Tiki Queen

I think it's safe to say that 2022 was the year of the sequins as far as my sewing adventures are concerned.

I finally finished my spangled circle skirt, made a matching top, encrusted a belt with super sparkly stuff, and finished a second top, sans peplum (even if I still haven't gotten around to blogging about it).

There were also a fair amount of novelty prints sprinkled in there for good measure.  So as a final post for the year, this project seemed like a good choice.

In fact, a large part of the inspiration behind this dress and bolero was the fact that I thought that applying a metric ton of sequins to the hip drape was a great idea.  After snagging the pattern at an estate sale, I left it out on the sewing table for quite some time, just within sight should the right fabric and/or inspiration come along.

Right around that time I was invited to a party with a Tiki theme, and I just knew that the combination of a fabulously kitchy novelty print, and my vintage pattern, plus those gorgeous sequins that I came across at the very same estate sale where said pattern was found would make the perfect outfit for the party.  Not to mention that it was an excellent excuse to make myself a new dress.

This project had a mind of its own, and it grew into an entire outfit.  The Dorothy Bolero was a perfect coverup, and I knew that I would need to pull in the sequin theme somehow.  The obvious solution was the collar.

I am also particularly proud of the fact that I managed to match the print motifs from the bolero to the dress.  Because I cut my pattern pieces out of Pellon interfacing, they were somewhat see-through.  This allowed me to draw directly onto the bolero pattern pieces while the dress was on the dress form.  I then matched those pencil markings with my yardage.  It may have be a slightly questionable tactic, but it did the job!

Thankfully, I had enough fabric to make the matches work.  With such an oversized print, I was concerned about running out of yardage, but in the end, I had just enough!

I can't quite decide which I prefer . . . with or without the coverup.

But no matter, now I always have both options.

Either way, I love the way this project turned out.  And don't think that I am through with sequins . . . I have a feeling they will be sneaking back into my sewing adventures in the New Year.

Dress:  Made by me, McCalls 4425
Bolero Jacket:  Made by me, "Dorothy Bolero" from Charm Patterns
Shoes:  Remix "Miranda"
Hair Flowers: Made by me
Earrings:  Etsy
Bracelet:  Etsy, Mrs. Polly's Lucite

A Sequined Bolero

So what is the perfect match for a sarong dress?  A bolero, of course!

I made a Dorothy Bolero not too long ago in cotton pique, and it worked as a wonderful coverup for my checkered sundress.

I was really hoping that I would have enough of this fabulous novelty print to make myself a matching coverup for McCalls 4425, and it turns out, I did!  Not only that, I managed to do a pretty good job matching those oversized motifs to the actual dress, which will be more obvious when I get the post of the dress construction finished.

I knew that I wanted to add sequins to this piece to match the embellished dress, and initially, I planned to stitch the embellishments on the collar prior to construction.  But as I was thinking things through, I realized that it was not an ideal solution with such a narrow collar.  I ended up applying the sequins to the already constructed and lined collar.  Some of the threads show through on the back side, but it really was the only way to go, so I will just have to get over the visible stitching.

There are a few sequins on the front and back pieces as well, but those stitches were easily hidden since there were multiple openings through the sleeves and the lower center back lining.

I love the look of layered sequins, and although I am going to put the bling away for the time being, it has been a lot of fun playing with shiny things this year in my sewing adventures.

The actual construction of the bolero is fairly simple, and everything went together smoothly.

The only issue was how to iron the garment once the sequins were attached (the cotton does wrinkle, and it's impossible not to scrunch things up a bit while stitching the embellishments in place).  

But I did remember a silly little iron from the quilting section of the fabric store that I picked up many years ago.  It never got much use for quilting as I didn't see the point, but that tiny little iron was just the thing to get into the small spaces between the sequins.

This is what makes it so challenging to get rid of any of my sewing stuff - it always ends up coming in handy years later.

And it now appears that I will be hoarding sequins of all shapes and sizes for some future project that I feel needs to be encrusted with sparkly bits and beads, so that has to be added to the extensive list of sewing accoutrements stashed away in my home.

Picnic Ready

This was one of my favorite projects of the Summer.

The fabric and pattern combination was a happy coincidence which led me to work with a recently released pattern instead of letting it languish in the stash and eventually be forgotten (I have to remember to work with new to me patterns more expeditiously in the future).

And while there was a bit of frustration with the bulk of my chosen fabric and the corners of those fabulous pockets, overall, this project came together without too much frustration.

And I managed to sneak in a second project with my leftover fabric, which is one of my favorite things to do.  It makes me feel as though I am getting away with something.  

I used to wear bolero sweaters/jackets all of the time, and I cannot recall why I stopped.  I feel more cropped jackets and sweaters being added to the project queue sometime soon.

The fact that I had the perfect vintage buckle already on hand was just frosting on the cake.

I did have plans to make another version of this dress in a more novelty themed fabric, and I may get to that next year, but I am glad that this dress had her moment to shine during the warmer months.  

It has also confirmed my love of textured fabrics.  It's difficult to tell in these photos, but this is a checkered print that was applied to a cotton piqué. 

I may have purchased a few other piqué prints from Mood Fabrics when I picked this up, and I am quite certain that they will be put to good use in the near future.

Why is it so difficult to find textured fabrics, by the way?  Where are they hiding?

The urge to knit hasn't kicked in just yet, and I am temped to start another lightweight frock, but I feel like my next sewing project should be Fall appropriate.  And I am determined to complete a coat or jacket of some kind this year (or maybe I will give myself until February to complete that task!).  But it's hard to beat a cotton sundress and bolero jacket combo, and it won't be long before I am making another.

Dress & Belt: Made by me, Simplicity 9536
Bolero:  Made by me, "Dorothy" Bolero

A Matching Bolero

After I finished this dress, I decided that it needed a matching bolero.  There was a small amount of yardage left after cutting out the dress, and I hoped that it would be possible to squeeze a Dorothy Bolero out of the remnants.  The pattern itself comes with its own bolero, but the front lapped pieces are quite oversized and there was no way to cut the pattern out of my remaining fabric.  I contemplated purchasing an extra yard, but soon decided that was just ridiculous.

Turns out, I didn't have enough to cut everything out, even with the smaller pattern pieces from the Dorothy Bolero, but I still wasn't going to give up.  The turned back wing collared version of the pattern was my preferred silhouette, but there was no way to make that work.  I dug around in my stash and found scraps of eyelet from a very old project.  Using that eyelet for the facing pieces, I could just manage to cut out the band collar view of the pattern.

But I thought that the squared off edges might look strange paired with all of the curved edges of the pockets and neckline of the dress.

My solution was to curve those squared off edges, both on the cuffs and the center front collar.

It was a simple change and I think that it really helps bring both of the designs together.

I was slightly concerned that the contrasting facing would be noticeable and look cobbled together.

In the end, it ended up a being happy coincidence and looks much better than I had imagined it would.

I did interface the facing pieces because the eyelet fabric was somewhat flimsy compared with the piqué.

The contrast serves to break up all of those checks when it is worn with the dress.  The fabric is a cotton/poly blend, and while it isn't my favorite textile to work with, in this case, the finished product almost makes me forget that I hate working with and/or wearing polyester.

There was also a question as to which size I should choose with this pattern.  I went with the larger of the two, which definitely works, but I would also be curious to see how a slightly smaller silhouette would look.

But I am sure there will be opportunities in the future to test that theory.  And with this dress, I think that the bigger sizing works quite nicely.

Overall, I am extremely pleased with this outfit.

Both the dress and the bolero turned out even better than I had hoped, which is always a wonderful outcome.