Tag Archives: patterndrafting

Swing

Swing t-shirt dress

Swing t-shirt dress

Swing t-shirt dress

Swing t-shirt dress

Swing t-shirt dress

Swing t-shirt dress

Swing t-shirt dress

Swing t-shirt dress

This is a pretty simple dress but I want like ten of them. These are definitely my most-worn garments the past few months and I love them so much. There’s not too much to say about them though.

I started with Stretch and Sew 1500, which we used in my beginning clothing class. I think it’s out of print now but if you can get your hands on it, it’s a great pattern. (Here’s a copy that’s on Etsy.) I’ve kind of started using it as my unofficial knit sloper. I pretty much just lengthened the front to dress length, lengthened the back slightly more, and then slashed and spreaded the whole thing to add extra fullness. Then I curved the front and back hems to create a nice high low curve.

The maroon one is made with a really nice cotton interlock from Stretch and Sew Fabrics. (They’re no longer open as a store but they come to my school twice a year with a selection of knit fabrics at great prices.) The elephant one is a really interesting knit that has an almost brushed flannel feeling on the back. I snagged that one from Sewfisticated in Boston.

And that’s about it! Interestingly, the elephant one originally had long sleeves and I wore it literally once and then it sat in my closet gathering dust. Then I came across it again a few weeks ago, hacked off the sleeves, and now I wear it all the time. Especially to buffets.

Hmm maybe I should make a slightly dressier one for Thanksgiving.

Adventures in drafting // red wedding

Red dress

Red dress

Red dress

Red dress

Red dress

Red dresspattern: self-drafted // shoes: Cathy Jean

Haha just kidding. My friends’ wedding was lovely! No murderous musicians.

Anyway, I made this dress because a day before hopping on a plane to DC, I realized that every dress I owned was either black, white, one of the wedding colors, or more appropriate for winter.  So, I took a break from the Epic Peacoat Copycat of July to draft a quick pattern and then made an extremely panicked trip to Joann’s.

IMG_9062

I had found this photo somewhere on Pinterest (not sure where the original is from!) and wanted to do kind of a high-ish front, low-ish back sort of thing. I basically just lowered the neckline ~2″ and drew a new flatter neckline, did a sleeveless adjustment (bring armholes up 1/2″ and in 1/2″), then drew connecting curves from the new armhole up to the corner of the new neckline. Then I contoured the crap out of all it and moved the bust darts up and turned them into princess lines. The back was easy, I just repeated the sleeveless adjustment, closed the waist dart, and drew a line from from the armhole dipping lower at center back.

I didn’t have much time for tweaking but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out! We were going through a bit of a heat wave last week so I was way too hot and miserable (and lacking in time) to deal with figuring out a bra for this one so I decided to just go bra-les. Eh, it worked out I think.

IMG_0225

How cool is this fabric though?? I briefly considered adding trim or some other detailing to the dress but a) no time, and b) it really didn’t need it because of the cool texturing. Also, thank you Great British Sewing Bee for teaching me that even more subtle patterns should really be centered.

(Yes, it’s still bothering me that I was totally off on this dress but I feel slightly redeemed after getting it right this time.)

In other news, all this red is making me miss my red hair.

adventures in patterndrafting // Mood fabrics giveaway

linen shirt dress

linen shirt dress

linen shirt dress

linen shirt dress

linen shirt dress

linen shirt dressdress: self-drafted // shoes: Swedish Hasbeens

Hi everyone! My latest patterndrafting adventure is over on the Mood blog today!

This dress is based on this Anthropologie dress. I actually saw it in the store, completely fell head over heels, and then went home and pinned it and started plotting to draft a pattern for it so I could make an army of them in different colors to wear this summer. So it was pretty serendipitous when Mood contacted me about doing a blog post AND had just gotten a bunch of gorgeous linens in.

You can check out the rest of the details over on the Mood Sewciety blog.

As a fun bonus, I’m also giving away  a $50 gift card to Mood, usable online or in-store. Just comment below telling me what you’re most excited to sew this summer!

This giveaway is open to US readers only (sorry, international friends!) and will be open until midnight Saturday, June 11. The winner will be announced shortly after.

Giveaway is now closed!

Also, unrelated but I totally didn’t realize my dress was the same color as my mom’s house until I went out to take photos.