Category: Liberty

The Hundred Dresses: Day 40

Erin8 Comments

Another Vogue 8460! This one is in Liberty Mauvey:
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 front

Here it is in slightly better light:
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 front 2

And close up:
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 bodice

The shoulder, for a closer view of the print. I love that soft pink and the grayish-blue together:
Libery Mauvey Vogue 8460 shoulder

The zipper! There’s a bobble at the top:
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 zipper

And the waist seam doesn’t QUITE match up:
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 zipper closeup

Here’s the back:
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 back 2

And the facing:
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 back facing

A closer look at those bodice darts (they are so satisfying to sew, honestly):
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 front darts

And the hem!
Liberty Mauvey Vogue 8460 hem

This dress pattern is definitely going into my regular rotation, but I’ve only made these three so far … what should I make it in next? I have plenty more shirting, and plenty more seersucker, and more dotted swiss than a nearly 42-year-old woman should reasonably have …

 

The Hundred Dresses: Day 35

Erin9 Comments

And … another Vogue 9929. You’ve seen this one before, too, from when I was in Florida last year.

Liberty Mim Vogue 9929 front

It’s Liberty Mim, probably one of my favorite Liberty prints. (I mentioned it in this blog post, too.)

Liberty Mim Vogue 9929 bodice

I haven’t seen any for sale recently, but it turns up on Ebay/Etsy more often than you might think. It seems to be used a lot for children’s clothing (uh, I wonder why …) so those manufacturers sometimes have leftovers.

I had some of this in a darker colorway, too, and it turned into a Duro (whose picture I can’t find) and then a pen exploded on it and that was the end of that. The moral of this story is always use pencils instead.

Here’s the zip, not too bad, C:

Liberty Mim Vogue 9929 zipper

Did you know there’s a free Craftsy video class on zippers? I’ve enrolled and will report back. Never too late to learn something new!

And here’s the back. Probably my favorite thing about this colorway of Mim is the blue/teal and the pink/orange juxtapositions, and then those big candy.jpgnk clouds … so much to be happy about.

Liberty Mim Vogue 9929 back

The Hundred Dresses: Day 26

Erin8 Comments

Oh so guess what pattern I used to make today’s dress?
Liberty Lemonia Simplicity 1577 front

Yep, another Simplicity 1577. (That 1577 is still just the pattern number, not the grand total of versions I have made. Yet.)

Here’s a closer look at the bodice:
Liberty Lemonia Simplicity 1577 bodice

And in natural light:
Liberty Lemonia Simplicity 1577 bodice 2

This is Liberty Lemonia in the cotton poplin, which I can’t find extant anywhere anymore, although I did find this luscious (and expensive, of course!) silk chiffon version at Truro Fabrics. Has anyone ordered from them before? They have some really yummy stuff … but they don’t ship to the US.

This zipper, again, is no better than a C:
Liberty Lemonia Simplicity 1577 zipper

And here’s the back …
Liberty Lemonia Simplicity 1577 back

I haven’t worn this 1577 as much as it deserves, mostly because I’m always stumped by what shoes to wear with it. These are my favorite, but I don’t really wear heels on a daily (or weekly, or honestly, even monthly) basis any more … Ideally I would find the perfectly-pale-blue Keds to wear with this, but they don’t seem to exist. (Dear Keds, Y U NO have a custom-Keds site? Take that money you’re paying T-Swift and team up with Pantone instead. I would spend all my money there so I could have matching Keds for everything.)

 

 

The Hundred Dresses: Day 25

Erin9 Comments

Hey, did everyone see the super-nice slideshow Elle.com did of The Hundred Dresses? Check it out!

Here’s another Simplicity 1577 (they keep going, and going …). This one is in Liberty city poplin:
Liberty poplin Simplicity 1577

I love this weight of Liberty, I wish they would make MUCH MUCH MORE of it. Here’s a closer view:
Liberty poplin Simplicity 1577

It’s a smooth, tight, silky weave, and heavier than Tana lawn. Here, look EVEN CLOSER:
Liberty poplin Simplicity 1577

The zipper on this one, though, is a C-. And that’s generous.
Liberty poplin Simplicity 1577

Here, you can see where I had to do a little bit of “there, I fixed it!” at the top:
Liberty poplin Simplicity 1577

Here’s the back view, for completeness’ sake:
Liberty poplin Simplicity 1577

And since y’all were so helpful with my collar question of yesterday (check out this FashionIncubator post), new question: how would you put a fuller skirt on this pattern? I don’t know whether it would be better to Frankenstein a skirt from another pattern, or whether I should suck it up and redraft this skirt (with its PERFECT POCKETS) to be fuller … and if the latter, how? Suggestions welcome!

 

The Hundred Dresses: Day 4

Erin7 Comments

Day 4’s dress is very, very pink:
pink Liberty 9929 front view

Another 9929 (I TOLD you there would be more, and I’m not done yet) and it’s a bonus dress, in that it’s made of leftover fabric from a previous dress (a Heidi, although I can’t find a pic of it now). It’s Liberty, as well.

Here’s a closer-up view of the bodice:
pink Liberty 9929 bodice view

I haven’t been able to track down the name of this Liberty fabric. Anyone know offhand?

Here’s the side zip, which should redeem yesterday’s muddle:
pink Liberty 9929 side zip

And the back:

back Liberty pink 9929

 

I totally forgot to take a picture of the pocket linings for this one! I am pretty sure that it’s a pale.jpgnk bandana print, though, since this is Liberty twill, not lawn, which would make it too heavy for self-pocketing.

I made this for the recent TEDxMidwest conference, which was a BLAST. So much fun. I wanted to make two new dresses for it, but I ran out of time. My philosophy for dress-wearing when I have to be on stage is “BE AS BRIGHT AS POSSIBLE”. (I only found one pic — here — sorry it’s not a clearer one.)

Liberty twill is really great for 9929s — just heavy enough to hang right, not so heavy that the dress feels stiff. I wish Liberty would bring twill back … please?

Autumn 9929

Erin12 Comments

Autumn 9929

So the Vogue 9929s are continuing into the autumn, despite their sleeveless nature. I used to think sleeveless dresses in wintertime were really weird … and then I moved to California, where I am sitting sans this cardigan at my desk right now, after a warmish 30-minute bike ride into the office.

I figured I’d try a Vogue 9929 in a less-summery fabric when I saw a piece of this Liberty babycord on sale on eBay. I love Liberty babycord, and I love this pattern (which I believe is called Robin). But since there was just a little less than 2 yards of it, the 9929 was the only pattern I knew would work …

Liberty babycord is super, super soft but still hangs nicely. And the pile/wales of this corduroy are not so deep that you have to use a needleboard when pressing (which is good since I have no idea where mine is). I didn’t want to do self-fabric binding at the neck, because I thought the corduroy, as fine as it is, would still be too bulky, so it’s plain old Wrights bias tape, in olive green. The flags in this pattern are a purple-y mauve, marron, tan, pumpkin, and mustard, and a kind of smokey teal green (or greenish gray).

In keeping with the autumnal theme, I’m wearing this with mustard knee socks, oxblood Justin roper boots (a new purchase from Etsy!) and a kind of reddish-maroon-y J. Crew sweater. The socks are a bit weird in this picture — it looks like I’m wearing tights labeled “jaundice suntan” but in Real Life they are more mustard-y, I swear. Tights in a brighter yellow-mustard probably would have been a better choice, but I really don’t like wearing tights while biking. (My skirt gets all hung up on the tights and I spend the whole ride pulling it down, instead of watching out for oblivious minivans pulling out of driveways.)

I’m also wearing an olive-drab Swatch, which you can’t see because my hands are shoved deep into my pockets, as always.

This dress is so comfortable it looks like I’ll be wearing it (and making it) year-round! Hmmm, maybe a wool gabardine version …

Another 9929, Florida-Style

Erin17 Comments

Vogue 9929, Liberty Mim

This is the second Liberty 9929 I’ve made — this is Liberty Mim, one of my favorite prints. This print just makes me SO HAPPY, although I’m not sure if I look happy in this photo … probably the fault of my contact lenses. They’re so much more convenient than glasses when I know I’ll be in and out of the pool and the ocean all day, but hopping in and out of the pool and the ocean means lots of chlorine and salt in my eyes, too, which is not so convenient.

Anyway. The yellow sandals are from Topshop, from my trip to the UK in May 2011 (they have bows across the top which I don’t think you can see); same old Swatch, and the orange bracelet is one of those RoadID thingums that has your name and your ICE phone number and what your blood type is. I wear it running and also when there’s any chance at all of a lifeguard having to pull my unconscious body out of the surf.

As usual for this trip, even when I think I’m packing the bare minimum, I’ve packed too much. I brought three dresses and two shirt/skirt combos for seven days, but could have done with two fewer changes of clothes (the place we stay has a washing machine). I also brought one more bathing suit than I absolutely needed, but I really hate getting back into a still-damp suit. (I’m loving the new high-waisted two.jpgece trend; I think this is first summer I’ve worn a non-tankini two.jpgece suit since before my son was born …)

It’s been a great trip but I’m looking forward to being home tomorrow … and not just because that’s where my sewing machine is!

And we're back!

Erin8 Comments

Sorry for the long delay in posting … there was this thing, and then this other thing, and then I had to switch to WordPress (which is a thing in and of itself), and then I did a bunch of sewing (watch this space for pictures, coming soon) and well, you know how it is.

The sidebar over there (–>) is still under construction; let me know if there are any links you’re missing. Ditto broken image links … I’ll be re-linking all the pictures to Flickr sometime soon-like.

While I’m getting organized to take more pictures of dresses, here’s a sullen picture of me (taking pictures of myself makes me sullen) in a new version of this dress:

Self-portrait: Erin scowling

The fabric is some Liberty bought yonks ago in the UK. The dress actually makes up really nicely in Liberty, something about the tucks. Putting in a three-inch hem helps it hang well, too.

Anyway: hi! I missed you guys! What’s new with you?

Another Couple of Liberty 8728s

Erin16 Comments

I don't think I've posted these yet — forgive the shaky pictures — but I made two other 8728s before I went to Australia: 

 

 

Here's the back view:

This is Liberty (of course) — Percy's Leaf (from Shaukat). 

And this, in Mike (also Liberty from Shaukat) — a closeup of the bodice (kind of a shadowy picture, sorry): 

And a shaky picture of the back:

 

I know I'm not done with 8728 just yet — it makes up SO nicely! It's so easy to wear! — but I'm thinking it might be time for another shot at the Heidi … what do you all think?

Big in Japan

Erin7 Comments

Fabric is, don't you know:

That's the Japanese Liberty print I bought in Tokyo, oh, lo these many weeks ago. (If you hadn't noticed, I got a bit behind on blogging there before Christmas … sorry about that.) I bought it at the same place I went to back in 2008 — so glad it was still there! 

It took me a while to choose this — I really wanted something dark, but of course all the spring prints were calling to me. I should have taken pictures of the runners-up, but they were mostly dark ditsy florals. This one has a little more heft to it, and the olive color is just gorgeous. Here, have a closer look: 

 

Not quite sure what this will be yet, but Vogue 8728 is a strong contender …