Monday, September 12, 2011

Button Dress Photos!

A few shots from Gatsby--my button dress fit in great with all the other garb and even got a few compliments!  I highly recommend the event to all of you bay area costume enthusiasts.  What a lovely way to spend a late-summer day.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Palette Challenge Look 1: Decades of Style Button Dress

I've finished my first garment in the Fall Palette Challenge!  After some stumbling blocks and subsequent workarounds (some found here), the Button Dress from Decades of Style sewed up relatively quickly and without much drama.

Jammin': Working With Difficult Fabrics

I have had a bear of a time working on my first project for the Colette Fall Palette Challengel, for myriad reasons.  My usual sewing machine has no power and needs to go into the shop, the backup machine took a size of bobbins I didn't have on hand, and the backup-backup machine was magically missing the cover to the bobbin case!  After all that was taken care of (several trips seeking bobbins worked out well enough), there was still one big hurdle: the damn thread kept snarling after just a few stitches.

What was the problem? I checked my tension, all was well.  I switched from a universal to a sharps needle.  None of that helped; the filmy stretch silk I'd chosen for the body of the garment, while beautiful, was just too flimsy to stand up to my machine.

<3

The simplest solution is, of course, to choose hardier textiles that are easier to work with.  But how could you resist this gem of a piece (bought on extreme sale as a 2-yard remnant at Britex)? So.  What to do?

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Colette Patterns Fall Wardrobe Challenge

fall inspiration board
So I've once again signed myself up for the sewalong at Colette Patterns.  Last spring, I attempted the spring wardrobe challenge and only managed to get through one dress (though I have worn that one dress dozens of times since--it's the Colette that can be seen here on my PatternReview page).  This time, I'm setting my sights a little bit higher.

Why Raid the Remants?

If you're like me (and many other seamstresses/sewists out there these days), you probably learned to sew when you were a lot younger, maybe shelved the activity for a long time, and came back to it later in life.  If you're like me, you probably thought, "I will save loads of money and have lots of beautiful garments that will be more individualized than what I can buy off the rack."  If you're like me....you probably realized pretty quickly that only half of that statement was true!