Moya's Wedding Dress

A few months ago a dear friend asked me to make her wedding dress.  I was delighted!  She had a favorite outfit (a skirt and top) from Africa that I took a pattern off of.

 I measured the dress and took notes on construction.

Tracing the skirt panels with a sharp tracing wheel.

Cutting out the finished pattern!

The lovely fabric

The finished dress!!  It fit her perfectly and suited her so well!!  

Go HERE to see my post about the wedding!

Vintage Sewing Patterns on Fabric...

I found these three fabrics when I went to the quilt meeting a couple weeks ago.   Now I am trying to figure out the what to make with them; such a fun 'dilemma'!   I don't want to cut them up in small pieces...

Any ideas? :-)

Sewing Inspiration: 1940's Sailor Dresses

I found some lovely photographs taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt for LIFE magazine of sailor dresses from the 1940's.  Aren't they lovely?!  (The top image is my favorite!)

These pictures make me feel like sewing summer dresses!  

Pillows!

I've been in a pillow making spree the past few days!  They are all made from scraps of home decorating fabric a friend gave me.  The deer head applique was an idea I saw on Pinterest.  I am planning on trying a moose silhouette next...and then maybe a horse...and then...who knows! :)



Two Dresses, One Pattern

I recently finished two summer dresses using Simplicity 2588. 

Version #1

Version #2

The changes I did:

 Lengthened the skirt 9", 

Took a slightly smaller side seams in version #1 and for version #2 I just added a bit to the side seam before I cut it out.  I think next time I'll take some width off at the center front since the princes seams don't quite fall in the right place, and it seems like the smaler sizes leave the seam in almost the same place.

The dress only took 2 and 3/4 yards of fabric!! 

I love this pattern!!

Turning 3 Dresses into 8 Pillows!

 

A few weeks ago our neighbor asked me to make pillows out of some of her 'old' bridesmaids dresses. Above are the 3 dresses that I had to work with.  She had ideas of what she wanted and some pictures, which really helped me know what she liked. :-)

 The bodice of the red dress had this lovely beading on the front, part of which ended up....

 ...on the front one of the pillows!

 These are two pillows made from the red dress...

..and 2 pillows made from the red and cream dresses.

 

 The 4 pillows from the blue and the cream dresses.

 Close up of one pillow.

 And here is a close up of the dress where the blue fabric came from.

It was a lot of work and took longer than I thought it would, but it was fun to be creative and come up with different designs. :)

...Spirals...

I was looking through a book from the library a couple weeks ago and enjoying the creative ways they used knit fabric to embellish garments. They showed a sundress that had spirals sewn all over the skirt, which I though was a neat idea.  Then I remembered a blue skirt in my closet with a few little stains on the front that would not come out.  So I thought, "Why not cover them up with spirals?"  I had a pink T-shirt that was too big for me, so I cut circles out of it and cut them into spirals.  

I also added some black ones.  

Just for fun.

 

I set to work happily pinning then all over the front and around one side of the skirt...what fun!  Once I started sewing them on I realized it wasn't so easy to hand sew through two layers of knit fabric.  But it was fun to work on anyway, it just took longer than I thought it would!  (And I ended up with a curved sewing needle at the end!)

The finished skirt!  I really like it!  =)

Now I have my eye out for other things I can sew spirals onto.....hmmm...

Sewing a Vintage Pattern!

 Last week I was feeling the urge to sew a Summer Dress.  (For some reason this often happens to me in January.)  I pulled out my collection of vintage patterns and decided to make this sundress.  

This was the first time I've put a zipper in a side seam, which was a bit confusing since I kept thinking that was the back of the dress, which is where I usually put zippers.  But other than that, this was a fun, easy, project!

 Since I'm not one for wearing sleeveless dresses, I was going to make a bolero to wear with it.  But then I remembered this white sweater that I have, which works very well.  I think I still might make a black bolero though....someday. 

Oh yes, and one other thing!  I had found a 'puffy' slip at a thrift store last summer that I am wearing under the dress; it helps the full skirt stand out more. It also makes a delicious rustling sound when I walk! 

  I'm guessing that this is a 1950's pattern, due to the fullness of the skirt, but I am not sure.  There is no date on the pattern.  Any ideas anyone??

 I love this dress!

...a summer dress in winter....

I had to laugh today when I realized I was working on sewing a summer dress on one of the coldest days of the year!  And it is snowing out.  Did I mention I am sewing a SUMMER dress?

Well, it's one of those old patterns farm wives could send for and get in the mail, that I found at a garage sale one year.  I love the style and thought I'd give it a try.  Makes me hopeful that warm weather is indeed coming soon!  :)

Fixing and Patching

The patch, ready to be sewn on.

Last week a neighbor asked if I would be willing to fix her brother's badly torn Carhartt Coveralls.  I like to mend things so I was happy to try.  They are bulky and heavy, so I felt like I was in wrestling match, but it was a fun challenge. =)

Replacing the top of one of the back pockets.

Finished!!  =)