A quick update

I finished Dorothy! And I did not take a single picture! This is how crazy things have been! But don't worry there will be plenty of pictures when the show starts. I did all the binding like I wanted and it turned out perfect and a perfect fit! The actress was thrilled.

I will show you the bolero I'm still working on for Glinda to wear. It looks great with the dress we are using. I will take pictures soon. Here is the pattern Burda 7686. It turns out while I have tons of bolero patterns they were all for knits and I really didn't have the time to think about allowing  ease and so on, so I bought one for wovens.

It turns out I won't be making the lion's costume which gives me more time for the 18 capelets I am making for the Poppies to wear to simulate being covered with snow. I will be making view A from this super cute reprint of a 1948 pattern.

Can I tell you what a wonderful chaotic, fun, and exhilarating day I had yesterday? The lady who has the majority of the costumes we use came in and we fitted the majority of the cast (close to a 100!) Later will come adding those details that finish a look and repairing and final fittings. I am very lucky to have the help of another mom who is creative as well as fun and easy to get along with and she can also handle a needle when necessary!

I apologize for my lack of commenting on your blogs, I will have a lot to read when the craziness dies down! I hope that you are all well and creating some wonderful garments for me to admire later on!

Butterick 4080 and what I'm knitting

I hope this is the last apron I show you for a while! =). This apron had the big ruffles on the shoulder straps that the Peter Pan director (drama teacher) had requested. I changed the pockets to make them practical, since Nana (the nanny/dog) carries stuff around and she needed a place to put it. The pocket tops are finished with purchased bias binding.

The fabric I used for the ruffles and ties was lightweight so I doubled the ruffles and I used a stiff netting sandwiched between the layers to make the ruffles to "perk up".

how shoulder straps attach to waistband

 

 

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I have a number of knitting projects all on the finishing stage. Since I can't have some knitting when watching tv and I am bored with the Missoni scarf currently in progress, I started a new project. It is a dress from Phildar in a yummy merino wool yarn.

The Victorian Apron

Butterick 5509

Yesterday I delivered the apron and the two caps for the play. They were very happy with them.

The eyelet fabric and ruffle were in my stash, I bought a bit of bleached muslin to use as lining and interfacing since I did not want to use fuseable interfacing on the eyelet. I also used muslin for the collar because I ran out of eyelet.

I used the border as the hem.

This is a good pattern if you need a Victorian era apron =)

The caps are from Butterick 3071

I spent yesterday afternoon going around with one of the assistant directors looking for props for the show. We were amazed at the generosity of our local businesses!, where we didn't get a discount it was because the items we needed were donated or given on loan. I have my van packed with stuff that I will deliver this morning to the school where once again we are gathering to put the set together.

Have a wonderful weekend and as always happy sewing!

Aprons and caps, oh boy!

So I have managed to cut and interface all the pieces for these two patterns.

I am making the one in the middle and it will be worn by the maid in Peter Pan.

The teacher/director wanted an apron with ruffles on the shoulders for Nana (the nanny/dog)so I'm making a large size and I hope it will fit around the dog outfit the student will be wearing.

I dug into my stash of white fabrics and I also purchased some bleached muslin. I made the caps which are from Butterick 3071 which I made a few years ago.

I have Paco's maxi skirt cut and waiting to be sewn but it has to wait =( . After I'm done with the aprons I will tackle the Peter Pan tunic, and by then I will be helping with the fabric to cover the stage props.

I'm trying to keep up with the blog reading, forgive me if I'm not leaving as many comments as I usually do!

Butterick 5523 - A review

Today I got to wear my new dress and the color gave me a lift. As you can see everyhting looks pretty gray in my part of the world! The fabric is a double knit (Cache) from Fabric Mart. I think it really suited this design, it has a beefy weight perfect for winter dresses and I love the color.

The only thing I changed, I did not add elastic at the bodice seam.





There was a sewing thread somewhere (don't remember exactly where) where someone was asking advise on how to sew seams in a double knit. For my dress I sewed the seams with a narrow zig zag (2.5 - 3 length and .5 width) and after pressing each side of the seam to set stitches I opened the seam and pressed again. This reduces the bulk that you would see with a serged together seam. This fabric does not fray so seams allowances can be left alone.

I chose to edgestitch the hem and then topstitch at the hem depth again.


This pattern is a winner, with the right fabric you'll get a stylish, comfortable and warm dress!

More tracing

While I wait for my machine to return I'm continuing with tracing patterns. I finished the knit pants from Burda and Paco's lovely jacket pattern. Even though his pattern comes ready to cut I went ahead and traced the pieces that I think might need alterations. For example, the maximum hip size is 38 and I'm a 40. I also usually have to add length to the bodice so I added 1 inch to the bodice length. I wanted to preserve the pattern for another muslin if the first one is not perfect.


Next I'm working on Butterick 5523. I'm going up a size in the bodice since the pattern has no ease there. I'm using a ponte knit and I don't want this dress tight across my chest.

Colonial Day

Today was Colonial Day at fifth grade. I made the outfits, mine and my son's four years ago when my oldest was in fifth grade. After what I thought it was going to be a long time I got to wear my outfit again...I can't believe it has been four years. Of course I did wear the same dress a couple of Halloween ago when I went as Marie Antoinette.


Marie Antoinette has a date with Doc Oc

I wrote a review of Butterick 3071 in PR. The links for the pictures don't work anymore so I'm posting new pictures.

The kids have a great time they get to play games of the period, make candles, practice cross stitch and make toys. My son was the only American Indian representative; my oldest had not wanted to dress up as a colonist ("those clothes are ridiculous I want to be Native American!")and my youngest agreed.

Butterick 6582

I finally finished my dress for the wedding,I'm happy with the results, it was a simple dress to construct and gives a nice fit.


However let's talk about the fabric: silk taffeta. This fabric wrinkles if you look at it, remember Lady Diana's wedding dress? It was silk taffeta. It also water spots...thankfully when it has gotten wet due to unforeseen circumstances (the iron dripped) it quickly dried without leaving a stain. It is a wonderful color, I believe it is cross dyed, one way pink the other blue to give the purplish iridescent color.





I finally decided on making the bows and I like the way they look.


I just love the shoes!!!



I'll have more pictures later after the wedding.

Tomorrow I'm off to New Jersey to fit the bride, wish me luck!

Progress on my dress for the wedding

Last weekend I had significant chunks of time to work on my dress for the wedding.

I had already modified the pattern, Butterick 6582, a while ago, which included cutting quite a bit off the length (and then of course shifting the slit up). I underlined all pieces with batiste following Shannon's footsteps. One of the pictures shows the tailor's basting stitch that I learned to do from Threads magazine. I found out that I wasted some time basting what I thought was Sew-sheer interfacing to the facings and it turned out it was So-Sheer (fusing interfacing). At least I didn't ruin any pieces and just had to undo the basting and fuse instead.

The construction has gone well, this is a simple dress with an interesting neckline. The side seams are basted and now that I have the zipper I will put it in and see how it all fits. The fabric is silk taffeta from Kashi's Metro Textiles.

Taking a breather...

I finished the Butterick wrap dress
,it is done except for the hem. I tried it on and it is a disaster. I don't know if it is due to the modifications I made or the fact that the knit is so stretchy or a combination of both. The neckline gaps horribly and the length of the bodice is almost two inches too long. The only alteration I made to the pattern which I don't normally do is to lengthen the bodice by 1/4 inch at the armhole and the rest was added just below the waist. The last Butterick knit dress I made the armhole was binding so that is why I decided to do this. Of course I should have compared this pattern to the New look faux wrap I made which fits very nicely, but I didn't.
After my breather I'm going to compare all the bodice measurements and see what I can do to salvage a dress, which I this point I'm not even sure I like how the colors and prints I used look on me....

Butterick 4976

I was all excited about finally using the black and white jersey from Gorgeous Things. It was the first fabric that Ann sold and I fell in love as soon as I saw it made up in the Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan dress.

Well, I don't have that pattern but the Butterick that looks a lot like it. However when I went to modify the pattern I noticed that the waist band sash does not fit the contrasting band of the fabric. I contacted Ann and she said hers just fitted the band. Well the Butterick patterns sash is folded down and then sewn unto the dress. Then I could split the band in half add seam allowances and put the sash and tie ends back together. Unfortunately, even though I bought three yards of the fabric I don't have enough of the contrast band to do this.

I believe the sash in the Cosmopolitan dress is part of the dress itself (right Ann?) and that is why it fitted so nicely on the band.

Well, I guess I have several options:

1. Buy the Cosmopolitan pattern and use the fabric or

2. Buy the Cha Cha dress pattern (which I also want) and use the fabric

and

make the Butterick with two other coordinating fabrics.

What would you do Ann?