The Hundred Dresses: Day 97

September 7, 2013 Erin4 Comments

This dress is one of the first dresses I ever made from a vintage pattern (the exact pattern is lost to memory). I posted about it a few years back and it was old even then — and I know it’s older than my son, which puts it firmly in the grunge era.

I do really like the collar and the lines of the bodice. I remember clearly that this was a newspaper pattern … Anne Adams or Marian Martin or some such:

Covered buttons — this is before I knew the trick of using white fabric (batiste or organza) underneath the patterned fabric if you don’t want the metal of the button form to show through:

Bias trim on the sleeves:

The back view:

And a closeup view of the back … the only thing I can say is WTH? Where did those seams go? If I weren’t a life-long teetotaler, I would assume that I was drunk when I made this:

And the belt-kit belt, which hasn’t aged well at all:

I should really find the pattern in my stash and make it up again today, and show the two dresses side by side … just so people can see that, just as with everything else, sewing gets better with practice!

The Hundred Dresses: Day 96

September 6, 2013 Erin3 Comments

One last Simplicity 1577 before we get to the end:

The bodice:

The collar:

The pockets:

The side zip:

The back:

I originally posted this one here … stripey socks and boots! Makes me start longing for autum/winter …

The Hundred Dresses: Day 95

September 5, 2013 Erin6 Comments

This is another recent addition:

This is a mashup dress, a Frankendress. It’s the bodice from this pattern:

And the skirt from this one:

I didn’t do the little notch thing on the bodice, because I wanted something simple. I like the raglan sleeve, very comfy:

Here’s the side zip:

And the back:

I was looking for something simple I could make quickly, and this really fit the bill. This was my first-draft version; I think it worked out well. I added a little too much room at the waist, so it’s slightly baggy in this picture, but otherwise it fits, and the deep skirt pleats make it fun to wear. In the next version I will attach the (added) pockets at the waist seam, too, because they get too heavy for just the side seam (what with all the stuff I jam into them) and I might also shorten the skirt another inch. But other than that it’s very wearable as-is!

This fabric is part of my Japan stash from back in 2008 … I think all I have left from that trip is the orange bandana print!

The Hundred Dresses: Day 94

September 4, 2013 Erin4 Comments

Well, today was supposed to be another omnibus day of multiple images but I overslept so we’ll just do this one, okay?

This is a new Butterick 7513; while I was posting the photos for Day 17 and Day 41, I thought, hey, why don’t I make another one of these? So I did:

The stuntiness of this dress is slightly more subtle, but I’m sure you’ll see it. The fabric is Moda Comma Commas (also comes in orange!). It’s not a fantastic fabric for this dress … it doesn’t quite drape right (as you can see above). But it’s certainly good enough.

I am probably never going to wear it buttoned to the neck like this, but it looks better in the pictures. Except huh, looking at it in photos now I can see that the third button down is slightly out of alignment. Oh well. This is what I get for sewing them on while watching a movie.

And here’s the back!

I also made this in FULL ON CAMO and I haven’t even been able to wear it yet. I might have finally made a dress that’s even too obnoxious for me to wear. We’ll see …

The Hundred Dresses: Day 93

September 3, 2013 Erin7 Comments

So I have more dresses left than days left to post them in (adhering strictly to the hundred-days requirement) so I’ll be doubling up a bit for this last week … so here’s a giant post of all my crossword-themed dresses! These were all worn to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament …

Here’s the 2007 dress:

The neck gathering/piping is truly atrocious (you can’t tell this was a rush job AT ALL, can you?):

Scalloped hem. Why? Well, why not?

It was kind of a waste because you can’t even tell the hem is scalloped:

You can tell, however, that I didn’t have a regular zipper in black OR white and had to put in (I kid you not) a big ol’ plastic SEPARATING ZIPPER:

For some reason the dress I made in 2008 didn’t turn up after a fairly extensive search of the house and grounds. Huh. (Perhaps it didn’t want to be associated with the dress above?) Well, the pictures from the original post are pretty decent …

Here’s the 2009 dress:

Futura pockets!

The bodice (yeah it’s all upside down, I just wanted to add to the difficulty level for the people filling in the puzzle [joke]):

Full back:

Here’s the 2010 dress:

I tried to match the grid across the pockets:

I actually like the fading of this particular print, as it makes it look more newsprinty, but since the bias edging didn’t fade AT ALL (of course, why would it?), I don’t like the contrast:

The back (you can see the fading more here):

If you want your own crossword puzzle fabric, there is usually some floating around on eBay/Etsy, or you can try Spoonflower — details of the fabric I used are here.

The Hundred Dresses: Day 92

September 2, 2013 Erin6 Comments

Today is a twofer; here’s dress 1:

This is McCall’s 8484, which I think I also made once in a striped seersucker version that didn’t survive. I don’t wear this that much because the bodice is a bit blousy for my taste. It definitely needs a belt. I used to wear it with a cream-and-green faux zebra-stripe sash, which sounds ridiculous but actually worked.

I do really like the collar:

Side zip, eh:

The pockets are actual lining material, which I don’t really ever do unless I think they will show through — and this fabric is both pale enough and sheer enough that I thought it would:

I didn’t do a very good job on the back neck, although it was one of my favorite features of the pattern:

This is one of my favorite Liberty prints — I wish I knew the name of it! — and I have a standing bounty on it, let me know if you have any to sell. So when I went back to the UK in 2007, I bought some more and made this:

I can’t find the pattern this was made from — I know I made another version in gray sateen that I abandoned halfway through as it ended up looking like the uniform of someone enslaved in a Magdalene laundry. It was all about the midriff band, which is kind of beside the point in a fabric this busy:

The back is also gathered for a little bit of a train effect:

Here’s a closer look at the bodice — I liked the curve of the v-neck, too:

And the side zip:

Man, I wish I had more of this fabric …

The Hundred Dresses: Day 91

September 1, 2013 Erin2 Comments

Here’s another McCall’s 8858, which I made back in 2008:

I really love this fabric, even if it wasn’t the best choice for these facings:

This was one of the first side-zip-and-pocket combos I ever did, if I recall correctly. So it’s a bit wonky:

And the back had to be piece, because I didn’t have quite enough fabric.

I wish I had more grass-green dresses. They’re so happy and restful. And since I hide on St. Patrick’s Day anyway, I can usually minimize the risk of being mistaken for a leprechaun.

The Hundred Dresses: Day 90

August 31, 2013 Erin3 Comments

Another mystery dress, I’m afraid:

Seriously, I have no idea about this one. Don’t remember the pattern, don’t remember the fabric, don’t remember what occasion it was made for. Nada. If I drank I’d be worried that this was the product of some sewing blackout:

Center front seam — but no facing or fastening to justify it! The mystery continues:

Placket zipper, so probably before 2008:

Seams are way off:

And the whole back:

I’m not even sure why I kept this, I’m not even that enamored of the fabric. The whole thing is a puzzlement.

The Hundred Dresses: Day 89

August 30, 2013 Erin7 Comments

This is no longer a mystery dress pattern — it is Advance 6675 So that’s settled.

It has that nice deep shaping pleat in the front:

Which I didn’t quite match:

Side zip, eh. At this point I almost feel that if you’ve seen one of my side zips, you’ve seen them all:

Pocket lining, very boring:

And the back:

This is definitely another of the dresses that maintains its place in my hoard solely because the fabric is wonderful. I love those little balloon-wielding Keystone Kops dudes …

The Hundred Dresses: Day 88

August 29, 2013 Erin5 Comments

This is dress is 1) Butterick 2344, and 2) wrong:

It’s the same pattern as Day 66, and suffers from some of the same problems that were due to my inexperience, plus a few extra that can be attributed to me picking the wrong fabric, like this roly-poly facing here:

There’s not enough understitching in the WORLD to keep this heavy pique from rolling. I could have superglued it down and it still would have rolled.

It’s ironic that the one thing I love about this dress is it’s fatal flaw — see how gorgeous this fabric is? It’s not its fault that I made it into the wrong thing:

Trying to put a regular zipper in was rage-inducing — this here is the point where I said “I’ll just wear a sweater over it“:

And here’s the whole back:

I’d like to say that I keep this dress around as an object lesson in not letting your fabric and pattern be star-crossed lovers, but really I keep it around because … I still like it. I think “oh maybe if I …” then I take it out and fondle it for a bit, and then I get distracted by a dress I can actually make/fix/wear and then back it goes into the suspended-animation storage tub. I should really cut up that huge heavy skirt and turn it into dresses for my nieces, who are now just at the age where little shift dresses (which would be GREAT in this fabric) are perfect.

Oh — in The-Hundred-Dresses-the-book news, did everyone see the perfect essay by John Waters on The Sack Dress in this month’s Bazaar? Unfortunately I can’t find it online, but it’s well worth grabbing the physical (US) magazine for.

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