Tag Archives: red

Adventures in drafting // red wedding

July 19, 2016 Peneloping

pattern: 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.

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.

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.

An axillary beast

September 29, 2014 Peneloping

coat: self-made, pattern here // jeans: self-made, pattern here // top: on the blog soon! // shoes: Swedish Hasbeens

I have recently become coat obsessed. I blame Sonja’s coat post from a few weeks ago. I think it’s my way of coping with the sadness of summer being over. Although technically it was 80 degrees this weekend so we’ll see about that.

Anyway, ever since my blazer fiasco last year I’ve been a little hesitant to try anything remotedly bagged or specially lined or tailored. Then for some reason a few weeks ago I decided I needed an Anise and I needed it now. I’d made a first attempt and it had failed spectacularly due to a series of unfortunate decisions. First I bought a wool that was way too lightweight and drapey. Then I decided to compensate by using the stiffest interfacing I could find and getting some weirdly stiff satin for the lining. This resulted in Cardboard Coat.

This time around I used a nice heavy Melton wool and some poly kitties as lining. It’s funny how things work out when you use the right weights of fabric.

I sewed the smallest size and didn’t do much alteration to the pattern other than adding a whopping 4″ to the length. I am not kidding about my long torso. The fit is ok except the shoulders are the tiniest bit tight if I wear much more than a shirt underneath and ohmylord the armpits are tiny. I was griping at sewing club about Colette patterns giving me a complex about my beastly armpits. So next time I’ll go up a size and lower the arm-thingy by an inch at least. (Not sure why I didn’t think to do it this time considering I had to do the same thing with the Laurel and the Sorbetto.) I think I’ll also do some more practice on the bound buttonholes because they’re pulling a bit on that side of the coat.

Other coats I’m drooling over:

-Named is quickly becoming one of my favorites thanks to the Jamie Jeans and this lovely coat. In fact if you saw on Instagram I sort of made this one in one day. It will make it to blogland soonishly.

-The Talea coat from Burdastyle has literally been in my queue for about seven years, waiting for me to be competent enough to be able to make it. I rediscovered it the other day and I think it might be time.

-I think this double breasted boyfriendy look is what I was going for when I made the Anise. I love how the Anise turned out but it’s a very different fit than what I was expecting. Which is silly because “cropped with a huge peter pan collar” doesn’t exactly scream “boyfriendy”.

–Ineedthis.

(Sidenote: I just realized my post title makes it sound like I have monsters living in my armpits. Whoops.)

11 Comments sewing anise - coat - colette - outfit - red - sewing - wool

Peplos

March 15, 2014 Peneloping

My sister and I often joke about how living together would save us a ton of money because we own so much of the same stuff. Despite having entirely different styles at least a third of our wardrobes are identical and, off the top of my head, we also have the same slow cooker, curling wand, gym bag, yogurt maker, etc. We think it’s ok because we live literally across the country from each other. She’s in San Francisco while I’m out here in Boston.

So when it came time to talk Christmas presents and she made a few sewn garment requests (she got an Archer and one of these peplum tops), I couldn’t resist making one for me too.

The pattern is Vogue 8815 (recommended by the Crafty Foxes), which I absolutely love. It’s meant for wovens but I just took it in a little at the seams and it worked out perfectly. I used a heavy knit with only a tiny bit of stretch so no zipper needed. Can’t argue with a top that takes twenty minutes to put together.

I have all sorts of plans for other versions of this pattern: one with a collar, one with some kind of a lace overlay, one with beading on the peplum and cap-sleeves, one with an exposed zipper, maybe one with a deep V slashed in the front, one with long sleeves.

My only issue with peplum tops is that I always find myself defaulting to pairing them with jeans. I’ve tried the skirt thing and it just felt like I was trying too hard and not quite pulling it off. Plus apparently you’re only supposed to wear them with more fitted skirts, which I feel weird wearing.

Anyone else have this issue?

15 Comments finished sewing project peplum - red - sewing - top - vogue 8815

Souffle girl

November 25, 2013 Peneloping

dress: self-made // tights: Chinese Laundry // belt: stolen from Boyfriend

This dress is going right at the top of the “I have no idea how this happened and I’m pretty sure I will never be able to recreate it” list. I decided that since I’m wearing a giant cupcake one of the days for PAX, I should probably go for a completely opposite silhouette for the second day just to give myself a break. This one is based on Oswin Oswald’s dress on Doctor Who.

I started off with Simplicity 2018 and then completely deviated from it pretty quickly. I used an existing dress with a similar silhouette and used that to lengthen the pattern pieces to dress-length. I also folded the back top pattern piece over so there would be less material and it would lay flatter. And then there was the front piece, which was the absolute bane of my existence for three hours two Saturdays ago.

The front part of the pattern was similar to what I was going for with the Oswin dress, except the Oswin dress has that inverted drape where one side is higher than the other, and it’s a thicker material than the pattern was meant for. I had a vague idea of how to cut it, went for it, and realized about three seconds later while pinning that I had epic failed. Spacial reasoning is not my friend. Somehow through the use of lots of pins and some handstitching, I managed to cobble together a neckline that looks pretty much like the original and doesn’t totally suck. There are still some issues to iron out (Metaphorically. I tried actually ironing them out and it didn’t work.) that I hid with strategic photographing but I have until April to figure those out.

And now I have one of two of my outfits for PAX East 2014! Just have to figure out the shoes. She wears red sneaker wedges in the episode but I absolutely abhor sneaker wedges so we’ll see if my footwear hatred outweighs my need to be screen accurate.

Oh and I hope everyone had a good Doctor Who 50th! Which was Saturday. Because normal people totally consider that a holiday.

28 Comments outfit clara oswald - copycat - dalek asylum - doctor who - dress - oswin oswald - outfit - red - sewing

Datura #6

August 30, 2013 Peneloping

I was perfectly serious when I said I’d made six Daturas. This is the latest one (I don’t think I’ve shared #’s 3 or 4 yet) and it might be my new favorite.

I have absolutely no idea what this fabric is. It’s cottony and flowy like a rayon challis but the weave is a little more open. It’s just as soft though, and so comfy to wear. I tried pairing it with a paper bag skirt, hoping the ruffling around the waist would help with the awkward tucked-in-ness. I’m not totally convinced.

Happy Friday everyone!

7 Comments outfit blouse - datura - navy - outfit - red