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Showing posts from November, 2016

A lovely Butterick 5243

I cut this lovely dress out over a year ago, and I had finally started sewing it in August, but I had to put it on hold because I was missing a couple pieces and then I was chosen to participate in the Fabricista Fashion Challenge 4.  This is as far as I got before I put it on the back burner.


The pattern is (OOP) Butterick 5243 and I picked view A with the lovely flutter sleeves.

The fabric is a Mustard/Brown/Teal/Multi Abstract Floral Jersey Knit that I bought from Fabric Mart in May of 2015.  The back of the fabric is soft and flannel like and I just love the way it feels, as well as how it looks.


We went to the Fremont Troll to take these photos because I thought it would be fun to start adding a little bit more of the Seattle experience to my blog.   Plus, we were headed to Fremont to go to our favorite conveyor belt sushi place for lunch anyway, so it was only a couple blocks out of our way.  Well, I forgot how popular the Troll is, so we took most of our photos in the area next to the troll since it was people free and there was a lovely green background.  We got some with the Troll in the background too, but it was near impossible to not have other people in the photos, so not many of those came out very well.  Oh well, interesting idea, but it didn't pan out like I'd hoped.


The photo above led to my favorite photo.  My daughter was my photographer and I was playing up the pinup girl feeling I have wearing this dress by lifting my skirt to show a little more leg and my daughter said "Oh, those gams!" and that made me laugh, which she captured so well.


I didn't make any alterations to the pattern, but I made one small change to the construction process.  When I went to add the waistband to the bodice, the front cross over was still all open.  So, instead of properly matching the notches to make the crossover, I wanted to make sure the bodice wasn't dangerously low and I could wear it without worry.  So, I tried it on and got the crossover the way I wanted it and basted that together.  Then, as I was attaching the waistband, I just gathered it at the underbust to make it fit.  So, I think I don't have quite as much gathered as the example photos because my front pieces overlap more than they are supposed to, but it fits perfect right now and shows just the right amount of cleavage.


I also hand sewed the neckline facing to the seam allowance of the yoke.  I used to hate hand sewing, but I totally didn't mind doing it the last couple times and I think it made the neckline turn out much nicer than if I'd tried to sew it down by machine.



Overall, I really am very pleased with how this dress turned out.  I do wish I'd gone with the long sleeve version, simply because both times I wore it, I was chilly and ended up wearing a jacket over it, so a lot of the nice details were hidden.


My daughter liked this photo because she said I was making the same face as the Troll.  It was not intentional on my part at all, but I can't help but agree with her!


A Painted Perry


When I made my camouflage Seamwork Perry, I liked it so much that I immediately cut out another one from a cotton Spandex knit from a previous Girl Charlee* knitfix fabric.


I couldn't do pattern matching when cutting the dress out, so I decided to just cut it out however I could then I used some Jacquard Textile Color* to paint colored stripes onto the fabric to try to mask the pattern mismatch.



I started painting the pieces way back in May.  I did some additional painting some time after that, but then I finally just finished it a couple days ago.  After it was all dried, I heat set it with the iron following the directions.


I cut bodice lining pieces from the same black cameo thermal knit fabric I used to line my Fabricista sweater dress.


I liked the elastic loop and button I used for the camo Perry, so I decided to do that again.  Since I planned this before sewing the dress together, I basted a loop of elastic that I'd colored with a blue Sharpie to the back bodice piece before sewing the shell and lining together at the neckline so that the raw ends are enclosed.  Then sewed on a blue button the finish the closure.


Also I couldn't find a couple pieces - the front pocket piece and the sleeve cuffs.  I swear I cut them out, but it's been so long and they aren't with the other pieces, so either I'm remembering wrong or they got lost.  So, I cut the missing pocket piece from that same black cameo knit and instead of replacing the sleeve cuff with a different fabric, I just hemmed the sleeve 1" to create a channel then cut pieces of 1/2" elastic and fed it through the channel.


I also sewed all of the vertical seams with 5/8" seam allowance instead of 3/8" to try to size the dress down a bit.


I'm not super happy with the fit of the waist elastic.  I followed the instructions and cut the elastic to my waist measurement minus 2".  But I must have stretched it out while installing it, because the waist doesn't have as much definition as my camo one.


There are a few spots where I missed fully applying the color.  When I started with the blue, I was trying to go for a hand painted look, so the missed spots were a feature.  But now that it's all put together, those spots are a little distracting to me.  Also, some of the coloring between the pieces don't quite match shades, or the color lines across the seams aren't exact.  So I may end up doing another pass of the painting.  Although, I am pretty happy with how it looks as is.


*affiliate link - I gotta try to help support my sewing habit somehow.


Named Olivia Jersey Wrap Dress

For the last 10 months I have been going to a bariatric clinic and lost 40 lbs with the intention of having weight loss surgery to help get the rest off.  I hit a small speed bump due to some rules of my insurance policy and I had to change clinics, which was a huge disappointment to me, but I did end up having a sleeve gastrectomy performed on Nov. 2.


Leading up to the surgery, I knew I wanted to make something to wear home from the hospital.  I have been wanting to try the Olivia Jersey Wrap Dress from Named Clothing since I acquired it as part of the Monthly Stitch's Chill Out IPM pattern bundle.  And I knew I was going to be sore, so I figured a wrap dress would be easy to put on, would be comfortable and still look stylish.


Looking at the measurements, my waist and hips fall into the size 20, but the bust measurement is 3 1/4" smaller than my bust size.  However, after cutting out the size 20 pieces and comparing the bodice to some of my other knit dresses that I know fit, I decided to not do an FBA.  Well, lo and behold, the dress fits perfect exactly the way it's drafted.


Well, did I say perfect?  It could actually use a sway back adjustment.  But that's about the only change I would consider doing.


It covers quite nicely.  I was assuming since I didn't do an FBA that I would be showing off a ton of cleavage, but nope.  The neckline doesn't gape at all and there is a large enough overlap that there is no chance of flashing. I definitely will be making more of these dresses, but I might not make the next one in this size.


The outside photos were taken today and the indoor photos were taken after I got it to a wearable state, the night before my surgery.  I hadn't sewn the facing down yet, so that's a little sloppy looking, but I did that today.  I wore my new dress home from the hospital yesterday and I got several compliments from the nurses at the hospital.  I was going to just say thanks and let it go, but my husband made a point of telling them that I made it.  Lol.


Oh, and the surgery went well and I'm feeling pretty good, although it hurts a lot to cough or get up from sitting or laying down, but a lot less after I've taken my lovely pain medication.  I took two weeks off work to recover and I have a few things I cut out some time ago that I plan on getting sewn up so I can wear them a bit before they are too large.