Straight V neck dress - McCall's 7538

I was so happy with cousin dress and my tee from McCall's 7538 that I really felt like doing more...  so many more.

I was tiding my sewing room and rearranged some fabrics to make room for the new ones we bought when I come across this fabric.   I kind of hated it from the moment I received it. It is see through, unraveling and deforming, and I even think they sent me a different color then the one I ordered... But I just instantly felt that the form and proportions of this stripes would work so well with my beloved pattern that I start cutting it right away, before I get any chance to think it through. I started this as a top but at the end when I had only sleeves and lower part to place I realized I can make it as a shorter straight dress. I haven't worn dressed yet this summer so I thought maybe 1-2 should find their way in... and I was still very unsure how this fabric would perform so I didn't thought it would be a big risk and loss if I try this as a dress...
    I used white rib to stabilized all hems and white interlock to double some of the skirt panel:

I am still very unsure about this fabric and I fear I can end up with a big hole in one seam at any time. Also It deforms itself quite nasty... but I was right about the print fitting well inside this pattern. And my husband seemed to like it very much - not sure if it was this particular dress or he just missed seeing me in a dress at all...

I did not want to see this fabric ever again and I simply cannot get myself to throw away scraps that are big enough to make something out of them so I made a simple top for Eva to wear around the house:

Remnants X-Tee for myself - McCall's 7538

I really loved the feel of this fabric on my cousin dress and the shape of the V neck so I was so so happy to find that I have enough fabric and border print left to make a tee as well. I wanted to add some twist but I had no better idea except switch the longer stripe on the other side. I should have put the lighter stripes upper as well but only realized I could have done that when I decided to time each of the diagonal band 1-2 cm to have it end with the last stripe rather then including of the of the other print as I did for the dress. That was a good decision - I only lost a bit of length like that; the rest of the shape seemed to be just fine.
    I just have to say it again I love the many choices that this pattern offers and they are all so lovely!!!

I think this might just become my favorite tee pattern - the only competition for it being the V bloced Lekala 4511.

New round of McCall`s 7538 & 7542 for my cousin

This weekend I was home alone or almost alone - my husband and kids were out on a small trip in the north of the country so it was total sewing time mode. I have one cousin that is a student now and stayed in the city for the summer with a temporary job and she is somehow interested in sewing so we spent the weekend together and went fabric shopping Saturday morning - 13 fabrics - but on a really good deal around 2 euro per meter all but one rayon woven for summer or knit cotton. Really exited about cutting in quite a few of them...
      One of the really good part is that we are almost the same measurements  1-3 cm apart for all but under bust and waist - she is more slim then me there but that is not a problem with most of the patterns I make. So I could used my already traced patterns on her as well.
      I kind of promised her a while back a McCall's 7542 so we started with that one in one of the new fabrics we picked together a cream floral print rayon.

   She wanted the view C end of the sleeve but wanted them longer so we used the sleeve length form view E. She also liked how I doubled the sleeve flounce on my last top to get a clean look so we used it this time as well.

 From the small remaining of this top I made a simple large top for Eva and my cousin liked the shape so much that we wanted to try something similar for her and used the same McCall's 7542 as base and tried ti keep the upper fit and change the bottom:

I think it was not OK how I cut the front where I didn't get width right under arm and it was looking funny when we finished it. In the end we gathered the sides a bit and made stay more straight to salvage it... It didn't look all that bad in the end:

I love dresses but I don't sew them much since I don't usually wear them. I am way to comfortable in my pants... The last thing I sewed for her I wanted to be a dress and we selected the McCalls 7538 - I am in love with this pattern we had one knit fabric with borders from our shopping that I thought it would be just perfect for this.

She picked up view B and it was a great choice. I really wanted to try the V neck myself and I loved how it turned out so much that I have made a tee for myself as well from the remaining fabrics. No scarp left like this. Love:
       The tied first my blue dress and it was quite some extra fabric in the back so I folded the back by 2 cm before cutting hers and that seemed to have fixed most of the problems.
      I also done it about 8 cm shorter.

She helped me with what she could on each of this items: cutting, ironing, clipping...  Sewing is the only thing that I did all myself but maybe I should have slowed down and let her have a turn at my machines as well but I wanted to get many things done this last weekend so I went on full speed ahead.

We bought 13 new fabrics on our small trip to a depot just outside town and I received 17 from an online shop that sent me swatches. 30 fabrics... but they were all really cheap compared to my local stores that I visit often on my way home and where I still got 2 fabrics, again ... on different days at least.So 32 new fabric, 87 items to sew debt and 5 items sewn and reviewed since I last count so I now need to sew 151 item till the end of the year and not buy anything else to make the new year resolution.... just impossible.... I have made a few items for myself as well and some simple things for Eva too that i still need to take photos of.

Blue sky summer wardrobe - Lekala & McCall's

I skipped the PR wardrobe for myself this year - working on one for each of my children. So I could not miss the small one as well. One of the most wonderful tricks I learned on Pattern Review was to pick on theme and color scheme each season and try to sew & shop with it in mind. Each time I've done that I ended with easy to coordinate outfits. My favorite one so far was the pregnancy wardrobe I did in 2015 in blues and teal.

In 2016 it was black and white and while the combo is timeless I somehow did not felt myself in it as much as the previous one. There were a few items that I really loved there - like the V tee and the cardigan but it did not felt like a huge hit to me.

So this year I am back to blues and I love it. Being a summer wardrobe this time I went from royal blues to white and pink and I love the results.
    I all started somehow with the dress I did for a may wedding:

Even if it was not an elegant evening dress I felt really well in it and unique. One comment my husband had on it was why I did not used the inverse colors - the answer would have been the fabric structure and to much white would not have been OK for a wedding but that got me thinking and what come out of it was a new top - McCalls 7538:

I used the same technique of making my own striped fabric for the bigger cross panel and this time using 5 stripes rather then 3 and just contrast for the smaller diagonal parts. I really loved the effect. I felt in love with the tee right way and it just set the tone for the rest of my wardrobe:

I always include the latest patterns I worked with good results in the wardrobes and this year was the turn or Lekala 4177 peplum top to join the fun.

After 2 attempts that didn't quite coordinated with the tone set by the tee I finally found a new fabric for in in a white/blue plaid. It was a bit to stiff for this pattern but somehow I love how it played out. I used white lace applique for a few neckline and white crochet lace to highlight the sleeve hem and waist.

A long time ago I sort of promised myself to have one McCall's peplum cardigan each season and all my previous entries  had one after I discovered the pattern. So this year will be no surprise here. Another McCall's 6844 just the way I like it - round collar and larger sleeve, straight in the front and flounce in the back- this time in white:

On a moment impulse I also did a very fast Lekala 3050 skirt to give the wardrobe some new looks. I went with the modified version I did for last year with front flounce as well:

The last item was the hardest to pick and I ended up doing 4 of them and choosing the muslin...
It is all bout the popular McCall's 7542. I had it on my mind and table for quite some time but never having the right time of fabric for it until now:

Taking many of my stash fabrics out I found this light pink floral fabric and at 1st I thought of using it as muslin fabric and try the most dramatic sleeve first - view B. I was quite impressed with how the top fitted right after the 1st try. I often get really odd darts placement. I also liked how pink worked with my other colors and decided it would be a good addition to the collection.

I liked the pink so much that the next one was also a light pink one with more comfy sleeves and a twist for the neckline:

This also coordinates nice with a dress I made in this fabric last fall:

The next one is in the skirt fabric. I initially purchased the fabric for this top and I am so happy I managed to get the skirt and top out of it without having to buy more.

The last one was just for fun with a stray fabric from stash and I am pleased how it somehow worked inside the theme as well:

Also since the last time I counted I bought 2 new fabrics from aliexpress - one arrived and one is scheduled for Friday and 2 new fabrics from local stores - 1 knit to stash and the blue fabric I used for this post in skirt and top so my debt is up to 94 items but I sewed 9 items as well and that got it down to 85 ( just one item less but still a step in the right direction maybe).