The Hundred Dresses: Day 77

August 18, 2013 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 …

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

Yellow buttons again. I really like yellow 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:

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:

I topstitched the collar, for pretty much no reason:

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!

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

The Hundred Dresses: Day 76

August 17, 2013 Erin3 Comments

I had really high hopes for this Heidi:

I love the pink and red and gray colorway:

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

Pockets, lined in batiste:

Side zip:

The whole dress is lined in batiste, actually:

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

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:

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

August 16, 2013 Erin4 Comments

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

It is a really fun dress, isn’t it?

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

The collar turned out okay, not great:

The sleeves:

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:

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

Here’s the 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

August 15, 2013 Erin8 Comments

This is my absolute favorite Vogue 9929:

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:

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:

The side zip is just ‘eh’:

And the 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

August 14, 2013 Erin11 Comments

I made this dress back in 2007:

Here’s a closeup view of the 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:

And pocket detail:

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

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

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

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

The Hundred Dresses: Day 72

August 13, 2013 Erin9 Comments

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

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

Here’s the side zip:

And the 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?

The Hundred Dresses: Day 71

August 12, 2013 Erin13 Comments

This dress was an indulgence:

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

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:

And the yoke stitching 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:

Here’s the 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:

And here’s the back:

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

The Hundred Dresses: Day 70

August 11, 2013 Erin7 Comments

This dress is a mystery:

I mean, it’s not a mystery as to why I made it — I love this fabric and I remember it going together very easily — it’s a mystery as to what pattern I used. I can picture the front of the pattern very clearly — two women, one in pink, maybe? I think it was an Advance pattern, too. (Okay perhaps I can’t picture it all that clearly.)

I know I wore this to a friend’s wedding, and that the wedding was in Iowa.

I think I bought the fabric from eQuilter.

I thought this dress would go with EVERYTHING because of all the colors in the print, but I pretty much end up just wearing it with a white or black cardigan, because getting an exact match to any of these colors has proven quite difficult. But it’s still a cheerful dress, and the bodice is very comfortable. I’d make it again if I could only figure out what it was!

The Hundred Dresses: Day 69

August 10, 2013 Erin6 Comments

There’s only a month left of dresses! Here’s today’s, another inhabitant of the depths of my closet:

This is one of those dresses that is really all about the print and the trim. I know I still have this pattern somewhere, but I have no idea where it is. It was so much fun to find the piping and binding:

Here’s a full view:

And a closeup of the sleeve binding:

And I really love this print. I know I bought it on eBay, probably back in 2005.

Side zip:

I made this dress back in 2007, maybe 2006. It’s interesting to take it out and look at it now — I feel like my sewing skills have progressed a lot since then. For example, I don’t think I would have done this:

Full back view:

The Hundred Dresses: Day 68

August 9, 2013 Erin2 Comments

Okay, here’s the other Simplicity 2180 I made, from the vintage bicycle fabric I wrote about here:

The piping is far more even on this one:

At the midriff, too:

A few little stitches here I have to clean up:

But unfortunately here is the real problem — I started the side zipper too low, and the bodice was too tight, so — disaster:

To fix this, I am going to have to take out the zipper and reinforce that weak spot with a patch, AND redo the side seam and piping on the OTHER side (in order to make it fit). Or just lose about 10 pounds. At this point, I’m not sure which would be easier. And did I mention that the fabric (being vintage) is a bit fragile? Just contemplating fixing this one makes me want to go lie down …

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