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Showing posts from July, 2015

Polka dot Laurel

I've had this dress cut out for a few weeks.  I finally have a good amount of time for sewing and have gotten around to sewing it up.  I saw a photo that someone made of the GreenStyle Laurel in a Facebook group I'm in and I knew I had to make one.  It uses 2 yards, even for the largest size, which makes it perfect to use with a knitfix fabric.


I would call this a wearable muslin, but I compared the pattern with my TNT Lady Skater and so I knew it would fit and just dove in using my good fabric.  The fabric is a lovely rayon spandex knit with a very fluid drape.  I knew I had to try the cowl neckline with it.



My husband and I went to see Grease downtown tonight and these photos were taken before the show, some in our neighborhood and some across the street from the theatre.  You can see the reflection of the marquee in some of the photos.


It's a bit longer than the other dresses I've been wearing lately.  I'm not sure the length is very flattering on me, so I might take up an inch or two.  Also, in case you are wondering, I am not wearing white stockings.  Yes, my legs really are that pale.  What can I say?  I'm a Seattleite who avoids the sun at all costs.


I made a straight 3xl and it fits nice in the bust, but the waist is loose and I feel like it poofs out a bit making my tummy looking even bigger than it really is.  It doesn't bother me enough to take this one in, but the next one I make I'll grade down to an XL at the waist and probably the hips too.


Overall, I really like this dress, as does my hubby.  I'm excited to have discovered another TNT dress pattern that I can make out of only 2 yards and I can't wait to make my next one!

Adventures in dyeing

I've been purchasing a couple knitfix bags from Girl Charlee the last few months.  It's fun to get random fabrics that I wouldn't normally try.  I've gotten some fun stuff.

I've gotten a lot of white fabrics that I wouldn't really wear, so I've been planning to do some dyeing for a while.  Here are some before photos.  Not the best, but you can get the idea.

White shells and seahorses on white cotton jersey knit

Black dots on white cotton spandex knit

White green daisy on white cotton jersey knit

Black vertical small stripe on white cotton jersey knit

Didn't have a before of the bags I dyed, but it looked like this except the design was printed in red instead of purple.


I used a large cat litter bucket in the bath tub.  I filled it about half way up with hot water from the tap, one cup of salt and 6 Tbsp of violet Rit dye and 2 Tbsp of Navy Blue.  I dyed the white on white shells and seahorses in this dye bath along with one of the bags from June.



After I was done, i removed the fabric then added 2 Tbsp of fuchsia to the color already in the bucket and I put the green and white daisies in.

Then I dumped the dye out and mixed a new batch with 1 cup of salt, 6 Tbsp of Navy blue Rit and 2 Tbsp of fuchsia then added the polka dots and small stripes and another of the June bags.



And here they are all dried.


I'm very pleased with how they turned out.  I had been hoping the ones on the right would have come out darker.  I'm wondering if leaving them in the dye longer would have helped or if I just needed more dye.  I like the color and I think next time I'll try the same ratio but with a higher concentration and see if that makes a difference.







Ottobre Optic Flowers

A few weeks ago I made a wearable muslin of the Optic Flowers design from the Ottobre 2/2015 issue.


I made a straight 52 exactly as the pattern is drafted.  After I made it up, the back bodice was pooling around my badonkadonk, so I shortened the middle of the back bodice about an inch and graded out to nothing at the side seams.

It's hard to see, but this is where the waist piece sits when I pull the back down to where it is supposed to be.



Here is where it goes after I've moved around and the waist piece goes where it naturally wants to.


I'll shorten the entire bodice a bit on the next version and lengthen the skirt to make up the difference.




I also took the side seams in quite a bit.  I marked all these adjustments on the pattern so the next one I make should fit better right from the start.



For some crazy reason, I decided to play with my decorative stitches on my machine for the sleeve and skirt hems.


It is subtle but I think it adds a very awesome touch.  I will likely be doing this for other dresses in the future.


I've been wearing it to run around and do errands and tool around the house.  When I first made it, I thought it was too short for me to feel comfortable wearing, "for real," but I really like it and I already know what fabric I'm using for the next one.



Pride dress

My daughter has been going to the Seattle Gay Pride parade for the past several years and has always really enjoyed it.   I've never gone before and I decided that this year I would rectify that.  After the Supreme Court decision last Friday and seeing the rainbows everywhere I decided that I needed to wear something special.


So on Saturday I went to JoAnn's and bought 1 yard each of the rainbow in knit.


Then I went home, tossed my new fabric in the washing machine and sketched a few designs.


My husband liked view A best, but I decided on C anyway.

So, I took my TNT Kitschy Coo Lady Skater pattern and divided the skirt piece into 3 even pieces by measuring the waist seam and the hem and dividing by 3 and sewing a line between them.


Then I took the bodice pieces and equally divided the waist seam by 3 and then referred to my sketch and eyeballed where I should put the other end of each dividing line and drew them in.



I then traced each piece, adding a 3/8" seam allowance to each new seam line and to the center edge, since it's normally cut on the fold and will now have a seam too.


You may be able to see that I noted on each piece what colors that piece would be and I'm so glad I did that ahead of time because that's a lot of pieces to cut out.

Once I had everything cut out, I just sewed each individual piece back together and then assembled the dress as usual.


I added in seam pockets, as I do with all my lady skaters now (in fact I'm going to go back and put them in my first one.)  I cut one pocket lining out of the red and one out of the purple and as I was assembling the dress, I thought it would be fun to swap the linings so the red lining is on the purple side and vice versa.



And here is the dress in action.


I'm so very pleased with how it turned out.  There are a few minor things that I'm not happy with.  Since it was a last minute project, I was stuck with the fabric that I could find locally, so the red is a lot softer and thinner than the others and is the only one with a 4 way stretch, so that side of the dress just droops down a bit more.  And the orange is the only one that has spandex in it, so the dress got bigger as the day went on.  But overall, it's the dress I'm the most proud of so far.