Black cotton dress

this dress makes me sad. nothing on it turned out right for me. the dress itself I think turned out beautiful, but for some reason when I put it on with the hoop its too short. I tried to make it the same length as my pink 1860’s skirt, but since I apparently I can’t do math, it turned out 1/2” shorter. which shouldn’t really make that big of a difference but for some reason on this skirt it did. its just way short! the length is okay if I’m barefooted and the shoes I generally wear have a 1 1/2” heal on them. and the waist on the skirt turned out to big, but that can be remedied by simply moving the buttons over.

I made this dress to wear in a memorial day parade. a friend invited me to walk with her re-enacting group, since most of the group lives hours away from here not many like to come for a short walk and no battle. so when they do something here my friend will ask me to join in.
so this year I wanted to surprise her and make a new dress! I didn’t say anything to her about it, in case I didn’t finish the dress. I worked hard all month and finally four days before the parade I was done! I have no idea why I wanted a new dress to wear for thirty minutes but I did, I thought it would be fun.
the day before the parade though I was talking to my friend, who I still had not told I had made the dress I was just going to show up wearing it. I was so excited and had decided even though it was a bit short,if I wore my flatest shoes it should be okay, even if the shoes are not period, I didn’t care. but as we were talking she started telling me about what dress she was going to wear. of which we had talked about when she invited me, at that time she was going to wear her black dress, which is one reason I made a black dress. but then as we were talking the day before the parade she told me, she was going to wear something different. reasoning because the man who is in charge of getting the re-enactors in this parade asked her not to wear black. he said that we are not mourning the soldiers but rather celebrating them and remembering them fondly.
so did I say anything about the black dress I made? Not a chance! I didn’t want her telling me it was okay to wear it when obviously it wasn’t. and I didn’t want to start anything between ...well anybody, so I just kept my mouth shut. and wore my pink dress, the one I wear to everything I have ever been too.





and in the end it turns out it was probably better to wear because, even though I rolled the dress and used a entire roller on it, not just one little paper, the whole entire thing. the dress was still covered in cat heir. in the house it was hardly visible, but when I took the dress outside it was glaring at me! stupid black fabric picks up every last piece of dust, thread and cat hair in the universe! but I should have known that. black is notorious for that type of thing. especially black cotton, and the dress is a 100% cotton after all.


the skirt was all my design, it has three tucks near the bottom, with a layer of cluny lace at the bottom tuck. the hem is a 3” wide band of black fabric.
the waist band closes with two black buttons. and all seams are sewn in french seams



the bodice is kind of sort of made from the pattern i used to make my pink 1860’s dress, since I was planning to make the bodice to be tucked in I didn’t make the fancy tail at the back but rather just made it a lot more simple. I did all the seams in french seams in the bodice as well. the sleeves obviously didn’t come from that pattern I can not tell you where they came from. I had a sleeve from another dress, not one I made. I used that sleeve to make a pattern, which yes I had to put the sleeves in three times to get it right, since I had no idea what the placement should be I just eyeballed it the first time then adjusted it from there till I got it right. and I made up the the collar with the offset button, no pattern for that.







Will I ever wear this dress ? probably not. so really it was a waste of time to make.
I don’t even really like the dress. it doesn’t fit right and the cat hair is never going to go away.

here's how it looks with no hoop.


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black skirt

this is the skirt I made to go under the black bow dress. its still waiting for a bit of a press and to be de-threaded, and de-fuzzed. what is it about black cotton that attracts so much lint? the skirt itself was a simple gathered skirt, no pattern. I did make use of my ruffle foot to make the double ruffles on the bottom. I also used the rolled hem function on my overlock machine, for the hemming of the ruffles. I love that function, its so much easier then making a tiny topstitch hem. and it looks really cute too.
I am actually nearing completion on the black bow dress. a few more days and I should have it finished. got the hem in today. but am still trying to decide whether or not I want to put black bows down the front. I could make them removable. if I do it will be the very last thing I do. I am on target for my goal of completion by next week.

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nursery rhyme skirt

I found this blue fabric at a charity shop and thought it was so cute I had to buy it. the fabric has nursery rhyme characters on it, Little Bo Peep, Humpty Dumpty. Hey Diddle Diddle, and Hickory Dickory Dock.



the fabric was only a yard and unfortunately when I got it home and unfolded it, it had a pretty big flaw in. I lost about four inches from the flaw, which was a bit disappointing. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to make from the fabric as it was not a very big piece so it sat in my stash while I considered , finally I came up with a circle skirt with an added panel to make it long enough. the bow is made from the circle I cut for the waist. I just folded it in half and sewed it into a semi circle then scrunched it up in the middle, and slapped on a button. the white is actually cut off from a duvet cover that was too long, and I believe was like a eight hundred thread count so its really nice cotton. the lace, zipper, button and pearls were all in my stash.



originally I didn't want elastic in the waist, but I really need to work on my math skills because the waist turned out too big, apparently I didn't do a very good job at figuring out how much bigger the waist would be once I took up the seam allowance. circles are weird like that. rather then get too upset about it though I just put elastic in the waist, since that was so much easier then any other solution



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A Christmas skirt.

for work I had to participate in a Christmas festival , and of course had “nothing” to wear. I didn’t want to wear what I had worn the year before that would have just been tacky right?

I found this dress in some stuff someone had given to my mom for my niece, except my niece will not be anywhere near that size for years to come, and rather then store it away for ages I snatched it up. the dress being in child sizing of course meant that it was not shaped correctly for me, though it did fit but looked like a baby doll style dress on me and that was not something I was going for.

I did like the plaid though so in s split decision decided to make it into a skirt! simple right? just cut off the top and sew it back together. well it should have been that. but they put the thing together in a rather complicated manor. so I ended up having to take it apart a bit more then I had anticipated. the lining and outer fabric where sewn together all around the bust. not unusual but I was rather hoping for just thread tacks. I was excited about not having to deal with a zipper it was already installed so I was going to cut it down, which I did and would have worked except I stupidly zipped it all the way up while I was doing a fitting. and pulled the head off. I was able to thread it back on but I had to undo the bottom of the zipper to do so. invisible zippers I have noticed don’t thread on from the top like other zippers but rather from the bottom. I also had to bring in the waist a bit which I did on the sides. I got it all back together thinking it looked really good only to try it on and have the waist gaping. and now here was a dilemma. I needed the waist smaller by about two inches. but having cut the zipper so short there was going to be no way it would fit over my hips if I took it up. so to solve this I opted to put 1/4” elastic at the top of the band just to snug it up that little bit, which did just the trick and of course allows for me to wear it all season and still be able to eat, since you know it will stretch.

so in the grand scheme of things I like the way it turned out. I don’t think in the end it was any easier then making a brand new skirt but that is okay.

and here I am wearing the skirt. you can tell I was coerced into sitting on Santa’s lap by the way I’m sitting. my work was hosting Santa though, so all of us did and I wasn’t the only one complaining. I also made Santa’s boot furs. I think I was given the wrong measurement though because they kept sliding down. but I can only go by what I was told. my coworker and friend actually made the Santa coat and hat. didn't she do a nice job? I thought it turned out really well.

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time for halloween already?

For Halloween this year I have decided on Vanellope Von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph. I found the perfect fabric on ebay for the skirt. its pre pleated which is a plus for me since pleats and I don’t seem to get along very well. they never stay put, or fall right. maybe I should try looking up a tutorial or something on how to make perfect pleats. I mean I see others do it so why have they eluded me thus far? that of course can wait till I need it. this fabric it ready for use, in all of its pleated goodness. I have seen this type of fabric used a lot in formal wear, but never in my local fabric stores, so I was unsure if I would be able to find it or not. but once again ebay saved the day. its amazing all the thing one can find on that site.

as for the leggings I’m going to try and buy some minty green ones and paint the stripes on. I found some paint that is supposed to be good for that and not make the fabric stiff. I’ll write more on that once I get the leggings and try it out. I also need to find some fleece for the hoodie. I looked at one fabric store but they didn’t have what I wanted, so I must look at another later. I did buy a hoodie pattern though, for 99 cents. I love when they put patterns on sale like that except I always end up getting to many. I bought four this time, and that was without looking through the entire pattern book. had I looked at the whole thing I probably would have bought the limit of ten. I worked a bit on the skirt today. which included vetoing the black fabric I had pulled from my stash to use as the under layer. though I had originally wanted to use a dark brown I was content with the black. that is until I tried to use it. the stuff was so full of static it popped and crackled as I tried to iron it out, and when I picked it up it made my hair stand straight up! and it was a good two feet away from my hair. I have enough trouble with static without choosing something like that. especially with leggings underneath and I don’t want to be pulling at my skirt all day. so now I need so get fabric for under skirt as well. I did go ahead and cut the lengths I need for the skirt, then did a rolled a hem on the serger. now I’m at a stand still, Halloween is about ten weeks away, so I have time but I need to make sure not to put it off to long these things somehow just creep up on me really fast.

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strawberry skirt.

I finished making the strawberry skirt for my sister. I had to take a break from it for various reasons. I still think the scallops should have been slightly more shallow, but it was the first attempt I ever did at making real scallops so I am content with them. the skirt is fully lined, and has an attached red ruffled with white swirly do’s appliqued on it. which took longer then I had anticipated. I have done appliques this way before on my 1860’s skirt. which was on a slightly larger scale, so I had figured this would not take nearly as long. I was wrong though. it did a little less time but nearly just as long, which surprised me. the skirt is gathered onto a red waist band encasing elastic for a bit of contrast. I also put in three pin tuck pleats on the skirt and lace to dress it up a bit, and to match the dress I made for my niece and the dress I made for me. sometime this summer if we get a full day without rain we’re going to go on a picnic all dressed alike in our strawberry outfits. how cute will that be? definitely something to look forward too, I do adore picnics.
and now for some detail pics.







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new skirt.

this is a super easy skit to make. it took me all of like forty five minutes. its made from sleeves cut off men’s dress shirts, and the bottom of a dress I had cut off. basically I took the cut off of four sleeves that had been cut originally to make long sleeve shirts into short sleeve., cut them in half, sewed them all together, making the waist as tight as I needed it, then sewed the yellow ruffle to the bottom of the skirt, and hemmed up the sleeve potion, so the ruffle looks like another layer. I have made skirts like this in the past and have inserted a zipper on the side, but for this one I decided to just use the buttons on the cuff and placket for the opening. the green sleeve didn't have any buttons on them so I just sewed them up. the blue has two buttons on each cuff, which actually makes the waist a bit adjustable. I don’t know that I will need that function but hey why not have it? its easy enough. and really you can be as big or as small you want to wear a skirt like this. if your smaller you can use less sleeves if your bigger you can use more. and to make it more fun you can use all different panels if you like. length is personal too, you can make something like this as long or as short as you want depending on how much sleeve you have to start with, and how much layering you put into it. really you could put several layers on it to make it longer. or just whatever you want too do as long you have fun and love it.


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yellow skirt

just a quick little skirt. I made this from some cut off of a dress I hemmed, I loved the bright yellow and thought it would be a cute skirt. I simply took the cut off fabric , sewed it too a yellow satin and made an elastic waist. the bottom was already hemmed since it was just the cut off, so easy and turned out nice.

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strawberry skirt

not much to write about on the sewing stage till now. I had started a few projects which all turned into major fails. which was alright, I set them aside for maybe later projects. after thinking about several things to make I finally decided on making a skirt for my sister which I told her I would do a while ago.

so first thing to do figure out how wide I want the skirt. then getting a can of tuna, and a small can of condensed milk.... WAH! I thought this was a sewing a blog!
oh it is, let me explain. I am making scallops on the bottom of the skirt. first sew a facing to the bottom then draw the half circles. I needed to get the circles even and with enough curve, which is something I can not free hand (yes I have tried it) so I measured up three inches and then drew around the tuna, can, and then the milk can with Tailors chalk, rotating the cans as I went.




I wish I had chosen to only go two inches the scallops are bit deeper then I thought they would be, I also whish I would have used a large can of tomatoes, and the tuna, to make the scallops slightly larger. but that’s alright this is the first time I have done proper scallops.

after marking them I sewed along the markings.



next cut out the scallops about 1/4” away from the stitching with pinking sheers.

next flip the scallops right side out, press and you have scallops!


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