Cashmerette Appleton Dress

Here it is the famous Appleton dress! When I saw the announcement for a new pattern line from Cashmerette of a new pattern line where you wouldn't have to do a fba I jumped at the chance. Then I saw that there was a kit, so I quickly clicked buy before it sold out. I am tired of making decisions lately and a kit sounded perfect to me. 

The fabric is a black rayon spandex with white birds flying all over it. The fabric is lightweight and thin but not too thin. It's not the softest fabric, but it is still nice to wear. Looks like its sold out right now, so I guess there will be a lot of twins on the internet! 

I used the largest cup size, in size 14. I initially graded out in the hips but it made a weird bubble, and wasn't working, so I trimmed it back down on the serger. The 14 fits fine in the hips so I guess I didn't need to grade up.

The wrap definitely hugs the top and stays closed. I did wear a tank top under it, I'm not used to wearing a top so low. Next time I will make a full bicep adjustment. I was hoping I wouldn't have to being a knit, and that these patterns are for curvy ladies, but I guess I'm too curvy in the arms. Bleh, I think I hate adjusting sleeves as much as an FBA. 

The printed pattern came with the kit, and I love the way it's set up. The colorful book, the envelope, its all adorable. My only quibble is the glue on the pattern envelope. I had such a hard time trying to open it! Anyone else have this issue?

I made the whole thing on the serger, and used a double needle for all the hemming and topstitching. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me using wonder clips with the serger. I still feel the need to pin with knits, especially with the sleeves and matching up notches. And using wonder clips instead of pins is a foolproof way not to run them over with the serger. Pins are easy to overlook, but not wonder clips. 

The directions were clear, the only part I had to stop and think about was sewing the ties to the neck pieces. But after my coffee in the morning I read the directions again, and got it. Late night sewing is not a good time for direction reading. The neckline is stretched to fit, and the fabric wouldn't stay still so I basted it with the machine first and then serged over the basting. 

I wore this dress out on Saturday, which was a cold and windy night. Woo, you have to be careful in this dress when the wind blows! I am happy to have a basic wrap dress that fits well and I can rely on to throw on and go out and look gooooooood. This dress came together in two short sessions, I actually made two dress this week, this one and my cotton and steel picnic dress, so it is a quick and satisfying project. 

 

I am so excited to see what pattern Jenny is going to come out with next. Maybe a button down shirt? Wouldn't that be amazing with no fba? 

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Christmas Dress: Vintage Butterick 9566

 Oh hello there. I'm back with another holiday dress. That's all I seem to post lately. This dress is the dresss of my Christmas dreams. I fell in love with the fabric at Fabricland and snatched up a few yards of it. It was on a mysterious bolt, and seems to be a vintage repro fabric. It is a very light quilt weight cotton, 45" wide. Fabricland also happened to have rick rack and buttons that perfectly match so score.

I wanted to make something vintage looking to go with the dress, but the subtle stripes kept me from choosing anything with princess seams. Then I remembered Butterick 9566 in my stash, and did a quick fba and muslin. The bust darts were very pointy, so I angled them down to make a french dart instead which worked much better for me. 

I made the dress a little differently than the directions, mainly because I didn't want to deal with the opening in the front of the skirt. So I made an invisible zipper in the back, and the bodice is just attached to the front so the whole thing doesn't hang open. The skirt is also from a modern pattern because I need to be able to move in this dress and didn't want to deal with all the fabric. The bodice is underlined in yellow, which makes the unusual color stripes pop a bit more, and the skirt is lined with the same. 

I think I look like I belong in one of my favorite Christmas movies; Pee Wee's Christmas Special, which is now streaming on netflix. Miss Yvonne and Annette Funicello have such great costumes in this movie!

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! 

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Vintage Butterick 9566: Cotton + Steel Picnic Dress

AHH! This dress came out better than I expected, don't you love when that happens?  I have been dreaming of this dress for months waiting for the Cotton + Steel fabric to arrive at Fabricland (we had to wait for the second printing!). I just love the vintage vibe to it, I mean it has Pyrex on it! When it finally arrived the print was a lot bigger than I was imagining, so I was stumped of what dress to make with it. Finally I remembered Butterick 9566.

This is my second version of Vintage Butterick 9566. The first one is my Christmas dress, which is one of my favorite dresses, so I thought another one was in order! The bodice was already fitted, I did an FBA, and made the sleeves bigger than the original pattern. I also angled the bust dart more like a french dart, which I think gives it such a good fit. There is only thing I need to change about the pattern if I make it again, the sleeve has too much ease, it's hard to get it to fit without any blips. 

 What I like most about the pattern, is the opportunity to add my favorite thing: RICK RACK.  I think I bought 6 yards of this rick rack which is woven in different pastel colors, and that still wasn't enough. I was planning on doing another row at the hem so I might go and buy some more for that. The rick rack is all around the neckline, down the front of the buttonhole side bodice, around the sleeves and all around the hem. 

The buttons are adorable and very special. They are from the world famous sewing cave of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic! Thanks Carolyn! I had these in my stash and they are the perfect thing, so lucky!

Needless to say, I am very happy with the dress and thinking of more versions of it! 

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Vogue 8972 for my Momma

It is super hard to find cute dresses out there people. That's how I got guilted into making this dress for my mother. Last September my parents had a wedding to go to. She was looking for a dress for over a month and couldn't find anything. We live 15 minutes from three different malls. She looked in Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, like everywhere. She was getting so desperate she was trying on $500 dresses just to see! There are no dresses out there. Ok, the dresses that are out there are either navy, which doesn't look good on her, looks like a Real Housewife dress or are totally frumpy. So finally I said "UGH, fine I guess I have to make you a dress".  Aren't I just the sweetest?

We choose this fabric Rayon asian inspired fabric from Fabricland in NJ. They even had the perfect crinkley silk chiffon print for a luxurious wrap to match. After searching in the pattern books for a while we finally settled on Vogue 8972. It is a simple shape, I like how it has the different cup sizes, so it would be easy to fit. 

I'm so used to fitting myself it's weird doing it to someone else. I cut out the C cup bodice, and made her a muslin. After a little tweaking, the dress came together quickly. It's fully lined in rayon bemberg, and all the seams are topstitched. I used my new edgestitch foot to get the seams perfect. 

The wrap is a yard and a half of fabric, and I just used the narrow hem foot all the way around to finish it. 

She had another wedding to go to this past weekend so I finally got a chance to take her picture. The fabric has a sheen to it so it seems lumpy in places, but I promise the fit is perfect. There are a lot of seams in this dress, and they intercept at the hips, so I had to go back and trim some more before she wore it again and everything lays flat now.  Well I think she looks very glamorous, and she feels good in it too! Don't get used to it Mom, it's back to selfish sewing for me!

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