Category: sewing

Originally I had planned on making a two-tone Cynthia Rowley dress. I had some leftover wool jersey from the dress in February to use for the bodice and I got a yard of Liberty for the skirt. I was picturing a lovely end-of-summer dress.

But as I still haven’t learned, the cut on her patterns are odd. I sewed the bodice before cutting into the skirt fabric (maybe I am learning a little), and it’s just too low cut. It’s a lovely end-of-summer party dress, but I don’t really go to parties. I suppose I can throw a skirt onto the bodice if a party ever does come up, but I didn’t want to waste the Liberty on something I’d only wear once a year.

So I made the skirt fabric into another button-back top. This time I went with version 3, with the cut-out in front and the ties. Here it is with the sailor skirt, if you can make it out

And here’s a close up, which brings me to pattern placement: Doesn’t the cut-out look like a mouth, and don’t the two dark blue daisies on my shoulders look like eyes? NOM NOM NOM!!
I only had a yard of fabric to work with, so I probably couldn’t have done anything about that even if I had noticed. I’m just glad I can’t see it when I’m wearing it.

NOM!

As I mentioned, it was my dad’s birthday over the weekend. I also hinted at a present: I made him a Hawaiian shirt for some birthday aloha.
The fabric is barkcloth, a lucky find from a Hawaiian store, and I used a Simplicity pattern that was really straightforward. It didn’t call for a facing on the back yoke, so I added one–and then cut a hole in it (swearing ensued). Fortunately these “made by” labels are self-adhesive and patched the hole.
And they’re true!

The current project is a dress that’s not working out (fool me once, Cynthia Rowley, shame on you. Fool me three times….well, I think I learned my lesson). I’m re-purposing the dress skirt fabric to make a blouse, but that’s not done yet. So instead, look what happens when you get a bonus and have realized it’s easy to order things internationally:

Liberty of London baby cord in “Mauverina” (love that name)

Liberty Tana lawn in “Strawberry Thief” and “Poppy and Honesty”

And my favorites, “My Little Star” and “Helland” (tiny viking ships for the win!)

Everything but the funk-tastic star print came from Shaukaut, a store in London that offers Liberty fabrics at a great discount–even with international shipping. They were already sold out of the “My Little Star” print, though (it’s from the spring collection) and I had decided I NEEDED it, of course, so I found that at a place in Canada.

Ahem.

I do plan on all this fancy fabric taking me until at least January, with a couple of skirts thrown in, so it feels a little less excessive when I think of how it will spread out. Besides, if I get a house by the end of the year I won’t be able to buy anything fancy, so I thought I’d better stock up.

Despite this summer of pencil skirts and little blouses, my first love remains the hippy dress–a dress that’s loose and smock-like and looks good with boots. (I think this love stems from my love for the muumuu.)

A Simplicity pattern that I use a lot makes a good hippy dress, but then I discovered these patterns from France. France knows all about hippies, right?


This line primarily makes children’s patterns (enfants and bebes) and I learned about it when a couple of craft bloggers I follow bought enfant patterns and raved over the “simple, sophisticated lines.” We’ll see how they sew up–but the pattern pieces already have a French flair:

(Note to anyone who’s forgotten their high school French: Modern patterns from Simplicity, etc. are labeled in English and French, so you have an automatic glossary for these. And there are diagrams. And hippy dresses are not complicated.)

This week’s project is just a pillow cover. I had some fabric on hand that I had bought for the quilt binding (before I decided on solid blue) and enough left over from the back border to finish it off.

And there’s piping. I guess I’d better plan on making a winter bathrobe soon, since I’m starting to put piping on everything.

Hey look, a pencil skirt in a bright print–bet you haven’t seen anything like that before!
It’s the same Burda pattern that I used on all the others, and it goes together in under two hours now. The fabric is a print from designer Heather Ross’ collection inspired by fairy tales. I went with generic roses, but the Owl and the Pussycat fabric was tempting.
I have one more dress planned for summer, but lately all I can think about is fall and fall sewing–which makes me feel kind of disloyal to the season. I was secretly happy about the rain and the coolness last night. (Sorry, summer.)

I was ready for something easy after that involved sailor skirt and all the seam finishing, so what could be easier than making two big rectangles into a skirt? I think hemming all 85″ around the bottom took about as long as the rest of the sewing combined.

This is a patternless project that my mom first turned me on to, but you can find a tutorial here if you don’t have a mom who grew up in the 50s.

Every time I wear a full skirt I have to think of Roman Holiday, which has the best blouse-skirt-sandals look for summer, ever (in Rome or not).

Here are some pictures of the sailor skirt from last week–sorry, no action shots; the sun is so far north that the bedroom (where the full-length mirror is) doesn’t get any morning light.

It was hard enough to figure out how to assemble this, let alone make a lining for it, so I got all fancy on the seam finishes again. This front panel unbuttons to reveal a zipper and a pocket:

So the inside had a lot of seams to bind:

Ditto for the (flattering!) curvy panels on the back:

And inside:

(Obviously, I was getting bored working with plain navy so I had to add some color somewhere.)

I’m just pleased that this fits well, because there were a lot of steps to get through before I could even try it on to check the fit. Whew!