And here they are, all done! I ended up hemming more than I should have, had I gone with my gut and trusted my measurements, but it’s all good. Lesson learned! He’s happy with them, says they fit fine, and he doesn’t need to wear a belt with them (that’s good!) Apparently, bright sun and a headache don’t make for a smiling husband, but he was a good sport when I told him I wanted to take a picture for my blog.
I realized after my last post that I forgot to include a picture of the finished fly zipper open.
I don’t know why people think putting in a fly zipper is difficult. Maybe it’s because I researched the technique a bit before doing it, or because Kwik Sew’s instructions are amazingly awesome, but I didn’t really have any trouble with it at all.
I was pretty busy today, but I found some time to put together the fly, so here we go!
First, pin the right sides of the front pant pieces together.
It’s rare (like this once) when my husband asks me to make him something. I think he just asked so that I would have a project to work on (as if I needed more), but he asked for some slacks, which I hadn’t done before, and appreciated the challenge.
I had him pick out the fabric (an olive twill) and I choose a pattern from Kwik Sew (since I was so impressed with their men’s shirt, I figured their trouser pattern would be just as professional looking. It’s been sitting in my project queue for quite sometime, and since I still haven’t made it to my first weight-loss goal, and I’ve been itching to sew (not that knitting hasn’t been fun, but I love sewing), this would be a good project to work on.
Firstly, I had to take his measurements. My husband is pretty tall (6’4″), and thus, he has a difficult time with finding pants that fit. The ones he finds that are the right length tend to be too wide in the waist, and the ones that are the right size in the waist, are often too short. (This is why we sew, right?) The standard pattern measurements were pretty comparable for his size and shape, the only big alteration to the pattern I had to make was adding 2 1/2″ to the length of his pants. This was the first time I ever cut into the actual pattern, and it was a little scary. But I figured I was probably only going to make these pants for him, so I came to terms with cutting up my pattern.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Kind of been slacking on my projects.
Personal-honesty-time! So about three years ago, I managed to work really hard (eating a healthy diet and regularly exercising) and lost 15 lbs. I was at my goal weight, and was happy with how I looked. Sometime between then and now, I forgot how to be vigilant with my eating habits and exercise, and ended up slacking off to where I am back at where I started. I’m a bit annoyed with myself, and am experiencing problems fitting into my clothes, so last month I placed a moratorium on myself to not sew anything until today for two reasons: 1) So I could try to lose 10 lbs in six weeks (if I worked really hard, it would have been doable), and 2) to get other projects done for other people.
Obviously, I thought I could still eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, go to the gym maybe twice a week, and somehow two pounds would fall off each week. Right. Okay, no more sob-story. I’m just going to get it done, and to encourage myself, I’m going to reward myself with a couple sewing projects:
Share on FacebookI made McCall’s 6044 about a year and a half ago. I wasn’t pleased with the pattern, but at the time, I had bought two different fabrics to make two shirts using that pattern. Had I enough fabric, the second shirt would have been another Kwik Sew shirt, but alas, I did not.
Since I am still going through my projects in my stash, I intended this shirt to be for learning purposes only. I gave the flat-fell seam a shot and did one starting with the right-sides together and another starting with the wrong-sides together, so I could see which style I liked better. I was sewing it pretty haphazardly (again), so my seams on the sleeve were pretty sloppy. At that point, I decided I didn’t want my husband to wear it because of how sloppy/shoddy it was. But, even after showing him where I messed up, he said he still wanted it.
I soldiered on, and as I added the facing to the shirt this morning, I realized I was suppose to interface both sides of the facing. Arg! I had barely enough medium weight interfacing to interface all the pieces I already did. I shrugged, and told my husband the new problem I found. He shrugged back, and said it was okay, and he still wanted the shirt. At this point, I figured I must have subconsciously been messing up (I’ve never been this far off my game) on purpose because I didn’t like the pattern (nor did I care for the light-weightness of the broadcloth for the shirt).
The best part, is that this time I didn’t slip-stitch anything! Everything was top-stitched and edge-stitched. I don’t know why McCall’s put all those instructions in there for slip-stitching when it’s all going to be top-stitched.
Well, as you can see, he’s happy with it, and I guess that’s all that matters.
Although, I started this dress as I do with every other garment, by following the directions to a T, I got a little sloppy by the end when it was time to finish the hem. It’s not entirely even, I’m sure, and the hem is all machine stitched and a little messy. Maybe it’s because I spent the better part of Sunday making the dress that I wanted to try to finish it within the day (or finish it for the most part, since I still had a few finishing touches to do before I could call it “complete”). I kept telling myself, while I was haphazardly sewing the hem, “I’m the only one wearing this, this is not going in a competition, and I wouldn’t do this on a garment for someone else.” Meh, it made me feel better.
Regardless, I’m very happy of the way it turned out!
This dress was meant to be made last year, since last year’s Pantone color was Tangerine. Oh well, better late than never!
While poking around on the internet, I came across Leanne Marshall’s etsy shop. Mostly, she sells wedding gown samples that she’s made on there, and I fell in love with the lace, tea-length dresses she sold. I so wanted one for myself. I was planning to design my own, but fortunately, found a pattern for one from Vogue.
Vogue 8766 – Style F
I wanted to stay away from the “wedding look” so I decided to choose a different color than ivory or white. Searching around the fabric websites for some not-too-expensive lace fabric, I found a bright tangerine lace and paired it with a pink broadcloth for the underlining, both from Fabric.com.
It arrived in the mail and sat in the closet. It sat and sat. I must have been working on other projects in the meantime, so it just sat. Sometimes I’d look at it and think, “If only I wasn’t working on *whatever it was that I was working on*” or “If only I wasn’t too lazy to look at the pattern envelope to figure out what else I needed to make this (which turned out to be just a zipper, thread, and ribbon)”. Fortunately, due to my not-yet-employed state, I was able to start this dress.
The “sequins”, which are holographic dots stuck to the fabric, shed a bit in the wash. I wasn’t overly fond of them in the first place, so I’m okay with that. The skirt on this dress is a large circle skirt, so cutting out the pattern has been interesting, to say the least. Also, since the lace part is lace, or because the tracing paper I’m using is wearing out, it’s been difficult to see my tracing line. I’ve already ripped the pattern and tracing paper by vigorously tracing over the lines to get a clear marking of where I’m suppose to cut. And, I missed where I was suppose to cut and cut into my fabric at one point too. Oops! I’m going to try to fix it with some light interfacing, and maybe a darning stitch if it’s too obvious. It’s near the seam allowance, so I’m hoping it won’t be noticeable at all!
Before I head to bed, I’ve gotten all my pieces cut out from the underlining and the lace. Even though my blue carbon tracing paper was wearing out so much that I couldn’t see it anymore on the lace, I still managed to finished. Sure, I had to copy my sleeve pattern to a piece of tracing paper and cut it out, but I still finished! I left my project in the beginning stages, where I now need to baste the underlining and lace together for the bodice–along the edges and darts, and try not to get any tailor tacks stuck in between the two. Fun! Probably best if I leave that for tomorrow when I’m fresh in my mind.
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Action shot!
Oooh, “Not for the Faint of Dart”! See what I did there? 
As it is with other of Cynthia Rowley’s patterns published by Simplicity, there are many pleats and darts in this pattern. So if you’re not up for a lot of tailor tacking and carefully sewing the many (I count 32 in this pattern) darts and marking and folding pleats, then maybe this isn’t for you. I enjoy the pleats and was pleasantly surprised by the darts I found in the sleeves
Share on FacebookI can officially call this one done!
When I had all the sewing done, I went on a quest to find the perfect trim. I made sure to measure what was needed for around the neckline and the belt. My husband was feeling under the weather and I thought maybe some pho soup would help him (plus, he likes pho soup). Fortunately, there’s a pho restaurant next door to the local Hancock. I found a super pretty beaded lacy trim that I liked for the neckline. It was pre-cut to 1 yard in length, so I had to choose a different trim for the belt, since the belt was 41″ around.
After I got home and started pinning the trim to the dress, that’s when I realized that the trim was too wide to go over the straps of the dress. Arg! I still liked that trim, so I’m keeping it, but I need to make another trip to Hancock to return the other because I didn’t like it so much.
The next day, I went to Ben Franklin at lunchtime, and found their small selection of trim. Lo and behold, the perfect trim existed! It was 1″ wide (right width for the straps), black lace with black pearl beads, and a green iridescent filament on the edges. It was just right for the dress. After work, I sewed it on, and was content with the completed look.
Finally, this morning, my friends and I went to the mall (before it got too busy) and took a bunch of pictures.
Photo by Eric Bailey
Also, I submitted the dress for the Vintage Modern contest at BurdaStyle.
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