Monday, March 26, 2018

Fancy dress for mother of the bride - Lekala 4287 in sparkling brocade

I am promising for years then I will do the outfit for my mother in law when she is going to be the mother of the bride. And that time finally arrived. She is always such a great supporter of my sewing and has such a difficult time finding a good fit in RTW. It was difficult for me to get started. I started by listening to what she would want and what she would think it would look good on her. we had concerns about a floor length dress with her being tall but I felt a long dress will be more elegant. Then we went shopping hoping that maybe we get lucky and find a hidden gem or at least get an idea what it would look good on her and what would definitely not. We didn't find any hidden gem. we only found one that was fitting her decently but the design was quite boring the the fabric low quality so I decided it have to make it.
  Then we went fabric shopping. We choose on fabric together but I think that would be difficult to work with and would not go with most of the designs I was considering. Then I bought a new set of really, really expensive fabrics by myself. And we both loved them...But then we started to actually go to a pattern and make a mock up and we felt in love with one of the Lekala designs and my fabrics would not work with this design... But we decided that Lekala 4287 is going to be out bodice:
We did a top first in a knit with lurex and a lot of stretch and even if the top didn't come out perfect we knew we could make it work :

And for the skirt I had a few samples of long circles from the wedding dress and deiced a 3/4 circle will look best on this silhouette.  I wanted a even fuller skirt but I was voted out by everyone else....
But then the fabrics I have picked up would not work with this collar and didn't had enough for this skirt so back to fabric shopping... I was on my own again and and I was let to decide the fabric and this time that I knew the design I also knew what qualities I wanted in my fabric : stable enough to work for collar, flowing enough for a long circle skirt... easy right  :))). I was lost for a while but when I found think thin teal brocade with tasteful sparkle I was sold.
   It all went together rather quickly after I got this last fabric. The same weekend we got the fabric we also had the first version of it. The top was quite large but I was hopping that is more because of the fabric used and at first didn't went sizing down the dress but after putting it on I had to take it in 1cm at each seam all around from underarm down. That is quite a lot and then even more under the bust to get more definition and the final dress still has a decent amount of ease...
At first I tied the bow the same way as the design but in the end I closed it differently.I also added a little more volume to the right side of the bow and made the cleavage smaller:
   We recut the skirt because I decided it was important that the center front and back to be on the bias and not the grain. It was a huge difference in the way the skirt dropped to the floor.
   I skipped the back seam for the bodice and moved the zipper to the side as I thought it will be more discreet there.
I put a hook and eye to secure the upper zipper and I had a bit of fun painting it and trying to get a close shade : started from white with gray, then metalic blue, then again gray:
I raised the waist quite a lot to a point where I thought it will be the most flattering and had to shorten the back significantly but I am absolutely in love with the final dress.
lekala 4287
lekala 4287

lekala 4287
I plan to share some better photos in April with all my dresses in action. It has such a lovely twirl.
 I hardly been sewn anything lately, working a lot on the wedding dress for my sister in law that is going so slow but hopefully so nice as well... I still went a bit of fabric shopping as well looking for inspiration on the rest of the outfits... So Sewing 50 - shopping 43 with this ones.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Family PJs

I am quite happy to have finished the kids spring wardrobes so early and submitted them to the PR contest. Then time has come to get heavily involved helping out with dresses for my sister in law wedding coming up in april. Hardly more then a month left till then and I am working to make the actual wedding dress and the progress is crazy crazy slow - will I really make it or will we need a last minute exit plan ?!? - can't wait to tell that whole story one day -, the bride day dress for the city hall ceremony - almost done just need to finish hand sewing the lining - and the mother of the bride dress - here I had a huge success this weekend with a totally new direction and fabric and the dress turned out really promising so far ... and I still hope to make a dress for myself and some little outfits for the kids... will I be sewing again 10 minutes before leaving home this time as well....?!?

So just to get my mind off al this I made some relay quick PJs for the kids and for myself. I really need to find some patterns worth upgrading my home rags. I tried the Lekala 4391 one seam leggings

I am not pleased at all with the Lekala leggings. Fot a custom fit based on your measurements it seems to much off : the waist is way to high in the front - the back is almost OK. To tight in the lower part and way to long... I am considering cutting some really old and comfortable pair to use it as patern rather the try another patern for those or fixing the lekala one...

For the top I used New Look 6404 unisex pattern.
I started by tracing view A size XS and it seemed huge then I realized there is another top patern available and is a lot more shaped and traced again size 8 this time. Not an amazing tee cut should be comfortable to wear around the house. I did both pieces in the same pale pink hearts french terry but it looked so washed out I made another tee with some contrast scraps and put a pocket too this time.
Eva's PJs use same fabric as base as mine but I like a lot for how Andrei's version turned out.
New Look 6404
New Look 6404New Look 6404
New Look 6404
Went a bit crazy fabric shopping over the weekend with 8 new fabrics so my score is still tight Sewing 48 - Shopping 38.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

7th Butterick 6492 for my sister

I think I already said this quite a few times but I just have to say it again - I love Butterick 6492 - so much that I had to convince everyone in my life that they need one piece.
With my sister birthday coming up it was the perfect opportunity to make one for her. I let her have a pick for fabric in my stash and she choose  a red wool knit with amazing drape. I love the silhouette on her so much:
I used the exact same alterations to the pattern back and sides as for the big stripes version only that this time the fabric was lighter and more stable and the result was great.
   I was tempted to add a collar this time but my sister preferred simple so no collar:
To add to my joy she were it on her birthday so she must have loved it just as much as I did. Making things for people you love can be so rewarding.
 Still no shopping so Sewing 41 - Shopping 30.