Saturday, February 22, 2014

Finished Project: Royal Mathilde

 


Oh, hello! I've had this charming pattern printed, taped, and cut out just waiting for some fabric for, like, a year? I kept getting hung up on the idea of making those tucks down the front and then getting distracted by other new projects. I knew I could do the tucks, but, couldn't make myself actually just do them. Then I saw this adorable gathered variation and knew I'd found the prefect solution. 

Then months passed. Finally, here it is.





Somehow, these shots don't quite capture the most flattering side of the top, but I still love them. The fabric I used is a Royal colored Rayon Batiste from Fabric.com and it is very fluid and drapey. It also creases relatively easily, as you can see from the evidence of wear on the back of the shirt.

Other than switching out the tucks for gathers along the blouse front, I didn't make any changes or alterations to the pattern. It fit right off the bat, thanks to the loose style. For the buttons down the back, I agonized over what color and style to use (navy blue? bright red? shiny gold shank buttons?), then settled on a mis-matched, ombre look. From purple-blue down to dark navy, each button is slightly different, but in person it's still rather subtle. 




You can see a bit more of the fit in this candid, walking-talking shot. My favorite detail on the top is the gathered sleeves. I've never owned anything with this sleeve style before and I think they're really elegant and interesting! Nice work, Tilly, on an awesome pattern! 

All in all this was a fun and easy blouse to sew. The only thing that got to me was the number of time consuming (for a slow sewist, like me) techniques, like making the sleeves that are gathered at the head and cuff, and doing the placket and buttons. These parts, though, are what make the top appealing because they're great details.

I highly recommend this blouse and do believe I'll be making another, either with the tucks, or re-drafting the front to just be flat (no tucks), using Tilly's tutorial. Speaking of Tilly, have you seen her newly released top/dress pattern, Coco? It's super adorable, and available in print! I can't wait for mine to arrive in the mail.







Monday, February 3, 2014

Tiny Girl, Tiny Dress

clockwise: pistachio nut cake with pink cream cheese frosting; 
posing with the pretty decorative tissue-paper pom-poms we hung from the ceiling for the party; 
gift table; plastic babies from the "my water broke" game where babies are frozen in ice cubes 
then added to each guest's beverage; 
"prank you" fake Crib Dribbler box, which all of us except the gift-giver mistakenly assumed was a real product; 
make a baby from play-dough game; decorated onesies with fabric markers.

This past weekend, my friends and I held a surprise baby shower for our bestie, Allison. I've been dreaming of adorable little baby clothes ever since I found out she was pregnant, and once she announced it would be a girl, my brain almost exploded just thinking about all of the adorable possibilities. I'm sure some of you can relate. I mean, have you looked at the baby clothes in Target or any other department store? They're so tiny! and inexpensive (compared to adult clothes), and did I meantion they're ridiculously cute? 

I began scouring the internet for baby clothes sewing patterns. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places, but a lot of what I found was for toddlers, which will be great later, but I needed little tiny baby things!

I finally settled upon the adorable Little Geranium dress from made-by-rae. I saw Sonja had whipped up a few and was dying to give it a try. Then I found out the 0-3 mo. version of the pattern was available for FREE. Sold.







I stitched it up in a leopard print ponte de roma & a coral pink ponte fino knit, both from Fabric.com. No fancy techniques here, just used a knit/ball-point needle made for medium-weight fabrics. This was my first time sewing with ponte knit, ever, and it was super easy. It's great because it doesn't really fray (left the seams unfinished!) and has a nice drape, but isn't too lightweight or overly stretchy. I suppose you could say it's somewhat stable?

One thing it's not good for: multiple layers/seams overlapping with your intended buttonhole placement. What do I mean? I mangled 2 buttonholes trying to stitch them for the back closure because my janky buttonhole foot couldn't maneuver around any of the slightly bulky seams. You can see my stray, pinched-looking, abandoned buttonhole attempts if you look closely (or even not so closely). I was forced to move on after only successfully creating 2 buttonholes in the center back.






Overall, this was a fun, fast, and easy dress to whip up. Maybe snaps could solve the buttonhole issue I encountered? I do have some more brightly colored ponte I'm considering using to make another one of these -- though I could obviously just make it in regular woven fabric, too. I highly recommend this dress pattern; the finished product makes a great baby shower gift. :)