I made something I saw on Pinterest!

Yes, I did something I saw on Pinterest!! Yea me! 

I think there should be applause or trumpets or something  that sounds when you do something you see online. They could boast your accomplishment for you.   You could say " Hear that world?  These are the trumpets of productivity proving I am not just sitting here staring at pinterest for hours. "  

My life needs an applause and trumpet button.  Somebody get me one, ok? :)

I made this dress at the beginning of summer but never got around to posting about it.   It was a busy summer! Now that  E is back in school  I have much more quiet computer time. 

Today I have computer time because my car will not start. I am not going anywhere.  I had to cancel my appt with a student  that I was so looking forward to and am  really bummed. Sorry Carolann!! 

So with my new found free time today I will catch up on the blog! :) 

I really wanted to share this dress  because it was my go to dress all summer.  I would literally  pull it out of the dryer and out it on.   It doesn't need ironing or hand washing or any  attention at all. Just wash and wear. It is so comfortable. I love this  fabric - it  very soft.  The elastic makes it super flexible so I could do anything in it.  I wore  it to dinners out, dinners in, play dates, birthday parties, playing on the beach ( the ruffle at the bottom does get  unbelievably  heavy if you misjudge a wave and get wet- just a heads up for ya if you plan on making one and wearing it to the seaside),  going to see bands, end of summer camp programs,  grocery shopping, and   for hanging out at home. Oh and teaching lessons too- My students saw this dress weekly.   Kayla has pointed it out to me a couple of times that I wear this dress a lot on  lesson Saturdays.  :) Yes,  I have worn it most teaching days because it is easy to put on  at 8:30 on  summer Saturday mornings and look like I made effort to get dressed for work. Pulled it right out of the dryer...

Yep. That's Sophie behind me. Just hanging out. Chillin'. 

Here is the inspiration dress:


Isn't it lovely? When I pinned it  I  thought it would be a fantastic dress for summer.  And super easy. When I read the tutorial I realized that the pattern she used for the bodice was very much like  a peasant  top pattern I had for eden. I graded the pattern up to my size, which was gloriously easy: added  to the top of the neckline and sleeves, widened the back & front bodice, lengthened the sleeve and  lowered the armscye. That was it.
 I ordered the same fabric she used in her dress for mine but in black. Of course.  It is a black cotton gauze. It isn't stretchy, but due to the tiny folds in the fabric, it acts stretchy. There is elastic at the neckline, sleeves and where the bodice meets the skirt.

Again,  Sophie is standing behind me.  No pup head shots  at all  in any of these pictures.
 Just side dog. 

I had planned on adding the ruffles on each tier like my inspiration dress but on me, the ruffles just seemed bulky. They didn't look romantic on me. They just kinda made me look fatter.  So I ditched that idea and  just did one longer ruffle at the bottom of the dress.
There are three tiers  in the skirt , I just did not attach the smaller ruffles onto them. The gathering and attaching of the three tiers  and then the bottom ruffle TAKE. FOREVER. Seriously. A fraking long time.    But, I do have to say for this dress, it was totally worth it.  I want to make another one I just have not found the right fabric yet.   For the next dress I am only going to change one thing: I am going to use a different method for  the elastic at the waist. The tutorial says to sew the elastic onto the seam allowance on the inside and I am going to do that.  For this dress, I felt the because the skirt is a little heavy, I needed  a wider elastic. I made a channel out of the bodice seam allowance on the inside. It is ok,  I looks nice, I just want something less visible on the next one.

I love this dress.  Now, in September , it is showing the love. It has faded a bit. I am going to re-dye it black and  wear it all fall and winter.

At the neckline, I used a method from the Kids Peasant Top pattern. I folded the top hem to the inside  then sewed bias tape over that raw edge. I inserted the elastic though the bias tape.  The method gives you a  little ruffle at the top edge and I liked that detail. 

I love this dress  because the elastic keeps the dress close to my body. I can lean over without flashing!

And wow!  can you tell this picture is from the beginning of summer?  That is  one pale  face. :)  :) 

 My student April made this dress too this summer! She was a bit pregnant and wanted a comfy long dress. This fabric has tiny little silver stripes in it and was beautifully thin and breezy.   Doesn't she look lovely for  being almost ready to  have the baby? :)   She also chose to skip the ruffles on the tiers .

April also made a top from the pattern. She used an awesome pink and black plaid .    April decided after making the dress and the top that she was done with gathering and ruffles for a while. Luckily , she had a baby boy so she won't be ruffling any baby clothes.  :)  Baby Dalton is finally here and SO CUTE! He has the most adorable little baby chin you have ever seen :) :

Yea!  A photo with Sophie's face in it- not just her side!

Some Girls are Bigger Than Others

  I found this pattern thrift shopping with Eden the other day- isn't it adorable? It would just look amazing on Eden in a red velour for christmas.  Look at the dress on the left, in blue. How cute in red with a white collar edged in lace? 

(I haven't even  made our Halloween costumes yet and I am already planning her christmas dress!)

 I put the pattern in the sewing room when we got home and went about my day.  Later I looked closer at the pattern, checking for pattern pieces and I noticed something funny.

 Do you see it?  

Look in the upper left corner. 

Here I will enlarge it   for you.

Suitable for Chubbies!

Uhm... What?  Chubbies?  

 Inside the pattern are instructions  on Fitting Chubby Girls.    Seriously.   

At first I was incredulous  that that was even printed on there.  But some girls are bigger than others.   Everything is so PC these days, it seems so insulting to call someone a chubbie, even indirectly on a pattern envelope.   Then I got to thinking. If  patterns would just print that kind of information on each pattern smack dab  on the front  and not worry about offending anyone , it would make things easier.  Honest and  up front.  No sugar coating.

Here are some I would like to see:

Hides a Muffin Top

Suitable for Fat Bottomed Girls

Not suitable over 40. No exceptions. 

  Only Suitable for Bulimic Models  

Suitable for  Boob Jobs

Suitable for Shorties

  or  more PC

Suitable for the Vertically Challenged

Can you think of any more?? 

Send them to me and I will add them!

:)

The Mae Dress

This is my new favorite dress.

  I love this dress!!  I made it  a couple of weeks ago but am only getting around to finishing this post about it.   I love this pattern! It is from 1965.  I used it to make Eden's Halloween costume  last year and   this dress :  The Pink Peace Dress.

 I have been wanting to make one for myself  for a while. I chose the view on the right,  the white one. But in black of course! I  do love the gal on the left, and I intend to make one exactly like hers eventually. I love the large gingham check and  it is hard to see in this photo but she is wearing fishnets and pointy toe shoes. So cute!  I need her whole outfit!!!

 I got this pattern in Tennessee last year on spring break when we went out to my dad's farm to visit.   So the pattern was only in my possession for a year before I got around to making it! That's not bad!  I bought it in Fayetteville, on the square in one of the antique shops.  The pattern  I found is a 10T meaning it was for teens.  The size is a 30 bust. Now, I can't recall in  my life being a 30 bust. My 9 year old is a 28 inch chest so I think this pattern was probably meant for what, 12 year olds? Yea, folks were skinnier then, there wasn't any Ben & Jerrys and ranch dressing wasn't invented yet. But still, wow. Small.

I graded the pattern up, meaning I altered  from a size 10teen bust 30 up to my size. I am not going to publicly tell you my exact inches but I am  waaaaaaayyyyyy above a 30 bust. Yes, I made a muslin. Here I am in all of my muslin glory looking mighty sexy-

I worked on that for a while and fine tuned it and then made the dress.
 I changed the sleeves entirely from the pattern. For this dress, I just had a tiny cap sleeve in mind. I think I  look better in a  shorter sleeve than the pattern has.

There is an invisible zipper in the back that you can't see.
It's a ninja zipper!

The dress is made out of $3.95 a yard polyester  from Hancocks. You know that value section, over where they have the horrid flannel that nobody buys?  Yea, this was in the value  crazy ugly fabrics section. It rocks. I treated this fabric like it had done me wrong and I was getting payback. I took out stitches and did the darts a couple of times and the fabric does not look like it.  You know a dress will hold up to daily wear when you  put it through hell  during the making of it and it comes out lookin' good.

The dress has a natural waistline, not a modern waistline, which is very comfortable.


I lined it.
I bought the lining  at Sir's  Fabrics in Fayetteville, Tennessee in April for $1 a yard. It is the cheap,  cheap stuff.   I adore this color. It is gorgeous!   It is sort of a bummer that it is hidden on the inside but I am sure I will find ways to show it off :) This lining is not too hard to work with as it is  stiffer then the linings I usually use. Sometimes cheap  is better!

I used one of the decorative  stitches on my machine to hem the lining.

 Funny how I have all kinds of pictures of me doing this....
Do other people have lots of pictures of themselves
 holding up their dresses and showing their hems, or is it just me? 

The facings are applied to the lining and stitched on.
Then the lining layer and face layer are sewn together. 

The hem has lace hem tape attached to the bottom raw edge and then the
lace is hand stitched to the fabric. This is my favorite kind of hem!

I love using a pretty stitch to hem linings. My machine has so many stitches and
 I pretty much just use the straight and the zig zag. Sometimes I have to remind myself
that the machine can do  flowers and other cool stuff. 

The Lace Edges :
I wanted to edge the neck and sleeves with a lace. I had about 5 options I kept going back and forth between as I tried to decide. I wanted black, but I didn't want it too floral. I bought a white lace to dye black but then I changed my mind and  just went all out OCD and crocheted the lace. I wanted a width wide enough to cover the edges of the sleeves where somehow, even though they are handsewn, I could where the stitches are. The sleeves really gave me  a hard time. As I deviated from the pattern, I ended up just drafting them from scratch. I went trough two sets of sleeves trying to get these just perfect!

The crocheted lace around the
edges of the neck and arms is the easiest ever!
Each arm piece took about an hour to crochet
 and the neckline took  about 2. 

I had no idea that the dress was wrinkly.  I need to remember if
I am wearing it in the mid day summer sun,
iron it first!

      I had the dress done in time to wear on Mother's day to brunch at the mom- in-laws house.  I didn't have the lace done yet  so here is what it looked like without the lace on the arms and neckline.  Kinda plain.  I wore it with my pearls. It was overcast that day so these photos are kinda gray

That's some craaaaaaaazzzzzzzzy hair.

You could hide an army in my hair.
Seriously. An entire army could camp out
 for a year and not be seen,  ever.

The pictures with the lace on the edge  were taken  in my best bud Elaine's  back yard.  Her flowers were looking so good, I said to myself- Self! Take picture in her yard!! I picked up her daughter from school and while we were waiting for Elaine to get home, Izzy took  pictures of me in my dress.  

Thanks Izzy! You did great, kid!

Sometimes we pretend to be grown adults.
This was not one of those times. :) :) 

The Pin:
My brother gave me this for Christmas and I love it! It is a mama kitty and baby kitty! Just like me and my baby! I love kittys!   I think it looks awesome with my dress. Really goes well with my glasses!

( I used to have a black  cat, or a black cat had me rather, named Saracen.  That's part of why Matthew got the pin for me. He was a huge, pissy, part-siamese, obnoxious  total jerk, darling  of a kitty and  I loved him dearly. He was 14 when he passed.  I haven't had a kitty since because I just want him back , another cat wouldn't be the same.  Plus, I discovered after he passed that all of my horrible sinus  infections and breathing issues cleared up so apparently I was allergic to him all those years.  And am allergic to other kitties.   Bummer.) 

Why I named it the Mae Dress:

   Ok, so most of ya'll know I pretty much stick to one color in my clothing choices. Let's face it- I have been this way since about 15 and  I don't see me changing anytime soon. Black  is my color.  So please stop suggesting butter yellow or light blue for my clothing. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.  :) 

   I realized one day  I gotta start naming these things because if I say I wore the black dress,  which one? They are all black!  Kristi  ( who made this exact dress at the same time as I did in lesson but in a lovely plaid ) sent me a short list of some names and I really liked them. She felt a nice one syllable name was elegant and here is what she said 

"Here's why I see these 1 syllable girl names. It's strikes me as a 1920's feel. Add a low waisted sash and voile. Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong but it's 1920 and 1950's all in one to me and that's the name vibe I get." 

    Some of her options were Molly (can't use it,  have a niece named Molly), Anna ( I knew an evil Anna, can't use it), June( name option for a girl if I ever had another one so  that didn't work for me). So I thought about it- I made it in May but that is a dorky name for a dress. So Mae it is!  Mae is elegant and simple  just like my dress!  (There is that whole Mae West association but I don't mind that :) )

Now I can write to Kristi and tell her I wore the Mae dress and she will know which dress  I am talking about! 

    I know a lot of bloggers name each and every  of their dresses and I have to say, sometimes I think it is kinda silly. But it does cut down on confusion! 

Things I will change on the next version:

Oh yea. I will make another.   Once you have made the alterations to a pattern, the time consuming part is done! Use that work again! I want a sleeveless version. I will place the bust darts a touch lower.  Somehow they moved up on this one and I couldn't fix it because I followed the instructions and trimmed the dart.  (Do not trim a french dart until you are positive they are  in the correct place!!! ) The next dress will be 2-3 inches longer. Maybe change it to a V neck....

Pale, pasty and ready for summer in my hand-made 1965  black dress!!

Donna's Nightgown

Donna comes to see me on Tuesdays. She originally started taking  sewing lessons to learn how to  sew things for her grand babies.  That changed very quickly and  now sews  mostly for herself! :) 

She made this nightgown for herself  a few weeks ago. 

Isn't it lovely? She used a very pretty  eyelet fabric. 

The pattern is  Simplicity 3504, the same pattern I used to make this shirt . 

For the inset, she used a solid white cotton and inserted a bit of lace into it. Above and below the lace is an heirloom stitch.  We used a wing needle to get the traditional hand stitched look. 

The lace we used is  lace hem tape. We used this method to insert it. 

 For the sleeves, she omitted one of the sleeve layers . The pattern shows the flutter sleeve with two layers.  On the edge of the sleeve she used a satin stitch for the hem. We set the machine to a short length and zig zagged over the edge a couple of times, stretching the fabric slightly as she sewed. This produces a soft  lettuce leaf effect on the edge.  This type of hem is nice and floaty and allows the fabric to drape nicely. We were worried if we put a double fold hem , or even used the rolled hem foot, the hem might be stiff and  the sleeves would stand out away from her arms giving her a bird in  flight look. We wanted soft flutter sleeves and this type of finish is perfect for these sleeves.

 I love how she changed the shirt pattern into a nightgown.  To change it from a shirt to a nightgown, we added a bit more ease  and lengthened it. Pretty easy alterations! :)

Great job Donna! It is lovely!

Sweet dreams to you in your  pretty new nightgown!

The itchy, see through, floppy fabric Perfect Shirt

Donna, my awesome Tuesday night student :) , chose this  shirt pattern to make for our current project together. We looked through my patterns and  this one really appealed to her. I have had it in my stash for a  while, I just hadn't gotten around to making it yet. This shirt has no buttons or zippers so again she avoids closures of any kind (The next item will have a zipper. Or buttons or anything. You can't avoid them forever, Donna! :) :) ) I liked all of the options that the pattern came with.

 I like to have made a pattern made up at least once before I teach it, to work out any issues  it may have.  So I got to making a shirt real quick before the next weeks lesson with Donna. 

I made a shirt but Donna is converting the pattern over to a nightgown. She has planned for it to be white eyelet , much longer and  flared out at the bottom. She is using the flutter sleeves for extra comfortableness.  ( Is that a word- comfortableness? Did I just make up a word?) 

I did not make a muslin with this.  I'm such a risk taker! No not really. This pattern didn't have any darts or any thing I needed to work out, so  I just fit as I sewed. I added some extra room to the front gather under the inset when I cut it out and moved the gather mark up the neckline.  I took up a lot in   the shoulders and the back seam .  That's it. 

 The fabric I found  I really like. It is flowy and very nice for spring and summer.   It was also   sooooo flip floppy when working with it.  I could not get it to stay in place when cutting , or pinning, or any of the process. 

For the inset, I used an  iron on  tear away stabilizer applied to the wrong side of the fabric,  to apply the lace.  I tried it without stabilizer on a test piece and it slip-slided all over the place. I couldn't get the lace straight. Because there are little stripes in the fabric, it is very obvious when the lace was crooked. 

Soooooo I iron on the stabilizer and stitched the vintage lace on with tiny zig zag stitches. They disappear nicely into lace. 

The lace is vintage lace collected over the years from thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales and who knows where else I got it from. I have had it forever. I use little pieces in projects here and there.  

 I tried it on after I got the sleeves basted in and was going to wear it during a lesson one morning to test it out before I finished off the seams, but I ended up tearing it off after a few minutes . It itched so bad!!!    It was insanely itchy!! There are little tiny clear threads running through the fabric which gives it a really  neat tiny shimmer in the sun.  However those little tiny clear threads are evil little imitators. Any cut edge of fabric  that touched my skin  had those little tiny threads in it. Sooooooo each seam in this shirt is either french seams or bias tape / binding covered. Every one. Not a raw edge anywhere. Even  where the bubble on the end of the sleeve attaches- all covered in binding. So my quick  little shirt which should have taken no time at all took a few days.

Inside the shirt, the seam allowances are covered in bias  tape binding.

     The edges of the neckline are in binding of the same fabric but packaged bias tape could be used in place of  it and look awesome. I pulled out some black bias tape to see if I could do it on this shirt but  the blacks were different .  :(  However, on Donna's nightgown, white bias tape will be used.  This will speed up the construction time on this a lot.

     The sleeves were super puffy on the first go round. I had added some extra room in the sleeves for my massive shoulders  and that created a some super pouf at the  top sleeve seam. I risked the itchiness and put it back on to take this  picture of the sleeves before I took them off.  Those sleeves were  costumy. I wanted a vintage feel to the shirt but sometimes too many details can look like  a costume.

      I like the bubble a the bottom of the sleeve.  I wasn't sure about it when I was making it but after wearing it a couple of times- it is very comfortable.

Here are  the sleeves getting ready to have the binding attached and some top edge  'pouf ' removed. .

      I took pictures outside this time as it is a black shirt and those haven't been showing up too well in photos inside my dark dungeon house. Here is the shirt in full sun so you can see all the details ... and right through it.

Look Dad! I am on the Internets in a see-through shirt!


When the photos loaded up on the computer I realized this shirt is see through. (My husband: Yea I noticed that, I thought you knew.  Me: Noooooooooooo I did not know it was this see through. Thanks for the heads up on that one,  honey :) )  And the majorly see through part isn't even on good stuff- like my boobs. :) :)  It highlights my stomach.  Not groovy.  In the wearings after these photos were taken, I wore a black undershirt. Problem solved. :)

This  is as glamorous as it gets, standing in the front yard, in the overgrown winter garden, in a see through shirt whilst the elderly neighbor walks his dog past.

I love this shirt. After solving the  King Henry sleeve pouf and the Itchy and Scratchy  problems it has become the Perfect Shirt.  It is extremely comfortable and  I have worn it  many times now. 

2 Jasmines

I am unhappy with my curent wardrobe.  There, it is out there. I have stated it for the universe to hear. I don't feel like me in it.   Somewhere after I had Eden  I started wearing jeans  and t-shirts all the time . I had never been a jeans person before- I have always preferred skirts & dresses. But as a new mommy, jeans were play friendly, easy, and cheap. Now she is 9 and here I site typing away in my wine me up and watch me go t-shirt ( very appropriate T for me, - thanks dad :) )  and  red corderoy jeans. Blah. 

So I have come up with a plan. A wardrobe plan. I am going to make two items of clothing a month  for me. And they won't be jeans and t-shirts!! ( though Sewaholic has a new knit pattern that I might try :) )  I have decided that I want to go back to how I dressed before I  had a daughter and learned how to bake and then eat cupcakes  and cookies  and brownies and all that stuff little girls love to make.  To sum up - the way I dressed before I got happy and  fat :)

 Yea, I work from home so I don't have to  be too dressy but still.. I miss fun clothes.  Sooooooo I am going to make them!  Because  I can! I am going to make a minimun of two garments a month- a top and a bottom  and at least one fancy date dress for the year.

I am actively going to build my wardrobe of items that I actually want. What a concept!

Each morning when I stand in front of the closet and  choose my clothing from the 5 pieces that actually fit , I am goingt to think about what I would like to be in there.  First up, I need shirts. Not t shirts. Shirts that fit.  Cute easy shirts that can go with anything. 

 I  found  this blouse in the  Victorian Trading Company catalog a while back.  It is $59.99 and available only in white.   I cut it out of the catalog and pinned it up on my noteboard in the sewing room as an idea of a shirt to make.  It looks like a swiss dot in this photo but when you use the magnify feature on the site, it is actually an eyelet lace

the shirt and pants up on my pin board.

  The Jasmine blouse pattern from Colette patterns is the closest pattern I have found to recreating it. It has the tie, the cute sleeves and the shape. The pattern does not button up the front but that is ok, I can always add a button placket to  it.

Colette  Jasmine

I trudged through the depths of Joann's and Hancock's to find a fabric and only came up with a swiss dot.  It was on sale half price so  it was $5 a yard. I bought three yards so this shirt was $15. Compared to the $59.99 at VTC .   It made up quite nicely in Version 1- here it is!

Look ! It ties!

I shortened the sleeves quite a bit because I don't think that almost-to-the-elbow-sleeve that the pattern comes with  is flattering on me and I also wanted to re-create the white  top.    I lengthened the fabric tie by about 4 inches and also made it slimmer. I slightly altered the  collar too, angled it in near the front. After I wore it once, I went back in and chopped about an inch off the inside facing- jeeeez it was huge.

Yes, funky  colored photo- I weirded them up a little so you can see the details of the black shirt. 

Detail of the collar

 I love this shirt. It is so comfortable to wear! And flattering, I think.  Making it was wonderful- there are no closures to create!  The pattern was great as I didn't have to alter the main body pieces at all!  The darts were even in the right place! That  never  happens to me so this was like  the paterrn equivelent of winning the lottery! It is cut on the bias which  makes it very comfortable as the fabric  has so much more give on the bias.   I have noticed in wearing it that I need to alter the neckline of the next one I make, as it can tend to bow out a bit, exposing a bit more cleavage than I  intend to. ( A bit of exposure is fine- 'hey I can see you belly button down your shirt' is not fine  :) :) )  And the next version I make will not have the neck  facings, I think they made  the neckline kinda stiff- I might just bias wrap the  edges instead. 

I want to make it out of an eyelet fabric , a thin velvet and a print. For each shirt I can change the neckline a bit, make it round, make it square, omit the tie, omit the collar, change the collar shape, change the sleeves, etc. Not one of these shirts will look alike :)



Jasmine #2


I found an awesome print at Joann's last week.  It is all synthetic- no cotton in sight here! It is going to be a  pain to sew.   It is  soooooooo slippery. I bought an extra half yard in case I flub up the neckline, which I am sure is going to happen.  I always mess up collars in slippery fabrics so I just go ahead and plan for it now! :) :) Plus it is synthetic which means at some point I am going to melt a sleeve or the collar  while  pressing.  I always melt synthetics- I think I have the iron cool enough but I never do...
But look! It isn't solid black!!!  There is black in it but look- there are other colors!!! Yea me! :)

I have already cut it out and the pieces are hanging over a chair down in the sewing room waiting for me to  get drunk enough , I mean, waiting for me to sigh a big sigh of 'here we go' and sew it.  I cut the Sleeves of version 2 this time- so no gathering in the sleeves.

Two weeks later....
 I finished it! :) Ahm..there is gathering in the sleeves- somehow I thought sleeve #2 would be sleeker. It isn't. It stands up there. Next one I make I will get rid of that little pouf at the top of the sleeve. It isn't terrible, it is kinda cute, but I do want them sleeker.
I changed up the entire collar. I did cut one like the black shirt but I made it much narrower.  It was terrible. This fabric is sooo slick, the collar was all kinds of crooked. I tried to rip the stitches out to fix it but it was impossible so I scraped it and started over. I cut looooong  bias strips and sewed them into a mini collar. I also raised the neckline up a bit- after wearing the black shirt a bit, it noticed it gapes open when I lean over my sewing table. Not good.
The fabric was a royal pain. But it feels super nice on. Almost slinky! All of the seams are french seams so it is nice & smooth on the inside.

I feel like Peggy Olson in this shirt. My hubby and I have been watching Mad Men lately and I am smitten with the clothes. Each episode I will  say at least once- ooo I like that dress. I do like Betty's clothes and of course every single thing Joan has on is to die for but I really relate to Peggy's wardrobe.
I love the little bow collars and cute sleeves. Hence what you see here :)

Just so ya'll know- I feel really goofy  doing these photos. 

Eat your heart out Joan Holloway. 

And that's my two jasmine's!