Sun cover ups with Butterick 6457 & New Look 6432

Days before our beach vacations with the kids I decided I need some practical cover ups. So I bought 3 new fabrics ( linen. cotton and rayon ) and cut myself 4 new dresses at once. I thought that I get them all cut and started I will finish at least some for now and maybe the rest for next year. But with a few early morning I managed to finish all 4. Yey!
   Last fall I did a similar dress as a muslin in One pattern, many looks contest and I have been wearing it quite a lot earlier this summer so I wanted to redo that in better fabrics. So my 1st pattern was  New Look 6432

Here is the version I did in the fall:

Now I used a blue printed linen and a floral print batiste. Both are lovely to wear except for meals when my sleeves always end up in my sauce. I probably could have made shorter sleeves  or gathered version but I thought the long ones will offer nice protection from the sun and the free large ones would go better with the loose fitting of the dress.

The floral one is slightly longer. All of them have pockets.

From the remaining fabric I made a small dress for Eva as well:

For the next 2 dresses I used Butterick 6457 that have just become my favorite wear this late summer.

   The cold shoulder might not be the best in the sun but it does look cool.
   The red one is the only fabric that I didn't bought specifically for this. It is a cotton batiste is really soft and light and it is such a pleasure on the skin. The print colors didn't seamed the most fortunate to me but i got this fabric earlier this summer for the quality of the fabric more then anything else.

The dusty pink one is a crepe rayon. Quite nice to wear as well and it does better with wrinkles then other fabrics.

With so much busy sewing I get a little confidence counting again 4 beach dresses for me 1 for Eva, the vogue dress for me and the cold shoulder top from the same fabric and 3 items for my mothers so 10 sewn items and only this 3 fabric bought so i finally can get the debt down a bit to 157.

One pattern, many looks - part 3 - new tops, new looks - New look 6432

One pattern many looks is definitely an easy way to bust some stash fabric. So this last few weeks the New Look 6432 was on my table constantly. It is so easy to come up with new ideas for it but I had to cut a lot of them down - I might not wear it, not the right fabric, to much work, to little time ...

So I 1st picked up a stripes fabric that I didn't liked much but I got it at a really good price and wanted to try my hand at some large stripes. The fabric weight and drape seemed to be just right for this perfect so I went in mostly for the fun of doing it. The fabric had some brown stripes as well and I didn't want any of that showing.

That limited my fabric placement quite a lot for the main body. For the front insert I had quite a few options though. I played with a few ideas and in the end settled for vertical stripes and picked red and white ones to show. On the back I thought it might be nice to get red sowing when the tie is open.

The hardest part was to cut the sleeve to match at the sleeve cap... It was a mission impossible at 1st but then I decided to break some rules and pull the fabric a bit under the pattern pieces and measure and pin and measure and pin every cm... I thought I better have a funny fitting on the sleeve cap then have mismatched stripes. I think it was a good decision. I like the way it looks like his.

   So this one started as a game but I ended liking this one. It grows on me.

 The next one was in the same idea or getting rid of fabrics... It started with a midi pleated skirt that I did for my sister a little while back.

 It was a really nice jersey - both looks & quality - so I thought I can get one cropped top out of the scraps. My sister said at some point that she intends to wear the skirt with a short large top so I thought she might like it. And it may look good together. ( I still have to check that theory - will update this when she comes to pick it up ).

I really liked the look of this top in jersey. So I thought I might make 1 for myself. I had a hard time deciding what fabric to cut. I have a decent jersey collection but none seemed quite right for this. In the end decided to cut into one of the fabrics I picked up for Eva:

 It was a nice pink and navy plaid with a slight 3D effect. I was thinking how to make it work and leave enough fabric to make something for her too when the floral print rayon come to my attention mostly by accident - I was organizing my room a bit and I was surprised of how well the pinks and whites from this 2 fabrics matched. Decided that it was meant to be and used them together.
  I used small pleats instead or gatherings and skipped the tie and make a keyhole at the neck line:

I was very exited while making this but it didn't turned out as well as I hopped. It looks a bit PJs to me... I think I was to greedy with the print on the front yoke. It looked good before attaching the sleeved and ruffle but with those on it is a bit to much print... bah ... The neck finishing the shaped hem and ruffle are all new experiments.

It is not that bad in the end but definitely didn't live up to my expectation. All this iterations through the same pattern reminded me that sometimes I just have to try it to see how it really is. The image I make in my mind it is sometimes not the same as the the feel I get on the final product. And it goes both ways.