red polka dot dress....#2

in having about a yard and a half left of the red polka dot fabric I decided to make my niece her own dress. she really liked my dress when I showed it to her, so I made hers close to mine but with a few differences. first of all no pleats. I wanted to makes something that was a bit more simple. pleats take a while to get just right. and I didn’t want to do a gathered skirt for no other reason then I just didn’t want too. I opted to do a circle skirt because they twirl so well! and twirling is of the utmost importance when your seven. (or even at my age really.) plus a circle skirt is really easy. I attached it to a bodice from one of my patterns. and yea I had a dress.


but was it really that simple? no not really. the dress it self was rather simple, and putting to stripes on the skirt was easy. but putting the stripes on the bodice was a whole other matter. I had to put them on in just the right order so as to have them lay the way I wanted. which was to have the stripe on the straps placed under the stripes going across the bodice. which meant I had to put them on first. except one problem putting them on first sewed down the inside facings. and I needed the edges of the bodice stripes to be on the inside of the seams, which meant I had to attach them first. otherwise I couldn’t get the stripes under the facing and even though no one will really see the inside of the dress other then me. my niece and her mother I couldn’t stand the thoughts of the stripes simply over lapping the facings and showing on the inside. so I very carefully measured attaching the ends of the facings on the bodice stripes then put on the strap stripes, and then finally secured the bodice stripes that went across.

originally I was only going to put one stripe across the bodice like mine has, but my niece asked for two. she also asked for four on the skirt. I gave in to the ones on the bodice, but told her she was out of luck on the skirt. the reason I gave her was I didn’t have enough bias strip, which was true, but I also thought four stripes might be a bit much on such a small dress. I also did the bows a bit differently on her dress, making the “ribbons” hang down as apposed to be straight across as mine are. I also only gave her the two in the front cause I am lazy like that. she was so excited when I gave her the dress, twirling and telling me she loved it.
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brave pillow sham

I randomly had this thought that I never did post the pillow sham I made my sister for Christmas. so here it is! and only what, five months late? yep is brave themed. with brave fabric in the center, solid blue around for the border and blue ribbon to tie in the seams and . the back is solid red. the red and the blue were from my stash. I don’t really remember a whole lot about making it other then I’m not the best at mitered corners and that frustrated me. I really need to work on improving that.

it was cute though when she opened it and was all surprised about the fabric because I bought it with her there. trying to do the sneaky thing where I put it under the other fabric I was buying. but I was sure she had seen it since the checkout lady didn’t know to not let my sister see it. and I couldn’t say anything to her without drawing attention to the fabric. but somehow it was still a surprise and that made me happy.


I should have pressed the sham though and put a pillow in it for the pictures but I didn’t think of it at the time. since I did take the pictures months ago.

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1950's red polka dot dress

so about two months ago I won a contest from sew retro rose in which I received fabric , a pattern and notions to make a dress. two weeks ago I finally got started in it. I should have been blogging about it as I went, but I haven’t been. the day I received the fabric in the mail I took everything out and checked it over. I was very excited but was in the middle of working on my black bow dress. I was going to try to finish that before starting on this dress, but I got to the point I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do on the black bow dress and set it aside.

the pattern was a little big for me so I had to do some math and figuring to resize it. I did make a mock up of the bodice since I can’t exactly got more fabric. I mean I am sure I could find something similar, but it wouldn’t be exact. so I was being very careful with the measuring. in the end though there was plenty of fabric for the dress. I have about a yard and half left. which I am making plans for as I write this.


I had to lengthen the bodice a bit, which is normal for me. but then I lengthened it too much. which I didn’t realize till I had the dress all put together and I tried it on. here I was thinking I nearly done with the dress but I was no where near finished not only did I make the bodice to long I didn’t have the darts, and seams lined up with the pleats. it just looked so off. so I tore the bodice back off shortened it by three quarters of an inch which still made it an inch longer then the original pattern. and I made sure that this time when I put it all back together everything lined up the way I wanted it too. and I was ready to hem it. it took me a little while to decide exactly what length I wanted finally choosing, and sewing it up. then I added the white bias strips to the bottom of the skirt. I think it gives it a nice finished look.


then came the jacket. I had some trouble with this, but not with the putting it together it went together really nicely. no the problem was the collar pieces of the pattern were not there! I looked and looked but the pieces were not there. so I set the pattern aside and thought what should I? I have mentioned before I am not very good at drafting my own patterns, but finally I thought I can at least try. so I cut out everything except the collar and started putting the jacket together. I figured it would be eaiser to figure out the shape for the collar if I had something to put it on. I made a collar mock up out of some pink fabric I have, and once I was satisfied I went ahead and put it on. I was hoping to finish last night, but as it got later and later I thought I should put this aside till morning. so this morning I woke up and got right too it. I love the way it turned out. at first I wasn’t sure I would like the jacket, but in the end I really do. and my most favorite part of both the dress and the jacket are the bows!




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black bow dress.....

so I am currently in the middle of sewing my black bow dress. which is not even cut out in its entirety because I am unsure of the way I want to finish it. so I am working in stages while I come up with exactly what I want to do. I have the idea for the bodice completed so I am working on putting that together. here is how far I have gotten ......


it was coming together very nicely, I was just about to put the under stitching around the back neck piece when to my horror I found a hole! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I cut the piece on a fold and it must have been on the underside, so I didn‘t see it. I wish I had seen it before I sewed the whole thing together. I contemplated for just a moment trying to repair the hole, but I knew I would never be happy with it. so now I am tearing apart a huge amount of what I just put together. I have enough fabric to re-cut the piece but still, I hate having to redo it, and of course I have put this together in a rather complex manor so yes more then one would think has to come apart.

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black bow dress

so every once in a while I get this brilliant idea that I can draft my own pattern.... yeah I can't. I do try sometimes. and I can make a skirt without a pattern but that is about it. taking a class would probably help. that and having the proper tools. but classes are A.expensive, and B.too far away. so I think I need to stick to already made patterns.
I decided to make a dress out of some white with black bows fabric. I have an idea to model it with a historical 1700's inspiration, only short. not incredibly short but about knee length is what I am going for. I have had this fabric in my stash for some time. its actually curtains I picked up years ago for incredibly cheap thinking oh this would make a cute dress. then shoved it in the stash for later. I think now is good time for later. I am not the fastest at sewing. and still need to cut this out. but I do have a plan. after my fail of making my own pattern I remembered I have a pattern I can work with that, (yea)and it happens to be my size. I have never used this pattern before, but its close to the right shape and I am good at reworking a patterns shape to fit my needs. much better then trying to make my own.

this is the fabric, not the pink though its just sitting there with my fabric.

this is so not the shape I was going for! which is why I am giving in and going to use a pattern.

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I won!

I entered a contest on a blog that I read pretty faithfully. I have entered contests before and never won, so I kind of figured this would be the same. but Guess what! I won! and this really does have to do with sewing. the blog is run by Beccie and called sew retro rose, I came across it a while ago and thought oh wow this is a really cool blog. she makes the greatest clothes. and she seems to be able to make just about anything. one of my favorites being one she made from a blue rose fabric on valentines day Beccie ran a contest where the rules were to write something you love about yourself. it was make people stop and think about something positive rather then the negative thoughts we as humans especially women put ourselves through. the winner was chosen at random by her adorable puppy dog Stella. the prize being a pattern and fabric to make the pattern. so cool.


so here is what I wrote about myself, its kind of a pathetic little thing, but its what I could come with at the time. and all of its still true.

“I love that I still giddy over a snow storm. I seriously turn into a little kid when it comes to snow. I love the fact my hair never tangles. I love that I can sew and its something I am actually good at.”

another thing that makes this really cool is the pattern is a vintage pattern, and since I will have a plan and a goal for the both the pattern and the fabric I am going to go ahead and put this towards my decade project. which is something I did promise myself I would do this year. once I receive it though it might take me while, since there is going to be some math involved in making the pattern my size, and really I want this to turn out perfect, because what better way to enjoy a prize then to make it the best it can be.

hopefully she got the email I sent her yesterday, cause I’m really excited about winning. ☺

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curtains

I needed some black out curtains for my room. the light pollution at night keeps me up, ad something other then tacking blankets to the windows needed to be done. my room is on the small side though so I didn’t want anything dark, it would make it too dark and gloomy. I found some yellow black out curtains that the package said blocks out 99% of light...... yeah it didn’t my room was still rather bright. even with the curtain doubled. so I came up with the brilliant idea of buying a dark curtain to line the yellow one. I Know how to do this I have done it before so why not do it again? I wish I had taken some pictures while I was doing this but I of course forgot . I am hoping this will work. it will certainly make better.

the front.the picture is dark, cause the curtain blocking out the light.

showing off the lining

the back, this is not the side that shows in my room lol.

so how I did it was I had to completely take the original curtain apart. both the yellow and the black, I was also making the curtains shorter since I am not fond of the curtain to the floor look in my room. one of the main reasons being my sewing machine sits under the window so there is no room for a curtain to fall there. so once I determined the length of the curtain, which I was able to cut the yellow one in half for the correct length. ( I purposefully bought the longer curtain so I could do this. I would have to hem anything I bought anyway, so why not buy the longer and only have to buy one?) then I did some measuring to determine the size of the black curtain next I took apart the black curtain, pressed it out real nice, and marked my hem. I knew I wanted it to have the same two inch hem allowance. I then proceeded to cut it out. then hemmed it. I also hemmed the yellow curtain. next I lay the black on the yellow, black facing in and pinned the black to the sides. next I hemmed up the sides. then back to the table to pin the top in. making sure to have the black underneath the yellow. I then sewed in the rod pocket. I thought about putting in a rod topper. like the original had, but got lazy. its not that important to me, I did leave enough it I just have to have one later there is room. next step. press and clip threads, and all done! two curtains that hopefully help me sleep better.

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