The Geode Dress

Tags

#2016FAL, 2016 FAL, B3569, B6760, clothing, sewing

That’s what the fabric looks like to me, anyway.  It’s called “Paperweight,” so that may have been what The Fabulous Mr. Fassett had in mind, too.

I also considered calling it the More-Is-More Dress, after a comment I made over at Steph’s place, but More-Is-More would describe SO MANY things that I sew . . . .  😉

If you’ll recall, my plan was to use two old Butterick patterns for this dress:  6760 for most of it, plus the slash pockets from 3569.  The pocket modification was ridiculously easy–I just cut out the two extra pieces from 3569, folded down the top outside corner of the front skirt piece to match the one from 3569, and used the 3569 instructions to assemble the pocket.

I kind of have a thing for bright colors against black, so I decided to emphasize the contrast by cutting the facings out of a black chintz from the stash and putting black piping on the pockets and bodice.  (More bright scraps for quilts–WIN.)

Bit of a warning here, if you’re liking B6760 and thinking about maybe seeing if you can find it on Etsy:  the instructions on this pattern are a little wonky, like they should have gone past an editor one more time.  I could see a n00b getting pretty frustrated with things like this:

I tinkered with the fit on this dress for a while, and somewhere in the middle of that process, I realized that I was putting the dress on and taking it off over my head with the bodice pinned shut–and wasn’t having any trouble doing that.  So I took the lazy route and didn’t do buttonholes, just sewed the buttons through all the layers.  And I had eight of these shiny black buttons in the stash, so I just used them all.  I’ve got PLENTY of single black buttons that I’ve been holding onto for years and will probably never use, and I’m not adding to them.

The fit on the bodice was a problem, and I’m still not completely satisfied with it.  The neckline was too high, which I probably should have anticipated, given that it’s meant to work with a shirt collar.  The folded-down edges help with that, but I suspect a collar would have been better.  Also, the shoulders are dropped slightly, which is not a great look for me.  I have taken them up a bit and added shoulder pads, which helps.

I may be overthinking this, though, because the bodice looks pretty good in the pics.  Maybe I’ve just been looking at it too long?

 

I’m also kicking around the idea of adding fisheye darts in the back, as there’s a little bit more fabric there than I’d like.  I think I’m going to wear it a few times before I decide on that, though.

In the meantime, though, this is a really comfy, fun dress, and I’m going to enjoy wearing it.  I love, love, love all the gorgeous color in this fabric and wearing the dress is going to be fun just for that reason alone.

This is finish #3 for the Q1 2016 Finish-Along.  Yay me!

STH

 

 

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Make-a-List Monday 02-15-16

Tags

#2016FAL, 2016 FAL, Butterick 6247, clothing, Columbia Park, Ellensburg, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, Seattle, sewing, travel, Washington

You want to watch where you step in eastern Washington (taken at a rest stop between Yakima and Ellensburg).

Well, I didn’t really intend to, but I managed to let two weeks go between posts.  I’m still here, though, and still sewing, so let’s see how I did on my last list.

 

• Finish the purple top.

Done!

This project made me a little nervous–I was worried the fabric was going to be a nightmare to work with, I didn’t know if the style would work on me, I was unsure about the sizing, etc.  I cut a large, which was a bit of a risk, but the pattern has 5 1/2 inches of ease, so I figured that was plenty; I’m really glad I didn’t just go by my measurements, or this would have been MAMMOTH on me.  And I wasn’t sure what finished length I’d want on this style, so I didn’t shorten the pattern, as I do with pretty much everything.  I wound up cutting off 4 inches at the hem, and it’s still fairly long and drapey.

Oy, I took a record number of bad photos recently.  Blech.

Everything went well until it came time to sew the hems.  The bottom layer was hard enough, but I used my machine’s stretch stitch and rolled hem foot to get it done.  The top layer was a major hassle, though; I made this hem narrower and, for some reason, the sewing machine just didn’t want to move the fabric along, and the stitches wound up tiny.  Partway through, I decided to go to a regular straight stitch, as this part of the shirt really doesn’t need to stretch, anyway.  So I’m a little embarrassed by the way the hem looks, but there’s no way I could rip it out without destroying the fabric.

I’m still loving this top, though.  It’s so soft and cuddly and purple!  I’ve seen so many cheap and nasty jerseys, but this fabric is just lovely, and I love the swingy drape of the style.  And it’s purple!

(Mark your scorecards, everybody–this is my finish #2 for the 2016 Q1 Finish-Along.)

• Cut out the lining for the jacket.

Done!

• Finish the jacket.

Um, nope.  I actually spent the last week making these:

My partner and I had a table at the Bike Swap in Seattle last weekend, and I decided to make some little zipper bags to sell along with all the bike gear.  Sold a few, gave one to my honey, and the rest will probably go to SCRAP to be sold there.

So, next week’s list:

• Finish the jacket.

That’s it.  I’m tired of it and I want it finished so I can move on.  I’ve been nervous about it, so I’ve been busily procrastinating away with other projects, but I need to just stop thinking about it and DO IT.  I’ve decided that my reward for finishing it is going to be making my lovely Kaffe Fassett dress.

And I’ll leave you with some recent photos from my travels.

Yep, eastern Washington in February, complete with tumbleweed.  This is a wheat field on a hill above Kennewick; partner and I were scouting possible bike routes.

Interesting tree bark with moss from a walk with my mother near the fishing pond in Columbia Park.

Snowy hills outside Ellensburg on our way to Seattle.

Obligatory tourist shot, taken on a very soggy, gray Seattle day.

Needed to get a little color in there!  This is the Experience Music Project, which was very busy, despite the weather.

Have a great week everybody, and I hope you’re feeling bright and sunny, even if the weather is gray where you are.  Only two more weeks of February!

STH

 

Make-a-List Wednesday 01-27-16

Tags

#2016FAL, cats, depression, Make-A-List Monday, sewing, swears

Pooh and Shelby demonstrate the proper way to pass a cold, gray January (and Shelby gives me side eye for waking them up).

I feel like this post should be subtitled “not dead edition.”  Yep, I’m still here, just got sidelined for a bit by depression.  But I’m not going to write about it.  It’s boring, frankly–boring for you, and really, really, supremely fucking boring to me.  I already spend too much time focusing on what’s wrong and what’s hurting; these lists are about what I’m doing to move forward, so let’s talk about that for a few minutes.

(Make-A-List Monday is an idea that I borrowed from Sarah Craig over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and I thank her for inspiring me to try it!)

My last list was done on 1/11 and I did get some of it done, though not as much as I would have liked.

1.  Put the damn button on the last damn item of mending. 

Done!  This sweater from the Eddie Bauer outlet crosses over in the front and I was always having to adjust it–oh, how I hate clothing you have to fiddle with!–so I sewed a button through both layers to hold them in place.  You can’t really tell, but it’s a pretty etched silver-colored button.

2.  Make the boxes for my desk drawers and get all the stuff in there.

Done!  I love them so much, but I’d just like to mention here that they took totally freaking forever to do.

The old wood desk that my sewing machine is on has these deep, narrow drawers and I wanted a way to organize my sewing stuff in them that would allow me to see what I had and also be deep enough to use a good portion of the available space.  And I liked the idea of boxes that I could just pull out of there to, say, carry my pattern weights to the dining room table for fabric cutting.

You can see here that I made two deep (6″ tall) boxes and four 4″ tall ones per drawer.

The sides of these are constructed like pillows with pieces of plastic canvas inserted in them rather than pillow forms (I hope that makes sense–I’m having a hell of a time writing clearly with the bad case of depression brain I’ve got going).  Then I slip-stitched the ends closed.  The four sides of each box were slip-stitched together, then slip-stitched to the base, which was made the same way as the sides.  I used interfacing in the first box, but it didn’t really seem to add much to the support that the plastic canvas was providing, so I skipped interfacing the rest of the boxes.

And I realized, as I was doing all the aforementioned slip-stitching, that I have a certain way of thinking about sewing projects that perhaps is a bit misleading.  My typical train of thought goes something like this:  “Oh, this should be a quick project!  I just have these few seams to do on the machine, then a little hand-sewing, and I’m done!”  Then I get frustrated when the “little hand-sewing” takes ten times as long as doing the seams on the machine.

So these took a lot of hours of hand-stitching over a week and a half or so–I even managed to give myself an overuse injury, a pain on the inside of my right elbow, that’s slowly fading.  I’m really happy with them, though, and love being able to find all my little bits and pieces.  (Just a reminder–if you ever want more complete instructions or a tutorial on something that I’ve made, just let me know.  I’d be happy to do that.)

(This is my first finish for the 2016 Q1 Finish-Along, number eight on my list.)

3.  Finish the cross-stitch clock. 

Nope, didn’t get to this one.

4.  Check the fit on the wool jacket and cut out the lining.

This didn’t happen, either.

 

So, goals for this week (what’s left of it, since I want to get back to doing Monday lists):

1.  Complete my self-care checklist every single day.  MUST MUST MUST.
2.   Check the fit on the wool jacket and cut out the lining.
3.   Cut out the purple knit top.  BECAUSE JANUARY REQUIRES PRETTY PURPLE THINGS.

4.  Put the binding on the new mug rug I made for my desk last night.  I’m almost done spiffing up my sewing room and it’s going to look so great!

I hope you guys are having a great week and January isn’t getting you down.  Take care.

STH