the liverpool

Ever since seeing this pattern on Amy Butler's website, I knew I wanted to make it.
I've never bought an AB pattern before, but have made some out of "In Stitches" and the free ones from the website. I broke down and bought it today, along with some fabric that was 50% off:It's Erin Michael's Mod Mum, from Uptown-- the same line that brought those gorgeous paint-by-number birds. I was pleased to score this fabric, especially on sale. I figure that if the pattern doesn't turn out, I can always tear it apart for a quilt. I haven't started cutting yet, but I'm pretty excited. I think I'm going to make the short dress with long sleeves. Pictures soon, I hope!

dress shirt revamp

I saw this tutorial over the weekend, and knew I had to try it out:
And so I did.
I've been buying a ton of dress shirts from Goodwill for a quilt I've been working on, and decided to sacrifice one of the shirts for a cute dress (click to enlarge). I followed the instructions exactly as to how to deconstruct the shirt (a size large), but then amended the directions as follows:
Since I'm smaller than the tutorial's creator (5'2", size 0) I was able to get away with using both sleeves as the entire bodice without the complicated insertion instructions. I left the hem on the skirt as-is, hemmed like the bottom of the shirt it previously was. I also used my machine for the ruffles, using 2 long basting stitches on each.
The bodice on mine is a lot longer than the original posting, but I'm actually really happy about that: with the elastic at the waist, I can pull it up to make it shorter or pull it down to make it longer. I'm totally wearing it to work tomorrow with a cardigan.
Total cost: $2.00 at Goodwill, as I already had the elastic and thread at home. I could make this a million more times, and probably will!

PTQB-- May

Here's Colleen's block:I had been giving myself gold stars for getting these quilting bee blocks together pretty quickly-- but then this one came along. Colleen sent beautiful fabric, and asked that we not add any of our own... and I came up embarrassingly short. Luckily, she was nice enough to send me some extra and I made a block I'm proud of.
This fabric reminded me of vacationing in Greece, and old-skool airlines. The squares within the green in the center remind me of windows on a plane, as do the large stripes and symmetry of it. I hope Colleen likes it!

Also, here are pictures of my wrap dress from "Chic and Simple Sewing". The front:The back:
Seersucker is hard to photograph. Also, ignore the wrinkles. Looking at the pictures, I'm afraid it looks a little like a hospital gown... does it? I will say I'm in love with the circle skirt, and you know I love anything that involves a bow and the waist. I'm going to make a matching blue and white one, too.

neptune dress-- with pictures

By (kind of) popular demand, here are some pictures I took of myself modeling my new dress. The front:And the side, showing the pocket detail:Last summer, I bought a big pattern cabinet full of patterns (mostly from the 1990s) on Craigslist. This was a funny way to go about making a dress, as I bought three yards of the navy and 3/4 yards of the coral. I went to the pattern cabinet and found something I could make, and decided on this. It's a 1992 McCalls pattern, #6004. It's no longer in print, and has been out of print so long I didn't even find it on the McCalls's out-of-print section. Here it is:
I made view B, like the yellow dress. It's hemmed to about my knees. The pattern called for 3 1/2 yards of one fabric, but I switched it up to accommodate my two different fabrics. I followed the pattern just about exactly, with the exception of adding a few rows of shirring to the back. I wish I could've taken a picture of the back; I think it's the cutest part. It's a very comfortable dress, and I think I'm going to get a lot of utility out of this one.

neptune dress

Grr, my camera battery died just as I was about to take pictures of my latest dress. I made a Marilyn-Monroe style cotton halter sundress out of this fabric:With the pocket lining, halter tie, and big tie belt with a bow at the waist out of this:I'm having a bit of a problem getting it to fit under the arms (what else is new?) but I think I might be able to fix that with some elastic in the back. It's really cute-- take my word for now, and I'll take pictures later.
I wish more fabric designers had a sense of humour like Tula Pink. I had to tell my husband that there are turtles and fish in the fabric.
I also made a zillion more nine-patches for Amanda Jean's nine-patch quilt-a-long. I'm set for the next month.

weekend sewing-- trapeze dress

This is my favorite completed item out of Weekend Sewing (the front):
It's the trapeze dress, made with Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks Filigree Meadow. I made the size small, but still had to take it in about 3 inches total around the bust. My favorite part, aside from this great fabric, is that I put in pockets for the first time (therefore justifying my weird pose). For a non-garment crafter, these were really very easy. The straps were crazy long, probably because I needed to make it in a petite, and I decided at the last minute to have a criss-cross back. It'd be easy to make it into a halter dress, too. I could see myself wearing this (and others like it) all summer. (The back:)It's not really that tight or wonky or anything-- I was having fun posing for pictures. I wanted to show off the pockets and the swinginess of it.
I have a really hard time picking out garment fabric-- I'm much more comfortable deciding on quilt fabric choices. I had some help at the shop picking this out, and I feel really comfortable in it. I'll admit that I also have 2 1/2 yards of this Amy Butler Lotus that was going to become this dress, but then I decided against it:What do you think? Could it work for this dress, or should I chop it up for a quilt?