Fringe Dress

I want to like sewing clothes more than I do. I'm so tall it's hard to find things that fit properly, and it's nice to be able to make something you want instead of trying to find it. But, quilting really has my heart. Still, I sew clothes somewhat regularly, and this is my most recent make. 

I bought the Fringe dress pattern (finally hopping on that train, it's such a popular pattern!) during a sale at Chalk and Notch. I was specifically looking for a pattern to use for a cut of linen I was given by Harmony Fabric in Provo for winning a giveaway! I won 3 yards, and it's such a lovely light blue linen. Since I'm tall, I had to be careful about pattern selection, since I need to add so much length generally, I couldn't risk running out of fabric. The fringe dress was well within the fabric requirements, I think it specifies only 2-1/2 yards or so, so I felt like I'd have plenty. Plus, there are so many fringe dress pictures on the internet in all sorts of different fabric selections, and I felt confident it would look great in my linen. I snagged a paper copy during a sale they had, and eventually got around to sewing it. 

Honestly, I think this is among the quickest I've ever sewn up a planned project, haha. I got the fabric in April, and I sewed up the dress a few weeks ago, in August. I tend to stock up on fabric and/or patterns when they're on sale and then sew them when I'm feeling inspired or need it for a specific reason.

Maybe my reason just came up quicker than usual; I made it for family pictures, which we just did a few days ago. 

Part of the reason I dawdle is I dislike making muslins. I know it's so important and definitely not wasted time, but it feels like it. And, half the reason I like to make clothes is so they fit me, but what that means is often I don't fit in a straight size, so then I have to decide which size to start with, etc etc. And then tracing the pattern...I don't love prep work. 

Still, I persevered, and added the length I thought I'd need to check, and was pleasantly surprised it fit pretty well straight out of the envelope. So, I set about making it in the linen. 

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it. I opted to straighten the hem out, and I made the v-neck with buttons and added the sleeve tabs. I love that I didn't have to adjust the neckline at all for good coverage (I'm not into showing off cleavage, sorry! I get cold, what can I say?), and I love the ties detail. I opted to add mine to the back darts because it seems like such an interesting detail. However, now that I've made it, I think I probably should have made it a size larger. I was really thrown off because the muslin (and the dress) genuinely look like the right size. It doesn't feel too snug when I wear it, except for perhaps across my arm, but that's easily explained by the drop sleeve construction. HOWEVER--because the buttons only extend to the waist, which is flatteringly situated just a bit above your true waist, the opening isn't *quite* big enough to comfortably put on and take off. I kinda feel like a gymnast every time I wear it, and I'm always worried I'm going to pull something (I am 40, after all...) or rip it. It might be my fault--I left in the basting stitches from gathering the skirt. But, I don't logically think it would do that. If I could take them out easily now and check, I would, but I serged the seam so it's nice and finished. I don't think those stitches are coming out, haha. Once I really struggled, I realized that most dresses take the opening down past the waist, so I feel like it's a slight design flaw and I'm surprised no one else has complained. 

The other disappointing thing about this dress is actually the fabric. When I got it, it was so soft, I was so excited to wear it. And it IS very soft. But, it is a deadstock linen and I'm learning that you just need to be careful with deadstocks. This one had some really thin spots where the weave was uneven and just thin. So I carefully cut around it as best I could. But it just seems like kinda shoddy fabric, which I find really disappointing. I'm really glad I won it in a giveaway and didn't purchase it, because I would have been upset at the quality. I don't know how long it will last with the quality of the fabric, but I really like the dress even still and will probably make another. It wasn't a difficult sew at all, and again I love the neckline and the ties detail. 

A Second Library Dress

I had picked out some Kona colors for an upcoming project and chose to order them through Hawthorne Supply Co, and whenever I order fabric online, I always look through the sale pages as well. Especially this time, because I needed some new pajama pants and prefer to make pajama pants out of less expensive fabric...I found some good ones, and I found a print that I thought my second daughter would really love. It has horses on it, and she's a bit obsessed with horses. She takes horse lessons and just loves them. Wants to have some when she's older. So, I thought she'd like a dress out of this fabric, but I asked her first, because I have made clothes for them without checking and sometimes they don't get worn. I didn't want to invest my time and money in a project if she wasn't going to like it. Luckily she did, and I thought it would be cute in the Library dress pattern by Oliver and S. She was a tad hesitant because she wanted a maxi length dress, but I just don't see a quilting cotton working well in a longer style like that, and I didn't have any patterns that were longline that. I went with the Library dress, and found a scrap big enough for the waistband in my drawer that she also approved, and got to work. 

I opted to leave off the collar because the print feels busy, and I'm glad I did. It made it go a bit faster but it also gives it a cleaner look. I added 5" to the bottom and probably should have added more. But she'll grow out of it, unfortunately, before that becomes a real issue, even though she wishes it were a tad longer. I made a 12, she's just almost 11 years old, and by measurements it should be a good fit, but it's a tad snug across her shoulders. Not uncomfortably so, yet, but she is growing. I'm also glad that lining up the print worked pretty well. I got it well centered for the front skirt and the bodice worked out as a happy accident. I was careful to make sure it was straight, but otherwise, the way it lined up looks good by chance. No picture of the back, but I had just enough buttons in my jar that worked well. The top button is actually different, it's about the same size, and about the same color, close enough you wouldn't notice if you didn't know to look. And I think they work well. 

She loves it, and I'm so glad. I hope she feels loved--so often when I make things, everyone gets one/something. But this time around she's the only one that got a dress, and she didn't even have to ask for it. 

Christmas Sewing

I did a lot of Christmas sewing this year! I made Christmas pajamas for the girls (and for me, because, why not?) and I made them all dresses. The pajamas were "from Santa" and the dresses were my gift to them. We let them open them first before church (our church meeting started at 9am this year, so we opted to do Christmas morning after church) so they could wear them to church. I was worried because they don't always love the clothes I make for them, but I ran the pattern and the fabric by my oldest daughter before I ordered them (pattern from Vintage Little Lady, not sure I recommend, and hacci knit fabric from Girl Charlee Fabric, which I highly recommend), and she seemed happy with both, so I went for it. 

I ordered WAY more fabric than I needed, partially because I couldn't figure out how much I actually needed. When you make multiple of one pattern from one fabric, you usually don't need to just add the yardage up, but the pattern didn't even have efficient cutting directions for one dress OR total yardage requirements. Instead, it broke it down by pattern piece and never totaled them up. For instance, 1/2 yard for the bodice, 1/3 yard for the sleeve, etc. It was pretty pathetic. And irritating. So, I just wildly guessed at how much I needed, added a little extra, and then added a little extra on top of that because I bought it on a FANTASTIC black friday sale. Like, it was $3/yard. 

So now I have loads of fabric left and I could make myself a dress if I could figure out a way to hack it to my size. It was a basic pattern, I think I probably could. But I have so many other things on my list I'm not sure how soon I'll get to it. 

Anyway, when they opened them on Christmas morning, they were all absolutely thrilled. Like, beyond thrilled, they just grinned, they all rushed to put them on, and they all told me throughout the day how much they adored them. I felt so pleased! They did turn out pretty cute, and I'm happy with them. They did find a couple of holes of places I missed when I was serging it together, which is understandable because they have pockets, which are always tricky on a serger, and I was just doing so many. Assembly line often leads to slight misses like that for me. But, I'll get them all straightened out soon enough. 

Hope you had a lovely Christmas too, and if you sewed for you family, it was as well received as mine was! 

Library Dress

I've been working on making all my girls dresses. Once you make one for one, if she loves it, all the rest of them want one, too. It a good problem, I suppose. As long as they actually like them. They all have been growing anyway, and have needed new dresses. 

Right around the time I was dealing with loads of requests, Oliver and S had their annual summer sale, where patterns were half off. I love to stock up when they have good sales, so I asked the girls for their opinions on patterns, and two of them jumped at this library dress, which I just think is the cutest. I love the collar, the contrasting waist band, everything. It's been on my wishlist for a few years, but I wasn't sure if they would go for it. Luckily they did, and I bought it, along with the Terrace dress pattern and the simple shorts pattern, since I didn't have one and it's such a basic. 

ANYWAY, once my large format printings had arrived (PDF Plotting is fantastic; fast and very affordable), I got to making it. I let my daughter pick fabric from my closet, from a selection I was willing to use, and she picked the pretty blue linen and this adorable plaid. I believe it's a Kaffe Fassett plaid, but I'm not sure since I've had it for several years and, as a woven, it doesn't have info on the selvage. The linen came from Fabrics-store.com. I thought it was a perfect pairing and I absolutely love how it turned out. 

I also managed to find enough buttons leftover from something else, or rather, something that must not have gotten made, since I had so many, and I love the contrast. They're actually really obnoxiously cheap buttons from Joanns and I'm glad to be rid of them; I used some on a different project for my girls and one of the buttons on that project broke in half. And they don't have rounded edges, they just generally feel cheap. (Lesson learned: don't buy cheap buttons from Joanns, they'll definitely feel cheap!) However, they were perfect for this project.

This dress is currently my make that I'm most proud of. I just love how it turned out! 

Terrace Dress

I've been sewing a lot more clothing lately. Loads of quilts, still, of course. Maybe I'm sewing more than is good for me, haha. I've been doing a lot of apparel though, for me and for my girls. We're all tall, so it can be difficult to find clothing that fits. It seems especially hard for tall, thin little girls. Dresses and tops are just not made for tall girls and it seems to make such a big difference when you're small. 

My twelve year old is starting to wear more women's clothing, but of course, it doesn't fit a tween's body correctly, either. Finding patterns for tween bodies is tricky, too, apparently! It's been rough. I made her this dress recently, and figured since it's meant to be belted and to be flowy, maybe the fit would work better. 

I used the Terrace dress pattern from Liesl and Co, and I found a picture on Instagram of the pattern sewn up in some Rifle Paper rayon that I already had. I asked if she would like that exact dress and she said yes! Of course, with my girls now, I have to drill them. Will you wear it? Do you really want it? Too often, I make them clothes and then they decide they don't actually like it and it breaks my heart. Of course it hurts my self esteem a bit that they don't like what I made, but I'm also disgruntled that I spent 5-10 hours sewing, and used fabric ranging in price from $30-75 depending on how expensive and how many yards I needed. It's discouraging.

And truthfully, the same thing STILL happened. 

I had her try it on before I hemmed it, and she said right then that she didn't actually like it. 

Grr. 

Apparently, she didn't love that the neckline was fairly wide and open. But it needed to be because it doesn't have any button closures or zippers, so it has to fit over the head. I tried explaining this, and she was still very torn. 

I finished it anyway, and hung it up in her room, and she put it on on Sunday, but complained, once again. She ended up changing into a dress I had just purchased for her, and I was so disappointed. Then she changed back. I try really hard to not emotionally manipulate them, and I tried to not act disappointed, but I'm sure she knew. Sigh.

But, I think she came around to the dress after she'd worn it for a bit. I think it's super cute, and the rayon is soft and flowy, and I'm sure it's comfy. Hopefully she'll like it enough to continue wearing it. And if not...at least this pattern is a relatively quick sew.