The June dress… again. (Claire Cami from Serendipity Studios)

Hey there woeful eyed donkeys with detachable tails! Even though it’s already TWO DAYS into July, I thought I should still add an official entry to the year of the dress project. I think we can all agree that the June dress HAS to be the Claire Cami dress from Serendipity Studios. Because, guess what? I made another one!

That’s three of these in June. And I’m not done, yet. If you think my sewing blog has gotten boring, what with me only making one pattern over and over, you should see what I’m wearing. Just these three dress – they are that comfy and awesome! I literally don’t think I can have enough of them! (OK, I’m lying. I’m wearing my deer-in-the-woods crepe as I type this…)

For this version I mixed up the prints a bit to give it a bit more of a shirt-n-skirt vibe rather than dress. We’ve had this Oliver & S fabric in the shop for a while and I’ve been in LOVE with the turquoise and orange viney print that I used for the skirt, but haven’t gotten around to making anything from it! I particularly like it with a cardigan with this mix of prints…

Is it a dress? Is it a skirt? What IS it??

Hey! Guys! Are you paying attention? I don’t KNOW where your tails are. Next time, trying stapling them on. Egad.

Well, since this is the third post this month on the same dress I feel like I’ve said everything I have to say on the subject. I changed nothing about the pattern. For construction, I used methods we’d use in the classroom (e.g. easy and time-saving) the seam allowances are pinked as are the edges of the facings. All the facings are in the same viney print as the skirt for a bit of contrast. Funny story – this dress is destined to be a shop sample, so I really wanted to finish it exactly as we would in a class. Unfortunately, I was sewing late at night and rather sleepy, so the skirts side seams are french seams. I forgot I was doing it the ‘easy’ way and went on auto-pilot!

Since I don’t have many details for you on construction, I thought I’d amuse you with this series of photos that showed up from my photo session. Apparently, I prefer my hair PUFFY!! These were all taken within 2 seconds of each other…

Details

Skirt fabric – Oliver + S City Weekend – Park Ramble in Turquoise (available online – also available in cotton knit interlock)

Bodice fabric – Oliver + S City Weekend – Cobblestone in Turquoise (available online)

Trim fabric – Oliver + S City Weekend – Roundabout Dots in Orange Red (available online)

I’ll be teaching this as a class in July! Class dates are July 7th and 14th (it’s a two session class.) If you’re in Minneapolis, come on down and join me! [Register online]

     

Quick note – it’s Moving Weekend! (You don’t need to do anything, I hired movers.)

As I’ve mentioned, I am migrating over to Wordpress. Next time you see a post from me, the site will look a bit different! There may be some down time over the next few days, but look for the next post mid-week! My web address will NOT change, so you need to do nothing, just keep coming back! Just wanted to let you know that (for a change) my radio silence will be for a good reason. Not because I got sucked into petting the basset hound for 10 hours straight and didn’t get anything done!

Anniversary Dress (ANOTHER Claire Cami Dress!)

Ahoy there, fishies. Let’s make it a seafaring week, shall we? Today you will be blob fishes. And you are some strange looking mo-fo’s. Moving on.

As promised, here’s another new dress, although if you’ve checked out snugbug365 in the last few days, you got a sneak peek. It’s another version of the Claire Cami Dress!

This one is a tad longer, unintentional, as all you blob fishes know how much I like my dresses scandalously short. The main fabric is from Kate Spain’s Central Park collection (available online) and I was pleasantly surprised at how the super-linear print ended up looking very cabbage rose-like! The contrast fabric is from Tina Given’s Haven’s Edge Collection (‘Climber’ in celery, also available online!) I am quite enamored with how the two fabrics look together, especially close up! The pattern in the contrast fabric is greyish purple!

Topstitching RULES!!

I think I say this every time I review a Kay Whitt design, but I really love how her patterns are so heavy on topstitching and edgestitching. It gives the simple cotton dresses a much more finished feel.

Oh! The facings are in a contrast fabric from the same collection as the main fabric. Sadly, we have sold out of it at the shop.

I particularly like how edgestitching the waist casing looks!

And now… the dark side of topstitching

Can I indulge in my super OCD side for a bit? As much as I love the look of the topstitching, the combo of understitching and topstitching is driving me batty. It’s a HOT MESS on the inside! For this dress, I used the pink thread while understitching – that’s the pink you can see on the facing. I switched the bobbin out from pink to white for the topstitching, which helped a bit, but it still looks like I was doing some crazy-sewing on the facings. I topstitched with the right side up, so I could see what I was doing, so the inside is less, um, tidy. I HATE how the edgestitching weaves around the understitching and even veers into the teeny fold on the inside of the neckline. Sigh. If understitching wasn’t so helpful in getting the neckline to behave, I’d skip it all together, but I suppose it would be silly to sacrifice good construction for the aesthetics of the inside finishing. Although, I often do either understitching OR topstitching, not both.

To make matters worse, I stitched in the ditch to keep the facings under control and didn’t change the bobbin thread to white. I also only stitched in the ditch on the outside. Like I said, hot mess.

It’s still cute from the outside, though!

More details…

{the hem}

{the waist casing}

{the back}

 

Claire Cami showdown…

   

Clearly, there’s a reason I like short skirts!!

The Sound of Music coat (Sew Serendipity Classic Tailored Coat)

Greetings again, pelicans. I’m back. Did you all enter the giveaway? If not, stop reading and go do so! The entries so far have been highly entertaining – keep ‘em coming! And if you’ve never commented before, welcome! If you’ve never visited  before, double welcome!

So let’s get down to business… I had included a coat in my original plan for the Spring Palette Challenge. I wanted something nice and lightweight – good for fall and spring, and long enough to wear with a  dress without looking like I got dressed in the dark. I found some lovely wool on sale for 50% off at Hancock. The Hancocks ‘round these parts have a pretty wide selection of wool and this stuff was a nice mottled grey, lightweight and nicely impervious to basset hound fur. Mr. Bug dubbed it the Sound of Music coat the first time I modeled it for him.