Greeting tree dwelling octopuses! Tonight’s post is brought to you by an old Ikea curtain; torn down and forgotten when newer, thicker curtains came to live with us. Granted new life when I decided to take Vogue 2850 out for a test drive. The muslin has been hanging in my sewing room for weeks as I’m not really sure what I think of the style. I have to say, though, that after snapping some pictures I’m warming to it… it’s just so…frilly…
Showing posts with label Vogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vogue. Show all posts
Evening kittens! I’m reeling from an overdose of Flickr and Pattern Review. I realized the other day that if I just finished one more skirt, I could enter the Mini-Wardrobe contest on pattern review. I managed it, but spent a lot of today taking pictures, cropping pictures, naming pictures, uploading pictures, and then writing TWO reviews for the website as well as the contest entry. My fingers hurt.
But ah! The blog fodder! As much as I’d like to blow my wad all at once and show you every single thing I did, I’m concerned I’d also blow your kitty kat minds. So we’ll take it slow and start out with one pattern; recently finished, frequently alluded to and finally photographed – my March dress addition to the Year of the Dress.
Ah! But wait! I didn’t just make one March dress, I made TWO!! Here’s my second version…
Greetings sea turtles! I finally got around to taking pictures of my recently-made jeans and I’m starting my seasonal binge of utilitarian sewing and have a stack of cheap jersey and a New Look t-shirt pattern ready to go. Let’s just jump to the first picture, shall we? Here are the jeans and my first t-shirt from the New Look pattern.
Evening fillies! Spurred on by the Me-Made-March need for regular, every day clothes as well as Tanit-Isis’ recent denim do’s and don’ts post I decided to jump in to jeans-making. Of course, with my love of making everything difficult, I ended up with a pair of trousers that bears a suspicious resemblance to riding breeches… they also strike me as a tad bit on the martial side.
So folkses. I’ve actually had this sweater in my possession (unhemmed, of course) since a few days after the terrible event that I still can’t talk about without tearing up. Freaking amazon hipster stealing the win from Mondo, he of the kneesocks and tapdancing… It took me forever to finish the skirt (and hem the sweater.) So here’s a quick little unveling of my Mondo tribute outfit… First, me winning a staring contest with Lucy the hound.
Anyone who avidly reads my blog posts and sporadic comments on other blogs will know that I have a reluctance to assemble my Burda Jenny pattern that borders on pathological (even with excellent suggestions of paper cutters!) So I did the laziest thing possible. I cut out the waistband from the Jenny pattern and made a a franken-Jenny out of the skirt portion of Vogue 8648 (my green wool dress). Not content with going against every single wardrobe recommendation ever printed, I decided my high-waisted pencil skirt would only do in a creamy white, super nubby mystery fabric. Behold!
Happy first of November! Happy NaNoWriMO! Who’s doing it? C’mon, everyone ‘fess up. I’m doing it. Are you? I have 1,681 words done. That puts me 14 words ahead of goal. Yay me.
OK, down to business. I snuck a dress project ahead of Mr. Bug’s coat. This fabric was meant for my Lady Grey coat, but I realized at the last moment that I didn’t want to deal with pattern matching across a bunch of princess seams so I chickened out. Then I made a dress out of it. With princess seams. Silly me.
As many others are commenting, Self-Stitched September is certainly helping me get through my to-do pile. For my Day 13 outfit, I pulled Vogue 2903 out of my closet, where it has been hanging since April, in a not-super-wearable state. Basically, it had gotten much too big for me. So I resewed some seams, added some funky darts and shortened the skirt. Much more comfy now!
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| [too big, too long, too much shoulder!] |
The very first project I ever sewed is a very cool jacket (Vogue 8623). While I love the jacket, the cool white fabric, the enormous collar, the orange brocade lining and the super-awesome vintage buttons, I don't love the length, ending right at my hips, my very widest area. So I made it better. Behold!
This weekend was beautiful in sunny Minneapolis, with our recent cold snap breaking and a heat wave (ok, it was 75 at the most yesterday!) coming in just in time for a friend's wedding at the most gorgeous spot in the universe, Camrose Hill Farm! I rushed through sewing up my outfit for the evening - Vogue 8648, a funky vintage vibe dress with a pencil or full circle skirt option.
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| [I'm wearing a pencily, sheathy dress!] |
Ah! September has certainly roared into Minneapolis like a lion. I've had vague plans in the back of my head to whip up a series of kicky little skirts with attitude (cherry and skull quilting cotton, anyone??) to get me through Self-Stitched September. But with the temperature currently at 57, I'm now thinking of corduroy pencil skirts and wide-legged wool trousers. And brown boots. Must find Anthropologie-like brown boots. Knee-high, embellished or funky granny laceups. Extended calf. Budget $50.**
OK. This is the part of the fall wardrobe I've been dreading. Pants. I've tried making pants and shorts a few times and haven't come up with anything usable. What I've done the few times I've tried before is to make WAY too many adjustments right off the bat - lengthening the crotch depth, scooping out in the back, widening the legs - it goes on and on. This time I decided to just take it slow, one muslin at a time.
To start out with, I decided to go with Butterick 5221. I like the way the drawing shows nice, wide legs. I'm also waiting for Hotpatterns 1053 to arrive, but the more I look at it, the more I'm not sure I want a waistband with a facing. I want a real, honest-to-god waistband.
So. I am RELATIVELY focused on the fall wardrobe project. I'd like to finish it... I'd even like to finish it on time. And I'm puttering away and think it still might happen (although the RTW option is increasingly looking better. I have the perfect white cardigan that goes with EVERYTHING...) But I have other plans too. Plans for dresses that I'd be making if I weren't making what I'm making...
First up. While at the local anxiety inducing, cluttered, dirty, staffed with grouchy ladies, fabric warehouse, I came across this BEAUTIFUL piece of greenish, tealish wool blend. It's nice and thin and drapey and it's a color that I always think would look good on me, but don't buy. It's very, um, different from my usual palette of brown, black, cream, dark green... here it is with the lining that I found (on the roll - with RIBBONS tied on the end! The girl who cut that fabric was obviously new and not beaten down by the steady stream of blond middle aged women carrying a throw pillow and asking how much fabric do they need to recover their sofa...) I also picked up just a bit of funky brocade to do some nice hem facings and whatnot. And the perfect pair of cognac colored shoes that I never wear will go perfectly with the dress....
First up. While at the local anxiety inducing, cluttered, dirty, staffed with grouchy ladies, fabric warehouse, I came across this BEAUTIFUL piece of greenish, tealish wool blend. It's nice and thin and drapey and it's a color that I always think would look good on me, but don't buy. It's very, um, different from my usual palette of brown, black, cream, dark green... here it is with the lining that I found (on the roll - with RIBBONS tied on the end! The girl who cut that fabric was obviously new and not beaten down by the steady stream of blond middle aged women carrying a throw pillow and asking how much fabric do they need to recover their sofa...) I also picked up just a bit of funky brocade to do some nice hem facings and whatnot. And the perfect pair of cognac colored shoes that I never wear will go perfectly with the dress....
I'm thinking that this fabric will be great for Vogue 8648. I'm not sure if I'd rather do view F or view C - I'm leaning towards view F. I do love a full circle skirt!!
My other recent dress obsession is, not very surprisingly, a Joan Holloway inspired obsession. The red bow dress from this season's second episode...
I can't get over how awesome this shade of red looks on her! My hair is a similar color, so perhaps I would look good in that color too? Perhaps? Please, let it be so?? In addition, I'm loving the scoop neck, and, of course, the bows. The neck bow more than the bow in the back, though.
I'm thinking of adapting New Look 6808 which is actually a shirt pattern that I recently made. It has the collar, although I might want to lower it a bit, the sleeves and the bow. It doesn't have a lower back, though, which I would like and am a little nervous about just going off and designing on my own as I'm sure I'll end up with serious gaping issues.
For the bottom of the dress, I was thinking of extending the shirt pattern into an a-line (possibly beyond my drafting skills), using the bottom from the Vogue pattern I have for the green dress in either the straight or circle skirt versions (hmmmm.... do I want a midriff piece as well??) or using the bottom from the dress that's part of Simplicity 2703 which has a nice a-line shape. Here's the line drawing...
And of course, I'll have to find the perfect fabric in the perfect shade of red! Lucky for me, I have lots of time to plot while finishing the fall wardrobe!!
Next up... back to the series of unflattering photos and fitting a shirt in 3 pieces!
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