mid-week makeover!

So, maybe you remember this Built By Wendy rayon chambray top?? It's Simplicity 3964 (and I think it's still in print.)


Well, I loved it then. Loved it. But I never wore it. I finished it right before school started, and I can't wear sleeveless items to school. I thought maybe I'd wear a little shrug or something over it, but I never did. So this completely adorable top has languished in my closet for months!

That simply won't do. I really have been wanting to wear it the past several days too, since our weather is GORGEOUS!

Sooo...Makeover Time! I luckily had the foresight to save a bit of the chambray because even last summer I thought I might, might, want to do a short sleeve instead of sleeveless.

First I had to unpick my armhole binding and remove it:


Then I had to cut and insert new, puffed sleeves.


And make binding. Which is attached, but not pressed, turned, and topstitched yet.


And... I still have one side to go.


Which means this completely finished object (F.O.) has now magically turned into a U.F.O. (ok, so not exactly magically since it was entirely my doing.)

But never fear, I plan to finish it this week so I can wear it with khaki pants. Or a khaki skirt! Beautiful weather motivates. It's a fact.

So now I have TWO things to photograph for you, the Sunshine top and this top (when its finished). Good thing its only Tuesday!

red carpet time!

So far there's not a ton to love, but definitely a ton to make you go...huh?

Charlize Theron. Oh honey. No.


Actress I never heard of. Sorry, missed your name when I snagged the picture of your very, um, interesting dress.


Zoe Saldana, who I thought was Jada Pinkett Smith with her hair like this. My bad. Ummm, this is probably going to be a big hit with the fashion police. With me, not so much.


Love these two. Ferris & my best Square Pegs pal 4Ever? But what the heck is with that dress?? Wrong color. Wrong type of tin foil rose. Although...is there a right way to make a tin foil rose? Nevermind.


Diane Kruger reminds me so much of Grace Kelly. I hate to say it, but as odd as this dress is, there's something about it that I sort of like. (Oh-No's! The Hollywood Kool-Aid is coming through my tv speakers!)


Maggie Gyllenhaal. I think I like this? The shape is beautiful. The Oriental (hand?) painted brushtrokes are interesting. The color is a welcome change. It just doesn't feel very "I'm nominated for an Oscar".


Now on to my likes... Anna Kendrick sort of came out of nowhere for me in this year's Oscar race. She looks lovely, though I know many people won't care for such a pale skintone dress on a pale girl. I really like it though. (see last year's commentary on Drew Barrymore's similarly colored gown). Not sure about the shoe choice?


The fabulous Queen Latifah. Girl, I love you. (Not crazy about lavender, which was popular this year, it seems.)


Sandra Bullock looked stunning. The gown is beautiful and a gorgeous shade of platinum too. Wish she had left well enough alone with her face though. People! Lay off the Botox and Rejuvaderm!!


Love Rachel McAdams. Her dress was very pretty too, I enjoy seeing a print on the red carpet!


Mariska Hargitay is the most stunning woman in Hollywood. Or possibly the northern hemisphere.


Ryan Reynolds. Rawr.

(you didn't think I would do a Oscar recap without some man-candy, now did you?)

(pps...Keanu, where are you?)

Off to watch the show!
**UPDATE...OMG! John Hughes tribute!! Sniffles.

interesting bits.

anthro has some really amazing knit things right now. I've been dissecting (in my mind, mwhuahaha) a few of them this morning in the hopes that my scientific research might nudge the actual fruition into overdrive. Or some such.

In love with this over-embellished knit tee:


So let's get on with our dissection. The tee is a basic cut-on cap sleeve tee with a scoop neck. The scoop is then slashed & spread incrementally to add gathers at the front. Basically in this manner:



The pleats at either side of the scoop neckline would be a little tricker. You'd have to slash horizontally and then vertically up (toward the shoulder) in increments, to create enough fabric for the little pleats. It might look something like this:
Of course you'll have to excuse my very rudimentary-not to scale-drawing, but that should give you an idea. (I'm too lazy to sketch it and scan right now!)

Once you get past the structural part, you get to play with the fun part, the embellishment! Here's a closeup shot of 1/2 of the center front baubles and beads:


I don't think those are covered buttons, but just stuffed circles of fabrics (like stuffed "yo-yo's"). Then there are bias tubes stitched haphazardly down. I can't tell about the triangle points, which look like fabric "shark's teeth" but I assume are created more by mitering a strip of the fabric (or even ribbon would work). Beads are laced throughout the entire piece. I feel like the whole thing is then appliqued down to the tee, but of course it could be inserted (so much easier just to topstitch it onto the tee though!)

See? That wasn't so bad, right? Of course that's quite a bit of handwork for a tee that retails for $68. Since I get kind of excited about projects like that, I'd probably make it before I bought it.

Another one that caught my eye was this one:


Fabric roses we can do, that's an easy embellishment. The tee itself is fairly simple too. There are a few patterns out there that already have that CF ruching or gathering around a piece, but using basically the same technique above you could absolutely draft your own from a well-fitting tee pattern.

Just draw out your oval "insert", cut out (of a tracing of course). Then mark your incremental slash marks all around the cut out edges. Slash, spread, tape tissue underneath. That's it. It will be a way-funny looking pattern piece, but you'll feel so accomplished!

On closer zoom, the CF embellishment turns out to be none other than gathers to create a vertical panel of faux "smocking". Although, you heirloomer's out there, we could so totally do actual smocking. OMG. I just got bit by the biggest smocking bug I think. Cool!

Again, I'd just topstitch this into place, then finish the neckline and apply the rolled fabric roses to complete the top. This one retails for $58. I'd rather make this one than pay that. Just think, you could have it in any color you desire!

While we're on the subject of paying for clothing, here's a perfect example of why I sew:


Adorable color, adorable shape, love the graphics, adore the fluttery sleeves. But...check out that wonky hem and listing grainline. I see off grain knits (and wovens too) ALL the time in RTW. But for $60 bucks? You just know that twisting tee is driving that poor mannequin crazy. I know it would be making me nuts.

And that's why I sew.

happy blogiversary!

Today is the first day of my 5th year blogging. Wow. Yesterday was actually my blogiversary, but I forgot to post about it! I can't believe I still have stuff to talk about after all this time. Thank you to everyone who reads and visits my little spot here on the web. It would be a boring place without you!

And...I feel SPRING COMING!!! Woohoo!!

Sorry I haven't photo'd the HP Sunshine top yet, I'll get to that this weekend. Hopefully I'll have two things to show you, because I cut out this pattern this week, the HP Deco Vibe Delicious Dresses:


I don't have a snapshot of the fabric I'm using (well I do but I can't find it on my hard drive. Yikes I have a lot of crap on here!) But, it's the red/coral/pink/black floral featured on the far right dress in this SWAP storyboard I did 2 years ago.


By the way, I love this storyboard. I made about half of these garments, but not the dress. I think that fabric (which obviously has been marinating a while now) will make the Deco Vibes dress extra Delicious. hehe.

Hey peeps, it's...

TGIF!!!

baby things & a sunshine top

I really enjoy sharing my beginning projects with you, and you've been so sweet with comments. Even though I don't currently sew baby garments, I know many of you do. But even more important, you might be able to take a technique I used on one of these garments, and incorporate that into a current project.

Today I'm bringing you two baby/toddler garments that I loved. Lu was a mid-summer baby, so lightweight, cool clothing was a must in her baby/toddler years! Plus, the child just hated clothes. The first is a pink rosebud voile baby romper, made with the Old Fashioned Baby's Summer Clothes pattern.


I added folded release tucks at the shoulder seams and a dainty lace ruffle around the neckline. Three pearl buttons are for decoration only in the center front.


There is beading and lace trim around the leg openings. The crotch closes with buttons and buttonholes because I was still afraid of snaps at this point!


The romper buttons up the back.


This was such a sweet baby garment! I know it seems a little impractical with the crotch buttons, but it actually wasn't. Lu was a year old at this point and I wasn't changing diapers every hour like when she was tiny. I saw a discussion recently where a grandmother was lamenting her daughter-in-law throwing the handmade, lace-adorned dresses and rompers in the washer and dryer. I'd like to point out this romper is 12 years old and was washed & dried in the machine many times. Looks pretty darn good to me!

This next little dress is actually a pink pinafore, made from poly/cotton batiste. This dress features something I was sort of obsessed with figuring out at the time, the "t-yoke" dress. The yoke & center front of the dress form a "T", and then the side portions of the skirt front are gathered to the arms of the "T". It's a very vintage look.


The pattern was a free one in a back issue of Sew Beautiful (my older issues are in storage, so I don't have the issue number handy! Let me know if you want it!)

This little pinafore is just precious. I adore the sweetheart neckline and the t-yoke. I trimmed the neckline and armholes with flat lace edging, and then pin-stitched over the lace header.


I traced the little rabbit applique (it's a needle-turned applique, done by hand) and embroidery design from a great vintage book reprinted at about the time Lu was a baby. It's called "How to Make Handmades for Your Baby". The entire book is adorable. The rabbit is white batiste, and all of the embroidery is done using plain cotton floss.


I mentioned this was a pinafore, although it definitely passes for a sundress or suntop! But here's the back, where you can really see how cute this design is. The back closes with 4 buttons, and the back skirt is circular, creating a cute little flair.


Underneath is a plain white batiste slip. Lu wore this slip under most of her high yoke baby dresses. She had 3 or 4 of these because they are so easy to make. I traced the armhole and neckline from a bodice pattern, then scooped each out just a bit more. I turned under the seam allowances and did a shell hem for a seam finish. The bottom of the slip is finished with a lace-trimmed ruffle.


Baby clothes are so much fun to make. I wish I had saved everything of Lu's, I'd probably be sharing it for months if I did! I hope some of the techniques or patterns you see from my stash might inspire you in a future project.

Speaking of my Lu, she had a band concert tonight. Can you believe this beautiful girl once wore those tiny baby dresses? Amazing.


This weekend turned into a Hotpatterns weekend of sorts! I not only made the Once, Twice, Three Times a T-Shirt, I also made a HP Sunshine Top. Here's a sneak peek:


You'll have to wait for some daylight so I can snap a picture of it on moi! I love love love this tee. I need about a dozen, immediately. If you don't have this pattern you most definitely need it!