Friday, November 06, 2009

Simplicity 2863

I've been trying to get home early enough to snap a photo of this all week! Remember my first post about this Built By Wendy dress?


Well, a whole month later, I finally finished it! Click for a really big picture! Note how the camera couldn't focus on those crazy stripes!


So two things I should say now that you've seen it.
1. I have a neck. I must have misplaced it for this photo shoot.
and
2. This dress doesn't have a black banded hem. It's just the shadow from the flash.

Anywho...I wore it Monday with black leggings, my black turtleneck, & a pair of cute black ankle boots (which I cut off here. Still haven't quite got the hang of my new tripod and completely FORGOT I have a remote for the Nikon, so was using the 10 second timer. Doh.)

But back to the dress...here's the back view (which I rarely show on the net! So enjoy! But no need to click for the super size version. Really.)


And here's an up close view of the ruching at the back waist, the only thing providing shape to this dress:


I especially like this cropped picture because my butt looks rather small. This photo should have that rearview mirror disclaimer: Objects in these photos are larger than they appear...

About the pattern (because who knows if I'll ever get around to reviewing it!) It was super easy to construct because it has cut on sleeves (making it a 4 seam dress!) And the hardest part of construction is the ruching back. You could definitely do elastic thread in the bobbin for this, but the pattern has you sew a strip of fabric to the back, stitch channels, then run elastic through the channels.

Now, had my brain been functioning when I was sewing this, I would have done this FIRST, before sewing the side seams. Instead, I read the instructions and they have you do this AFTER you sew the side seams and I blithely followed along. Um, that's 10 times harder to maneuver. I perservered though, and it's pretty straight. Honest. (Next time I'll be doing the channel thing first though.)

I used a really drapey rayon/poly/lycra knit in flaming red, with a black burnout stripe. It seems really see-through until you put it on and then it's actually not. I can't explain it, but I did wear it to school, and I didn't get arrested.

Next up is that Nanette Lepore plaid dress knock off with my Favorite Things dress pattern. Scroll down to the snoop post to view it, I'm too lazy to go find the link. Happy Friday!!

7 comments:

  1. I love it! It's very hip and trendy and looks super comfy, too. I love the leggings with it! How weird to have you put the elastic channels in after sewing the sides!

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  2. Cute! I like the leggins look too. I'm debating whether I think I can get away with this, but I think I'm too old. I don't know. How old are you?? LOL

    Hey. You can spell "perservere"! Wish I'd known that yesterday. I would have asked.

    Ok, it's making me type "perdhomp" as my word verification. That is a too cool word and I think we should all start using it a.s.a.p. Perdhomp!

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  3. You look fantastic! Red is your color, chica! Love the leggings and ankle boots with it, you did a great job!

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  4. Great look on you!! I agree with Kristine the red is your color. I hate it when patterns have you do things in weird order, etc.....

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  5. OK, and can I just say it totally freaks me OUT whenever Kristine posts something on a blog after me (or before me, even)... because my name is Kristine too, which used to be virtually unheard-of. I mean, until recently any time the name "Kristine" came up, it was pretty much guaranteed to be me. So every time I see her post something I get this totally weird Shirley Mclaine moment and think "No wait. I said that? When?? What else did I do during my out-of-body experience?" Then I check myself for new, unexplained tattoos.

    I still can't figure out why I have a chihuahua on my butt.

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  6. Love the look! Wonder if I can get away with this next winter (going into summer here, well supposedly).

    BTW - nominated you for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Details etc at my blog.

    Can I just say, I like beangirl's verification word better. Perdhomp is so much better than horbro!

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  7. The dress is very cute.
    The black band/shadow thing fascinates me.

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