My Inner Child's Fantasy Princess Dress! - McCalls 5731

Last year around Halloween, I came upon McCalls 5731, a great basic princess dress pattern.

 

I fell in love especially with the drawing they made for view B, THOSE SLEEVES!!

When I was little, and as many little girls do, wanted to play princess, I always wanted a "real" princess dress. I didn't want plastic sparkles and throw-away costumes, I wanted a beautifully made gown that was me-sized.

So this year, I decided I wanted to make a version. I didn't have anyone in mind to make it for specifically, but it was just one of those things where I had to get this out of my head and create it in real life, and hopefully whoever it is meant for will find it. :-)

I've been trying to use up my fabric stash, and so I had fun playing around with dying some mint green polyester fabric I had quite a bit of. I used Rit's Dye More that is made specially for dyeing synthetics. I mixed sapphire blue and charcoal, and got this lovely rich blue (which looks almost teal in this lighting, but it's not really).

I loved it! I decided to pair it with some buttery cream fabrics for the front center panel, and use an overlay of the swirly sheer organza I had leftover from the bluebonnet dresses for the center bodice.

I lined the sleeves with a very light blue, to pick up the light blue swirlies in the bodice. I trimmed it with a silver lace for just a tiny bit of sparkle. I loved the combination of all the fabrics, and just kept going until I finished her up this weekend.

In process pic..

I'm proud to say that except for the silver trim, all the fabric I used was from my stash, hooray!

And here she is!

I'm SO in love, it's just what I imagined! I can't describe just how satisfying it is to create what you were hoping to create, it's the best feeling. The only change I made to the pattern was to add a bow to tie in the back, so that it could be cinched in just in case it was a little big.

I also made a hoop skirt to go with it...

...because, I mean seriously y'all...if you're going to go full out princess, you HAVE to have some structure underneath for some serious poofage, amiright? Look at the difference some structure makes!!

I have a little confession...when I see a lovely little girl with a sweet princessy dress that is droopy, it makes me a little bit sad! I always felt that way when I was small too, lol, no half-baked princess gear in my house, I'm an all or nothing kind of gal.

So that's it! Since this wasn't made for anyone in particular, it's now listed in my Etsy shop, (as is the hoop skirt!) awaiting its home. This was such a pleasure to make!

And I'm just as excited about my next project, a gown inspired by Queen Victoria! Stay tuned. :-)

New Aprons!

I'm excited to show you a couple new aprons I've just finished! It's been a little while since I've posted, and last month I decided to shut down my local booth at Austin Gift Company because I just haven't been able to keep on top of stock lately. The good news is I hope to be shifting a bit more focus back on my Etsy shop! So I've been sprucing things up there, and have plans for more to come. I decided to give all my aprons names as an easier way to keep track of them, so they've all been Christened now. ;-)

First up is actually an apron from a pattern, B6304. This is the first time I've used a pattern for one of my aprons, but I saw this bodice/bib and really liked the way it fit around the bust so I wanted to try it out. I will probably adapt this a bit into my own pattern, but wanted to try it straight the first time! I named this one PENNY!

Next is an apron that is directly inspired by some vintage pattern art, #1 in red here.

I wanted to try this because I love the fact that it's apparently just a big giant square of fabric turned diagonally, trimmed with lace all the way around, and gathered a bit at the waist with ties added! I'm always enchanted by how simple flat shapes can become so interesting, how 2D becomes 3D. I named this one JUNE!

These are up in my shop now, I hope to have more available soon!

Halloween Regency Dress

It's hard to miss all the Halloween fabrics and patterns in the fabric stores along with the influx of people venturing into the world of sewing around this time of year! I love it (though admittedly I avoid fabric stores on the weekends during October if I can help it!)

I've loved the possibility present in costumes since I was a little girl, I always loved dreaming about what I could be for the next Halloween! Usually this involved some form of pretty dress. But now that I can make my own clothes and costumes, it means I can make my dreams reality any time I want. This is what I love about sewing!! I'm in the process of helping my niece with her costume dreams, which I'll be blogging about once finished. It is going to be amazing!

One of the costuming dreams I'd had since beginning to sew was to make a regency dress, which ended up being my first dress using a pattern! A couple years later, one of the first years in our new home (and where we have TONS of trick-or-treaters!) I thought it would be fun to whip up a quick Regency dress in a blue ticking stripe to hand out candy in. It was a quick job, with raw seams on the inside, but it did the job as a wear-once kind of costume!

I did add elastic to the sleeves, which gave it a cute little ruffle on the hem which I loved!

I made it as a pullover dress, so without any buttons or any closures. In order to pull it in a bit under the bust, I just grabbed a pin, stuck a bow on it, and used it like a brooch.

 In cleaning out my closet I decided I really no longer needed this one, and it would make a great quick Halloween costume for someone else, so I'm selling it on Etsy!

Lime Toile Easter 2014 Dress

A couple years ago, I kept coming back to some pattern art I had pinned that had a sash sewn into the side seams, that angled a bit downwards in front and then wrapped around to the back. I loved the lines it created.

 

I decided that this was going to be my inspiration for my Easter dress that year! So I created a simple bodice using Butterick 5982, I wanted a V-neck and short sleeves so I used bodice C on the far right.

I altered the back to also have a V-neck. I wanted the sash to be a contrasting color, and decided to go with a gorgeous lime Asian toile fabric I had sitting around, and used a deep teal chiffon for the sash. I added a circle skirt (which ended up being too short due to lack of fabric, more on that in a bit!)

You'll notice I have no pictures of this dress I created, lol, because at the time I wasn't blogging much and somehow never took an Easter pic! I liked the result, but the sash ended up being a little fussy, and I wasn't sure I loved the contrasting color in the end.

I didn't wear the dress a single time after that Easter, and recently pulled it out and thought, you know, I bet it would be better without the sash. So I ripped open the side seam, removed the sash, and sewed it back up.

It was SO MUCH BETTER!!

As you can see, the full lining extends beyond the hem a few inches. This was my fix to the fact that I didn't have enough of the main fabric to get the length I wanted. But as often happens with creative solutions to problems, I ended up liking it even more with the peekaboo hem, it reminds me of a petticoat!

I think this was my most successful sleeve insertion to date, I often feel restricted by sleeves on dresses I've sewn and haven't quite figured out how to make it better, so I tend to go with sleeveless and plan on adding a cropped sweater! But as I wore this one I realized the sleeves are actually pretty comfortable on this one, makes me want to get out the pattern to use as a bodice again when I want sleeves.

 I added a waist stay (the color was a fun little wink to the sash which is no longer there, lol)....

...and pockets of course!

So strangely enough it ended up being rather different than I planned, and my entire inspiration for it is nowhere to be seen on the dress itself, but that's just how the creative process works sometimes, isn't it? 

Another surprise is, it ended up in my destash pile of dresses, which means I've listed it on Etsy along with my other efforts at making more room in my closet. I had a harder time with this one, as I ended up really liking its reincarnation sans sash, and my husband even commented on how much he liked it on me! But, it's still about an inch or two shorter than my favorite, most comfortable length, and at the time I made it I felt like more length on the peekaboo lining hem would have started to look odd. And seriously, even after a brutal go through my closet slashing my wardrobe in half, I still have TWENTY FIVE dresses, y'all! And you know I'm constantly making more. So...yeah. I figured I could stand to let it go. ;-)

But I learned a lot from making this dress, most notably that though sometimes you start with one source of inspiration, it won't necessarily be that specific thing that you end up loving about it, so it's good to be flexible and edit as you go. And that's useful knowledge I'll be keeping with me as I continue to learn, with or without this dress around!