Another Day, Another Dress

Living where I do on the prairies, where my legs do not see the light of day all winter long (or rarely do anyways), come summer I love spending my days living in skirts and dresses.  That's not to say I don't appreciate a nice pair of shorts or capris because they definitely do have their benefits.  Gardening and yard work in a dress, while do-able, is not always the most ladylike and who wants to get mud and grass stains on their pretty frock?  Not me! Strong prairie winds are also often not a friend to dresses either - some day I will sew weights into the hems of my dresses and there'll be no stopping me.  There is just something about a pretty skirt or dress that makes me feel good.

So to that end, and the fact that we are still in the Sundress Sew-A-Long time frame, I sewed up another dress.  It's the tried and true Sis Boom/Scientific Seamstress Jamie Dress.  This is my third one, and although I've not sewn it in a few years, I still really enjoyed the pattern.   The only change I made to the pattern was to add pockets and a half circle skirt.

I am, apparently, all about the circle skirts this year!  I love how flattering and flowy a circle skirt is!  I've made four new dresses this summer so far and three of them have half circle skirts. The only reason the lone gathered skirt dress didn't get the same treatment was due to a lack of fabric otherwise it too would have been a circle skirt.

There's not much to say about this pattern that I haven't already said when I last made the Jamie dress.  It's a great pattern that sews up quickly.   By the way, you can get this and all the other Sis Boom patterns in their new Etsy shop - and if you use the code WELCOME you can get 50% off right now!!!

My fabric is the cotton sateen from Gertie's collection, available through JoAnn's although I see it's currently out of stock online.  If you happen to have a JoAnn's nearby that you can shop at in person, I highly recommend this fabric.  It's smooth and has a bit of a sheen to it - feeling almost like a rayon, but without the scary washing hazards rayon can possess.  It sewed up like a dream!

Now I'm off outside to enjoy the sunshine and maybe do some knitting while the little guys play in their pool!  See you next time!

Still Lovin' My Dress

Actually, I think I may love my second version of my Love Your Dress Modcloth knock off more than my first one!  I made the first one when the Scientific Seamstress Lab Group on Facebook hosted the "Just for Me January" challenge this winter.  The fourth week was called "Knock it Off" and we were to create a knock off outfit at least partially using a Sis Boom/Scientific Seamstress pattern.

I really fell in love with the Modcloth dress, but really could never have justified the price for basically a t-shirt dress.  Especially when you factor in the exchange and shipping. So I mashed up a Simplicity pattern that I'd used for a prior Modcloth knock off dress a few years ago and Sis Boom's Jamie dress.  I adore my "Love My Dress" - it's one of those comfy like pj outfits that I can throw on and feel great in.

Shortly after making my dress I started coveting the cherry blossom cotton jersey on the Girl Charlee site.  I kept envisioning it as a perfect fabric for another Love My Dress and finally a few weeks ago I succumbed to it's siren call and ordered a couple of yards.  I fixed up the few fit issues I had with my first one, tweaking the back neckline, the armscye and the waistband and I LA LA LOVE the result!

I also am pretty tickled with the wavy orange plaid I chose for the neckline facing, armhole bias and hem facing  Ok. I didn't actually have a hem facing in mind when I bought the cotton but apparently cutting a rectangle is beyond my capabilities for some reason and I ended up cutting one side of my skirt a whole freaking 1 3/4" shorter than the other.  Once I evened it out the length was exactly the way I wanted it, with no room for a hem.  Granted I could have left the hem raw given it's a knit, but, GAH, raw edges! YIKES!!!!! I can't handle a raw edge.  They make me a bit crazy.  So, hem facing it is.  With an added bonus it gives a wee bit of weight to the skirt and maybe the next time a gust of wind comes out of nowhere while I'm buckling Baby Boy into his seat in the truck I won't flash the entire town.  (apologies to whoever had to witness that unfortunate wardrobe malfunction last week...)

I'm squeaking this one in just under the wire for a final entry into the Dress Up Party that Sara is hosting over at Sew Sweetness.  I had hoped to get a few more entries in, but as per usual the minute I decide to take part in any sort of sew along or challenge like this I suddenly have no time to actually sew.  (Hello, Kids Clothing Week Challenge. I'm looking at you!).  I did get four entries in between my Jenny Dress, my Gathered Raglan Tee, my Clemence Shorts (which by the way I fixed and they fit like a dream now! Whoot!!!) and now my Love my Dress.  So I think I did pretty well after all.

Next up is finishing up work on a test sew, then charging full steam ahead into the Outfit Along, which I'm really lagging behind in this year having barely made a dent in my knitting and a just finally deciding on a dress.  First things first though, I've got a billion little things to get done before the weekend for Little Man's school friend birthday party.

If you don't hear from me for a while, maybe send someone out to check on me.  I might be buried under paste and newspaper trying to finish up a piñata for the party.  I've never made one before and I think I now know why...

Just For Me Challenge

I've raved about Scientific Seamstress/Sis Boom patterns here on the blog before.  I absolutely love using them because they are just so darn perfect.  The PDF patterns are some of the easiest on the market, allowing you to print out exactly what you want and to quickly put together once they are printed, the garments are flattering, have a huge range of size options, excellent instructions and they fit so, so much better than any of the BIG FOUR pattern companies patterns ever do.  Carla Hegeman Crim does a great job creating her patterns.  These are patterns for real bodies of all shapes and sizes. If you want to venture into sewing for yourself or are tired of having to do a billion alterations to commercial patterns just so they might fit you, give these a try.  I guarantee you won't regret it, they are well worth it!  To see some of my previous versions check out here, here, and here!

When Jeanine announced on the blog that the Scientific Seamstress Lap Group on Facebook would be hosting a "Just For Me" sewing challenge during January I was really excited! Pretty much the only stipulation of the challenge was that whatever you decided to make it had to include at least one Scientific Seamstress/Sis Boom pattern. I decided that not only would I take the challenge but that I would add an extra dimension to it.  I was determined not to buy anything in order to do it - I do love myself some thriftiness! So using only things in my stash and using only patterns that I had already in my collection I set to work.

Week one was "Chic And Casual".  I decided to keep it fairly simple for myself and just make a top that I could easily pair with jeans and a cardi.  I have been coveting the Tortola tank since it was first released last summer as part of a bundle.  I didn't purchase the bundle so had to wait for the individual release and by that time was swamped with other projects so it sat untouched on the computer for a few months.  I finally printed it off during week one of the challenge, grabbed a piece of knit fabric out of my bin that I'd bought for $5.00 out of the clearance section earlier in the fall and sewed it up.  I'm pretty happy with it, although think I should have gone down a size and shortened the length just a touch.  But it's comfy and definitely wearable - I've worn it a lot in the weeks since making it!  I've paired it here with my Marion Cardi that I knit in the fall KAL in Andi Satterlund's Untangling Knots Ravelry group.

The second week was "Date Night".  I didn't get that one done on time, unfortunately.  I had a slight mishap in the fact that my iron died and there is just no way to get a facing ironed sufficiently enough with a curling iron (Why yes, I tried. Of course I tried.  Desperate times call for desperate measures!).  It's all good though.  I finally bought a new iron this past weekend, and got it done this morning.  Another stash find - this one came from a Valentine swap a few years ago.  It's shimmery and has a texture to it, but it was pretty easy to work with, not too slippery like I feared it might be.  I'm not sure I actually like this top too much yet if I'm being brutally honest.  The fabric is a bit itchy on me and doesn't feel quite right, being a bit stiff in spots (I think it doesn't like being ironed at all).   I think my next venture into the Patricia will be in something gauzy or floaty.  Maybe a cotton voile.  I did shorten the pattern by quite a bit and completely eliminated the side vents at the bottom.  I wanted it to be more of a blouse than a tunic.  As I said, I'm not really sure how I feel about this one just yet. Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.  It's not the pattern's fault and I will revisit it again, and maybe this top will grow on me in the future.  So not all is lost.

The third week was "Cozy and Comfy" and I am all about comfy.  No doubt about it!  This time I pulled out the Tortola once again and a men's size 4xl tee that I bought on a clearance rack at Walmart last year for $3.00. I did the regular cutting line instead of a full bust option for my size and the 26" length instead of the 28" I did my first version. Instead of fussing with woven facings (mostly because I couldn't pull stash fabric out that I felt matched well enough) I used a light weight denim bias tape on the neckline and just serged and then hemmed the armholes.  For the bottoms I used Jocole's yoga pants pattern in the capris length and a .7 metre remnant of sweatshirt fleece I'd bought ages ago in a buy one get two free sale. I think  it worked out to being about $2.00 roughly? Maybe less.  Add a bit of elastic and some rib knit I've had kicking around leftover since I made Baby Boy a pair of pants when he was three and I was good to go! Yay! Comfy and cheap. Perfect for lounging around the house or maybe running on the treadmill in. (It's alright.  You can laugh.  We all know that it's likely not going to ever see a work out and more likely going to see a whole lot of the couch and my knitting needles...) Because I had no iron at the time that I did week three and I'd given up on the curling iron as a substitute, I just serged both the shirt and pant hems and called it a day.

Week Four was "Knock it Off" and my very, very favourite week of all.  It made me go beyond my comfort zone and try things out that I've not done in ages and have, quite honestly, lacked the confidence to even contemplate doing for a long time. To make my knock off I had to combine patterns and do some changes to them as well.  I modified the bodice from Simplicity #2180 and used the waistband and skirt from the Jamie Dress to make my knock off of Modcloth's I Love Your Dress.  I've been desperately wanting the Modcloth dress, but a) it's way too spendy for my budget especially with the Canadian dollar right now and factoring in shipping and b) they've been sold out of my size for weeks.  So Knock it Off week was perfect timing.  I had a 1.5 metre cut of knit from another of  Fabricland's buy one metre get two free sales and thought it would work well as well as fitting my "cheap" criteria - I got three metres for a whopping total of $10.00 that  particular day. Hello $5.00 dress! Whoot!!!!  It's a nice drapey knit, but not too flimsy that it would be see through or stretch from here to eternity.  No one wants to make a knee length dress only to find by the end of the day it's pretty much become a maxi dress. (I have had this happen.  It wasn't pretty.)

To make my dress, I rounded off the back neckline of the bodice, eliminating the v-shape, which allowed me to simply use the front yoke pattern piece as the back yoke pattern piece as well.  I added about three inches to the centre front of my bodice pattern for gathers and gently straightened the bottom edge since I was eliminating the darts. Oh and for some reason, and I do remember this too from a few years ago when I actually made the Simplicity pattern, I had to add 3/4" to the straps of the front bodice in order to have the yoke piece fit properly.

For the waistband, since Jamie doesn't have a back waist band piece, I used the Simplicity pattern for width and the Jamie front waistband lining for height.  The skirt is cut much narrower than Jamie because of my fabric constraints and a minor prior cutting error (for some reason I initially thought I should completely line the bodice - thankfully I came to my senses before finishing the dress and eliminated the lining completely. Phew.  That was a narrow escape from TOO MUCH BULK - imagine that said in ominous radio announcer voice.)  I am happy with the width of it as it is. Too many gathers on my midsection isn't the most flattering look for me and I thought it would drape much nicer with less fabric rather than more.  The waistband is self-lined and the yoke is lined with a quilt cotton for stability.  I also used the same quilt cotton to make bias tape binding for the armholes.  I love, love, love matchy, matchy bias tape.  It makes me happy even if no one knows it's there but me.

I LOVE this dress!  I want one in every colour!!!!!  I'm wearing it here with my Hetty, which is another one of Andi Satterlund's amazing retro vibe cardi patterns!  If I were standing up straight, like a normal person instead of propping up the wall as I seem to be in the photo my dress would be hanging much better and it would look fairly close to the real Modcloth one in the collage. (Honest!)

It was definitely a great challenge.  So much fun and really motivational!  With the added bonus, of course, that I now have three new tops (at least two that are getting a tonne of wear already), a new pair of bottoms and a new dress added to my wardrobe all in a matter of four weeks.  Not bad all things considered!

How about you? Do you ever take part in sew along, knit alongs or challenges?                                                                  

Some Selfish Sewing

I decided in the spring that I was going to do some selfish sewing to go along with my selfish knitting.  Projects that were for me all me! So far I've done the Washi Tunic - which I absolutely love on really hot summer days, and two dresses.

Today I want to tell you about my new favourite dress pattern.  It's the Jamie Dress from Sis Boom patterns.  It's a fantastic pattern.  For a PDF, the pattern pieces went together like a dream.  Sis Boom makes it completely fool proof.  There's no fiddly lining up of pieces or worse fudging pieces that don't line up together (I've had that happen before.  Grrrrr). The sizing it great with many options to choose from.  They have even included extra where needed in the bodice for us bustier girls.  Love it!  I didn't have to alter a thing in that department.  The instructions are very detailed and very clear except for what appears to be a small typo in one of the directions where the seam allowance was somewhat unclear, but it was easy enough to figure out.  (It's 1/4" in case you get stuck too!).

I could wax poetic about this pattern I adore it so much.  In fact I loved it so much that the minute I finished sewing the first dress, I immediately cut out a second one.  I never do that. (Ok. I do. If its for the kids and its a Fishsticks Designs pattern.  But for me? NEVER!) Anyways. Onto the details!

The only modification I made to the first dress was to skip the zipper.  I loathe doing zippers.  They (and buttonholes) are the bane of my sewing existence, being never able to get them just perfect.  Oh how they vex me.  To ensure fit without the zipper, I sewed the bodice as instructed, then basted the side where the zipper was meant to be and tried it on.  There was plenty of room to get in and out, which is important.  I made a dress last year that I skipped the zipper on and I'm constantly getting stuck in it. It's not pretty.

The fabric is Happy Land Claudia in Sky Blue (by Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom). I was able to snag it on sale from Fabric.com back in the spring.  I love the trailing flowers and their bright colours.  A bonus was up until a few days ago I had two pairs of sandals that matched the fabric perfectly.  Then the dogs ate one sandal.  I'm still a tad bitter about that, but at least I still have one pair that matches perfectly!

I didn't have anyone over four feet tall at home to take pictures for me when I finished making the dress so Little Man (Oh how it feels strange to leave out the "Toddler" part of his nickname!!) took some for me.

A few of them were mighty unflattering - that happens apparently when taking pictures at that angle.  Yikes! But I was able to save a few that aren't too bad and show the dress pretty well. As I said I love this dress so much that as soon as Little Man finished snapping pictures I went in and cut out a second dress.

The second dress is made from a random very lightweight cotton that I got in the clearance section of my local fabric store.  I had intended it for a different project, but then it seemed to say Jamie Dress to me so it's purpose quickly shifted.  I had to fully line this one as it's so light it would have felt a bit indecent.  I used an inexpensive cotton lawn that I was able to pick up in the city.  I skipped the zipper again and added side seam pockets.  I do love pockets on, well, anything.  I had meant to put them on my first dress, but had forgotten until I'd sewed the side seams of the skirt using French seams.  Unpicking them, it turns out, was far less desirable than having pockets.

I will admit to pretty much living in my second dress. It's lightweight and cool even with the lining, comfortable as pyjamas and I like to think pretty and feminine too with it's little sprigs of blue flowers and dots.

Again, I relied on my four year old fashion photographer for this next picture.

To wrap up, I can't say enough good things about the Jamie Dress from Sis Boom.  It's well worth the $10 price tag - I got mine on sale so I feel like I got an exceptionally great find!! Anyone from beginner sewist on up to experienced will enjoy this pattern.  Go forth and make yourself one.  You won't regret it!

Next up I'll be making myself The Honey Blouse from Make It Perfect. I'll let you know how it goes!