Fit for a Queen

I love dressing up on Sunday.  It is the one day you can do it without getting weird looks from either your family or strangers, so I take complete advantage.

You may remember this dress?  Yeah, it's more comfortable than sweatpants and yet more elegant a ball gown.  I love it.  Oh, and it's the only dress I own that is floor length on my 5' 10" frame.  Level up!  Here is it paired with

Crochet vest cardigan from Ann Taylor Loft (favorite!)- $4 at a garage sale

and a black belt. -hand-me-down

Queen Annes Lace with a purple split tone to make it jive with the dress. 

Did I mention this dress is elegant?  I love the flow it has when I walk.  I feel spoiled when I wear it.  Why haven't I made another?!

Hawaiian Shirtdress Refashion

Today I have a quickie sewing project I did a couple weeks ago.  Knee deep in studying I decided to finally clean my "studio" room and all the open spaces triggered my creativity. So textbooks flew off the agenda and out came the tape measure, scissors, and sewing machine!

Mom bought this top for my Dad at a thrift store because she like the print and it was high quality.  I knew Daddy wouldn't wear it, so we agreed that I would make something else out of it.

I preserved the original collar, hem, pocket and button-holes. It went super quickly.

Instead of sleeves I pulled out some lace trim and added it to the cap sleeve hem with a zig zag stitch.

That's my twirly girl!

I unpicked the pocket and sewed it right back on 5 inches lower.

Add some piping and gather up the skirt and that's the end!

A new summer dress for Emily.  The best part?  I did it while my Mom was gone, and when she got back she saw it hanging in the bathroom and asked my Grandma how much she owed her for it!  She thought my Grandma had picked it up for Emm at Khols!

P.S.  Emily got saved 2 weeks ago!  We're ecstatic over here.  Praise Jesus!

Peggy - Olive Knit Dress

Hey all!  Yet another sewing project for you all!  I know it is hard to believe, but I do actually have quite a life outside of sewing.  God has been so good.  Not only am I able to study full time with CollegePlus!  but I can meet with friends, study my Bible and devote time to prayer, but I also get to do extra-curriculars like sewing!  I've stopped waiting for the future and started living.  And it's great.

Pattern: Vogue 9668, view A

Supplies: The fabric was a gift from my dear Grandma Judy!  Thanks gram.  It is a beautiful mossy green interlock knit from Joanns.  It is medium weight and the drape is perfect.  I love it.  I'm so in love with kints right now. :-)  Oh, and she bought me thread, but that is it for this project.  Fabric and thread.

Right after I finished the dress I threw on a brown belt and some brown pumps, some lipstick and rolled my hair back.   It looked like I had walked out of the 40's.  The green color and the silhouette immediately made me think of Peggy from Captain America.  So maybe sometime this summer after my haircut I'll do a styled shoot with my Dad's old dog-tags.  We'll see.

The pattern is originally sized for weaves and has a zipper in the back.  To accommodate the knit I just cut the bodice back and waistband back on the fold.  I also cut the skirt front and back on the fold.  Knits just don't drape as well with seams in them. :-)

The drape is just perfect now.

The bodice, sleeves and waistband/midriff are fully lined with the same knit fabric.  It is pretty thick, but it is stable and warm.  These pictures we taken in the shelter of the garage because it was raining/sleeting outside and I would have gotten soaked.

My favorite part: the neckline!  It is so feminine.  I raised it an inch or so so that I wouldn't have to worry about it and I love it.

My least favorite part: The empire waist seam.  It is too high and just looks and feels awkward at times. The wide waistband is definitely getting smaller next time I make this.  The proportions are off.

El vestido aqua - Refashion

Here it is at last!  I've been waiting for it to get warm enough to wear this outfit so I could take pictures of it outside and blog it.  There was 2 feet of snow on the ground when I made this a month or so ago.  Finally this past Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, it warmed up to almost 50 degrees.

I've wanted to experiment with making dresses that look like tops+skirts because you get the look with the effortlessness of a dress.  So simple.  

I love long flowing ties!  Feminine and floaty.

I had just taken a shower and it was 9pm when I started the project.  Please pardon the horrendous before images.

Supplies: Large cotton knit shirt with gorgeous neckline applique,  Fabric from a bedskirt a while ago...I think.  It is a rather heavy weave. I also used some white sheet, interfacing, a zipper from the stash and thread, of course.

This shirt was just too pretty to get rid of and to large to wear.  Make it the top of a dress! 

The skirt is based off of Simplicity 4070.  I used the pleated part.

The waistband I freelanced.  It is just long rectangles.  

I wanted to get the young, free, summery feel of a long white sash and bow but I wanted to make it part of the dress.

I hand-picked the lapped side zipper in such a way that the ties are sewn in at the seams and look like  a continuation of the front waistband.

Hand stitched hem.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Next time I would cut more off of the bottom of the shirt before I gather it and connect it to the waistband so that it sits more at my natural waist.

The colors and stripes remind me of some bright spanish festival or fiesta down in Mexico.

Looking forward to spring and getting my fingers and toes in the garden.  I'm planting dozens of poppies this year.  

Thanks Nathanael for taking the pictures for me even though it was breezy and rather cold out. :-)

Carolyn's Black Satin Formal

Check out this post to see the original sketch, design plans, and supply list...

Well, we pulled it together!  And it was even better than I imagined!  +Carolyn Atherley and I worked together on it and I think she learned a lot!  I look forward to our future projects. :-)

Patterns used: Simplicity 2398 and Simplicity 4070

Back and Side views without the sash.

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.