Month: August 2013

The Hundred Dresses: Day 80

Erin6 Comments

Another day, another Heidi:

blue slash Heidi

This one was mentioned briefly back in 2010:

blue slash Heidi bodice

I think that this fabric fell into the category of “there isn’t possibly enough for a full-skirted dress but I love it so much I will buy it anyway,” and then voila! there was enough for a Heidi. It’s a nice crisp corded cotton with a gorgeous hand. In my opinion, there is not enough corded cotton in the world. Why doesn’t Liberty make corded cotton? I shall write a letter.

The side zip, pretty good:

blue slash Heidi side zip

And the back view.

blue slash Heidi back

I wore this one on Sunday with these sandals, which are, in my opinion, the coolest and most comfortable ones I’ve ever owned (they seem pricey now but they were on sale a while back):

kork-easeYvette

Amazingly comfortable and really good for those of us with wider feet — they can be adjusted at both the ankle and toe, so you don’t have that thing where your ankles are swimming and your toes are pinched, which is the worst. Highly recommended. I got the black; if there are any in my size left at the end of summer sale I may be tempted to get the brown or even the denim-y blue colorways …

The Hundred Dresses: Day 79

Erin1 Comment

Another Heidi. I really love ticking-stripe fabric, and to find it in orange … well, I had to have it:

orange ticking Heidi

It turned out to be a very creamsicle-ish dress:

orange ticking Heidi bodice

The original post for this dress did not show the wonky side zip:

orange ticking Heidi side zip

I’m not sure what happened with that. Is it just me, or is it harder to find instructions on increasing the waist measurement than it is to find instructions for any other alteration? Is it just assumed to be easy, or does no one but me do it, or what? I find that whenever I have a weird side-seam problem, it’s usually because of some wonky alteration I’ve done. (While looking I did find this, though.)

orange ticking Heidi back

I don’t wear this dress all that often, I’m not sure why. I do love orange …

The Hundred Dresses: Day 78

Erin8 Comments

This is without a doubt my favorite Heidi:

Scribble Heidi

This is one of the few dresses that I’ve reworked after learning more about the pattern — the first version is here. The original neckline was a bit too wide — luckily I had enough extra of this fabric, because the Heidi sews up with virtually nothing.

Scribble Heidi bodice

This dress is just so fun to wear. I like to wear it with bright chartreuse tights.

Side zip, eh. The Heidi side zips are open at the top (go right into the armhole) so it’s important to make sure that you cover the scratchy bits.

Scribble Heidi side

And the back:

Scribble Heidi back

I realized while getting the next batch of dresses ready for their closeups that whoa, I have made a LOT of Heidis. I don’t think all of them are going to make the Hundred Dresses cut! Maybe I should do a separate series of just Heidis? I’ll try to do at least a roundup. I don’t wear them as much as I used to because they’re not as well-suited for biking (they can be biked in, it’s just not as easy as in a fuller skirt).

The Hundred Dresses: Day 77

Erin2 Comments

Today’s dress is another Simplicity 5232, in a Liberty print that I don’t know the name of. I don’t know why I don’t make this more often …

Liberty print Simplicity 5232

Oh wait, maybe I do … it’s a pretty labor-intensive dress.

Liberty print Simplicity 5232 bodice

Yellow buttons again. I really like yellow buttons.

Liberty print Simplicity 5232 buttons

Towards the end I realized that the buttonholes were going to need more reinforcement than the Liberty Tana lawn was capable of, so I quick-and-dirty basted some silk organza down the front facing:

Liberty print Simplicity 5232 organza reinforcement

This dress is five years old, and the bias tape I used to finish the collar was probably about fifty years old, going by the original packaging. So it’s showing its age a bit:

Liberty print Simplicity 5232 collar binding

I topstitched the collar, for pretty much no reason:

Liberty print Simplicity 5232 back collar

The funniest thing about this dress: I’m pretty sure I put in that back bodice piece upside down. I just eased it until it worked. Oh well!

Liberty print Simplicity 5232 back bodice

I don’t have a full-length back picture of this one, for some reason.

The Hundred Dresses: Day 76

Erin3 Comments

I had really high hopes for this Heidi:

pink shirting Heidi

I love the pink and red and gray colorway:

pink shirting Heidi bodice

I kind of bailed on trying to match the stripes, since I think it’s impossible to match stripes and gathers:

pink shirting Heidi back

Pockets, lined in batiste:

pink shirting Heidi pocket

Side zip:

pink shirting Heidi side zip

The whole dress is lined in batiste, actually:

pink shirting Heidi inside 2

I’m not sure why I lined the dress, the fabric didn’t really need it. Probably just to see if I could:

pink shirting Heidi inside

But this is why I hardly ever wear it, and why it’s going in the Goodwill pile, finally — there’s a subtle flaw in the fabric and I managed to cut it right across the front bodice. Arrgh:

pink shirting Heidi flaw

I know it’s almost imperceptible, but I know it’s there, and it drives me crazy. So … oh well. I scrutinize fabric a LOT more now, especially bargain fabrics (which this was). If I find a flaw, I mark it (on BOTH sides) with blue painters tape, so that I can’t help but see it when I’m cutting.

The Hundred Dresses: Day 75

Erin4 Comments

This is another Butterick 6820, a full Butterick 6820, much more recent than Wednesday’s.

mustard bird dress

It is a really fun dress, isn’t it?

butterick_6820

I love the combination of mustard and red (this is some fabric I bought in Japan):

mustard bird dress bodice

The collar turned out okay, not great:

mustard bird dress collar

The sleeves:

mustard bird dress sleeve
The biggest problem with this dress is that the sleeve wings make it difficult to throw a cardigan on over it — you get lumpy uncomfortable bunching right at the bicep.

The pockets are HUGE:

mustard bird dress pocket

I did another side-placket zipper with this one, mostly because I didn’t have a red invisible zipper handy:

mustard bird dress pocket & side zip

Here’s the back:

mustard bird dress back

I suppose now that I’ve made two bird-themed Butterick 6820s I should be on the lookout for one more birdish fabric to use, right? Since good things come in threes?

The Hundred Dresses: Day 74

Erin8 Comments

This is my absolute favorite Vogue 9929:

Liberty Kalumba Vogue 9929 front

It’s a Liberty print, one that I’m pretty sure is called Kalumba. It’s twill — I have made two other skirts with it (one in a brown/turquoise, and one in a pale blue), and I have some if it in pale blue silk that someday, when I’m feeling invincible, I will cut into. (It is the most beautiful fabric in the world.)

I love these colors together:
Liberty Kalumba Vogue 9929 bodice

I like to wear this with a pale lavender cardigan and a bright orange belt, and I like that I was able to position the print just so on the bodice:
Liberty Kalumba Vogue 9929 print

The side zip is just ‘eh’:
Liberty Kalumba Vogue 9929 side zip

And the back:

Liberty Kalumba Vogue 9929 back

I wish I’d bought all of this fabric that was ever made … I still look for more from time to time.

The Hundred Dresses: Day 73

Erin11 Comments

I made this dress back in 2007:

yellow bird dress

Here’s a closeup view of the bodice:
yellow bird dress bodice

A few of the commenters on the original posting were all “Couldn’t you have matched the print?” and now I think they were right.

The bodice is Butterick 6820, but I can’t remember what the skirt was (other than not Butterick 6820). It’s a good skirt, though, so I should figure it out … I think it’s the same skirt as from the Eiffel Tower dress.

Here’s the sleeve detail:
yellow bird dress sleeve

And pocket detail:
yellow bird dress pocket

Here’s the side zip — a placket and ordinary (not invisible) zipper!

yellow bird dress side zip

If you look not-all-that-closely you will see that the birds are UPSIDE DOWN on the back bodice:

yellow bird dress back view

Even though I had a traumatic pen accident with this dress, I can’t seem to take it out of my closet:

yellow bird dress inkstain

(There’s a [very old] picture of me wearing this dress here.)

The Hundred Dresses: Day 72

Erin9 Comments

I made this dress ages and ages ago — back in 2005. It’s another McCalls 8858:

black eyelet 8858

It’s a bit Maleficent, isn’t it, with this neckline?

black eyelet McCalls 8858 neckline

Here’s the side zip:

black eyelet McCalls 8858 side zip

And the back:

black eyelet McCalls 8858 back

I think this was when I was in some doubt about the right size pattern for me, bodice-wise, and kept buying 36s and 38s and wondering why they didn’t fit well in the shoulders. (I re-bought this pattern in a 34 and have been happy with it ever since, although now I have to adjust the waist on everything.) So I don’t wear this one very often, in part because of the fit issue (I altered the shoulders to fit, but it’s not perfect) and in part because I feel like I’ve worn this a couple times to events I was greatly anticipating only to have them fall sadly flat — far short of my (probably unrealistic) expectations. There’s nothing worse than getting dressed up for something and having it fizzle out … I probably should put this in the Goodwill pile and let it be luckier for someone else!

Oh, and in The Hundred Dresses-the-book news, I’ve now seen the first photo of the book on shelves in the wild, thanks to my sister, who saw it in Kinokuniya! Doesn’t it look fab, if I say so myself?

IMG_1829.jpeg

The Hundred Dresses: Day 71

Erin13 Comments

This dress was an indulgence:

Seersucker Mail Order 4946

It doesn’t really show up against the light background — it’s from this pattern:
MailOrder4946

It’s an indulgence because I really don’t need a light-colored seersucker dress (especially as cold as it’s been this month!) and things have been so busy that if I’m sewing, it should be sensible things. But I really loved this pattern, and the minute I saw it I knew I wanted to make it in stripes, with the yoke stripes going in the opposite direction from the bodice stripes.

Here’s a better look at the bodice:

Seersucker Mail Order 4946 bodice

And the yoke stitching detail:

Seersucker Mail Order 4946 detail

The pattern wanted to you to turn in the yoke piece 1/4 inch and then topstitch it, but I thought that was a nightmare scenario … so fussy! So I faced the piece with some very very lightweight batiste, and then topstitched the faced piece:

4946 yoke facing

4946 yoke

Here’s the side zip:
Seersucker Mail Order 4946 side zip

And a closeup of the inverted pleats — the pattern wanted me to stitch them down, and I tried it, but it didn’t work with my body type (cough, apple, cough) so I picked out those stitches and let it be open pleats:

Seersucker Mail Order 4946 skirt

And here’s the back:

Seersucker Mail Order 4946 back

I definitely want to make this again … good thing I have lots of striped fabric stockpiled!