Retro In Lime Green & Cherries - Simplicity 2176

so for all you lovely readers who don't know, i absolutely love the 1950s and 1960s.  my love for these eras is what inspires almost all of the clothing i make for myself.  so, i was really excited when i found this awesome dress pattern by Simplicity!

Simplicity 2176

 

for my first version of the dress i opted for the view made from the plaid material.  this view features a flap-type band around the top of the dress.  since i have an obsession with anything cherries, i decided to make the first version from this awesome cherry print cotton i bought at Joann.  to jazz up, the top band flap i added red piping.  i love piping too, and the little hint of fun it can add to any project!

as another bonus, i added pockets to both versions of this dress.  i mean, pockets only make a dress even better!

a couple changes i made to this first version of the dress were: 1) doing box pleats at the front and back, instead of regular pleats and 2) doing a centered zipper, instead of a lapped one.  i don't know what it is, but for some reason i'm not a fan of regular pleats...but i do love me a good box pleat!  plus, box pleats are so easy to do.

to finish off the dress, i did a simple blind hem.

now i can enjoy another retro-inspired piece of clothing made by my own hands! (ps - the dress isn't lopsided, leave it to me to stand weirdly.)

once i had the cherry version of Simplicity 2176 made, i knew i HAD to use this awesome lime green pique cotton when i saw it in Hancock Fabrics.  once again, i decided to use some black piping to jazz the dress up a bit.  with this version of the dress, i didn't do the flap-like band around the top.  for the piping i added it to the outer edges of the straps, around the bottom of the top band, and along the princess seams.  also, lesson learned, put the piping in away from the edge of the fabric, instead of making it flush with the cut edges of the pieces.  i didn't realize until it was too late that i should've done that, so the bodice fits a smidgen big, but not too much to bother me or be noticeable.

i also added the awesome pockets again and did my infamous box pleats.

with this version i decided to go ahead and do the lapped zipper.

to finish off the dress i ironed up the hem then hemmed it by hand using a slip stitch.

now i have two versions of this awesome dress, and am looking to make more if i can get my hands on some awesome printed fabric.  prints i would love to use with this dress pattern include:

Really, Really Retro - Glasses Black

Amy Adams for Riley Blake, Geekly Chic, Records Teal

Ragnar, Mad Mod, Main Abstract Ecru

until next time my fabulous readers!

A Blanket for Baby

hello wonderful readers!  i know, it's been such a long time since we've last met, and i'm sorry for that.  i've now completed my first year of fashion design school! craziness!!  this past year has been great, and i can't wait for the rest of these years!  well, now that school's out for the summer i've been able to get back to sewing for myself and others and updating my blog.  this project i actually did while the semester was still in session.

my cousin was pregnant with her 1st baby, a boy, and so i decided i wanted to make her something for her baby shower.  my creation of choice, a cute little baby blanket.  i found this awesome tutorial over at Tie It With A Bow for a simple baby blanket.  this was the first time i had ever made a baby blanket, but i was not daunted by the idea and persevered on!

for my blanket i bought the green with dinosaurs at Hancock Fabrics and the polka dots and safari animals at Joann.  i also bought light green minky for the blanket backing.

once i had all the squares sewn together i stacked all the layers (minky on bottom wrong side up, batting, then quilt layer on top) and stitched-in-the-ditch on top.  i then took the blue satin blanket binding and sewed it around the edges, with help from this great tutorial, using a decorative zig-zag stitch.

and all finished!  easiest 1st-time baby blanket ever!  i made this in February, and now this precious little boy, born in March, is here to enjoy it!!

The Black Pleated Skirt

i had been needing a solid black skirt for some time now...so i decided to whip one up with some forgotten black fabric i had.  and by forgotten i mean, i bought it a while ago at Hancock Fabrics, left it in the bag in my room, and somehow it got buried under clothes.  then i happened to find it one day when i saw a plastic bag sticking out from under the clothes mound.  yes, i was surprised when i looked in the bag...and it was an awesome surprise!  my solid black skirt could come to fruition!

for the skirt i reverted to my favorite silhouette...the circle skirt.  instead of doing a full circle skirt i did a 1/2 circle skirt.  i then created a waistband and did a simple button closure at the top of the zipper.

i also added pockets, because no skirt or dress is complete without them, using the ones from the pattern for The Houndstooth Coat.

another detail i added to the skirt was the inverted box pleats.  i did two in the front and two in the back.  i love the shape and flare the pleats add to the movement of the skirt.

i couldn't been any happier with how the skirt turned out, and i feel like i need to make another one because i end up wearing this one so much since it is my only black skirt.  plus, it goes perfectly with all my colored tights!

first time wearing the skirt after making it

Blog Catch-up: Shoes For Baby

hello all my wonderful readers!  i know, it's been such a long time since my last post!  mostly in part to me being in school and staying tied up with homework.  i do hate that i'm not able to do as much sewing as before, but i absolutely love school and everything about O'More!!

this post is about a little, literally little, sewing project i did back in december.  one of my former co-workers' daughter was pregnant with her first baby, and my co-worker's first grand baby!  everyone in their family was so excited about the news...and even more excited when they found out it was a little girl.  when i found out they were having a little girl i knew i wanted to do some sewing for the little miss...who is named Savannah Jane, and she made her debut in February.

i had some leftover fabrics and decided to whip up something from those.  i went to Hobby Lobby on one of their $0.99 Simplicity pattern days and found a cute pattern for some baby booties and shoes.  i chose the little shoes that had the strap going across the top.

this was my first time ever making baby items and so i followed this pattern to a 't'.  it was actually really fun making these shoes because they were so tiny and they turned out so cute.

for these multicolor ones i did a cute little plastic heart button on the top of the strap for a cute little detail.

for these blue and green ones, i chose the awesome flat, felt buttons that coordinated with the button-shaped flowers on the fabric.

when i finally got these surprise shoes to the granny-to-be she was so ecstatic about them!  seeing the reaction of joy on her face reminded me even more why i love to make surprise items for people!  i also found out not too long ago that her other daughter is expecting her first baby, a boy, in june...so there may be another surprise baby gift in the works.  until then, onto the next blog catch-up!!

The Houndstooth Skirt

so i finished the houndstooth coat for class and i had at least a yard of fabric left over.  this as not on purpose, though.  my mom and i bought the amount the pattern called for, but my mom is short-waisted and as a result i had to shorten all the body pieces by at least 3 inches.  which left me with all the unexpected leftover fabric and lining.  no problems though, because i knew what i was going to do with it.  i decided i was going to make my mom a skirt.  which shows how much we think alike, because before i even mentioned anything about what i was going to do with the excess she goes, "you can make me a skirt."  well surprise, surprise i was already ahead of her!

so, for the skirt i used the same pattern from my first class assignment.  also, this time i knew how bad the fabric frayed so i was prepared.  since the skirt pieces were simple i cut them out using my rotary cutter and immediately serged all the edges once they were cut.  i even figured out how to serge the edges and turn to knife off so i didn't cut off any of my seam allowance.  this is amazing! =D

onto the skirt!

one modification i made to the pattern was by cutting the front piece into two separate pieces, instead of one, so i could get the pattern on the skirt to work out the way i wanted it to.  for the pattern on the skirt i wanted the to point down and to the sides.   so to do this i had to cut each skirt piece separately and flip and rotate my fabric.  luckily this worked out because there was really no right or wrong side to the fabric.  then, where i sewed the front pieces together down the center i did a topstitch on both sides of the middle seam.

another modification i made to the skirt was by adding a lining.  the skirt pattern is just the skirt pieces and the facing.  but i wanted to add a lining to prevent the skirt from riding up.  i simply cut the lining exactly form the pattern pieces.  i didn't worry about cutting the front in two pieces since it was on the inside and wouldn't make a difference.  i then sewed the lining pieces the way it called for but left the back open.  then it was time to attach everything to the waist.  to make this easier i basted the facing to the skirt before sewing the lining, facing, and skirt.  then i turned everything down and pressed so it would hold its shape.  due to the thickness of the fabric, though, the facing wouldn't stay down.  so to remedy this i did a topstitch BY HAND near the top.  i love the result, but boy did it take me a while, because i would get to a point and realize the stitches had started slanting up, so i had to pull it out an redo it.

once that was done i attached the lining around the zipper.  to do this i ironed under the edges of the lining and did a catch stitch to attach it to the zipper tape.  then i sewed up the back seam of the lining as close to the zipper as i could.  next the hem.

for the hem of the skirt i pressed up an inch and did a slipstitch to hold it in place.  for the lining i ironed up 1/2" and did a zig-zag stitch.  i could've been finished there, but i decided to do a bar/french tack to attach the lining to the skirt but still allow it to have free movement. this was the first time i had ever done a bar/french tack but i figured it out.  now the skirt is complete!

The Houndstooth Coat

my final assignment for my Clothing Construction 1 class is complete!!...3 weeks ahead of when it's due, might i add :)  i typically don't wear jackets, well, blazer-type jackets, so i chose a coat pattern...and i ended up making the coat for my mom.  we went shopping for the materials and all i did was tell her what i needed.  the part of picking out the fabric and buttons was all up to her.  so of course she wanted a houndstooth coat.  which, houndstooth is very in this season, apparently.

for the coat pattern i used Simplicity 2311.  

the pattern was fairly easy to follow, although there was a lot of jumping around since i made the double-breasted coat.  so, that part was a little annoying.  also, because the fabric was so thick, it's a wool blend, it kept wanting to give me trouble on some parts when i would try to sew it.  other than those things i enjoyed the pattern and want to make myself a coat now, in the shorter, single-breasted version.

another issue i had with the coat was the fabric.  the fabric is great for the coat, but it frays like crazy!  i mean, it's like you just look at the stuff and pieces are falling off.  i had to make sure and be gentle when moving it around a lot to prevent losing my seam allowances.  for the hem it told me to turn up the hem on the part that was left open to turn it and stitch the lining to the fabric.  well, since my fabric frayed so much doing that was impossible.  so my teacher for the class gave me the idea of buying some kind of fusible ribbon to put along the edge.  well, i didn't want to go out and buy that, especially since i didn't know what she was talking about, so i improvised.  basically i took a piece of fusible pellon, that's fusible on both sides, folded it over the edge of the wool and ironed it on.  then i just took some scrap muslin, folded it over the edge on top of the interfacing and ironed it in place.  problem solved!...and you can't see it either with the lining in place.

during this whole process my mom kept trying to get me to do so many different things to the coat and change things.  i told her just because i was making the coat didn't mean she could get all diva on me. hehe  one suggestion she had was to do a cuff on the sleeve...well, that was when i had hemmed the sleeve to where it was supposed to be and ended up being too short.  luckily though, i had just done a slip stitch to hold the hem so it was easy to undo.  once i took out the original hem the length was good, but being the wonderful daughter i am =D i decided to do the cuff for her anyway.

for the cuff, i cut a piece of my fabric 5" tall and the width of the sleeve pattern piece.  then i sewed the short edges together...and serged since my fabric frayed so badly.

next, i turned the cuff piece right side out and pinned it to the inside of the sleeve, matching seams.

once it's sewn you can pull the cuff piece out and the seams of the cuff will be facing out.

next, i just pressed the free serged edge of the cuff down so i could sew it in place.  when turning up the cuff i pushed the seam allowance where the two pieces are sewn together down.  that way when the cuff is in place it gave me more of the cuff inside the sleeve.

and voila! the cuff is done.  and then i added a couple 1" buttons.  i tried to get my mom to get red, since she's gonna be wearing a reed hat with it, but she shot down that idea. lol  now i have a completed coat!

Three Little Bowties

i received another request from the mother of my favorite little 3 year old customer.  this time she wanted me to do 3 bowties for her son so she could give them to him for Christmas.  she asked me to make a red one, a black one, and a polka dot one.  the last one i made for him, turned out pretty well, but not as great as i would've liked.  so this time i made some changes.

i used the same tutorial as last time, over at Prudent Baby.  this time instead of using satin, i used cotton for all of them.  a main reason i chose cotton was because i couldn't find any other fabric with a cute polka dot pattern.  i like the way they turned out though using the cotton.  another change i made was using actual bowtie sliders and clips.

last time was my first time ever making a bowtie, so i didn't really know what i was doing and didn't have the proper hardware.  i ended up using velcro for the closure and it wasn't adjustable enough.  so, lessons learned i knew what to do this time to make them better!  i made the strap longer and bought some bowtie sliders and clips from Etsy.  all-in-all, these bowties turned out way better than the last one!