Butterick 6203 - A Valentine's Day Dress

Finished this dress over the weekend, a few days after Valentine's Day, but oh well! I got to enjoy my lovely pink roses while I sewed. :-)

I'd seen this bright, happy floral cotton lawn at Joann's a while ago, and I thought it would be perfect for a pink dress for Valentine's Day! But it was a little pricey so I decided to pair it with a more economical Valentine's Day cotton.

The latter is a bit wrinkly in the photos, as cheapy quilting cotton can be, but oh well. I love the little hearts because you don't really notice that they're hearts from far away.

I used Butterick 6203 for this dress.

 It was a quick make, the bodice fit me well (it has cup sizes so that's always nice). I had planned on adding the sleeves, but they ended up a little snug and I didn't feel like altering or fidgeting with the pattern, so I just decided to use some bias binding and make it sleeveless.

I'd love to make this again in all one fabric, I like the shape of the skirt and the fit of the bodice. It's comfy and practical, there are pockets (always pockets) and I think works well with vintage or modern styling which is always a plus. I had the perfect pink flower to wear with it this time. :-)

So another month, another dress, yay! Maybe I can keep this up...

Steampunk Belle Dress & Accessories

Just finished my latest project, another commissioned steampunk dress. This time it was Steampunk Belle from Beauty and the Beast! My client gave me lots of input about what she was looking for and I came up with this sketch.

I looked around for a pattern that could serve as a base, and decided on McCalls 7050.

The pattern was very straight forward and simple to put together. I added a bit of chiffon to the bust, and raised the cutoff along the bottom a bit to match the sketch.

The skirt used quite a bit of fabric! Fortunately this silkessence fabric was very light and pretty easy to work with.

I played around with placement of the chiffon wrap around the hips and sleeves before proceeding.

Once I was satisfied, I added a petticoat underneath, which added that volume I was hoping for!

Then I started playing with pickups on the front, as well as a fabric rose embellishment.

Finally, I was able to start adding the final details. One was the Belle "swag" on the skirt, which took me a little while to figure out. I had planned on using the chiffon, but when I tried it out I just didn't like how it was hanging, and found it distracting.

So I went with the same gold fabric and liked that much better.

Then I added the sleeves, and started adding the steampunk details with gears and such at the center bust, on the swag pickups, and in the center of the rose.

And then she was done!!

I also made some gloves to go with it, using McCalls 7397 as a base.

Now, we had talked about these being made of brown lace. Guess what I couldn't find anywhere?? So first I had to dye some lace, which worked perfectly!

The pattern again was simple to follow! I added more steampunk details, and also a lace ruffle around the edge, based on details the client wanted.

And finally, I made a fascinator using more of the dyed lace, some of the gold fabric, some tulle, gold feathers, and more steampunk accessories. This was SO FUN to make and makes me want to make more!

And that was it. She'll be wearing a corset over the dress, which will be great, I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing together!