I really did have every intention of posting more unblogged projects in honor of MMM, but I guess you'll just get this second batch in June instead!
I think I've mentioned before that when I moved to Portland, my style started to shift towards blues and purples? The colors I favored as a child. Anyhow, here's a dress I made before I left (so yes, two years ago now -- wow! How time flies)
Once reason I first started sewing clothing was that I kept seeing all these great children's dresses in the blogosphere that were made out of adorable quilting cottons ... and I wanted me-sized versions!! With this dress, I think I've finally made good on my threat to make an adult version of a 6 year old's dress, haha. This is my ubiquitous Fauxbetto pattern - the Colette Sorbetto, heavily modified and made into a sloper of sorts. I only had 1.5 yards of this fabric, hence the yoke:
You can see that I inserted some ric rac into the yoke. This was a design detail. This was also because I was way too lazy to pattern match ... so this way you can't tell! Haha. Ha. Anyways! This is a fairly stiff quilting cotton so I finished the hem with super wide (like 2"?) hem tape to give the dress some body. I also lined it with rayon bemberg, which is perfect for fall as it prevents my tights from sticking to the dress. I like to pair this with teal or brown tights.
One dressmaking tip that I need to keep relearning is that when you have an eye-catching print/color, it usually helps to hem the dress short. Otherwise the print overwhelms everything and it just looks ... off. I keep forgetting this, though, and continue making knee-length (or longer) dresses and then wondering why it looks so crazymaking. Anyways, the owl print, while adorbs, definitely benefits from the shorter length (roughly 3" above the knee).
And dress #2, an Alder ala Grainline:
Made up in a summery cotton-linen blend, perfect for summer. This dress looks OK in these photos, but whenever I wear it, I feel like the dress is 1 size too big. I cut a 6 front and 8 back (my lazy version of a broad back adjustment), tapering to a size 4 at the waist and 2 at the bottom hem. This is hemmed to size 8 length. I need to shorten the armscythe by 3/4" - I think this is a standard Grainline adjustment I need to make - and I think I could stand to shorten the back hem as well.
I think I'd like to have another crack at my Fauxbetto sloper (the back fits funny and it definitely needs a broad back adjustment), and mash it up with the Archer to create fall shirt-tunics, maybe with a half-placket thingie instead of a proper button-down, and potentially using a modified Tova sleeve since that seems to work well for me (as opposed to the free Sorbetto sleeve pattern from Mena). I keep wanting to make fun and floating and fripperous summer garments, but we really only have 3 months of summer and I have plenty of summer clothing, so I've been trying to channel that sewing enthusiasm into fall sewing instead. We'll see. Maybe if I bribe myself with some blue/purple fabrics?
Anyhow! I think I'm mostly caught up on posting FO's now ... the sewn variety at least, I have a couple sweaters I have yet to blog about. Hope your late spring/early summer is off to a good start - in 2 days I fly to Miami for a weeklong writer's conference, super excited and yet simultaneously nervous. See you on the other side of that!
3 comments:
Those are both lovely! I do love me an owl ;)
How wise (owl!) to channel your sewing energy to practical garment sewing. It is such a challenge to sew things I will wear rather than things I like but would only wear in an entirely different climate/ life!
The conference sounds exciting. Good luck! I like your dresses, you're making me consider a grainline dress now. I like the sound of th proposed archer, tova mash up. Xx
Two lovely blue dresses! I tend to go through blue phases, too. The owl print is really sweet. :) I'm hoping the dress is getting you through fall well! The idea of fall tunics sounds great, I made one Deer&Doe Bruyere tunic at the beginning of the year, and love to wear it with leggings. I should definitely make another one.
Hope all is well with you! I'm just getting back into the spirit of things, I started a new job without on-call work at the beginning of the month and I'm already savoring my more relaxed work schedule - even while it's a totally new field for me and there's so much to learn! And speaking of fall - I still have a Zauberball here that has your name on it. If you tell me your address, I'll send it on its way to you. :)
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