Playclothes repair Friday: The green 60s silk dress

Hello lovely people.

Hope your week was nice and your weekend is going to be better. Me, I've got a list of projects to get through and most of them are going to go on this weekend. 

But first, I thought I'd give you an update on my week.

August Showcase!!

Happy October everyone!

Time for a recap of last month's goodies.

My main haul being my Royalchrome. For those who are sick of hearing about my love for this furniture, tough :)

Oh! Random cat picture!! Brasco has his own chair.

I got the chair together and put that in the living room. I ordered two cushions for it that I hope will be here by the end of the week, and I got out the rest of the fabric I had and got to piping.

I've made this dress six times...

And I'm not tired of it. 

In fact, I have it down to a science and can make this dress from cut out to hem in 7 hours. Yeah baby!

Adding to the wardrobe.

This has been a strange series of weeks. Things not coming together, then them coming together, jobs, hoping, you know, life. I've felt like I haven't been able to take care of myself lately. It's strange, tiring. Perhaps it's the hot weather because this past weekend made me feel a lot better. That and watching The Golden Child again (love that movie).

I also had tremendous luck. Greyhound FINALLY sent me the money for my missing royal chrome settee. Oh, that's not it. I also finally, FINALLY found another couch frame! Squeeeee! I was thrilled when I found it, thrilled! It should be here sometime at the end of the month (non Greyhound shipping).

And as I wait for it with bated breath, I've been sewing.

Couch cushions 100% complete!

Don't they look great?! Well, hold on. I'm sure most of you by now are noticing my 30 second photoshop job, and realizing that this is just the first finished couch turned sideways.

But THIS is the arrangement I want...I'm hoping for. Because, you see, MY OTHER COUCH FRAME IS MIA!!!

Royalchrome Restoration pt 4

I blew off a night out to work on these! I couldn't stop thinking about them! Then I completed my first one, and I saw this project was indeed possible!

Finished Dresses

Finished shots of the 'wearable mock up' of my knot dress. I am very pleased with the outcome of it.

Chambray alteration pt 1

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all are still plugging away on  your Make and Mend projects. I've been blog hopping and I'm seeing tons of people taking advantage of the Make and Mend mentality. It's inspiring! Keep it up!

I guess you could call this an alteration, though, with all the summer refashions going on in the sewing blogosphere, it seems to be an epidemic!

Last rayon blouse for a while, I promise.

I know, I know. For some reason I just can't get enough of this 40s blouse pattern. It's just so perfect with the vintage rayon I've managed to acquire.

When you have a pattern sized just right, you tend to want to make as many of that item as you can. No fuss about fit and all is so nice. You can just crank it out?

Any of you all have a pattern like that?

With this version of the blouse I wanted to try the tie bow neckline.

I decided to use my gray flower print because I only had enough for the front bodice. Because of the neckline change, I decided to switch this one up a bit. I omitted the back pleat, added piping down the front center and across the back yoke. I did line the yokes with that feed sack cotton I've been using on all the others.

Because the vintage fabric was so sheer, I decided to apply the cotton interfacing to the fabric instead of the facing pieces.

One reason to do this is so the seam allowance does not protrude beneath the fabric with it's bulk and disturb the line. I didn't need to do that with the other blouses because of the notched collar, but because this one goes all the way up to the neckline, I felt it was best to put in that bit of extra effort.

The piping with the vintage fabric I had to piece because I was seriously running on scraps. I measured out exactly how much was needed and overlocked the SA (seam allowance). Then I just lined everything up and sewed the back yoke to the back bodice.

There is a lot of fabric at that seam: the back bodice, the folded over fabric round the piping cord, the rayon for the yoke and the cotton its faced with. Turned out to be quite a bit of bulk, so I ended up tacking the SA up to the yoke to keep it secure.

With the front of the blouse, I had just as much bulk, but it was the notch near the top that was tricky. I didn't want to extend the piping too far, because then when I tied the bow it would create a gap. Too short and I would not be able to tie the bow and have it lay flat.

I thank Onda for helping me out with all of that.

Once I applied the piping to the front I LOVED the clean look of it. So much so that I didn't want to mire it with button holes. I know! Me not use buttons!? I just couldn't so I added 11 snap fasteners for the closure and one hook and eye for the top of the neckline. Man, I'm never doing that again. Hand sewing that many snap fasteners wore a hole in my finger. I don't use a thimble. I've tried and always feel like I'm loosing control of my grip.

From there I finished the cuffs with fasteners and added the tie collar. I love the look so much. I think its one of the best versions of this blouse I've ever done.

I do have some more blouses to make form the vintage fabric I have, but I think I'll make a blouse with front pleats. I have more than enough patterns in my stash to choose from. I only hope I can get the fit as well as I did on this one.

Finished pictures of the blouse can be seen on NVL.

Sheets to dresses. The yay-tastic conclusion!

Its finished!

I do so adore this Hollywood 1550. I've made it so many times. This one was a re-visit of the pattern after about an 18 month hiatus. Looking back at how I sized the pattern versus all I know now about dressmaking I've decided Im going to re-draft this pattern using my slopers for better fit.

Also, this one is a bit larger on me than I remember.

Originally I was not going to do the piping. This pattern calls for a contrasting yoke. I can't see it any other way, especially with a patterned print fabric. I chose the blue gray twill because I thought it would make the gray of the trim pop. Well, the more I got into it, the more piping I decided to use, until it culminated in my first ever attempt at piped button holes.

I marked the size.

I then cut the piping with about 1/2" excess on the sides. I basted them together giving enough space for when they are folded facing each other they won't overlap. Gave them a good seam pressing with the trim pressed outward. I then pinned them into place on the right side of the bodice.

I then notched the length of the marked button hole and stitched the lines with my zipper foot. I pivoted at the notch and completed the stitch.

Then I cut the button hole as you would any bound button hole and flipped it all inside.

Then hand stitched the excess down. Had I planned earlier, I would have covered the unsightly excess with the inside facing of the bodice but aw well.

Ta-da!

I love the look and I'm going to use it more often.

As for the dress, everything came off fairly easily. I'm pretty happy with it.

Finished photos can be seen on NVL.