Pinspiration Monday - Patriotic Vintage

The 4th of July will be upon us soon! I love old images and postcards and just generally fun patriotic stuff, so I'm sharing some of it here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instagram Friday

Another wrap dress done!

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on Jun 25, 2015 at 1:03pm PDT

Bright White and Yellow Butterick 6175

One of the first projects I planned after giving up sewing for myself at Lent was this dress! It just took me a little while to get to it. :-) I had this yellow sweater, and when I saw the fabric at the store I knew they'd go great together, it was just screaming to be made into a dress.

I thought for a while about which pattern to use and settled on Retro Butterick 6175, an out of print pattern that I had seen and fallen in love with. Luckily I was able to find a copy close to my size on Etsy.

It was pretty simple to put together, the most involved part was the gathered sleeves. I'm very pleased with how they turned out!

 

 

This makes my 4th Vintage Pledge item, only one more to go!

 

I think there are some tab things that are supposed to go over where the sleeves meet the bodice? I'm not 100% sure, but I omitted them as I couldn't really tell from the instructions and didn't think they were necessary.

One of my favorite parts of this dress is the back, I love how the sleeves meet the bodice and the shape they create at the back.

This was my first time doing a center zipper that didn't go all the way to the top.

I did my usual skirt gathering preference, leaving most of the fullness in the sides and back and leaving the front flat.

 

I fully lined the dress since it was largely white, and included a waist stay. There's a pocket as well, of course.

I almost forgot to snap a pic with the sweater that inspired it all, lol, but it works just as well as I'd hoped!

I've really got to work on a happier concentration face!

That's a bit better!

You might notice I'm still getting the hang of using my new camera, which I'm able to use remotely from my phone! (How cool is that?) So while this means I don't have to bug my husband to take a million pics of my projects, I still need his help with the gadgety stuff when I'm confused!


A little higher, I think...

Thanks for the help, dear! :-D

Pinspiration Monday - Project Inspiration

Lately I've been collecting some lovely pins that have elements I'd love to incorporate into future projects. Here are a few of my faves!

This flower placement is just divine!

 

Love the idea of a tulle maxi dress!

 

Yeah so...toile. Need I say more?

 

 

And more toile, aaahhh!

 

Dita, gorgeous as always, love this minty lace overlay!

 

Instagram Friday

New shades for summer!

A photo posted by Stephanie Lochet (@slochet) on Jun 18, 2015 at 8:07pm PDT

Easy Striped Summer Dress - Vogue 8728

I was never really interested in Vintage Vogue 8728, the lines on the cover art just didn't appeal to me. Then, as I sometimes do, I was just browsing through patterns I didn't have, checking out versions other people had made online to see how they look once sewn up, as often the end result can be surprising. This was one of those times where even though I wasn't thrilled with the pattern art, I loved almost every version of this pattern I saw made up! I knew a Vogue pattern sale was coming up, rushed to get the pattern on Sunday, came home and started cutting.

This pattern is probably one of the easiest and quickest I've ever made, it went together so easily! I didn't even make a muslin (was too impatient), and it ended up working great.

I've been drooling over all things striped lately, for some reason, so I knew I wanted to go with stripes for this dress. I decided to go with horizontal stripes on top and vertical on the bottom.

I did try the bodice on to make sure it was working out.

Loved what I had so far, especially the gathered bust detail. I'm always a little worried, with my large bust, certain details might accentuate it, but I think because it doesn't actually come all the way under the bust on the sides, it almost minimizes the bust a bit on me. At the very least I think it looks nicely balanced, not too top heavy. That's a very good thing!

I did bind all my seams, so everything is covered and pretty on the inside! I also underlined just the front lower bodice piece with some white cotton muslin, just to make it a bit heavier. (I guess I like more than one layer covering my tummy, lol.)

Once I was happy with the bodice, I quickly sewed up the skirt (added a pocket as always) and attached it to the bodice. The final dress is a perfect summer dress, light and easy to wear!

Here's another peek at the inside, with bound seams and of course a waist stay as usual!

This makes my 3rd Vintage Pledge item so far for the year, I'm doing pretty well! I may even pass my goal. :-)

I highly recommend this pattern if you're looking for a quick and easy sew! It can also be made in jersey (you can see lots of examples of that if you do a search.) I think I'll definitely be using this one again soon!

Pinspiration Monday - Fabric and Pattern Pairings

I thought it would be fun to go through my pattern stash and my fabric stash and make some potential pairings! I love dreaming about what I could make next, and I really need to make a habit of using up more in my fabric stash. I even made a new board to be able to pin my pairings! Here are some of my favorites (apparently I gravitate towards blue!):

Vintage Vogue 8811

McCall's 6953

Vintage Vogue 2267

Retro Butterick 4792

I especially need to use up these fabrics I bought in France! You know when you feel like you have to find just the right way to use up a fabric, so you end up not using it at all? Yeah, that's what keeps happening with these fabrics, but I know I need to just push through and go for it! Hopefully these ideas will help me get there.

Retro Butterick 5880

Retro Butterick 5209

Vintage Simplicity 2154 (blouse)

And finally, here's one pairing I've already started on (mentioned in my last Instagram post)! Hoping to finish it this week.

Vintage Vogue 8728