Tag Archives: dress

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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Deadly nightshade

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone
dress: self-made // shoes: Seychelles // headband: J.Crew

Today I went outfit-photographing with the lovely ladies of Katy & Laney and it was a hysterically good time. I climbed in a giant metal wheel in heels, but I’ll save that for the next post. I usually end up ninja-ing my way up to the roof and hoping no one will notice my over-dressed, over-made-up self making faces at a tripod and frantically pulling my dress down when it gets gusty, so it was nice having someone (or a bunch of also super dressed up someones!) behind the camera. Thanks guys!

(It was also pretty hilarious having people to interact with during the photo-taking, especially when it resulted in gems like this.)
Belladone
I don’t remember what was happening, except that Katy said something funny and I almost fell.

This dress was actually my first Belladone, which I made months and months ago. It was snowing and I remember walking home from the fabric shop clutching it excitedly but also kind of questioning my choice of a cut-out dress in the middle of winter.

Hint: Belladone is always a good choice. Always.

So yeah, I love this pattern to bits. It required literally zero adjustment, other than the little changes I make with nearly all patterns I use* (lower the neckline, shorten the hem, usually I add an inch or so to the torso but I can’t remember if I did that here.)

I can never decide if I love this dress, hate it, or am just amazed that it fits like a glove without any major adjustments to the pattern. For some ridiculous reason I decided to buy this awful gabardine (probably because it was like $2/yd) and then decided it would be a good idea to use it for this dress. I love the color, but the fabric itself is just utter crap. It’s too stiff, doesn’t press properly, and unravels like there’s no tomorrow. I made a second one out of a floral cotton that I like better, but it’s really a summery dress and I need to make another darker solid one to wear in the cooler months. The pockets are cute though! I lined them with some pink and white floral cotton I had lying around.

But yay! I <3 Deer and Doe.

*Let’s be honest, it’s a slight slutification. Which we found quite hilarious when we realized what we were taking photos in front of. Hee hee

school

 

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Bows and lace

Bow dress

Bow dress

Bow dress

Bow dress
dress: self-made (based on this Corey Lynn Calter dress) // shoes: Chelsea Crew

I finally finished one of my three copycats for the Copycat Challenge! I mentioned most of the how-to stuff earlier in this post.

Technically it’s not 100% done. I’m still on the lookout for four smallish flat bronzey buttons for right under the bow, between the dangly bits. So far no luck.

Three weeks left in the Copycat Challenge guys! It’s been really awesome seeing what everyone’s made and I have a whole slew of projects to add to my own to-do list. Keep them coming!

*Excuse the rumply-ness. I’m between irons and have been roughing it with a hair straightener. Yeahh..

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Solid skaters

Lady skater

Lady skater

Lady skater

Lady skater

Lady skater

Lady skater

Hey guys. Ever meet a pattern that was just so elegant in its simplicity and versatility that you wanted to just scoop it up by the pattern sleeve and run off into the sunset and have little garment babies with it? That’s kind of how I feel about Kitschy Coo’s Lady Skater pattern.

There were several things that led to my buying this pattern. 1) Cirque du Bebe’s absolutely effortlessly gorgeous version, 2) her post on prints vs solids which made me realize I had the exact problem which was making getting dressed in the morning take three times longer than it really should. Yikes.

Basically this pattern is awesome. I went to the fabric store with the express goal of walking back out with solid knits in scrumptious easy-to-match fall colors. The navy was an obvious choice, and I also found a gorgeous light grey-ish brown that was on sale and just screaming to come home with me. It was weird realizing that my comfort zone of wearable colors is totally different from the colors/prints I gravitate toward for sewing purposes.

The brown was a thinner knit and probably worked better for the drape of the dress. The navy was a little thicker and while it will be great for colder weather, I’m convinced the skirt sits a little funny. I used the smallest size and made zero adjustments (other than shortening the navy skirt by an inch) and the fit was perfect (although maybe a tiiiny bit too tight but probably not a whole size). Yay for knits!

I’m a little bummed that it’s still 80 degrees during the daytime and definitely not cool enough to actually wear these dresses yet. Taking these photos was pretty miserable.

Anyway, I could love on this pattern all day but school just started back up again so I should probably go do more productive things. The moral of the story is that I need to sew more solids.

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