Unfinished Projects

 I had some unexpected time off the day job in April and I was able to start multiple projects.
Will I finish them?

UFO's are unfinished objects in the sewing room.

 Except for this one.
My daughter came to visit and brought this dress with her. Somehow she had obtained it for free but it was a tad frumpy with full-length sleeves. She asked me to put pockets in. When my kids ask me to jump, I immediately reply, "How high?"

The dress is a sheer overlay over a base fabric. Both float free of each other in the skirt. Unpicking the side seams of both  to insert a piece of pocket went well. I happened to have a pocket pattern piece out for a dress I'm working on (crap, forgot to add those photos to the laptop).
We drafted it a tad longer to accommodate our penchant for carrying our life in our pockets.

I promptly installed the first pocket upside-down. Did I mention the outer fabric was a sheer and fraying like crazy? Had to un-pick all the seams and re-install correctly.

This dress also had sheer long sleeves that ended in a wide 'cuff' that was elasticized. Very frumpy. So dd chopped them off neatly. Her solution was fine as she will always wear a cardigan in her office. But I was on a roll and offered to finish them with a silk rayon vintage bias binding to make them neat - just in case she were ever to encounter hot sunshine in alaska.

 This is my other project I'm working on. I referred to it in a previous post. It sat in time-out until I could  visit Pencil Girl (DrawnToSewing on IG!!!).

I like the back pleat but the whole shirt was too long for my 5'3" frame. So she helped me figure out the length and tinker with the neckline.

 I am going to utilize the mesh around the neckline.
I originally placed a triangle of mesh at the back neckline but I will make that a more shallow design detail.

 Pencil Girl said this was a bit short (about 5" shorter), I may hem it a little longer. Between Papa Bear long and baby bear short.

 I'm mostly all done with this Sunshine Wristlet, aka, a nice cross-body bag for me. A little large to be called a wristlet, it's the perfect shape for my crap. I'm not a big purse gal.

 This strap is to hold the wristlet in your hand and place your fingers underneath. I have zero intention of doing that but it turned out to be a nice detail.

I still need to make the cross-body strap. I don't have enough cork to make the strap lengthwise with the grain. I have enough to make it the other way - which stretches a bit. I'm figuring out how to stabilize the strap so it doesn't stretch.

I also made another little bag but haven't take photos yet. I'm kind of excited about it. It needs a finishing detail as well.

As you can see, multiple projects just needing one or two more steps to finish.

slip pocket on backside added to drop phone into

I did make a set of greeting cards from my dd's awesome photos. Sunset and Sunrise at Turnagain Arm in Alaska. If you're interested, they are in my RunningWithHandmade Etsy shop.

Four photos - four cards. Blank inside.

I have another week off in May, so I'm sure I'll be sewing like crazy.
We'll see if we make some finishes.

Forever Young by Puritan

  

On the way to  meet with Becky Ross of Project Runway (season 9) fame, I picked up a dress from my daughter. I came armed with a measuring tape and pins because she had called and wanted me to alter the dress for her. It turned out be a different type of altering.
She had bought this vintage dress at a thrift store. The dress itself is sheer with a navy blue background and one inch white polka  dots all over. She wears it with a tank top and tights. She wore it all summer. 

 

But the old sheer material was fraying all over the place. At least two extensive repairs had been made to contain the fraying seams.

 

I was taken with the sewn details. The collar starts at the back and drapes over to the front. So there is this interesting lapped detail at the back neck.

 

Back Collar neck detail (not ironed yet)

Two darts (one added as an alteration) at the front sleeve area helped shape the bust area.
The front skirt is flat at the front but has four pleats towards the side seam. The back skirt has four gores. The fit is flat at the waist and with the gores (backside) and the pleats (front side) - it brings together a nice full 50's skirt which falls just below the knee.

 

Front pleats

There is also back neck darts as well as back waist darts to keep the shape close to the body.
I could tell it was older because of the label and the seaming but looking it up on the internet gave some more details.

It was made for the Forever Young line probably back in the 50's. There is an interesting article about the fashion line over at the Vintage Fashion Guild. Apparently the dresses sold were licensed copies of European designers.

 My altering was basically to stablize the seams. My serger was threaded with black and I had recently finished working with my scarf which was also sheer and prone to fraying. I did a spot check on tension and settings and found them to be set just right for this material. One of the previous alterations had been done with white thread (on a dark blue fabric! -even if the dots are white - hhmmph!) and another was done with navy blue thread on one side and a light blue in the bobbin.  I decided I didn't want to unpick if I didn't have to and my black thread should be invisible next to those colors.
 

Serging. You can see the serged, stablized seam at upper left.
The serger cuts off the excess seam -mostly threads here- as it secures the seam.
The white thread is from a previous stablization attempt.

 

I started my serge at the hem and came up to the waist, tapering off before I reached the waist tape. I serged all four gores, then started on the top of the dress. The side seams, even the darts were really fraying so I hit them with the serger too. I did all the seams that were fraying and then used almost half a bottle of fraycheck to help with the seam stablization.
The skirt seams and the top seams all led to the waist seam - I finished serging here.
I re-hemmed the hem that was loose and I ironed a bit and it looked like a different dress inside.

***I don't have enough light in the house to take a full-on dress photo but you would not be able to see or appreciate the sheerness nor the design of this navy-blue dress with white polka dots.

Front button placket - where the collar-roll starts

I love my serger - it took less than an hour to do all the stablizing which consisted mainly of serging the seams and applying fraycheck.
The last two buttons (past knee) were re-sewn on wrong -gathering the material- but I elected not to fix those as doing so would create more holes that would fray. I didn't think it was that noticeable.
It's a stunning dress that would be interesting as a pattern because of all the details.
My daughter wants to wear this dress again and since it had been fixed before, I made the decision to use the serger to fix it this time.

All of the seams looked like this before I cleaned it up.

A further article about the House of Mod contained this interesting look-back at women's wear in 1965:
"In 1965, women could not wear trousers to dine at La Côte Basque—or to work in most offices. “You have to realize how square everything was,” says Schumacher. “When we opened, women were still wearing hats and gloves. There was even a union rule that no dress could be shipped unless it was a certain length.”"

Communion Tomboys

Take one girl who would not be caught dead in a dress, plus one first communion. 

Add in crazed parents and then mix in the miracle worker.

My sister (who does not have girls), made this First Communion Dress for a neighbor girl. 

A nice cotton for the top with a raw silk skirt over a cotton underskirt. 

She followed a pattern.

Tips for success.

1.  Take tomboy along to fabric store.

2.  Make it simple - no fussy trims.  Let the fabric speak.

  

Tangerine Dreams

Chasing fireflies' catalog inspiration for my niece.
I know I do not own orange dotted fabric nor do I own the sheer underskirt material, nor do I own the little ribbon trimming the underskirt.
I see a trip to fabric depot in my future.
The dress is a bodice set into a skirt at the waist. The bodice has pintucks decorating the front center and has a tiny scooped neckline. She could wear it over any white t-shirt or not.
I don’t think I even own a pattern like this anymore but I will look because I feel challenged to create it without one or by pirating pieces from other patterns.
The trick is to fit it without that great-niece anywhere around. 

This catalog is amazing and the ideas are fantastic. A little too much frou-frou and a lot of pink but get past that issue and you have styling clothes for a great-niece.
Be sure and go to the Costume pages. This is what drew me in in the first place.