washi two

August 20, 2012August 23, 201259 Comments

woohoo, washi two! i made this dress, oh, a week and a half or so ago. before the washi pattern was officially released, i’ll tell you that. Rae had sent us testers the changes she was making (.5″ longer bodice, 2.5″ longer skirt) but i couldn’t wait for the updated final pattern; i just went ahead and made the changes to the tester version.

i lengthened the bodice an extra .5″ to hit me right at my natural waist and added an extra line of shirring at the bottom to compensate for the longer bodice. i also realized i had sewed the darts slightly wrong on washi one, so i fixed that on this version. i liked it a whole lot before, and i love love LOVE it now.

when i spotted this fantastic dear stella print at bolt i thought it’d make a great washi dress (from their maasai mara line). i figured the charcoal color would go with everything and get tons of wear, which it has. that’s why it’s taken this long to blog – i’ve been wearing it almost too often! probably time to make washi three, eh?

so i also changed the neckline. i feel a little bad about it, frankly; the U cutout of the original washi is a major part of its charm and i know it took a good amount of work getting it just right in the patternmaking stage. but i do like a scooped out neckline; it just flatters me. also, part of me wanted a more generic neckline so i could wear it often and maybe not have people notice? i plan on making more washis and i plan to have every dress look a little bit different, so the U will make its return soon enough.

this washi also happens to look nice belted. the belt is my mom’s i think (i should probably give it back, sorry mom!).

dear stella washi dress

so i’ve actually seen quite a few gals mention in comments for Rae that they like the washi but can’t make it until they’re done nursing. i think with this modification, the washi can be nursing-friendly! O isn’t nursing anymore, but i can still imagine what it’d take…and i think this would work. my neckline is almost 1″ deeper than the pattern’s scoop neckline option, and wider on the bottom sides too (so a wider U out toward each armpit but not up toward the shoulders). i tapered the scoop as i went up so the shoulders are the same width as the original pattern; otherwise it might really alter the fit. i’d highly recommend working the shape out in the muslin phase and then using your muslin as a pattern. don’t go quite as deep/wide as you want it in the end, because the seam allowance will scoop out more and it’s very easy to go too deep very quickly. don’t want that (or maybe you do?). anyway, your choice.

once you’ve gotten your muslin how you want it, lay it over your front bodice and trace the new neckline on the fold so they match. repeat with the facing, just match up the shoulders and trace it so the necklines match. you can also round off the bottom U of the facing since you’re omitting the U cutout. finish as instructed. enjoy your (probably) nursing friendly washi!

washi dress scoop neckline

and look, you’ll likely need to do a FBA if you’re nursing too. just a guess…but that’s not my issue. hehe.

i believe this is the first time i’ve bought a higher quality fabric specifically for my own garment, which shows that my mindset is finally starting to change about sewing my own clothes. i’m not just using vintage sheets or cheap fabric anymore, because i know the pattern will work!

when i first started sewing for Em as a little gal, i was self-conscious about it, like i didn’t want people to know. now my skills have advanced to the point where i’m proud of the fact that i make my kids’ clothes, but i was still timid about that when sewing for myself. finally, FINALLY, i’m becoming proud of what i make myself as well. what a great feeling. i owe Rae a lot for that – this dress is simple enough to be a real confidence builder and it looks good in quilting cotton, which i currently feel most comfortable working with. THANK YOU, RAE!!

see that? sassy leg. i love this dress! yay for the washi!

PS – there are soooo many beautiful versions showing up in the flickr pool already – holy cow!

film petit: mon petite amélie

August 16, 2012June 11, 201345 Comments

it’s film petit time, and this month’s film is one that’s been a favorite of mine for many many years (we even had the soundtrack playing at our wedding reception in 2004). it’s…Amélie!

officially titled “Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain,” Amélie (affiliate link) is a 2001 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet about a little girl that grew up within her own imagination. she was a lonely child and a lonely adult too, until one day she is struck by the urge to become a “do gooder” and surprise others with small acts of kindness and love. her shenanigans include stealing her father’s garden gnome and sending it around the world, guiding and describing the street scene to a blind man, and setting up two lonely hearts looking for love at her workplace.

as she does these good deeds for others, she chances upon a young man named Nino. Nino is on his own quest to find an elusive mystery man as he reassembles discarded photo booth photos for his collection, and Amélie quickly falls in love…but she knows the way to get his attention is through the photo booth.

so she goes to a photo booth and takes photos of herself…

…and directs Nino to meet her…

…knowing that when they finally do meet, they will fall deeply in love and be together forever.

in the meantime, playing the game is just as fun…

i knew i wanted to sew Amélie herself. as i watched the movie for the first time in years, i kept a notepad near me and sketched out my inspiration for what to sew for Em. i noticed a few things about Amélie’s wardrobe (played by the lovely Audrey Tatou):

as i put these ideas together, i noticed that the design that emerged reminded me of the darling ranges dress (adult pattern) by megan nielsen! i went with that inspiration. mine is a mini version, with short sleeves and fewer buttons.

the button down front comes to a v at the neck (i drafted facings, a feat i’m geekily proud of – this pattern has eight different pieces!). i stitched the facings down by hand for an invisible finish. the sleeves puff slightly at the shoulder, and i made it in a red with white polka dot cotton (moda essential dot) to stick with her mostly-red color theme. it closes with five white buttons.

the bodice attaches to a gathered skirt and has shirring in the back to add some shape while remaining very comfortable for my little gal. i owe my newfound knowledge of facings and shirring to the washi dress, so it was fun to apply those techniques to create this pattern of my own.

Petite Amélie LOVES her red polka dotted dress, and sets out to make the world a better place…

…one traveling garden gnome at a time! now scamper on over to probably actually to check out Gail’s gorgeous gnome dress! i LOVE that she was inspired by the gnome. the dress she made is amazing, you’ve got to see all the lovely details. Amélie was impressed!

and to find out if Petite Amélie’s photo booth charms worked on Little Nino…head over to a little gray for some amazing sewing and a little bit of trickery! Jessica had a genius collaboration idea with this one; you really don’t want to miss it!

it was SO fun planning this month’s post with both my co-host Jessica and Film Petit guest Gail – how great to have three people watch the same movie and be inspired by different parts of it! thanks ladies, this was such a blast!

***

here are the guidelines for film petit:

every month or so, Jessica and i (plus a guest blogger) will sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love.
if you’d like to play along, please feel free to add any movie-inspired sewing to the film petit flickr group. if you sew along with our film petit choices, we’d love to see that too. we’re close to doing a round up, so keep ’em coming!
if we really like your stuff, we may ask you to join us for a future film!
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know.

PS – i took the indoor photos in the Ace Hotel lobby where there is a functioning vintage photo booth (!!), and the outdoor photos at Cool Cottons, a wonderful local fabric shop you should definitely visit if you have the chance.

PPS – Cherie from you & mie will be joining us in september!

washi testing!

August 8, 2012August 9, 201251 Comments

i’m not a very selfish seamstress. frankly, it’s because i’m intimidated. i don’t like how much yardage adult lady patterns require, the patterns seem too complicated, and you just never know how the fit will work. i seem to have just as many failures at sewing clothes for myself as i do successes. i actually own a good number of adult patterns that i’ve never even opened. they just freak me out!

but not the washi dress. i LOVE the washi dress. i loved it when Rae posted about it the first time, and the second time, and every time thereafter. i knew i wanted to get my hands on the pattern as soon as possible. lucky for me, a well-timed email to Rae (where i just happened to offer my services as a pattern tester once again) turned into me sending her a couple very personal measurements and it just so happened i filled the size gap she needed. i got to be a washi tester!

it lived up to the hype. if you have always wanted to sew yourself a dress and you’ve been scared, this is definitely the pattern to try. Rae’s patterns are always clear and logical to follow, and she just keeps getting better! she has enlisted her sister to help with the technical pattern design parts and the washi pattern is so professional with great little diagrams instead of photos. Rae was definitely up to the challenge of making an adult lady pattern in a wide range of sizes, which i consider just incredible. she includes a fit guide that makes a lot of sense, when usually pattern alterations would scare me off. i made a medium, and the fit is pretty much perfect.

you can make the washi as a dress or a tunic, with sleeves (shown) or without, and once you have the fit down, it seems so easy to tweak a bit for different looks! and hey, it even has pockets!

i really enjoyed the process of sewing the pattern, too. you know how some have “that one step” that you dread or hate, maybe it’s the zipper, or 20 buttons, or a ton of bias binding? the washi has a little of many different techniques, so you never get bored or tired of what you’re doing. it’s a really fun sew! the ONLY thing i was worried about was the shirring. i have a basic brother machine and those are notorious for not shirring easily; i’d tried a few times and it had never worked.

but i figured it out – and to do it, you’ve gotta break a rule (see my evil smile?).

okay first, go buy gutermann brand elastic thread like Rae suggests. they sell it at joann’s, and when i went they had it on sale. the stuff just FEELS higher quality than other brands, and it seems to makes a huge difference. second, you need to wind it onto the bobbin with some tension – this is the rule you break, because everyone tells you to wind it without pulling. if i did that, it wouldn’t work – it just left me a mess of elastic underneath. but if i wound it with a little tightness, it seemed to work every time. don’t stretch it to the point of almost breaking, just pull a bit and wind it tighter than you should, like you’re rewinding a yo-yo. thirdly, if you have a drop in bobbin with the auto feed, don’t let the bobbin thread cut and retreat back into the “gully.” leave it so you can still see some tail out the side. if i cut the bobbin thread like normal, it snapped back in and wouldn’t catch when i started sewing.

finally, PRACTICE. i found i didn’t need to change my tension and i just increased my stitch length to 3.0. it worked! use scraps and try different things. what worked for me might not work for you, but i really didn’t want to mess with tightening bobbin cases and then loosening them the perfect amount again, so i was happy to figure this out without that.

and by the way – a dress with shirring in the back? SUPER comfy to wear. i’ve worn it to work, on a date night, playing with the kids, etc. i wished the bodice was just a tad longer and the skirt too, but Rae heard that from many testers and the final pattern will remedy both of those concerns.

this wraps up my washi post! keep your eye on Made by Rae for the official pattern release (any day now! i’ll update this post when it happens) and while you’re waiting, go check out Emily’s THREE washis, Cherie’s blue eyelet version, and Holly’s classy gray washi too! there’s also a washi flickr pool.

**UPDATE: WASHI IS HERE!! WASHI IS HERE!! GO BUY IT FROM RAE, YOU WON’T REGRET IT!!**

PS – the fabric for this dress is denyse schmidt for joann fabrics. i like that it looks a bit like a vintage feedsack.

PPS – I’m already most of the way through washi #2! i NEVER sew the same pattern so quickly, but i’m really excited about it so i had to!

introducing SewSet

August 2, 2012August 1, 20129 Comments

back in the dark ages, i used to bookmark things that i liked on the internet. my bookmark menu quickly got obnoxious. then i started using google reader and “starred” tutorials and favorite posts to save for later. once i was up to over 200 starred tutorials, recipes, etc., i could never find what i needed, and often forgot what i’d even saved. then pinterest came along, and while it has been great for sorting my inspiration into categories, there was still definite room for improvement in organizing sewing patterns and the thousands of tutorials out there. someone really needed to design an easy to use searchable site to bring it all together. and guess what? it happened!

jessica from me sew crazy has put together a really fantastic site called SewSet. blogger and pattern designers that have free tutorials, patterns for sale, or both, are now adding to the database and it’s quickly turning into something really amazing! last week, i added most of my tutorials. here’s what it looks like when you search skirt as top:

i love the clean look of the site, how easy it is to navigate, the fact that price information is there at a glance, and how everything links back to the original tutorial or pattern – proper credit is so important, and i feel good about how i’m credited as a designer on SewSet.

each designer has a profile page with a short bio, photo, how long they’ve been sewing, and links to their various sites. here’s mine (i’m bad at bios, still need to write one).

jessica features favorite patterns/tutorials daily, which are always fun to browse, and i find myself checking back often to see all the new stuff that pops in (click recently added). you can also search by designer or just search by keyword in the search bar. super easy to use.

anyway, check out SewSet, if you haven’t yet. throw your patterns/tutorials up there – it really doesn’t take much time to do. i’d love to see the site grow, because it’s got loads of potential.

now i hope you’ve got a couple hours on your hands for browsing…

honey mustard dress

July 31, 2012July 30, 201231 Comments

july was pretty crazy here for me here on the blog…did you notice? fresh back from vacation i had two tutorials, two pattern reviews, launch of a new series, started a facebook page, and at the last minute i also snuck in a little pattern testing! post on that coming soon. but yeah, this month was fun but nuts and i definitely had tunnel vision on the homefront (oooooh how the laundry piled up!). i should probably get better about saying no sometimes for my own sanity. on the other hand, it seems that my busy times are my most creative times…maybe better not to overthink and just act?

honey mustard dress

i don’t often feel the need for a break from sewing itself, but i do feel the need to make easy, practical projects. projects that have been sitting in my head that i just haven’t had time for. this is one of those.

honey mustard dress

the pattern is leila & ben’s sweet little dress. it was the pattern remix challenge for season 1 of project run & play (want a trip down memory lane? check out the entries!) and i bought it right then. i’ve made it a few times now, and each dress gets chosen often by either Em or daddy for casual daily wear. she wears the one i made for outerwear week all the time!

i saw this fabric as a little peasant dress on a friend’s daughter and loved it, so when i recently spotted it at joann i had to snap it up! i cut the dress at a 3T, but flared out the sides from the armpit so it’s a lot more a-line than the pattern. i bought 1.5 yards and made the dress as long as i could for growing room, with a 1″ hem (larger hems add weight and don’t tend to flip up as much, in my experience). i also lengthened the long, straight part of the sleeves 1″ to give them more puff.