Finished Dress: The Coffee Date Dress!

Another Finished project for 2012!

Remember this post? Well I had to wait until I was off this week to even start working on my second "test" dress because work has been insane (late late nights and weekend work took over my life for a few weeks).  But luckily I booked this week off knowing that i'd need some time away from that place and a few days to sew before Ange's wedding!

I had all the pieces for the larger pattern size cut out, and after taking all day Monday to do nothing I started sewing on Tuesday and finished it in just a few hours.  This was the first picture I took after finishing the bodice, and the skirt wasn't really attached yet, I just used the belt to hold it up.

The next few shots are horrible, but at least you can see the full dress. 

Front - I still don't know how to stand to show off the clothes and not look like a goof.  

Modifications from my first test dress: I went up two sizes to a 36, the first size 32 was way to small. Turns out I just didn't measure myself properly (aka at all).  I've learned so much in this process about making clothes and proper measurements and fit.

I also included the ruffle on this dress vs. the previous test dress, and I'm really glad I did, it was super easy and I think it just dresses it up a bit more.

Back - this was before I hand sewed the lining down to the zipper.  The pins are now gone and its looking great. 

I still have to hem the bottom of the skirt.  I think I'm going to bring the bottom up to just above my knee. The other change I made from the pattern was to attach a full bodice lining. (vs. just the facings)  This made a huge difference in the look in my opinion.  In the previous test dress the fabric was so thin that you could see the facings which I really didn't like. Plus although I didn't make any size modifications to the bodice, I think having the extra thickness throughout helped with the fit.  It seriously is the perfect fit up top.

Side View 

A close up view with the ruffle, so glad I included it!

So if you remember this was suppose to be a second "test" dress.  I made it out of some cotton broadcloth that I got at Fabricland for I think $20. However I really love the colour, and minus a few minor issues (the ironing job sucked when i did the darts and there is a slight pintuck in the skirt top) its pretty good.  And I've decided that I'll just wear this one to the wedding, instead of making a whole other dress.

That all said - I did still get Paul to drive me down to the workroom this week to look at fabric and patterns, because this dress has made me want to sew even more.  So because it was only Wed and I still had the rest of the week off, I picked up this pattern. 

And some Quilters linen by Robert Kaufman in a yellow (its actually called Ochre) - which I love!  I'm going to do another post with the progress of this dress - which i'm hoping to have finished today - then I'll be able to have two choices for the wedding! 

Only two days of holidays left :(.  And the sewing to-do list is still pretty long.  Its going to be another late night of sewing and i'm just fine with that !

Spring Top Sewalong!

2012 Goal: Sew More.  Part of that goal is to try and sew more clothing for myself.  Cool stuff, not cheesy "looks like its home made" stuff.

So along with sewing a dress for Angela & Thomas's wedding, I'm going to work at finishing up and making a few other projects for myself.  And perfect timing Made by Rae posted her "Spring Top Sewalong" for 2012 today!

I've been following her blog for a while now and have read and voted the last few years in the Spring Top sewalong - and although I thought about entering last year I never did.  This year I fully intend on finishing and entering a top.

In fact you can submit something that you have previously started but not finished.  Rules are you must have finished your top after March 1st 2012.  (no issues here, since its totally not finished)

I'm going to finish up (my almost started) Shearwater Kaftan summer top. I fell in love with this pattern last year  and searched for the perfect fabric.  Finding this great pale grey stone gauze fabric from etsy seller UniqueShiny.

Image borrowed from makeitperfect and Photograph courtesy of Fiona Harding Photography

But to date I've only got as far as cutting out all the pieces and sewing the the hem around the neck.  Time to pull it out and finish it.  And I really have been wanting to finish this for a while now.  In fact I had originally planned to finish it last year in time for Rhett's First birthday and Steph's baby shower which were both towards the end of last summer.  I always have such ambitious plans that never come to fruition.

But this is the time.  Maybe I'll even go and get started right now. You can start uploading pics for the Spring Top sewalong as early as Monday.  And there is a contest portion, although you don't have to be part of that you can just sew a top for the fun of it if you want!  Check out the site if your interested - I've posted a button with the link on my sidebar!

Almost ... Wordless Wednesday

Okay I've seen this "theme" on some other blogs, and since I've been putting off a post all week on my first finished sewing project of the year (I promise myself I will do it tomorrow or this weekend or when i'm not sore, sick and tired) I figured this would be an easy post to keep at it for the new year .

So here are a few pics that I've been taking for my project365/ janphotoaday challenge .

next time i'll leave out all the words.
enjoy.

Mind the Appearance...

Okay...I'm testing out some new options for the look of my blog.  The new blogger customizable template is really cool, there is a lot you can play around with.  And this was only a half an hour or so that I was tinkering with it last night.  I think there might be a few more changes over the coming week until I find something that is going to fit well. 

Plus I'm hoping to do a bit more blogging and updating as the weeks go by.  Lots of exciting things happening over here in my world,  I just need a few minutes to get then on the page!

Stay tuned!

New Year, New Challenges, New Beginnings

Okay, so its been a month since my last post and its already mid way through January - that doesn't mean I still can't make some goals for the new year - right?!

First off, had a great holiday, lots of traveling, lots of great stuff, lots of sleeping in and relaxing! I even have a few photos to share.

I'm going to challenge myself like last year but this year I'm increasing the stakes. I'm going to try and set 3 challenges: 2 weekly and 1 monthly goal. 

• Blog something at least once a week (Technically I've already missed the first week, but I understand that I won't always make this goal - I'm okay with that) 

• 1 Photo of myself (or something around me) each week.  I've been reading a lot more blogs lately, and a lot of people have jumped on the 365 day photo wagon.  I've always wanted to do this, but I know I'd just never be able to commit, however I saw Hazelnuts 52 Friday's Challenge to herself, and thought I could do that!  Although, I'm just going to aim to take one a week, not necessary on a Friday. 

 

52:1 - Happy New Year

52:2 - New Hat for Tim Cronin Memorial Hockey Tourny

52:3 - Blogging

• Make 1 crafty thing a month.  This shouldn't be that hard either.  Considering I'd like to make more this year, including more quilts :) I'm going to aim for one more then 2009 - for a total of *at least* four.  Shouldn't be hard with all the babies and weddings we have!  I was going to work on this tonight, but needed some quiet time in front of the computer instead.  I'll work on my project for my knit group swap partner tomorrow/Friday.

So we'll see how 2010 turns out.  So far not so bad, on top of these goals, I've also paid off the remainder of my OSAP loans - woo hoo!  And we are meeting next week with our financial adviser regarding savings for buying a house this year! I think its going to be a good year, with lots of excitement and crafty goodness!