the amazing garden gate dress

at long last an actual <gasp> post!  and one about the much-seen simplicity 2174.  this is one of their amazing fit patterns and, well, what can i say?  amazing!

i feel like the pictures just don't do it justice, and i sincerely hope that i'm right.  seattle likes to bounce between rainy and cold and 70 and sunny... all in the same day.  that makes it a little difficult to dress for the weather.  layers people; it's all.about.layers.  

ohh, yeah.  i was saying: the sun really bleached out the pretty pattern on this dress.  it's a light grey background with a darker grey iron work design and purple flowers; thus the name "garden gate."  it's quite pretty.  it was originally a sheet, but i don't think that's super apparent.  i do think that there is a store somewhere with a bunch of really cool sheets.  mine are pretty boring in comparison.

the pockets on this pattern are amazing!  even more amazing than the fit (which is also pretty amazing).  it's a princess seam dress with different pieces for each cup size.  there are a million pieces with this pattern, but don't fear; you won't be cutting out very many of them.  the pockets are part of the front side skirt pieces.  when i made this dress the first time (just cool your jets, there'll be a post about it someday, too) i was just amazed.  in all seriousness my mind was TOTALLY . BLOWN.  i walked around showing everyone who would listen: "look at these pockets.  can you even believe how awesome these are?  they're set right into the seams and everything!" 

yes.  i'm easily entertained.  it's the small things in life, people.  cherish the small things.

as a brief aside: whenever i wear these boots my husband calls me puss in boots.  that's a real confidence booster right there.  i've reached a point in my life, though, where i'd rather be mobile than look good in my high heels.  therefore the high heels are on vacation.  indefinite vacation.  boo.  maybe someday...

what's that?  a foe!  sneaking up behind me

phew!  just the boy stealing the spotlight as usual.  and hey, look, i made his shirt =D

what's that?  a sword!  apparently he thinks i look like puss in boots as well.

this is actually one of those epic fails i mentioned a few ages weeks ago.  i put on the dress and realized i couldn't move my arms.  like AT ALL!!!   in a moment of desperation i hacked the sleeves off and applied a little bias tape here and there.  unfortunately....

i could go on but i think the picture speaks for itself.  yikes.  between the seam allowance that were cut off and the new ones for the bias tape there was just too much removed.  

yup, pretty bad from the back too.  these pictures were taken at the end of a long work day so scuze the wrinkles.  all things considered, though, i don't think it's that bad.  i did do a swayback adjustment on this dress.  normally it's not that wrinkled but again, work.  

ooh, zipper.  long and handpicked, as a matter of fact.  as you may be able to see from the distribution of wrinkles, some of those are actually permanent and i'm not sure why. because the pieces weren't sewn together quite right i assume...  there's also a strange burn? on front of the bodice.

fortunately i didn't spring for or spend time on lining.  i do wear a slip/cami with the dress, but what with the sleeve debacle i'm glad i didn't waste my time.  the seams are all french or bound with bias.  perhaps that's why the wrinkles?  can you french seam princess seams?  well obviously you can but whether or not it's advisable i won't speculate upon here.  i do like the cheery yellow bias tape.  it's like my fun little secret ;-)

i love this dress.  i have two from this pattern now and i always feel awesome when i wear them.  they're so fancy yet functional (yes that is a thing) and about as comfortable as a dress this fitted can be.  amazing?  yup.  amazing.  i want to make so many more of these.  unfortunately other things beckon (i'm looking at you karen and your awesome pajama party.  i'll be there.)

so there you have it.  i have been making things.  told ya!

purple pantomime

Nothing about this involves a pantomime.  It's just a word I enjoy and I thought you would, too.  You're welcome.

I could lie and pretend like this is a different pattern, but would you believe me?  This is, in fact, yet another rendition of the Darling Ranges pattern.  What can I say?  I'm stuck.  It's a nice basic pattern that is easily adaptable.  As you can see this time I've taken it up a notch and added a collar.

I still haven't looked into the swayback adjustment, though.  Nor have I bothered to wash, de-lint, or iron this dress.  My bad.  Let's move on though, shall we?

Yes my legs are really that white.  Welcome to Seattle.

I've gone with an A-line skirt again with pockets (gotta have pockets) and used the collar from   Butterick B5030.  The collar came out... erm... bigger? pointier? than expected.  It's okay though I guess.  I might modify it next time (yes, roll your eyes if you must, but there shall be at least one more of these).

This is my pensive face.  Thinking of all the darlings to come...

One thing I didn't do but I wish I had is interface the button bands.  I did that on my last rendition which you actually haven't seen yet (yes there's another one!) and it really makes a huge difference.  The material is heavy enough I didn't think it needed it but I'm adult enough to admit when I'm wrong.

I suppose a good blogger would've ironed out the most obvious wrinkles first.

The Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing is one of the few sewing books I have (for realz guys I've got 3 all together!) and I've been working on reading through it.  It's a big book, so it's quite the endeavor.  I used all the info it had on rolled collars, though, and I'm glad I did.  It actually recommended stitching the seam allowance just to the under collar, which I considered but obviously didn't do.  I couldn't figure stitching into that crazy point!  I just went for plain old topstitching instead.  Please don't laugh at my wonky stitches; my machine is old, that's the best I can get out of it.

I know I love to see the guts so here ya go.

Guts...  BRAINZZZ....

Check out how cute my pockets are!  I used contrast bias tape to finish the pocket edges and the neckline because, again, too lazy to be arsed with making self bias tape when I had some bias laying about.  The collar is just sewn to the neckline and then everything is finished as usual.  It's a nice, easy, clean finish.  Forget facings!

More guts.

Fabric: thrifted sheet.  I'm hoping to move onto real fabric sometime soon.  Up til now I've felt that my skills were far from doing justice to anything nice, but I'm building up some confidence.

Notions: thrifted buttons from the huge bag o' buttons for 99 cents and some bias tape scraps from other projects.

Pattern: Darling Ranges, as I've mentioned, with a self drafted skirt and pockets, collar from Butterick B5030

Time to Make: I've been working on this dress in spurts since Tuesday!

Make again: Must you ask?

This picture is totally unnecessary but I love it so I had to include it.  All the stitching is black with black buttons to match.  I'll pretend that this was a design element, but I was really just too lazy to go buy matching thread.  I actually ended up liking it.  Now my dress matches my shoes!

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this dress.  It could be a bit better, but it'll do.  Maybe I can do something about the button band later.  Perhaps my sewing book will give me the answer if I keep reading...

groovy

ok so maybe that was more of a 70's thing, I don't really know.  Then again, maybe this is more of a 70's bodice with a 50's skirt... but that averages out to be 60 so either way I'ma call it good for this week's sew weekly challenge.

This dress has been 90 % done for months.  All it lacked was neckline elastic and (dramatic dum dum dum) a hem.  The original pattern (vintage from the thrift, I think it's dated 1969) had a dirndl skirt but I thought I'd rather test drive this circle skirt thing I've been hearing so much about.

It needs to hang before hemming for... oh, I think one month probably would've done it.  But I like to be thorough so I let it hang for three.  I should've gotten a picture of it before I hemmed it; it was craaaazy uneven.  I couldn't figure out how to hem it without a dummy or a buddy.  My mom agreed to be my buddy but she didn't even wanna touch it it was so uneven so in stepped my dad, the former seamstress assistant.

I think it turned out pretty even.  I actually really like the way it came out, but it looks totally cray-cray without a belt.  It might as well be a separate blouse and skirt.  The top is jersey from a thrifted tee shirt and the skirt is a super soft sheet with lovely drape with a pale yellow, white, and brown geometric print (it's very subtle though so it doesn't quite show up in these pics).

I think this dress deserves a coordinating belt.  I'm on it!  Although I'm kinda likin' the contrast of the green...  I'm surprised but I really like this silhouette and I think there may be more circle skirts in the future.

The Facts:

Pattern: Simplicity 9164

Fabric: tee shirt and sheet, total cost $3.50

Notions: 1/4 inch elastic

Time to Complete: three months

First Worn: To the store

Wear again: Yes!