Simplicity 4632 -- Petite Pear

I have a lot of project going right now, one of which is this great little pattern from Simplicity.  I accidentally bought this pattern in the wrong size and didn't realized it until I'd drug it out and couldn't return it.  Lucky for me, I got someone looking for just this very thing for work.  She eventually wants five pants and five 3/4 tunics.  I am looking forward to this challenge as she is barely five foot four and an extreme pear shape.  I have some great ideas in mind for eliminating the gobs and gobs of gathers in the elastic coming from the hips and small waist.  I have also been studying some ideas for the collar to draw the eye up to the top.  We've picked a dark navy paisley for the tunic and navy for the pants.

M6030 Part 2 -- Choosing the Fabric

This is Part 2 of a series on McCall's pattern M6030.  Choosing the fabric.  As I talked about in Part 1, she had a swatch as an example of the color, not necessarily the fabric.  This proved to be more difficult than I expected, but we persevered and kept walking around the store until we were just holding the swatch up hoping for anything to match.

At one point we'd picked a great fabric that had a beautiful sheen to it and even a slight luminescence to the fabric.  We decided to lay the fabric out on the table at the store to see watch the large pieces might look like as the dress came together.  We made a sad discovery.  The appealing feature of tonal luminescence rolled up on the bolt looked tacky unrolled in a length the dress would have to be.  It was clear with her height and size, we needed to choose a formal wear fabric that had a more matte finish.  However, at this point we had decided to skip the overskirt and create the gown as a plain dress.  In that deep maroon color, we agreed that the lace might look a little more like lingerie than a bridesmaid dress.  Besides, we couldn't find maroon lace, so the decision was pretty much already made for us.

So were back to the drawing board of choosing fabric.  Finally, we decided on a maroon that perfectly matched the swatch had a slight sheen to it.  We ended up finding some organza type material for an over skirt that we didn't think looked like lingerie.  Here is what we decided upon.

M6030 Part 1 -- Picking the Dress

With the start of May, I'm going to begin a series on sewing the M6030 wedding gown as a bridesmaid dress.  It took some looking for a dress with as few pieces as possible because this dress was going to need to be size up quite a ways.  The skirt was not going to be a big deal, but fitting the bodice to fit a girl with measurements beyond any plus size measurements available, this wasn't going to be an easy feat, but it was surely going to be as fun as usual!  So we did a lot of looking at patterns.

The first consideration was the bride's dress.  It would be easy to pick a beautiful dress and put it together for a special occasion, but we had a bride to consider.  It was important not to over shadow her choice with our choice.  The bride had specified a color: a maroon more on the blue side than red and given all the bridesmaids a swatch of the fabric.  The bridesmaids could wear whatever they wanted.  To complicate things, the bride is extremely petite in height, but not so much in width. *wink*  Her dress looked very much like this M5321 example.

M5321 -- McCall's Stock Photo

M6030 Stock Photo

After much deliberation, we chose M6030.  The gathered sleeves, and  and straight skirt would be easy to alter.  The tough part proved to be the bodice as it had something like five pieces and connected to the sleeves in a unique way.  We did a lot of fittings for the bodice and I took a lot of measurements which I will talk about in Part 3.

The biggest thing I have discovered in a lot of looking at reviews and reading about other projects that have succeeded and failed, is the compulsion to go their own way.  I think I've stated this in other posts, but there's a reason why I'm not a pattern designer.  I really don't know what's best for the pattern.  I haven't always wanted to do what they ask for, but  I try to stick to the instructions and learn something along the way.

This was a very fun dress to sew.  I was please with the finished product and so was the bridesmaid.  I sewed the dress without expecting to get paid, but received two restaurant gift cards in the mail from her parents, so I imagine the dress was well received.

Next week: choosing fabric and starting to study the instructions.

Vogue 7354 Evening Bag - View A

Vogue V7354 Accessories

I sarted this project today.  The one on the bottom left.  I picked out of scraps of material from some of the clothes I've sewed in the past.  The first thing I did was put the lining together wrong.  You have to leave a hole in the bottom to turn it inside out.

If I have to stress anything here.  Read and follow the instructions.  They are not as confusing as they are easy to miss the little things.  Pay attention to right/wrong side instructions and another big thing:

1/2" seam allowances!

I changed mine a little to be more of an oval than a circle.  I don't think I like it very much, but I'm making a few of these for my nieces to have fun with, give away, or throw away.  So, I thought they might like them a little bigger than the 9" X 9" which is pretty big for an evening bag, but I made these out of casual fabrics, so I thought she might want to put more stuff in them.  I don't know maybe a bikini and some flip-flops?  Maybe a book to read?

These are cut on the bias, so they use a little more fabric than you might expect, but the effect with stripes and patterns is pretty nice when together.  I'm looking forward to sewing the little drawstring version and possible trying my hand at some beading.

I'll post pictures of my fabric choice with the next post.

Decisions, Decisions

I recently moved all my sewing stuff into one place in my house, so I am anxious to see how it works out.  I can't decide what to do next.  I have all the supplies for these two dresses or the coat and I don't know what to do next.

B8556
In a brown copper taffeta?
This photo is from the Butterick website.  I don't
have a crinolin yet.

B5685
I have a tweedish plaid brown, blue and tan fabric.  I loved
this coat as soon as I saw it on Princess Catherine.

V8409
I have a chocolate,royal blue, cream and black
chunky plaid I fell in love with for this dress.

I got some other great choices, just can't decide what I want to sew next.  This is a tough place to be!

Sewing Retro!: Time Management

Well, last week I had some pretty great plans of sewing the next six weeks away. Although I did choose some really cute patterns to work on and picked some fabric from fabric.com, that's as far as I got because I also wanted to do some major cleaning and organizing. So, the best I have to report is that I picked a different or possibly additional shirt pattern. This one here is the new one. I've got some fabric that was actually my grandmother's of all things. I can't find my camera at the moment, so I can't post the fabric I chose for it. The reviews were great on this one. I think it will be a nice one to do.

M5050
McCalls Website

So between organizing my life a little better, sewing and my usual obligations, these next six--five weeks now--are going to be busy, busy, busy. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sewing Retro: Sewing Marathon

I am planning a sewing marathon over the next six weeks. I am done with school. My house is relatively clean and I am in the mood to sew. I'm going definitely going to make two more of Butterick B4790 (now that I know it works) and this little cutie.

V8392 $12.00 plus shipping at Vogue
I paid $4.30 with shipping on ebay

This one is not an OOP pattern, so I saved a lot of money buying it from my favorite seller. At $12.00 plus shipping from the website and $4.30 including shipping from ebay. I think I did pretty good.

I'd like to do B and C in a lawn or batiste for warm weather. I think the fabric would create a casual outdoor look. Besides, I don't think I've ever sewn anything in lawn or batiste, so I'm curious to see how it sews and how easy it is to work with.

View B for size 20 and 45" fabric is only 2 3/8 yards. View C for size 20 is only 2 1/8. I would have thought B would have used more fabric.

One thing I learned about batiste and lawn fabric that I didn't know before is that organdy, lawn and batiste all begin as the same "gray goods". Lawn and batiste do not receive the acid finish that organdy does, so lawn and batiste remain opaque. Looks like I will be fabric shopping today. I love to order swatches.

Sewing Retro: Evening Bags

Who wouldn't like a fun little bag like this?
Vogue Accessories 7354
Vogue Patterns

I bought this pattern off e-bay for about $4.00 with shipping. It's on the Vogue Pattern website for $7.77 plus shipping. I'm interested in it because I think these bags would be perfect when wearing all black. That Little Black Dress Paired with a cute little round vintage looking red crushed velvet bag. I was also thinking a an emerald green Asian print would be awesome with just about any solid color dress or outfit.

When I first looked at the pattern I really didn't think I wanted to fool with making accessories. I'm one of these people that carries one purse until it falls apart or the strap breaks. Then I buy another purse. The idea of accessorizing left me with the 80s.

Not one of these purses needs more than 5/8 of a yard. Most of them are 1/2 yard. How many times have I come across a beautiful scap of material at a yard sale, flea market or even at a fabric store?

Now when I find that mod '60s fabric in a pile at an estate sale, I will definitely reconsider the investment! It's in the bag.

They aren't exactly retro, but I bought some new patterns off ebay this week and got some great deals from this seller. She has super cheap shipping, 7 days to shop, and a fun assortment of current and OOP patterns:

OOP 8416
I like the collar on this shirt and the
two skirt options

I think I like the gray version of this pattern. There was a day when I had a small midsection and would have been drawn to the houndstooth, but now that my waistline is thickening, the gray one might be nicer for my body shape. I've always like "jumpers" because due to my short waist, I've never been able to wear shirts and skirts with much success. With jumpers I can kind of get the dress and skirt look without cutting myself in half.

B4800 is still available. I thought these would be
easy to convert to mini dresses.

B4800 just looked so cute to me. It's the only one I bought that is not out of print. I pictured the pink one and the green one in a fun little mini dress in my favorite aqua/turquoise colors with some matching sandals at the beach or on a movie night. I may chicken out actually wearing something so revealing and gaping in public, but it was cheap and who knows if I'll have more success trimming down my arms?

OOP 2263 This is a pretty classic pattern.
I can do a lot with this.

This classic pattern pretty much mimics a dress I had when I was about half the size I am now. I made a black gingham one with a perfict waist and cup size. I wore that dress every chance I got until it got too small. I don't remember giving it away. There were two more I didn't like the material as much, but loved the figure flattering look. I think the gingham one had little cap sleeves and the other two had no sleeves. I miss that dress.