Favorite Skirt

 

 This is New Look 6346. It was super simple to sew and it just fits.

The only tough thing was sewing on snaps and then sewing the buttons over that, hate hand sewing, although the weather was still nice enough so I could sit outside and sew. And when I bent down to get something the top snap unsnapped, Yikes! I have been doing a lot of sewing, but just too lazy to post.

Hot Patterns 1151

I only have one picture of this and with these shoes I kind of look like a gnome, ha, ha. Anyway, I do like the skirt very much, it is a denim with little ballerina's embroidered all over, from JoAnne's many moons ago.  The pattern is Hot Patterns 1151 Lantern Skirt. Hot Patterns is one of my favorite pattern brands, for two reasons; you go by your measurements to choose the size (and it fits) and that they have some different designs.

As you can see it wasn't December when this was taken. Dreaming of warm weather.

Simplicity 1099

 So, it's all about the print. Who doesn't love a chicken print? This was a flawed fabric purchase from Mill End Textiles about a million years ago. The skirt has one seam and elastic casing, that's all I had room for.

 I love the cropped top. Although, if you make this, check the arm hole depth. On me it's really tight and I usually don't have that problem in that area.

I didn't use any of the facings, just bias tape. I used a glittery braid on the bottom.

Another Simplicity 1104

 This is one of my favorite patterns, it is Cynthia Rowley, Simplicity 1104. I made it from Scuba found at JoAnne this year in the $7.99 section.

 It would have fit better if I had taken in the tucks a bit more in the front, but I'm going to leave it as is. I also added sleeves so it would be more fall appropriate.

Not much to add...

Vogue 9186

 Thought I'd better post this before the snow flies. Vogue 9186 is kind of an unusual pattern, but that's one of the reason's we sew. Where could you find a dress like this in ready to wear?

The graduated fabric was from JoAnne a few years ago. Since there wasn't enough fabric I did the front on the straight grain and the back on the cross grain.

I just added about two inches in length and that was about it as far as alterations go. It might be desirable to just extend the elastic a little more to the back if you like things more fitted. Happy sewing!

Vogue 1410

 Yes, I made another Vogue 1410. It's easy to fit, easy to sew and doesn't break up the print.

 Unfortunately the weather just turned cold , so no more wearing of this dress.

Butterick 6169

 This dress was finished at the tail end of winter last year and wasn't even tried on till now. I like this pattern and was kind of surprised by that, since I usually don't like straight dresses. This dress would even be better without the tie and worn with a waterfall jacket . The tie ended up being bulky even though it is silk and cotton on the backside.

 The front is silk from Ebay (don't know the seller) and the sides are a knit from the stash. I also got the coin print cotton from Ebay because I ran out of fabric. In hindsight it would have been better to just do a narrow hem on the sash. The coin trim was from SR Harris.

Butterick 5600

 It is the first day of fall, so I'm wearing a summer dress. The weather is warm enough and we even had a monsoon last night, crazy.

The pictures aren't so great, but my husband the photographer only likes to take a few photos. The fabric is from our trip to California last winter. It's a cotton with a birdcage print. The band is from the stash with a flower print at the bottom. I do like this pattern, I added length, graded out at the hips and didn't add the elastic to the sleeves. It tends to pull open at the bottom band, but if you were to add another button it would just pull. I think this would look cute with a shirt-tail hem.

Have a great day!

Butterick 5917

 

I put off sewing this dress for a long time because for some reason I thought it would be hard to sew. It was nothing like that. It was fun and easy and it fit without alterations.

  

So, if you have not made this pattern yet and like dresses, don't be like me, just sew it up!

Butterick 6205

 Since I've had bad sewing karma lately, I've been going for easy fit dresses. This did fit pretty well. I have one small area on my body and that is from my shoulders to my armpits. What that means is that I always have to shorten the shoulder straps, or on this one, tie the ties more. This made the waist elastic go up higher than I would like, but I'm okay with that.

This pattern calls for 5.5 yards of fabric, so when I was last at SR Harris they had a bunch of cottons on sale for about three dollars a yard. So, I had to get a bunch of cottons! Excuse the walking shoes, but we were at an art fair in Edina. The perfect day, got to enjoy them while you can.

McCall's 6704

 I ended up liking this dress, but during construction I had to say a few choice words. The top is silk and I just thought I'd use my narrow hemming foot. Well, that didn't work so I did the row of stitching, folded it, did more stitching and more folding and stitching.

 I used a sturdy knit that I had on hand and lengthened the dress and made it wider.

Simplicity 7812

Another easy dress to fit and sew. This is also another vintage pattern (1992) and this was from my stash, yes, I'm that old!

I sewed this up before the Olympics, once the Olympics are on I have to watch, although I think I had my own pattern cutting Olympics in front of the T.V. When we were kids we used to play Olympics and we wanted to be Olympians when we grew up, but alas it was not to happen. The best I could do was second place in the high jump. I lost to one of the other tall girls in school.

This is a wrap dress and luckily the wrap is the right size so you are not showing your slip when a wind comes up.

I sewed this with the lazy method, no special pattern modifications and no pattern matching and it all worked out well, happy dance!

McCall's 9249

This pattern is from 1998. I bought it at a thrift store for twenty five cents. After all my sewing failures, I wanted something easy, fast and would probably fit. Fortunately it achieved all three, yeah! I cut the size 16 for the top and added about one inch to the back. For the skirt I graded out to a larger size.

It's kind of hard to tell but this dress has two layers, the top layer is a floral mesh and the bottom is cotton. No hems on the mesh, just the selvage.

A little easier to see here.

I made the straps smaller and longer, I hate ties in the back.

Sewing for thrift stores

This is Vogue 9104. I specifically chose this pattern because after all the past sewing bombs, I wanted a sure thing that would fit. Well...it doesn't! There are big gaps in the armholes, toward the neck band. The neck band was not comfortable and overall the dress just looks baggy.

The fabric is so cute and I used one of my scarves for the back of the neckband. The band on the bottom is an embroidered linen. What a waste!

I was thinking I need to just sew a pattern I've used before, but nothing is sparking my interest. Hopefully there's a tall thin person out there needing a bright colorful dress.

This pattern is now in the donation bag with the dress.

McCall's 6953

 

 This is another one of the dresses that did not let me enjoy sewing. The top did fit, but the pleats did not work in the back, so even though I wanted to throw this away, I picked out the back and added gathers instead. The bottom band did not fit well and it was a lot of futzing to get them together.

 

The fabric was from JoAnne's (last year) it is such a pretty fabric and I love the color, but it is very lightweight, and I don't think it's going to be durable.

Let's hope for some better sewing karma in the future!

Vogue 9106

 Sometimes do you just not enjoy sewing very much? The last three things I've made have had fitting issues and have taken a long time to sew. I was so excited for this vintage pattern and I loved the fabric to go with this (Pottery Barn Kids sheets). I made my normal size, but the top wouldn't close the sleeves were way too tight and where the gathers ended it was like arrows pointing to your butt and the gathers for the bust did not go below the bust. OMG! Took out the back darts, opened up the sleeves by cutting a tear drop shape and adding self bias for ties. So it does fit now, but I still don't love it. I'm just going to hang on to it until next summer and then make a decision on what to do with it. Two thumbs down!