Ladybug Dress - V8727

After a remarkable mess of a project, here we have the complete ladybug dress.  However - this is after buying more fabric and completely remaking the bodice. I'm tempted to make the first incarnation of this dress a PSA on fitting while distracted. 

Friends don't let friends ruin their fabric.

However, ruin it I did.  (late April/ early May where a bit of a mess, hence the constant screw ups.)  I forgot to add an FBA and the bust line was about an inch or so above where it ought to be, resulting in pulls and drag lines and a generally awkward fit.  I'm afraid I didn't get pictures (Afraid. Hah. It was just bad.  Use your imagination.)

A is what I wanted, and eventually did.  B is the screw up.

Anyhow, after getting my head screwed back on, and getting an extra yard of fabric, I redid and refit the bodice (which is V8727, with the skirt from M5292, as usual) for the current incarnation.  Anyhow, I thoroughly recommend the pattern.  Once I stopped being an idiot it was easy to fit, comfortable to wear and generally flattering.

pretend I'm making a better face - this is the only one that shows the back 

As requested: a close up of the fabric.   (Most of the wispy bits that look like dust or fur are actually black printed on black.  Messes with my head something fierce.)

ladybugs!

In which I am given saris!

The ever glorious, often demure and generally lady-like Anju recently told me her mother was planning on cleaning out her (the mother's) closet -- and was getting rid of saris.   I don't recall if she brought this up to offer them to me or just as a bit of news that was going on, but I immediately offered myself as a receptacle for any such garments her mother no longer wanted.  

Last night I got my grubby mitts on them, and I couldn't be more pleased.   (If you will believe it, I got a text a few days ago asking if it was 'okay' if they were silk.  I know.   Somehow...somehow, I think I will manage)  There are three - the first is a thicker, two tone blue with gold embroidery.  As with most saris (I say this like I knew ahead of time) the end which gets thrown over the shoulder has extra decoration.  Creativity will be required when deciding what to do with them. 

The second is a much lighter weight silk - more what I would expect a blouse to be made of.   This one is moss green with cream and brown.   There is about 2 yards of material in each sari (~6") so this one may end up as several shirts...  although I could also see a fancy summer dress.   I don't know....

And then there is this wacky one -- not only is it bottle green and hot pink, it refuses to rotate to the correct orientation no matter what I do to it.   I have absolutely no idea what I will do with it, however, I imagine someday it will be perfect for something.  Its too crazy not to be.

Thank you Anju and Anju's Mom!

Me-Made-May - Week Three Round-Up

Day 15: The many paneled dress makes its official debut!

Day 16: me-made skirt.   (The first time I wore it to work was with a dark blue shirt and people kept asking if I was Wonder Woman.   Since then, this has been the Super Hero Skirt TM  )

Day 17:  Me-made other many panel dress!  also dwarf helmet for hat-day!

Day 18:   Temperature dropped and I hopped into the fleece robe of awesome.

Day 19:  me-made jeans and shirt!

Day 20:  The bedsheet dress - otherwise known as the original many-paneled dress!   (and the only one in which I added seam allowances when cutting it out....)

Day 21: The floaty dress and slip!  With bonus holy-crap-that-bush-has-thorns!

many-paneled dress in action!

If you've been following my posts, you'll know the last week or so was consumed by terror that I'd irreparably screwed up this dress.   First I cut out half of it with maximum stretch lengthwise rather than width wise - then - in a monumental effort - I miscounted the number of panels I had left (there were only 5 to start with,  which makes this more impressive) and cut out half the dress the other way.     Not having enough to redo fully with either -- I just went with it.   

Somehow - it worked.    (If you look closely at the bodice when I am wearing it, you can absolutely tell which sections stretch which way, but, most people don't know what to look for anyway.  So, I've decided I win this round.)

All the black is self-fabric from the areas between the panels - due to the nature of the pattern pieces, I have a lot of tiny, wriggly little bits of blue.   need to investigate what to make with them, as I am madly in love with this fabric.  (Also, this is officially another stash-buster! double points!)

Honestly, I still can't believe I pulled this one off.

Me-Made-May - Week Two Round Up

Consider yourself warned in advance.  Things got more than a little dull this week as the temperature dropped back down and I got headaches from the changing pressures and stopped caring about anything other than being comfortable.   We have high hopes for the coming weeks, as there should be a few more days of warmth....

Day Eight: Jeans!

Day Nine:  Jeans and Jacket!

For those keeping track - this is when my camera broke -- thence followed a series of fun-with-the-built-in-webcam pictures!

 Day Ten: Refahioned Skirt - Friday's theme was sewing spaces, so as a special blog double feature, you actually get to see the unholy mess I was blocking in the photo I put into the flickr group....  lucky lucky you...

Day Eleven: Pajama Pants (I don't think I actually left the house on Saturday....)

Day Tweleve:  Capris! Me-modified Pacman shirt!

At this point, the new camera has arrived, but I haven't figured out all the settings yet.  

Plus its cold out.

Day Thirteen:  Flannel Shirt!  The snuggle is strong with with one.  (Originally made to be part of a pajama set, but generally worn out and about.   Odd how things morph after making...)

Day Fourteen: Pajama Pants!  Pacman shirt!   Cat-beasts!

Victory!

The number of ways I nearly shot myself in the foot with this dress is astounding.  Full story and proper pictures when the new camera arrives in a day or so..

A tale of anguish and woe

I didn't have everything I needed to finish up the muslin for V8319, so I decided to spend the evening on a quick project..... I would make another many-paneled dress out of this lovely blue and purple paneled fabric I've had since last summer.   

so very pretty...

Months ago, I prepped the pattern, making sure the waist was clearly marked, so I could line up the black center band as a sort of built in belt...  Then this evening, I carefully laid it out, matching all the waist points and figuring out I'd need a black side panel if everything was going to fit properly...  

so terribly time consuming

An hour or two of carefully cutting out the sections and pinning them together, with all the waist areas beautifully matched...  And I found I had laid it out so the stretch went vertically along with dress, rather than horizontally.

so very well lined up....

 I am still in shock that I was so stupid not to even think about which way the stretch went.   The bodice of this pattern is skin tight.  The pieces are tiny and there are 18 seams allowances to suck up fabric.  I'm not really sure what to do -  I've only cut out half the dress, but the fabric remaining is not enough to start over again.   I'm thinking of brazening it out and hoping really really had I can somehow fit into it anyway.   Otherwise I will have to find a tiny friend and see if she wants it.

Looking back at the post I did while fitting the first many-paneled dress, I was loosing my mind with it as well... but at least I cut with the stretch in the right damn direction.   Well...  c'est la vie, so much for feeling super productive and useful tonight.

Me-Made-May - First Week Roundup

Day One: Pajamas!  

Day Two: Shirt,Jacket and Jeans!

Day Three: Jeans and Jacket!  Also - water, the official theme of the day!

Day Four:   Skirt! May the Fourth be with You!  

Day Five: Shirt and Jacket!

Day Six: Same Shirt, Different Day!  

Day Seven: Shirt and Jeans!  Also ferocious cat-beast! And lounging on my stash!

Happy thoughts that the sun will decide to come back out sometime soon...

Dreaming of Warmer Weather

Goshu ponders my creation.

No sooner did I finish this dress, then the weather dropped.   As in, remember the floaty dress?  I finished this the next day and I am currently in polar fleece.    I know I'll miss the cool weather as soon as I start to sweat, but I want to take pictures! ::grumps around::

Anyhow.  I found myself between projects (don't get me wrong, there are any number of UFOs watching me from the sewing closet.   Crying, yearning and generally flailing about for my attention)  so I decided to actually plug a gap in my wardrobe and make a dress appropriate for fancy-pants events at work in the summer when I don't want to wear a suit.   (context: This happens *maybe* once a year.  I do R&D and they usually keep us far away from the outside world and upper management)

I'm not usually much of a sheath dress person, but the princess seams attracted me in a way darts never do.   I also really liked the raglan sleeves (straps?)   I'm hoping the result will be very elegant while still being comfortable.   I don't want it to be so fitted it ends up as a wiggle dress.

The fabric itself is a woven, and based on a burn test, appears to be wool. It is comprised of many different shades of blue and white weft with a very thin black thread for the warp.   (Warp threads are the ones that go the long way through the fabric and are put on the loom first.  Weft goes back and forth the short way and is the material added through the weaving process.   How so I know?   I use to warp giant barn looms when I worked at summer camp.  It takes hours.)

winding the warp onto the loom -- I'm the one on the right.

Random and only vaguely related story - the arts and crafts lodge is a hand built structure from the '30s on the top of a tall hill in a mountain gorge.   Thunderstorms are a crazy experience.   Every week, the current crops of kids each made a rug, so we were constantly re-warping the looms to keep up with demand.   One evening I was up there on my own, and of course, a thunderstorm was raging - I had some kind of intense music going and right at a crescendo, as the thunder boomed, the door burst open and a giant form appeared, bringing wind and rain in with him.

I nearly had a heart attack.

Inevitably, the result is anti-climactic.  It was the guy who worked in the office- he had heard I was up there alone and came to keep me company and bring up yogurt.  So much for ghost stories.