Party dress in action

 

So, here are some more pictures, as promised, of the party dress. And I am made up and accesorized and everything. I felt great in the dress and had a fabulous time.

 

I'll be back soon with updates on my coat and a sewing project for a friend.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Party potato sack - another Simplicity 2147

I needed to whip up a party dress real fast for Saturday since we're invited to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday. I had already discarded all my other me-made dresses (too non-festive...) so of course (!) I needed to make one. I wanted something to look AND feel fab in, and which dress has rendered me more compliments than any other? Well, it's actually my green and blue simplicity 2147.

So why not use what you works? I just had to find a festive fabric... Looked through my boxes of fabric and landed on the fabric I used for the bridesmaid's dresses I sewed for my sister C's wedding.

Sorry about the picture quality, it's a photo of a framed photo. BTW, that's me on the right WITH HAIR! The bridesmaids (me and sister E) are pregnant in this photo, me 6 months and she 5 months! I think I did a good job on the dresses because you can't tell right away... :)

It's extremely crinkled and kind of slippery and just as I remembered it is kind of difficult to sew in. But I managed to produce this, which is a smash hit for me!

A simple dress in a festive fabric, it turned out great. I'll try to take some more photos on Saturday when I'm all made up and accessorized!

Well, what's new with this version? The obvious of course, the wrap neckline and it's sleeveless. I put on some buttons on the shoulders as suggested in the pattern, which gives the dress some more character I think.

So, yet again... IN YOUR FACE, everyone who calls 2147 a potato sack. I think it's a great pattern!

Bye for now,

Johanna

Getting organised - My todo-list

Today I sat down in the sun with pen and paper and made a list of the sewing projects I would like to do. I came up with seven posts that feel relevant and realistic at the moment. Here they are:


1. A dress for my cousin/God daughter's high school graduation Simplicity 2444 in apple (?) green cotton.  (Yea, I was totally inspired by the photo on the pattern envelope.)

2. A Meringue skirt from Colette's sewing handbook. I don't know what fabric I'll use just yet, but something from my stash, since I got so much fabric from mum.

3. A pair of shorts. I'm very inspired by the nice weather we're (finally) having, so I want some new shorts, but I haven't decided on the pattern yet, but the fabric will be from my stash, I think.

4. A blouse with peter pan-collar  (Colette's Violet look-a-like) from my sewing magazine, see the muslin here. I just have to decide on the fabric, cotton, viscose, crepe...? Have to check the stash.

5. A potato-sack blouse (Simplicity 2147) without pleats. I'm thinking viscose, kind of flowing... I was inpired by some blouses from H&M, this one and this one.

6. A colour-blocked potato-sack dress (Simplicity 2147) like the one I have in green and blue. I've gotten so many compliments about that dress, so I want to make another one. I recently bought a pair of yellow converse knock-offs and I love them. I haven't worn yellow in 20 (!) years, I had a mustard yellow top in high school, which I finally realised made me look weirdly pale and pasty, so after that no more yellow... until now! I'm so inpired by my shoes I'm thinking that I will make the dress yellow and green. The yoke and lower part green and the rest yellow. What do you think, wouldn't it be great?

7. Another denim Ginger skirt. I was so inspired by the version Sunni made on A fashionable stitch. I like pockets, which there are on Sunni's version. I think I will use the dark denim I bought for the jeans I had planned to make, but gave up on.

OK, those are my planned projects and I'm proud to say that I've already begun the graduation dress. I have altered the pattern to fit my not-so-pronounced waist, using the tips in the Colette sewing handbook (I love that book!) and have cut out the fabric. I will take a chance and not make a muslin, let's hope it will be alright anyway. I didn't pay much for the fabric so the cost is not the worry, the fabric's just such a lovely shade of green. Tomorrow, I have to get some thread though because the green thread I have is more of a grass green and not apple-like...

Ok, bye for now,

Johanna

"Order! I will have order!"

...is what Dolores Umbridge said in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and what I would like to say about things here!

In my previous post I wrote about my upcoming projects and totally forgot about one of them. Not so orderly... So I will return order to my blog and tell you about this cute blouse I sewed up for mum.

She liked the one I made for our visit to her so much and she gave me loads of fabric, so I promised to make one for her. And I also gave her my first version of this pattern (Simplicity 2147), the dark green one which look sort of sack-like, though not on her, which was good.

She gave me the fabric for the blouse, kind of greyish-blue with irregular white dots. Super-cute! Some kind of cotton, very easy to work with, not a lot of fraying. I made most of the seams French seams and also used the twin-needle for the sleeves, neck and hem, it just looks really nice.

Here it is on the hanger:

And here I'm trying it on, even though it's a bit big for me. I hope mum will be pleased.

Oh, I almost forgot, but I lowered the neckline to get it more like a U-neck than a boat-neck, not that you can see it really... Mum's only request, I hope it will be enough.

So... I'm still waiting for my jeans pattern from Etsy and my Colette book, so I'm kind of stuck there. Although I bought some denim stretch fabric for my upcoming jeans, washed it, dried it in the drier and ironed it, and ended up with a blue drier door and blue fingers. I can't believe how much denim can bleed, I even thought of writing a post about this called "Keep bleedin', keep keep bleedin'...".

Ok, so now I feel things are back in order, though I might throw another Ginger in the mix after seeing this post by Sunni (A Fashionable Stitch) about a wonderful jean version.

Ok, bye for now,

Johanna

Simplicity 2147 again - or what you can make of a potato sack

So, it seems my favourite pattern so far is Simplicity 2147, despite its tendancy to look like a sack. It's all in the choice af fabric, people. To avoid the sack go for a cotton fabric. Here's a blouse I sew thursday night, just because I wanted something new to wear for our trip to mom. I used the 2147 view C which is tunic length, but I went for short sleeves (summer's on the way!).

I also chose this project to be my first where I use French seams. It wasn't hard at all and it looks so pretty on the inside! I used the twin needle for the hem, it always looks very professional. The hem is a bit larger than the pattern says. I think it says 3 cm but I made it 6-7 cm instead, so it would look more like a blouse than a tunic. I'm very happy with the result.

And here it is from the front:

And the back:

I don't know if it shows in the pic, but there are only two pleats in the back instead of six. I tried to omit the pleats altogether, but I didn't change the pattern enough (did not make my sturdiest effort in calculating how much to take out), so I had to make two pleats. But I'm not unhappy with that since it looks good. I also added about two inches of extra width at the bottom.

My mom and sister liked it so much that they now want me to make them one each! My mom was also gracious enough to donate four (!) bags of fabric from her attic stash (she has several cardboard boxes). We'll see what I can make out of that.

I have also recieved my Colette Ginger pattern. Yey!  So toworrow I will make a skirt. I have a lovely striped cotton fabric in blue, red and white and I will make view C.

Bye for now,

Johanna

Simplicity 2147 and 2245 - me wearing it!

So, I finally have some pics of me wearing the two dresses I've posted about before, Simplicity 2147 (the non-potatoe sack-version) and Simplicity 2245.

I made my son help me take pictures. He looooves borrowing the camera and taking photos of everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. So far we have photos of my ironing board, the floors, the TV while it's on etc. But he's totally excused because he's only five and totally adorable and not to mention helpful! (I didn't want to ask my husband to take photos, because I suspect that he thinks this blogging business is a bit lame... :)).

Here they are! First the 2147:

And here's the 2245 (I love those pockets):

I must say that blue and green dress is my favourite out of these two.

On another note, I couldn't help myself but had to order the Colette patterns' Ginger skirt yesterday! It cost me a whopping 170 SEK/£17 including P&P. I hope it's worth it and my expactations are high after reading posts on it from LLADYBIRD among others. *Standing by the mailbox 'til the mailman comes*

Well, bye for now,

Johanna

Simplicity 2147 - also known as the potato sack...

I was reading one of the blogs I follow when I stumbled over this post about Simplicity 2147. It looked so comfy and the right type of dress for me. I later read some other posts about this pattern, and more than one called the dress "a shapeless potato sack". I both agree and disagree with that, let me show you...
Agree:

Disagree:

The first dress is made of some heavy polyester/cotton blend. The second one is made of cotton and somewhat stiffer. I also think that it has more shape due to the blue part at the bottom of the dress. If I make this again (which I already have, but I'll save that for later...) I think I will put som kind of lining or interfacing at the bottom to get some shape.

Please, have a look at the seams I made with the twin needle. I'm SO proud, it looks really professional, doesn't it?! Top-stitching also makes such a difference, I think.

It was really easy to make, and wise from my mistake with the potato sack above (which is size EU44/Am20) I adjusted the size to EU40/Am18 which turned out really well. I also changed the width of the dress by adding 5 cm/2 inches on each side of the front and back pieces. The original length of the dress is of course too short for me, so I added about 10 cm/4 inches (actually, the blue bit at the bottom equals the length addition).

OK, now to one of the great things about this dress, the fabric only cost me about SEK40 (about £4)!!! The fabric I used is the cheapest that you can get from IKEA (SEK19/metre). I originally planned to make a green dress, but got some blue fabric as well just because it was cheap. When I got home from IKEA I saw that the colours were really good together. So I decided to make the dress blue and green, and I'm happy I did!

Well, that'll be it for now.

Bye,

Johanna

Sneak preview

Found a pic of three of my latest project on my mobile (if the pic quality is bad, that's why). The two dresses on the sides are from the same pattern. Well, I'll tell you more tomorrow hopefully (you never know with two kids home from child care to avoid them getting the stomach flu...).

Bye for now,

Johanna