As a follow-up to my last post, which may have left some of you wondering...While not my original intention to sew a colonial style dress, I came across Hollywood Pattern 1205 (1930's or 40's) near the end of September and knew it would be this year's costume and I am exceptionally pleased with how it turned out.
I really loved making this dress and felt very elegant in it! The panniers (the piece from the last post being one of them) are probably one of my favorite parts of this dress just because they're so far from what I normally sew.
Construction-wise, it was a pretty straightforward pattern to work with. The side opening was interesting as I'm not used to having an overlap between the front bodice piece and the back skirt piece and I'm still not entirely sure I interpreted the instructions correctly, but as the skirt stayed on I'm not going to question it. In relation to that, I also ran out of the right size snaps. As a result, my waist band ended up with only two snaps instead of three and the pannier which clearly couldn't be sewn on at the front if I ever hoped to get the dress on or off ended up with just one instead of two or three, leaving me with none for the bodice. Given that I was still sewing them on at around 10 at night on the 30th, I was more than happy to resort to safety pins the next morning for the bodice seam and to keep the scarf/collar in place with the belt piece happily covering them from view.
Overall, despite the issues with the snaps, which I'll be fixing as soon, I would consider this a very successful project! ♥️
Started a new project yesterday, which contains probably the most exciting shaped pieces I've ever worked with. Now to figure out how to get them pleated properly!
And, for those wondering, yes, I'm still planning to share Peter Pan skirt photos! Just waiting for a slightly warmer day to wear it! ♥️
A few weeks ago I was browsing on Etsy and was delighted to come across an almost a complete set of Dolly Toy Co. pressed cardboard Fairytale Pin-ups for Disney's Alice in Wonderland. Needless to say, I bought them right away and now they're living on my one of my walls! While I doubt I'll be able to track down the missing story placard that goes with them, I did manage to find a picture of one, so I think I might just print that out on card stock and place it next to the lantern.
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Long run of mostly book review posts to finally be interrupted by a sewing related post!
Way back in January, I started making a coat, a project that has dragged out considerably based on numerous factors ranging from everything to time constraints, eye strain, weather (really don't want to sit with a full coat on my lap to hand-stitching when it's hot), and most importantly lack of the right colored thread.
Initially I thought I might have just enough purple thread to get through the project and managed to make it all the way to getting one side of the bias tape sewn to the hem before I was down to the last bit, which wouldn't have been a big deal if I didn't have more top stitching to do on the belt along with a few other minor details.
Easy enough to remedy, so I thought, requiring just a quick stop by my favorite tiny fabric store on my way home from work. The thread shelf, however, went directly from the thread number preceding my thread to the one following it making me wonder if the thread was no longer available as I hadn't found it online either. Feeling rather disappointed, I decided to browse while I was there and bought this fabric!
Once again, being in no hurry to work on this coat because even if I finished it it'd be too warm to wear it, I waited about a month and then tried Hobby Lobby, which is where I originally bought the thread. It's been a really long time since I've been there and they switched to their own brand of thread, so I bought two that I thought looked close to what I had (stupidly, I took the original spool out of my purse that morning and didn't put it back) and that really weren't. Also, since I was there, I bought some lace that I'm going to use to replace some sleeves on a shirt.
Finally, a few weeks later I tried Joann Fabrics. They had it! And they had a flamingo print fabric, so, of course, I bought some of that too as one can never have too much flamingo fabric!
So, overall, I ended up with about six yards of new fabric and some lace in my quest for thread. Have I done anything with the coat? No, but I did start making a new skirt. I've used sea foam green thread for the top stitching, though, so for now I just get to happily stare at my new spool of 'light vintage purple' thread and know that it's available for future use!
Stay tuned in coming weeks for an outfit post of my almost finished skirt!
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