A Nightmare of a Pattern and a Dream of a Dress

I have been pursuing this dress in my mind for long. I tried with last sping with this, and although it was nice, it did not have the retro touch I wished. Finally I made it. I boought this promising pattern in ebay: ...and decided to make it with a soft black cotton I bought this summer, with embroidered white roses and little 3D spots. Well... the pattern turned out to be the worst I have worked with ever. First, after careful consultation with the sizing chart, I cut the pattern in mine, only to see in the first trying it was like six sizes bigger than me (?????!!!!). I thanked my luck because bigger is easy to mend, and I blindly cut again, this time the size I guessed would fit me. And it did. Only now the midrif piece was 5 cm longer than its back counterpart, which I could also repair (again, it was too much, easy to rewind).

I am proud of some no-lazy decisions I took that made the dress perfect. First, I ironed interfacing in all the pieces of the body; second, following recomendations from the pattern itself, I put plastic bones in the vertical seams of the body. Finally, I discarded the waist plaited skirt, since in my previous project, I found it to make me too thick at the waist. I opted instead for a full circle skirt (which I made following this instructions in the net), that turned out to be much more becoming and retro-flavoured.

The magic of the dress, though, I copied from a shop in Barcelona. It was a black net undershirt ruffle that gave volume to my dress. I designed it like this (made it double, one skirt over the other):

I was gathering, and distributing it for hours!, but it was so worth it!!

My New Sewing Nest

I am proud and happy to present my new sewing nest.

We had a foldaway table in the kitchen we never used, and I had the idea of installing it under a window, next to a very practical piece of furniture with a foldable table for the sewing machine. Yesterday was a saturday and my husband - Karlos- and me decided it was time to do some DIY... we were succesful at the first try, and here I present it:
It has everything you need close at hand. In the black shelves on the right I have my sewing basket, magazines, fabrics, and all the necessary gadgets. I can put my computer on the table, since I like sewing watching American TV serials. I have my machine clos at hand and also, and very importantly, my ironing board. My mum taught me that having your iron near and hot was the best trick at hand to success. And she was so right... I recomend to iron every seam you sew before sewing the next.

And here you can see how my sewing corner looks when I am not sewing...

I am so happy with it! Having a luminous and confortable place to sew is crucial to find motivation to work.

Summer Beige Jersey Top

My auntie gave me this beige jersey which imitates crochet, with little flowery openwork. I decided to make a strapped top to wear it with, for example, short jeans.As you can see, I finished first the horizontal superior hems, both front and back, with a machine zigzag. Then I machine sew circular biased straps that went all around the armhole and over the shoulder, turned them over and sew them by hand with invisible zigzag stitch .These are both pictures of the inside.

Basic Black Dress

I discovered how to gather the body of a dress with elastic thread, putting it in the inferior reel of the machine, and sewing parallel lines around the bodice. I also applied a flounce in the inferior part of the dress. The finishings of the rims I made them with a zigzag, making thus a less "homemade" dress. In this picture, I am relaxing by the river. Like it?

ON THE HUNT!

Last weekend we travelled to Barcelona. Ribes i Casals, one of my favourite shops in textile, had moved, but the new shop was as big as the previous one, and only one street further from the city centre. They had "Rebaixes", that is to say, general big discounts.
I got four cottons: an animal print for a shirt, a black (+2% elastan) for an elegant frock, an embroidered nude for a miniskirt and a black and white polka dot print for a vintage dress. Also, and only for 4 Eur, a black lycra remnat destined to be a long sleeved body for the winter. You'll see them transformed, I hope, soon

Liberty Print Jersey Dress

In this case, it was the pattern in Burda magazine what caught my eye in summer 2009.

Last month I found this blue liberty print renmant in a shop in town. It was perfect, a perfect match.

In the process of making it, I found two problems. Well, three. First, the pattern was for short sizes (I solved this by cutting a longer bodice). Second, I was short in fabric (the solution here, was not to make the second flounce, and having thus only one at the base of the dress, a pity, but enough). The third problem were the straps; the day I wore it for the first time, they kept sliding down my shoulders again and again. I decided to remake them shorter.

Other than that, I am perfectly happy with my new dress. It hanged down graciously, and moved along with my body sweetly, if you know what I mean. Good fabric, soft and sweet to the skin, and an excellent pattern. What do you think??

Ah! I've included this picture of a detail to point to the finish of every rim of the dress. I decided to finish it with a marine blue zigzag all around.

Red Long Dress

I got this fabric in a remnants shop because the tone of red was simply perfect and the composition of the material: soft, with very good fall.
Once at home I had serious doubts about it, because it could become quite tacky, if you know what I mean. The combination or marriage between the design and the material is the most important thing in creating your own clothes, even more important than the actual make or craftsmanship of the pieces, in my opinion, and key to success.
It was my husband who gave me the idea: a long dress, long to your feet. Wow!, I thought, the glamour! Summer was really near, so I decided to save it for now. In the meanwhile, I found this design in a Patrones magazine, and I imagined it a very good marriage with my red cotton/Lycra.

A good tip the magazine instructions gave me was to sew an elastic band along the superior rim at the back to prevent it from falling down with the weight of the dress or the movements of my body. It really worked. Regarding the making, I only regret the gathering under my breasts, which I realize should have been mostly in the center, rather than distributed all along the front.

Once I finished my dress, I had the opportunity to wear in a wedding, and I can modestly say, it was a success. I'm wearing a pair of red really high sandals we bought in the Hustler shop at The Strip, in Hollywood. The glamour!!

Click the picture to enlarge it.