Tag Archives: sewing

Mad Men florals

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Sometimes I decide to do crazy things like make a dress in one day. Sometimes it’s fine because the reason for rushing has more to do with the excitement of working on it than a deadline. Other times it’s because I have a Mad Men party to go to the next day and had completely forgotten to make something to wear to it.

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This was one of the latter.

I thought I was planning ahead, I had a Betty Draper dress all picked out to replicate (and by replicate, I mean loosely. I’m not a huge fan of the pointy boob thing and I really can’t wear a skirt that long), and I even ordered a lovely vintage 1960s dress pattern on Etsy. I did everything but remember to buy fabric and, you know, start sewing it.

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It was a bit of a stressful day, but luckily the pattern was pretty basic (despite missing the instructions!) and I managed to cobble together this lovely thing.

I even had time leftover to make this poofy monstrosity to go under it! See how un-poofy it is without it? A miracle, I tell you. 14 yards worth of miracle.

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I used this tutorial.

And now I want to make that pretty blue dress Jane wears. The one with the gorgeous tie collar.

Uh oh. This is a dangerous path.

What’s your favorite Mad Men dress?

30 Comments costumes - - - - -

Sewing in circles

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It’s drizzly and muggy out today, which I’ve decided is the perfect weather for working on abandoned quilts with a mug of tea. I started this one aaages ago and have been neglecting it in favor of making a million Darling Ranges.

What’s funny is I was inspired to work on it again because I kept thinking how adorable it would look on my bed with all of my finished dresses hanging nearby.

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Anyway, I realized that I had accumulated a ton more scrap fabrics (from all of those dresses!) and decided to cut some more pieces to incorporate more variety in fabrics. I love how it’s turning out!

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In retrospect, I have absolutely no idea why I chose this as my third ever quilt. It’s quite a beast of a project. And I’m still pretty terrible at sewing in circles.

But look! It has hearts!

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The girliest sorbetto

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Well, I think I’ve jumped on the Sorbetto bandwagon!

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This pattern is so simple (only two pieces!) but so customizable. I added a peter pan collar and buttons to mine, and some lace trim under the pleat. I also lowered the neckline by a few inches. It’s so girly and I love it.

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I’d probably wear this with jeans and a long cardigan but I also love how it looks with a simple skirt.

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PS Have I mentioned how much I love my Lottas? They’ve barely left my feet since I bought them and I’m trying reaaally hard to resist buying the red ones too!

8 Comments finished sewing project - - - - - -

New toys!

So I actually had a different post planned for today but I haven’t been feeling that well and the idea of getting dressed up and pretty for once felt daunting rather than fun.

Instead, I’m going to gush about the cool new toys I’ve gotten recently!

I’d been wanting to play with close-up shots but didn’t want to spent too much money on anything, especially considering I just bought my camera AND a new lens for it, so I decided to go the route of close-up filters.

Et voila!

Close up filters
eBay tip: Set a limit for how much you want to spend and stick to it! I let about four other listings go by because they went up too much and then I snagged these for $6! Waay under budget!

These are awesome! I did accidentally forget to ask what the thread size was, and it turns out it was 49mm when I needed 52mm. At first I panicked, until I discovered the existence of step-down (and step-up) rings! I got mine on Amazon for about $3 shipped. So far no vignetting issues!

This other toy arrived literally twenty minutes ago.

50mm f/1.8 Series E

I’ve wanted a prime lens for aaages and kept flipflopping between the 35mm and the 50mm. Eventually I just took my camera out, set it to 35mm and snapped some photos, and then did the same at 50mm. Turns out I like 50mm better. Same thing though, I didn’t want to spend the $200+ on a current lens, so I decided to go vintage!

Meet my new Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Series E!

50mm f/1.8 Series E

And yes, this is a fully manual lens, but I hardly use autofocus anyway. If you’re very dependent on autofocus I wouldn’t recommend this route.

Holy crap, guys. This lens is awesome. I’m still figuring out the quirks but I might have a new favorite!

Anddd just a sneak peek of what I’m working on today, taken with the new toy.

Lace and buttons

Hermione’s red ruffle dress

I finished this dress a while ago (like, over a year ago!) and then never posted pictures of it. Whoops.

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Walking out of the movie theatre after I saw Part 1 of the Deathly Hallows was slightly overwhelming. A chunk of my brain wanted the movie to keep going and hated that I had to wait another seven months to finish the movie, another chunk was sad that there was only one movie left. But mostly I wanted to rush home so I could google photos of Hermione’s entire wardrobe throughout the film. Particularly the lovely blazer outfit from the beginning, the dark blue asymmetrical sweater thing, the gorgeous fair isle sweater, and the red dress she wears to the wedding. (Also Ginny’s dress at the wedding and Ron’s brown sweater but that’s a different story.)

Anyway, this dress was one of the first things I made from that movie, and was essentially the product of one week’s worth of sewing ruffles. Ruffles made of chiffon.

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See? Ruffles. I wasn’t kidding. 

Other than the ruffles, the rest of the dress is pretty basic. I used red chiffon for the outer layer and a thicker red satin for the lining. I drafted the bodice myself and made the skirt out of four panels with a slight gather at the waistline. After that it was just a matter of looking at reference photos for ruffle placement!

On that note, it’s pretty difficult to take spinning photos of oneself. I failed miserably.
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Have a nice Tuesday! :]

 

Edit: I’ve gotten several comments/emails about this so I thought I’d mention it again here. I didn’t use a pattern this dress, I drafted the bodice directly to my own measurements. If I ever decide to draft a pattern someday (which will not be in the foreseeable future since I have absolutely no skills in drafting patterns of other sizes), I’ll definitely make it available here.

13 Comments finished sewing project - - - - - -