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. ☺

* This blog is not to be used for training AI*

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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eyelet bolero

yea for actually making something on my list!


I was in desperate need for a cream or white bolero after I worn my other one out completely.

I used the bolero pattern from newlook 6675. (I want to make the dress from this pattern too, and may have fabric for it, maybe if there is enough of it. its in my stash so I need to measure it.) using fabric left over from the dress I made my niece last year for her birthday. it was an odd shape and not a very big piece maybe 1/2 a yard, but I saved it anyway thinking hey maybe I can make something out of it. I wish I had taken a picture of the way I laid out my pattern because I had to do it three times before I finally was able to manipulate it into cooperation. I nearly gave up it was so tight but in the end I made it fit, and miraculously it was all on grain. one of the ways I was able to save on fabric was to make smaller seam allowances so I was able to go a size smaller then I normally would making the pattern just fit. I did make an alteration to the pattern of omitting the cuffs on the sleeves as I didn’t have enough fabric, and I didn’t face the two front pieces. being an eyelet fabric I didn’t want to cover the holes as they are such a part of the design.

I ended up drafting my own facing piece for the neck as I saw no other way to finish it, but for the rest of the bolero I sewed a piece of bias strip around it to finish it off, then blind stitched it in place. for a bit of decoration I added two little bows on the sleeves.




definitely a piece that will get a lot of wear once the weather warms a bit.

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puppy pillow

I asked my niece a while ago what she wanted for her birthday this year as I make her something every year. the last two years I made her princess dresses, this year however she told me that she didn’t think she had any more room for a big fluffy dress, (she has a rather small closet) so she told me what she wanted this year was a pillow with a brown puppy, that has a black nose, the bottom of the pillow needed to be green, the top blue and she wanted a red heart on it somewhere too.
okay so, yeah very specific.


I then spent forever online trying to find a decent appliqué of a dog, and was coming up with nothing. I wanted something cute but simple. anything simple I was coming up with was not at all what I was looking for, half the patterns out there hardly said dog to me, let alone puppy. finally I came across a stuffed dog pattern that was really cute and thought I can use part of that to make my puppy!
the pillow I made. its 16”X16” and has a zipper in the back so the pillow form is removable. allowing the pillow to be washed. I was rather proud of the way it turned out. I think its really cute.



cutesy crafts where I found the cute little dog pattern.

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