Geektastic marries Vogue

I have been hanging out to make this dress for what seems like ages.  I purchased the pattern early this year but put it away thinking that when summer arrives I will get it out again.  Then I discovered Spoonflower!

I can't remember what month but this fabric was the winner of the geek contest on Spoonflower.  The colour was amazing and it just spoke to me.  Now ...  I don't usually go for novelty prints but this, well I just had to have it.

At the first sign of Spring this dress just had to jump the que and be first onto the sewing table for Frocktober.

I put together a muslin first and just as well cause the waist was just too small, so a bit of math later and I'd worked out that each pleat, and there are 10 of them, had to loose 0.7cm which would give me the extra 7cm in circumference that I needed.  I also had a hell of a time with the princess seams in the bodice - they weren't true princess seams because the pattern also has a bust dart.  Anyway after much faffing it all came together.

I got some cotton batiste (well that's what I think it is anyway) from The Fabric Warehouse to line the dress, so it would feel wonderful against my skin in the summer heat, without sticking to me.

The dress provided for a hem facing.  This is the first time I've done one of these - very easy I must say.  I couldn't really workout why a facing and not just a hem, but as soon as I put the dress on I immediately knew why - it helps give the skirt some fooff and helps maintain the overall shape of the dress when worn - very cleaver if you ask me!

Look at the shape of the dress - isn't that so pretty?

My invisible zipper went in like a dream.   No pattern matching here, as you can tell!

More Photo on my Flickr -->

Spring calls for Group Sewing

Today is the first day of spring and to kick it off I am participating in a couple of group sewing activities.  Luckily I can sew one garment for both - oh year love that!

I love sewing dresses and who doesn't like a good cotton fabric, but I don't usually sew vintage!  Athough now vintage includes the 1980s I probably have a few patterns from that era in my statsh!  Anyway my intuition must have known something I didn't, because about three months ago when sewingpatterns.com had a Butterick sale I acquired this Butterick Retro '51 pattern.  The dress to the left particularly caught my eye.

This pattern wasn't even on my sewing 'to do' list, then all of a sudden it is first out of the box for September - don't you love how a good group activity changes things :-)

Last week I took a wee detour to The Fabric Store hoping to get some inspiration for fabric.  I was hoping to find a cotton voile or similar light weight cotton that would have a transparent nature.  Next thing I knew I was at the counter with this fabric!

The pin in the centre will give you a sense of the size of the pattern.

Now this is sooooo far removed from my comfort zone, but the purple and blue combination found a soft spot and intuition said 'BUY IT'.   So what is a girl to do ... follow her intuition of course!

To keep inspired and gain some confidence in my selection I joined the Fall for Cotton Flickr group - check it out there are some great patterns and amazing fabrics to google over.

Check out this fabric!   I ordered this from Spoonflower, not long after I discovered the awesomeness of custom made fabric. 

Two yards of cotton sateen - devine!  At the time I ordered it all I knew was that I wanted to make a dress with it, one with a fullish skirt.  Then along came this pattern from Kay Unger in the Vogue collection, the perfect combination. 

On my way past the Fabric Warehouse yesterday I called in to pick up some lining, 100% cotton batiste, which is lovely and soft to match the cotton sateen, knowing that this pattern would be at the top of my sewing list soon now that it is Spring ;-)

It feels like Spring is my permission to start sewing summer dresses - well that's what I'm telling myself anyway.  That's not to say that I've finished my winter sewing list yet - still two pairs of jeans to make and a nice wool blazer!  There is no doubt that they will get loads of wear before summer is truly here.