Another Simplicity 2638

I didn't finish it quite as quickly as I thought I might, but I did finish my most recent version of Simplicity 2638 today.  I snapped a few pictures and tossed it in the wash, so hopefully I'll have some modeled shots in the next day or two.

The inside is fully lined with black cotton lawn. The skirts are both attached at the waist, but the lining skirt hangs free otherwise. The waist seam is encased in lavender seam binding. I extended the invisible zipper all the way up to the back neckline and I think I will continue to do that for any further versions of this dress that I make.

I took a 3" hem for the outer skirt and 4" for the lining skirt so that it wouldn't peek out.  This puts the skirt right at my ankles.  I probably could have decreased the hem to 2.5" deep to have it just skim the top of my foot, but at least with this length I know I won't be tripping on the skirt at any point.

I'm still not sure how well I like the fabric, but maybe it will grow on me after wearing the dress once or twice.

Next Project...

I've decided to be really creative and make yet another version of Simplicity 2638 (my other versions here and here). The creativity comes in with me actually following the pattern this time. Instead of shortening the dress to knee-length I'll make it ankle length as it was originally meant to be. Although I do plan to close up the opening at the back by extending the zipper up to the neckline, so I guess that's a small change.

I have a floral-patterned dotted swiss lawn from Fashion Fabric Club that I picked up for $2.80/yard on sale that's been hanging out in my stash for quite a while. At the moment it's seeming a bit drab to me, but then again, I don't necessarily want to wear really bright colors every day anyway:

I recently picked up some plain black cotton lawn ($3.98/yard) to line the inside, as the dotted swiss lawn is a bit see-through, and I'll use the black lawn for the waistband to provide some contrast and break up the floral pattern a bit. All together, this dress will run me about $20, but hopefully I'll have a nice, light, perfectly fitted maxi dress that should look something like this:

I cut everything out yesterday and today and sewed the bodice top and lining together. I'll probably work on it a bit at a time during the evenings this week and I hope to have it finished before next weekend. This pattern never takes much time to put together, but it just depends on how much energy I have left when I get home from work.

Now, if only I could find that perfect pair of comfortable black summer sandals that are a bit dressy but not formal. I have yet another order in at zappos, so maybe just maybe I'll find them this time.

Business cards!

After 18 months in my new job, I finally got some business cards. Rather than start a new large project, I decided to spend a few minutes this evening making myself a business card holder out of fabric scraps. I used the super simple tutorial I found here.

Next time I would increase the width from 4.5" to maybe 4.75" or so. The final round of edge stitching made the pockets just a tad too narrow, so I have to work a bit harder than I would like to get the cards in the pockets.

Sorry for the blurry photos, but I didn't feel like taking them again when I uploaded them to my laptop and realized they weren't clear.

Still not sure what my next sewing project will be. Guess it's still a surprise!

Simplicity 2444 Modeled: My Easter Dress

It is sunny and warm here today, so I wore my new dress to church and then convinced James to take some pictures when we got home. As you can see, I added a little lace collar to the neckline. I got a whole bag of lace extras from Leah a little while back, and I decided this would be the perfect dress to liven up with a bit of lace.

Here's a shot of the front where I'm not being silly and my hands aren't in my pockets so you can see that the skirt does, in fact, hang correctly.

I need to make a few small adjustments still. I had tried to fix the gapping of the front neckline by putting in two small darts. While that fixed the neckline itself, I still have too much fabric across the top of my chest, a few inches below the neckline. So I will have to mess with my darts to fix that.

The little bit of wrinkling at the small of my back seems to be caused by the fact that I need to take the waist in a tad and I had cinched my belt tight, causing some fabric puckering.

I think the lightweight poplin worked perfectly for this dress because it gives a bit of body to the skirt.

A few detail shots:

-- lace Peter Pan collar (you can kind of see the excess fabric just below the neckline in this shot)

-- hand-picked zipper

-- seam-lace finished hem

This was not a complicated dress, and I may end up making it again. If I do, I'll try to fix my last little fitting issues with the pattern before cutting out the fabric.

Oh, and remember this dress?

Well, I spent a bit of time fixing the fitting issues with this one a few weekends ago and am much happier with it now. I actually wore it to work recently! I took in the waist at the side seams, and that helped a bunch. But I also put in a dart right at the point of the V on the neckline, and put in a decent-sized dart on each side of the back neckline to pull it all in. The fit is much improved.

Pardon the wrinkles, I haven't ironed it since I wore it to work, and the linen/rayon blend wrinkles really easily.

I'm finally happy with this version of New Look 6643, but I spent so much time trying to get the fit right by redrafting a smaller size, resizing and fixing seams, etc, etc, etc, that I think I'm done with that pattern. I have a couple of other patterns for a sheath dress, so there's no need to deal with the headache that is this pattern. I definitely learned a good lesson with this one though --- don't bother buying a pattern if the smallest size is too large and you can find the same silhouette with better sizing from another brand.

I'm not sure what I will work on next. Maybe a skirt, maybe I'll try to fix the fitting issues on the vintage-pattern dress I started, maybe I will work on another sun dress. I guess it will be a surprise for me too!

Simplicity 2444

Things weren't going quickly and easily enough for my vintage dress foray over spring break, so I decided to make something else that would go more smoothly (hopefully). I haven't had much time for sewing (or anything not related to work) over the last several weeks, and I didn't want to spend what little time I did have trying to figure out ways to fix huge fitting problems. I just wanted a simple, fun new dress. So I pulled out Simplicity 2444 and a cotton poplin I already had in my stash from Fabric.com ($2.49/yard on sale several months back). I decided on the simple, unadorned view:
Happily, everything did indeed go quite smoothly, for the most part. I saw several references on PatternReview to gapping of the front neckline, and I ended up with the same problem. To fix it, I put a small dart on either side of the center front (if I make this again, I'll modify the pattern itself to take out a wedge of fabric at the center front neckline).

I didn't really modify much else. I cut my typical 8 for the bodice and graded to a 12 at the waist. I put a small tuck in the pattern at the back neckline to prevent gapping in the back, and I had to shorten the skirt by 3". But those are all usual for me with Simplicity patterns. I skipped the invisible zipper this time (they were sold out at the store and I didn't want to wait), so I hand-picked the zipper instead. I kept the inside finishing really simple and mostly just made good use of my pinking shears. I used seam lace to hem the skirt and that seemed to help avoid the problem of easing in the fullness of the skirt.

I just finished the dress tonight, and it's being washed to remove the washable marker marks. I will hopefully have modeled pictures tomorrow. Happy Easter!