Moneta Party Moneta (Colette Moneta, duh)

Moneta Party Moneta (Colette Moneta, duh)

The dreaded nose profile

For someone who’s not very good at using it, I am obsessed with Instagram. I am constantly stalking Doctor Who pages and envying the sewing skills of other sewcialists. During my cyber stalking, I’ve come across many a Moneta, each of them adorable, but I am not much of a knit sewist. Then Elle of Sew Positvitiy posted about the Moneta Party she helped start, and suddenly, I needed a Moneta.

I tried to cover my giant leg bruise, clearly that didn’t work

I have a very hard time finding knits locally. I basically have Joann’s, and their knit selection always leaves me wanting. There are a few small local boutique-type fabric stores, but quite a few are exclusively quilting, or the hours are just impossible for me. So to the interwebs I went. I ended up on the Craftsy site, where they were having a fantastic clearance sale. I picked out this fun bird print that I used for my Moneta, plus two other knits, all at a steal.

Swish

Colette offered a 20% discount, and I used a random black swim fabric from the stash for the bodice lining and collar. I probably have $30 invested in this dress, including the reusable pattern. Making things even better, I probably only have three hours of work in this dress. I pieced it together in little bursts of sewing activity, max of an hour, most 30 minutes or so. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Honesty time: I actually did take back photos, but I hate the way my arms look.

Moneta really is as easy as everyone says. My main frustrations were all fabric related. Cutting this slippery, drapey fabric on my glass kitchen table was no picnic. Also this fabric presses like shit, and by that I mean it pretty much doesn’t. When it came to stitching the bodice and lining together at the armholes, I ended up using wonder clips instead of relying on pressing. Just clipped it together, then flipped it, adjusted the clips, and stitched. I know that doesn’t make sense if you don’t have the pattern, but hopefully if you do, you can picture it.

If you’d stalked me on Instagram, you would have already seen this one

The only thing I didn’t really love about the pattern was attaching the collar. The neckline seams aren’t really all tucked inside, just hidden under the collar. I have no idea how I expected it to be done, really, so it’s not much of a gripe. I also loathe sewing with clear elastic, but you can’t deny the benefits of it, so I’ll keep that to myself. I realize I didn’t get any decent photos of the collar, my bad. I really REALLY need to take a photography class or something. Overall, though, this was a fun sew and a really comfortable, flattering garment. Big thanks to the lovely Triple Stitchers for the motivation, and for giving me a new hashtag to stalk! Happy sewing 🙂

The Purple Rain Dress (By Hand London Flora Dress)

The Purple Rain Dress (By Hand London Flora Dress)

The aesthetic of these photos is a lot more “goth-ish hipster in a basement” than I intended.

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? My apologies for that, January is not my favorite month. Now that we’re through with apologies, the dress. The pattern is the Flora Dress from By Hand London. I’ve made it before, and you can see some pretty terrible photos of that dress here. We all know I have a love affair with this pattern company, and also cleavage, so it was only a matter of time before I made this again.

Cameo by the camera battery charger.

For this version, I opted to use this stretch velvet I found at Joann. Velvet seems very on trend lately (have I ever been on trend?), and I’ve recently started a love affair with stretch wovens. Since making my Christmas party dress in stretch satin, I feel like I’ve entered a whole new world. No zippers!! Satin and velvet are both difficult fabrics (MORE ON THAT SHIT LATER), so I jumped on the chance to avoid trying to install a zipper.

Look ma! No zip

The Flora dress has a lined bodice, and I really debated on what to use. I didn’t want to use the velvet because boob sweat is a thing, but I still needed something with stretch. In the end, I opted for the previously mentioned stretch black satin. Folks, that was a fucking stupid choice. Imagine, if you will, sewing shifty velvet to slippery satin. I shouted. I drank wine. All to no avail. In the end, I had to concede that my sewing skills were just not really up to the task, and accepted some garment flaws. I REALLY wanted to finish this garment, you guys, so I refused to be defeated. Now, you may be thinking to yourself “But Ashley, it’s not finished! You haven’t even hemmed it!” You’d be right. I was a good sewist and let it hang over night, with every intention to hem it the next day after work. But…I just wasn’t up to it. You see, velvet needs to be hemmed by hand, and we all know hand sewing isn’t my favorite. I will mostly likely even out and hem Flora this weekend, I swear.

Wiiiinnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeee

For construction, I just did everything from memory, I didn’t look at the instructions at all. I assembled the bodice and lining, except for the side seams, and then attached them along the neckline and armholes. I then pulled the fabric through and stitched the side seams in one long seam. Easy peasy. I cut a US 10, which is my usual size in BHL. Normally I shorten the straps, but here I didn’t, I think they’re ok. When it came to basting the front bodice pieces together, I totally ignored the pattern markings. I slipped the bodice on, and just went with what I was comfortable with. Kind of just overlapped them and pinned it in place.

I somehow took no side view photos of this, my bad.

For the skirt, I sewed the pleats and attached the pieces as normal, except for the zipper situation. When it came time to attach the skirt to the bodice, I broke my walking foot 😭 I’ve gotta stop buying cheap shitty ones off Amazon. As a consequence, the side seams and pleats don’t really line up. WHATEVER MAN. I also struggled with finishing the waist seam, because velvet+lining+darts+pleats=mega bulky seams. I tried to trim the bulk as well as I could and hand turned the wheel through the rough bits.

In addition to no side views, I also set my tripod WAY too low. Well done, self.

Speaking of bulk, I think all those folded and wrapped layers make the waist area look bulkier than it should. If I was a smart girl, I would have slashed the darts open and trimmed the bulk then. I did not do that, because derp. I’m super self conscious about my waist size anyway, so this added bulk was really bumming me out. To combat that, I put a corset on underneath my dress. Not only did it help my waistline, it also made my boobs look extra fantastic. Overall, I don’t hate the results. It’s not the best made garment, but for something to get my out of my sewing funk, it’s not so bad. It’s good to have my sewjo back!! Happy sewing 🙂