First time vintage: Butternick 9599

This months theme for the social sew is try something new. To be honest I didn't know what to make with this theme. So I waited for the inspiration post... and I still didn't know what to make. I'm not that interested in making jeans. I have tried a lot of tricky fabrics already, I just love all things silk. And faux fur is just not my style. 

I was already thinking of skipping this months social sew but then I remembered the half finished vintage dress that I started in June for the social sew but never finished. I bought Butternick 9599 for my first ever vintage dress! I think the pattern is from the early '60s. I chose the pattern because I liked the neckline so much. I also like the sleeves they have 3 little darts in them. I thought the dress looked vintage but still modern enough to be wearable. 

Because I had never made a vintage dress I choose to make a muslin of the top. I didn't make a lot of adjustments. I only lowered the darts a bit and shortened the skirt 20 cm. To be honest this dress took a lot longer to make than I anticipated. And needed so much fabric as in 2.5 m, making this one of my most expensive dresses. 

The fabric is a cotton blend with a bit elasthan. It has a tiny pattern in it that I love. The fabric is similar as the one that I used for my strapless dress.  It looks so wrinkled in these pictures, I did iron the dress before I took these. I can't iron the dress on a high setting because the fabric discolours. Lucky for me I did test this before I started pressing. 

I like the dress a lot but to be honest I'm not sure how often I will wear this. I still like the high neckline and the zigzag button front. Maybe I need to try and style this a different way? 

The details:
Pattern: Butternick 9599 
Fabric: Den Boom €45
zip: €3.65
buttons: free (grandmothers stash)

Black and white Ivy dress

I started working on this dress in December of last year. I ran out of seasonally appropriated fabrics so I decided to work on a summers dress. I cut out the fabric but never started sewing. It was way to cold to even think about a summer dress, so I left it until I came across the social sew hosted by Allie J. The dress I had planned fitted perfectly within the spring shower theme and it gave me the motivation to (finally) start sewing. It is still way to cold to wear it but at least it is ready to wear when the weather turns nice. 

I bought the fabric quite a while ago at the stoffen spektakel. Because of the print I never knew what to make form it. I wanted a dress but nothing with a seam at the waist breaking up the pattern. Most patterns that didn't have a horizontal seam at the waist had vertical darts and I didn't want that either. 

So when I saw this pattern in La Maison Victor I knew it was perfect for this pattern. As always I made a size 36. The only thing I did different are the slits in the side seams. I have rather wide hips and I could not get the dress over my hips. Because I didn't want to put the dress on and off by stepping in to it, I choose to make two slits. 

I love the low back but unfortunately it does show my bra strap at some moments. In the first photo it doesn't show but you can see it in the one below. I should find a solution for this, probably buy one of those extender straps that wrap around your waist.  

I tried to pattern match the fabric at the sides. But It didn't work well because the fabric was not symmetric. I folded the fabric in half there where the print was the narrowest. I put pins in the fabric after it was folded at the border of the print but the print didn't match. Nothing I could do about that. So I just centred the print in the front and the back, and didn't bother with the sides. One side looks good, the other one not so. The fabric was really cheap, 10€ for a coupon of 1,5 m. Maybe to be expected?

Now I just hope it gets warm enough soon so that I can wear it. It was so cold when I took those photos. 

The third version of the Lora dress

My third version of the Lora dress after the little black dress and the party dress here comes the cosy and warm wool version. It is the third one so I don't have a lot to say about the construction. I didn't add pockets because the fabric is rather stiff and because the dress is so fitted I never put anything in them anyway. 

The fabric is from the fabric sales in Rotselaar I went with my aunt, cousin and grandmother. I had never been before, but it was definitely worth it, al lot of gorgeous designer fabrics, mostly wool. Perfect because I need a lot more warm clothes, it is so cold at work. I loved the grey in to blue fadeout. My cousin and I both liked it so we bought 3.5 meters. For the two dresses. 

My cousin and I liked a lot of the same fabric. And we also like the same patterns... so we are going to have identical dresses! My grandmother and aunt used to sew identical clothes for my cousin, sister and me when we where little.  She tried on my Christmas party dress, and we concluded that we are the same size but because she is shorter then I am the bodice and skirt needed to be shortened. No need to trace the pattern in a different size for her! My aunt bribed me in to cutting out her dress as well. Who can say no to free fabric? 

What I learned by making this dress is how much of a difference fabric can make. I used the exact same pattern in the exact same size. But somehow  this dress is a lot smaller than my other dresses. I can get it on... but hardly move in it. It is just to constructing in the shoulder area ( you can see how tight it is in the last photograph). So that is to bad because I really love how it looks. I wore it once to the new years reception at work but I know that I will probably not wear it again. 

Harlequin dress

Okay today I have got for you the easiest dress that I have ever made. It all started with too little fabric... sounds familiar doesn't it. I bought a coupon of a meter of a very nice wool blend, in dark purple and navy, my two favourite colours. I again had the intention to make a skirt, again. But my grandmother told me that the fabric was woven to loosely to be suitable for a skirt. 

So I used the Harlequin pattern from La Maison Victor, the only dress that you can make with just one meter of fabric. It is the ideal dress pattern for beginners. You have to stitch the sides, the shoulders , add facing to the neckline and sleeves and hem it. They also have an explanation of how to attach bais binding, you have the option depending on your fabric choice. I finished it in a few hours, so it was brilliant. 

To be honest I didn't tink I was going to wear this dress at all, let alone blog about it. It just looks so shapeless on the hanger. But I have worn it a lot, whenever I don't know what to wear I just pick this dress. And that is always a pleasant surprise! The colours go well with nearly all of my clothes and it looks and fits so easy and relaxed. I love the  kimono sleeves, it makes the silhouette a bit more interesting. 

dress for the festive season: not black but more glitter

This is going to be the last post of 2015. 

This month I finally had the time and materials to participate in the sew it up monthly competition. The theme of this month was less black, more glitter. I had the perfect fabric for that, a dark blue wool and and polyester blend with a wide glittering border weave. I bought it as a coupon and it was only a 1 meter 20 centimeter long. When I bought it I had the intention of making a skirt. But then I decided it had to be a dress. I prefer dresses anyway and special for special occasions a dress feels more festive. 

So then I had to find a pattern dat I could make with only 1.2 meters of fabric. At first I thought it was going to be impossible. I didn't just want a straight tube/ A-line dress. But then I realised that if I altered the pattern for the Lora dress (my first version) a bit it could work. I also needed to be sure that the pattern would have the right length, shortening it would make the glittering border smaller. So I shortened the sleeves and didn't make any pockets. By doing this I just managed to squize the dress out of it. I made one big mistake, I cut the back bodice piece on the fold . But because I needed the zip in the back I had to cut it open. So I was left without a seam allowance for the zip. Fortunately the fabric had a bit of stretch to it so I just used a minimum seam allowance for the zip. The fabric is also really itchy, I lined the bodice and the skirt with a dark grey venezia lining. I was planning to line the entire dress including the sleeves. I tried but because the lining doesn't have stretch it was to restricting. So I just put up with the scratchy bits. It is worth it!!

I wore the dress for Christmas and my entire family loved it and I'm going to wear it again on new years eve. I just don't have the time to make more than one dress so I just wear the same one for the entire festive period. 

Best wishes for 2016! 

Little Black dress, the Lora

Remember that I liked the last La Maison Victor that much? Well here is my second make from the September/October issue, the Lora dress.

It is what they call the ultimate modern dress, with a perfect fit and nice details. And for me it is exactly that. It even has pockets!!! 

I made the dress in a size 36 graded out to a 38 in the hips. And again it fits perfectly without any major adjustments. I don't get their sizing, tops in a size 36 are always to big and dresses are spot on. I think I'm going to make a 34 in tops from now on. Even if that means that I have to retrace all my favourite patterns.

During summer I go all out with bright colours an prints. but during winter to be honest I mostly wear black. With a bit of navy, gray and a red jumper every once in a while. So most of my winter makes are going to be a lot darker and more neutral colours.

Starting with this little black dress. The version in the magazine is made up of a black textured fabric with a bit of stretch (polyester, viscose and lycra blend) . I however never buy the suggested fabrics so I used a gorgeous black cotton and wool blend. It has a similar texture as the dress on the model but no stretch. I prefer the natural fabrics and even through that it is a wool blend it is super soft. No scratchy or itchy feeling at all.

The only downside is that because they count on the stretch of there fabric that they have not included a kick pleat in the back hem and I could have used one. It is still al right if I walk at a normal pace but if I want to run to catch the metro I notice that the skirt is to narrow. That is the only thing I would change if I will make the dress again, to add a kick pleat to the back seam. And as you can see in the previous photo the the pleats at the waist make it look like I have a bit of a tummy even through I I don't. probably because the fabric is a bit ticker.

I have a feeling that this lora dress is going to become my go to pattern for winter dresses, just like my june dress for the summer. It is not as perfect as that dress but I have a feeling that it might be with a few adjustments in the next version. 

Graduation dress

It has been a while since I posted, that is because I was busy working on my final design project. I didn’t do anything else than work on that one assignment for over a month so I didn’t sew anything for a while. But now I’m officially a master in the architecture. I was so happy to have the time to sew again and deiced to make my graduation dress. But then life happened (read sleep deprived) and I was left with only 3 days to make the dress. I bought the fabric on Wednesday and the graduation ceremony was on Saturday at 10 am.

I had my mind set on a silk dress, in 3 days I know. They had a few options in the store and of course I chose the very thin flowy option. They had a few thicker options but I didn’t like the prints that much and a few cotton and silk blends. I love the fabric it is so beautiful, soft flowy and I love the print. But the best thing is 20 euro the meter, for 100% silk, a bargain compared to the lining, antistatic and nice to wear but 10 euro the meter.

Okay enough praise for the fabric now the pattern, I wasn’t going to cut into my beautiful fabric without knowing if my dress was going to fit. So I made the June dress form la maison victor again, you can see the first version here. Because the silk is transparent I was worried about the seam finishes. I tried overlocking the silk but that was not as neat as I wanted it to be. So I finished it with French seams, I think it is so weird that they are called French seams in English because they are called English seams in Dutch. 

The pattern is not actually made for transparent fabrics because it doesn’t have a lining. I made the front and the back of the dress in silk and lining. Once these were finished I pined the silk to the lining and used them as if they were one fabric. I didn’t want to underline the entire dress because then it would not show the flow of the silk anymore. The reason why I pined them together is because I thought it would be nearly impossible to insert a zipper in the silk. The neckline and straps were finished with facings.

Needless to say I was hemming my dress at 11pm the day before the ceremony, but it was worth it!

PS. Some of you might have realized that I never posted the second half of me made May. I just wore the same items as in the first half and I thought it would be a bit boring to take the same crappy selfies and was too busy to come up with something more interesting.

My perfect summer dress

Okay I know it’s a big statement ‘my perfect summer dress’ but it really is the perfect dress for me. So I can hear you wondering why perfect? Let me tell you…

First there is the fabric. I bought it at the ‘stoffenspectakel’ like most of my fabrics. It was a coupon that I found at the bottom of the pile and it was 10€, a bargain. And who doesn’t love a bargain? I know I do! It’s a very nice cotton with the perfect weight and drape for a dress. The fabric actually feels rather heavy but perfect for this dress. And then the pattern, navy and white dots. What I like that much about it is that the dots are scattered on instead of being aligned in a grid. And the dots themselves are not perfectly round but irregular in shape.

So to me it’s the perfect fabric that fits my style so well and that goes with all my other clothes.

Than the pattern it is the June dress from the la maison victor pattern magazine. It came in the magazine form the summer in 2014 but you can buy it separately on their site as well. I can’t believe that I have waited so long to make this dress. The June dress was the reason that I bought this magazine.

So the pattern, on the website it is described as flattering for every figure and with a bit of ’50 glamour. They didn’t exaggerate, it is super flattering and I feel wonderful and glamorous wearing it.

I love the high neckline at the front in combination with a lower v-line in the back. The skirt is pleated but because of the lovely drape of the fabric it is really flowy and not bulky at all, something I’m always a bit worried about.  

Than what I like the best about the pattern is that I feel that it is drafted specially for my body. I made a size 38 and made no alterations. It just fits perfectly right out of the magazine. I was a bit worried that I would mess up my beautiful fabric when I would realise that the dress didn’t fit. (But not worried enough to make a muslin, haha)

But the best thing about the dress is the finish! For once I took my time to achieve the best possible finish. And it worked, part of that is probably that I didn't need to make any alterations. Normally I sew something try it on notice that it didn't fit properly and that is where it goes wrong. I get frustrated and impatient and mess up even more. But not with this dress, I tried it on what surprised about how well it fitted and took my time to finish everything. The neckline is understitched to the facing and the facing is sown by hand on to the zipper. The hem is finished with and invisible stitch on the sewing machine.

That’s why it is perfect, the fabric, the fit of the pattern and the finish.

I’m already working on my next project a blouse form another la maison victor magazine and that one is far from perfect. But more on that when it is finished. 

Christmas party dress

I already made a top of the AVA dress by Victory patterns, my blue AVA top. So I already know how the pattern looks on me. The flower printed fabric used to be a skirt, with a very ugly elasticated waist. I never wore the skirt but I really liked the fabric. The fabric I used for the dress comes from the ‘stoffen spectakel’ in Hasselt. I walked up and down the entire marked twice to find the right colour to match to the fabric of the skirt. I was looking for a tick cotton or other woven fabric, but I could not find any in the right colour.

I made the dress in size in size 4 without any changes. Last time I made a size 6 but ended up way to big. I was afraid that the size 4 would still be too big because of the stretch in the fabric. The fabric that I used is a cotton jersey that has barely any stretch to it, but it is still a jersey knit. On the positive side because of the stretchy fabric I didn’t need a zip.

This time I realised what I needed to do with all the pattern pieces. (You only need pieces G and H if you use very thin or lace fabric.) But I didn’t make my own binding, the fabric shifted too much. I did use it on the hem of the dress because I wanted to integrate the fabric on another place than just the top. But the finish isn’t neat, but you can’t see that on the outside!) My grandmother gave me bias tape in a matching colour. The binding looks a lot better on the dress than on the top I made last year. This time it lays nearly flat to the skin.

I love to twirl around in the dress it is such a flowy fabric. I wore the dress on Christmas and got a lot of compliments.

Blue AVA top

The second pattern I have used from my perfect pattern parcel 1 purchase is the AVA dress pattern by Victory patterns. They included a copy shop sized pattern as well as a print at home A4 size. That was awesome, I’m an architecture student and I have easy access to A1-A0 sized printers so not having to tape al the pattern pieces together was great I really like the peplum look of the top so I decided to make that one. I wanted to use the leftover fabric from the transparent dark blue knipmode dress as contrast at the top. So I went to the same fabric outlet shop to find a blue opaque fabric that I could use as the shell fabric. I did fined fabric in the same colour as the fabric from the dress. It’s not the same texture, it’s a lot softer and more drapy that the cotton but I like them together.

According to my measurements I’m a size 6 (the bust matches perfectly and my waist is slightly bigger). The size 6 was way too big for me, it is supposed to fit at the bust and flare out from the waist. So I made the top 3cm smaller on each side at the bust and 1.5cm at the waist. I think a size 4 would have fit me without any alterations so I make a size smaller next time. I didn’t understand the instructions completely, I made version 2 but shorter. After I finised the top I realised that I didn’t use two pieces  G and H, the front and back bodice binding. The instructions say that F and G are optional (the front and back bodice binding). So didn’t need to use G (the front bodice binding) but no idea why I would need to use bias binding when sewing the two back pieces together. I just sewed them together and that worked out fine. Please tell me if you know what I did wrong.

I will make this pattern again, I love the fit and look of the top and I want to make the dress as well. With a thicker fabric and maybe lace on the top it would be an awesome party dress for the holidays.  

Navy and white polka dot shirtdress.

I really wanted to make a shirt dress to wear from summer in to autumn. I used a cheap cotton with polka dots in navy and white that I got from a fabric market. The idea behind this was that it would be a wearable muslin. I never made a shirtdress or shirt before so I knew it could go wrong.

The pattern is from knipmode magazine in march 2007, yes we keep sewing magazines that long. The smallest size available was a size 38 which is slightly to large according to my measurements. And the pattern is a straight dress and I wanted an A-line dress. I should have bought a different pattern in my size, but at the time I thought it would be fine. I was wrong!

 I had to take in the sides with 2cm. than it was still way to big around the waist so I hollowed out the back gradually up to 3cm at the waist. And I pleated the front where the loops of the belt are. The loops of the belt where way to small so had to make new ones that were longer. There was no way you would be able to make a buttonhole and fit a belt trough the ones from the pattern.

According to the instructions you need to finish the sleeves and roll them up. My fabric is not pretty on the inside so I wasn’t able to do that. I folded the unfinished sleeves inside and stitched them in place that way if I would fold the sleeves out you would see the nice side of the fabric.

The button bands could be neater but for a first attempt they are okay. The standing collar was a nightmare I tried 5 times to attach it and it’s still not right.  I finished the inside by hand because it just would not work.

The reason that the pattern started at size 38 is because it is available in different lengths (1,60m, 1.72m and 1.80m). I made length 1.72m because I’m 1.70m tall. You would expect the dress to fit just above the knee like it does on the model since there are different lengths available. But no I cut of 15 cm of the seam and finished it with an invisible stitch.

And the best part of the dress… I finished the buttonholes and buttons with red threat. After this ramble about everything that went wrong you would expect that hate the dress and I have never worn it. But no august and september both had bad weather and I wore the dress a lot. It might not be finished perfectly but I like the fit after all the alterations I have made. But I’m never ever going to make anything that doesn’t have a pattern in my size!