Knock-Off Dolce and Gabana Dress

It is down to the wire for me this morning. I need to sew up the lining and get this dress entry submitted to Pattern Review.com.'s Knock- Off contest.

The dress I am sewing was worn by Jennifer Aniston last fall, and featured in People magazine. I originally thought I might do this dress in a black multi colored tweed. However, I decided to make it in a cheaper fabric first. I always sew things up better the second time around. Plus, this is my pattern. I drafted it and I need to work out the kinks before I use the good stuff!

The dress actually has sewn up fairly easily. I did use a lot of couture hand stitching techniques. After making my muslin, and cutting the fashion fabric, I thread traced the interlining. I couldn't use the wax paper though. It did not leave any marks on the silk organza. I purchased some silk taffeta yesterday for the lining.

I have the dress ready to go for the lining. It should take too long to do.

Simplicity Project Runway Jacket 3538

It has been a while since I've posted anything. It doesn't mean I haven't been sewing though! It is almost near the end of the school year and I'm feeling like I can breath again. Teaching, being a parent , and a wife is very time consuming.

This jacket is very easy to make. It took me nearly a year because I had too many interruptions-other sewing projects and life in general got in the way.

I lined this jacket with red silk which turned out very nice. I also had some vintage rose buttons for the finishing touch. I suggest when you use a multiple style pattern to highlight the steps of the directions that pertain to the jacket style you choose to sew up! I started following the wrong steps to another style. I guess that is how you learn from your mistakes!

The directions were straight forward-other than my little mishap. The only things that I suggest is that you check the circumference of the sleeves. I like my jacket arms a little looser than the way it is cut from the pattern. You may have to adjust the armsycle if you adjust the circumference of the sleeves. That is what happens when you don't check the pattern's measurements before you cut.

I used a pretty red wool fabric that has been sitting in a Tupperware container for way too long. I have enough fabric to make another jacket or maybe some pants to go with it. Wearing all red may make me look like a big, red tomato though.

Am I going to make this jacket again? Yep. I already have my fabric cut out. I'm making the short sleeve version with silverish linen for summer. I need a little cover up for those spaghetti strap dresses and breezy evenings. Happy sewing again:)-

New Look Pants 6510

These pants are great. They aren't fancy or complicated to make. I have made this pattern several times over the last few years. I highly reccomend this pattern to beginners and any other sewing level. Because they are so basic, I have been able to tweak this pattern to my tastes.

I did make a few changes to this pattern for the better, I think. The waist band or facing leaves a line if you follow the original directions. Therefore, I illiminated the facings and interfacings and replaced them with wide gross grain tape. This method for making a waist is so much easier and looks better by laying flat against your body with no lines showing underneath that a facing may leave.

I also chose to line these pants. I highly recommend lining dress pants. They look better and smooth out any lines, bulges, or anything else you wear under your garment. Lining is fairly easy. I just cut the lining from the same pants pattern. I may have taken in the lining by an 1/8th of an inch while seaming. Not too much though. Then after sewing up the pants and the lining, I secured the lining at the waist with a single stitch seam before I attached both pieces(pants fabric and lining) to the gross grain tape. The wrong sides of the pants and lining are together before you seam and add the grossgrain tape. I secured the grossgrain tape to the top outside of the pants and then folded it to the inside. Make the tape about a half inch longer than the finised pant waist so that you can fold in the edges after securing it to the waist. Iron as you go because this creates a professional finished look. Most sewers probably know this-ironing is essential to sewing a garment and it is almost never mentioned in the pattern directions.

I hand sew the hems of both the lining and the pants. I left them hanging freely. Sometimes you need to attach the lining to the gament. I did not with these pants. At the waist, I used a hook to hide the lapped, side zipper.

I did cut the smallest pattern size and shorten the pants in the seat, the lenghth, and width to fit my measurements. These are high waisted pants so keep that in mind. The tie at the waist is unsusual. I get many compliments when I wear these pants. I am wearing these pants with a top I made from a Simplicty pattern last summer.

Simplicity top 4020

This is an easy top to make in a couple of hours. My serger was misbehaving though. I am still figuring out the tension and other adjustments on it. I changed thread which shouldn't be that big of a deal, but the thread kept breaking and then I kept getting loops in the stitches. GRRRRRRRRrrrrr. I finally figured it out.

This is a good pattern for a beginner. It is also good for anyone else who wants to make a quick, cute top. I bought a top at Anthroplogy several weeks ago on sale-same type of fabric-it was $40.00. My top cost my $16.00 plus my time.

The only changes I made was to the length on the bottom part of the top. Since the styles are a little longer these days, I added five inches to the front and back pieces. I made this same shirt several years ago in a palm tree print and didn't like how it was so short. Look for unique prints to use with this pattern. I enjoyed figuring out where I was going to place most of the flowers and keep the back looking like stems. You may need to purchase extra fabric if you are going to emphasize certain parts of the fabric.

The backside of VogueElements

VogueElements 9570

These pants are very comfortable and great for yoga,teaching, and relaxing.

Simplicity jacket 4698 E

This jacket was easy to construct. The only obstacle was trying to get the plaids to match. The plaids were uneven. I haven't done a jacket in a while and chose to use a fairly cheap synthetic piece of fabric that was less than 5 dollars a yard. It is nice when you luck out making your muslin and you like it! I did buy an expensive piece of plaid-red, grey and black wool for my next jacket. Alterations made to the jacket -I took in the breast area about an inch, shortened the sleeves, shortened the bodice, and I lined the entire jacket. This jacket only gives directions to line it in the inside front, and little pieces that connect up along the collar in the back. If I followed the directions it would have been completed sooner. However, I like my garments lined. The piping wasn't too bad to sew in between the bodice pieces. The only problem was the fabric was slippery and didn't catch and move smoothly under the foot and throat plate of my machine. Other than that, I think this jacket is fairly basic and has easy, straight forward directions to follow even for a newer sewer. I probably will do a different variation and line it completely again.