Category Archives: sewing

Sun drop

Drop-waist dress

Drop-waist dress

Drop-waist dress

Drop-waist dress

Drop-waist dress

Drop-waist dress

Drop-waist dressdress: self-made // shoes: Swedish Hasbeens // watch: Fossil 

So Boston is currently 20F and buried in snow. Which is why I’m pretty happy that my flight was canceled and I got to stay in sunny 70F California for two extra days! To celebrate, we took a beach trip to Baker Beach to hang with the Golden Gate and soak in the sun before heading back to snowy purgatory. (Yes, all you people that said I would get tired of the snow, you were right. Let’s move along now.)

I also got to take my new drop-waisted dress out for a spin! If you follow me on Pinterest you might have noticed the recent influx of drop-waisted dresses on my Sewing Inspiration board and I was so excited when vacation started and I actually had time to figure out how to make one!

I had this navy rayon challis planned for another project but it seemed perfect so I snagged it for this project. In the interest of using patterns I already owned, I chose to use Colette’s Laurel dress as the base. If you’re feeling less adventurous, Republique du Chiffon’s Viviane dress looks pretty cute. It was a pretty simple pattern hack though! I basically just cut out the the bodice front and back as indicated but shortened by about 8-10″ (I did some adjusting so I’m not totally sure of the exact amount I hacked off, and this will depend on your height and how low on the waist you want the skirt to sit). I was also basing my dress mostly on this one, so I cut the sleeves a little wider than the pattern and extended it to 3/4 sleeve length and just enclosed some elastic in the sleeve hem before sewing the sides of the sleeves together.

Then I just gathered two rectangles and attached it as the skirt. Since it’s a pretty loose dress, I didn’t need to add a zipper or anything. I also wanted included a back slit so I just folded the center edge over twice on either side, sewed it down, and then sewed the two pieces together from where the slit ends to the bottom, letting the open bit overlap a bit. Then I attached a small decorative (read: non-functional) button on top that sits over where the top neckline thing attaches. If that makes no sense, let me know and I’m happy to draw a diagram.

In other news, meet my new foot babbies! My mum got them for me for Chreestmas and I basically never want to take them off. They’re a tiny bit ridiculous but four inch heels that feel like flats? With a bow?? Yes please.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and got to relax at least a little! Mine was a bit crazy but filled with tons of fun and fambly and kittens. I got to take one last nap with the kittehs yesterday and now I’m dragging my feet and trying to think of legitimate ways to avoid getting on that plane tomorrow morning.

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Shiny!

Classic stunner dress copycat Classic stunner dress copycat Classic stunner dress copycat Classic Stunner dress copycat Classic Stunner dress copycat Classic stunner dress copycatdress: self-made, based on this // shoes: Seychelles // glasses: BonLook* // coat: thrifted // tights: Modcloth 

*This is an affiliate link, which means I may get compensated if you decide to shop at BonLook. You won’t pay more by clicking through my link and you’ll be helping to keep peneloping.com running! :]

So the plan was to grow out my bangs and possibly revert to being a brunette. That was the plan, anyway. My bangs were around cheekbone length (and super annoying) and my roots were getting to that gross “something needs to be done immediately” point and I even had a box of brown dye sitting on my desk. Except then somehow I ended up with blunt bangs and even redder hair. I usually just use Garnier Nutrisse in light intense auburn, except this time I decided to use one of the blonde shades on the bottom half and then the auburn over everything to see if the bottom would end up a bit lighter. I can’t really tell if the blonde made a difference at all but just having a head of freshly dyed hair feels amazing.

I’ll be honest though, the bangs were 80% because my eyebrows were starting to look like caterpillars trying to mate and for some reason hacking at my hair was easier than dealing with unruly eyebrows. My eyebrows are still out of control.

Anyway, I made this dress more than a year ago for a fancy party and it’s sort of been forgotten ever since. I haven’t really worn it because I wanted to make small adjustments to the waist area but keep forgetting about it until I actually want to wear it. I absolutely adore this fabric. I spent ages trying to find something similar to the original dress but purple, black, and silver impressionist semi-floral blobs is not exactly an easy print to search for. I kept running into this fabric at the store and finally decided that it was probably the closest thing I’d find. It’s super thick and holds the pleats really well.

I used Simplicity 1873 (again!) but with some adjustments to the neckline area. I wanted it to be more of a boat neck so I widened the neckline and then scooted the shoulders outwards a bit. Then I cut the back so it would form a V-shape.

I think I’ll whip this one out for Christmas this year!

PS If you’re in Boston, come celebrate Stitchmas at Grey’s this Saturday! Details on Sarah’s blog.

PPS It snowed!!!

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More florals

Floral skater

Floral skater

Floral skater

Floral skater

Floral skater

Floral skater

Floral skaterdress: self-made, pattern here // shoes: Nine West, thrifted 

I made another lady skater! I know I was supposed to be sewing solids but I wandered by this fabric while I was shopping for a different project and it basically jumped up and down at me.

Have I mentioned how much I adore this pattern? It’s the perfect ego-boost for when you’re either feeling completely un-creative or just want to feel badass and able to pop out a garment in half an hour. It even kind of feels like cheating. I wore it to work the other day and it felt like I was wearing pajamas all day. Can’t argue with that.

 

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A floral Laurel

Floral laurel

Floral laurel

Floral laurel

Floral laurel

Floral laurel
dress: self-made, pattern here // tights: Modcloth // glasses: Bonlook // shoes: Seychelles // belt: thrifted

I was kind of ambivalent about this pattern at first. I wasn’t sure how it would look on me and I didn’t really have any ideas that were screaming out to me to be made. But then I decided I was making things too complicated, trying to think of cute sleeves to add or fun trims to try. Why not keep things simple and jazz it up with a cute floral print?

The pattern itself fit me decently well, except for the usual armpit area issues that I tend to have with Colette patterns. I kind of suspected that might be the case though, and just slicing off about an inch of the lower arm-hole area was enough to fix the fit issue. Seriously though, do I have huge armpits? I also took in the sides a bit.

I picked this fabric up from a discount fabric store back home ages ago and it’s just been sitting around waiting for the perfect project. It’s a deliciously soft rayon challis that was a bit difficult to sew but Laurel is such a straightforward pattern that it wasn’t too much of a headache. I think I somehow got away with only using one 60″ wide yard for this dress.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, although it does look a bit church-lady-ish without a belt. I was playing around with the idea of adding three tucks or pleats on either side of the waist, right under the bust but haven’t gotten around to it yet. For now I love the way it looks belted.

This dress actually took me way longer than it should have due to sheer laziness. I’d sewn up one sleeve to the arm hole to check the fit and found it way too tight, but the sheer prospect of ripping that 10″ seam was just so daunting that I threw the whole thing under the bed for three weeks. Realistically this project should take an hour or two, tops. Definitely a great project for a beginner!

I want to do another one in lace. And one with some sort of front bib or neckline trim detail! Ooh and pockets!

PS I recently discovered Kollabora! As much as I love Burdastyle and Ravelry, it’s so nice to have one place where I can post all my rando craft projects! You can find me here.

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Archer + Virginia sittin’ in a tree

Plaid Archer Plaid Archer Plaid Archer Plaid Archer Plaid Archer shirt: self-made, pattern here // leggings: self-made, pattern here // glasses: Bonlook // knee socks: J.Crew // boots: Boutique9 

Sometimes projects just don’t work out the way you planned. You have this perfect image in your head, you painstakingly gather all the supplies, read all the tutorials, and do all the math, and something just doesn’t work out.

This was kind of the opposite. :]

I had absolutely zero faith that this would work out. I’ve always had a soft spot for a cute plaid shirt, but even after seeing a bunch of gorgey Archer on the interwebs, I had sort of decided that that was beyond my skill set or patience level to even attempt. But then I decided that I needed a crazy skill-developing project (to even out the endless hours of mindless ruffling) so I figured this would be a good idea. But I was pretty sure this was going to fail.

I started looking for a cute cotton flannel plaid print that wasn’t too preppy/matronly/sleepingshirty/manly/boring and when I saw this one I knew it was a winner. I immediately set out to read about a million tutorials on how to match plaids.

These two posts were particularly helpful:

http://reallyhandmade.com/cutting-out-plaid/
http://reallyhandmade.com/sewing-plaids/

I’m not joking when I say that it took me two weeks to cut out all the fabric. I had to read and reread tutorials a bajillion times, and then I’d get myself all geared up to cut into the fabric and give up at the last minute. Two weeks. Maybe I should’ve picked a shittier fabric to start with because falling in love with this one made things even more stressful. The fact that the cotton flannel didn’t like to keep its shape is great for shirt comfy-ness but not so great for cutting.

I totally have the hang of it now though!I stalked everyone else’s Archers to see what pieces were supposed to be cut on the bias (I ended up doing the pockets, the right button band, the sleeve cuffs, and the outside piece of the back yoke) because I realized I had no idea which ones were supposed to be. I even made the pockets and sleeve cuffs (which I forgot to roll down and photograph) identical to each other! I tried to match everything else as best as I could and it was totally worth the extra effort, although I now have an annoying habit of scrutinizing (ok, and judging) everyone’s plaids to see if they match.

And yeah, I’ve worn this every single day since I finished it on Wednesday evening. I should probably make a few more.

PS Yes, those are a pair of Virginia leggings I snuck in there! These were made out of moisture-wicking fabric that I ordered off eBay. I’ve worked out in them but I haven’t actually gone for a run in them so I can’t really speak to the effectiveness of the moisture-wicking abilities. They’re definitely super toasty though.

PPS I feel like Archer + Virginia is a match made in heaven.

PPPS You guys, I’m so in love with this shirt it’s not even funny.

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