Creative Dressmaking At Home

I have an existing dress that I decided to wear for a special event. The dress was sleeveless and the weather was cold. So I made a lace shrug to wear with it. Can you go wrong with Navy Blue?

My navy sleeveless dress that I made over a year ago has a lace overlay on the yoke. I still had the lace remnant. I considered just cutting sleeves from the lace to sew on the dress, but the dress is very versatile the way that it is. I have even been wearing it as a jumper in the winter. 

I looked through my patterns for a shrug pattern, but all of them were like short jackets (I think of a shrug as mostly sleeves that are somehow attached together). But then I thought, what if I made the shrug and just wore it underneath the dress for a just "sleeves" effect. That is exactly what I did. This worked very well.

The pattern I used said shrug, so that is why I am calling it a shrug and not a jacket.

I used french seams to construct most of the garment. Where I could not use a french seam, I used a narrow zig zag stitch to finish the seams. 

And I used my favorite sheer fabric hem to finish the jacket.

The shrug sewed up quickly and gave me two new looks for an already versatile dress. I felt very classic wearing navy and lace, even though I had planned on wearing something else at first.

There is already another lace project in the works.

My Teal Top Stitched Blouse that I posted last September is being featured in the June/July issue of Threads Magazine in the Reader's Closet feature. I was very excited when I was contacted by the editors about using my blouse in their magazine. It is a good feeling to have your work recognized in some way.

I had to send the blouse to them for the photo shoot. I was apprehensive about sending it to them because I knew all the little imperfections in it. I even did a little more work on the sleeves before I sent it. When I saw the photos in the magazine though, I was very happy with how it turned out.

I do like how the gold metallic thread top stitching came out. I should use this technique on something else now! 

I am moving slowly on my Little White Dress.

The lining is finally cut out. I went with a thin white plaid jacquard fabric. All the darts and pleats have been marked and sewed.

This is the fourth time around that I am using the bodice of this pattern (Simplicity #3774). And would you believe I had to rip out these pleats again. I always get confused with this pattern. I read the instruction sheet several times before I sew them, and then still have to take them out and resew the first few pleats. But once the pleats are right, the dress is beautiful, and that is why I keep sewing it. 

This is my last version of this dress.

This time I even marked one set of pleats on the front of the fabric. I had used a regular pencil to mark them, and was able to use a white artists eraser to rub the marks out. Now, I need to press all my pleats and darts before I do any more stitching. 

I cut out a versatile white dress that can be dressed up or dressed down, much like a little black dress, or at least that is how I hope to use the garment. 

The pattern I used is Simplicity #3774. I used the sleeveless mock wrap bodice from view C, and the straight skirt with a few soft pleats from view D. 

The fabric is some kind of textured woven cotton blend, or at least I think so. It has a soft hand with some body and it feels like to would be comfortable in the hot weather. The color is white, but still warm, not the cool bright white. 

There was enough fabric to self line the bodice and yoke, but I still need to cut out a lining for the skirt (I am not wearing an unlined white dress). I have a few choices here. One is slightly gray, I used it to line my white suit. The other is white but kind of thin. I might have to buy something, we will see. 

I have three dresses made from this pattern. Two with the fuller skirt, one with the straight skirt. I really like the bodice pleats in the wrap styling. 

Because I have already used the pattern, it was already altered. Yea! Now I just have to start sewing. 

To read an update on this dress click here.

With a long flowing skirt, in two layers of sheer pastel blue fabric, with floating sleeves and a lace trimmed bodice, this dress is soft, feminine and romantic. 

I've had the idea for this dress in my head for several years. I wanted to use one of my favorite dress patterns, Simplicity #5591, and put this lace criss-cross over the seams of the bodice. 

Why am I finally getting around to making it now? Two factors, I now have a dress form (DIY) and I received an invitation to an afternoon Spring wedding. 

I've had my dress form for almost a year now. Although it has come in quite handy, this is the first project I felt she was indispensable for. After partially sewing the dress together, I put it on the dress form so I could pin the lace to the dress. I pinned in small pleats to conform to the curves. Then, I hand basted the lace.

I made samples to audition different thread colors to apply the lace. I went with blue. I used my machine's satin stitch to permanently attach the lace. This took a while with two scalloped edges running down the length of the lace. Around the neck line, I cut away the fabric right up to the lace. 

Then, my pleats had to be sewn down by hand. 

Other techniques that I used on this dress include, French Seams and Easy Sheer Hem. By the way, the floating sleeves are actually from a blouse pattern, New Look #6808. 

The bodice and skirt are self-lined. I thought that if I made the under skirt and inch or so longer than the over skirt, it would contribute to the flowing look of the dress. 

This dress was a little labor intensive and took a lot of time to plan out. Even though it is not perfect, the inside is "ugly", and there are little puckers here and there, it was worth it to see this project finally come to life. 

I did complete the dress with time to spare. Disappointingly, a few days before the wedding it became apparent that the weather was turning very cold and wet, possibly snow and sleet. I had to wear, or should I say sew, something else; more about that later. 

What do you wear with a bright green dress? Recently, I wanted to wear my apple green dress for the first time. I always planned on wearing my white jacket and belt with it, but it was still cool outside and I wanted to wear something warmer. I tried on every jacket and cardigan I have to see what, if anything, would combine with such a bright green dress. Surprisingly, a lot of things worked. I did not expect that because I don't often wear bright colors. When I thought about why each successful combination worked, I found the answers in the color wheel. 

This color wheel is crude. It's just a bunch of spools of thread that I have, but it will work for this demonstration. A basic color wheel has six colors. Three primary colors; red, yellow and blue. From these three colors all other colors are made, including the next three colors on our wheel called secondary colors: green, orange and purple. We could keep mixing colors almost indefinitely, but we will stop at twelve. 

Now let us look at the combinations.

1. Monochromatic - Different shades of the same color. This is one of my favorite color combinations. It tends to be more subtle. 

2. Analogous - This scheme uses colors next to each other on the wheel. Another one of my favorites, it also tends to be subtle and harmonious. 

3. Complimentary - If you want your colors to look their most vivid, use complimentary colors. These colors are found directly opposite each other on the color wheel. 

This was good, but what if you wanted more color? 

4. Split Complimentary - This is our first color (our green dress) plus the colors on each side of it's complimentary color. Here, I am using the complimentary color too (this probably does have a name). 

5. Triad - This is three colors that are spaced evenly apart on the color wheel. 

This leaves us with neutrals. Neutrals technically do not appear on the color wheel.

6. Neutrals - This first neutral is a tan, cream and gray animal print cardigan. I like the harmonious look of this particular combination. 

If you want more contrast, do a dark neutral (navy jacket) with this "light" dress.

This was fun! Check out what you have hiding in your closet that can be combined in new ways.

Oh! What did I end up wearing? I wore the neutral animal print sweater. I know what my friends are saying right now, "predictable".