Monday, September 24, 2012

Renaissance Faire Costumes

This year I made 5 costumes for the Santa Fe Renaissance Faire! It was a blast!

For my outfit I designed the top, skirt and overskirt. The vest is Simplicity 3618.

Billy's outfit is made using a pattern from Making Baby's Clothes for the top. Pants are an out of print Butterick pattern that I don't remember the #. Vest is designed by me.
(Someone gave him funnel cake. cough cough brian cough...)

I designed Brian's vest and made his boots. Top and pants are McCalls 5446


This is Michael's costume. I designed the vest, bracers and the shirt. Pants are Butterick 4574. This is the first time I have worked with pleather. I kind of like it. So easy to work with and no finishing required!

This is Craig's costume. I designed the shirt. Pants are again Butterick 4574.

Craig said "What is funnel cake?" This is funnel cake.



I'm a dragon!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Kids Clothes Weeks Fall 2012


I am so excited to participate in Kids Clothes Week again! I find that it is so much more pleasant to work on clothes for Billy because I don't have so many fitting issues to worry about. I'll have to start searching for my patterns!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The 52 Dresses Project


The 52 Dresses Project. How could I resist? Of course I want to have 52 dresses in my wardrobe! At least this one gives me a very long time to participate. I will have to count up all my dresses and see where I stand. I have tons of patterns that I want to try. (And more that I want to buy and try but we don't really have to talk about that...)

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Baby Dress

Here is a dress I designed, sewed and gave to my friend Tammy for her little Marea's baby shower.




Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Cherry and White Dress


I finished my dress for the Summer Spark Sew AlongVogue 8615 a month ago but never got photos in time to post for the sew along. The construction didn't take long at all. I made the muslin in a day and the final dress in just 2 days (with many baby breaks.) This pattern is great because it comes with Custom Fit pattern pieces for A/B/C/D cup sizes. The only alteration I had to make to the pattern was to curve the darts a little at the apex to get rid of a bit of pointiness. Other than that, it fit perfectly right out of the envelope. I am so happy with this dress! It is a breeze to put together. Since it has french darts on the front, there are only 4 darts use to get this nice fitted bodice! (8 if you count the ones on the lining.)

The fabric is quilting cotton from JoAnn's. It drapes quite nicely. Since the fabric is just a tiny bit see through, I wear a nylon slip. I think I might buy a petticoat to give it more volume.

I lined the bodice but not the skirt as the pattern calls for. I don't want to use that much fabric =) I also   cut the front bodice pieces as 1 piece instead of 2 halves with a seam down the middle. They only drafted it that way to cut down on the length of fabric needed as the 2 half panels can be cut between all the skirt pieces. I finished the hem with bias tape instead of a regular hem because I wanted it to pop.

I bought the cherry print fabric specifically for this project. The white on white floral print lining fabric and the pattern were from my stash. The fabric I used for my muslin was also from my stash so this project definitely counts towards my Stash Busting Project. It also goes toward my 13 by 13 goal of using stuff from my stash. Apparently I really need to use stuff from my collection because I keep coming back to that...

Sunday, June 17, 2012

New Simplicity Collection

I am very excited about some of the new patterns from Simplicity's Early Autumn 2012 Pattern Collection. (Early Autumn? Seriously? It isn't even officially summer yet.)

My favorite is Simplicity 1777, a 1940's reproduction dress pattern. I think I am going to add it to my list of items to make for the Sewing Through The Decades Sew Along.
Image from Simplicity.com

Simplicity 1778: I am not sure if I actually like this pattern or I am just excited because it has a red polka dot dress on the front. I am not sure how I feel about the bunching on the front.
Image from Simplicity.com

Finally, I like Simplicity 1779. I would like to make view c, white with navy ties.
Image from Simplicity.com

Thursday, June 14, 2012