McCalls 6559 - x 2

I started seeing versions of this McCalls 6559 all over the sewing blogs earlier in the summer.  I might have just passed right over this pattern if I had not seen so many awesome versions!  In fact, I like the pattern so much I've made two for myself!

One thing I have learned from this pattern is this: now that I have more experience, I tend to make things harder for myself than they need to be.  I guess it's my desire to be creative and make something a bit more unique, but to be honest it's really annoying sometimes.  Case and point: it is possible to make this dress with only 2 pieces; a front and a back.  ONLY TWO PIECES!  Sew up the shoulders and the sides, hem and your good to go for a cute maxi dress!  But what did I do instead?  I decided "no, I need to do the version with all the crazy stripes and not the 2 piece version that would probably take an hour."

You're probably thinking "but this is not a maxi," and you're right.  It's not.  It was supposed to be...but it's not.  And I've decided I'm ok with that and I do like the dress anyways.  So what went wrong, you ask?  My cutting went wrong.  Very very wrong.  I folded my fabric and then cut the back piece on the fold. Totally normal; nothing weird there.  BUT, the pieces for the front side were very oddly shaped, and I really should have created a fold on a third of the fabric and not folded the entire piece in half because unfortunately it was almost impossible to fit those weird pattern pieces into the sides around where I cut out the back.

Even with the awkward cutting, I DID get all of the pieces cut out.  So, you ask, why is it still not a maxi?  Well, this is where the rookie mistake comes in.  I am so used to cutting out fabric folded over, so you end up with two of the same piece and it doesn't really matter which one is facing which direction because you have both covered (do you see where I'm going with this?).  So to fit the odd shaped pieces on the fabric, sometimes I had to turn the pattern pieces over.  This is a problem when you're cutting on a single layer (DUH!!!) because some of your pieces will be backwards.  And that is exactly what I had: 2 backwards pieces and 2 correct pieces...and no more fabric...and this was the end of the bolt.  AHHHHHHH!!  And so a maxi became a mini, and live goes on.  I was definitely disappointed though.

Things I don't like: the pattern has you fold down the neckline and stitch as a way of finishing it.  That's fine, but I feel like it's a bit uneven and it would have been better with a facing of some kind.  Same for the armholes as well.  I'm also having some trouble with this fabric stretching out at the shoulders even though I used some twill tape as a stay (I guess it's pretty heavy). I also learned my lesson about not pre-washing fabric, because even though I don't use any hot and I hang it to dry, there is some buckling in places now from shrinking (it's 100% cotton knit...shoulda known better).

I was still determined to make a maxi dress, so I decided to make another version.  I found 1.5 yards of white lace in the remnant bin at Hancocks and so the idea was born to make a lace maxi dress since lace seems to be everywhere this summer.  Once again, I took a simple pattern and made it more difficult than necessary, but it was still easier than the first version.  I at least used the version with just 2 pieces this time.

The main issue I had with this dress was that the remnant was not cut straight, so I couldn't get the full length that I was hoping for (that was annoying).  The bottom is actually straight, by the way, I'm just standing weird.  I also decided to make my life easier by cutting out the underlining and the lace at the same time (I just put them together and folded them as one piece and then did my pinning and cutting).  I really don't have much advice about whether that was a good or bad decision.  I probably should have not been so lazy because the pieces didn't match up as well as they could have, but I really hate cutting out pieces.

I wasn't entirely happy with the neckline of the first dress, so this time I attached the lining to the front, flipped it to the inside, and under-stitched it down.  I like the polished look much better. I wanted to do that with the armholes too, but I would have had to turn the whole dress right-side out through those tiny little straps...wasn't gonna happen...so I just turned the edges under and stitched them.

I used the racer-back piece for the first dress, so I used the other one for this dress.  I had the same gaping problem with both dresses but I added a couple of shoulder darts to the first one and I haven't done that to this one yet.  I probably will though and if I make this dress again I'll try to remember to adjust the length of the back neckline as it's too long for me. I didn't hem the bottom of the dress because I didn't want to lose any length and these fabrics don't fray, but I will say that the polyester knit I used has major static cling issues!  That's why you can see a hint of blue peeking out at the bottom but it's usually not there.

I really like this pattern and I'm sure next summer I'll crank out some more because it's really a simple pattern.  I think next time I'll just buy some knit fabric, cut out the 2 pieces, and not try anything fancy!

Butterick 5744

I just finished another dress that I absolutely love!  And it was really easy to put together (and more importantly it is super comfortable!).  I started with an inspiration from Anthropologie:

I love the way the fabric hangs, the ruffled neckline, and that it's a mock wrap (I think).  I love the fabric too, but I wasn't married to it as the absolute only option.  When I saw Butterick 5744 I waited for a sale and I snapped it up because it's perfect (not so much the model, but the drawings).

I like that this is a mock wrap dress because the real thing requires an ungodly amount of fabric (and I am a remnant shopper about 90% of the time; more than 2 yards is like finding the needle in a haystack). I did find some fabric that I liked on sale for like $2.50 per yard (score!) so I was on my way.

I only put a ruffle on the front wrap piece because a) I didn't want too much bulk where the pieces come together and b) I cut the other ruffle out wrong and didn't have enough fabric to fix it (so, basically the first reason was born from the second reason...but I like it this way better so no biggie).  It's kind of hard to see the ruffle because the print is pretty busy, but it's more obvious in person.

Here's the dress without the belt.  The seam allowance between the bodice and the skirt is closed in to create a casing for the elastic.  The elastic makes this dress easy to get over my head (the neckline makes this possible too) and it creates some shape at the waist.  I really like this method for putting in elastic because closing in the seam allowance is very simple as long as you make it large enough in the first place.  I know I'm improving in my sewing skills when I actually thought about that ahead of time and made sure to leave enough room to add elastic!  Go me!  No rookie mistakes here!

Warning: the hemline on the skirt is already quite short!  I usually have to hack off a few inches to get this length, but it was basically already there!  I had to create a very shallow hem by folding about 1/4 inch. and then folding again about 3/8 in. for a total of about 5/8in.

The bodice is completely lined, which gave a nice, neat finish to the neckline and the armholes.  I used a lightweight muslin for the lining because it's very breathable and light.  I tried to understitch as best as I could, but since you sew the neck and armholes at the same time and then turn rightside out, it's impossible to reach some of the seams.  Oh well, I have come to terms with pressing and not hating my iron (which I used to avoid like the plague), so I can press the seams after washing.

Speaking of pressing, this fabric hated it, so I used quite a bit of starch to iron it into submission.  I'm almost positive that it's polyester of some kind so the rebelliousness is not surprising.  It's also quite sheer, so the lining was necessary.  I didn't line the skirt because I ran out of muslin, but I can just wear a slip under it so not a big deal.

I'm really happy with how this dress turned out, especially because it really didn't take much time and it didn't cause me any problems.  It is sooooooo comfortable and fits great, so I think it will get a lot of wear.  I also like the color because I don't have a whole lot of red in my closet, but bright colors look good on me in general because my skin is like a blank, pasty canvas.

Vogue 8766

I freakin' LOVE this dress!!!  This might be my favorite thing I've made and I think I might be able to have some faith in it's ability to not fall apart because it's fully lined and I pinked all of the seams.  It will, however, wrinkle like crazy because it's cotton but maybe the garment steamer will help with that.

The dress is Vogue 8766 and I made View B (upper left corner) because I thought it would make a really cute sundress.  I was very curious about how the bottom ruffle was going to look (and I had my doubts), but I think it is so cute and it makes the dress unique.  Did I mention that I love this dress??

Note to self: don't be lazy; change back to the 50mm before taking pictures because otherwise the pics taken with the zoom look distorted and like the top half of my body is larger than the bottom half.  It's also because my husband is tall so the camera is angled down a bit.  A couple of the pics make me look like a bobblehead; not attractive!

ANYWAYS, this dress was actually very easy to make and pretty quick too.  I probably could have cut out the paper pattern, fabric, and put it together in a day, but I've learned that I need to take breaks or else the quality suffers.  I used a lightweight muslin for the lining to add a bit more structure and to ensure that you can't see through the fabric.

And that brings me to the fabric: I used quilting cotton.  Let me go off on a brief tangent in support of quilting cotton (because it gets a seriously bad reputation).  I knew that I wanted stripes and that I needed a stable fabric. I looked and looked for something that would work and I didn't have any luck.  I grudgingly wandered into the quilting section of Hancocks and low and behold I found THE fabric!  I loved the colors, the width of the stripes, everything...so I bought 2 yards and went on my merry way.  It's just another example of how much better the prints are on quilting cottons sometimes so it's hard to resist when you have a vision.  Let me just say that I was not disappointed and I think the fabric was the perfect choice for this project because it's a very fitted dress and it doesn't require any flowiness and drapiness (yes spellcheck, I see your close-minded, judgmental red lines under those words but I'm sticking with them!).  So back up off, you quilting cotton haters!  There is a time and place for it and I love my dress!!

My stripes matching was perfect on the sides and in the center front, but I didn't really even try to match in the back.  I also wanted to make the stripes horizontal on the sides and back because a) I didn't want to match stripes anymore and b) I wanted to add a bit more visual interest.  I didn't want to use horizontal on the entire dress because vertical stripes are more slimming.  If the stripes were wide, I'd probably think about going horizontal on the whole dress, but I am happy with how it turned out.

I got a bit creative with the way I lined this dress, and I think I made the right call.  The instructions have you underlining AND lining the dress and that just seemed a bit much.  It's supposed to be fitted and I worried that all that fabric would get bulky, but I was torn because there are certain aspects about each (lining and underlining) that I wanted to use.  So this is what I did: I put the bodice pieces together and the lining bodice pieces and I went ahead and attached them as if it was a full lining so that the neck and arm edges would be nice and finished.  I also under-stitched the lining to make it nice and crisp.  What I did NOT do ahead of time was make the darts; I waited until the two bodices were put together and then I made the darts through both layers (more like what you would do with underlining).  So basically I made a hybrid of underlining and lining by taking the properties of each that I like.  for the skirt I just underlined with the muslin and then made the darts (so no additional separate lining).  I am very happy with the results because there isn't any excess bulk around the middle from too many layers.

The dress looked really cute before I added the ruffle, so I knew if I didn't like it I could always remove it and still have something I liked.  But thankfully I really do like the ruffle!  And it's twirly!  To gather the ruffle, I tried using 3 rows of gathering stitches as opposed to 2 and I am really happy with the way it looks.  I forgot where I read that tip (I'd like to give credit where credit is due), but it was a really good one!  The 3 rows really helps make the gathers more even, so I think that is something I will always do (unless I get lazy and use the gathering foot which has kind of been letting me down lately; this method worked better).  I didn't really try to match the stripes because I knew with the gathering it would scrunch everything together anyway. (apparently spellcheck accepts the word "scrunch" which I'm pretty sure is a Southern version of squoosh or squish.  Oh..."squoosh" is the fake word, really spellcheck?  Whatever...)

I highly recommend this pattern because, I don't know if I made this clear, I love this dress!!  I wore it to dinner and bowling (seriously, I bowled in this dress) the other night and I got several compliments. I'm hoping I can add a cardigan or a denim jacket and wear it to work.

Scrapped - Vogue 8728

Well it's happened: my first unfinished object (UFO, they ARE real!).  It's disappointing too because I've seen so many great versions of this dress on the internets.

I want to clarify that this has absolutely nothing to do with the pattern itself.  It didn't have too many pieces, the instructions were clear (although kind of odd because it's a vintage re-issue, but I just kind of did things my own way), and in theory I should have ended up with a cute new/old dress.

However, I learned something new from this experience: my machine is hungry.  It's hungry for jersey and it doesn't care who knows it!  I wish I knew exactly what this fabric actually is so that I can put it on my "do not ever ever ever buy this ever again...ever!" list (that I will most likely ignore if I see a cute print or an awesome color).  I found it in the remnant bin at Hancock Fabrics (their remnants are great; sometimes as much as 2 yards!), but the problem is they don't specify what the fabric is just that it's apparel fabric.  I know that it's some kind of jersey because it's a knit that's super stretchy and drapey, but this jersey is actually kind of heavy.  One side of it almost has a kind of sheen to it while the other side is a bit more dull.  Any ideas?  Probably polyester like 99% of the fabrics found at Joann and Hancocks.

Well whatever it is, my machine continued to feast on it again and again and again.  I had to take apart my machine 5 times and a couple of those times ended up making a hole in the fabric (which maaaaaaaybe had to do with my impatience and eventual tugging on it...oops...and maybe or maybe not while yelling...).  I did learn that my walking foot is pretty much a necessity with this fabric because any other foot I used just made the problem worse (i.e. gathering foot is a NO NO!), but there was no fooling my ravenous machine.  It had an unquenchable thirst for this stuff!

So I think I give up!  I may go back and try again after awhile (we need some time apart...maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder).  I also have a difficult time with things that are left unfinished and they kind of eat away at me cause I know they're there...staring at me...

Completed - McCalls 6505

I posted about McCalls 6505 while in progress here and it is now complete.  Let me just start out by saying: I love this dress!  I need more occasions to actually wear it (or I guess I could just be super fancy around the house or shopping at Target).  Here is the pattern as a reminder:

I was having some issues with some bagginess in the front midsection because the front underlining is just one piece.  I wasn't sure how to fix it, so I tried ripping out the side seams and restitching them again but taking out significantly more from the front piece than the back.  I actually think it helped a lot!  It helped to give more definition in the waist as well so it was less sack-like (if you look at the picture, it definitely looks a little bit shapeless on the model, so if you decide to make this dress I'd think about carving a bit more out of the sides). I made a 6 and it fit everywhere else, so I think that's just how the pattern is.

Don't adjust your monitor: I really AM that pale and reflective.  You're also probably getting tired of seeing my sunroom, but it has the best light in the house (because of, you know, the sun.  In this room.  Which is a sun-room).  This dress came out exactly how I pictured in my mind!  And even better than that: it was easy!  I envisioned the potential disasters of working with lace, but honestly it was not that different from any other fabric (and it was easier than some; poly-spandex blend: I'm talking to you!).

In all honesty, I really didn't use the instructions because I found them overwhelming and confusing.  I also modified the pattern by not putting in a lining.  I knew that this dress was going to be worn in Las Vegas...in July...where it is currently 112 degrees, so the fewer layers the better.  The instructions also had you fully make the underlining/lining part first before ever attaching the lace, and that just seemed strange.  I thought that "underlining" meant a layer of fabric that is basted to the main fabric and then the two are used as one.  Am I wrong about that?  I would have also had to make the darts in each layer one at a time as opposed to making them to the underlining and lace at the same time (which is what I ended up doing and I think it made the process so much easier!).  I was a little lazy in some places with the underlining (i.e. folding over and stitching to finish the neckline and armhole edges as opposed to making a facing), but I knew that it would be concealed by the lace so it worked fine.

I used the selvedge edge of the lace as my trim around the neck, back, sleeves, and bottom hem.  It was actually really easy to attach the trim and it made it to where I didn't have to hem anything (even better).  I have a confession to make: I actually just pinked the bottom of the underlining fabric because it's covered by the lace trim and you can't see it.  Since I used the lace and underlining as one piece of fabric, I forgot to hem before sewing it all up.  It works though and I don't think it will fray too much.  There is also a 20 inch invisible zipper in the center back and it was surprisingly easy to put in as well.

Here's another confession: I could tell that the poly-shantung fabric I used as my underlining was going fray like mad, so I actually used my pinking shears to cut out the fabric.  I'm sure that's breaking like 23 different sewing rules and I might have my sewing card revoked or something, but it actually worked really well.  I didn't have any fraying issues at all, so it's something you might consider if you find yourself working with fabric that wants to fall apart.

I looked up lace dresses online and I saw that they are everywhere!  They are also mostly upwards of $100, so the fact that this dress cost me about $22 to make is just icing on the cake!  I think that means I should use the savings to go out and buy a new pair of shoes that I can actually walk farther than across my house in because as fabulous as these are, they HURT! This pretty much sums up what I think about them:

But they're so cute...maybe I'll try a different brand of cushy insoles even though I already have some in them and they aren't any more comfortable.  I'm wearing the dress though, even if I have to wear flip flops!  It's Vegas afterall; that city has seen it all!

4th of July Dress - Simplicity 2444

I feel like I've been living in the past on this blog so far (I mean, way back like 4 months ago when I was a wee sewing newbie as opposed to the vastly wiser sewing beginner that I am now).  So even though I have like a gajillion (more like 15) pre-blog projects to chronicle here, I thought I would show something I just completed so that you know how much better I have gotten and will hopefully continue reading this blog.  I'm better, I promise!  I make more than aprons and purses!

This pattern is everywhere!  I have seen so many completed versions of it and they are all beautiful!  I was inspired by Cynthia's version at Dapper Duds because it really caught my eye with the Chevron stripes and involved the right amount of "let-me-take-a-simple-pattern-and-make-my-life-more-difficult" that I seem to gravitate towards recently. (I did the same thing with the McCalls tank maxi dress that is everywhere because why make something that is only two pieces when you can turn it into 5 AND mess up and run out of fabric thus making it not a maxi but a mini?  Blog post coming eventually...)  I cut out a size 6 and I think that was probably the best choice because although it was a bit snug without a zipper (since it was all bias cut, it was just stretchy enough to wiggle into without one, SCORE!), I just made 3/8 seam allowances instead of 5/8 and it is fine so I think an 8 would have been a bit big.

Sidenote: I have really gone through quite a sizing journey over the last few months.  Packaging said I should be a 12, but after making a couple of things in that size I could have fit 2 of me in there, so I started using the finished measurements and usually fit somewhere between a 6 and an 8. I have a couple of things that fit at a 10, so really what I'm saying is I still have no idea about sizing.  Don't listen to me.  This was a wasted sidenote.

I found this fake silk fabric on clearance at Hancock Fabrics and I knew that this was the right project for the stripes (AND it could be patriotic!  Go USA!  Or whatever).

I really like the way this dress turned out and the pattern (if unmodified) seems like a really simple, tried-and-true dress that I will probably make again.  I butchered the hell out of it though and I didn't even use the instructions a single time (what a daredevil I am, taking so many risks) so I have no idea how clear they were.  I basically cut out each piece on a single layer, none of them on the fold, painstakingly trying to match the stripes to make the V shape, and then I immediately sewed each new piece as I went along.

I think I did a pretty good job (pat myself on the back).  I already knew after reading Cynthia's blog post that the darts and pleats kind of mess up the stripes, but I honestly had no idea how to plan for that so it is what it is.  It really doesn't bug me that much, especially since I was able to match pretty well everywhere else.  This fabric really didn't have very good long-term memory for pressing, so hemming was a beast.  I tried to do a blind hem, which is always kind of hit or miss for me anyway, and it didn't really turn out how I wanted it to, but I actually kind of like the contrast that I got along the bottom.  Am I crazy?  Does it not look good?  Am I just trying to convince myself that I like it so that I don't feel compelled to rip it out and try again (I must be doing a great job because I really think I like it!).  The one area I am not thrilled with is the neck because I made it into a V-neck (which I like!) and that made it more difficult to finish.  I used bias tape as a binding and it's a little wonky in spots, but maybe I should have drafted a facing?  I don't know.  I'm trying to ignore it.

I love how full the skirt is!  It also passes the spinning test and is very flowy (when I was little, I used to call dresses "stick out dresses" if I could spin and they would twirl nicely).  I really liked the fabric and aside from how easily it frayed it was easy to sew if I used a thin needle (80/11 as opposed to 90/14...I point this out because I am notorious for not thinking about those little details).  Cutting so many pieces on the bias also helped keep the fraying at bay.

I highly recommend this pattern!  It's so versatile because you make it as is or it provides a really good jumping-off point for other ideas.