More sewing

It's been awhile since I put up a sewing project, much less anything else. I made this to wear it to our friends' wedding rehearsal dinner this Friday evening. This is green cotton jacquard from fashion fabric club, in a blend of two patterns (with a little "drafting" to make the patterns match up). It's lined with light blue cotton batiste...maybe not very matchy-matchy, but it doesn't peep out and is so soft on my skin. I'd really rather do this than line it with a matching polyester that will make me sweat all evening. The dress went together smoothly & I feel great in it! However, in looking at the pictures, I think I'll be sewing up that vent in the back. It just doesn't look proportional and (I'll try on the dress again just to make sure but) I don't think I have to have it to walk easily. I'm wearing 3" heels with this dress...do you really think I'm going to be walking easily anyway?

Can you see that lovely sewing machine silhouette in the background? It's older than I am!

Cynthia Rowley & sewing

Over the past month, I've finished a couple new items, both from Cynthia Rowley's line of patterns for Simplicity. I have to say that I'm quite taken...both patterns were extremely easy to sew, and the instructions were excellent. Not to mention that the styles are a little more trendy than most patterns.

First up: Simplicity 2584. This is no old-lady tunic. Made of linen. I completely ignored the instructions on adding a zipper after making a muslin & finding that I had no problem pulling it over my head. I took this in a size or two at the waist so the fit is really flattering.

front view: yoke is topstitched

back view: you can see here that the sleeves are slightly bell-shaped. next time they'll either be straight or have the elastic that was called for. ;-)

Next (with many apologies about the picture quality): Simplicity 2406. I have been in desparate need of some cute dresses to just wear around in the summer, so a couple weeks ago I decided that this would be the first of (hopefully) many. The fabric is a cotton stretch sateen from joanns, so it has a nice body. No pictures of the back unfortunately, but I reduced the back slit to about 9"and made a covered button & loop from the fabric. I love the cut-out sleeves, which were surprisingly easy to construct. I've worn this out several times (ok, time to make another one already!), and it is cute & a little fashion-forward, is comfortable, and has garnered a few compliments from complete strangers.

front view

sleeve detail

Coco

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I watched 'Coco before Chanel' this evening. I'm not sure what touched me more - the moving storyline or the beauty of the clothing. It was, at the very least, an inspiring movie.