Sewaholic Hollyburn #2

Summer sewing is drawing to a close for me.  I don't know exactly what happened but I woke up one day and decided I was more in the mood to sew a bomber jacket or button down shirt than a dress.  I'm squeezing in one more dress after this and then it's on to fall and winter sewing for me.

I originally used this print for a Sewaholic Saltspring dress.  Everybody else seems to love that pattern but when I finished it I was underwhelmed and have never worn it.  I think it was sewer error because it looks so great on other people.  I love this rayon challis fabric by Joel Dewberry so much that I ordered more and made a Sewaholic Hollyburn out of it instead.  I've made this skirt once before and every time I wear it I wonder why I don't have another. 

I like the tab detail with the button.

 

And I also like the style of the pockets.

 

 

I never used to like high-waisted styles but I've watched enough episodes of Call The Midwife on BBC that I think I need to be wearing them all the time. 

 

Earlier in the summer, my photographer (my 15 year old son) and I put more effort into staging shots.  Now we just drive around town, find a wall, and snap a few pictures in about 3 minutes. This time even the weeds and random wires didn't stop us.

 

 

I think we'll get our mojo back when fall sewing comes around.

 

 



Colette Myrtle

 

This is the newest Colette Patterns release called Myrtle.  I bought it before it was released during a promotion.  I wish they would put me on a list of people who buy every one of their patterns so they could just mail it to me without asking if I want it.  Of course I do.

 

I've decided to call this a wearable muslin so I'll feel better about the extremely poor workmanship.  It's an incredibly easy pattern to follow but I decided to make it more challenging for myself by making some really goofy mistakes.  Also, after an incredibly mild summer in the Midwest, it decided to be 100 degrees today and I'm pouty about it so there are going to be two pictures of me in this dress.  And both of them include not-so-great-looking hair. 

 

There are 5 pattern pieces to this dress: Bodice front, bodice back, skirt front, skirt back and pocket.  The back bodice is finished with a twin needle (unless you have an overlocker).  I usually don't have an issue with the twin needle.  I bought this fabric on the clearance rack and it is super flimsy.  The twin needle ate it up but somehow I made it through.  I just hope no one ever inspects it closely. 

 

There are some nifty little sewing tricks in this pattern that I liked.  The front bodice is a very long piece that you fold in half to make the cowl neck.  Then you sandwich the back bodice in between the layers and stitch the shoulder and side seams.  Super easy! Unless, of course, you get the back bodice twisted around like me and have to pick out the serged seam.

 

To insert the elastic in the waistband, you sew two rows of stitching at the waistband to form a flap and then fold it over the elastic and sew to enclose it.  Easy!

 

 

The picture in the instructions clearly shows that you are supposed to pull the bodice out of the skirt to enclose the elastic.  I missed that part and sewed it while the bodice was tucked inside the skirt.  I'm almost positive that it took me longer to unpick the zigzag stitch around the waistband than it did to sew the entire dress.  It took that long. 

 

The part I'm going to have to change is the neckline.  I made an XS for the top and graded out to a S for the waist and skirt.  I'm going to take out a rather large wedge from the front bodice pattern piece because it dips so low on me that it's obscene without a cami underneath.  This probably isn't a problem for a bustier gal but busty I am not. 

 



 

I could probably live in Myrtles and Monetas all summer long.  

Colette Parfait #2

 

This is my second Colette Parfait (see the first one here) of the season and my favorite of the two.  I used this Liberty of London fabric as a lining for my Colette Albion.  I loved it so much I wanted to make a dress out of it.  It disappeared from the www.fabric.com website for a little bit but once it reappeared I snatched it up. 

 

I underlined my last Parfait with muslin but I chose a white batiste for this one. I found it at a big box store and was pleasantly surprised by how much I like it.  And the price!

 

 



I think I'm going to make a winter version of this dress in a red wool crepe and wear it over a shirt.  I hadn't thought about it as a winter dress until I read the packaging.  I think the pockets are darling but you can't really see them in the busy prints I've chosen.  Maybe I'll find some way to bedazzle them in a solid color fabric.

I like the back of the dress a lot.

 

I'm pleasantly surprised by how often I've been wearing the dresses I've made this summer. I feel like my productivity rate is the highest it's ever been.  That must have something to do with the fact that I'm making more than one version of each pattern and therefore don't have to fool around with fitting issues.



Sorry for the random Polyvore post

My apologies for the Polyvore posts. I was trying to enter the Colette Patterns Knitcation contest. I am a novice at Polyvore and all of a sudden things started posting on the blog! 

Moneta #3

One of the things I love about sewing is the ability to make an outfit for yourself out of anything you want.  If you want to go into the kid section for some knit fabric with ladybugs on it, then go for it just like I did.

This is my second to last Moneta for the season.  After the next one I'm making myself stop for awhile but then when fall and winter are approaching it's game on.

The ladybug fabric is from www.fabricworm.com and it's by Birch.  I love it even though it's not very drapey.  I like nice drapey jersey for this dress.  This fabric would be more suitable for a top that doesn't need drape but it still works here.

 

The orange fabric is from Sarah's in Lawrence KS.  It's a great quality fabric but it's a little on the thick side.  So is the ladybug fabric.  I was supposed to interface the Peter Pan collar but I didn't because 1) I didn't have any interfacing and I was feeling too lazy to run to the store and 2) I was worried that with the thickness of the fabric it would be a big bulky collar if I added interfacing.  I should have interfaced it because it waves a bit.  I'll know for next time. 

 

 

 

This is as close to the back of the dress as we're going to see today.  I just used the front piece out of the envelope for the back and then forgot to take a picture of it.

 

 

You can see how the hem waves a little bit.  I wasn't planning on that but I like it.  I used a twin needle for hemming and the wave gives it a little bit of extra personality.

 

 

I bought this label from www.sewaholicpatterns.com.  I love it! 

 

 







Colette Parfait

 

If you squint a little the print on this dress isn't so loud.  I ordered this Liberty of London print from www.fabric.com many moons ago.  It wasn't exactly what I pictured, and by that I mean I didn't like it at all when I opened the box.  I kept it and recently decided to use it to revisit the Colette Patterns Parfait dress as a wearable muslin of sorts.  I liked it online because the flowers look like my all-time favorite dahlias, but in person the little squiggles in the background just don't do it for me.

 

The Parfait dress is the first pattern I feel in love with from Colette Patterns.  There are just so many things about it that are adorable to me: the gathered pocket, the gathered bust, the sundress style back, the empire waist.  I made my first version in the infancy of my sewing career and the SBA made it extremely challenging for me.  I don't even remember how many muslins I did.  When I pulled out the pattern pieces I traced back then, there were various sizes so apparently I did a whole lot of guessing.  The dress isn't lined, so for this version I underlined it in muslin I had lying around.  I didn't bother to do any pattern matching and I'm not bothered by that at all.  Life is too short to pattern match on a pattern with a lot of seams and a crazy print.

 

You have to look really hard to find the pockets. Hint: look for the button:

 

 

 

The back keeps you sort of cool in the sweltering heat of the midwest summer.

 

 

The only part I'm not crazy about is the facing.  I had to catchstitch it to the underlining so it would stay in place.  It didn't take long and I think it's a must-do on this dress or else your facing will be all over the place. 

 

The only thing I changed about the instructions is I installed the invisible zipper at the top of the side seam instead of sewing the front and back together for about an inch and then installing the zipper under that per the instructions.  I don't even know how I would get the dress on if I did that.

 

A close up of the print and the front bodice:

 

 

I'm glad I sewed this up even if the print is a little obnoxious because I want to make another version in a sweet print and I want to make sure I get that right.  I did wear this dress to the park today, though, so maybe I'll get some wear out of it.

 







 





Colette Moneta #2

Oh look.  Another Moneta. I don't see my love affair with this pattern coming to an end at any point in the near future.  It's easy to make and easier to wear which makes it the best in my book! Eventually maybe I'll get to the point where I only provide pictures with no text because I'll run out of things to say about it.

 

My oldest son has taken over as lead photographer for my sewing projects which is hilarious because he's such a jock.  He picked this location and told me where to stand so pretty much all I had to do was show up.  I'm happy because arranging photographs can be challenging when you are in them.  The above picture is my attempt at following the instruction to "look sassy."  Looking sassy is really hard.

 

 

I bought this fabric at Hancock's when I was in there for elastic.  It was sitting on the clearance rack for $3.50 a yard so I thought I wouldn't be losing much if it didn't work out.  It feels like tshirt material so when I'm wearing it's like wearing pajamas.

 



 

The flaps at the back look a little funny because the material tends to curl a little bit.  I can't see it so I'm not going to worry about it.  I chose to do a rolled hem instead of serging and turning under.  I actually did serge it first but it was rolling so much I decided to be lazy and just do the rolled hem.  I like it.  Rolled hems are a lot easier when you know how to do them.

 

I wonder how many of these I can make this summer.......