Wedding Anniversary Dress

Mine and Simon's second wedding anniversary was yesterday and we both had to work so we've made plans to go out to a fancy pants dinner on Friday.  Of course this gives me a great excuse to sew something fab for our night out.  Here are my thoughts.

My gold Anda dress fit so well and looked so awesome on that I want to make another version of this dress.    I have just the fabric for it too. 

I bought this amazing floaty smoky blue crepe from a fabric store that was going out of buissness.  I was planning on using it for a fancy Sorbetto, but have changed my mind.  There are tiny vertical stripes of shiny threads running though the fabric that I am going to sew another Anda out of this material.  

There was one problem, what to wear under this shell.  The fabric is so transparent that I will need to wear a slip or an under dress.  That's exactly what I plan on doing, making a slip to wear under the Anda shell.  

I found the shiny silver rayon fabric at my local fabric store and thought it would look perfect under the smoky blue fabric.  

I was right they are the perfect combination.  The silver of the slip dress really accents the shimmery threads running through the crepe fabric.  

I'm planing on using the top piece from the Jane nighty set from Burda Style to make a customized slip dress.  Something simple that will really set off the great fabric and shape of the Anda.  I will have pics up as soon as we go out to our fancy pants dinner.  I better get sewing!   

What to Sew Next

I have a wedding coming up in January and I want to sew something fabulous for this event, but I can't decided on what I want to wear/sew.  Here are my top runners for dress options.  Any feed back would be welcome. 

I have been drooling over this dress for months.

Bustier Dress Burda Style

But I also like these patterns on burda style.

Bustier Cocktail Dress with Long Sleeves

Or

V-neck Cocktail Dress with Starburst

This one is totally different that the others.

Printed 70s Wrap Dress

 I have also been eyeballing this dress from Colette.

Peony by Colette

There is also a dress in the new Collete book that I am absolutely in love with, and although I've asked for the book for Christmas I feel I should start sewing this dress ASAP.  I only have about a month to complete it and I want to give myself plenty of time to do it right.

Sewing Update

I decided to just get over it and sew the back of the jacket together.  The image is a bit blurry, but you can see the seams pretty well.  I love the princess seams on this jacket, and although they are a bit of a pain to pin and sew I think I like them more than darts.  This reminds me I need to purchase or make a tailors ham. 

I found this awesome tutorial for an easy draped cape today on Oh So Lovely.  It's a guest post by Alli from one of my all time favorite blogs One Pearl Button.
 

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Fear Based Procrastination

That's right I'm procrastinating, and it's because I'm scared, or at least nervous.  Sewing the muslin was easy, if I screwed it up it was no big deal the fabric only cost me $4, but if I screw up on the "real" jacket I'm out ten times that.  I guess it's this worry that is causing me to doubt my skills and my confidence.  I mean I made the Muslin with few difficulties and it came out pretty good.  I know this is all in my head so I took one step toward sewing this amazing garment.

I cut it out of the wool. 

 You have to start somewhere and If I am going to sew this jacket then I have to have the pieces to sew.  I was super mindful when I was cutting out this fabric too.  Making sure my grain lines were all lines up and parallel to salvage.  I even made sure I gave the right seam allowance to the back neck yoke piece. 

Taking my time and not hastily cutting out the pattern pieces really helped me feel better about starting this project.  I'm hoping to start sewing some of it today.  I know this fear is all in my head and once I start sewing I will get more confident with each seam.

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Finishing the Muslin

I am finished with the Muslin for the Steffi and will soon embark on cutting out the lining and well the rest of the jacket.  It went together pretty easily and I was surprised at how well the muslin came out.  I only ran in to two small problems, but I'll get to those in a minuet.  Here is a photo log of my progress. 

I sewed a lot of the pieces together the sleeves for example were two pieces so I sewed them first and set them aside for when I would need them.  I then sewed all the front and back sections to their partners. and then connected them at the shoulder.

It was weird to not sew the side seams up first, but it was clear that if i decided to do that the yoke wouldn't fit in right and I would be kicking myself later.  This is a bout the time I realized that something wasn't right about my color pieces.

Problem number one and two happened one right after another and while they were easily fixed they did throw a wrench in the works and once they were sorted I called it a day.  What happenend was first I didn't cut my collor pieces on the fold, easy enough to fix I had enough extra muslin fabric to remedy that problem.  The second problem came when I went to sew the yoke together and realized I was missing a pattern piece.  I though search under the bed were my pattern storage is did not turn up the missing piece.  It was a smallish piece and i was able to print it out on one sheet of paper and had just enough fabric to cut it out.  The only problem is that out of all the other pieces of the pattern this tine little crescent of fabric is the only pattern piece that does not have the seam allowance incorporated in.  Weird but not the end of the world.

On my second day of sewing I put together the yoke, sewed in the collar and the yoke in one piece and set in the sleeves which was a bit scary.  One came out better than the other and I am going to go back and take a look at the better one so I can replicate it.  But here is my finished muslin.

I love the back of this jacket I find something very pleasing about the seam lines. 

A little rumpled, but pretty snazzy for a test and some cheap fabric. 

It fits! I don't need to make any adjustments to the pattern. 

Next week I plan on having my silk lining cut out and sewn along with some practice button holes and maybe even the wool cut. 

More DIY Rebellion

Recently I blogged about sewing as a form of rebellion in my post Makes You Think. That post was in response to Peter Lappin's article on Burdastyle titled Sewing as a Protest.

In the same vein of thought one of my favorite blogs, Offbeat Home, has a post about Repair as Rebellion. This post by Cat Rocketship addresses our disposable culture, and how buying quality items, repairing broken items, or hiring someone to fix something instead of throwing it away is a form of rebellion against this mentality. It also gives you a list of things to have handy to make your own repair kit.

Makes You Think

I just finished reading this article on Burdastyle.com, Sewing as a Protest. It was really thought provoking. Recently I made the decision to not buy ready made any more. I have a few exceptions mostly to do with undergarments. This started mostly with frustration about how ready made clothes fit me, they didn't. But while this experiment is still about fit it has more to it than originally thought.

This project has allowed me to build and improve my skills as a seamstress. My invisible zipper finishes have never been better. I'm more willing to try new skills because I have to. I can't be cautious anymore and hope that someone will teach me , or not try because I'm worried about failure. Because of this I've drafted my first pattern, altered a pattern for my needs, sewn knit jersey on my singer and made my first pair of leggings. I am enjoying the doing as much as I am enjoying the finished item.

I've also noticed my taste in style is truly coming out. I never knew I was going to rock a floral frock that was remincent of 1950's fashion, but I wanted to sew that dress. I also never expected to sew leggings that any rocker girl would die for. But I have and I do rock both of those things. There is a touch of femininity and rock and roll in my style and the two purchases I have made since I started this project tie in exactly (a black leather jacket, and brown leather high heel sandals).

I'm not sure if I'm sewing as a protest, but I know I am sewing for me. I do think I sewing, in a way, against branding. Maybe in a few months this out look on this project will take another turn.

Soon

I am almost done with the Clapotis variation. I just need to finish writing up the last section, I'm hoping to have it up either later today or early tomorrow.

In other news I have started sewing my first pair of leggings and so far so good. I'm using burdastyle's pattern Carol. Which is stupidly easy to make. I also have made a discovery that my sewing machine has stretch stitch. Hallelujah! I am definatly going to make more of these, only I am going to use a stretchier fabric next time.

Off I go to knit and sew!