Wonder Woman Spoonflower fabric order

I ordered this fabric in Performance Piqué. I am so excited at the result. I'm nervous to cut it because I'm still a novice at working with stretch fabrics but the way this fabric feels will be worth the extra stress. It is so smooth! This design came our very vivid and true to the image that you see on the computer screen. I love the way the fabric picks up the light and shadows too. That is an unexpected bonus. And, it comes in a 60" width!

  www.spoonflower.com/designs/3199111

I ordered this fabric one in basic combed cotton. The blue is lighter than it appears on the computer but this is the shade that I wanted so I'm happy with this purchase too.

 www.spoonflower.com/designs/3199091

I'm gonna have to wait before cutting into either of these though. I've got customers who have claimed the next 3 weekly dresses and this fabric is for ME!

Weekly Dress Project Update

Things got a little hectic back in October due to Halloween costume constructing, my volunteer commitments at the elementary school, prep for the Day of the Dead and show planning for our upcoming Holiday Market so I've been feeling like I'm pulled in every direction. Things have slowed back down now and I'm getting caught up on everything that I've been putting off (like dusting!).
I have kept up with my weekly dress making, so here we go (excuse some of the not-so-professional pictures...yes, I've been that busy).
Week 12 'Walkaway Dress' made from a vintage reproduction pattern

Available for sale if you are interested.

Week 13 Pin Striped Dress (kept this one for myself. Love it. And it's got pockets! I love pockets in dresses.)

Week 14 Brown Taffeta shift dress

This dress above doesn't look like this anymore. This picture was taken after the dress was complete but before I appliqued flowers and Sugar Skulls to it for the Day of the Dead. It is available, I'll update when I get it re-photographed and listed online.

Week 15 Sally Dress. My client wanted a dress like Sally in a Nightmare Before Christmas but she wanted it in this mix of colors instead of the colors that Sally had. We also pieced two different dress patterns together because she liked the top section of one dress but the waist and skirt of another.

Week 16 Anna Coronation Day Dress

Week 17 Snow White Dress (my costume)

Week 18 Elsa Coronation Day Dress

I made two of these.... here is a customer picture of one of them (I made the sparkly Elsa too, that was Week 11) I'm pretty sure they liked them.

Week 19 Elsa Sexy Cosplay Outfit (available)

Week 20 Candy Corn Dress (kept it for myself but will probably list it on eBay next fall)

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 number 9 - Rockabilly Swing Dress

This week I let my sister go through my pattern stash and pick the dress for me.  At first I wasn't excited about the choice she made, mainly because there were several other ones that I'd been looking forward to, but I came around once I picked the fabrics.

She chose Butterick B6049 and opted for the halter neck version.

Years ago I had an online boutique where I sold rockabilly style clothing called Addicted to Rockabilly (I still have some of the remaining inventory up on eBay).  I sold a dress from Pin Up Girl Couture that looked pretty much identical to this one.  They called it the Rita Dress.

Above and Below Photos from PinUpGirlClothing.com

There are some differences.  Their version has the halter top with a long tie and the Butterick version has it hooking with a slide hook.  The Butterick version has a fully lined bodice where I could be wrong here, but I don't believe that the Pin Up version was lined. The Butterick version also has pockets!  I love pockets in dresses.
I have a ton of shows lined up for this fall so in order to stock up on inventory, I cut two of these dresses at the same time.  I was making the same size, so I didn't want to use the same pattern.  I made one with a brown and cream cheetah print with deep red accent and the other from a teal with small lavender dots and a bright pink accent.  Both dresses came out fabulous!   I'm sure they will go quick when I get them listed in the shop.

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 3 - Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 1802

Week 3 is complete and I'm even more inspired than I was on week 1. I am trilled with the result of this dress.

I have made a ton of things over the years and I think this may just be my best work ever. Typical me would have made this dress without the piping because piping is tedious work. You have to make sure everything lines up perfectly or else your lines come out squigly and on the finished product, it draws the eye right to your mistakes.

For the piping, the pattern gave an option of using regular packaged piping or making your own "flat" piping. It called for 4 packages of piping and I am a cheapskate, so I went with the DIY version. At the fabric store, I couldn't find a color combo that I liked so I decided that I would use the same dress fabric for the piping. This dress called for a 3 3/4 yards of fabric and 7/8 yards of lining with another 1 1/2 yard for the piping. Altogether, the fabric, thread and zipper (on sale and using a coupon) came out to $36.00.

As mentioned before... cheapskate over here! I pretty much choked about spending that much on the supplies for just one dress. The next day I had a girlfriend over and we were talking about dresses and what we were going to wear to the reunion and she showed me a dress online that she was considering for the event. After seeing the almost two hundred dollar price tag on her dress, I don't feel so bad about my less than forty dollar fabric expense. I went with a sateen in a soft avocado green. I purposefully looked for green because I realized the other day that I don't have any green in my wardrobe whatsoever and it would look great with the shoes I want to wear.

Before cutting I shortened the dress by 4" and changed my mind about using the dress fabric for the piping and ended up with a full two yards of fabric left over.

Hooray, enough for another (simpler) future dress!

I took my time with the piping. Measuring and pinning and in some places, basting carefully before putting in stitches and successfully completed ALL of the piping without having to pick out any stitches. I'm so proud of myself.

At the point where I attached the very top yolk piece on the bodice, I held it up to myself and realized that it was not going to fit right. The waist was going to sit way up higher than my actual waist so I cut out a new yolk piece but this time added one inch in length at the shoulder. Good thing I had all that extra fabric! I cut a new yolk piece for the back too but for the lining pieces, just added a 1" strip of fabric. This was a little tricky, but I went slow and measured out seam allowances and everything and it was a success. Making this adjustment made the armpit hole an inch larger too. This wasn't something I thought about when I did it, but it turned out to be a happy accident too because I can't stand to have things tight in my armpits and I don't think it looks like the arm holes are too big.

At this try-on stage I was super excited. Here I could tell that everything was going to fit right. It was hard to continue to go slow and precise because I was so excited about finally making a perfect fitting dress. I had changed my mind about the piping and used the fabric that I had purchased for the lining as piping instead and used the regular dress fabric as lining so this dress looks pretty sweet on the inside too.

For now, I'm just going to post this poor-lighting mannequin pic of the dress and later, I'll update with pictures from my reunion because finally this is the one.

Oh, and by the way... I found a similar, less detailed version of this dress on the designer's website for $395, so yeah, $36 for fabric isn't so bad.

Next week, Lissette Simplicity 1419 with Avengers fabric.