One of the things I love about sewing is that with some fabric and some work…

I end up with something that is original and can’t be bought in a store anywhere.

This is the dress I wore to the wedding last weekend. I was originally thinking about some Amy Butler fabric, lotus tree peony in lime. But I ended up with some Michael Miller because I had a coupon for the fabric store. It’s mirror ball dots in bamboo color. It looks fancier than a regular cotton because the dots are metallic shiny.

And I just have to show the shoes that I started out with. I’m not into shoes. Alan would tell you differently but he’s a guy with what…2 pairs of shoes?? I don’t know any designer labels. In fact I usually get my shoes from Target. But I had to show them because I think they work perfectly with this 50s style dress. Did shoes from the 50’s even look like this? I don’t know. But that’s how I imagine they would look.

And going along with the 50s vibe I insisted on wearing a petticoat with it. Even though Olinda liked how it looked without. And even though Alan said it was too fluffy, which oh my gawd it was. Sitting in the pew at the church I felt like a big marshmallow taking up too much space. But I liked it. I felt like I was playing dress up.

Looking at the pictures I wonder if I chose the wrong size to make? Fitting is something I’m learning more about as I sew more. See the bunching in the front under the crisscross ties? I don’t think that’s right. But no biggie. I mean I didn’t even notice until right now.

Now onto some sewing talk. And oh boy there’s going to be a lot of it.

I did run into some snags while making it. The biggest one was not related to the directions or anything like that. It was more along the lines of I’m a klutz.

I knocked over my hot iron for a second. It didn’t land on any tender body parts. No, nothing like that. And it didn’t even fall off of anything. It just fell over onto the sole plate. What’s wrong with that you say? Well at the time, I had strategically placed it on my computer chair so I’d have more room on my ironing board. And for that one second of contact with the hot metal it melted black fuzzy material onto the iron.

I didn’t notice until I went to iron my dress and black gunk got onto the dress. Huh…maybe that’s why it’s a good idea to use a press cloth. Luckily for me I was ironing on the inside so it doesn’t show. But then my flow of sewing got totally interrupted while I tried to clean off my iron!

The other snags were pattern related. Just small things. Like when I decided to topstitch the top piece to the lining. Nowhere in the directions does it actually say to do that. But the drawings look like they’re topstitched so I decided to do it. But I only did it in the neckline area. I got that far and then decided it wasn’t supposed to be topstitched so didn’t do the armholes. It’s not really noticeable and it doesn’t look bad or anything but I just don’t know what I was supposed to do there.

*Update - Rachel left a comment below with a tutorial on understitching. It’s exactly what needed to be done here.*

Another snag came with the ties. They didn’t seem long enough to tie a bow with, just a knot. So I decided to lengthen them. Also in the directions they aren’t backed or faced with anything, it’s just hemmed. I thought I’d like to finish it with a backing in the same fabric. But you can see that didn’t happen:

Lengthening the tie and backing it was a bad idea for me because my fabric seemed to have shrunk like mad in the wash. Maybe because I washed the hell out it? The original piece with the tie on it wouldn’t even fit on the fabric. I needed every inch of the 45 inches and with the shrinkage it just wasn’t there.

So I decided to cut about ten inches off of the tie and get the rest of the length plus extra on a different piece of the fabric. But there was no different piece of the fabric. There wasn’t enough, though I had bought extra fabric. There wasn’t even enough to back it. So I couldn’t even extend it without having the seam show. So my ties actually ended up even shorter!

And then I ended up short on fabric for the last skirt panel. I ended up with a divot about 2 inches into the hem line. Luckily I’m not tall so that came off with no problem. See, that’s why it’s a good idea to lay out all your pieces before cutting. I would have seen immediately with my changes that I was short on fabric.

The last snag was the directions for the hem. I found them confusing. I ended up doing it my way because the directions were like…WHAT?? See:

Try on dress. Mark hem. Trim lower edge to within 5/8″ of marking.

To hem lower edge, stitch 1/2″ from raw edge.

Turn in and press edge alongside stitching. Trim very close to stitching.

Turn in again along trimmed edge. Stitch in place.

What? Doesn’t that leave just 1/8″ to sew up the hem to where you marked it?? That’s teensy.

Well at least two things worked out exactly as I imagined.

One of them being the zipper. All my regular zippers look wonky. I haven’t gotten the knack of putting one in neatly. It’s the zipper pull that throws me off. I didn’t want to ruin the dress with one of my ugly zippers so instead I put in an invisible zipper. I used this tutorial and it came out great. And I like that it looks cleaner, no stitch lines.

The other thing, an even hem. You know, one that accommodates the butt!! I never realized that skirts and dresses should have a hem that’s level with the floor. In fact some of my favorite store bought skirts are longer in front and shorter in back just because of the butt. Not like I have a crazy big butt or anything. I have a normal average size butt. I think it’s the skirts. So I’m so happy this dress has an even hem, not short from behind because of the behind.

Wow! Did you make it all the way to the end? Ok how about a sewing related drawing.

Yes, I drove Alan crazy trying to hem the dress. He was throwing numbers at me that were going over my head. I knew exactly what I wanted: the hem even all the way around from the floor up. But I made it more difficult because I didn’t want the petticoat showing. And he was trying to explain how come it wouldn’t work. Even now I cannot explain to you what he was trying to tell me, just to say I didn’t have enough fabric somewhere. I don’t know. I still don’t get it.

Ok now I’m done with all the sewing talk. Just one more thing about this dress. Would I make it again? I don’t know. It is lovely but it’s not a simple throw on dress. There’s snaps and hooks, a zipper, and a tie. Too complicated for me. I like to wear things that don’t feel like I’m being strapped into them. It was perfect for a wedding but it’s not really an everyday kind of dress for me.

Project details
Pattern: Butterick B4919
Fabric: Cotton - Michael Miller, Mirror Ball Dot, bamboo color
Size: 20

Alan’s sister is getting married this weekend and I’m trying to sew myself a dress. I also want to learn how to use my new speedlight but it’s all just too much right now. So instead I’m taking a break and writing about all sorts of things.

So let me start with sharing how spoiled Isabelle is. Or also known as: how I give in because I’m a sucker. I NEED TO STOP! I mentioned a birthday party last week. It was for two of Isabelle’s cousins. Well for one of them we got a Dora doll and a Dora play cell phone. Alan left all the toys in the car so Isabelle wouldn’t see them and want to open them.

Well then I had to move the car and Isabelle saw them and…

Boo me! Good thing she didn’t see the helicopter toy.

So then I had the bright idea of making the birthday girl a dress instead.

But instead of using a pattern I’ve made before and know, I went with something new. It’s an Ottobre Design, Spring 1/2008. It’s the first time trying them. I think we measured Isabelle and she was around 95cm tall. Isabelle’s cousin is a little taller so I went with the 104cm.

But somehow it seems too short even for Isabelle. Wonder if I did something wrong. It’s almost like a shirt, a long shirt. And I did something weird with the zipper. And the fabric. What was I thinking? It was from my stash. It was probably on sale. That’s what I was thinking when I bought it. But the print seems a little young, babyish. So Isabelle ended up wearing it to the party instead. And you can tell it’s too large for her in the shoulder area.

Ok, party talk. Have I told you how much Isabelle likes parties? On the drive over she was doing this little dance, or more like a shoulder only dance, while sitting in the car seat saying, “party! party! party!”

But when we got there she was all shy, clingy, and hiding. She was hiding so much it was like she was trying to burrow into me. It took her a while to warm up. She wouldn’t even go through the play structure things by herself. I ended up crawling through with her.

At first I was scared to. There was a sign that said this high and under. I crept in worrying about how much weight the play structure could handle. But it was fine. There were other parents crawling around in there. And if there was a weight limit I’m sure it would have been listed somewhere. Or more likely, everywhere. I was just being paranoid. Alan said the sign was probably for the tinier play structure.

And I’m so glad I went in, because I really wanted to play! It was so much fun! They had three stories in the play structure and tunnels and slides. I went up to the tip top with Isabelle OVER and OVER to slide down the big fast slide that went round and round. Then there was this bumpy slide where you actually get air when you’re sliding down. We only did that once though because Isabelle wasn’t expecting it and bumped her head.

I really wanted to try the ball pit. I didn’t. Being paranoid again. And not paranoid like Alan: thinking there’s poo in there. He’d keep pointing to dark spots on the balls asking me what they were.

But Isabelle went in.

It was so tall she could barely get out by herself.

Isabelle had so much fun. She didn’t even object too much to the sock requirement.

But no the fun didn’t end there. She got to try a few swings at miniature golf.

And then we went back to their house where Isabelle played for hours. So it’s no surprise that she’s been asking for her cousin Jenna everyday since the party.

“Denna? Where’s Denna?”

Ok. Let me stop typing and get back to my dress.

I’ve finished my, how to sew from Japanese craft books, series on label-free. And here is the dress:

The only thing I’m not sure about is the belt. You can barely see it because of the pattern on the fabric but I widened it from 2″ to 4″.

Project Notes
Pattern: dress 7 from Japanese craft book ISBN-10: 4579111494 (ISBN-13: 978-4579111497)
Fabric: 100% cotton
Size: enlarged a size 13

This post is showing the details of the tricky steps for my Label-Free post.

1. Sew the gathered front pieces to the yokes. This step has detailed drawings:

I gather my two front pieces by sewing two stitch lines then pulling the threads to gather it. If I didn’t know the characters for gather, ギャザ, I would still know to gather because of the drawing of the two stitch lines.

I then sew the fronts to the yokes, right sides together. In the drawing, it says wrong side, 裏. You don’t need the translations though because the seams are showing. I finish the seam and iron it towards the shoulder. Then I top stitch the seam allowances at .2cm away. ステッチ means stitch. If you’re wondering about the crossed out areas, that’s for my reference where I’ve changed the seam allowances on my dress.

2. Sew the front to the back pieces at the shoulder. Sewing right sides together and finish the seams.

3. Sew the side seams. Sew right sides together. Finish the seams.

4. Fold up and sew the hem. I’ve circled the number 2 at the hem on the drawing. That tells me I need to fold the hem 2cm and then again 2cm. I then top stitch that down.

5. Fold and sew the front edges of the dress. That’s folded up at 1.5cm twice. I’ve circled the 1.5 on the drawing. I top stitch that down.

6. Sew the facings on the back and front pieces. This step has detailed drawings:

I sew my facing pieces right sides together. The part with the fusible interfacing is shown in the drawing. I then sew the facings to the dress. It curves around from the front pieces to the back piece. I then clip the curves and trim the seam down to .5 cm. Then I turn the facings to the inside of my fabric and edge stitch the facing down at .2cm.

7. Make 2 button loops. Detailed drawings:

I need to cut a piece sized 2cm by 10cm on the bias. I fold that in half and sew at .3cm - .4cm. I cut away the excess leaving a seam allowance of .2cm. And I finish by turning it inside out.

8. Sew the waistband area. Detailed drawings:

Sew the button loop onto the right side of the bias fabric, バイアス布, 1cm in. Fold the outside edges in.

Cut out a piece of elastic. The sizes 80/85/90/95 correspond to the sizes 7,9 11, and 13. Sew the bias fabric to wrong side of dress leaving ends open. Thread elastic inside the bias fabric and then sew down the ends of elastic and the bias fabric.

9. Sew the cuffs and sleeves. Detailed drawings:

Fold one edge of the cuff up 1cm, wrong sides facing. Then fold it up again in the opposite direction right sides facing. Sew down the ends at 1 cm. I think I found this drawing the most difficult to understand. I ended up doing it my way. I figured out what the drawings meant while writing these directions!

Next, sew the sleeve, right sides together, up to the mark on the pattern. For the rest of the sleeve fold the seam allowance twice by .7cm and then stitch that down. Finish the unfolded seam allowance for the sleeve.

Then flip the sewed part of the cuff inside out. Sew the unfolded edge of the cuff to the sleeve. Fold the cuff enclosing all the raw edges and stitch all layers at .1cm away from the edge.

10. Sew the sleeves into the armholes. Right sides together and finish the seams.

11. Sew the belt. Detailed drawing:

The 206/210/216/220 correspond to the sizes 7,9 11, and 13. Sew using 1cm seam allowance leaving an opening 3cm large. Turn inside out.

12. Sew the buttonholes and the buttons in the cuffs and make the belt loops. At this point I also sewed the buttons for the button loops at the waist.

And ta da! I’m done! Do a happy dance!

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I last posted. The time just got away from me. The last few days I’ve been working on that dress. I’ve been sewing so much that I’m actually sick of looking at my sewing machine. I didn’t think such a thing was possible!

And before that I was distracted hand sewing this little sea turtle as a surprise for Olinda’s birthday.

I was working on him Friday night in the closet. Isabelle was sleeping and not sleeping very well. So I sat in there, close by, in the closet where there was light. Sewing away while Isabelle woke up too many times looking for me. I’d get up, get her back to sleep, and then sew some more. I had to finish him that night because on Saturday we went out to see Olinda. We met her at the Aloha festival in San Francisco where Isabelle got a little bird.

It’s not a real bird. It’s fake and it sings and moves and I’m such a sucker. I just wanted to show it to Isabelle but she liked it so much I got it for her. She has more than enough toys and I knew she wouldn’t play with it for long but I still bought it because…I AM a sucker.

And of course she’s not playing with it anymore. She played with it that whole first day, constantly asking where it was but by the next day she was done. It sings REALLY loud and Isabelle says, “no noise! Quiet bird!!” and wants me to turn it off.

Oh wait. What was I talking about? Oh yes, the sea turtle. At the festival they had a whole bunch of sea turtle toys. They made my sea turtle look all misshapen and mutated. I should have made his front arms bigger and his shell rounder and his head not so big and and and…oh well. I should have made a test one before Friday night. Then I would have had time to work all that out.

Even though he’s a little mutant, Olinda seems to like him and Isabelle does too. She’s been asking me, “where’s turtle? Make turtle? Winda giva me my turtle? Winda giva me birthday?” So I guess my little miss will be getting a turtle…because I’m a sucker. But I think I’ll machine sew a turtle for Isabelle. Probably a lot faster than hand stitching the entire thing again. How long do you think she’ll play with it?

I’ve been scarce around the internet, reading and writing.

On Thursday night my friend, Olinda, noticed my website was down. It happens sometimes. It’s the second time, that I know of, this year. It happened a handful of times last year. And a handful of times before that. It’s sort of frustrating. So I changed web hosts. Everything moved over without a glitch (I think).

Then on the weekends we’re usually out and about so posting is rare.

But the big monkey wrench in posting came when I was reading Mary at Confessions of a Craft Addict. She was saying her site had issues on Internet Explorer. So I opened up IE to take a look. And then being curious, I checked my site. CRAP. I knew my site wasn’t “up to code”. I just never fixed it before . But for some reason, now, I was determined to get it right. So that’s what I’ve been doing for days. DAYS! I’ve been looking at code so much, my head hurts. But I was determined to have it fixed. I couldn’t stop. Not even for a silly old thing like my head exploding.

But now it’s all fixed and it even validates! Well everything except the galleries. But I’ll fix that some other time.

So what’s that have to do with the picture of the shirt? That shirt is a prime example of how stubborn I can get when I’m determined to do something.

It was supposed to be a gift for my nephew. I bought organic fabric specifically for him. And I bought fabric paint. I had grand ideas for trying out freezer paper stenciling. But right away I knew I was on the wrong track and I should have stopped. But I didn’t, even with the obstacles in my way, I just barreled on through.

First of all the fabric is too stiff. I should have used a knit because the pattern is basically a t-shirt, except for where the snaps at the shoulder should be. But knowing this, I didn’t stop. I just kept going along.

And then I noticed I cut two fronts out instead of a front and a back. But…I kept going.

Then I thought the size seemed awfully small. But march, march, march. Must not stop now. I just figured, it was all screwed up, so why not just see how it comes out.

But I stopped at the snaps. I didn’t want to waste snaps on a hopeless shirt.

I then washed it a couple of times hoping that would soften it up and I don’t know…magically make the front piece into a back piece? I don’t know what I was thinking.

Project Notes
Pattern: shirt 5 from Japanese craft book ISBN 4418051244
Fabric: stiff as a board organic cotton
Size: 100cm

Oh and let me end with a random video of Isabelle because I know Olinda is missing Isabelle.

The video is from a couple of weekends ago. My friend, Lorraine, came down from Oregon and we went out to dinner. A whole bunch of us girls and Alan. There was live music and Isabelle was dancing and clapping. I couldn’t get any of the clapping on video but I did get a little dancing.

Which reminds me. I want to get a small teeny camera that does video as well (for when I always forget my big heavy camera). I’ve been looking at some super inexpensive ones that are 6 and 7 MP. Does anyone have any experience on how good the quality of the video looks like on those things?

On the weekend, when I was trying to start the reverse appliqué skirt for myself, Isabelle said, “Mama, make dinosaur!”

And I said, “Ok” and hurriedly made one.

Then Alan said, “why does it look like he’s squatting to take a poop?”

“I don’t know! But did you know I didn’t stuff his neck completely? How the hell did I manage that?!”

That’s what happens with hurried sewing.

Everyone enjoy your weekend. We’re waking up early to watch a parade! Eeerr…or I should say attempting to wake up early.

Project Notes
Pattern: Brontosaurus from Toys to Sew
Fabric: Calls for felt but I used fleece