Weekly Dress project, Week #11 - Anna and Elsa dresses from the movie Frozen

For week #11 I decided to get a jump on Halloween.  My eight year old daughter (of course) wants to be queen Elsa from Disney's Frozen so I used McCall's Pattern M7000.  I was pretty sure that I was going to have lots of requests for this costume so when I purchased the fabrics, so I bought enough to make 2 children's Elsa dresses, 2 children's Anna dresses (and cape), 2 adult Elsa dresses and 2 adult Anna dresses.

I guessed right.  In the last few weeks, I've had orders!  So many orders that I'm  not sure that I'm going to have time to get the other crafting done that I need to do in preparation for the craft shows I have coming up this fall.  

Lots of orders is a good thing, of course, but I probably shouldn't have jumped the gun on the fabric because half of those orders aren't for the dresses you see in the pattern picture above, but for the coronation day dresses.

(But, those will have to wait until Week 15)

Being the costume perfectionist that I am, I wasn't satisfied with the bodice and skirt detail of Anna's dress from the pattern so I reworked the pattern to have more detail.

It took FOREVER, but I think it was worth it.  I also added the gold trim at the top and bottom of the black part that was missing in the McCall's pattern.

 

If I make these dresses again, I'm going to paint the details with fabric paint instead of applique because they are just too small for applique! 

The cape turned out super fabulous and was pretty simple to sew but the problem was that it used over 5 yards of fabric! and that is for the CHILD's costume!  That works out to being a pretty expensive cape.  It was fully lined so if I ever do it again, I won't bother with the lining. 

I didn't make any changes to the Elsa dress but did get a lot of practice using my new rolled hem foot.

I have sold all but one of the dresses that I've made, so if you are interested... I have one left and it is a child Elsa dress that would fit size 7-10
on Square Market

Weekly Dress project - Week #10 - tribute to Jack Skellington

(I'm actually on week 12... little behind on the blogging! oops. We'll just pretend that I typed this two weeks ago and catch up from there)

Dress #10 was a custom request from a friend. She wanted to have a fun dress to wear to Disney that was a Jack Skellington theme.

We went with Simplicity 2062 but didn't do the bubble skirt thing and changed it to a simpler, more modest knee-length gathered skirt instead. I wasn't sure about fit, so instead of making a muslin, I dug into my fabric stash and just made the dress exactly as the pattern said (except for the skirt modification)and had her try on the dress to see what needed to be changed. (that dress is for sale here)

Turns out it was perfect except that we added a teeny-tiny small dart at the top of the bust so that it didn't gape open at her cleavage. I think this pattern was meant to be worn super tight, low and with a push up bra. My friend wasn't going for the sexy hooker Halloween costume look, just something fun. The main issue that we had was with the freakin' fabric! After scouring the internet and local stores to find a black with white pinstripes (why is this not available? pin stripes are awesome!), we ordered some shirting fabric that arrived only 1 day before she was to leave town and it wasn't black like it was supposed to be, but gray! What do we do? I run out and buy some awesome suiting fabric in solid black, quickly make the dress and then she pin striped it herself with paint! Luckily she is a henna artist and has mad skills, so she put the paint into her henna cone and striped her own dress. All the night before she left for Disney.

As you can see.... we got it done and it was a huge success! Fit was perfect and I didn't have any trouble with the pattern whatsoever.  In fact, the pattern was so fun and quick, that I decided to make a third!  I've been hoarding this Halloween print since last year and thought it would be fun.

(This dress is for sale here)

Weekly dress project - Week 5 - Simplicity 1355 Jumper

For week five, I decided to make a jumper instead of a dress because I think these playsuits are fun and I was about to go on a beach weekend vacation.

 In order to challenge myself for this one, I decided to make it using plaid fabric. I have never worked with plaid before, mainly because I was afraid of it. I am always annoyed when I see plaid clothing where the seams don't match up!  Not only did this fabric challenge me because of the pattern, it was a challenge because of the weight of it.  Matching the plaids took forever when I was cutting out the fabric, but once the pieces were all cut out, it was pretty easy.

This project was probably the fastest one that I've completed yet and that is even WITH matching the plaid. I'd imagine that if I made this one using a different fabric, it would only take about 2 hours to complete.
Want me to make you one? email me!
I haven't gotten nice mannequin pictures yet, but didn't want to hold off on posting this because of it. So, I'll just share the pictures I took of myself when I tried it on. Please don't mind the silly hair do(n't).

I decided not to keep it and I didn't take it with me on my vacation because I really wasn't comfortable with that much back showing. I had planned to wear it over a swim suit, so I didn't think it would matter, but once I had it on, I felt really self-conscious. There is nothing wrong with showing one's back, it is just a silly quirk I have because my tattoos aren't finished yet, oh well...
In the future, I may do this pattern again but recreate it to not be open at the back.
I'll be putting it up in the shop once I get some nice mannequin/good lighting pictures. I'll update when I do.

Week 4 of my Weekly Dress project - Lisette Sew Your Style 1419 from Simplicity

This pattern was pretty easy for me. No real challenge to my skills. All of the elements in this dress were skills that I have already mastered. I am supposed to be doing this as a way to expand my knowledge and skill base so I should have picked a more complex pattern. The thing is, this is the style that I like and it was already in my pattern stash.

 I knew I would adore this dress so I purposefully made it too big for me so that I wouldn't be tempted to keep it. I need to sell some of these dresses or I can re-invest in fabrics in order to keep this project going.

 The fabric for this dress cost me about forty dollars plus about 8 hours of my time so I think it is a steal priced at only $84. (If you are looking to purchase it, you'll find it here) Maybe later down the road, I'll make this dress again for myself because I love it! I especially love that it has pockets.

 I love pockets in dresses.
I made the sleeveless version. The only adjustment that I made was to shorten the dress. I shortened it to 20" from waist to hem. I added a tiny tack at the base of the front facing because I noticed that it kept flipping up when I hung it on a hanger. I'm pretty obsessive about how things look from both the inside and outside so it just drove me crazy. I really prefer a lining rather than a facing for this reason. Maybe my future versions of this dress will have that adjustment. I'm confident that I can make this dress in various sizes so this would be one that I'd be happy to create for custom projects.  Let me know if you want one.

Weekly Dress Project - Week 2 Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 1607

For my second dress, I used Simplicity 1607.  Because my last dress wasn't a good fit, I still need a dress for my 20-year reunion coming up at the end of this month and I was hoping that this would be the one.  

Because money is really tight this month, I dug into my fabric hoard to find a suitable fabric without having to spend money.  I had yards and yards of this sturdy black twill that I thought would look amazing.  Being that this dress already has such in interesting neckline, I thought solid black would still be fun.  I dove in and got to work.

After about 4 hours of work on this dress, I got to the part where I turn the straps inside right and when I did... the fabric just ripped apart!  Completely unraveled!  There was no fixing it.  I thought that maybe it was because of the thickness of the fabric and that I had to pull too hard to try and turn it so I just trashed the straps and decided that I'd do white straps instead.  I put in another hour or so cutting and sewing completely new straps then sewed them onto the dress.  Next step....

When I started to apply the waistband, the fabric from the bodice ripped as well!  There was obviously something really wrong with my fabric and I'm an idiot that I didn't notice it until after five hours of sewing!  The fabric looked and felt sturdy (like jeans) but if you pulled on it... zip... it would just rip to shreds.  

At this point, I threw it all in the garbage and went to bed.

The next day I got myself caffeinated and started over.

The straps were pretty tricky but much easier on the third go round.  And, besides the straps, most of the rest of the dress was pretty simple.  

This dress has an invisible zipper and I've never known how to install an invisible zipper.  I'm fabulous at regular zippers so usually, if the pattern calls for invisible, I just modify and use a regular one.  The main reason for this weekly dress project is to improve, so I took the time to learn how to do it right!  I started with the pattern instructions but they just left me more confused.  I read the instructions on the package, nope.  I dug out an old textbook from my clothing construction class in collage and that didn't help much either.  Finally, I found my teacher on YouTube.  I realized that I would need an invisible zipper foot and wonder tape so I ran out to Joann.  They had the wonder tape in the quilting section but no invisible zipper foot.  Actually, no feet at all for any kind of machine except the one's that are sold in that little machine sales section they have and those won't fit a Singer or Kenmore.  Maybe Joann should concentrate less on selling cheap holiday garbage and sweets and actually stock useful sewing items!   

Sorry, I digress...

Back to the dress talk.  So after calling 4 different stores, I found one that did have a universal zipper foot so I packed a lunch for my kid and drove across town.  

Once I had watched Sue teach me how to do the invisible zipper about ten times, I felt confident enough to try it.  Then I realized that I have no f-ing clue how to put this stupid invisible zipper foot onto my machine!  It came in 4 pieces and looked nothing like Sue's!

I love the internet because it only took a couple of searches to find a helpful blogger to explain things for me. 

I got the zipper in and was pretty proud of myself until I tried the dress on and realized that it wasn't very "invisible" like it should have been.

The Coats & Clark invisible zipper foot that I bought was pretty flimsy and kept sliding while I was installing the zipper so I figured, since I am getting serious about this dressmaking business, I'd invest in better tools and ordered a better one online. 

I didn't make any adjustments to this pattern at all and surprisingly, it actually fit!

Well...kinda.  It is pretty snug. I decided not to wear it for the reunion because it felt a little to bondage-esque for a night out with people I haven't seen in twenty years.  I absolutely love it, but it's just not the look that I want for this event.  

I opened a new Etsy shop to sell a few of the dresses that I'll be making in order to have a little money to buy more fabrics and keep this project going.  So if you are interested in this dress, it is listed there now.

Making Handmade Halloween Costumes swells my heart

Last night I was working on my 7-year-old daughter's Halloween costume and I got to a point where I needed her to try it on to make sure that one piece was right.  Being that it was 10pm, she was sound asleep, so I laid the incomplete costume out on the kitchen table with a note on it asking her to try it on for me.

This morning I stepped out of the shower to see a wide-awake, very excited little girl in an incomplete Princess Leia dress standing there beaming!  I am by far NOT a morning person but seeing her in that dress, with an ear-to-ear grin was a great start to the day.

Backing up a little.... last weekend, we watched the original Star Wars and both of my kids have become obsessed.  Being that, in the same weekend, we put up the Halloween decorations, they both decided that their costumes needed to be Star Wars related.  I sat down with my kids individually and sketched out the costumes and measured them and talked about ideas on how they should look. Then I took them each to the fabric store to pick out the materials.  They are so excited about Halloween right now and I'm happy that the excitement isn't just about candy.  It is wonderful to hear their ideas and see their creativity blossom.

I know that not everyone can sew and I know that even some who can, don't have the time or desire to create a one-of-a-kind, complex, completely-overboard-with-detail costume like I have a tendency to want to do, but that planning time and putting the whole thing together has been priceless for me as a mother and a crafter. 

Here are a few that I've done in the past and had a really great time with.

(The Jesse costume is actually up for auction right now on eBay if you are interested)

 I have no idea why I don't have a picture of Lily and I together in our Strawberry Shortcake costumes, but we were so cute! That's her and here was mine.

 I'd made this princess Aurora costume for her 2 years before this picture was taken.  The year I'd made it, she ended up sick on Halloween and because it is kinda stiff and itchy, she refused to wear it.  You know how it is when you don't feel good... you need to be comfortable.

These pumpkin suits were the result of me over-booking my time.  That year I had zero free time for any complex sort of costumes.  Thankfully they both loved them anyway.  Probably because they were so involved in the making of them.  I laid out fleece and had them lie on the floor and I cut around them.  They placed the face pieces where they wanted them stitched and helped me pin them.  Plus, they were comfortable.

I'll share more pictures when I get this year's costumes finished.  But for now,..... back to sewing.

Published in Stuffed Magazine AGAIN!

It is just as thrilling as the last time!  I am down-right giddy over this.  I am holding myself back from carrying this magazine around everywhere, around showing it to strangers.

This One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater was actually submitted to Stuffed BEFORE Mildred the Monster who was published in the Spring 2013 issue.  I was nervous that he'd gotten lost or something because I moved in between when I submitted him and now.  If they don't like your work... they just ship it back.  They have had him so long that for awhile I'd forgotten about him.

How he came about:
My friend Dickson had a little boy come into his life (who stole such a big part of his heart that he wrote a book about it) and he asked if I could make a 'One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater' for him to give as a gift.  During the design process I decided that I wanted to go a different direction from the norm.  I crafted him as though the 'Purple People Eaters' were a species that has two eyes and two horns but his were damaged in some way or another.  I also made him a little 'people snack' that goes in his zipper pocket mouth.  I had so much fun making this guy that I was giggling the whole time.  I loved the way he turned out, and so did the little boy he was made for.....

so I made another to be submitted to Stuffed and the rest is history!  I saved the pattern, so I can make more if I ever end up with the time.  Maybe you'll see more of these guys in the future.  For now, just proudly walking around showing off my magazine.