Mad Men Dress Challenge - Round 2

You guys, it's here! Time to reveal my 2013 Mad Men dress. This year I was inspired by a cute dress worn by a character who is not one of the show's famous leading ladies. Her name is Gigi, and apparently she made a brief appearance in Season 4: Episode 4 wearing this green bow dress.

MM S4:E4, Gigi

Yes, another green dress! To create my version, I used vintage (c. 1968) Simplicity 7980 and added the bow detail from modern Simplicity 2154.

Simplicity 2154 + Simplicity 7980

And here you have my finished product:

And here I am, making my best Gigi-serious-face, which required hair twirling (my nervous habit).

You'll notice my dress is a slightly darker shade of green, whereas Gigi's is more of a...teal or "jungle" green. I've also added a keyhole to the front because, much as I'd wish it were from time to time, this is not the 1960s and that high, round neckline can't always work in daily life.

My dirty secrets about making this dress?

1) It was squeezed out of a yard and a half of thick, lush (read: oddly spongy), thrifted-at-the-last-minute polyester.

2) There are no seam finishes inside - even the hem was only just turned and stitched! The thick polyester is not prone to fraying and I just honestly couldn't be bothered to fuss with it.

3) I effed-up the armhole and neck-keyhole facings (oops, no close-ups available!) because I forced bias tape in there instead of cutting actual facings out of another fabric when I ran out of my thifted polyester. The drape and thickness of the dress fabric made it surprisingly difficult to attach the bias tape facings and caused a lot of puckering and weird dimply spots.

4) Upon completing the dress, I was feeling pretty OVER IT. Then I wore it to work a few days later, it was super comfortable, and I fell back in love with it.

Certainly a different tune than I sang to you all when I shared my dress for last year's challenge. Not much unnecessary struggling with lining or setting in sleeves this time around, and honestly, though it was simpler to sew and is less polished & fussed over than last year's, this is a more wearable dress for me. Hopefully it'll be making another appearance or two during Me-Made-May '13. :)

And on that note, I'll BOW OUT (ha-ha-ha! - get it?). Time to get stitchin' on my next project!

Oh! and a big THANK YOU to Julia for hosting this fun challenge again. Be sure to check out all of this year's other entries over on JuliaBobbin's blog in the next few days. I know I'm super excited to see them!

Finished Project: Sunny Gingham Bow Blouse

So, I finished this blouse on Friday and started wearing it immediately. Did I mention that this blouse pattern is my JAM? Because it is. I love it!

That's right, it's another Simplicity 2154. After making my polka-dotted version, I knew I'd be making more of these babies. It recently struck me that I needed one in gingham...yellow gingham.

my newest Simplicity 2154 blouse - you can see my first version peeking out behind it!

it can be worn with the neckline clasped, or not!

back closeup

It's such a satisfying project to sew up!

• I love collars
• it has no zippers or buttonholes (when you omit them, like I do)
• no sleeves to set in
• pattern pieces are all set up for you to make self-bias strips to finish the armholes and neckline
• there's a cute keyhole opening in the back, which is easy to do and looks good!
• that's all I can think of

back of blouse and collar closeup

The things I did differently for this version of the blouse were to make the collar about an inch smaller, use french seams for the side seams, underline the lightweight poly/cotton gingham with cotton batiste, leave the peek-a-boo opening at the front neckline open at the top to be fastened with a little hook & eye, omitted the bow in the original pattern.

insides, with turned and stitched seams and cute bias strip finished armholes and neckline.

I'm sure there will be move of these bow (or sans bow) blouses popping up around here in the future, but for now I'm dreaming about what I mentioned in my last post. ...and fall/winter sewing in general.

Anise by Colette Patterns

While digging through all of my winter-weight wools and fabric, I found some nice plaid that I'm setting up for a cozy fall/winter skirt. You can spot a few glimpses of it in the background of the last blouse pictures above.

More soon!

Coming Soon!

Thank you all for your nice comments about my recently completed wrap dress! I also really appreciate all of the advice you shared regarding how I might proceed with altering Tom's shirt. Thank you! Sometimes having something explained or suggested in someone else's words can make things click better than when you are reading instructions you've scrounged up on the internets. :)

Hopefully I'll end up finishing Tom's shirt soon, but I'm kind of giving it a little break for now to let all of the advice on how to proceed marinate...in my brain. haha.

Anyway, currently on my sewing table is ....drum roll... another Simplicity 2154 blouse! Surprise! I absolutely LOVED my first polka-dotted version of this blouse and have been super eager to sew up another version.

 

Obviously, this baby is still under construction, but I'm pretty close to finishing it up. This one is a yellow/white gingham that's underlined in white cotton batiste. I'm planning to go for a slightly different look this time, omitting the bow and making the collar a little smaller. I've also got plans to leave the peek-a-boo opening, that would hide mostly underneath the bow on the blouse (if I was including one), open, but closeable with a little clasp at the top of the neckline.

Also coming soon? 

You may or may not have noticed, but Sunni over at A Fashionable Stitch is having a little sale in her shop that ends tonight at midnight. I just happened to notice the sale yesterday night and scooped up a couple of special, spur-of-the-moment sewing goodies for myself. 

pink magnetic pin caddy

Colette Patterns' macaron

Both of these items have been on my "maybe I should break down and finally buy this" sewing list. I mean who doesn't want a bright pink, magnetic pin caddy for all of those pesky pins that seem to never stop trying to roll off of or hide under my sewing table.

Also, have you SEEN all of the adorable versions of the Colette Macaron dress popping up? Here are a couple of my favorites I've seen and been inspired by lately:

Jamie's cute version with a peter pan collar, nice little buttons, and contrasting upper bodice fabric. I love it!

Rochelle's adorable plaid and teal version, in a skirt+blouse style. TOO cute!

I think the Macaron is a perfect dress for fall, so I'm definitely hoping to sew one up soon. It hasn't always been the most appealing dress pattern for me, but lately I've been finding myself really drawn to it, mostly due to all of the cute versions my fellow sewing bloggers have created.

That's all I've got for now. What are you all planning and working on lately?

Finished Project: Simplicity 2154 Bow Blouse

Finished Simplicity 2154

So, my latest project, the bow blouse in Simplicity 2154, has been completed and officially released into the wild. I finished sewing it over the weekend but didn't get around to wearing it until today. It's definitely a comfy yet cute blouse, so I'm hoping to make some more versions in the future. And, just so you know, those are JEANS, not leggings I've paired it with in the above picture. :)

blouse front

I wish the bow would sit more like this...

As you can see, I opted for a floppy bow on this blouse, rather than the interfaced version prescribed by the pattern. I purposely left the interfacing out of the bow to make it softer, but kind of wish I'd actually put it in! It's just SO floppy (especially because of the drapey rayon shirting I used) and I think I might like it a little better if it was stiffer...with more of a defined bow shape.

details!

I used a vintage red button for the back closure and kind of fudged the back opening since I'd somehow not noticed that one side of my collar was about half an inch shorter than its mate, meaning things didn't quite line up where they met in the back. Boy, do I love the collar on this blouse, though! It's just too cute.

When putting this top together, I (on a whim) omitted the side zipper and am able to just fit it over my head with no zip needed, since there's the little opening in the back.

The sleeve and neck openings were finished with self bias strips, with their own pattern pieces for cutting 'em out and everything. It was nice to have everything all measured out for me and I really like the way the finishes turned out.

Blouse back with collar close-up

I really enjoyed constructing this blouse - it was so refreshing to make something simple and quick after sewing back to back dresses as my most recent prior projects.

Here's what it looked like when I wore it to work. I was a little nervous to go 100% sleeveless at work, for whatever reason...so you get to see a cardigan shot, as well.

How I wore it to work.

What's up next?

More blouses for me, maybe a dress... and a shirt for Tom's birthday (shh!)

Just a peek...

I've finished my Simplicity 2154 blouse using the leftover fabric from my Wedding Guest Dress. Here's a peek at the finished object.

I'm planning to wear it this week and will report back with more details (and photos) about the entire project afterwards, so stay tuned!

New WIP & Winning!

So, for all of you out there who assumed I was done with all of that white and red rayon I used for my latest wedding guest dress, well...you're wrong. Sorry! I have just enough left to squeeze out a blouse I've owned the pattern for forever but haven't gotten around to trying until now - Simplicity 2154!

There have been loads of ridiculously adorable versions of this cute blouse popping up all over the place. Have you seen Scruffy Badger's, Liz's, and Alana's? Just to name a few.

Someday, I'll make the skirt too.

Sleeveless bow blouse

I've been a bit busy since returning from vacation and am preparing to participate in more wedding festivities (and will be wearing my Milly Wedding Guest Dress) this weekend, so progress here will be slow. Hopefully it will be a relatively quick project, though - it's just a blouse!

Laying out pattern - I just LOVE my huge pincushion from A Fashionable Stitch

So far I've only cut everything out and not done any actual sewing yet, but I'm excited to get started! Even though I'm repeating the fabric from my last project, it'll be nice to be working on something smaller scale than a party dress. Also, I've been noticing a lack of cute, wearable tops in my wardrobe, so I'm hoping this blouse will help me in that area.

Also of interest, I just recently won (my first) giveaway over at Seams Sustainable!  Dee, who blogs there, is a super talented sewist (she's creating her own wedding dress!) who also excels in other crafts, like jewelry making. To celebrate her 100th blog post (congrats, Dee!), she gave away a lovely pair of handmade earrings made from reclaimed faux pearls and faceted glass.

weird lighting - doesn't capture the sparklyness!

I'm thrilled to have won a giveaway and feel like I really lucked out with this one. Can't wait to wear these to a fancy occasion - thanks, Dee!