Tag Archives: sewing

Cecile’s cousin

Cecile dress copycat

Cecile dress copycat

Cecile dress copycat

Cecile dress copycat

Cecile dress copycat

Cecile dress copycat

Cecile dress copycatdress: self-made, based on this lovely number // tights: F21 // shoes: Chelsea Crew 

When Dear Creatures’ new Autumn 2013 line came out, I nearly squeed my pants off. You may have witnessed my mad pinning session if you follow me over there. Shocking, I know. Pretty much half of it went on my to-sew list (and the other half went on my presents-to-myself list). First on the to-sew list was the Cecile dress.

When I saw this dress, something sort of nagged at the back of my mind. It seemed familiar maybe? I dug through my pile of patterns and then felt pretty stupid because it was almost identical to Burda 7309, which is one of my go-to patterns. I hadn’t realized it at first because I’d never actually made the skirt before!

I made no alterations to the bodice, but switched out the sleeves for a lengthened version of Burda 7739. For the skirt, I cut and marked most of the pattern as drafted, but added about an extra inch on either side to create darts to line up with the bodice darts. I think the back already had darts so I just cut and sewed those as indicated.

Once everything was more or less put together, I started hand-stitching the trim. I debated how to do it, and tried several things before finding something I liked the effect of. First I tried satin ribbon, but didn’t like how shiny it was. Then I tried the back of the ribbon but I still wasn’t sold on the color. I thought about making bias tape and using that but then decided that making three yards of bias tape didn’t actually sound all that fun. Plus, I couldn’t find the right shade and texture of fabric for it anyway. Finally I meandered over to Sarah’s shop, beaten and broken (hah — just kidding) and she saved the day with some amazingly smooshy ribbon that I can’t for the life of me remember the name of. It’s like grosgrain but made of rayon (I think?) and suuper soft. I may have spent about ten minutes petting it before I actually started sewing it on.

Anyway, yay! I think the dress fabric is mostly wool so it’s super warm and only a tiny bit itchy. I’ve been wearing it with a long tank top underneath and it’s been totally warm and comfy now that it’s suddenly freezing.

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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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Layer cake

I’ve been a little absent lately, as I’ve spent the past week being distracted by this gorgeous monstrosity (which you may have already seen if you follow me on Instagram).

Those of you who have seen Firefly will recognize Kaylee’s layer cake dress from the episode Shindig. This dress has been on my to-do list for absolutely AGES (according to my sketchbook swatches, since 2007 at least!) and it feels amazing to finally be doing it. I’m planning to wear it to PAX East in April, which gives me a good six months to figure out that damn mandarin collar.

For those of you who’ve not had the immense pleasure of watching this show, go do it now. And this is what the dress looks like.

kaylee

Yes, it’s massive. Eight layers of fluff on the skirt plus a peplum on the top. And puffed sleeves!

I’ve started with the skirt, since it’s a lot of work but actually really easy other than the math. It’s been my break from the traumatizing experience of learning to match plaids. More on that later.

I bought 45″ poly chiffon in pink (5 yards), peachy pink (4 yards), and super pale pink (2 yards). I think technically it’s supposed to be white but it just looks too contrasty so I’m going with a pale pink. I also got 7 yards of tulle and 4 yards of some kind of super lightweight cotton/poly blend for the skirt base. Most people’s versions that I’ve seen have made an entirely separate ruffled skirt to wear under the chiffon skirt, but realistically, I don’t see wearing two ruffle skirts plus a hoopskirt being all that much fun so I’m going to see if I can get away with just the one skirt, hence the tulle.

The base skirt is made up of five panels, 36″ wide at the bottom and 45″ long, French seamed. Currently, I’ve sewn down the three layers of pink and one of the peachy ruffles, as well as the four layers of tulle that go under them. Four more to go, and then onto the top!

And yes, I’m definitely bringing a little bag of strawberries with me to PAX as a prop.

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