Outfit of the Day: Going Black and White

Last weekend was a good eating weekend!

It started off with a mussel and oyster feed at a local yacht club in Alameda... a friend of Tim's was the very talented chief for the night! Then on Saturday was the annual Eat Real Food Truck Festival in Jack London Square in Oakland.

Lots of good food this weekend and completely unplanned, two black and white outfits to go with it!


Outfit of the Day:

For Friday night, during the yacht club dinner, I wore my Lucky 13 Hairspray dress. I thought the print on this dress would be fitting since it has a nautical theme working throughout it. Also, because the print is so busy on this dress, I figured it would also be a good choice in case I dropped something on it while eating. Also, because we were going to be right on the water and I wasn't sure if this was an indoor or outdoor event, I decided to pair it with my black capri leggings. I also wore a black cardigan and my trusty black flats.

Lucky 13 Hairspray Dress- Front View

Lucky 13 Hairspray Dress- Front View

Lucky 13 Hairspray Dress- Side View

Lucky 13 Hairspray Dress With Black Cardigan- Front View

Lucky 13 Hairspray Dress With Black Cardigan- Front View

Lucky 13 Hairspray Dress With Black Cardigan- Side View

Lucky 13 Hairspray Dress- Close Up

For the Eat Real Festival on Saturday I decided my black and white gingham dress would be perfect! Some of you readers my recognize this dress. This is the first dress of the year that I made!  I made this dress with Butterick pattern B4790. After I initially blogged about it, I did do some alterations to get it to fit a little better. I pulled the shoulders up and took in a little bit of the bodice at the darts. I paired this with a black cardigan and as usual for walking days, my trusty black flats. 

Dress Made By Me, Butterick Pattern B4790- Front View

Dress Made By Me, Butterick Pattern B4790- Front View

Dress Made By Me, Butterick Pattern B4790- Side View

Dress Made By Me, Butterick Pattern B4790 With Black Cardigan- Front View

Dress Made By Me, Butterick Pattern B4790 With Black Cardigan- Front View

First dress of the year made by me!

It's been years since I last sewed anything from a pattern! 

Back when I used to sew more I mostly sewed Halloween costumes that I wouldn't really expect to have to be sewn too well because I'd only be wearing them for Halloween when it's relatively dark. Despite not having to have the costume come out perfect I would always have moments of intense stress while sewing. Although I would have these terrible high stress moments from sewing, it was always so nice to have the finished project! ...something I made that was ummm... almost exactly what I wanted. (I say almost because usually things wouldn't come out exactly the way I would picture them in my head because my sewing talent is a little limited).

Anyway, after reading the Dolly Clackett blog for years I am inspired to start ambitiously sewing again this time, sewing dresses I actually intend to wear out in public. I figure this would probably add to the stress factor a little more since now I would hope my dresses come out a little more professional looking than some of my old Halloween costumes... but also on the plus side, I wouldn't have a time crunch to get it done by Halloween night and so could take more time and care into what I'm making.

And so here is the fruit of my labor: my first dress sewed this year.

I went with the Butterick B4790 pattern which is deemed as "very easy". I figured I needed something easy to get me started again. I slightly modified the pattern a little under the bust line because when I found I googled this pattern the finished product ended up having a curved closure under the bustline which I didn't like. I wanted my finished product to look more like the picture on the pattern envelope. Overall I am very happy with this dress. If I made another dress with this pattern again I would shorten the torso area and make the bust slightly smaller because I feel the torso fits me a little long and the top is a little big but as I said, overall I am very happy with the finished product. Also, I am happy to report it only took me two days to make this dress (not including pre-washing and ironing the fabric). And most the second day was hemming the bottom of the skirt by hand because I didn't trust my sewing machine ;) I might just be ready to attempt an "easy" pattern next! :)