Emily's Purple Holiday Gown

*accessorized with a black bolero and aviators. ;-)

Pattern: Butterick 4967
Supplies:  All scrap fabrics!  There is some chiffon, satin, knit, jersey, taffeta, some rayon stuff, and some cotton weave for the lining part.

Some of the fabrics are from projects I haven't blogged yet, like the Arabella, but others are from projects I made for other people or scraps picked up along the way.  The taffeta was from this masquerade gown a couple years ago, remember?  The piece that I couldn't quite squeeze out of my scraps was the dark purple knit in the middle.  That is from a length of cloth that I'll be making a dress out of in the somewhat near future. We'll see how busy school is. :-)

I love this style on, well, everybody, but especially little girls.  The problem is, Emily is 8 already.  She is very tall.  And this pattern I have is only sized to size 6... I really wanted to make it though and loved the idea of using scraps, so I did some math and lengthened each tier accordingly.  It was all very helter-skelter, but I'm so happy with the way it turned out.

A Brunette 60s Piece

Pattern: Butterick 5747 view A with sleeves from view B.

Supplies: Brown micro corduroy from Joann Fabrics, 4 fabric covered buttons, snaps for dickey.

Well, here it is!  I finished this 60s piece late last fall.  It was designed with the darker color and heavy fabric specifically for the autumn season, but it got so cold by the time I finished it that I only wore it once.  It was 40 degrees out today so I ran out with Emmy and Than to get some pictures.  Yes we had snow.  No, I don't know where it went.  Oh, and please ignore the weird lipstick.  I never wear it, but Emm and I were cleaning everything we could to surprise my Mom for her birthday and came upon some old make-up.  So we both used the last of the already used up stick of lip and put brown eyeliner and mascara on.  Oh, and we listened to crazy music and cleaned like crazy. I should have put my mom's pearls on.  Then I would have really been a 60s housewife. :-)  Haha, anyway, I didn't wear this today, just slapped it on for pictures. 

I love this belt with this dress.  Shades of brown are so lovely in my mind. :-)  For the most part I like the weight of the corduroy on the dress (it was designed for autumn after all), but in some places it is so thick it doesn't lay right.  The back of the collar, for example.

I think without the interfacing in the collar for a fabric like this it would be feasible.

 I chose the longer sleeves for mine (think autumn) and they are practically cap sleeves.  The other version would definitely appear sleeveless.  Gotta love that lace trim on the collar and hem!  I hand-stitched is on after the whole dress was done.  I didn't mind so much though, because I was listening to Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell in audiobook form the whole time.  I also listened to the hospitality portion in a book on spiritual disciplines while cutting it out.

Here is the bodice front with and without the dickey.  It is just a "false shirt front."  The neckline is terribly low without it, but with the right colored cami/tank it would work just fine.  Or make the dress in dark velvet and wear it on a date with your husband.  I have no idea.  For now I'll stick with the dickey I guess. :-)

Left: hem details

The dickey attaches with two buttons at the top and two snaps lower down.

Front and back of dress without accesories.

L: box pleats on skirts R: covered buttons:-)

L: the inside R: Pockets!!

I just LOVE pockets.  I've started adding them to every day dress whether the pattern calls for them or not.  Usually I just wing it.  Would you all care for a inserted pocket tutorial?  I find them incredibly useful.

I really ought to fix that knot in the necklace...

One of my favorite parts of this dress is the lack of zippers and hook and eyes.  I love the old-fashioned simple way of buttoning up the front.  If buttons weren't so expensive I think I'd make a light summer dress with buttons all the way down the front.

What do you think?

Belle - A Princess dress for Emily

Pattern: Butterick 4320

Fabric:  All stuff from my stash!  

-Yellow flowered leno shirting from fabric.com

-Yellow lace table cloth from Sharestuff (a thrift store) used for this dress too.

-Yellow criss-cross stitched cotton for bow left over from this dress years ago.

-miscellaneous yellow fabrics that I only had enough for one bow out of each.

-yellow lining or different kinds leftover from all sorts of things

-bodice lining from an old yellow tee shirt :-)

Emily says her favorite part is the shawl looking collar attachment.  I made this in 2 days on and off because Emily was actually very sick at the time and I was watching her and the house at the same time.  We were going to go to a friend's disney princess birthday party 5 days hence so I dug in my stash of fabric and scraps and whipped this up.  As it turned out she was still ill and could not go. :-(  But she got Belle dress out of it so she is pretty happy about that.  It is a little big on her now because of the weight she lost, but it'll fit right soon enough.

So it isn't exactly like Belle's from the movie but it is close enough. :-)

The bows are of different fabrics because of my scraps pile, but I kinda like it.

All of the bows are handsewn to the overskirt.  I did notice that they have you gather the back-most seam but don't have you make a bow for it.  I just un-gathered it because I didn't have any more scraps to make another bow out of. :-)

It is very full and she loves to spin. :-)

The Back

This dress was so simple to put together.  I would categorize it as easy.  The only hard part for me was putting in the invisible zipper and making sure everything was lined up right.  I don't know if the pattern even called for an invisible zipper though, I just like the way it looks...or doesn't look.

In this picture I still have to add a hook and eye.  The bodice is fitted with darts in the front and back which means you don't need to cut three pieces for the front and 4 for the back.  Which is nice.  Sewing for little people is so stress free. :-)  Except that they grow out of things...

With a couple petticoats under this it would get quite full. :-)

While Emily doesn't need another Belle costume for quite some time, if ever, I will definitely use the pattern again and modify it to make some more dresses in the future.

Curtsy!

Her new favorite necklace. :-)

Graduation Party Flowered Summer Dress

Patterns:  Butterick 6467 Bodice view B w/o sleeves size 10

Newlook 6589 Skirt size 10

Fabric: Vintage Green/yellow flowered bedsheet (goodwill)

Yellow table cloth (sharestuff)

White sheet for lining

I had an afternoon grad party with games and food and then we hired an English Country Line Dancing caller to come till sunset so we could dance.  My dress had to be cool because even though it was May 19th is was very warm.

I used the bodice from Butterick 6467 because I knew the fit was tried and true and I wanted to try a lace insert in the bodice.  As that was the case I did not raise the neckline any.  I didn't use the sleeves either.

 Also at my party I would be playing a good deal of volleyball and ultimate frisbee so I had to be able to run.  Que the Newlook 6589 skirt.  I know I can run in this because I've made it at least once.  Remember this green dress?

I remember falling in love with the lace on the bottom of that dress's lining, so I did in on this one as well.

Originally I was only planning to have lace at the neck, but I ended up having on the lining hem and as a sash as well. :-)  

While I was planning this I tried a bunch of different ways that I could sew the lace down while I had the right sides together but I found that it is humanly impossible.  Bummer.  So I just basted it and gingerly unpicked what I had to to insert the lace.  Then I topstitched around the neckline and armholes twice.

For absolute accuracy I hand-stitched the zipper in.

 The dress is fully lined, which means you don't have to wear anything under it and it is made of sheets so there is absolutely no chance of it shrinking.  :-)  The bummer with this is it is actually very heavy.

It's got to look just as neat on the inside as the outside. :-)

I usually wear it now with a cute belt at the empire waist or with a fun denim jacket. :-)  Gotta love it! 

Jegging Maxi Skirt

I'm really excited about this skirt.  I love the long maxi skirt fashions that are in these days so I've been planning on jumping on the band wagon and making a whole bunch of my own. :-)

This one is based very loosely on Butterick 3134. View C

Fabric: Jegging (jeans that are technically leggings) fabric on sale for $3 a yard.  Oh, yeah!  This stuff is perfect too because it looks like a lovely long denim skirt, but the drape is much nicer and it is as comfortable as your basic knit maxi skirt!

I cut the skirt for view C on a fold (except narrower as the fabric would permit) and made it longer.  I actually just cut out a rectangle for the waistband.  So I guess you could say I was just inspired by it.   There is no closure, which is sweet.  Knits rock.  

I wore it in London and Paris a lot.  I tried to not wear it when it was raining though because it is so long it just soaks up all the water. 

 When I was at the Eiffel Tower it was gorgeous and then it started pouring so the bottom 10 inches got super heavy and sand-laden. :-)

Side

Back 

Twirls!  :-)

When sewing knits like this you've got to make the pattern 2 sizes smaller than you normally would.  It stretches so nicely, but if it is too big it just falls off. 

Nice skinny hem.

I just realized that this skirt makes me looks short (-er, ish, etc.)  Haha.

P.S. Do you like this dynamic view design?  I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it is really simple and I like that aspect.