Made by a Fashionista: Go Bold or Go Home

I love the style of shirtdresses, but I very rarely wear them. For one they are usually made with cotton fabric and I hate to iron (which is one of the reasons I love to sew with knits). Also since I've started sewing they've just seemed like to much work to make...collars, cuffs, buttons and buttonholes. Sigh.

Simplicity Pattern 8546 Misses' and Miss Petite Shirt Dresses

But after I saw another sewists version of S8546 I knew I wanted to sew View B for myself for this months blog post! Fabric Mart always has a great selection of shirting, so much so that I ended up grabbing two prints, this black and white vertical stripe and a large scale blue plaid.

I debated the vertical stripes because well it's a bold choice. I knew it would either be fashionably chic piece or a epic fail. I mean b&w vertical stripes scream umpire or worse...Beetle Juice, eck! Good or bad I decided to go for it though I'm still not quite sure if I nailed it or failed it, but I think I can pull it off.

Either way I am pleased with this project, I've built my confidence on sewing collars and cuffs. Even my buttonholes weren't as much of a challenge this time. Admittedly I omitted all the buttons and buttonholes on the front because I mainly plan on wearing this as a duster. That still left 6 buttonholes, two on each cuff and one on each sleeve tab (which I added from View A).

Sadly even if I wanted to wear it as a dress I'd have to lose a few pounds to button it. Somehow I managed to cut a 16 instead of a 18. Though now that I'm looking at the photos I might go ahead and add buttons. What color though? black? white? gold?

See ya next month,

Tiffany
TipStitched

Made by a Fabricista: Cafe au Lait Linen Dress

Hello everyone. This linen dress is the first thing that I made after my husband passed away 2 months ago. At first, it was a real struggle- I kept putting things together the wrong way and having to rip it out and do it over again. I probably shouldn't have chosen an asymmetrical design with fabric that looks the same on both sides for my first project! But as I finished, I felt a real sense of accomplishment! I have to say that creating something unique and special was just what I needed to feel a little like myself again. I used three coordinating pieces of linen- a deep coffee colored brown, a milky cream, and an abstract print with whipped cream, cloves, and cinnamon it- thus, my cafe au lait dress! These particular fabrics are no longer available, but there are lots of other choices in the Linen section. Linen is so wonderful to work with. You do need to accept that wrinkles will be part of the look though, which I am fine with. For the pattern, I used Vogue 1694 wh…

Made by a Fabricista: Down to Business

Hello everyone! The last time I posted about some things I sewed for my daughter, Serena, she was in Chicago in 2017, and I had made her a black and white mini-wardrobe here. Fast forward 3 years, and she is climbing the corporate ladder and just got promoted to a position where she would need to present frequently to a board of directors. So, the challenge was making something appropriate to wear to the board meetings, also something that would pack in a suitcase well, and something that would be not so dressy so she would still be able to wear it to work on a non-board meeting day. Her workplace is generally ultra casual, which is the trend in most businesses, as I hear. I wish it were more dressy, as I love making suit jackets!
So, to me, the fabrics that came to mind were ponte and double knits- non-wrinkle, comfortable, washable, and professional looking. At the time (this was back in June), Fabric Mart had this fantastic black and white pinstripe knit available. It is so n…

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