Happy Belated Halloween!

I have ended up being pleasantly surprised by my choice of sewing pattern for this dress.

I knew that the skirt would work great - I've used Simplicity 8458 quite a few times and it's a great pattern.

What I wasn't entirely sure about was the bodice that I chose, Simplicity 9105.  I love an oversized collar, which is what initially made me pull the pattern out from my rather large stash of vintage reproductions.  But how was this design actually going to turn out?

It's certainly not the most exciting or interesting design.  But in the end, it's a great basic bodice with something extra in the form of that collar.

If I was to look for something I would like to change, it might be the side zipper.  

I have swapped out a side zipper with other button front bodices by extending the opening of the skirt front seam and adding a placket of sorts.

This generally works quite well, and if I use this pattern again, I might choose to go that route.

The skirt that the pattern comes with doesn't actually have a center front seamline, but that is easy enough to change.

And I think that the print works exceptionally well with this style of dress.

I do have a few more Halloween inspired quilting cotton prints stashed away, but I am definitely missing this time of year in JoAnn Fabrics when all of the holiday fabrics are on display.  While I had plenty of issues with the store, I sure do miss it!

Which is not to say that there are not plenty of fabric options available to me in my sewing room.  I just miss walking up and down the fabric aisles (with the exception of the fleece/minky section - I was not a fan of the space that all of that polyester maintained for the last 10 or so years).

But for now, I am scrounging around to see what last minute Fall appropriate project I can whip up before Winter weather officially arrives.

Dress & Belt:  Made by me, Simplicity 9105/Simplicity 8458
Shoes:  American Duchess "Christine Vintage Pumps"
Earrings:  Etsy

Spooky Ghosts

Another October has arrived, which can only mean another novelty print dress for Halloween.  I am beginning to amass quite a collection!

For this particular project, it began with the fabric.  I found this textile at JoAnn Fabrics a few years back (probably after Halloween and during a sale).

I almost immediately knew that it was destined to be some type of shirtwaist dress.  The only question was, which pattern to choose.  I remember looking through a few options last year, but went in another direction with a knit fabric and a contemporary pattern that I had been meaning to try.  In the end, I decided on Simplicity 9105 for the bodice, and Simplicity 8458 for the skirt to make the best use of the linear print.

My next challenge was finding appropriate buttons from the stash.  Covered buttons are always a possibility, but I really wanted to go for something different with this dress.

I didn't find exactly what I was looking for in the proper size, but in the end, a slightly smaller button seemed like a better choice than making covered buttons.

And, of course, I went for bound buttonholes.

The other issue was the collar facing pieces.  I was running low on yardage after cutting the skirt pieces out and matching the front and back chevrons, and I really didn't want to use a contrasting fabric for the collar.

After thinking things over, I cut the facing in two pieces which gave me a lot more freedom with cutting them out.

I wanted to make sure that the collar mirrored the skirt chevron, and I didn't end up with both sides of the collar pointing in a single direction.

And because I placed the join below the collar fold, no one will ever see the pieced facing.

For the side zipper, I used a hand picked, lapped application.  This is my preferred way to insert a zip.  There are garments where this isn't always the best choice, but for a side zipper, it's perfect.

And I think I definitely made the right choice with those buttons!

All of my raw edges were bound in a festive orange.  The colors on the print read as yellow, but there is this exact orange tone in there as well, and Halloween seemed like the perfect opportunity to use some orange seam binding (especially since I don't have many fabrics that would match back to the color).

Thankfully, I noticed that the button placement on the pattern tissue seemed rather close to the waist edge before I actually placed my buttonholes.  The design includes a belt, but no room for a belt buckle to sit below that lower button so I re-spaced the two upper buttonholes and moved the lower one up to accommodate the buckle.

I used a vintage covered buckle kit.  The double sided sticky template had been cut, along with the cardboard it was attached to.  Instead of looking for a replacement, I just wrapped the buckle with a length of bias.  This actually gets more of the print onto the buckle instead of just seeing a very narrow slice of the scene along the available edges.

I also scrounged up some 1" belting that I have been hoarding since Dritz doesn't seem to produce the item any more.  But a self-fabric belt seemed like the perfect option for this dress.

And with that last detail finished, I had a bit of hand sewing for the sleeve and skirt hemlines.

I do love a classic fit and flare dress with an oversized collar, and this frock is no exception.

I lament the loss of JoAnn Fabrics for holiday themed novelty quilting cottons, but I am very glad to have this print as a wearable garment instead of sitting folded in my stash of fabric.  And it's always fun to see people realize just what the print is on a rather classic silhouette - I have had quite a few strangers comment on the dress and then realize it's a spooky print!

Ready-to-Wear Claire

I have had this cotton/wool blend fabric for quite a few years.  It was purchased from FabricMart at some point, and showed up with some extra yardage because evidently it was an end of the bolt piece.  Hooray for me!

Of course, now that I had almost seven yards of rather wide fabric, I didn't know what to do with myself.  My initial thought was to make some kind of 1930s coordinating dress and jacket, but I was never entirely sold on the idea, and the yardage was put away.

And for me, out of sight often mean out of mind with fabric as well as patterns.

When the Claire Dress was released by Charm Patterns I almost immediately wanted to make a version for myself.  The only trouble was, it takes a LOT of fabric.  The instructions separate yardage requirements between bodice and skirt which can make it difficult to know exactly how much fabric is needed.

But the grid pattern on this woven fabric immediately came to mind when I thought of Claire McCardell for some reason.  And I knew that I had a lot of fabric to work with, so I went hunting through the stash to find it.

Turns out, I only needed a little over five yards for my dress, so I even have a bit left when the right inspiration/pattern comes along.

As for my thoughts on the finished dress . . .

I had a moment during the construction where I thought that I had made a big mistake and really didn't like how everything was looking.

But I decided to stick with it, and I am very glad that I did.  This is a great dress design that isn't your average wrap dress.  The extra details are absolutely worth the extra effort.  And I do love those bound buttonholes that I decided to add!

Dress:  Made by me, "Claire Dress" from Charm Patterns
Shoes:  Nina
Earrings:  Vintage
Bracelet:  Vintage

A Day Dress

I have had some success with Charm Patterns offerings, and also had some issues (this jacket facing comes to mind).

But the latest release had me intrigued.

Intrigued enough to deal with taping many, many pieces of paper together.  (I am not a big fan of PDF patterns.)

I cut the oversized pocket on the bias so that it would stand out, and also so I didn't have to worry about matching some portion of the on grain pocket with the skirt.

I think Archie approved of the choice!

The pattern instructions use one of my favorite techniques which uses a scrap of silk organza to stabilize an internal corner.

I highly recommend this option for any gusset you may come across in the future.

I strayed from the instructions for the application of the actual gusset, though.  They wanted the small triangle top-stitched into place.  I prefer to stitch the actual seam and pivot at the corner before doing any top-stitching.

At this point I was slightly concerned that the dress wasn't coming out the way that I had envisioned it.  But there was no sense in stopping at this point.

For the interior tie, I pulled out some white petersham that I had stashed away.

My fabric has an off white color included in the mix, so I decided to tea dye for a better match.  The tie will not actually be visible when worn, but I will know it's there!

I did encounter a bit of confusion with the buttonholes.  They are not actually marked on the bodice front which was slightly disconcerting to me.  Also, I did not relish the idea of using a machine to make the buttonholes, and a hand worked version would have been problematic because this particular textile has a tendency to fray.

In the end, my trusty bound buttonholes came to the rescue.  I did have to pleat the opening edge into place before working the bound buttonholes, but it wasn't as much of a pain as I though the spacing might be.

And I had just the right contrasting buttons to use.  I believe these came from an estate sale some years ago, and I still have a bunch of the mother of pearl buttons which seem to come in handy quite frequently (as seen here).

Provided the fabric isn't too sheer or lightweight, bound buttonholes have yet to let me down.

I used a fusible interfacing even though my fabric probably didn't require the extra stability.

And at this point, I decided that perhaps this dress was going to turn out okay.

I finished my edges with seam binding, per usual.

The waistband went on without issue.

I do like a waistband treatment like this because of the lovely interior finish.

As for my fabric choice, it was perhaps a bit on the heavy side.  Those gathers were a chore to get pulled up to the proper length, and those sections are perhaps more bulky than the should be.

But in the end, it worked.

I do love once the seamlines start getting finished, and the garment starts to come together.

Buttons were stitched into place after I fused a small piece of fusible interfacing to the interior.  As designed, those buttons are sitting in the middle of the bodice so they have no other reinforcement.

I also used bound buttonholes on the waist tab.  Those were not the most fun thing to turn right side out!

But I wasn't too sure about the asymmetric button placement; something looked off to me.  So I decided to add two more buttons as decoration to fill out the waistline treatment.  This leaves five bodice buttons and five waistband buttons, and somehow, that looks better to my eye.

In the end, I am quite pleased with this dress. 

It's a classic design, easy to wear, and I think it looks rather nice on.  The only real downside is the amount of yardage required.  Then again, a different skirt could be easily substituted to save on quite a bit of fabric.  So I may try that at some point in the future (might as well reuse the pattern pieces since I went to the trouble of taping them together!).