Two dresses & an early morning garden

What a nice Mother's Day weekend. Ashley and her companion spent Saturday (her birthday!) and Sunday with me, and my son slipped in on Sunday night ahead of a business appointment in the area on Monday. Such a treat. The sewing plaque is a made-by-Ashley, her altered media work is so pretty and special.

We stayed busy! Of course we headed off straight away to IKEA. I got out with most of my Mom's Day money intact :-) since most of the fabrics were canvas - beautiful, beautiful prints, but not what I need. Then Ashley and I were treated to dinner at a lovely little Italian ristorante near my house.

Back home and we girls got down to business!  First was fitting a dress I just finished, McCalls 6073 maxi dress. This is the second time I've done this pattern for her, and it was perfect! All we did was mark the hem. It's in a beautiful ITY from Fabric Mart.

McCalls 6073

Next we pulled out fabric bins and patterns and played 'what if' for a while. She loved the fabric I had picked out for her Butterick 5744, a chocolate and turquoise calico from Holly Lobby. A peek of the bodice below, which has a single ruffle running down the right side.

The dress is actually done now, except for hemming, and it is beautiful. It is fully lined in dark brown poly/cotton lightweight broadcloth and feels wonderful.

Butterick 5744

We also went online so Ashley could shop fabric for a mini-dress to wear over capris and leggings. Keeping in mind that she and companion go to pop culture events like comic-con throughout the year - check out the awesome Alexander Henry fabric she found on eQuilter.com!

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This morning I slipped out just after sunrise to turn on the sprinklers for my little patch of grass at the front of the house. Then I wandered around in the back garden, so peaceful and pretty. 

These two very active little guys are the first babies for a squirrel who has kept me company for five years. She is worn out :-)      Bye for now - Coco

Butterick 5881 - A Tunic Version!

The fun continues...after I sewed my muslin of the Katherine Tilton layered dress, and ordered lots of linens to do a true-to-concept version, I got to thinking. How about a tunic? See? This is why I do not sew with a plan! The top layer of this pattern makes a super cute tunic.

This is a really new pattern, so here's a look:

I traced a new top layer as my tunic. I took out the slight dip in the left side, leaving the hem even all around. And I kept both the peplum back skirt and my version of the back elastic casing (described in my first version, link above).

But that long narrow placket on the front just spoke to me - give me something besides buttons! How about some flounces...

I am so loving this look! 

My fabric is a soft cotton sateen from Fabric Mart, machine wash and dry :-) The red is very dense, so it shows through just enough to work on a flounce that shows both sides.

My starting point was a pattern from Rebecca Taylor, Vogue 1226.  The flounce running down the right side of the button placket had the 'look' I wanted.

The original flounce is shaped like a quarter-moon, pointed at both ends. Mine are pointed only at the bottom. I fitted them from the bottom of the placket and worked up, 'designing' the tops of the flounces last.

  

The tops of the flounces are trimmed straight across and sewn all the way up the placket, so that they are caught in the neckline binding.

The bottoms of the flounces extend about 3 inches below the placket and just softly fishtail together.

This little tunic took quite a long time to make - but it was really interesting and very rewarding.

A couple notes: my pants are Marcy Tilton skinny pants, Vogue 8859, making this a sister act! Fabric is stretch bottom weight cotton poplin from JoAnns. And yes, new hairdo! Love it, feels great.

Ciao! Coco

A knitting interlude...

I have been so busy keeping up with inaugural events in the Netherlands over at The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor blog...just not much time to sew! Do you read this blog? I love it - all the latest on royal fashions, jewel collections, tiaras, families, and events. So interesting - great pics, lots of historical background, and very interesting commentary.

And I have been feeling a bit lazy. I was actually unwell all of January and February, March was recovery - and April has been such a nice month. Just enjoying feeling so well.

I went back and took a long look at my fuschia Weekend Retreat Cardi, the one that came out a couple sizes too big, and decided the yarn just does not work. It is a worsted weight and looks clunky. But I do love the color!

Weekend Retreat Cardi

The pattern suggests using a cotton yarn, but many knitters mentioned that the cardi weighs a ton when done in cotton. Wool and other animal fibers are out, so I looked through my acrylic stash and pulled out some grey Red Heart designer sport yarn. Much better! It's lighter, and the cardi fits nicely. On this one I added two buttonholes on the upper right side band. Liking it and will wear it in a pic soon.

The pattern is available, no cost, on Ravelry or at Lion Brand Yarns.

Ravelry has soooo many cute cardigan patterns. Here are two more I've put in my project library:

108-22 Jacket

Arianna Jacket by Universal Yarn

Today I did the cast-on for the back of the Arianna jacket, in an ivory designer sport yarn - all 156 stitches. The markers are my way of counting every 10 stitches when I'm casting on. Otherwise I would have to restart a gazillion times :-) 

Back to my knitting and a movie. I hope everyone has a nice week. Bye for now! Coco

Butterick 5881 Katherine Tilton dress - Into the unknown

This is going to be my favorite of all patterns in the spring 2013 collections! But getting here was not an easy journey. This is Butterick 5881, a layered, multi-piece dress by Katherine Tilton. I looked everywhere for examples of the dress, because the envelope pics leave much to the imagination. What is up with the hem(s)? What is meant by a split seam? Is that center back really off center or am I looking too hard?

I Googled all over the web, and all I found were pics from the pattern envelope. Not even Tilton has  sewn and shared a version with us. So here we go - Butterick 5881!

Butterick has labelled this as an Easy pattern. Ummmm. It has 19 pieces and includes a lapped front placket, underdress with reversed seaming, applied elastic gathers, bound neckline, and pieced overdress. It is not hard...but I really don't think it's easy as in a beginner sewist will have an easy time with it!

I really like all the pieces but wanted to understand the pattern. So I decided to reconstruct the dress. I spent an entire day putting the pattern pieces together and tracing a simplified version of the dress. 

Underdress with attached skirt

Black poly/cotton broadcloth from Holly Lobby - very lightweight and smooth

Overdress with placket and back gathers (more on both below)

Fuji Afternoon Umbrellas - JoAnn Fabrics Keepsake Calico
Robert Kaufman Spot On Brown Mini Dots - Pink Chalk Fabrics

I used a faux front placket in the contrast fabric, in place of the lapped placket. I'll continue to do this - I would rather sew a bound buttonhole than do a lapped placket!

I also used the contrast fabric to form a casing for the back elastic, which I elongated by 1/2" and centered. And I only used 3 pieces of elastic, instead of 4.  

I was not at all sure about the length of this dress - underdress or overdress! The pattern was not much help. It does not have lengthen/shorten lines. 

OK, so I'm a bit over 5' 7". On the assumption that the pattern is made for someone 5'5" - 5'6" tall, I added 2" to the overdress, just below the line of the placket, front and back. And 2" to the skirt of the underdress, just below its upper edge. I purposely did not add length at the hemlines, because I did not want to add width there and throw off the lines of the dress.

Turned out well! The overdress is perfect, with a 1" hem. I ended up taking 2" off the underdress - go figure! - and again put in a 1" hem. It's not long by any means, maybe a little shorter than some of my dresses. But the dip in the right side makes it seem a little longer. I really like it - so much I twirled!

Whew! Dizzy...


All the leaves are from the mahogany trees, which switch out their foliage in April for a new outfit :-) 

I really really like this dress - so much that I have 6, yes, 6 pieces of linen blend coming into the loft in interesting (no, not pastel!) colors, so that I can sew a couple multi-piece versions. And I want to do at least 2 more in print/contrast versions. Love doing that.

Ciao! Coco