Progress & plans

Firstly, thank you all for your cheery, supportive comments on my 6 month bloggiversary post!

And, to the five lucky winners of my giveaway, just a heads up that your prizes are officially in the mail and on their way to your doorsteps!

Now, on to the sewing talk. It's been a little while since I've shared my progress with you all for my current project. I'm working on the second wedding guest dress I'd planned to make. If you recall, I decided to go with the red/white spotted rayon and vintage McCall 4581.

In case you were wondering about my sketching skillz...I think they speak for themselves.

It all sounded great and I was excited to get started, but when I finally did I was kind of like... meh. Perhaps this project fell victim to my tendency to over-plan things, but somewhere along the line it lost the excitement and just didn't seem right! I forged ahead, telling myself that I'd like it more and more once I saw the dress underway, and started to make a (hopefully) wearable muslin out of some thrifted fabric. I thought I could make the top part of the circle skirt to test the waist measurement on the pattern, in addition to sewing up the bodice, and end up with a cute blouse with a peplum. Something along these lines:

top with peplum - modcloth.com

Well, I had a few issues constructing the bodice, though the fit was actually just right, and by the time I had the thing mostly put together I realized it just wasn't for me! Boo, right? Well, after being disappointed, it was actually a relief to know that I didn't have to force myself to make it! I love the spotted fabric I'm going to use for the final dress and I decided I'd be happy going with a simpler bodice, keeping the circle skirt, and making something a little more laid back and easy to wear.

Here's what my muslin/top ended up looking like:

peplum top/muslin

The left side of the bodice turned out ok, but the right side is all bunchy and weird.

I probably should have traced the stitching line (that's why it's there!) from the pattern onto the cut fabric, but I didn't want to! That ended up making it rather difficult for me when trying to attach the sleeve thingy to the bodice and keeping the little cut-out things the same size/shape on each side. It just wasn't really fun and I wasn't in love with the look anyway.

Since I've thrown out this plan for something simpler, I decided to go with a dress bodice already in my stash, McCall 5845 , which I'll pair with the circle skirt from the vintage pattern. I might even opt to add the bow belt shown.

I've sewn this pattern up once before, pre-blog, and promptly abandoned it once I put in the zipper and realized the dress was too big. Based on that experience, I've got a few adjustments I'm planning to make this time around, but you'll just have to wait and see how it all comes together. Hopefully I'll have it sewn up in time to wear to the wedding - eeek! More details soon.

Summer weddings dress plans

Friends, I have a confession. I'm sorry to say that I sort of disregarded your votes for my wedding guest dress plans. Well, not completely, but...
(Also, I've taken on Kate Gosselin's style of discussing a topic here a little bit, the self interview. Just a heads up.)

I've decided to at least try to make two dresses since I'll be attending two weddings this summer - in early August, actually. And the two patterns I chose from the four I'd had you vote on are:

McCall 4581 and New Look 6910!!!!!!

1958 McCall 4581

New Look 6910 - yes, this photo isn't the highest quality, but is that Sarah Palin??

Yaaaaayyy!

What?

Next to no one voted for New Look 6910?

That's the part I "disregarded" ...because I want to make it! It's similar to the other NL pattern I'd thrown in the ring for voting, but I like the scoop neckline + princess seams combo. What don't I like? That jacket. I'm pretty sure that's why this baby got very few votes from y'all too. Don't judge a book by it's cover! Or a dress by it's heinous shiny chartreuse jacket! It's what's inside [the jacket] that counts. Ok?

I'm planning to go with a combination of options A and B. I'm thinking full skirt, scoop neck, little sleeves (which I might lengthen a bit). Why would I want sleeves if these weddings are in hot, humid, muggy, gross August? I think it looks better...and maybe they'll help catch the sweat that will be pouring off of me. Oh, and I'm ignoring the little waist detail/belt-y things going on in this pattern -- a bow belt thing might be cute, depending on my fabric choice, but we'll see.

NL 6910 fronts

NL 6910 back

And for fabric choices, I was initially thinking I could use the blue/green rayon challis I'd hoped to make use of in my warmer weather wardrobe plans since it would be nice and breathable and soft and twirly, but now I'm really being drawn to the pink/cream/black color scheme of the fabric (maybe it looks better in person?) I picked up with my livingsocial deal for G. Street Fabrics. I'm kind of torn between the two - they'd create such different looks. If I picked the green/blue rayon, I think I'd want a contrasting belt of some sort to break it up a bit, since it's an allover print...but if I went with the pink/cream/black, I could use the pink pima sateen for the bodice and the Milly spotted (slightly stiff) silk for the skirt. What do you guys think?

blue/green rayon challis abstract floral

rayon closeup

OR:

pink pima cotton sateen (matches the pink of the dots on the silk below)

Milly spotted silk - pink/cream/black

As for the vintage McCall's pattern, (the illustration for which also lives in my blog header, in case you  missed that) I think I'm all decided re: pattern + fabric. It was kind of a given for me - I couldn't not choose it! Gillian called me out in the comments on my last post before I could even announce my plans...to use white & red fabric! I'll basically be making the dress on the envelope - full, not pencil skirt - with this fabric I'd originally planned to use for a Sencha, but couldn't resist matching up with this dress (after hurrying online to buy extra yardage). It's a kind-of-drapey white rayon shirting with red spots. I was thinking I could finally use my belt kit I got from Sunni's shop over at A Fashionable Stitch to make a coordinating red belt, too...or maybe matching polka dot...?

spotted rayon

As you can see, the skirt I'll be working with here is rather full - that's a lot of fabric!
I've never made a circle skirt, so have nothing to compare it to, but I'm hoping to doing lots of twirling. Such a full skirt makes me wonder if I should try to wear my light pink vintage (very similar to this, but closer to tea length, which is not really my optimal length) crinoline under it, or make a new, smaller crinoline (like Gertie's), OR try Gertie's other full skirt flouncyness solution of lining it with organza for a slight, built-in poof.

instructions illustration

back of pattern envelope

Well, what do you think? Am I on the right track here?

I've actually got three weddings I'll be attending, but the first one is this weekend, so I didn't have the forethought time to sew something up. I did however pick up a simple teal sheath dress from Goodwill that I plan to alter (at the last minute) a tiny bit so I can wear it to this derby day/cinco de mayo/wedding. Planning to go for a teal + red color combo, but I'll share more all about that once I've got photos and such.

Have a great weekend, everyone!