12 in 2012 Archives

Lucinda July 13, 2012

Vacation Sewing

I’m so excited for vacation next week – I’m going back to PA to visit my family for the week and I get to use my mom’s fabulous sewing room. It’s a sewing sabbatical all week! I’m gathering up my favorite tools and supplies to pack in my bag, but here’s a peek at what I’m aspiring to stitch up next week.

While in NYC for a work trip this week, I scored some beautiful fabric that would be perfect for a wedding I’m attending early next month. It’s a turquoise fabric with a fuchsia hibiscus print and itscreams for some kind of retro summer sundress pattern like this McCall’s pattern in my stash. I made this a looooong time ago and it was pretty simple to make, so all I need to do this time around is alter how the pattern fits. You can see my original dress from this pattern that I wore during Me-Made May here.

I also have a striped cotton that would be perfect for this empire waist sundress, a Fashion Star pattern from McCall’s. I may not get around to sewing the actual dress until I get back, but I wanted to utilize my mom’s cutting table so that I can easily get the stripes to line up properly when cutting out the pattern pieces. I’m not so good with striped fabric!

This year will be the year that I tackle pants. I made a pair earlier this year, just a pair of elastic waist wide leg pants, but that doesn’t really count as making “real” pants in my book. Neither does this drawstring waist pattern, but I thought the pattern would be good for shorts out of the leftover fabric from my failed Vogue DKNY dress. This would also get “shorts” checked off of my 12 in 2012 list. Minus the patch pockets, please.

Speaking of 12 in 2012, I also want to make a half-circle skirt like this Simplicity 4236 pattern. I bought a black and white floral batiste earlier this year for a button-down blouse, but thought that if I lined it with white cotton, it would make a really fun skirt instead (it’s a drag having to worry about a see-through skirt).

If I don’t get everything made, which I expect I won’t, it would be nice at least to get everything cut and prepped so that when I return to Boston, it would be easy to grab the fabric pieces for a project and just sit down and start sewing. Add on top of all the craziness at work that I’m moving in about three weeks and that definitely leaves little time for sewing between packing and work. This vacation will definitely give me the time I need to start wrapping up my summer sewing.

And then it’s on to fall…I’ve already started gathering fabric!

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Lucinda May 29, 2012

McCall 6559 – Swirly Ruffled Sundress

Pattern: McCall 6559, altered
Fabric: rayon poly jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics
Size: 8-10?

Wedges: Born Concept
Sunnies: Rayban

This dress originally started out as a maxi dress, but now, as you can tell, it looks nothing like the dress on the pattern envelope. Why? Call it a happy accident: I cut out the dress thinking it would fit me just fine (I mean come on, it’s a simple knit tank dress) and when I finally tried it on, the neckline was indecently too low. Like, my-bra-peeking-out-can’t-cover-it-up too low.

Hmm. What to do.

That’s when I got the brainstorm for this cute little ruffled number! You could use any simple maxi dress pattern, but here’s how I altered mine:

1 – After I sewed the side seams (and took them in quite a bit…the 10, which is usually what I cut, wasn’t as tight as I liked it), I chopped off the top of the dress right underneath the armholes. This gave me a long, tubular dress shape.

2 – Then, I cut about 5″ off of bottom of the dress and set that fabric aside for the bust ruffle. Since there was going to be a lot of skin showing up top, I opted to make the hem a modest knee length.

3 – Taking the reserved bottom of the dress I just cut off, I turned a narrow hem at the widest end (the bottom) and ran gathering stitches around the top (narrower than the bottom). With the wrong side of the ruffle facing the right side of the dress, I then eased the gathers of the ruffle around the top of the dress and stitched it in place using a 5/8″ seam.

4 – I turned the raw edges of the top of the dress to the inside and stitched a 1/2″ wide elastic casing. I cut the elastic snugly and threaded it into the casing and stitched the casing shut. Also, stitching in the ditch is your best friend when it comes to elastic!

5 – I made long, narrow tubes of fabric for the halter straps and attached them to the front of the dress where I thought they looked best.

It’s as easy as that! I’m really happy with how this dress turned out – it could have been a disaster if I hadn’t come up with a solution to my poorly fitting maxi dress, and a waste of such nice fabric.

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Lucinda April 8, 2012

12 in 2012 – A Sewing Challenge

So I may be a little late to the game (like three months late), but I’m jumping on-board and participating in Suzie’s 12 in 2012 Sewing Challenge. I think this is a great way to expand sewing skills and push boundaries and not stick to sewing projects that are easy and safe. How else are you supposed to grow in sewing?

So above are the 12 projects that I picked and plan to tackle and accomplish before December 31, 2012. Most of them are a little scary to me, like making pants (so hard to fit!), a strapless dress (ack boning!), and swimsuit (ummm…pretty obvious why that’s scary!). But if it wasn’t for this challenge, I don’t think I would have thought to make a list of projects that could take my sewing to the next level. Now it’s just a matter of finding the time to sit down and make them!

If you’d like to try out your own 12 in 2012, click on over to Suzie’s blog and learn more: