Tag Archives: copycat

Peggy

March 30, 2014 Peneloping

dress: self-made, pattern here // shoes: Chelsea Crew

So a few weeks ago I was catching up on Mad Men and saw this dress.

And then Julia Bobbin announced yet another Mad Men Challenge. Um, yes please!

So then I had to figure out what pattern I wanted to use and whether I wanted to go woven or knits. At first I was thinking of using a wool blend and one of my go-to patterns, but then I realized I had the perfect double knit in navy and scarlet and that my trusty Lady Skater would be perfect!

I made a few adjustments as usual (omitted the neck band, shortened the sleeves, added the waist tab thing and the skirt panels), and I actually took some photos for a tutorial post I’ll put up later this week.

And as an added bonus, if I ever go to see a Barcelona soccer game, I’ll be all set in the wardrobe department!

Birthday dress!

March 7, 2014 Peneloping

dress: self-made // shoes: Seychelles // tights: F21

Everyone, meet Birthday Dress!

I’ve been so excited to share this and I pretty much ran right upstairs to take photos within three minutes of the last stitch. Did I mention it’s about 30 degrees outside? I had a severely runny nose by the end. Yikes.

Anyway, I can’t remember where exactly at the moment, but I saw this dress a few weeks ago (probably on Pinterest, actually) and decided right then and there that it was going to be birthday dress. I already knew I would use McCall 6646 and figured the black fabric wouldn’t be too hard to find, so I went to work looking up what types of beads to use.

Photo from Modcloth.com

I looked at Etsy, Joann’s, Fire Mountain Gems, and Sewfisticated and ended up cobbling together a nice selection of the necessary beads. If you look at the closeups you’ll see that there’s bugle beads outlining the curlicues and then inside them, it alternates one larger bead and three small seed beads. There seem to be three types of larger beads that are randomly alternating: pearls, montee rhinestones, and some sort of faceted bead. I had some pearls left over from a previous project and for some reason Sewfisticated sells 20g bags of 1/4″ bugle beads for $0.49 so those were easy. I decided to use bicone Swarovski knockoffs from Joann’s and then found these guys on Etsy.

The dress itself was pretty easy to put together but I got a little too excited and sort of jumped the gun and put the bottom half of the dress together before I actually bought the chiffon for the top bit, which meant that that was much more difficult to attach. Whoops. It worked out though! I just ended up making some bias tape out of the chiffon (SO much fun, guys) and reinforcing the heart-shaped neckline with it to conceal where the chiffon top attached.

Anyways, I’m incredibly relieved that I managed to get it done in time! My actual birthday was on Wednesday (27 – yikes!) but a super busy week means we’re doing celebrations tonight instead.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

37 Comments sewing birthday - copycat - dress - mccall 6646 - modcloth - outfit - sewing

Ping copies Sarah’s Skaterfrew

March 3, 2014 Peneloping

dress: self-made, patterns here & here // shoes: Swedish Hasbeens // belt: thrifted // headband: F21

First of all, I absolutely loved hearing about everybody’s WIPs and it’s SO nice to know I’m not the only one with the attention span of a goldfish when it comes to unfinished projects. I’m thinking of making this a regular thing. I think every few weeks or so I’ll pick four things to finish in a set amount of time. If anyone wants to join me, feel free! Conquer all the WIP piles!

Anddd onto this lovely dress. If you haven’t seen Sarah’s Skaterfrew over on Katy & Laney you should probably go check it out immediately. I was already eyeing the Renfrew pattern but her dress version totally pushed me over the fence.

I’m going to have to steal Sonja’s term here because this one absolutely falls in the realm of secret pajamas. Full disclosure though, luckily you can’t tell because of the drapey collar, but I totally underestimated how much fabric I’d need (to be fair Sarah totally warned me). I’d forgotten (again!) that you have to cut out two collar pieces, both cut on the fold. Whoops. I was about an inch short on either side but I somehow made it work.

I’m definitely going to make a few more of these though! It’s perfect for those days when all you want to do is lie in bed all day imitating a slug but things like ‘sponsatilities and adulthood make you go to work.

11 Comments sewing copycat - lady skater - outfit - renfrew - sewing - skaterfrew

A wearable hug

February 24, 2014 Peneloping

sweater: self-made, pattern here // pants: Paige denim // glasses: Bonlook // boots: Boutique 9 // headband: Modcloth

I made this sweater ages ago, loved it until it was finished, blocked it, and then hated how it turned out and never wore it. It’s lived in one of those Ikea underbed storage boxes ever since.

I pulled it out again recently and I can’t remember why I hated it so much. It’s super cozy, it’s basically like wearing a hug, and as an added bonus, no long sleeves to get in the way!

Anyway, I love this pattern and I think my former ambivalence toward the finished garment is moreso a reflection of my belief that I can’t pull off this shape. That and the sleeves turned out a little weird after blocking. The pattern itself is based on this Anthropologie sweater and I think the designer did an incredible job matching the original! The only thing that’s different is the cowl: the original has a horizontal cable thingy that looks slightly complicated and honestly kind of odd.

On an unrelated note, is anyone else sewing up an Albion for the Colette sewalong? I’m sooo behind.

PS Thanks for all the well-wishes! I’m finally completely free of the clutches of the plague of doom.

7 Comments knitting anthro cowlneck - anthropologie - copycat - hugs - knitting - outfit - sweater

Sun drop

January 4, 2014 Peneloping

Drop-waist dress

dress: 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.

19 Comments sewing copycat - dress - drop-waist - laurel - outfit - pattern hack - sewing - swedish hasbeens