The Easter Dress (By Hand London Flora Dress)

March 28, 2016 by Ashley ♥ 5 Comments

It’s cool how my hair totally decided to cooperate.

Have I ever talked about my deep and long standing love of wrap tops? No? Well, I fucking love them. They are the most flattering bodice type I’ve worn, and I’ve tried everything! If you’re a repeat reader, you know I love a low cut top. So when I saw the By Hand London Flora Dress, it was almost as if they were in my head. A plunging neckline! A full, pleated skirt!! Swoon.

All of the pictures are horribly grainy and weird, and I’m sorry.

Now, the Flora dress comes with an absolutely love skirt, but I was determined to use this border print fabric. The Flora skirt has a curved hem, and that just wasn’t going to work here. I knew I wanted to keep it pleated, so I opted to use the Butterick B5317 by Maggy London as a template. I’ve made it before, so it seemed like a good starting point. It ended up being a bit big, so I ended up doing a few gathers to make it fit the bodice. This caused a weird bunching effect on the skirt back pieces, so I unpicked the pleats a bit. Also, since the skirt has pleats all around, that meant I had to switch to a side zip. I hate side zips, but what can you do? Oh! The skirt pattern also features pockets, and obviously, I had to leave those in!

To compensate for the change, I just stitched the back and one side in the same manner as the Kim Dress. To get the border print where I wanted it on the dress, I had to ignore the grainline suggestions when cutting my pieces. Luckily, this didn’t totally screw me. Whew!! Other than those things, I made no changes. I do, however, think I should have moved the bottom bust dart over just a tiny bit. If after a few washes it’s not too tight, I will size down future bodices just a hair. Otherwise, I would change nothing.

I’m actually pretty excited to sew this with it’s intended skirt, probably in a black sateen? I will definitely be making this again, probably several times! Happy sewing 🙂

A Wearable Muslin & the Sewing blahs (Grainline Morris Blazer)

March 25, 2016 by Ashley ♥ 2 Comments

This post contains my bitches faces yet.

Have you ever just completely lost your will to sew? You’re halfway through a garment and just can’t bring yourself to finish it? Let’s say that you have. What’s up with that!?!? I’d been wanting to sew this Morris Blazer for quite sometime, and it’s not particularly difficult sew, why get so blah about it? I’ll admit that it is a bit boring in plain gray, and I really don’t love sewing knits, but still!

Swear I'm going to stop posting pictures of the backs of garments. Ugh. — Swear I’m going to stop posting pictures of the backs of garments. Ugh.

I opted for plain gray for this, because I wanted to wear it to work. I cover up my arms everyday, so I needed something that would blend with multiple garments. Originally, I had planned to wear this to the Brian Fallon show I went to in Chicago, but I really dragged my feet and didn’t get it done. Instead, I wore the peplum top I made 23984783974 years ago. Btw, if you’re interested, I met a photograph who took fucking FABULOUS photos of that show, which you can see here.

We also took cheesy bathroom photos because it made our eyeballs look weird. But hey, lace peplum!

Back to the blazer. Since I was afflicted with a terrible case of the sewing blahs, I kinda rushed this. And as the fabric is a gray ponte I got at Joann’s for a steal, I decided to just treat this like a muslin. Which, in a way, was fortunate, because I have a few changes to make. For starters, the shoulders are too wide and need to be taken in a bit, which I really need to remember to do on anything with sleeves. The sleeves are also too roomy for me and will have to be taken in. I’d add 1-2 inches to length overall, except for the sleeves, where I’ve already added 3 inches. I think it would be a bit sturdier if it was fully lined, and clearly, I need to do a better job sewing it. Those sleeve gathers are awful, and the top stitching is complete shit.

"Wow, that's some wonky stitching" — “Wow, that’s some wonky stitching”

I don’t blame the pattern for any of the issues, it has definitely been a user error! And I’ll absolutely still wear it to work, of course. I really do wear all my me-mades, even if they’re kinda garbage. I have some fun things to sew soon, so hopefully I can kick the sewing blues. Also, I know I haven’t posted lately, but I swear I’ve been sewing. Check out this quick skirt I made for St. Patrick’s day, based on the By Hand London Kim dress!

It’s fun, right? Hopefully my next post brings us back to quirky fun sewing projects. Also, progress posts on my Halloween costume are coming soon, so that’s exciting. Happy sewing 🙂

Nita Wrap Skirt (Sew DIY pattern tester)

March 8, 2016 by Ashley ♥ 3 Comments

Early morning picture taking gives me bitch face

I’ve been wanting to make more skirts lately, so when the opportunity to test the Nita wrap skirt for Sew DIY came up, it seemed like a no brainer. The pattern (when released), will come in three lengths, mini, midi, and maxi. In a move that was a surprise to precisely no one, I chose the mini. Midi lengths look awkward on me, and the mini seemed just long enough to wear at work, with tights. As for the maxi, that I’ll save for summer.

For maybe two years, I’ve had this navy poly satin sitting in my stash. A look back at my old Fabric.com orders tells me that it’s called Roselyn satin, though they have none remaining on their site. I really like this fabric, it’s more of a medium/heavy weight material, and therefore sews beautifully. I usually avoid satin, as I really hate flimsy, slippery fabric. Also, I felt like a sturdier material would give this a bit of a Clara Oswald feel. I have no idea why I think that, honestly.

Navy fabric is really hard to photograph when you’re no good at photography, btw. I feel like you can’t see any of the details or really anything at all. Very frustrating. I did try to edit them a bit to make it more visible, hopefully it worked. I really actually like the skirt!! I was just kind of winging it on the button placement, so that’s not as good as it could be. Based on my waist size, I cut a size 12, and opted to make the lined version. I used the same fabric for lining, as it’s a wrap and you can sometimes see the insides. I think I should have used a thinner fabric, it has a bit too much volume as is. I toyed with the idea of doing an unlined version, and finishing the insides with black bias tape. Totally should have done that!

I’m actually wearing this skirt right now, so I’m calling it a success. I’m not someone who needs things to be perfect, I just have to like it. Stay tuned for the pattern release, it should be coming soon!! Happy sewing 🙂

Sewn by Ashley

Month: March 2016

The Easter Dress (By Hand London Flora Dress)

A Wearable Muslin & the Sewing blahs (Grainline Morris Blazer)

Nita Wrap Skirt (Sew DIY pattern tester)