First Dress of the Year Made By Me: Bikini Blast

I finally got around to making another dress!

This is the first dress I've made this year despite that this year is nearly 3/4ths of the way over. It's been a rough year and rather than staying home to work on projects I've kind of just been keeping myself busy being out and about. I still miss my Merk dearly. She was my constant companion at home and especially while at home working on projects just as this one. I happened on some old blog photos of crafting projects and realized she would be by my side and in nearly all the pics I would take while crafting. I will miss her forever until hopefully one day when I see her again.

Anyhow, this is my first dress of the year made by me. I made this over the long labor day weekend between going to the cat cafe and hanging out with my mom on Labor day. I actually had the fabric prewashed and the pieces cut out by the end of year last year, it has just taken me this long to finally get around to sewing everything together.

For this dress I used Butterick pattern 5209 and chose a fun rayon novelty bikini print fabric I found on the fashion fabrics club website. I do believe this is the best dress I've made since starting this blog :) I am quite happy with the way it's turned out.

Butterick 5209- Front View

Butterick 5209- Front View

Butterick 5209- Side View

Butterick 5209- Back View

Butterick 5209 and Close Up of fabric

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me: My Sci-Fi Rockets' Missing Piece

I am so happy to announce I completed my sewing goal for 2014!

At the beginning of the year when I vowed to get back into sewing I made the goal to myself that I was going to aim to make four dresses this year. I started out strong with one dress completed in February but then really started slacking the rest of the year. Now, with almost three months of the year left to spare I finished my fourth dress!

For this dress I used Vogue pattern 8974 from their "vintage Vogue" collection. Since this was my first time using a Vogue pattern I wasn't sure how the sizing would be so I opted to sew the pattern one size bigger than my usual sewing size. After sewing though, I found the dress was too big so made alternations to make it smaller. Because of the alternations on it, the dress came out less than perfect especially at the back of the bodice. Additionally, I modified the pattern by using a side zip instead of snaps along the side of this dress. Another note on this pattern, I found that the length of this dress came out so much longer than the retro Butterick patterns. I ended up heming the skirt down by a good 5-6 inches!

Overall I'm very happy with the way this dress turned out!

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974- Front View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974- Front View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974- Side View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974- Back View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974- Close Up

I chose this dress pattern with the intention of making a dress which would match well with a Trashy Diva Sci Fi Rockets Bolero. I bought this bolero during one of their sales. I was sad I missed out on their Sci Fi Rockets dresses and was happy I at least didn't miss out on this print completely. But while I loved the bolero the first moment I tried it on, I had the problem then of what to wear with it. Perhaps it would make a cute top with high waisted capris? Perhaps it still will but I'm happy I now have a dress to wear with this beautiful bolero!

For this dress I used a dark, though not quite navy blue color, trying to match it up as best I could with the blue on the bolero. To match the style of the bolero I used cover buttons where the shoulder straps meet the bodice to mimic the covered buttons on the bolero. I finished up with a cute blue vintage belt buckle I found on Etsy.

When I first saw this pattern I knew it would be the perfect dress to go with this bolero! I love how the geometric angles at the bodice of the dress compliments the over-sized geometric collar of the bolero. I feel that the whole cut of this dress is very complimentary to the cut and pattern of the Trashy Diva Sci Fi bolero! The sharp angles on the dress, both at the front of the bodice and the crossing straps in the back, go perfectly with the sharp angles on the bolero and all the sharp angles in the Sci-Fi Rockets print itself!

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974 with Trashy Diva Sci Fi Rockets Bolero- Close Up

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974 with Trashy Diva Sci Fi Rockets Bolero- Front View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974 with Trashy Diva Sci Fi Rockets Bolero- Front View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974 with Trashy Diva Sci Fi Rockets Bolero- Front View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974 with Trashy Diva Sci Fi Rockets Bolero- Front View

Fourth Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Vogue 8974 with Trashy Diva Sci Fi Rockets Bolero- Side View

Vogue 8974

Third Dress of the Year Made By Me!

Hello Kittens!

I'm happy to announce I just finished my third dress sewing project of the year! The dress itself I actually finished a few weeks ago but took a while to find the right belt buckle to go with it. And because this was my first belt I've ever made, once I got the belt buckle, it took me a week or two later to get myself to actually go for it and make the belt. The pattern notion listing called for a 2 inch belt kit but because I couldn't find any belt kits in the stores I decided to just make this belt with thick interfacing which turned out alright. I realized I could have easily just bought a red belt or used a red belt from one of my other dresses but I really wanted to try making my own.

Overall, I'm very happy with the way the dress turned out as a whole! This was my first "intermediate" dress pattern for this year. For this pattern I learned how to use interfacing, learned how to make my own belt, and practiced gatherings. 

I used Butterick 6582 and decided to make it in a red gingham print. I was sad that I missed out on Trashy Diva's red gingham Trixie dress last year so have been really looking forward all year to working on and completing this dress.

Third Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Butterick 6582- Front View

Third Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Butterick 6582- Front View

Third Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Butterick 6582- Side View

Third Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Butterick 6582- Back View

Third Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Butterick 6582- Close Up

Third Dress Of The Year Made By Me, Butterick 6582- Close Up

Vintage Belt Buckle From Etsy

Butterick 6582

Third dress of the year down... only one more dress this year to finish before I meet my goal of four dresses made this year. Time to get cracking!

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

Second Dress Of The Year Made By Me!

Several months ago, you may remember me talking about my second dress of the year project, a red seersucker dress with red piping.

Well, after purchasing the material about a year ago and the notions about 5 months ago, I finally got around to actually making it! Once I actually got working on it, it only took about 3 days to make... something like 18-20 hours. Since this is the first sewing project I ever made with piping, I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Also, I'm proud of myself for going the extra step and putting in a liner at the bodice... even if I didn't follow the instructions and added it as an after thought so that the lining ended up coming out a little funky.

(Check out the first dress of the year made by me here.) 

I'm still a newbie at making clothes and up until this year have only sewed clothes for Halloween costumes. The instructions on the sewing patterns still make no sense to me sometimes, but I'm hoping with every project, I will learn a little more each time. This time I learned what exactly grainline means. ;) Also, I learned, I may be able to go down a size in my sewing patterns. I had to take this dress in quite a bit after sewing it, and even still, I can tell it fits a little big. My next project, which I've already started on, is a size down from this pattern so I guess I will see if that hypothesis is true.

For this dress I used Butterick pattern B5603 and followed dress pattern B.

Butterick B5603 In Red Seersucker- Front View

Butterick B5603 In Red Seersucker- Front View

Butterick B5603 In Red Seersucker- Side View

Butterick B5603 In Red Seersucker- Back View

Butterick B5603 In Red Seersucker- Close Up of Ties

Butterick B5603 In Red Seersucker- Front View

Butterick B5603

My goal is to make four dresses this year. With my third dress project already underway, I think I'm going to make it!

 

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! :)