Tag Archives: purple

Angie Dress V2.0

December 17, 2013clothes, sewingAngie Dress, dress, fall, plus size dress, plus size sewing, purple, Sis Boom Patterns, twirlHenrietta

This is the second version of the Sis Boom Angie Dress – first one blogged here.

I think my one big con of this pattern is that it requires bias binding. (But really thats just a personal preference, lots of people don’t mind it at all.) I hate bias binding. I hate making it and sewing with it. If I can ever get my mom to teach me to line a bodice I may line these and make a lot more of them. For some reason, the whole idea of turning the lining and the bodice right side out through a shoulder seam just baffles me. Oh, and I guess there is one other small thing. They have you sew elastic to the back skirt/bodice seam. I have yet to do that technique on anything and have it look good. I’m going with a casing for the elastic from here on out.

This one is a bit of a refashion I guess. I took an old skirt that I thrifted years ago, cut off the waist band, and attached it to the bodice of the Angie.

The top is a purple cotton bottomweight, the skirt was originally from Fashion Bug. It was not a good look for me, but I loved the fabric.

For this version, I added a second dart, this one in the neckline, and moved both the vertical dart and the new dart. The vertical dart is now a horizontal bust dart, and the neckline dart is now in the armscye. I had fun learning how to move darts around to do it. I’ve never done much with darts.

Some inside shots:

(Please ignore the pup hair.)

I’m interested to see how different my current version of this pattern’s bodice is from the original. I think I may print one off to compare. Initially I added quite a bit, and then I’ve been taking bits and pieces away since then. I also did a broad upper back adjustment this time.

Bias binding EVERYWHERE!

And because you can’t have a twirly dress (as my daughter calls them) and not twirl:

I have yet to actually wear it out in public. We will see how it goes. I think I might wear it tomorrow night when I go out to dinner with some girls. I also feel like its a super awkward length on me. Not sure how much shorter it should be. It is a fall/winter dress after all.

What have you been sewing?!

Current projects

May 24, 2011Bits Of Life, sewingbaby, Baby portraits, Burda, Burda Plus, Burda Plus Spring 2011 Dress 411, clothes, fields, flower print, flowers, gift, Graduation, green, house buying, mojo, pink, purple, quiltingHenrietta

Let me be honest, I’m super unmotivated to create anything lately.

My sewing room is a disaster and I’ve been sewing in the dining room, which is half full of boxes. Blue Hippo Arts is in the process of buying a house, which has been rather arduous for us. Everything feels very up in the air, and that is a difficult place for me to live for very long.

I decided to not take class this summer, so I have a ton of time I could be sewing right now, but I’m not. I feel like its not even worth talking about. So for now, I’m going to give you some pictures and tell you about the stuff that’s on tap to sew soon.

1. Dress for a graduation next weekend

(If you click on the line drawing, it will take you to the downloadable pattern at the Burda website.)

I wish I could find my Burda Plus Spring/Summer 2011 to show you the picture from the magazine. It looks lovely, much lovelier than the line drawing. Alas, I am ALWAYS misplacing my darned Burdas. Oh well. I’m sure it will turn up sooner rather than later.

Its going to be in this lovely fabric:

I’ve also begun a set just for whatever I make out of this issue of Burda. You can see it here.

So far I have altered the pattern, and sewn the muslin for the skirt. The altered muslin for the bodice is cut, partially pinned, and ready to be sewn.

2. Presents for graduation. Ok, I can’t actually talk about these because I hear that at least one of the recipients has read or reads my blog. Sorry. Lame, I know, but here are some of the fabrics I’ll be using.

Hopefully I’ll be back sooner rather than later, with completed projects to show you!

A gray bleak winter

February 16, 2011clothes, Photography, sewingBleak, corduroy, Courthouse, Gray, Highlander, knit, profesisonal wardrobe, purple, Purple Party Dress, skirt, Valentine's, winterHenrietta

Well friends and neighbors, I have to admit something to you. I’m not so much a fan of winter. I actually kind of hate it. Its cold and wet and gray. Not my favorite combination of things. Its just rather depressing.

I’ve been sewing though!

I cut this last Thursday evening while watching Highlander: Season 1 (one of my favorite guilty pleasures.) I cut it from a tee shirt that I had that fit well through the arms/shoulder/neck area.

This was my first attempt at sewing a knit garment, so I’m fairly happy with it. Its not great, but it works. I also have about 6 or 7 yards of knit fabric sitting here, patiently waiting for me to sew it up, so practice is much needed!

And finally… pictures of the much blogged about Purple Party Dress!

I wore it for the second time on Valentine’s day when my husband and I went out to my favorite restaurant for dinner.

And here it is with the sweater I actually wore it with. I’m not a huge fan of the sleeves, but I’m not exactly sure what is wrong with them yet. And sorry for the awful pictures. I’ve not gotten the hang of photographing myself. And I can’t find the owner’s manual to figure out how to use my self timer… *SIGH*

Have I mentioned that I got my new Burda? I did. There are several things I want to make out of it.

This might be the very first night time picture I’ve taken with my camera. Nothing terribly impressive, but it was fun to play around with while waiting for my husband to get the car on Valentine’s.

Oh how I hope Spring is on its way! In case its not, I just grabbed some fine wale gray corduroy to make a skirt out of that I’m quite excited about sewing! I have this sort of miniature unpaid internship thing for school, and we have to dress “professionally,” which in my field, is not necessarily suit and tie. I realized I have no bottom half of the body coverings that are warm or wintery or dressy other than one pair of gray wide leg trousers that must be worn with heels. A gray corduroy skirt should fill that gap well, especially if I could get a black pant done too.

Hope you’re having a less bleak winter than I am!

Toodles!

The Purple Party Dress

October 31, 2010clothes, sewingclothes, McCalls M5976, purple, sewing, weddingHenrietta

The aforementioned purple dress is done. I had the supplies to make it about a month before the wedding I wanted to wear it to, but life got in the way big time, and I started working on it 25 hours before the wedding.

But hey, it got done on time! Sewing with a quick deadline is not much fun, but I love the end result.

I took the time to line and interface the things that needed lined and interfaced.

This picture gives the truest representation of the color.

Pictures to come soon of the dress. We took some pictures the day of the wedding, but none turned out well. Thats what you get though for taking pictures with a phone.

New Adventures!

October 14, 2010clothes, functional sewing, sewingdress, purple, wearable muslins, weddingsHenrietta

I finished the key chain ID thing! And a shirt! but I might have already said that….

Next up is a shirt, just like the turquoise one, except a lot smaller and in different fabric. I really like the turquoise one, but it was HUGE. And I had cut the smallest pattern in that envelope! It really needed a lot of fixing. I took 8.5 inches out of the back! Then I took out 2 or 3 in the front. I’m still not sure how I like the front. I only basted my alteration so I could wear it around and see what I think about it. The back piece I took all apart from the yoke and did it up right, however I doubt the front will be so lucky. Its not the greatest fabric for this kind of shirt. It just bells out around my middle and has very little drape to it. But its a cute, easy, cool, short sleeve shirt that I will probably get a lot of wear out of, once its warm again.

Side note: When did fall get here?! I kept walking to class thinking, hmm… I wish it was 10 degrees cooler so I could wear sweaters. And then BAM! Its sweater weather again!

Back to sewing… I bought some beautiful deep purple fabric that drapes a lot better, and I’m going to make it into a dress out of this same pattern & add a belt for an old friend’s wedding at the end of the month. So its test out time. I bought the next size down when it was on $1.99 sale again, and have some more autumnal looking cotton to use for my “muslin.” I plan on getting the shirt done over this long weekend, and HOPEFULLY get the Purple cut out too. Ideally I’d get both cut and sewn this weekend.