Outfit Along : completed!

Hi all, I've finally completed both my cardigan and dress for the outfit along!

I look slightly stupid on that pic. Dunno why but my boyfriend wasn't very inspired. He could at least have told me I was looking that dumb!

I won't go over the cardi once more as you've already seen it in a previous post, but here are a few facts about the dress :
This is Colette Pattern's Hawthorn dress and I've made the sleeveless version, in a navy swiss dot cotton underlined (for the bodice) and lined (fort the skirt) in a navy cotton voile.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, didn't have the time to snap anything better...

But, you guys...THIS MUST BE MY FAVORITE OF ALL THE THINGS I'VE MADE SO FAR!!!
I mean, this is the first time I sew something (relatively) complicated and manage to get perfectly finished seams everywhere! My facings have been finished with a mock overlock stitch and then catchstitched to the (under)lining, same goes for my hem, I made a faux waist stay, finished my armholes with piping, used French seams everywhere I could...it's almost as beautiful on the inside as on the outside! (check my FlickR if you want to see the details!)
On top of that, the fit is spot on (although I was unsure about it after making 2 muslins, I finally cut a size 6 with no alterations) and this is a perfectly office-friendly garment.

However, even if this dress, due to its color and clean lines, is definitely cake material, it would be very easy to add some frosting to it with the right accessories and make it a perfect outfit for an evening out or even fancier occasions! I can already imagine wearing it with green or pink...I'll have to knit more Myrnas to pair with it! And I think it's definitely going to be worn a lot!

To conclude, I'd just like to thank Andi and Lauren for organizing the Outfit Along, it was fun!

Outfit Along - Dress Progress

Hi folks, hope you had a lovely weekend! 

I personally had a lovely 3-days weekend (July 14th being our national day here in France) and coud really make some progress on my Outfit Along dress.

It's not easy to photograph a navy dress on a purple dress form, but there you have it! The only things left to do are finishing the armscyes, creating the buttonholes, making my fabric-covered buttons, hemming and catch-stitching the facing on to the lining/underlining fabric. I think the 15 days ahead should be enough to do this!

Look, I'm making a faux waist stay (thank Anna for her tutorial!)

Stay tuned for the final Outfit Along posted, it should come soon (or so I hope)!

First UFO : finished at last!

Hi folks!
Remember the Lonsdale dress I mentioned in this post? Well, it's over now!

As I said last year, I first thought, as I'd read before that Sewaholic caters for pear-shaped ladies, that i'd need an FBA, not thinking of myself as pear shaped. However it turned out that what I needed was more room at the waist. I therefore proceeded to add whatever was needed, made 2 bodice muslins that didn't fit...and then, before I knew it, my holidays were over, and the time to wear breezy summer dresses was gone. So I stuffed my muslins away and worked on some Fall sewing.

But...I didn't want to call it a day! So, a bit more than two weeks ago, I took the most recent of my 2 muslins and tried it on again. As it was still too tight at the waist, and I didn't want to bother altering my traced pattern one more time, I decided to re-trace the whole bodice entirely, grading up from a size 6 at the bust, to a size 8 at the waist and hips. And, lo and behold, the fit of my 3rd muslin was much better!

Once that matter was settled, putting the whole dress together was a really quick and pleasant job. The only other alteration I made was to move the loops to the side a little bit, so the straps didn't cover my back tat.

At first I wanted to finish all the seams in the skirt with bias strip, but I finally just finished the center back seam and the zipper this way, using a cute anchor print bias trim. The other seams are just turned under and stitched, which is probably going to be my new favorite seam finish for light fabrics. I also handpicked the zipper and I have to say I really love that way of attaching zippers! I'm still a bit awkward with my machine when it comes to attaching zippers (remember this epic invisible zipper fail on my Lily dress?) and this technique allows me to get as close as I can to an invisible zipper (even if it's not an invisible zipper per say).

Here, you can see the anchor print bias trim and the lace-trimmed hem. Sorry about the flash, but if I hadn't used it you couldn't have seen the lace!

I also wanted to finish the hem with lace, which is probably not the best idea I ever had. It just took AGES. And although it doesn't show unless you have your nose sticked to it, it looks like weird scalloped stitches  on the right side of the dress (er...let's just say it's an intentional design effect, shall we?). Lesson learned, and note to myself : If you're not patient enough to make it fancy, then keep it simple. And if you want to do this kind of finish, underline, so it doesn't show on the outside.

And now, a few technical details : 

Pattern : Sewaholic Lonsdale dress

Fabric : 100% navy polkadot cotton lawn

Notions : zipper, bias trim, lace trim

Any difficulties ? None whatsoever, although I tried to make things complicated when I should have kept them simple (lace-trimmed hem vs simple hem).

Wear again ? Sure, as often as possible! This is a great dress for week-ends, easy to dress up or down.

Make again ? Not sure yet ...but I might, considering how quick it is to make!I just have to find the right fabric!

Other outfit details : 

Hair flowers from Claire's (big white rose) and Paradirama (orange orchid)

Belt and handbag from H&M's

Bluebird sandals from Miss L Fire.

Chiffon scarf (on handbag) from Rockahula Isla Retro Delights

Vogue sunglasses from my local optician, a few years ago.