WIP: Over Easy Dress

Here's what's shakin' on the Cynthia Rowley dress:

• Sunday night I pretreated the fabric. It's a super soft linen from JoAnn's that looked destined to shrink. I try to avoid pretreating as much as possible because of impatience, first and foremost. And when it comes to cutting, the fabric never lays as smoothly as it did straight off the bolt. At least not for me, even after ironing.
  
• Monday I cut stuff up. Because I had to match the pattern print, this took a decent chunk of time. Oh, and it involved a dumpster dive. More on that later.
  
• Tuesday I started assembly. Roughly 3.5 hours later I had a dress! All that's left to do is the handstitching on the hem and tacking down some facings. Have a look-see at the progress:

We're having some of Matt's work chums (no one uses the word "chums" anymore so I thought I'd throw it out there) over for dinner tonight or tomorrow. Thus, I'll probably finish the dress this weekend and will provide a full review Monday. And you'll see why I've dubbed this one the "Over Easy" dress.

To finish things off today, J sent over some pics of the kiddie clothes for your viewing pleasure!

The Gentleman's Bathroom is on the docket for Friday. Get your fishing gear ready.

Grading

A+

Weekend in New York with my sister and some swell lady friends. The weather on Saturday was glorious.

A-
Fabric from Mood for the June wedding. I'm going to use the Cynthia Steffe pattern after all since I think this polka-dot stuff in an espresso-y color will look quite refined in the end. Why A- and not A+? Well, I like to be frugal when it comes to these things and so $12 a yard for a poly blend is cause for point deduction. Still, I love.

B+

This exhibit at the Met was charming. I only wish they had shown more of the collages on the wall and not in the books that were hard to get to.

F-

Invitations to the hospital gala arrived just before I left for New York. So did the RSVP card with the ticket prices. You probably can't see it in this picture, and that may be for the better, but I'll fill you in anyway. $350 for an individual ticket. We'd need two. For 700 clams.

After pondering this for quite some time we've decided Cinderella and her Prince Charming will not be going to the ball. I'm sorry, y'all, because that means no madras dress despite your much appreciated voting. As I said, F-. At least we've got the Steffe to look forward to!

*images from www.greenwichmeantime.com and www.metmuseum.org

On Deck

Hey y'all. (Now I have the "Hey Ya!" song in my head - great!)

I'm leaving on a jet plane for New York tomorrow and I won't be back again until Monday morning, whereupon I will hop in a cab at O'Hare and scoot back to work just in time for a meeting (fingers crossed).

Then, next weekend is our first year Kellogg reunion. Talk about time flying. My favorite people are all returning to the coop and there will be lots of fun and debauchery next Friday through Sunday. This means little to no time for projects and even less time to create some blog posts. Things will be a tad sparse in this neck of the internet but here's what waiting for us the first week of May:

1. Basement bathroom reveal. Fly fisherman in top hats and a slight reference to the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression? How can you NOT love that? :)

2. Summer fun dress. I'm picking up this pattern from Joann's sale this afternoon (assuming it's in stock) and can't wait to cut up a great mod print to make it all happen.

3. Fancy schmancy dresses. Based on your votes, we're down to madras and stripes, with the comments leaning towards stripes. Poll closes tomorrow so get your say in now! Then I've got the "black-tie-optional-what-the-hell-does-that-mean" dress to get going on, too. Per Kate's comment a few posts back, if I can find the right fabric in The City this weekend then Cynthia Steefe's little number might stay on the cutting table. Erica did a stellar job on her version - could I be so lucky?

Friday Fodder: More Dresses!

A few quick things:

• Mom's here. The basement bathroom is wallpapered. Holler!
• I had to get fitted for a bridesmaid dress today and let me tell you, I am in the wrong line of work. 3 hondo for a simple a-line number!? HA! And that doesn't even take into account the alterations that I'll have to have done to it because, naturally, my chest and waist measurements do not match my hips. I know this and this is why I choose to make my own frocks, thankyouverymuch the not-so-friendly lady in the store.
• We received an invitation to a different wedding today in the mail. This is Matt's friend and he neglected to inform me that this is a "black tie optional" affair. Is there anything more gray in the dress code world? Nope, I think not. Anyway, the dress I was planning to make will now be too casual for my liking at "black tie optional" events.

This brings us to......

1. Please vote on a dress for the hospital event
2. If you've still got dresses on the brain and can think of a pattern that works for a June "black tie optional" soiree in D.C., hook me up! Drop a comment, y'all.

Happy Friday!

Friday Fodder: I need a dress!

Hello Friday, I adore you.


And holy crap, we're through the first week of April already! That means June is nearing and that means I've got some dresses to make. This is where you come in, dear reader(s).


Here's the situation. The hospital fundraiser is in June and the theme is some sort of tropical paradise (we dream big in Chicago - warm, tropical weather in June can be a bit of a stretch). Anyhoo, I tend to dress the part for these types of events. That's a major perk of crafting your own dress, afterall. Normally I know just what direction I want to go in but this time I'm torn. Stripes and solids are at war in my mind. Silhouette is too, for that matter. So let me show you what I'm thinking and then please weigh in.


Option 1: Stripes and slim.

Who doesn't love Eliza Doolittle?

I saw this Ralph Lauren dress in the window of his shop here and it was instant love. I still cannot stop swooning over it.

From last night's PR episode. It's circus-y (that was the challenge) but I like the vibe it's got going on.

I PhotoShop-ed up this dress in a stripe that's similar to some stuff I've got in the stash. It's fresh, I think it evokes a certain beachiness, but is that beachiness too cabana-ish?


Option 2: Solid and simple

A stunning vintage Vogue 2134 in yellow silk by Shinta

If you're a seasoned reader of this site you've probably noticed that I don't make a lot of empire-waisted dresses. I have my reasons but I'm considering putting those aside and forging into new territory. If I went this route I'd go with a vibrant tangerine color, something else I haven't done before.

Option 3: Madras madness.

A full dress in madras? Sure, seen it. But mine would not be a socially safe, strapless, knee-length column dress like this one (not that there's anything wrong with it - I think it's adorable). No, if I used madras it would be a floor length number. And it would have to have be something beyond a tube dress. A bit over the top? For sure. But I'd totally do it and would probably love every minute of it. It is a tropical themed party, yo.

So, with my options on the table, help! Which do you like? Any, none? Click a box in the poll on the side, top of the page. ----->>>>

Got something else in mind? Have just the right pattern for the madras number? Tell me. This could be fun - y'all choosing and me making. I'll leave the poll up for a week and we'll see how this experiment works. Thanks in advance!

*****

The voting box wasn't working but is now - scroll up and click an option!

Pattern Review: Neue Mode 23128

Well this is going to be a whole lot of random. Random formal gown pattern review (confession: this dress is now officially two years old), random pattern company (I don't even think Neue Mode is making anything "neue" anymore), random story to go with the pattern choice, and all brought about by random warm weather in Chicago.

See, yesterday it was a magnificent 64 degrees here and so I was sporting my green polka dot trench. This got me thinking that I never did a review for another green garment: my emerald green gown from the Charity Auction Ball held during my first year of grad school. Given how much blog love I bestowed on last year's CAB frock I thought it only fair to finally discuss its predecessor. Let's get to it then.

Background:
I had it in my head that I wanted an emerald green dress. Back in '08 we were fresh off of the movie Atonement. Despite not seeing the movie (I read the book and wasn't enchanted enough to go to the big screen) Keira Knightly's green dress was all over the place.

We're both pale, brunette ladies with Irish/Scottish/English/Welsh/pale-people-country roots. This may have been bold but I thought, hey she looks good so maybe I should try it out? I adored the color and recognized the cut of the dress in some vintage Vogue patterns, V2241 and V2859. With a little manipulation these two could be married and Ms. Knightly's dress could be had.

Despite the pigmentation similarities, Ms. Knightly and I do not share the same sticks-for-legs and pancake-for-butt features. Dammit! These dresses are best in really slinky, fluid fabrics like charmeuse or something and at this point in history I hadn't been introduced to the wonder that is Spanx. So I knew right away I'd be forgoing the unforgiving charmeuse that her frock was made from. Secondly, as much as I adore the 30s and 40s I wasn't really looking to make something so "costumey." I nixed these patterns and started looking for a dress cut that I knew would work on me. However, see that skirt on the red dress? I loved the godets. Godets are like pleats and I also love me some pleats. Whatever pattern I settled on would have to give me that option.

Pattern Description:
"Neue Mode 23128, evening dress with thin straps." What you probably can't see from the envelope picture are the godets in the skirt. Score! This design feature took awhile to find, thus why I ended up with a pattern from a lesser known company.

Pattern Sizing:

Sorry. I honestly cannot remember how this pattern is sized or what size I ended up making. It's European sizing, that's for sure.

Fabric Used:

This dress is made from green and black bridal satins purchased at Joann Fabrics. The lining is your basic black polyester stuff. I chose satin because it hides a lot of sins - not in sewing construction but in body construction! Also, satin tends to press well and it was important that the godets on the dress be crisp. The pattern illustration makes the godets difficult to see when the dress hangs naturally and I wanted to be sure my dress did the same, as my godets were going to be black. If done well, the godets would "pop" into sight when walking or dancing.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?

Um, yes and no. From the waist down it was exactly like the pattern. The waist up, however, is another story.

Were the instructions easy to follow?

Completely. And whodathunk that would be the case, given that most of the instructions are written in German? There is an English set to go along with the German, thankfully, but the diagrams were so well done I'm not sure you even need to read them.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

Fundamentally I was drawn to the a-line skirt and the princess seams. They are my bread and butter of formal gown construction and I know how to nip and tuck in order to get the best fit. The pattern has an empire waist seam that I eliminated because I wanted to put something around the natural waist. Two waist seams is too many in my book.

In this shot you can see the bodice seams are continuous from skirt to top. You can also see the small 7/8" black satin ribbon I adhered using "steam-a-seam" after the dress was assembled. This was way easier than trying to stitch it into place across 7 different dress panels. The waist band was finished off with a small rhinestone buckle to give the illusion of a belt.

But back to the other pattern feature that I particularly liked: godets! They truly made the dress and while I don't have an action shot or anything the shoe shot below gives a good indication of what the dress looked like when I walked/danced.

The pattern illustration does a fab job explaning how to put these babies in without making a mess. I ended up elongating the godet/gore for a little more drama but the construction was the same.

This was also my first time using a narrow-hem foot rather than hand stitching the hem. I'll say that about 50% of the hem looked professional and the other 50% gave away my novice status. Thankfully you could only see that on the underside of the dress! Had I followed the instructions there would have been a lot more hand sewing going on but I just didn't have the time.

Pattern Alterations/Changes:

The changes to the godets and the hem finishing were minor. The top of the dress was changed much more significantly. As mentioned, I eliminated the empire waist seam. I also added about 1.5" inches to the overall bodice length (damn torso) and completely departed from the pattern when it came to the straps. I have a love-hate relationship with straps. Love them because they're functional and you never get caught with your fingers in your arm pits hoisting up your dress just as someone snaps a picture. Hate them because they often look like an afterthought, or their proportions are off from the rest of the dress, or they're just boring. I was determined not to let any of that happen! So I revisited Ms. Knightly's gown and realized that the geometry of the dress is what originally drew me to it. All those angles and such were kind of refreshing. Building on that, I took two satin straps for each side of the dress, bound them at the shoulder, and ended up with triangle-like straps that mimicked the lines of the godets below.

Admittedly, this came about with a lot of trial and error rather than one perfect design vision, but whatevs. That's usually how things work in my world.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Conclusion?

No, I won't sew it again because I like to shake things up with each formal dress. Yes, I would recommend the pattern to others, as the instructions are clear and there was little need for alterations to get a flattering fit. And as for the conclusion, when a friend says, "That dress looks very Kate Spade," after you made it for $20, you know you've done well. :)

Parting comments:

1) I realize I have a drink in my hand in every picture save the group shot. I swear I'm not an alcoholic and neither are any of the other fine people shown.

2) Matt has an upcoming bachelor party and I have an upcoming bachelorette party. Parties like that mean wedding season, wedding season means dresses, dresses mean new fabric, and new fabric means new patterns to seek out! So in the hopper I have 1 short dress and 1 formal dress. Care to share your current favorite patterns to get the thought train rolling?

What I Wore: Purchased Puce

(One last time, ladies!)

Yes, I gave up. After the water mark incident and a very busy week at work, I threw in the towel on the purple plaid dress and made a trip to Nordstrom Rack, purchased the first thing that reasonably fit me, and packed the suitcase. The dress? It was aite. Comfortable to wear, I'll say that. But there is a reason I prefer to make my own, and it has something to do with preventing myself from looking pregnant before I actually want to. Eh.

I will finish the plaid item because so far the fit is pretty fab and it would make a good holiday party frock. And the sewing table does need to be cleaned off, so that would be an effective way of accomplishing two things at once - always a good tactic.

I wasn't trying to make a water color...

but judging by the nasty spots left behind by my sputtering iron, you'd think otherwise. So I'm working on the purple plaid dress for this weekend and on one panel of fabric the iron completely misbehaved. I have about 4 half dollar-size water marks on the bottom of the dress and don't know how to get rid of them.

Fabric type, you ask? Excellent question. I'd put it somewhere between a polyester brocade, because of its weave, and a polyester (heavy) taffeta, because of its body. No matter what it is, it doesn't like to hide water spots.

Help?!

What I Wore: Peachy Keen

As mentioned earlier this week, last weekend's wedding was one for the books. The grad school crowd got together again (some of these faces - and drinking habits - are probably starting to look familiar) and all was right with the world. The garment du jour? Vogue 8413, which was also used as the starting point for the Frank Party dress.

I won't lie, this is a fun dress to wear because it obviously sticks out in a crowd. Brightly colored fabric in an eye-catching, large scale, "how did you match those seams" print? Check. Satiny, swoopy peachy collar? Check. Semi-twirly skirt? Check. Let's not kid ourselves, it shouts at you. But I suspect Matt likes it because it keeps the "where's Waldo"-ish moments to a minimum.

The details: fabric was some leftover home dec stuff at Hancock's Fabrics last season. It's a cotton that has about the same weight as a drapery fabric. The pattern doesn't call for lining but I do so it's got a basic polyester china silk on the inside.

The skirt was let out to be more a-line then pencil, as the pattern calls for, and that makes dancing in it easier, fo sho.

Now for that collar. It's made from a simple polyester satin with no interfacing. That's right, it's standing on its own. We can thank the drafters at Vogue for putting this on the bias and giving the collar its popping power. (Side note, for those who know Matt, he's usually the one in the popped pink collar!)

Here you can see the back of the dress, which gets a dash of spice from the points of the collar ends. Also notice my new shorter 'do! Hooray for no more wedding hair.

Since there's not much else to discuss on this item we'll end with a toast to a good party with great friends.

New Thought...

I spy plaid and a straightforward pattern. Winner, winner, chicken dinner?

Plea About Plaid

Matt and I just returned from a Boston wedding for our friends Alissa and Kyle. This past weekend's affair was Beautiful with a capital "B" and the bride even more so. I brought out a dress from last season (gasp!) and realized I never posted a word about it here, so look for that later this week when I'm on my home computer and not here at work (double gasp!) where I have no accessible pictures.

As this wedding bidness continues I am running low on outfits, so I've got a project brewing in this brain for next weekend's festivities. (It's back in the Boston area, no less!) I scooped up this fun, summer-into-fall plaid woven that is completely reversible. One side is a pale purply color while the other is more taupe.

Immediately this number came to mind: Vogue 1108. The side bow could easily be done in the reverse fabric to spice it up. However, there's some serious construction involved on this pup so it may or may not happen given my time constraints and this pesky day job thing.

Another contender is Butterick 4790, but only with a decent amount of modification. For starters I'd skinny up those shoulder straps/sleeve caps and I'd slim down that skirt. I heart Betty Draper's wardrobe from Mad Men, but some things should stay in the past and not be packed in my Boston suitcase. The bell-shaped silhouette of this dress is one of them.

So, what's your vote?

A Place For Everything, and Everything In Its Place

I think you'll agree with me on this one. Attempt #2 for the proverbial "last dance" is clearly the winner. And because the pictures don't do this one justice I will be sure to post some Thursday following the event.

Let's review the garment, shall we? The styling of this dress is about as simple as they come: 7 panel, princess-seamed dress with strapless neckline. In short, a column gown. I used this pattern from Simplicity for most of the construction but added an empire waist seam to gain better control of the bust line fit.

The fabric du jour is a somewhat loose weave linen/cotton/mystery mix from Vogue's "summer assortment" section. The tag said "assorted fibers" which is always fun when trying to gauge how it will perform in the wash and on the body. I pretreated it by washing and drying because my hope was to keep this casual enough for vacations, and thus, standard laundering. So far, so good.

Below you'll see a close-up of the pattern and one dress piece turned right-side down in order to match it up correctly for the opposite side. Whenever doing a garment in a complex pattern like this I strongly recommend cutting one piece at a time; do not try to fold the fabric over in hopes of saving time! Even here you can probably detect how much shifting is going on because of the looser weave. All in all I'm digging the degree of matched seams on this baby, particularly given the number of seams and the intricacy of the fabric print. The side back seams were where I decided to let things slide when I realized something had to give, somewhere.

The inside is lined with some of my extra china silk leftover from the wedding dress. In an atypical move I completely closed off the interior of the dress; the bottom of the lining is enclosed by the fashion fabric hem instead of just falling separately. Sometimes this can spell disaster if you don't let the two fabrics fall naturally and manage to keep them even as you pin the hem. Fortunately I kept disaster at bay this time around!

And now for the magic in this thing. I am almost certain that if I am ever photographed wearing a strapless dress, there is a least one picture of me from that event where my thumbs are in my armpits and I'm hoisting the thing up in a desperate attempt to keep everything in its place. It sucks and does not produce pretty pictures. Enough was enough! This dress has a 3/8" band of elastic all around the top of it, added almost as an afterthought, but it may now be a staple of my sewing toolbox. Ralph Lauren has his pony, Tory Burch has her funky Ts, and yours truly has her elastic neckline. Not nearly as glamorous but then again, neither is having your thumbs in your armpits.

The picture makes it a little tough to see, I realize, but all you need to know is I used the seam allowance from the top seam to then make a casing for the elastic. Voila!

We're going to return to our past regularly scheduled program of Wedding (whatever) Wednesdays this week, and perhaps a few more after that. I've got some tiny little things to finish up here and there on my dress, the flower girl's dress, and some day-of decor. Stay tuned.

Uneventful Dress

The title of this post is somewhat misleading but really appropriate! A few weeks back I found this great, lightweight black cotton fabric with embroidered with gold thread in a paisley pattern, topped of with some clear sequins. From that description it might sound like a hot mess but it really was beautiful on the roll so I snatched some up in hopes of a simply styled dress for my last Kellogg ball (tear...).

I got it home, searched for a pattern in the files, and came up with one from Simplicity that I think is from their "lost" collection, if they have such a thing. I've scoured the internet for a picture but cannot find one. It's a basic sundress pattern with different hem line lengths. Because I planned this dress to be for the ball I went with floor length after I added a good 6 or 7 inches, since the longest version in this pattern fell to about 3 inches above the ankle. Here's what that gave me:

Careful readers will note something wonky with the left side of the skirt: that is the back side panel that has already been cut to knee length! As soon as I got the front stitched up I realized that this dress and fabric were not going to be cute as a casual full-length dress (which, upon typing that, I realize is an oxymoron of sorts). So I sliced off the bottom, finished the frock, and got this:

The back does zip all the way to the top, just not on my dress form, apparently! I like the tied neck straps - they keep this casual despite the sparkly fabric.

Aside from cutting the skirt length, I made some other semi-drastic changes to the pattern. First, I fully lined the dress on account of the fabric being almost gauzy in weight. I also just prefer to have most dresses completely lined. The bodice is done in a cotton sateen to give it some structure and because I've learned that fabrics that will be close to the body are better when they're of the natural variety, particularly in summer dresses when the heat is on! The skirt is lined with a poly lining from Hancocks; no big whoop.

Other modifications include my usual invisible zipper rather than standard and adding horsehair to the hem to keep the crispness of the line and to give some body to otherwise flimsy stuff. I was really pleased with that decision, and you can see it if you look closely at the bottom left of the overall photo.

Conclusion: a fun summer dress for nice nights out but not the one for Cinderella's last ball. Attempt 2 is currently sitting on the cutting table...

Holy Shift!

After 9 months of being engaged I've decided that the hardest thing during the engagement period is not what you'd expect. That rules out the usual suspects, like guest list revisions, selecting and sticking with some sort of color scheme, playing the band v. dj game, and the inevitable family feuds. No, the worst is growing out your hair so that you can do something fancy with it. For me this is particularly painful, as my hair is not meant to be worn long. Need proof? Check out the profile picture to your right. There my coif is 4 inches shorter and I dare say far better looking. So it's with that head's up (ha) that I give you this picture and ask you to ignore the 'do and focus on the dress. (It's not helping matters that this came from a cell phone but whatevs).

I was in need a dress for bridal shower #1 and had this great moderate stretch cotton voile in the fabric stash. Turns out I had just enough to make this pattern in view B and it will now be a staple in the pattern files. I adore it. No joke, this is the first shift dress I've ever made with any success and I'll give half the credit to the pattern and half to the material.

For once I found a shift that fits everywhere; no pulling at the hips in order to fit the waist and no bulge at the waist to fit the hips. Amazing. The stretch in the fabric certainly helped. And just as impressive is the quickness of construction for this one. Cutting and sewing time totaled 4 hours, if that. My only troubles came from a finicky serger, which was used just on the back center seams because of its unpredictable nature. This dress is unlined so I ended up doing french seams on the sides and some bias tape around the back slit.

So there it is. The only thing I wish I had done differently is center the white lines of the fabric more accurately. If you look closely, I centered the front directly on one of the wavy lines but should have centered it in between them. Oh well. And pardon the wrinkles, as I pulled it out of the laundry for the photo shoot. Clearly I'm falling behind in housekeeping chores, among other things!

Dressing Swank for "Frank"

Last night was a swinging cocktail party in honor of Frank Sinatra's birthday. Well, that and the fact that everyone was officially done with fall quarter. I finished up the scholastic part of my life on Tuesday, leaving me with almost four full days to whip up a frock for Frank. And here she is:

I used this pattern in view C/D. I made this style once before but used an a-line skirt instead of the sheath silhouette. This time, however, I stuck to the pattern almost entirely but added some pockets on the sides and fully lined the whole thing.

The exaggerated collar is made from a faux fur (actually, everything about this dress is faux - it's a smorgasbord of non-breathable polyester materials but it's winter in Chicago so that's okay). Cutting the fur made a total mess and it looked like a cut the bangs on a full kindergarten class of brown-haired girls:

The finished product came out quite fetching, I must say.

Next up are some Christmas presents and perhaps a knit top or two. My sister nicely lent me her serger but I have to experiment with it; I'm just waiting for the right, low-risk project and a lot of patience to learn. For now, my brain is fried.