Princess Anna Coronation Gown

This was one of those ridiculous projects that I convinced myself had to be done.  My daughter is in Brownies and when I first found out the troop's winter sleepover camp was Frozen-themed I vaguely thought about making a dress up dress.  I dismissed the idea though since it was camp after all; not a place for dress up clothes!  But then the week before camp, the leader sent out the itinery: it included a coronation feast in which the girls were invited to wear their fanciest dress!

So I started on Monday night and finished the final steps (the painting on the bodice) just before we ran out the door to camp on Friday.  I work full time and am not a fast seamstress so I was just happy to get it finished.  And now I'm trying really hard to ignore the fact that the sleeves don't match up with the bodice and the pleats are uneven, lol!

Pattern: Vogue 7681, cost $9.03US

Fabric: cotton velour from Fabricland, approx. $20, chiffon for the sleeves $1.70

Zipper, elastic, gold accents: stash

Fabric paint: on hand (Canucks green from a shirt I made for my husband plus some purple and blue)

Total: approx. $30

Vogue 1387 View A . . . and my first attempt at dyeing fabric

I've had this fabric for oh about a year.  It's a cotton-silk blend from Dharma Trading Co. but although it's not overly lightweight, it was fairly sheer.  Since I dislike wearing layers, every time I would pull it out to make something I would end up putting it away.

Late last Saturday night, I was itching to make something for myself -- we had been away from home for over three weeks and the weeks leading up to our trip were taken up with sewing flower girl dresses -- so I pulled this fabric out once again.  I couldn't find anything that would work for a lining, so I decided spur of the moment to dye it. My husband offered to at least do the dishes before I started but I just pushed everything to the side and pulled out my stock pot and dye.  I wasn't really sure what I was doing and I definitely used way too much dye (1 1/2 tsps for 2 yards of fabric) but the only casualty of the whole experience was the wooden spoon I used to stir, now permanently blue.  Not bad considering that I'm a horribly messy cook and was not at all organized.  (I once mangled the blade to my mom's stand mixer -- I put the spatula down on the mess on the counter.  When I picked it up again I didn't notice that a pencil stuck to it so it ended up in the mix.  Oops!)

This is Vogue 1387.  I bought this pattern for view B and actually started that one months ago.  I like it but it's waiting for snaps. Sometimes -- especially late at night -- it's more fun to start a new project than sew on snaps!

Here are the changes I made:
I cut the front on the fold along the centre front to eliminate the wrap.  There are a few nice versions online but the fact that even the pattern cover has the blouse tacked in place turned me off.  I added a button hole to the front before I sewed up the casing so that I could still include the tie.

I had some trouble with the underarm insets (a quick look at patternreview.com showed me that I wasn't the only one!).  The instructions would have you sew up the side seam and then the armbands and then you're supposed to somehow fit the gusset neatly in place.  Doesn't work.  I tried three times!  Didn't help that the notches for the gusset are not correct and the armbands are too long.  So instead of sewing the side seams all the way, sew only to the circle so that when you add the armbands they're enclosed in the seam. Trim off the excess armbands and ignore the notches on the insert.  Once I did that it was easy.

Overall, I like it.  I'd like to make it again but with some changes:
- lower the neckline slightly
- add an inch or so to the bodice so the ties hit me lower on the body
- use a fabric with even more drape

Vogue 1247 - Top, take 2

I wavered for ages before cutting out this top -- I love the colour but was worried it would read "scrubs".   I'm still not convinced it doesn't but I do like the style of this pattern.  The only changes I made from the the last time was to add yet another inch, this time to the bottom pieces.  I think the length is good for me now.

The fabric is Kaffe Fassett in Aegean from Mad About Patchwork.  It's soft and light and easy to work with but I don't know if I would recommend it for clothes.  I made this top before going away and I've only worn it a couple of times but it's already starting to pill.  I've found the same thing with my Tova.  It's a bummer because I'm not really big on prints but I find a flat solid colour is, well, flat while shot cottons have such lovely variations.  Still, it's a nice light summer top that's not a t-shirt so it's a win!

Vogue 8581

This is the top I was hoping for when I made the Honey Blouse (here and here).  The vogue pattern specifies two way stretch knit but I don't really see why you couldn't use a woven -- there are no closures but the neckline is wide enough even if the fabric doesn't stretch.  Although my measurements are more like 18, I cut this in size 16  and I think it fits fairly well.  It's missing the little details of the Honey Blouse -- the twisted neck band and the ties but those would be easy to add.

It's from the Very Easy Vogue line and that is true -- there are 5 pattern pieces and not even one full page of directions.  The only thing that was time consuming was sorting out the gathers on the neckline and then hand (!!) sewing the neck binding down.  The hand sewing sort of surprised me. Although it gives a nice finish on the inside, machine stitching it would make this top that much quicker to make (and it's already a really quick sew). 

The pattern calls for 3/4" elastic.  I had enough for the arms but used 1/2" for the waist and I think I like it better -- I think the larger size is unnecessary. 

The fabric is a cotton lycra knit from Girl Charlee.  It's slightly heavier than I think would be ideal for this top but I wanted to try out the pattern.  They seem to be sold out of it now but it was $11.50 for 2 yards and I think it was something crazy like 70 inches wide.  I have enough left over for another top. 

I used a twin needle to sew the side seams, which gives a bit of stretch and a very cool looking stitch underneath.  I used my walking foot for everything else -- once I figured out how to put it on, lol.  I use it quite a bit but I guess I was tired when I started and I couldn't figure it out.  It took me walking away and doing something else before I realized the reason it wouldn't fit was because the presser foot was down.  Duh.

Vogue 1247 - Skirt

I'd read lots of great reviews about this skirt but now that mine's done I'm underwhelmed.  I think the linen that I used (this one) is a bit too heavy for the pockets -- they sort of droop.  I had planned to make them out of the voile I used for the binding until I looked at the pieces and realized that the front yoke and the back of pockets are the same piece.  I should have at least cut the front from voile to make it a bit lighter.

I'm also not sure it's the most flattering cut for me, although it might be alright with a different top.  The fit is good and the only changes I made were to to the length -- I added about 5 inches.  The original length is short.  I don't think I would've even worn it that short in my teens let alone my 30s!

The suggestions for finishing this skirt make it quite lovely inside, too bad no one will ever see it!

I obviously had a bit of trouble with my hem being visible even though I slipstitched it (and my stitches were quite small).   How else could I have done it?

Vogue 1247 - Top

I was intrigued by this pattern when I saw this classy top in silk crepe de chine at Sallieoh.  And this lovely one in orange shot cotton at Handmade by Carolyn.  Then I went into Fabricland, and Vogue patterns were on sale so it seemed like fate :).

But after I traced the pattern, it sat on my sewing table for at least six weeks until the spring top sewalong over at Made by Rae gave me the kick in the pants I needed. 

After reading reviews regarding the excessive ease of this top, I cut a size 14. I also added an inch in the length but really should've added two as I'm long waisted and this top is really short (to go with the excessively short skirt included in the pattern, I guess!)

The fabric is a swiss dot cotton voile from Girl Charlee.  It's very light, which is pretty much a requirement for this pattern as the instructions specify French seams for every seam.  And a whole whack of seams merge in the middle (I know they don't line up but there was no way I was going to pick them all out and try again after getting it all sewn together).

I didn't follow the directions for the french seams, by the way -- it says to sew at 3/8", trim and then sew 1/4" from the seam line.  I was being lazy and could not face trimming Every. Single. Seam so I sewed at 1/4" and then again at just shy of 3/8".  I got halfway through when I realized that trimming would've made my seams much smaller and on a top like this where you can see the seams through the fabric, that might have been nice ;).  Despite the French seams, this top came together really quickly and the instructions were pretty easy to follow.

The verdict in my house is that the fabric is thumbs down (too old-lady-ish) but that the top is *interesting*, if a bit baggy around the chest.  I think I need a couple more pleats to fix the crazy boxy thing going on in the chest area.  Next time, I would also forgo the seam down the back -- I had enough fabric to cut it on the fold and should have just gone with my gut.