Easter Dress

I'm calling this my Easter dress, because hey, that's as good an excuse as any to make a dress. Although I made less for wearing to church and more for wearing around casually. I finished it last night and pressed Brandon into service as my photographer.

I got three yards of the butterfly fabric on impulse. That was all there was left. The pattern, it turned out, called for more, because the skirt is meant to be on the bias. I laid it out and had just enough to cut it on the straight grain(and absolutely no margin for error. The pockets are in red because I didn't have enough of the butterfly print for pockets.) As you can see, it didn't noticeably affect much.

The dress went together well, and I used a new zipper technique (out of Sew What! Skirts). You baste the zipper seam together and then use fabric glue to tack the zipper down to the wrong side of the fabric, centered over the seam. Then you stitch neatly (in theory at least) 1/4" on each side of the zipper seam on the right side of the fabric to fasten the zipper down, and rip out the basting stitches. And voila! There you have it, the easiest zipper installation method I've tried, even if it doesn't look any better than any other zipper I've done.

I used the new rolled hem foot to hem it, and while it looks okay from a distance in the picture, in real life I need to go back and redo some parts. I have pretty much mastered the rolled hem foot for straight hems, but the slight curve of this hem kept throwing me off.

I really like how this dress turned out. The bodice isn't really my favorite, but the shape of the skirt is very nice. I can't wait for some actual warm weather to wear it in. Right now it is blustery and cold out, although the sun is shining, deceitfully making it look warm.

Sew What! Skirts #1

It's a beautiful day out, cool and sunny but not hot yet. About time, if you ask me. I like summer, butI like fall better, and it has been very hot lately.

I bought a book called Sew What! Skirts by Fracesca Denhartog and Carole Ann Camp last week at the Sewing Basket in Clovis. I had looked at it online but couldn't find a site that let me look at photos of the projects inside, which are what I was interested in. This book teaches some really basic pattern drafting. I have a more advanced pattern drafting book, but it's so intimidating I haven't done much with it. Sew What! Skirts is aimed at the beginner, so it isn't intimidating at all.

I've already made one skirt out of the book, the "Short and Sassy" skirt. It looked really cute in the book, with an uneven hem, and was incredibly easy. This skirt is basically a square with a hole cut in it for the waist. When it was done, it looked good, but was really too short and sassy for my taste, so I unpicked the waistband I'd made and layered another, slightly smaller square of fabric over it (at a 90 degree angle to the original) making my skirt essentially two of theirs, and I liked it a lot better. The layered look and uneven hem make it look like what I think of as a "fairy skirt". It would look awesome with the under layer of a sheer or semi-sheer fabric, in the same shade as the top layer, maybe in green. Does that make sense?

Anyway, here's a pic.
I make a lot of skirts, for someone who doesn't wear them very often. Of course, I've never made jeans, and I practically live in them. I guess I have less inhibitions about spending $40 for a pair of jeans I'll wear hundreds of times than spending the same $40 for a skirt I'll wear many less times. I can't remember ever wearing out a skirt. I can make a skirt a lot cheaper than I can buy one. If you don't count the cost of the book, this skirt cost me maybe $1.50 to make (I bought the fabric on clearance for 50 cents a yard). Not that economics is my main reason for sewing. If I didn't enjoy the process and the creativity I wouldn't do it.