Saturday 27 October 2018

Ginkgo Dress

You know the moment when you find an amazing fabric and you just need to have something made from it! I am not a big fan of fabric internet shopping, but this year I made two rather big orders at Bennytex and I was very positively surprised by the quality of the fabric and its resemblance to the pictures. Not talking about the speed of delivery, because each of the times, the delivery took maybe only 2-3 days. They also have a lot of information about the fabrics, including weight and the pictures are really good.

Sooo, the ginkgo fabric is honestly my new love. It falls perfectly to the category of "black with something", yet, no flowers, the ginkgo leaves are rather subtle and pleasant for the eye. It is a viscose peach-skin, so extremely soft and it behaved rather correctly when sewing.

The only default of Bennytex is that you cannot order by half meter, so I had to take 2m of this beauty. In addition, they are rather generous on cutting, so you end up with more than that :o)

I was convinced I absolutely wanted an autumn dress which I pictured in my head but could not find anything like that on Pinterest. But Burda saved me again this year. I found the dress 110-08/2018 this summer and thought that it was exactly what I wanted to make from the fabric. There are two similar models of flowy shirt-dresses in the September issue as well, so I suppose it is the current trend and for once I do follow ;o)

I sewed up and modified a muslin, because I did not want to ruin my precious fabric and I was afraid of the wrap style being too low. Then everything went rather smoothly.


I was in an intense sewing period after my vacation and I think I sewed this up in just a few days (while still going to work, training for a marathon etc). I made to sure to stabilize the collar part, used burrito method on the shirt yoke and I must say I love this dress.

It fits right, changes from my standard silhouette, the wrap is there but not opening at any point and it is just a secret pyjama. Of course, it looks better with heels, otherwise I would just feel like actually wearing PJs.

Saturday 20 October 2018

Revenge on the Wrap Dress Story

Wrap dress - an unattainable graal? After many attempt, I managed to sew one, rather OK. But I am still not convinced it is the best make I have ever done.
So I thought, maybe a wrap dress is really only doable in stretch jersey and maybe I just should do like everybody else, brace up and sew with jersey :o)

When ordering fabric for the tango sewing madness, I put in the cart a few knits for me as well. Especially this black cotton jersey, which was in the end one of the most stretchy ones. Also, black can always be used, right?

Then one day, it occurred to me: I should go back to the Burda 107-09/ 2015 model which I attempted 2 years ago from a non-stretch material.
Of course, it was a complete disaster back then, the dress is designed with negative ease, so I could not even put it on. But now - things have changed, let's try it again.

And so I tried it again and it worked pretty well. Well, I must admit that I almost completely redrafted the shoulder area to match it to the Nettie dress and shortened the sleeves and I was right to do it. The fit is much better like this. I struggled little bit with the facing because it was rolling up and outside constantly, so I had to attach it on several places.
It looks strange on the dress form, but fits much better on me. IMHO, there are too many seams for such a stretchy fabric, as they tend to pop up little bit.



Apart from that, I finally have a cute false wrap dress to wear which looks almost the same as the model in Burda :o)

Saturday 13 October 2018

My First Shirt Dress

This is one of the great exemples of why I am sewing and wear what I sew: in my whole life I have found one, maybe two RTW shirts which were actually my size, i.e. fitting in the shoulder area, with breast space around my breast and waist line on my waist. My biggest fitting issue are always too large shoulders (and believe me, I do NOT have extremely narrow shoulders, I am just small in general) and a short torso, mainly between shoulders and breasts.

So having a shirt dress was just a wish, I could not even dream of becoming reality :o)

Throw in Butterick 6333, some fabric and some of my time and here we go, I have a perfectly fitting shirt dress which I love! I have bought this pattern some time ago already, but somehow did not get to sewing it, what a pity...

 Of all the shirt dress patterns, I chose this one because of the princess seams (aka easy fitting) and the fact that it is supposed to come in petite sizes as well.

Well, that one was a disappointment. There are actually no special petite adjustments on the pattern, apart from the skirt length. It is even missing the usual "shorten/lengthen here" lines. Therefore I did my usual adjustments on the length and everything worked ok.

I used a remnant of some stripy wool blend and I had just enough of the fabric to cut this dress, while being careful on stripe "matching". I even cut out the cuffs, but did not use them in the end, I prefer the look of the simple sleeves.

The wool is not so soft on the inside and I was afraid it was not stiff enough, so I interfaced it with a black coton-silk voile which worked magic, as usual; thisis really my secret weapon. It has added just the right amount of body for the skirt. The insides are probably not so perfect as I am used to, actually, I did not want to put in a lining (not sure if it is something to do with a shirtdress) and I was not quite sure on the seam finishing, knowing that there were 2 layers of fabric.

The dress has pockets which is always a nice feature and has this serious/cute vibe.

Seriously, I cannot understand why I have not sewn it earlier, I was probably scared by the shirt/collar thing, maybe the number of buttonholes. Whatever. When checking the pics, I am just thinking I need another one!

Friday 5 October 2018

Yet Another Nettie

Ok, so not only I am late to this party but also I am totally in love with this pattern. And I totally do not care that I have just created a complete copy of my black Nettie dress. Honestly, this is just such a great pattern in its simplicity and rapidity of sewing. I am just amazed how such a basic dress fits so perfectly to my wardrobe. It works with everything and you can just accessorize it, as necessary. And yes, my favourite season (autumn) has just started with all the scarves, hats, coats etc.

So I wanted to create my 2nd Nettie in this lila ponte. I originally bought it for my sister and sewed this skirt from it and when ordering I added one meter for myself. Once I have tested the black Nettie dress, I was pretty sure that I would make another one.

For this version I undid the modifications on the first one, meaning I came back to the original pattern and actually it fits just right no, so a big win! The ponte is stretchy but quite stable, so I can feel the fit issues of the black one when I put it on.

Well, I do not think I have much to add now: the colour is amazing, the fit is great and I just love the result!!!

Just wondering how many Netties I can have in my wardrobe before anyone remarks I am constantly wearing the same dress ?