Christmas/New Year's dress number two!

 The is the second of the two Christmas/New Year's dresses I made this year.  I did a little ranting about sewing with velveteen in the last post and I won't do that again in this one!  I think I've forgiven the fabric a little! This dress was made for my three year old from Vogue 9042.  The pattern came together pretty smoothly save for the zipper insertion at the bottom and the pleat included there.  I had some trouble understanding exactly how they wanted the zipper included in that pleat so I went my own way.  Also I used an invisible zipper and the pattern did not call for one- why I can't imagine. 

 As far as sizing goes, I made a size 3 with a size 4 length.  My daughters are a little tall, I am so glad for them!  The size feels just right, its not too roomy and the size 4 length worked perfectly for my three year old.

 Both the satin and the velveteen are from Hancock fabrics.  They are beautiful, I would say that this was the better behaved of the two velveteens I worked with but the sleeves undoubtedly gave me the hardest time with both dresses.  If you are looking for nice velveteen I can recommend Hancock's.  I completely lined the inside of the dress and the pattern included lining pieces- oh thank you, thank you, thank you Vogue for including those lining pieces so that I did not have to jimmy one myself. 

This dress is really darling and in a cotton would be easy to whip up.  I love sweet little dresses like this with yokes, peter pan collars, pleats and gathered sleeve heads.  By the way she loves the dress too.  At first she declared it "not pretty" when I was making it but when she put it on she loved it!  My oldest liked her dress too, she was a little challenging to photograph.  My three year old was very cooperative about these pictures (surprise!) and she really wanted to show off her new tricycle- doesn't everyone ride tricycles while wearing velveteen dresses! 

Ok well there you have it, its a sweet little dress if you are in the market for a pattern like this one and it sews up fine apart from the confusing bit at the bottom of the zipper!

Sewing Velveteen (aka Belated Christmas/New Year's Dress)!

 Last year I took it upon myself to make two Christmas dresses for my girls that were a little outside of my sewing comfort zone.  I used taffeta last year to push past my sewing comfort zone and this year I used velveteen.  After all velveteen is lush, it is soft, it is classic, it sings sweetly of wassail and beautifully wrapped packages tied with satin ribbons and it also happens to be a real pill to sew.  If you've ever sewn with velveteen you know that it is a fabric that likes to shift ALL OVER THE PLACE.  For someone who likes accuracy in sewing it can test your patience!  I ended up using three tricks to get my velveteen to behave (at least as much as you can manage to make velveteen behave).

 Tip One: Use a walking foot, if you don't have a walking foot, in my opinion, don't bother.  The pile or nap on velveteen when you try to sew it to another fabric makes it shift like crazy, things won't line up properly if you don't have a walking foot to help the top layer of fabric walk through the sewing process at the same rate as the bottom layer of fabric.  Now there is probably some other way to manage velveteen without I walking foot but I wouldn't want to be caught in that torturous place.  Even with the walking foot, setting the sleeves in was a real challenge as well as lining the sleeves.  I must have pinned and ripped it all out three times before I gave in to the process of the sleeves not being perfect. 

Tip Two:  Hand baste your seams together, especially if you are easing fabrics together or have multiple layers like gathers and pleats.  For this dress I only had to hand baste the sleeves into the bodice but for my 3 year old's dress I had to also hand baste the pleats.  I have yet to take pictures of her dress on her but will probably tomorrow.  The hand basting kept everything together in addition to pins and the walking foot.  Like I said this fabric shifts and you want to minimize the shifting as much as possible.  Hand basting is a pain but it beats sewing and ripping out stitches multiple times.

 Tip Three:   Lower the pressure on your presser foot.  My machine has a dial that lessens the pressure of the presser foot and this can be helpful in managing the fabric, you might have to play with that a little because on some seams it seemed to help and on others it didn't.  But its worth a try.

Final Tips:
Insert an invisible zipper when using velveteen, I used a regular zipper at first and it looked terrible so that was ripped out and replaced.  Funny enough the Vogue pattern I used to sew my 3 year old's velveteen dress didn't call for an invisible zipper either and it was drafted with velvet in mind- go figure.  But believe me when I say a normal zipper will not look good.

Accept that it will not be perfect, I can get a little crazy about wanting accurate, even seam allowances and absolutely no puckers anywhere but I found it ok to have some spots that were less than perfect by meditating on something a seamstress once told me.  As I was contemplating fabric choices and the various as-sundry little details of a project for one of my daughters, in talking it over with a sewist at the fabric store she said to me "well I always gave people this advice when I worked at a sewing store that taught classes on smocking children's dresses- can you tell the difference on a galloping horse?"  She went on to explain that putting a garment on a child is like putting something on a galloping horse and you probably aren't going to be able to tell the difference in whatever discrepancy your worrying about when its riding past you on a galloping horse.  That piece of advice helped me just move on when a seam puckered a bit or a seam allowance didn't look perfectly even.  Good advice.  Sage sewing advice.  Advice for a Momma to live by!

A few parting details about this dress, my daughter is 7 years old and tall, so I sewed a size 7 dress with size 8 length added.  Its Simplicity 1174.  The pattern is great and I highly recommend it.  I fully lined the dress but lining pieces aren't included in the pattern.  The bottom portion of the dress is satin from Hancocks fabrics.  The velveteen was from a local quilt shop.  This dress would be a breeze to sew in a nice well behaved cotton.  If you've read this far, thank you for indulging me in my velveteen rant!  Its a beautiful fabric, no doubt, and it will definitely push you out of your sewing comfort zone!

My January Fabric Mart Make

 This is my January project for Fabric Mart fabrics.  I am loving these two pieces as wardrobe staples.  The turtleneck has been great to wear with jeans so, you know, easy to dress up or down! 

The skirt is a New Look pattern with interesting style lines.  Its a basic A-line skirt made with beautiful 100% wool flannel suiting, which I will get a ton of use out of!

I hope to post my two very late Christmas dresses made for my daughters soon!  I am finishing up the second dress now, they both include velveteen and I believe I have reached velveteen saturation and never want to see velveteen again for at least a year! Ha ha!  Now to see what I can bribe my girls with to get them to pose for pictures!!!!

Cool Weather Ensemble

The holidays are in full swing and for all my running to and fro, I created a three piece outfit from beautiful FabricMart fabrics.  If you'd like to see the details of my three pieces please hop on over to the FabricMart blog!

I'm a Fabricista!

This top was my first entry in the Fabricista Sewing Challenge and the adorable, camera-shy dog is Buster.

I wrote my first post for Fabric Mart's blog as a Fabricista this past week.  If you would like to check it out you can follow this link.  

I share a bit about how I got into sewing and what I love about sewing.  I hope you will go over there and take a look!  Have a great week!

My 12th Anniversary Dress!  Vogue 9109

Final Fabricista Challenge Results- Thank you!

I am so very flattered and excited (I had some really stiff competition) to have been chosen as the winner of this competition and a huge THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to vote for me.  It was an intense 5 weeks (ok family we can take a break from those rotisserie chickens) but totally worth it and all the garments I made are already in heavy rotation in my wardrobe!  I hope you will pop in from time to time since I will be sewing with some beautiful fabrics from Fabric Mart and guest blogging for them as well! Yippee!  Its gonna be fun!  

Below is only a portion of the full blog post on the final results, if you would like to see the full post follow this link to the Fabric Mart Blog.   

And the winner of the Fabricista Fashion Challenge is...

The votes are in and we have a winner in the Fabricista Fashion Challenge! This was SOOOOOO hard. I wish I could have all of them! Congratulations to....Elizabeth from I Sew, You Sew!

Elizabeth is the winner of $25 a month for one year to spend on fabric, plus be a Fabric Mart Fabricista for 6 months writing guest posts for the blog. (A $300 value with media exposure.) She will also receive a Julie's Picks Membership.

Tiffany is second place and wins a $100 gift certificate and a Julie's Picks membership. Kristen is third place and wins a $50 gift certificate and a Julie's Picks membership. Tiffany and Kristen did an amazing job as well and it was so hard to make final decisions! Don't worry, I don't think this will be the last you see of these ladies. I'm working on the blog schedule and hope to have some newcomers lined up for the new year. If you would like to consider blogging with us occasionally, please email me at fabricmartblog@gmail.com for more information. We'd love to have you! 

Thanks goes out to all the contestants that participated in the third year of the Fashion Challenge. I always look forward to doing this and being inspired by everyone. 

Thanks to all the "celebrity judges" for helping to judge all of these talented ladies projects. It is a TOUGH job!

Thanks to all the readers for participating at home and for all that watched from the sidelines. We do this for you and we're so glad you enjoy it. 

Final Fabricista Challenge!!

This is my final entry for the Fabric Mart Fabricista Challenge and although it has been an intense few weeks I have really loved the creative challenge.  I really needed a little push to get my sew-jo going!!  I have been thinking about all the pieces I've completed for this challenge and have already worn them all, I love that!  Its pretty satisfying to end up with pieces that work great in your wardrobe! 

The challenge detail are below, taken from the Fabric Mart Blog.  And under that I've included my entry plus a few extra pictures.  If you are so inclined please vote for me on the Fabric Mart Blog just click this link! 

FINAL CHALLENGE - 3 PIECE WARDROBE 

We're in the home stretch! This is the last challenge, can you believe it? All the ladies in this challenge have done an amazing job and I can't wait to see who the winner is. The last three contestants are guaranteed to win something, it's just a matter who will win the grand prize!

This week's challenge is the 3 Piece Wardrobe Challenge. Find a garment (handmade or ready-to-wear) that you hardly wear because you don't have anything to go with it. Create two other garments that would go well with it in hopes that you will then wear the hardly worn piece. The two items must be different items such as a skirt and blazer. Do not make two skirts or two pairs of pants. These two items do not have to match or be worn together. 

This is the time to really put yourself out there. Think outside of the box and think about how you can really make the hardly worn garment a show piece in your wardrobe. 

So as you see, my task was to create two items of clothing that would coordinate with a hardly worn piece in my wardrobe.  My entry to the contest is below!  I chose my beloved plaid wool skirt made last fall for my hardly worn piece.  Keep reading for all the details on my two coordinating pieces!

I love my plaid wool skirt made last fall from thrifted/reclaimed wool.  However I often found that the one coordinating top that I had was either at the dry cleaners or too warm to wear.  So my lovely wool skirt has spent too many days lingering in the closet when it could be a major player in my fall wardrobe.  I also had the feeling that the jackets I tried to pair with the skirt were either too casual or too long and covered up my beautiful plaid.  In order to better fit my wool skirt into my wardrobe rotation I decided to make a coordinating top and jacket. 

First Coordinating Piece: Moto Jacket

Butterick 6169 seemed like a great pick for a jacket to pair with my plaid skirt.  Maybe it makes me think of 90's grunge and that harkens back to my high school days, but I really wanted to see what the two would look like together.  I love the combination of the two pieces and wanted my jacket to have a little twist to it, so I used a herringbone tweed wool for the sleeves and a black sateen with a little stretch for the body of the jacket.  For the lining I used a dark navy bemberg rayon from my stash. 

Construction and Fit: 

I was a little nervous that the black stretch satin would stretch out during construction so I used strips of fusible knit interfacing to stabilize the seams.  In this case I think it might have puckered my seams slightly- so it was the choice between stretched out seams or slightly puckered seams!  

 

I also stabilized the wool tweed with the same interfacing and it worked great!  Wool is so warm and it definitely makes the sleeves cozy.  I wanted to reinforce/stabilize the sleeve caps of the sleeves so I used thick red fleece remnants to fill out the sleeve caps.  I referenced the tutorial on the Lisette site to figure out how to do this.  She uses quilt batting, but the fleece I used is pretty close in texture to batting. 

 

The fit of this jacket is a bit tricky but thanks to the princess seams it is completely manageable.  The tricky bit is that the jacket is meant to be closer fitting and I find that to be a balancing act since I want to (obviously) wear the jacket over a long sleeve top- so there has to be a bit of extra room.  I tried the shell of this jacket on numerous, numerous times trying to strike the perfect balance between fitted and roomy.  I ended up taking the outer shoulder princess seams in by 1/2 inch each to accommodate my slightly narrow shoulders.  I also made sure to let the princess seaming out in the bottom back part of the jacket to make room for my bum.  I took the rest of the back seams in by approximately 1/4 inch each.  For reference, I started with a size 10 which is usually just right for my bustline.  I also took the side seams in 1/4 inch each.  The length of the jacket was just right for me so I left it alone.  The sleeves were a bit too long so I ended up taking off 3/4 inch from them.  I didn't combine the lining and jacket as per the included instructions but used this tutorial from Grainline Studio. 

 

Final Thoughts:

I feel that all the small changes made the fit of the jacket were just right for my frame and I will be able to wear long sleeves and dresses under the jacket very comfortably.  Nothing screams "fall" to me like plaids and I love wearing wool plaids in the colder seasons, I'm thrilled that I now have the perfect jacket to wear with my skirt.  Also when I wear my new jacket with my plaid skirt I really feel like I'm on a time warp to 90's grunge but I am completely fine with that!  I liked the early 90's!  I think the jacket gives the skirt a little bit of edge instead of the usual preppy feeling I have when wearing it- I love options for styling!   

     

Second Coordinating Piece: Fitted Button-Down Shirt

I love print mixing but don't always take the time to try it, so this challenge was perfect since it pushed me into finding a print that would work with my plaid skirt.  I loved this pairing and really wanted to get a similar look so I combed my local fabric store and found this cotton voile and knew it would be perfect.  I love cotton voile for button-down shirts. 

Construction and Fit:

Butterick 5526 was almost exactly what I was looking for when trying to come up with the perfect top for this skirt.  I say "almost exactly" because I really took issue with the collar.  Can I say ugh!!  I cut the collar and considered using the mandarin collar option but when I stitched it on the shirt it looked awful.  

So I decided to compare the Butterick collar and collar stand with the Grainline Archer collar and collar stand that I knew I liked.  The drafting of the two collars is very different- both the collar and collar stand of the Archer are significantly smaller than the Butterick pattern.  

I ended up Franken-patterning the Archer collar onto the Butterick pattern and it worked perfectly.  This was a moment when ripping out a completed collar was totally worth it.  I know the original Butterick collar would have completely overwhelmed my slightly narrow shoulders, but the Grainline Archer collar is the perfect scale.   

 

I love the princess seaming on this pattern for two reasons, the first being that I feel the slimmer lines of the princess seams help the shirt tuck into the skirt more smoothly rather than billowing out like other button-down shirts.  I can't stand the bunchiness that happens under a skirt when a top is tucked into it!  The other reason being that princess seams work in your favor if you usually grade between two sizes in bust and waist.  I started out with my usual size 10 bust and let the seaming out for my waist and hip area since I normally grade those to around a size 12.    

I added sleeve tabs to this top since I often wear my sleeves rolled up and used pearlized shell buttons from my stash. 

 

Final Thoughts:

I really took my time in constructing this top, I wanted to wear it with pride and I do!  I serged all the seams to finish them and everything feels just perfect with the fit.  It is soooo satisfying to wear a handmade garment with pride and know that the styling and fit is exactly to your liking.  And I love the combination of these two pieces, I can see myself reaching for this pairing over and over, in fact my co-workers will probably tire of me wearing them this winter!  I'm also pretty excited that all three of these pieces play together nicely and so can be worn all at once.  I have had so much fun during this challenge, coordinating fabrics, thinking outside the box and sewing pieces that I will grab over and over with my skirt.