Completed: McCall’s 5972, The Vintage Floral Sheath

I just realized the title of this post is a little misleading. This is a new dress, made from a new(ish) pattern. I’m fairly certain that even the fabric is somewhat new. I’m calling it vintage because of the colorway and the overall look of the finished piece Just so we’re clear!!

ANYWAY, meet my new favorite dress, y’all!

This is McCall’s 5972, which is Laura Ashley pattern. Funny, I actually bought this dude a few years ago with the intention on making view C, with those ridiculous neck ruffles. Spoiler: I still haven’t managed view C. But I have made view B twice – once in a gorgeous purple lambswool (pre-blog, so no pictures – but I wear it frequently in the winter!), and then this piece you’re looking at right now.

The fabric is a bit special, only because it’s fucking GORGEOUS and I had the tiniest piece. I found it at the flea market over the summer, although I don’t think it’s vintage – it’s a Waverly print (says so right on the selvage) and it’s definitely upholstery fabric. I would not be surprised at all if this is a print that they are currently selling at Joann’s. However, that doesn’t make it any less amazing, amirite.

I’m really surprised that I was able to get this much dress out of the fabric. Like I said, my piece was pretty small – I think I had about a yard and a half, but it was only 35″ wide (I suspect it was 60″ at some point, as there was only one edge with a selvage. Also, holy shit I am abusing these parenthesis today). I initially wanted to make a wiggle dress, but I knew there was no way in hell I’d have enough fabric. I barely squeezed this one out as it was – I cut everything on a single layer. Almost all the pieces are cut on the fold, which meant I had to do a lot of flipping and tracing. It was worth it, though! I even had enough to cut the collar, although I did have to slice it on the center back seam since there wasn’t enough fabric to do it in once piece. I’m so pleased with my fabric stinginess!

I know the belt that I’m wearing here doesn’t really match. Shh! I plan on making a self-covered belt (I should have just enough fabric to pump one out), but I need to buy belt backing.

I made this dress entirely with stash stuff! The lining is china silk. I usually prefer to line with Bemberg Rayon – I think it feels so freaking luxurious, even better than silk! – but this stuff actually matched perfectly. And, surprisingly, it was easier to sew than the rayon. Imagine that.

I did have a bit of an issue with the fit. As I said before, this is the second time I’ve used this pattern. The first dress fits wonderfully, just the way I like it. For this reason, I did not make a muslin. I don’t know what happened between the pattern and the first finished dress, but there is definitely a size discrepancy – and I’m not really sure what I did to make it fit (other than, you know, NOT ALTERING THE PATTERN TISSUE), since it was finished so long ago and I didn’t leave my future self any notes. Thankfully, I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to fit – I try on my stuff frequently as I go, just to be sure there aren’t any little surprises waiting at the end. I caught this right before I put the zipper in. I ended up taking in the zipper side seam by quite a bit – 1 3/4″ at the bodice, 1 1/2″ at the waist, tapering down to nothing by the hip. I may need to go back and deepen the darts on the front skirt; they bag out a bit because I guess I don’t quite fill it out. So weird!

I only made a couple of construction changes to the pattern:
- The finishing calls for bias binding at the armholes. NOPE, SORRY. I pulled out my Rooibos pattern and followed the instructions for inserting the bodice lining – and it worked! No handstitching here, and it looks much cleaner
- The collar does not call for interfacing. I decided to underline mine with some of my precious silk organza. Ah. I love silk organza ♥
- I inserted a lapped, hand-picked zipper instead of the invisible dude. So pretty and sleek and yay!
- Due to aforementioned fabric shortages, the underside of the collar is china silk (same as the bodice lining), instead of self-fabric.

Ignore that belt and imagine this with something more, er, matching.

Here’s that handpicked zipper! See the stitches? NEITHER DO I.

Probably should have stuck a zipper guard in there. Oh well, no care!

I took a few extra steps to make this special – including binding the waist seam.

And this lace hem is super happy

You know what else this dress looks super good with?

Wait for it…

THAT DAMN AGATHA CARDIGAN, YEEEEAH!!

Seriously, tho, let’s talk about how this is a fucking match made in Heaven.

You probably noticed Amelia lurking on the serger table during all these pictures. That is basically what she does the entire time I’m in the sewing room (unless she’s napping on top of my pattern. Or fabric. Or scissors), and the reason why I moved my sewing machine to be away from the window. Her big butt was always in the way!

Notice her look of pure disgust. This cat hates me hahaha.

Shitty Cat is staring into your soul.

Review: eShakti.com

Fair Warning: I did not sew this dress at all. This is a product review for eShakti. They mailed me a dress of my choosing, and now I get to talk about it on the internet woohoo!

When I was first contacted for a review, my initial thought was, “lolwut.” I mean, this is a sewing blog. I make clothes and then we talk about how awesome (or not awesome, I can swing both ways) the finished piece is. Trying out something for someone else’s clothing line just seemed weird and completely against the entire point of this damn blog. I’m not ~punk rock~ anymore, but I still get real weirded out at the idea of selling out, if that means anything.

Then I realized that there are lots of people who read this blog who don’t sew – or don’t sew clothes. There are a lot of us out there who struggle with getting a good fit (and yep, I’m part of this crew! Always learning new stuff!), and it sure would be nice to have a grey area between “Making Everything I Wear” and “Buying Bullshit At The Mall That Doesn’t Fit Over My Ass.” You know?

So, my non-sewing readers. This is for you. And also for me, because, hey, free purple dress

If you’re not familiar with eShakti, it is a website that sells cute lady clothes. Mostly dresses, but there are also tops and coats and even skirts floating around if you look hard enough. Everything is adorable, and there is a wide range of styles to cover most events, from cocktail parties to a semi-professional office. What makes them unique, though, is that they not only offer a serious slew of sizes – 0-36! – but you can customize the fit to accommodate your ass. Or boobs, or petite stature, or whatever. In addition (I know, I’m just blowing your mind over here), you can change certain design elements as it strikes your fancy. Changing up sleeves, hem length, and sometimes even the neckline. So basically, it’s like the seamstresses’ dream wardrobe without actually pulling out the sewing machine and doing it yourself. FANCY.

Oh, I forgot to mention the price range. Most of the stuff they offer is under $80, and any customization is $7.50. Not too shabby, eh?

For my dress, I went with the Ruffled Tiers, except mine is purple, obviously, and not black. I didn’t see the purple one on the site anywhere, so sorry if you’re salivating in jealousy over mine (on the other hand, I did just discover this green goddess one, this silk (!!!) one, and this one that is totally channeling Liz Taylor, and now I’m really jealous haha). It was really hard to NOT just get a fancy cocktail dress, but seriously? I own like a dozen of those things and I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually wore one. So I went with something office-appropriate, in a pattern/fabric that I wouldn’t sew myself (too slinky!), that would also be suitable for biking. I did end up customizing the sizing (since this is normally an issue for me with RTW), but I kept the general style of the dress the same as it looks on the site.

And how did that turn out, you might ask?

ME GUSTA.

Seriously, though, isn’t it just adorable? I’m a big fan of the color, especially… and all the cascading ruffles. The off-center neck bow is my favorite part.

From a construction perspective, I have no complaints. Obviously, we’re not talking about the finest couture here – this dress is polyester, after all – but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised. I actually studied the insides like I was studying for a test, except that I was giving it the Evil Eye the entire time and waiting for it to slip up somewhere.

I would like everyone to know that this dress is absolutely perfect for cycling in – a good length to prevent flashing, and the shirring in the back keeps it snug without cutting off circulation.

My only beef is that the armholes are a bit low on me – see my bra peeking out? Yikes! I think this problem is pretty unique to me and my body, though – I definitely have low shoulders in comparison to my bust size (hence why it is so important to do a FBA on sewing patterns and not just size up), and most stuff has to be taken up quite a bit there. Out of all the measurements I gave, shoulder height was not one. So I’m going to chalk this up to LT-body problems and not point fingers back to eShakti.

That one doesn’t bother me too bad, though, because…

THIS DRESS LOOKS SO FUCKING AWESOME WITH MY MUSTARD AGATHA CARDIGAN.
Doesn’t it?! I knew it as soon as I spied it on the site. Actually – it looks good with ALL my handknits, including the Chuck sweater. The top is fairly sleek and smooth, so there isn’t much bulk when you wear stuff over it. Add in a ruffly tiered skirt and a little bow at the neck and now we’re just talking straight-up adorable.

Right now, they are offering $25 off your first purchase! Someone should go buy this dress, because holy shit I want.

In conclusion: Big thanks and thumbs up for eShakti!
In other news, I have a new garment on the sewing table that just needs picture… hope to get a post up this week

~*~Disclosure: I was not financially compensated for this post, although I did receive a sample to review & keep. All opinions on this product are my own.

Completed: Butterick 5078

Whenever I finish up a big project, I like to ease myself back in with something short and sweet (also, I had a really bad muslin disaster with another pattern and I don’t want to talk about it, except to say that woven kimono sleeves are clearly my Kryptonite). Knit fabrics are especially good for this, since most of the fitting works itself out in the form of stretch fabric.

I’ve had Butterick 5078 lurking in my stash for a couple of years now – it’s out of print; I picked it up during my local fabric store’s annual “Buy $10 Worth Of Fabric, Get A Free Out of Print Pattern!” sale (yes, that is a real thing. It is hell on my bank account, if you want to know the truth.). I liked the line art as I reminded me of a dress I used to own – until it went the way of the Tragically Cheap Buffalo and died in the wash one day – but I never got around to making it because it sucks up a surprising amount of knit fabric, which I never seem to find significant yardages of at the thrift store.

But hey, this fabric is pretty cool, yeah? It was given to me by an awesome blog reader, Heather (yo girl, if you got a blog PLZ LINK ME UP), who hit the motherload of vintage fabric at an estate sale and sold a big wad of it to me for stupid cheap. This stuff is perfect for this dress – fairly stable with a slight stretch, a nice thick warm fabric for winter. The print has flowers and butterflies, which isn’t exactly my thing, but the grey on black kind of cancels out the extra girly girly. I had about 1/4 yard less than I actually needed, but I was able to get everything cut out on grain with some clever cutting layouts and a lot of screaming and cursing.

Speaking of the cutting layouts… this shit is weird. The bodice front & waistband drape (the runching around the waist) are actually cut on the bias, not the straight grain. For some reason, cutting my knit fabric this way caused the pieces to lose most of their stretch! I KNOW. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around that one. Obviously I can still pull the dress on, but it’s a tight fit.

The runching on this dress is so weird. I initially thought it might look better with a lighter, more fluid knit – but I scoped out a few on pattern review, and I actually think my stable knit looks a little better, even if it is bulky. There is a whole ‘nother waistband underneath the runched one, so the drape could easily be omitted for a smooth waist.

I sewed this up in a straight size 8, with no alterations other than shortening the hem about 3″. For future makes, the front bodice definitely needs to be lengthened – it cuts straight across my boobs. Not really a good look! And I think the runching could stand to start a little lower than it does right now. The bulk is kind of making me look thicker than I am.

I like the skirt, though!!

I tried to take a ~twirly picture and instead, I got this. This is the second most awkward picture I’ve ever posted on my blog (first awkward obviously being the teeny peeny I neglected to mention I had… haha, forreal, though, I am so delighted to see so many people have their mind in the same gutter as meeee!). It also made me laugh really hard when I saw it, and I thought it would be cruel to NOT share it with the rest of the world. God, I’m so generous, you guys.

Here you can see that unfortunate bodice-meets-midriff-right-over-my-boobs seam. Also, this dress needs some bra snap holder things.

Who am I kidding, I’d never be arsed to sew that kind of shit on a KNIT DRESS.

I sewed the entire thing on my serger, minus the hems – which I sewed on my machine with a double-needle. Overall, I think this dress took about 2 hours to sew.

To be honest, I didn’t like this dress after I pulled it on. The bias cut made it really difficult to pull over my head, the runching covered what I feel like is one of my better assets, and the horrible bust seam placement made me feel like I had these super weird high and flat boobs. UHM.

However, it is comfortable. Like, the kind of sneaky comfortable that makes you feel like you’re getting away with wearing pajamas. And Landon likes it – his words, “That looks like you bought it at a store. That’s supposed to be a compliment!” And it’s polyester knit, which means I don’t ever have to iron it. I would like to make this again, provided I can find the right knit.

Completed: The Gazer – A Ginger/Hazel Hybrid

Ha, remember when I said I was going to be moving soon so there wouldn’t be much sewing coming out of my end? I LIED (or rather, my new landlords lied. Dur!). Move-in date has been tentatively pushed to mid-week. The awesome part is that I thought we were going to be moving on Saturday, so I packed eeeeverything in anticipation & we didn’t move on Saturday and oh wait, that’s not awesome, this shit sucks ass.

Long story short, about a quarter of my sewing room is unpacked (oops) and I have a new dress! Yay!

So why is this dress called the Gazer? Well no shit, it’s a hybrid pattern – the top is a Hazel, the bottom is a Ginger. Hence, Gazer lolol (previous name considerations were Gazel & Hinger). Also, if you look at this dress too long you WILL get dizzy so the name could very well be a cautionary tale, if you will.

Anyway, I received this pattern as a birthday gift from reader Tracy. I actually tried to make it up a couple of months ago, but the fabric I chose was super tragic & the result was one of those wadders that lived in the corner of my sewing room until I threw it away, ahem, a couple of days ago when I was packing. Haha! I’ve come to the conclusion that gathered skirts just don’t suit my shape whatsoever. I knew that I wanted to do something with this pattern, though, so I stewed for a few weeks on what to do about the skirt. I had a lot of gingham left over from my Thurlow shorts (seriously, like 2+ yards! The fuck!?)… and then an idea was born.

First, I had to drag out my cardboard cutting mat (what? Doesn’t everyone have two cutting mats?) and somehow clear floor space for all that cutting:

My back is STILL angry at me, by the way!

I cut the bodice pieces for the Hazel and the skirt (minus the waistband) is the Ginger, version 3. Due to the gingham being sheer, everything is underlined with white cotton batiste.

I was initially unsure whether the multiple check directions were going to result in a Hot Mess, but I think this turned out pretty cute!

I mean – LOOK AT THAT CHECK-MATCHING!

FORREAL, THO.

Not to toot my own horn here (I’m totally tootin’ my own horn), but this shit ain’t half-bad.

I do think this pattern is pretty flattering!

The original version actually had pockets… but I must have placed them too low, or else they were fighting with the bias… either way, they kept making these weird lumps around my hips & the openings kept bagging out, so I just ripped them out & called it a day. I’m not really a pocket-person, anyway – I never put anything in them haha. So they won’t really be missed!

Psst – the white bow isn’t part of the dress, it’s just part of my massive belt collection.

I do love the way the skirt looks, but I don’t think I like wearing bias garments. They just feel weird to me.

Oh, here’s how it looks without the belt – I wasn’t able to get the checks to match up at the waist :’( Mostly because I didn’t take that into account when cutting. OOPS. I mean, it’s close enough I suppose – but also just off enough so that it bothers me.

As mentioned before, my cutting table is down for the count (it’s currently holding a lot of boxes!), so have some flat shots on my quilt. Before anyone asks – I did not make the quilt, but my great-Grandmother did

The center front at the waistline totally looks like a vortex, fyi.

I guess that’s it! I hope they let us move this week haha. All these boxes are driving me crazy!

Completed: Advance 8295

Hey-o, remember when I got all that awesome swap haul a couple of weeks ago?

And this pattern was part of the prize?

Well, look Ma – it’s a real dress now!

This was a pretty easy/fast make – although I caught myself trying to cut corners to get it put together even faster. WTF! I actually considered omitting the buttons & installing an invisible zipper – WTF! The buttons are the cutest part! Thank god I put the pattern aside for an evening & got my senses back.

But in all honestly – arranging those gathers at the yoke & sewing everything down was a giant pain in the ass. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s passable and that’ll be ok with me!

The only change I made to the pattern was a drastic shortening from tea-length and I took about 2″ off the side as the bodice was a bit loose – I just folded the placket over one more time & that worked perfectly! Oh, and the bodice is underlined with batiste – the fabric is a bit sheer. Hope you can’t see my undies lol.

I sewed the whole thing up without any clue what kind of buttons would make the final cut – I didn’t have anything decent on hand, and I needed at least 9 for this dress! And buttons are expensive, ugh! Thankfully, I found a little card of these yellow guys at the flea market – $1 for 9 Not too shabby! I wanted blue buttons to tie in the blue yoke, but yellow is good enough

Oh, the blue yoke, btw – I don’t look too fine in this shade of yellow (or ANY shade of yellow for that matter!) so the blue yoke was necessary to keep my face from getting too sallow-looking. There is blue in the floral print, but it’s darker (the bright was all I could find). I think it works, Landon thinks it’s too randumb. Thoughts?

Do you see my tiny slip-stitches on the inside? NEITHER DO I. Seriously – the best thing I learned from that Bombshell class was slip stitch. I use it on everything!

Here are those yellow buttons – I took a tip from Sunni and stitched all the button holes with bright blue thread, to tie in the blue yoke. Unfortunately, you don’t see it too well when it’s buttoned up. Ha, oh well!

I also made a matching belt – it’s a tiny bit small. I suck at making belts, boo.

As a side note, it might be a little quiet ’round these parts for the next couple of weeks – Landon & I just got approved for a new house (it’s rental, we’re not buying!) so we’ve got a month to move. Which means boring stuff like packing & lifting, but also fun stuff like paint colors & new decor! I’m super pumped, albeit a little stressed (and poor!). Oh, and don’t worry – I still have a sewing room. A bigger, better sewing room – with hardwood floors. Yay!

Completed: A Totally Tubular Simplicity 1803

“Tubular” is such a weird word. I mean in the sense when people use it as a synonym for awesome or rad. I mean… it’s literal definition is something that is tube-shaped. What is so rad about a tube? English language, you mystify me.

You know what is pretty radtubular, though? This Simplicity 1803 pattern, yeah! Now that we have set aside our differences, a beautiful relationship can be allowed to bloom. With this in mind, I would like to introduce you to my latest incarnation of Simplicity 1803, heading straight up Awesomeville.

This print is pretty loud in comparison to what I normally wear, but I like it!

There’s not much to say about the construction here – it’s pretty much the exact same as my Disaster dress, although a bit more simple (no underlining, machine-stitched hems, etc). I did discover that the fabric has a very subtle stretch, which made the dress a bit too big… so I ended up with some pretty giant seam allowances at the zipper. We’re talking 1.5″ seam allowances. Yeesh! On the fip side, the stretch makes the dress quite comfortable.

I remembered to put the pockets in the correct place this time! No princess-seam pockets for this girl!

This fabric is just fabulous… a nice, drapey rayon with a hint of stretch, and a really busy pattern that hides sweat – which is quite important these days, considering we are gearing up for a high of 108* later this week. I KNOW.

I did make the waist tie this go-round, although it blends in pretty well with the busy print. Oh well, I guess it provides a bit of texture?

It was difficult to get pictures of this dress – most of them ended up totally blown out with light. I kept moving around to different areas of shade.

Then I noticed the awesome neighborhood stray cat in my back yard!

This cat is so cool! He’s super friendly and VERY vocal, and he loves having his belly rubbed. I know he’s skinny as shit, but I’ve actually tried feeding him before & he refuses it. He looks pretty healthy and is definitely quite social, which gives me reason to believe he’s probably someone’s pet prowling around the neighborhood. I see him about once a week and we are best friends. I have named him Bobby, fyi.

Told you he was friendly

Although he never sits still long enough to get a good picture!

This is the dress front. Again, I went with soft pleats instead of thread gathers on the skirt. I’m a big convert of the soft pleat!

Dress back, lapped zipper.

Orange zipper! Also, check out my massive seam allowances lol

I’m trying it with a belt for work today, I think I like it better than the tie… it breaks up the pattern a bit.

As a side note – I’ve got one sleeve on my Miette sweater now!

My sleeves is a little shorter than the pattern calls for (I skipped a few rows of stockinette), but I still think it’s a little long for my preferences. I guess that means I have T-Rex arms hahaha.

This sweater has been really fun to knit, but I’m looking forward to finishing it so I can work on something a little less mindless

Also, don’t forget to enter my Shabby Apple Giveaway if you haven’t done so already – it closes this Friday

One last thing – I just looked up tubular, and according to dictionary.com: excellent. (Surfing and later general youth slang. Having to do with a tube [wave] that is good to surf in.) : That pizza was totally tubular!

Completed: Simplicity 1803, aka, The Disaster Dress

I am calling this The Disaster Dress, but it’s really not that bad. Promise! My main issue could have *easily* been solved in the muslin stage – had I actually been paying attention when I tried it on.

Anyway, this is the ever-popular Simplicity 1803. If my dress looks familiar, it is because I was quite obviously influenced by Gertie’s perfect version. I had to have one for myself!

I guess I should mention exactly why I chose to call this dress a disaster. It doesn’t look much like a disaster now – I worked around all the fitting issues. But hoo boy, getting there was an adventure! This pattern has some wacky shit going on with it, y’all. WACKY, I tell you. First, we have the issue of ease. I know this has been talked to death about all over the sewing blogesphere, but seriously – this dress has a LOT of ease. Let me put it this way: according to Simplicity’s size chart, I fit in the 12-14 range. I cut a 4 in this pattern and it fit perfectly. There is about 4.5″ of ease in this pattern… consider yourself warned. Anyway, I cut my 4 & sewed up the muslin, put it on, glanced in the mirror, and started working on the real dress. I am a fit-as-you-go type sewist – constantly pinning & basting to double-check the fit. Right before I sewed up the shoulder seams, I realized that the curves of the princess seams were nowhere near the fullest part of my bust – how I missed that, I have no idea. The shoulders were WAY too short – which is actually kind of ironic, since I usually have to shorten that stuff quite a bit for my teensy shoulders. Of course, I already had the bodice half-sewn (and underlined!) at this point. Long story short, my shoulder seams are sewn with the scantest of scant seam allowances – like, less than 1/4″. The fit and everything is in it’s proper place – but barely. Also I have no idea exactly where I’m going with this story, except that you should definitely scrutinize your muslin.

Also, another beef I had with this pattern was that they skipped some vital steps in the instructions – such as sewing up the side seams. Wtf, Simplicity? You will give me half a page on ~how to sew a dart~ but then forget to tell me to sew up the side seams? You cray.

This is part 2 of Stuff I Made Using Birthday Gifts – the teal Bemberg rayon lining was sent to me by Alicia of Iron On Maiden (can we also collectively agree that she has the coolest blog name ever? Yes.) for my birthday! Yeah! It is underlining this awesome black eyelet from Mood. I also finally got to test out my new interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply – I used the light-weight fusible and it is AWESOME. I never thought I would actually like fusible interfacing, but I think I just officially converted.

Other than the above rant on sizing/fit (and lack of side seams), this dress went together pretty quickly. The only other change I made to the pattern was to swap out the gathers for soft pleats – there was a LOT of gathering involved, and my fabric is quite thick so I was afraid it would get too bulky around the waist. To make the pleats, I matched up all the seams/notches as I would if I was gathering, and then just pleated the fabric until everything looked good & matched up. Pretty easy! I think I like this much better than I would have liked the gathers, too!

The pockets are really fucking stupid, though. They are in the right place according to the pattern – but WTF!? Who puts pockets on the princess seams of a full-skirted dress?! I know the Iris Shorts have similar pockets, but they actually contribute to the design… in this dress, they’re hidden in the folds. Of course I didn’t notice this until I actually sewed them in – and of course it is displayed prominently on the envelope. Oh well.

This is how I feel about the pockets.

I do like the scoop back!

Bonus drunk-looking picture of me.

Do you like my birdy brooch? I tore up an old necklace (well, it was already broken), glued a pin to the back & spray painted it blue.

Here it is without the belt!

I love how bluuuue the inside is. The facing is a simple black broadcloth – again, the eyelet was too bulky for facing. I trimmed it with some matching rayon seam binding (also in the package from Alicia – told you she was awesome ) and catch-stitched it to the lining.

Lapped zipper & soft pleats (and that red spot is from my camera – I was wondering why it kept leaving a spot of haziness in every picture. Then I noticed that the lens was incredibly dirty. At this point, I am sure you are questioning how much I actually pay attention to things. Not much, I’m afraid).

Anyway, despite all the shit I went through to get this thing put together, I’m absolutely happy with the finished dress! I think it’s quite flattering & can be worn for a number of occasions (and seasons, for that matter!). So yeah! Now that I’ve sorted out my issues, I will probably make another one… I have this awesome/wacky rayon fabric that I picked up at Goodwill recently; I think it’s perfect for this style. What do you think?

Me Made May – Week 4 Roundup

I wish I could say that this was the last week of MMM’12, but May is a sneaky little month that manages to have 5 weeks crammed into it. So here’s to week 4 – we’re, uh, 4/5th of the way through!

5-19
Top: Thrifted, resized by me
Shorts: Simplicity 5110
Earrings: Thrifted
Shoes: Converse
Sweet Shadez: Pangea (Nashville)
Getting ready to ride Tour de Nash! Don’t worry, I (begrudgingly)wore a helmet – it’s in my back bike basket

5-20
Dress: Simplicity 8345
Belt: Thrifted
Necklace: Bracelet I converted into a necklace
In my sewing room – I was pretty sick of taking daily pictures at this point!

5-21
Dress: Vogue 1227
Cardigan: Thrifted
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Target
Necklace: Antique, restored by InVintage.
My birthday! Since I couldn’t wear a dress called “The Bombshell” to work (I mean, our dress code is sorta lax but it ain’t that lax!), I wore last year’s birthday dress. Also, that necklace is my very favorite piece of jewelry I own – and the most expensive one to boot (and by “most expensive” I mean it was still less than $50 because I normally buy my jewelry at the flea market lol).

5-22
Dress: Vogue 1174
Bolero: Thrifted
Shoes: Nine West
-CONFESSION- I made this dress over 2 years ago & I have only worn it once (twice if you count me putting it on for pictures)! I just really hate the way I look in strapless dresses. Inspired by MMM’12, I pulled it out of the closet, dug in my scrap bin for the rest of the blue satin, and made a halter neck strap. Now it is much more wearable Yay!

Here it is without the bolero

5-23
Dress: Simplicity 2412
Belt: Handmade
Necklace: Fire Finch (Nashville)
Shoes: Nine West

5-24
Dress: Simplicity 3061
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Jessica Simpson
Earrings: Pangea (Nashville)
I pretty much always wear this dress with a nautical flair, so this time I tried to go in a different direction. I think I like it!

5-25 (today!)
Dress: Vogue 1117
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Steve Madden
I love this dress so so so much, but the poor thing really doesn’t get as much wear as it deserves – I made the mistake of lining it with polyester lining! Ew, so hot! Oh well, that’s me – suffering in the name of Looking Good.
ALSO: Bonus! I got this fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics, and it is mad cheap right now – someone go buy the rest of her yardage!

I’m pretty bored with taking pictures of myself every day – it seems so redundant and, I dunno, kind of narcissistic (which is how I feel about most fashion blogging in general, SORRY). I will be glad to put this project to end next week!

As a side note, I counted my remaining handmade garments and I definitely have more unworn pieces than there are days left in May. Right now I’m trying to decide if I should pull this project into another week or so, just to wear ALL my shizz, or consider a month good enough & move on. I haven’t repeated any outfits – I just own a metric shit ton of clothes – and I really miss some of the stuff I wore at the beginning of the month.

With that being said, I am going on vacation starting tomorrow at the buttcrack of dawn. SO EXCITED. We’re going to the beeeeach! And I bought a cute bathing suit! (For the 3 of you who are worried about my cat being left alone – don’t worry, I got a housesitter Wow that sounds so grown-up haha). I’ll still be documenting MMM’12 in the Flickr group – hopefully all with pictures ~on the beach~ haha – but the blog will probably be nice & silent for the next few days.

Have a great weekend – holiday or not

Me Made May – Week 2 Roundup

I know what you’re thinking – two posts in one day? Is the world really in the process of ending? Is Jesus coming back (no, actually, that was supposed to happen last May, except we all know SOMEONE didn’t bother to show up to his own damn party)? At any rate, I hope y’all love meee because you’re going to have to look at my mug twice today, teehee.

I left off last Friday, so we’ll pick this up starting Saturday!

5/5
Dress: BOMBSHELL
Shoes: Steve Madden
Excuse my disgusting sewing room floor, I hate vacuuming!
Ooh, but see my iPhone!? Landon bought me an early birthday present! He is the best I’m on Instagram now if you want to follow me

5/6
Dress: Simplicity 4170
Cowboy Boots: courtesy of my mom’s closet
Necklace: Fire Finch, here in Nashville
This is actually the very first dress I made with a pattern – so it’s super pre-blog (I think I made this in 2006). Don’t get too terribly excited about how good it looks, though – the original bodice was total shit – I didn’t line it, didn’t gather under the bust (lolwut), inserted the zipper rather terribly by hand, etc. The bodice you see now is what happened after I learned some skills 6 months later, ripped it off, and re-made. It’s still kind of amateur looking, but that’s ok!

5/7
Dress: Vogue 1086
Cardigan: Thrifted, reconstructed by me
Belt: Handmade
Necklace: Thrifted bracelet, reconstructed into a necklace by me
Shoes: Target

5/8
Top: Jalie 2921
Skirt: Express
Sweater: Free People, sized down quite a bit by me (it’s supposed to be loose-fitting)
Shoes: Steve Madden

5/9
Top: Simplicity 4400
Skirt: Thrifted, sized down & repaired (the shirring at the waistband was completely busted so I sewed in new elastic… does this count as Me-Made?)
Belt: Thrifted
Shoes: Jessica Simpson
Earrings: Thrifted
The light was really bad that morning, so here you get to see the side & crawl space of my ugly house!

5/10
Top: Sewaholic Renfrew
Skirt: Colette Ginger
Cardigan: Thrifted
Belt: Thrifted
Feather Earrings: Tennessee Renaissance Festival
Shoes: Giani Bernini

5/11 (today!)
Top: Jalie 2921
Trousers: Vogue 2925
Shoes: Walmart (lol yep)
Scarf: Flea market

If you don’t recognize my top, that’s because it’s very new & very un-blogged! This top was actually the whole reason why I bought the Jalie pattern – I thought it looked quite similar to Colette’s Jasmine pattern, except in a nice knit instead of bias-cut woven. I’m not going to make a separate post for this top, just because I would basically be repeating my last one, but I will go over the minor pattern changes I made:
- I shortened the neck ties quite drastically. I can’t give you a real measurement – I just put on the pink top, pinned the ties until I liked the length, and copied that to my pattern piece.
- Instead of arranging the ties as suggested by the pattern (through a hole in the front seam, tied, or fastened with a buckle), I wrapped a small piece of matching bias tape around them & sewed it into place by hand.
- Took in a little bit at the side seams to make it more fitted.
- Shortened the sleeves to cap sleeves.
- Top-stitched the hem & sleeve hems with a double needle in matching blue thread.

I am rather pleased with the result! Although, it is quite sailor-y so I definitely run the risk of looking really costume-y… I think I kind of look costume-y in this outfit, actually, but IDGAF.

Oh, I should probably talk about that ADORABLE dog standing behind me… that’s Turtle She is the dog of my bestie/life partner, Morgan (the one who moved to Macedonia!). Her mother is keeping Turtle while Morgan is fulfilling her time at the Peace Corps. Anyway, she’s actually out of town visiting Morgan, & the originaly dogsitter had some medical problems so I’m taking care of the dogs for her until then! I just love Turtle, she’s such a little sweetie (and Percy, the other dog, was lounging on the steps directly behind my camera FYI I’ll try to get a picture of her at some point). This also explains why I’m suddenly standing in an area with an amazing garden backdrop – it’s her house! And look – you can see my little truck in the background

Man, I love this dog. She’s such a ham.

FINALLY COMPLETE: The Bombshell Dress

Yay! It’s done, it’s done, it’s done!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or lurk the MMM Flickr Pool have already seen this picture… I snapped it right before I left for a lovely Saturday afternoon wedding (spoiler: it was a beautiful wedding and I overindulged and DEFINITELY paid for it the next day, ugh haha).

I did take better pictures, though! And now I will share then with the group

Fair warning – there’s a lot here, and you can see that I moved locations a couple of times while shooting. I actually took over a hundred pictures – I know that sounds kind of, uh, self-obsessed, but the light was extremely bright and it’s pretty difficult to get a good shot when you have to keep running back and forth to the tripod! I was able to narrow the selection down to WAY below 100, but there are still quite a few. I normally feel a little narcissistic posting a bunch of pictures of myself in the same freakin’ pose, but I’m really proud of my dress so just indulge me this one time. Ok? Ok!

Here is where I started – in my backyard. Isn’t it so lush & green? Lovely backdrop for this dress Unfortunately, the light was too harsh here, so only a couple of pictures survived the cut.

On the porch (which appears to be the best light ever; this is why you always see outfit pictures on this porch haha). Not a terribly awesome picture of me, but – my hair! My hair looked so good! Alas, it was almost 90 degrees on Saturday and extremely humid so the curls ended up drooping about 5 minutes later. Ah well.

It got too hot, so I gave up and went inside to the air conditioning.

The strap! I made mine fairly wide, with small gathers where it joins the bodice. There are button holes & buttons, but the strap didn’t sit right buttoned in, so I used tiny fell stitches to anchor it to the top of the bodice as well.

I’m not going to share any more pictures or details of the insides, I think there are plenty enough as it is on this blog!

A few thoughts on the Bombshell:
- It is quite comfortable! Of course, I tend to wear my clothing with little to no ease regardless, but boning is something that I’ve always associated with discomfort. The boning in this dress is great: it kept everything into place but didn’t hinder any movement whatsoever.
- When I first finished the dress, I was worried that the bodice was too long for my torso. Maybe I’m just used to a shorter bodice, because this one absolutely ends right at my waist, so it’s the correct length. Anyway, now that I’m looking at the pictures, I think it looks fine.
- Despite multiple muslins, the middle of the bodice does not actually sit flush against my chest. I guess my cups are a smidge too small as it should fit just like a bra does (and my bras do fit with the middle flush against me. Is that tmi?). Then again, I think any gal who is increasing the cups to fit a chest that is too big for the original pattern size is probably going to struggle with getting that piece to lie flat. The lesson here: no one else noticed, and I only noticed because I have this wonderful angle of looking straight down. I still think the fit looks great. Don’t sweat it if yours doesn’t lie flat either!
- As I mentioned, it was 90* outside and the wedding ceremony was in the middle of a flower garden covered with direct sunlight. It was hot outside! And even though my dress has many layers and is extremely fitted, I didn’t feel any more warm that I would in shorts & a tshirt. Make sure your fabric (and lining) is very breathable if you are planning on wearing this in super hot weather!
- I enjoyed working on this dress, and I loved the process of all the fiddly detail work, but I will confess that toward the end I was just ready to be DONE! I think this is a great dress for a special occasion, but make sure you give yourself a nice long deadline in the distant future so you don’t feel terribly rushed – a dress like this, with all the fitting, and handwork, and special techniques… doesn’t need to be rushed.

I guess that’s it? I am very pleased with my finished dress, and I definitely think the course was worth the $$ – I learned so much, including new favorite hand-stitches and little tips/tricks that never occurred to me otherwise. If you are still on the fence for a class like this, I hope this post & these pictures nudged a little closer to my side

And I’m still rolling along Me-Made-May!