The Power Stayed on and I have my December Garment of the Month!

All of my worries about a power outage on Sunday were for naught.  The power stayed on and I made a dress!

This was my pattern, Simplicity 1810:

It's a pullover dress with waist ties that are cleverly sewn into the back dart.  I thought the ties as drafted were pretty short so I made my ties very long (60"+) so that I could wrap them around me one and a half times and tie them in front.  I made View B and lengthened it 3" so it would hit me a the knee.  I am pretty short, so this dress is very short!  I made a size Medium and graded out to a Large at the hip which was probably unnecessary seeing how full the skirt is.

Since I was racing against the clock, I figured that I should really push my luck and make my own bias tape for the armholes.  I was very pleased that the armholes don't gap and are perfect for a sleeveless dress.  It was a very easy dress to make and I'm looking forward to wearing it on my upcoming warm-weather vacation.

[weeks pass...]

So I didn't get a chance to wear my dress on vacation.  Sometimes you are so tired by the end of a trip that it's much wiser to order room service than to force the family out for one last dinner where you could wear your new dress.  As a result, my only photos of my tropical dress are in the not-so-tropical location of my sewing room. 

 

I have decided not to stress out about finished garment photos taken on my dress form rather than on me.  As Barbara at Sewing on the Edge so eloquently put it, I'm a sewing blogger, not an aspiring fashion blogger.  What matters most to me is the sewing, not the styling, so I'm not going to put off posting my garment photos just because I haven't had the chance to take photos with my tripod and remote. 

Here's a close-up of the neckline, where you can see the yoke and pleats at the front. 

I really like this dress, and I can't wait to be in some warm weather where I can finally wear it out!
 

A Race Against a Power Outage: December Garment of the Month

Right now, there is a nasty winter storm heading my way with forecasts of 1/2" of ice accumulation by tomorrow.  In my neck of the woods, that means we are likely to lose power anytime soon.  My plan for today is to race against an impending power outage and make Simplicity 1810.

I recently bought some Hawaiian print fabric from HawaiianFabric.com in order to make my husband some Hawaiian shirts.  He actually requested that I make him some for an upcoming vacation!  One of the prints I ordered turned out to be a little bold for his taste so I have acquired it for my own use.  Here it is :)


Source

 The clock is ticking!  Gotta go sew!
 

My Garment for October: Another Simplicity 2057 Lined Jacket

Here is my entry for Pattern Review's Lined Jacket Contest and my Garment of the Month!  I made another version of Simplicity 2057.  This one is a short jacket (shorter than the pattern shows) and it's made from some brown suiting I bought in India.  I meant to do a burn test, but I never got around to it.  In any case I'm sure it's a blend, and it's completely washable!  For the lining I used a pink and brown hound's-tooth charmeuse satin I bought from Fabric.com. 

Front

Back View

I used the same adjusted pattern pieces that I used for my pink coat other than making the jacket fall at the high hip.  This made the front pockets very shallow which meant I needed to sew them up a little bit to make the opening smaller.   No biggie. 

 

I love the lining.  I bought it to use for a jacket lining and I am glad I did.  I forgot to add an interior welt pocket to the lining before I sewed the lining in, so I had to add a patch pocket after it was assembled. 

Look at that Pattern Matching!!

Before finishing this jacket, I needed to go out and buy buttons for it.  Don't you hate that...when you have piles of buttons in your stash and you don't have any that look good?  I went to Jo-Ann's and found some nice buttons for the ungodly price of $7.95 EACH (aack!).  They only had 3 in stock, and I needed 4.  I bought the 3 and kept the receipt in a nice and safe place.  I had also searched Jo-Ann's for some nice yarn to knit these boot cuffs and guess what?  Surprise!  I didn't find anything nice.  So I stopped in a new (to me) yarn shop in Charlottesville called Laughing Sheep Yarns.  Not only did I find some very nice yarn, but I found nice buttons too!!  They were way less than $7.95, so I was doubly happy.  :)

So there it is, my "Garment for the Month of October" and my entry for the PR Lined Jacket Contest!