Project Who-Knows-What-Way

If you're anything like me, you're a huge fan of Project Runway.  I have a love/hate relationship with it, I must admit.  But I love to see what the designers do creatively, within those ridiculous time limits, and how they stay on-trend with the fashions they create.

I follow a blog called "Made by Lex."  Talk about beautiful fashion!  She remakes thrifted garments, sews for her little girls, and creates new fashions all to sell in her Etsy shop.  I especially love her scarves, which are hand-dyed.  Beautiful!

Lately Lex has been participating in a contest called "Project Run and Play."  It's a blogging version of Project Runway, except all the fashions are made for little girls.  They're given a pattern, or a theme, and eight designers then create magic!  There are 3 regular judges and one guest judge each week.  And viewers can also vote for their favourites, although the judges have the final decision.

So even if you're not into kids clothing, this blog is worth a look.  I think it is flat-out AMAZING to see what these designers are doing!  Project Runway has nothing on them!

Speaking of which (and I'll try not to rant here) -- Project Runway is supposed to be about great design with some good tv mixed in.  Thursday, September 8, 2011's show was just nothing but drama, drama, drama.  We wanted someone "out" because of their attitude and ability to play well with others, not because of their designs.  This show irritates me regularly for this very reason - they "auf" the nice ones and let the evil geniuses stay.  But the show also usually amazes me, so there you go.

I also had a look at the new Spring 2012 collection from last season's winner, Gretchen Jones.  Let me just say this:  her main cheerleader, Nina Garcia, is probably denying she ever knew Gretchen.  That is all.

So have a look at Project Run and Play and feast your eyes on great design for kids.  It will brighten your day!

It Never Fails

Rose, Bug, Barbie, JB, or Babydoll, doesn't matter, take your pick:
    "Mama, make me stuff.  Make me a dress."
Me:
    "OK."

The result:

Usually something like this.  Very cute sundress but it doesn't fit.  Very frustrating.

I wanted to surprise Bug with this and basically just whipped it up while she was at work, yesterday afternoon.

Bug is long waisted.  The pattern I used is vintage (as in "it was mine when I was her age"), and the bodice was cut to the waist.  So I shaved off about 3" from the waistline to make it more of an empire waist.

Bad idea.

First off, it hits about 2" above her waist but well below the empire line.  Secondly, she informed me that she looks terrible in empire waisted things.  (When did this happen?)

So the plan now is to cut the bodice shorter, add a contrasting lower bodice that will fall almost to her hips, and then re-attach the skirt.  A whole lotta trouble for something I was just going to whip up in an afternoon.

And by the way -- the print is one I got from Hobby Lobby summer before last.  It's chinese characters printed in white on a black background.  Bug loves all things Japanese, and it was close --

I'll post the finished dress when it's done.  And successfully on the Bug.

xoxoxox

Better Photos

The Scoop on the Prom Dresses

Although I started these a good 3 weeks ago, I did have some serious problems. For those of you who know the constraints of a deadline, let me just share those problems with you.

First off, let me just say that my hat is off to those who've competed on Project Runway. Having had a slight taste of that -- and I do mean slight, scant, as small a one as you can have -- with deadlines, designing, and fabric choices, I have a huge appreciation for what they do and just how difficult it is.

With JB's dress (blue), I had less problems than I thought. We designed as we went. After an initial muslin, I went to an entirely new set of patterns and accomplished infinitely better results. Once the bodice fit, the only real adjustments were to the chiffon wrap. Once I got that right, the tiny details set in. And those were the major problems. I couldn't get the chiffon to wrap in correctly in the back. I sewed it in and tore it out about 8 times before I finally just gave up and safety-pinned it in. I ended up using 2 bracelets (yes, jewelry bracelets!) for the back ring, and used iron-on rhinestones to accent the back straps. So all in all, short of that back chiffon nightmare, it went together easily and looked gorgeous. Of course, there was the fact that she's a gorgeous girl and a feed sack would have looked amazing on her --

Then there was Barbie's dress. WHAT A NIGHTMARE.

As you may know, I was copying a dress from Cache.

First, getting the bodice to fit. This bodice had a basic underlining that was relatively easy. But the actual front bodice was several strips that were pieced together and then topstitched. So I did about 3 muslins, none of them right. I was using various patterns that looked somewhat like the dress.

The prom was Saturday night, and as of Thursday, I still didn't have a bodice that fit. So I scrapped them all and laid out the Cache dress and started tracing. This worked much better!

So I got that together, and the side seams didn't line up. The chiffon, which I'd tried to cut according to the Cache bodice, didn't hang correctly. I added a couple of triangular pieces to the side seams (scrap pieces of the satin) to get it to fit.

Still it looked horrendous and fit -- well, it didn't fit at all.

So again, I went back to the actual Cache dress. I couldn't understand why the bodice was off when I had copied it exactly! Also I realized I had FORGOTTEN TO BUY AN INVISIBLE ZIP! So on Friday morning, ran around my small town looking for any kind of a zipper or any kind of cheap dress which had a zipper in the right color.

Desperate times call for desperate measures! I called on Babydoll to find something in the closets at home that had a lengthy invisible zip. I thought that amid five daughters, surely we'd find something.

And she came through! She brought down an Isaac Mizrahi black dress that she never wears, and really just isn't her style. I had gotten it on sale at Target. But it had an 18" invisible zipper! I tore it out and used it --it was black, but invisible. One crisis averted.

Also on Friday, I worked again on the fit. I laid out the Cache dress and laid the satin bodice on top, recut the bottom (already sewn) part of the bodice, shortened the top of the chiffon and the underskirt, and voila! It fit!

Also on Friday, I was stressing about the back straps. The Cache dress had essentially square belt buckles into which the straps connected. I found two pendants in the beading section of Wal-Mart, which were silver peace symbols. I also got a package of glass crystals.

So I ended up using a pair of pliers and cutting off the bottom bar sections of the peace symbols. This left me with a circle that had a center bar down the middle. I glued the crystals onto that center bar, and amazingly had two belt-buckle thingys that worked beautifully. Another semi-crisis averted.

The final blow came at 4:00PM on Saturday. The back chiffon just wouldn't lay correctly. I should have just cut it lower -- in hindsight, I realised that would have fixed the problem. But I decided at first to just try and press it. This chiffon was relatively stiff for what it was -- somewhat like soft organza.

But the iron was too hot. I didn't realise. And yes -- you guessed it. I melted a 6" hole in the top of the back of the skirt.

4:01PM: I cried.

4:03PM: I prayed.

4:05PM: I layed out the dress and tried to figure out what to do. I had bought an extra yard of the chiffon, but had odd pieces left.

I ended up tearing out the top of the skirt. Thankfully it was slightly gathered with soft pleats. I pulled the pleats out of the chiffon, and cut out the melted hole. I then put a seam in and reattached it.

But now I had an odd seam going down the skirt about 3" from the side seam. It looked horrendous.

So then I tried cutting 3 square panels and seaming them together. I hemmed 3 sides, gathered the top, and attached it as a train over top of the seamed skirt.

And it worked. At 4:45 I was sewing it in, trying to get it to lay right, scrambling to get it done by 5:00PM.

About 5:15, they walked out the door. I laid down and died. I was so upset. I spent the entire evening trying to rethink the back of that dress.

What I wish I had done was cut the back skirt lower and added a more narrow train. The train I did add took up most of the back of the skirt. While it looked fine, a more narrow top would have been much prettier and still accomplished the job. And it wouldn't have come up higher than I'd liked, and would have fit more nicely.

Honestly, if the Cache dress hadn't cost $278, I would have just told her to wear that. I probably should have!

But she got loads of compliments on her dress, and absolutely nobody had the same one.

I'd like to make her a dress for graduation in June. I'm hoping to start on it next Monday. We'll see (I'm moving tomorrow -- but into a big house where I can have an actual studio in which to sew).

So for those of us who try and try and try, sometimes you just can't win. But in the end, something that is still quite beautiful emerges at the last second. All I can say is this:

GOD IS SO GOOD.

Happy sewing--

xoxoxox

Finished!

Better photos to follow, but here's the general idea -- I know, I know, the girls are gorgeous -- not that I'm biased or anything : )

Almost the Finished Product --

Progress

Prom 2010

Change of plans on the prom dress. Uh, dress-es. JB couldn't really find one that fit her nicely, so she asked me to make hers.

Here's the idea for Barbie:

And here's the fabric. Can you say GOR-GEOUS????

I found this at a little shop where I took my serger to be serviced. It was a bit pricey, but at only 3 yards, definitely worth it.

And here's the idea for JB:

We're doing the view in the center.

And the fabric. Can you say GOR-GEOUS again?

Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me. I don't really have a pattern for Barbie's dress, so I'll be morphing a couple together to really get the look of the dress I'm copying.

I'm making muslins of both dresses first, in order to get the fit right. Better to have it right the first time than have to fuss with the real dress fabric .

And I should be in there right now -- gotta go!

xoxoxox

What a Mess.

I didn't get much done last night. This is because of a well-known and widely detested fact:

YOU GOTTA BE A FLIPPIN' MECHANICAL GENIUS SOMETIMES JUST TO SEW.

I was trying to sew some net together, and the machine kept jamming. Simple fix: rethread. That fixed it pretty quickly -- but only after I took out the bobbin about 5 times, oiled the bobbin, removed the faceplate and blew out all the fuzz, replaced the faceplate, and tried again -- again -- again -- again -- again.

Very frustrating. Plus, the 2-hour premiere of House was on, so I gave up.

Here's what I was doing. Barbie chose a pattern for a dress, and I made it for her. Lots of changes to it, since the pattern is from 1954. Oh, oh, oh so cute, though!

One of Barbie's must-haves was a crinoline in order to pouf up the skirt. My solution? Sew some netting into the lining of the skirt (which the pattern did not require, but I thought it needed). Two rows oughtta do it, I thought.

So here's the pattern, Simplicity 4708, published 1954:

And here's the dress --

and here's the mess:

I also have a bit of trim to add to the jacket and skirt hem. That is, after I finish with all this netting and tulle on the underskirt. See that bunched up wad of white netting on the table? That's the second layer, under the blue. I cut long strips, and am attaching them to each other with strips of ribbon -- because my machine doesn't like trying to sew thread over what amounts to all the air between the spaces in the netting!

Wish me luck. It's gonna get worse before it gets better.

xoxox

All-Nighter

You know, you start sewing of an evening -- and before you know it, it's 7:00AM. Amazingly, I've been up most of the day and I'm not falling down just yet. However, I have started to yawn in earnest.

But enough about how sleepy I am. Who cares anyway? Look what I got done!

Babydoll saw this Liz Claiborne dress in a magazine and wanted a copy of it --

So we found some fabric at JoAnns that she liked better than the buffalo-checked gingham, and here's what we ended up with --

I used Butterick 5322 and used a leftover sequinned belt we had laying around.

While I was in Ohio on vacation last week, I had to make a stop at the Goodwill Store there. I always find treasures and it's nearly impossible to ever get it all back to NC in one trip. This time, I found several things for back to school for the girls -

• jeans that will need to be narrowed into skinny jeans
• a couple of skirts for me
• several tops
• a very cute denim jacket
• 4 juice glasses
• 3 coffee cups (we're always breaking and chipping them)
• 8 movies on VCR
• "The 4-Hour Work Week" in hardback
• a gorgeous glass cookie jar (I'll use it for pasta because it's tall)
• and these --

Bass classic khakis that were WAY too short -- but I didn't care, because I bought them to cut off to capri length! Rose has absconded with my favourite khaki capris so I needed a new pair. Ah, the consequences of teenage daughters! Last night I hemmed them up with a nice little vent at the outside.

Finally, I decided to throw an apron in just for fun -- I'd like to try to make one or two every week to stock my Etsy shop. I design as I go, which means this took up most of the night.

Very dated 1980's Monet-like printed drapery fabric
+ a Waverly valance I found at a garage sale =

Extra-long ties wrapped to the front,

or wrapped to the back.

Two pockets -- one with a rosette, one with a loop for a dishtowel or spoon --

(couldn't get a decent photo of the one with the rosette)

Scalloped hem --

At first, I thought I'd do a solid border on the hem. But then I did a rough sketch, and decided on the scallops.

They were easy: I just folded the apron in half, and kept doing that until I had the width for the scallops that I wanted. I counted the folds, and I had 8.

Then I cut 16 pieces that same width, and rounded the bottoms using a nearby CD-ROM.

I sewed each one right sides together, and flipped them inside out, leaving the top edge open.

Then I laid them out along the hem of the apron, and when I had what I wanted, I pinned them on and stitched them down.

There was nothing on TV, so I sat with my laptop and played YouTube clips. Trudy from HotPatterns would have been proud -- it was the all-Trudy channel, all night! LOL!

Actually, that was useful because it inspired the rosette on one of the pockets. I tried a spiderweb rosette, but it really didn't work with the woven fabric. So I just took a long strip, gathered the edge, and coiled it around, hand sewing it down as I went.

For the other pocket, I had some leftover bias trim from the valance, so I made the little loop for a dishtowel. I covered the top with an old button, then glued another button on top of that.

When I cut this apron, I extended the top a bit and rounded it off so it would fit a little above the waist. And I made the ties extra long to accomodate every waist. I like it. I think it's a fresh look to an old 80's fabric. What do you think?

Going to sleep now -- starting to zone out!

xoxox

Working on It

Well, I worked tonight on a new tutorial, but as I am no genius video editor, it may be a day or two before I put it up.


I do have a couple of things in the works --


For the Bug, a graduation dress --





And for the Rose, a graduation dress --




I used coupons at JoAnn's and got the fabric for half off. I think they're gonna be gorgeous!

I also am refashioning a gorgeous blue silk dress from Casual Corner that I got at a thrift shop. It had a front slip and some gold buttons going up the slit -- so I closed it up, and cut off the longer length of the dress and made a little sash with a bow. Still working on it; I'll post photos when I get the chance.

xoxox

Easter 2009

I Hate It When This Happens.

I'm frustrated.

I've made and almost finished -- done but for the hems -- three of the girls Easter dresses. I used McCalls 5618 for three, and am using Simplicity 2886 for the other two.

So I'm humming right along, thinking I would make the bodices of the Simplicity dresses (view C, with the spaghetti straps) seamless in the front, instead of doing a center front seam. Somehow a center front seam in a bodice just doesn't look right to me when it's a closed front. Putting the pattern piece on the fold makes more sense.

EXCEPT WITH THIS PARTICULAR PATTERN. It was a hassle getting the top band onto the bodice piece, and now it's laying funny. There's a curve to the top that makes it lay 3-dimensionally -- probably great for fit but it just isn't right! I'm going to have to redo both bodices.

Dang. I hate that.

So today I'm behind a bit, and have to get moving to get them done. Once again I don't get a dress -- which is typical, and certainly not unexpected.

Back to the drawing board. Literally.

xoxox