekend!
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