Swimdress is finished!

I've been meaning to make one of these for the past three years, and I've only just now gotten around to it! (I made one three years ago but didn't like the fabric that much, so I only wore it once).

I used the Modest Swimwear Pattern from Fashionably Modest Patterns. I found this particular swimwear fabric on eBay (search for 'swimwear fabric')... but I have a few other lengths of swimwear fabric (nylon/Lycra) that I purchased from Fabric.com.

The pattern calls for 2.5 yds of 60" swimwear fabric, but with careful layout I can use about 1.5 yards... I'll have to draw up a sketch to explain. I'll do that later. And it says it needs 1 yd of swimwear lining fabric, but I use less than that, too.

Lycra swimwear fabric is surprisingly easy to work with. It's a little bit slinky so you have to keep that in mind, and be sure to use a ballpoint or universal needle (I use the latter).

And no, the swimdress is not loose-fitting... it just looks that way because one of the adjustment dials on my dressform broke, and I cannot adjust it to my size, LOL.

Blueberry blossoms!

I checked on my blueberry bushes today... there are hundreds and hundreds of blossoms. The Tifblue blossoms are more mature than the Brightwell ones... the Brightwell should ripen mid-June thru mid-July, and the Tifblue are said to be "mid to late season". I'm not sure exactly what the late season is for blueberries; I'll have to look it up.

The dewberries also seem to be doing okay, they're covered with buds. I never did prune them this winter, yikes! But they're alive and well, as are the blackberries.

http://www.bottomsnursery.com/blueberries.htm

Tifblue:



Brightwell:



Austin Dewberries:

Sheer dotted swiss gown

I just finished it! I started working on it March 6th and didn't work on it on Sunday, so I think I made pretty good time. I hand-gathered the skirt yesterday and attached it this morning (by hand, whip-stitching every tiny little pleat- hundreds of 'em), and that took me 3 hours. My arm is tired, LOL. Every time I sit down to attach a cartridge-pleated skirt to a bodice I think, "Why am I doing this?"

I really do like this pattern... I would have liked to make a half-high bodice lining (meaning that the neckline of the lining is lower than that of the bodice, similar to Katherine's dress)... but I didn't feel like altering the pattern. Maybe next time... I have some more of this fabric in a medium blue print.

Pictures don't do it justice, of course. It needs ironed and like I've said before, my camera is getting old and worn out. I'll try to get more pics later.

And I still haven't cleaned up the room, LOL. I have an 1876 polonaise gown and a 1860's plaid gown (my project before this one) piled up on the couch there...

Bodice is finished

This went together a lot faster than the first bodice I made from this pattern.

I have the skirt pieces cut out and sewn together... what I need to do now is add the hem facing, turn the top edge under (tapered from 6" in the front to 3" in the back), run the gathering stitches for the cartridge pleating, and whip-stitch each cartridge pleat to the waist edge. I can get that all done tomorrow if I neglect my house-cleaning duties, ha ha. I am in no hurry to get this done, though, so maybe I'll just do one step each day.

And I have 2 3/4 yards of this fabric (50" wide) left over... enough to make a Regency gown. I don't know if I'll use it for that... but I can't think of any other uses at the moment.

New dress plans... another sheer

Once I get finished making the collar and undersleeves for my plaid dress, I plan on getting started on another sheer dress.

This one will be made from the same pattern as the last one I made (Past Patterns #812) but it is going to be made of sheer dotted cotton lawn... white with a printed pink floral pattern. It is beautiful fabric. It's currently in the washer right now...

I haven't decided if I'll put a ruffle on the skirt. I love the way the ruffle looked on my last sheer dress, and I have plenty of fabric (8 yards of 56" wide) but it kind of stressed me out the first time around. It was easier to do than I thought it would be... but do I really want to do it again?

My 4-yard dress

Okay, here is what I managed to get out of 4.16 yds of 60" wide fabric. Sorry if the pics are a little blurry.

I haven't worked on it in the last week because I felt too lazy to run the 2 rows of gathering stitches for the gauging. But doing that and attaching the skirt to the bodice only took 3 hours. :) It still needs a collar and undercuffs, as well as a couple hook & eyes on the waistband (which is currently being held closed with a safety pin).

Oh, forgot to mention... I used the now out-of-print Simplicity 4551, with the coat sleeves (but I left off the sleeve cap and cuffs).

4 yards... can I do it?

About two and a half years ago I ordered several lengths of fabric from a website that was selling out (changing ownership to another company). I don't remember what I paid for it, but it must have been a good price for me to order so many lenghts of fabric... seven!!

Last night I dug into my fabric stash with the intent of making a couple dresses from this fabric. (I'm losing weight right now... currently between a pattern size 18/20- modern size 14/16- and I want to make a dress in each size between my current size and my goal size of a 12- modern 4/6... okay, so that's only two dresses, in sizes 14 and 16). One of the fabrics I pulled out is a plaid shirting that has a cream background with a plaid design of blue and green with a teensy stripe of yellow... almost reminiscent of a Stewart Dress Plaid, except for the blue & green instead of red & black, and the plaid design is identical both vertically and horizontally. I'm too lazy to take a pic but here is a picture of the fabrics from when I bought them... the one I'm talking about is the one in the upper left corner.

I was very sad to discover a label on the fabric, from the online retailer, that said it was 4 yards long. Four yards??? It's 60" wide fabric... but why did I order only 4 yards? I can get a good dress out of 5 yards and I can squeeze one out of 4.5 yards, but 4? Ouch. I pre-washed it in hot water and threw it in the dryer on high (to shrink it) and then I ironed it out... when I measured it I saw that it was 4 yards and 6 inches. Yikes. After a lot of careful thinking, I decided that I will make the dress with narrow coat sleeves, which can be cut vertically (one above the other) out of the side of one of the skirt panels. I can cut the waistband that way too. I cut out the bodice pieces (front bodice and back bodice) and that took 20" of fabric. That leaves me with 130" of fabric. That'll give me three panels that are about 43" long each. I then took half of one of the skirt panels and cut the sleeves out of it, which left me a strip of fabric 4" wide by 43" long, that I can use for a waistband. Two 60" panels and one 30" panel will of course leave me with a skirt that is 150" wide. And if I use my last roll of hoopsteel to make a 90" cage, I can get away with skirts that are 43" long (I need 45" long panels to fit over my 108" cage). I could make it a dress for active work situations, which means I'd need to be 40" or maybe even less than that... but it's such a pretty fabric that I'd rather use it for an "everyday" dress.

Out of all the fabrics I bought, only one of them ended up being more than 4 yards... and that's the teal blue one in the center bottom in the photo. It's 5 yards. And it's my least favorite, LOL. I'm not even sure if it's suitable for 1860's use... it's an uneven plaid with a large repeat. I have no idea what else I'd use it for, though.

The plaid I'm using right now, other than the color, isn't too terribly different from the extant dress at the top of this page... though that one is wool barege, and mine is cotton shirting (very fine herringbone/twilled weave... I'm not exactly sure what type of fabric it is. I just know it's cotton and pretty).