Little Red Dress

Hi guys! Are you having a good summer? We're having lots of fun around here! I just thought I'd pop in and show you this cute little dress I made for a baby shower.

I didn't use a pattern, I just copied the shape from a dress I'd seen at the mall.

I just love piping on little girls dresses, don't you?  So cute.

It was tricky to find a good spot to photograph it; in this house of boys, there's not much girly stuff around.  :)  I tried the hooks in my "baby's" room.  Zoom out a little, though...and it's obvious it's a boy's room!  

It was fun to have an excuse to make something for a little girl!

Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective

This summer I got the chance to visit the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.  I felt so lucky that its only North American stop was right in my backyard.  

On my way into the exhibit, I stopped with my kids at a fun design station the art museum had in conjunction with the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit.  There was an activity for each step in the design process.  My kids loved doing it, and I thought it was pretty fun too.  :)

First, we made inspiration boards:

Then we sketched.  If you weren't artistically inclined, there were lightboxes you could use to trace templates.  I drew my own clothing, but I'm awful at drawing people, so I traced the form.  Now I kind of want my own lightbox--that would making pattern tracing SO much easier!

 

 

Here's my sketch!  

After sketching, you could drape a dress form, make a little tiny draped dress on a toy dress form, and model dresses on the runway.  I didn't bother with these, since I couldn't actually make what I wanted.  :)  But my kids thought they were great, which was kind of the point anyway.  :)

 

 

After having fun with the fashion design, I entered the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit.

 

Photography is absolutely prohibited in the exhibit (and they mean it!  I saw one lady get angrily booted from the exhibit!), so I got a few pictures from the Denver Post website and the Denver Art Museum website to show you (The two above, however, are mine.  No rules against taking a picture of the entrance...).

The exhibit starts of with his years as a designer at Dior.  

And then moves, somewhat chronologically (but not strictly so) through his other designs.  

They also had an area with his world-inspired designs...

...and an entire hall dedicated his use of color...

...not to mention, all of his tuxedo suits.

At the end of the exhibit was a display of his ball gowns.  

 

Since photography wasn't allowed, I took notes on my program about which dresses were my favorites, and then looked them up later in the exhibit's book.  

The Dior years are my favorite, since really I'm a Dior girl at heart.  The 1950s silhouette is my favorite.  

The colors in this one were amazing.  

I thought this was such a cute secretary-style dress.

Grace Kelly wore this one! 

I typically prefer the dresses, but I liked this pantsuit.  I especially liked the bow blouse and the cute hat.  Hats need to make a comeback.  :)

 

This one was from a collection of his that did not do well. I love this dress though.  It was made in the 1970s, but with a 1940s flair.  I'd wear it.  

This cape was amazing.  

There were so many beautiful clothes in that exhibit!  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did! 

Vintage Catalog

While visiting my favorite antique store, I found this fabulous Montgomery Ward's catalog from 1949.  I snapped some shots of it with my phone, so I apologize that some of them are blurry.  

I love the one with the big bow, 4th from the left.  

The chevron print on the one on the right is very on trend.  But, I really love the plaid one (3rd from the left).  Those pockets!

 

I think my favorite out of all of them is the one with the lacing detail at the waist (second from the right in the photo below). 

I love the waistline on the polka dot one.  And, the one with the bow at the neckline (um, which I guess is also a polka dot...oops...) is fantastic.  

 

 

 

I wish we could still order from old catalogs, as if there were some great warehouse somewhere that never went out of stock.  :)  Wouldn't that be fantastic!  I love these great vintage dresses!

SYTYCS Entry, Week 3: Fair and Lemon Square Dress (and Tutorial!)

ModCloth's Fair and Lemon Square dress has been on my wish list for a long time.  It's adorable.  It's my favorite color.  And, its $75 price tag is out of my budget.  So, I decided to try my hand at making it myself.

Here's how I did it.  First, since patterns aren't allowed in the So You Think You Can Sew competition, I spent quite a bit of time drafting my own pattern.  I'm so glad I bought a french curve awhile back!  It was so helpful in drawing the right lines and curves.  I went through a few drafts (especially while trying to figure out how to work the darts) and fit my drafts to my dress form to make sure I was on the right track.  I used my three year old's finger painting paper--it was the perfect size!  After several tries, I finally ended up with a usable pattern.    

The bodice front (left) and bodice back (right).

The collar:

The sleeve:

I used a pretty yellow cotton sateen as my fabric, about 4 yards.  I cut the bodice front out, with the straight side (middle) on the fold.  (I cut two, since I lined the bodice.  All of my instructions for the bodice are the same as the lining; you just do everything twice, so you basically have two bodices that you will put together later on.)

I marked the darts with pins.

I matched up the pins and sewed the dart, making sure to leave extra thread at the point of the dart so I could tie a knot and avoid the bulk that back-stitching would have made.

I then pressed the darts.

For the back, I cut two (4 if you count the lining) of my back bodice pattern.  I marked the darts in the same way, sewed, and pressed.

I then, with right sides together, sewed the bodice back to the bodice front.  I pinned and sewed at the sides:

And at the shoulders:

Then I pressed my seams open:

Here's what I ended up with:

I cut a waistband out of my favorite white cotton: Walmart's Teeshot cotton.  The waistband measured 34 inches by 3 inches.  I added some medium weight iron-on interfacing to it (but not to the one for the lining).  Then, I pinned (right sides together, again) it to the bodice and sewed it on (nearly all of my seams were sewed with 5/8 inch seam allowance).

Once the waistband was attached, I pressed it open.  Here you can see the bodice and waistband layered over its lining on my dress form:

At this point, I added part of my zipper (a 22 inch invisible zipper).  Ordinarily, I'd wait until the skirt was attached, but I wanted to try it on before I got too far to make sure my fit was working out okay.  After the zipper was attached (just follow the instructions on the package) I pressed the seams.

Next, I cut out the skirt.  The front of the skirt was 31 x 25 inches.

I cut two of the skirt back so I'd have a center seam for the zipper to go in.  The skirt backs were each 17 x 25 inches.

I sewed the skirt backs to either side of the the skirt front (and pressed open the seams).

Using the largest stitch length on my machine, I machine basted the top of the skirt.

Using the basting, I pulled and gathered the skirt.  I matched the side seams on the skirt to the side seams on the bodice and evenly distributed the gathers between the seams.  I then pinned the gathered skirt to the waistband (as always, right sides together).

Here's how it's looking so far:

Next, I made the collar.  I cut out four collar pieces and covered two of them with fusible interfacing.

I pinned each interfaced piece to an un-interfaced piece (right sides together).  I stitched around the sides and bottom of each collar piece.  I clipped the corners and curves before turning.  I pressed the collar (being sure to poke out the corners before pressing).  I then top-stitched around the sides and bottom of the collar.

I pinned the collar where I wanted it on the bodice.

And then, this is where we'll use the lining.  Up to this point, the lining should be exactly the same as the bodice, except its waist band doesn't have interfacing and it doesn't have a collar.

Press under the bottom of the lining's waistband 5/8 of an inch.

Place the bodice (complete with pinned-on collar) and the bodice lining right sides together, making sure to line up all seams, edges, and darts.  Pin the lining to the bodice at the neckline and stitch together.

After stitching, turn it right sides out and press the neckline.

Press under where the lining meets the zipper and pin it to the zipper.  Pin the bottom of the lining to the seam allowance from the skirt.  Hand stitch the lining to the zipper and the skirt's seam allowance, so none of your stitches are visible from the outside of the dress.

Now it's time to put some sleeves on the dress.  I cut out two of the sleeves, with the straight side on the fold.

I hemmed the bottom of the sleeve (on the left in the above picture) with a narrow hem.  Then, I machine basted around the top curve of the sleeve and gathered a little to give a little ease to the sleeve (so I can move my arms!).  I sewed the sides of the sleeve together (right sides together) and pressed the seam open.

I matched the sleeve seam to the side seam under the arm hole in the dress and pinned it.  I then matched the top of the sleeve to the shoulder seam.  I pinned the rest of the slightly-gathered sleeve to the rest of the arm hole in between the two seams.

Sew on the sleeve.  Repeat process on the other sleeve.

Turn the sleeve right side out and press the seam.

The last part of the main dress construction is to hem the skirt.  I tried on the dress and marked where I wanted my hem to be.  I measured, pressed, pinned, and stitched the hem.

Now comes the fun part--putting on the embellishments!  I bought some larger buttons to cover with fabric.  I used the same teeshot white as the collar and the waistband.  I followed the instructions on the package to cover the buttons.  It was actually really easy.  And it was pretty fun to hear the "snap!" of the back locking in and pulling out a perfect fabric-covered button.  Yay!

I centered the top button between the two sides of the collar and sewed it on.  I measured where to place the other buttons so they would be evenly spaced and sewed them on, too.

I made the bow for the waistband so quickly that I forgot to measure it.  It's around 2x4 inches or so.  I cut out two rectangles of the white fabric and interfaced one of them.  I stitched them together, right sides together, leaving the end open for turning.  I clipped the corners, turned it, and pressed it.  I folded in the end left open and stitched it closed, continuing around the edge of the whole rectangle with some decorative top-stitching as well.

I pinched it together in the middle and hand stitched it into a bow shape.  I then made a loop of fabric to go around the middle of my bow and hand stitched it on.  I stitched it to my waistband and then I was done with my dress!

I'm really loving this dress.  I can't wait to get to wear it more (um...it was bitterly cold and windy when my hubby and I took pictures of it yesterday...SO. FREEZING. COLD.  So, yeah, this is a spring dress...).    :)  Its bright yellow and cute details make me happy.  :)   And, at a fraction of the price of the original (fabric and materials came to around $17, thanks to a 50% off coupon at JoAnn Fabrics!), I'd say it was totally worth it to make it.

This week's votes determine who will be in the top 3.  So, I really need all the votes I can get.  :)  Voting is open now at Mommy By Day Crafter By Night  and will continue until Thursday night.    Voting is now closed.