May wrap-up

In May, I finished six sewing projects. The first one was A's prom dress. I'm still on the look out for photos of it in action, by the way. I feel a bit cheater-ish, counting this as one of May's projects, since I did the vast majority of the work in April, but I figure it all evens out in the end, especially since I have a project that was done 98% in May which I'll count as part of the June wrap-up.

The second project was pajamas for B. I drafted this pattern myself, and it turned out pretty well.

The third project was Simplicity 2690. Since I posted about this, I took the shoulder seams in a bit, which makes the shirt less floppy. Next time I think I'll just cut a 6 in the bust.

Fourth was New Look 6807. I am quite pleased with this shirt and will probably make it again at some point.

Fifth was pajamas for B's doll. Sigh. Let's say they eventually worked out and leave it at that.

Last but not least was my seersucker dress from New Look 6699. I like this dress a whole lot. I think I should have made the center front a little bit narrower, but it's okay. I may well wear this dress to my graduation party.

This wasn't a great month, but I did knock several projects off my to-do list. I'm pretty sure I added a good deal more, though. Oh well.

Finished dress photos!

So, here are the photos of the finished dress on me. Photos are courtesy of my little sister H. Please excuse the background--our back yard is primarily functional, and as such, I had a choice between the basketball hoop, the trampoline, the vegetable garden, the compost heap, or the chainlink fence and the neighbor's yard.

First of all, a full length shot:


Next photo shows the slight fitting issue that I didn't notice until it was too late: the bodice front is slightly too wide, and it wrinkles and gaps a little bit if I don't stand perfectly straight:

You can also see the tiny pucker in the front of the skirt, but that was just a little tuck I accidentally sewed in there and didn't fix--it's hardly noticeable in real life, due to the busy print.

I'm very glad I underlined the skirt. I really did it for modesty reasons, but I love the slight stiffness the skirt has. It doesn't spin terribly well, since it's not very full, but H did manage to get a pretty good spin photo, which I will post because of my obsession with spinning photos.

I'm done!

Well, my goodness. Hand picking zippers is a pain in the rear! New Look 6699 has turned out beautifully, though. I haven't got any pictures, as I only finished it recently, but it really looks just the same as it does in this post. I am really looking forward to bringing this dress on vacation this year, since seersucker travels pretty well. I'm especially looking forward to wearing it at Princeton. I think it will fit in nicely with the gorgeous buildings there.

New Look 6699

I'm almost done! I have half the hem and the zipper to do. I decided to hand-pick the zipper, as I have trouble with invisible zippers. I think my zipper foot is a bit too wide--it does say on the instructions that you need their special zipper foot for a proper zipper installation.

This dress is quite fitted, and it's making me realize how pathetic my dress maker's dummy is. It's wider than I am in the shoulders and bust, which is where I have most of my fitting issues. Plus it doesn't have a stand, so I have to awkwardly prop it against the wall, which is bad for taking photos of things with skirts. (Case in point: photo to the left.) However, I don't know that getting a replacement is practical either. I figured out today that my shoulders are different heights. Getting a dummy that reflected that would mean getting a custom made one, which is far out of my budget. I've been toying with the idea of making a duct tape dummy, but I'm not convinced I could do a good job of that.

I didn't alter this pattern much at all. I cut my usual mish mash of an 8 at the bust, a 10 at the waist, and a 12 at the hips. I took a little width out of the upper back while installing the zipper to make the fit tighter, but I think I may have deviated from the pattern to do that--the pattern envelope calls for three inches of ease, which I thought didn't look so nice with this style.

The bodice of this dress is interestingly constructed. There aren't any bust darts or anything like that, just the gathers you can see in the photo on the right. This works quite well for someone like me, but I think someone with a fuller bust than I might have an issue with the pattern as drafted. I'm quite sure this isn't drafted for the standard B cup, anyway.

Also, just because it's funny, I'm showing you a picture that shows how slanted the neck of this dress is on my dummy. I find it highly amusing that I never noticed how off my shoulders were from each other before. Sewing has taught me so much about how incredibly oddly shaped I am!

I think this dress is just bordering on the too childish. I think the print combined with the ruffles is pushing the envelope a bit. While I don't have a problem with "childish" clothing, being an 18 year old who regularly gets pegged as being somewhere between the ages of 12 and 15 has its disadvantages, so I try to stay away from outfits that make me look even younger than I am. The skirt (which you can't see properly in any of the photos) is a nice classic A-line which rescues the dress from being all together childish, though. On the whole, I'm very pleased with this dress, and barring any disasters in the zipper and the hem, I'm pretty sure this will become a wardrobe staple.

Quick update

It's late, and I'm tired, so today's update will be quick.

I am still working on NL 6699, and it's coming along nicely. So far I've found a slight error in the pattern--there are instructions for putting a slit in the back of the M skirt, but the necessary marking aren't on the pattern piece and the line drawings don't show a slit. So I skipped it. It's easier without it anyway.

I am racking my brains right now to come up with some hand sewing projects, since I will be out of town a lot this summer. (Habitat trip, philosophy camp, two family vacations, and a trip to drop my sister off at college. Yikes!) I can't think of one that will take a long time and still be compact, though, so I may just bring some embroidery. Anyone have any suggestions?

I feel like a ditz

Today I decided to cut out the pattern pieces for New Look 6699. I have waay more fabric than I need, due to the fact that this is a mix and match pattern. Also, when I bought the fabric, there was an extra 8 inches on the bolt, and the lady at the cutting counter asked me if I wanted the end of the bolt for half off. I said sure, figuring it was such lovely fabric I could think of something to do with it. Much to my surprise, this turned out to be a frugal decision--since I bought the end of the bolt, it was all 50% off! And it was already 50% off, since it was on sale. So I got over 3 yards of fabric for about $6.50. Good deal? I think so.

Anyway, I laid out all my pieces and pinned them, only to discover I couldn't find my sewing scissors. I lost the pair that is technically mine a few days ago, so I borrowed my mother's. [If I were my mother, I would not lend things to me.] Somehow, though, I managed to lose those too. I used them Friday night! Where could they have gone in a weekend?! I also don't understand how I lost my own pair in the first place. My room is so small, there's not much place it could have gone. I'm currently cutting out my dress with pinking shears, which has the advantage that I won't have to finish any seams. The disadvantage, of course, is that these shears are old and stiff, and cutting with them makes my hands hurt.

I think this may be a sign from Heaven that it's time to clean my room. Too bad I have gardening, sewing, Bible study, baking, and a possible shopping trip to do today.

Back to the drawing board...

...but only sort of. Yesterday when I was working on my Simplicity 8884 dress, I realized that there was a little hole in one of my pieces. I also noticed that the fabric shed (shedded? shud? :P) like crazy--there was a fine black dust all over my sewing table and all over my hands. I brought the fabric down to ask my mother if she thought it would keep shedding. She noticed something I hadn't, namely that the fabric was quite weak. It didn't take much at all to tear it. So I've decided that with the shedding and the weakness of the fabric (which is probably due to old age), I'm going to scrap the black version.

Teresa and I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics today. I've been planning to make McCall's 5525 for Teresa, so we bought fabric for that--a lovely green linen/rayon blend. I am going to line it with silk from my stash. What we haven't yet decided is whether or not to add a layer of windbreaker fabric. When Teresa visited Notre Dame, it was extremely windy, but we're not sure how representative that is. For the Simplicity 8884, I bought a dark blue lawn with flowers on it. I also bought some green, blue, and purple seersucker for another dress, New Look 6699 (pdf file). I also bought ten yards of tru-grid, as I was running out. The Jalie 2908 jeans are next on my to-do list, and I want to trace the pattern pieces on tru-grid, as I can easily see myself using several different sizes to make jeans for several different family members.

I hope to have pictures up tomorrow, but I have to babysit shortly, followed closely by youth group, so I doubt I will have time to put any up today.

NL 6807 and a test post

Apparently I can publish to this blog via email, which seems convenient. I thought I would test that out, while posting the photo of NL 6807 that Branka requested. So here goes!

Edit: Ha, it worked! Except I can't tag posts and I can't format the photos and the ad from the bottom of my email shows up along with the post. So I think I prefer the regular old way.