Frankendress finished

"Send Help, I'm snowed in."

 I finished the franken-Tiramisu dress awhile back and was never able to get any satisfying photos, but I am just posting these anyway.  I might never get around to taking any more photos!!  Cabin fever is really setting in now...we have at least 3 feet of snow covering our yard still, no joke!

That ball of fur is my dog, Angus, FYI

Part 1 of this post is here if you want to see the progress.  I began with a Tiramisu dress, and didn't like the bodice, so I cut it in two and attached Jalie 2449 as the bodice.

 I'm happier with the dress now.  The best part about it is how it feels like pajamas.  I really didn't have any long sleeved knit dresses in my wardrobe, and they are very cozy for winter (or a winter which never ends).  The only thing that bothers me is the pockets.  This is a real heavy/thick interlock knit ($1 a yard!) and the pockets add a bunch of bulk at the hips I'm not crazy about.

In other news, my sewing studio in now complete! I don't know how I fit 4 machines into my little space, but I have an embroidery machine now.  I've been playing around with it a bit and I think it will be such fun to embellish some of my sewing projects with.   Here is one of my first test samples:

FUN!

Tiramisu Dress Rescue in progress..

The last week or so I've been avoiding my sewing room. Here's why...

My miserable looking Tiramisu Dress!

I've made two attempts at making the bodice fit. I tossed my first try and started over. I still have this wrinkly weirdness at the under bust seam. I think it has to do with the gathers being wrong somehow. I've checked out the Flickr group for the Tiramisu sew along and it seems like the people who have this problem are the medium or small busted ladies. I'm average in the bust dept. so I started fiddling with this seam, and the more I adjusted the worse it looked!

Then I started to wish there were no gathers at all to mess me up. I mean it's a stretchy knit fabric anyway. I thought back to a top I had made from Jalie 2449 that fit really well. So instead of tossing my Tiramisu into the pajama drawer, I had the idea to combine those two patterns. That way I get the bodice I like on the really pretty Tiramisu circle skirt.

Here is the shirt alone, which I quickly made while I was kicking this idea around:

Here I made a chalk line at where I'd like to combine the bodice and skirt. I measured up 2.5 inches from the bottom waistband seam since that part is still pretty straight.

Snip, snip!

Snip snip here!

Surgery begins!

Then it was time to pick up Travis at school!

To be continued...

Wiksten Tova Dress

I finally made my Wiksten Tova Dress, just in time for Mother's Day!  It turned out to be a beautiful day (and weekend!), perfect for this summer dress.

Fabric Used: navy and white poplin from Fashion Fabrics Club.  

After searching through the Wiksten Flickr Group for way too long one night looking at all different versions of this pattern, I decided on a short sleeved version with cuffs.

I had previously made a 3/4 sleeve version for my 15 year old daugther, Maura.

I have a feeling I'll be making this dress/shirt pattern again, it's very comfortable!  I can see why it's so popular.  

There was an excellent Tova sew along which I missed, but the posts have all kinds of great inspiration for anyone making this pattern.

the only photo that shows my new Timberland shoes.

Liam and Me

I hope all you Moms had a great Mother's Day yesterday!  We had such a fun weekend.  On Saturday we went to Canobie Lake Park.  Then on Sunday I did some sewing, put a blanket out in the yard and relaxed with the kids, and then had a very nice dinner at a restaurant.

Maura with the first snake of the season, Ronald.  He was tiny!  Maura's wearing the skirt I just finished for her, I can't seem to locate the pattern, but it's your basic See & Sew A Line skirt with a back zipper.

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Next up:  in search of the perfect skirt pattern!  Anyone found it?  Summer's right around the corner and I need skirts.

Don't forget to enter your skirts for Skirt Week 2012!

Peony 2.0

Awhile back I saw This Peony Dress, and just HAD to have it.  I quickly located some of Jay McCarroll's Dropcloth Fabric and got to work! 

The only planned difference from the original is I used the plum colored version of the fabric.  I also made the self-belt, because I just don't have any cool belts!

Please ignore my hideous white legs.  I didn't have tights on hand that would match.  I did however find these purple shoes.  I'm totally wearing this for Easter!

My nearly 11 year old son actually complimented this dress!

Thanks, Camille, for the idea.

This is the dress on my "Mii", as Travis calls it. 

sewing for baby - Lucy reversible dress

For what ever reason, since New Year's Day I've been sewing like mad.  I have had this urge to get to some of the projects I had in mind since Christmas-gifting mode kicked in.  So I have crossed a few things off my list, and the list keeps growing.  I also got a few new sewing books for Christmas, which helps with that!

My first project to show you is this Lucy Reversible Dress I made for the same baby who I previously made these gowns for.  The parents loved the handmade clothes so I decided to make something larger which she could grow into this spring.  I love that it's reversible, making it two dresses in one.

These fabrics were both found at JoAnn Fabrics.  I was looking for something unique and stylish, and I love the deep purple color.  Not your typical pink dress.

I hope they love it!

Alice in Wonderland Dress finished!

Maura graduates from the 8th grade this year, and it's off to high school already.  I feel like she was just 3 feet tall dragging her blankie around the house.  Parenthood seems to speed up time or something.

I asked her what she wanted to wear for graduation since her usual attire is jeans and a t-shirt.  She hasn't worn a dress in so long, well besides her rennaisance costume.  I came up with the idea for this dress to entice her.  She's always been kind of a tomboy.  I remember making her a skirt with dinosaurs appliqued on it when she was in preschool.  She's my only girl, so I do what I can to sew for her!

She reads all the time, and one of her absolute favorite authors is Lewis Caroll.  She has three different copies of Alice In Wonderland.  She collects anything Alice in Wonderland.  So this dress is perfect.  

This dress is made with the London Peasant Dress pattern  and the adorable japanese Wonderland Awaits Fabric, which Maura helped to pick out for her dress.  We're both totally in love with this print!

The dress was so easy and fun to sew.  I will probably sew this again.  It uses only elastic and has no zippers or buttons.  For the bell sleeves, I made my own teacup fabric by making small iron ons with my Silhouette Machine.  That was after my failed attempt at silkscreening some teacup fabric.

 

I'm so glad she likes it, and now she has a dress as creative as she is!

Linking up here: 

2nd Jamie dress

It's amazing to me how you can make two dresses from the same pattern and one is a success and the other not-so-much.  The dress went together easily enough.  Maybe it was my choice of fabric, but I'm really not liking the second version.

I actually took a few inches out of the skirt/gathering this time around, but it looks even more voluminous than the last jamie dress.  After 4 kids I'm a little sensitive about looking bigger around the waist.

This is the best photo I got:

This was the worst:

ICK!!  What happened in the back of the dress?  Still pondering that.  I may have done that when I tried to force the front and back waistbands to match up.  Maybe I can still rescue this dress.

In this one I think I'm holding down the poofiness of the skirt subconciously.  This dress will have to go back to the drawing board if I want to wear it out in public.

Sew Along Dress - finished!

I finished my dress for the Jamie Dress Sew Along a few days back and was finally able to get some pictures, thanks to my favorite 9 year old photographer, Liam. A few days ago it was too dark, and today it was really bright, maybe too bright. But, I'm not complaining!

This fabric was something I had lying around since last summer. It's from JoAnn's, it a "linen look" fabric. I actually like the drape, it's very light. I was a little worried about the large print making me look large, but I really like this funky pattern - good for summer!

The pattern, the Sis Boom Jamie Dress was actually very easy and enjoyable to follow. I have used Scientific Seamstress patterns in the past and I'm always floored at how great the instructions and photos are. I also loved how easy the paper pattern was to assemble on this one.

The only thing I changed from the pattern instructions was adding a ruched waistband to the back to match the front. Sara added instructions on her blog on how to do that. My favorite thing I learned from this pattern is how to use a glue stick to apply a zipper - SO awesome, how did I not know about this before??

I'm very happy with the dress and I'm already in progress with version #2, it's actual linen. Stay tuned for that one!

Than you, Sara, for hosting this sew along! Check out her flickr group of all the dresses.

Also linking up here:

 

 

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Happy 5th Birthday Ivy!

Today we're going to a birthday party!  My friend's daughter is turning 5.  Here's what I made for a gift:

It's the Warhol Dress.  Dana has the free pattern here for sizes 6-12 and 3-4 years.  I had to draft this pattern myself using her instructions because I needed a size 6X for the birthday girl.  The ruffle was my own add-on, it needed a little 'pop'.

I really like the yoke on this dress which ties on one side.

Materials used: interlock knit from JoAnn's and I used my Silhouette to make the iron-on transfer.

Ivy, the birthday girl, collects bikes so I thought a bike graphic would be cool and original for a dress.  Then I made a last minute tote with her name on it and added a few books.

It was fun to do some girly sewing for a change.