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A couple more GreenStyle Laurels

I really like my blue polka dotted Laurel.  So I made a couple more.

The first one I used the seashells and seahorses fabric that I dyed purple a while back.  It's a thicker cotton knit, where the blue and white polka dots was a soft, drapey rayon lycra blend.  So I was curious how that cowl neck would do.


It's hard to really see in the above photo, here's a selfie where you can really see the cowl.


I just didn't like how it draped in this fabric, so I took it out and put in just a neck band instead.


I like it way better this way.  I've worn it a couple times.

But, I've been thinking I need a shorter version of this dress.  So my next version uses the shorter length of the pattern.  Well, I should have known better.  I'm pretty tall and the shorter version was several inches shorter.  So yeah, I now have a very lovely tunic.  I don't have any action shots though.  Just on my dress form.


I love this fabric and I'm sad that I don't have a wearable dress out of it.  But it does look cute with leggings, which is how I wore it to the Pink Martini concert.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any photos.

I'm sure there will be more versions of this dress coming in the future too.

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12th Man Seamwork Mojave

I decided some time ago that I was going to go to Ocean Shores for the 12's Fan Fest weekend to celebrate the end of NotFootball season with other Seahawk fans.

When planning my wardrobe for the weekend, I knew I had lots of jerseys and t-shirts I could wear, but i wanted something a bit more special.  Now, I have my Seahawks Lady Skater Dress, but that would only get me through one day.

I decided to try to sew up a Seamwork Mojave in some Hawks colors in my stash.


The green is some sort of poly blend woven and the blue is a cotton broadcloth.  I drew up my sketch with my awesome art skills.


It was a pretty easy pattern to cut out.  My only problem is that the pieces are too long for my cutting mat, but that was easily fixed by just using my scissors on the bit that hung over.

While I was sewing up the green panels in the front, I got the idea that it would be a good place to add a little pizzazz.  So I tested out some of my decorative stitches on a couple scraps of the green with my blue thread.




It was a tough decision, but this is the one I decided on:


Then I sewed the rest of it up according to the directions.



I wore it today as a swimsuit cover-up on the way to the hotel pool.  


It's definitely not anything I could wear by itself as a dress.  It also just didn't look good with any of my tanks under it.  But it looks cute as a cover-up.  I'm pretty pleased with how it came out overall.  My measurements were right on the border between 20 and 22, so I went with the bigger size.  I could easily get away with the 20, I think.


I've decided that I'm going to attempt to put a little elastic in the back waistline at some point after I get home to see if that helps give it a bit more shape.


It was fun to add a little decoration to a cute item.  I need to go back and make all the previous Seamwork patterns now, since I've made two so far that I'm happy with.  (The other is still unblogged because I need to figure out a design detail that I'm adding.)

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Dr. Who Lady Skater

I found some adorable Dr. Who fabric from Aqua Splash Customs.


I bought a couple yards with the intention of making a lady skater out of it.  I made it, but I'm not super happy with it.


I think it looks a little like pajamas instead of a cute dress to wear to work.  I shouldn't have made the entire thing out of that fabric.  I think I would have been better off only using it as an accent.


I didn't really have enough fabric to do proper pattern matching either and its bugging me.  I thought I had cut the front to match up better, but apparently not.


I'll still wear it like it is, especially to PAX, but I'd like to try to figure out a way to make it less annoying to me.  If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.  I have some more of the blue I used for the neck and arm bands, but I don't have much.  Although, it's the blue I bought at JoAnn's for my Pride dress, so they likely still have it.

Thoughts?
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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!
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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.







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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.



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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.


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