The Picnic Date Dress

The Picnic Date Dress
Photo by ChyLn

Here's the finished product of my sew along. I wore the dress with a blue belt from H&M. A friend of a friend took some pictures of my fiance and me for us to give our family/use on our wedding webpage. So the really good pictures are from our little photo shoot. Here is his flickr page, if you're interested.

Sew along, day 13: attaching the lining to the dress fabric

Now that you've given the bodice its three dimensional shape through darts and attached the ruffle to the outside, it's time to connect the outer dress fabric to the lining. After today, you'll just have to sew the skirt together down the side and attach the skirt to the bodice. The last few days will be finishing steps... the zipper, the hem, and hand sewing.

We're going to use the Burda Style tutorial, "How to sew an all in one facing." Here's a video to walk you through the tutorial! The video is available in HD, depending on your internet speed. You have to click read here/go to the actual post to see the video now because it was making the main page load too slowly.

Sew along, day 10: Start sewing!

Today is the first real sewing day! We'll sew all the bodice darts and sew the front and back pieces together (for both the dress and the lining). If your alterations included skirt darts like mine, then you'll sew these as well.

You should have marked darts on each bodice piece. Keep in mind that I'm doing a side zipper, so I have a front piece and a single back piece for both the dress and lining. Fold along the center of each dart, "right" sides together. Match up the dart lines you drew with your fabric marker. Pin along them, with the pins perpendicular to your lines.

Bodice lining front--folded along the dart centers

Sew along, day 8: Preparing your pattern for sewing

This is the last pattern prep day! I'm giving everyone another catch up day tomorrow to make sure we all start sewing at the same time. Pattern fitting, altering, cutting, and marking are my least favorite parts of sewing. If you're bored right now, you'll survive. We're almost over the hump. You'll also be thanking yourself later--when  I rush to cut out something without checking to make sure it fits or decide I don't need fabric markings, I always kick myself later because the final product never turns out as well


This pattern doesn't have a lot of markings--it really just has lines for the darts. You'll also want to mark the center front and center back on each piece, which will make it easier to match up pieces later. I ALWAYS skip this step and then end up screwing things up. So, take my advice and just mark it! You'll also have to copy the ruffle guide to your bodice front and iron on the interfacing to your lining bodice front and back piece.


We'll start by ironing on the interfacing. Most interfacing comes with directions for ironing. First, iron the piece of fabric flat, and place it "right" side down, "wrong" side up. Remember, we folded the fabric so the right side was facing in. Then, bumpy/sticky side down, lay the interfacing on the fabric. Iron it on medium-high heat until it's mostly stuck. Then, flip the fabric over to the "right" side to iron out any wrinkles. Finish by going over the interfacing side again, making sure it's totally stuck. You'll need to do this for the LINING bodice front and bodice back.

Iron lining fabric piece flat 

Lay the interfacing in place 

Iron on the interfacing, following the description in the text

Sew along, days 6-7: cutting out your fabric

Now that you have a perfectly tailored pattern, it's time to move on to your actual dress! The pace will pick up after this post, so make sure you're up to date! We'll still move slowly, but there will be something to do each day. So far this has been all prep work, which is time consuming but doesn't involve sewing, but I'll start splitting things into short sewing tasks.


Today it's time to start cutting out your fabric!


Start by ironing your paper pattern--yes, iron your tissue paper or packing paper, whatever you used! Use low heat, no steam (you don't want to light the paper on fire or shred it by getting it wet.

Ironing paper

Nicely pressed paper--all the pattern pieces

Sew along, days 3-4: the test run

Since Sunday, you should have used the free Coffee Date Dress pattern to cut out cheap practice to play around with for sizing purposes. All the seams should be marked, and you should have cut out along the sewing lines. Now, it's time to make alterations! I'll leave you two days to do this plus a catch up day on Thursday. The next sew along post will be Friday, June 24th. I honestly think alterations are the most complicated part of sewing.

Alterations are really individualized. I'm going to walk you through the process I usually follow when altering a pattern. How you adjust for a problem depends on what the problem is, so you should use your best judgment.

First, pin the fabric along the dart lines. Then hold it up to yourself or your dressform if you have one. The darts should go from your waist to just below each boob (sounds so vulgar in text). If they're too far apart, you'll want to take a little out of the middle. If they're too close together, you should add a little to the middle. If they go up too high, you'll want to move the point of the triangle down, etc. You should do all of this by marking new seams with a different colored marker than you originally used. Mark all changes on the stitching line, not the cutting line. Play with the darts if necessary until you get them right. If you end up having to add to the middle, just cut it open, pin in a little extra fabric, and then go back to your playing around. If there's not enough difference between the waist and bust, you'll have to widen the darts (pinch in more fabric, which means you'll have to add to the sides in the next step.

Pin the darts--you want all "seams" (not real seams since
they're pinned, not stitched) to face outward, like you're
wearing the dress inside out

Darts are too far apart! Take in from the middle

Two weddings in one day? No problem

My friend and my fiance's cousin got married on the same day, so I made a reversible dress! I wore the pink side to the first wedding (a lunch reception) and the teal side to the second wedding (a dinner reception). The only problem was that the stretch satin was not stretchy enough, so I required a lot of assistance getting the dress on and off.

I love the twisted straps (my hair is kinda in the
way, but see the hint of teal flashing through?)

The pink side

The teal side

The only picture I have of the back...

This is Burda Style 05/11 #107D, called "Sex appeal" in the magazine. My fiance complained that none of my dresses that I make are fitted, so here you go! A fitted dress.


The pattern runs really big (it's like they forgot it was supposed to be made out of stretchy fabric) I made it out of ribbed jersey first, and it fit like a paper bag (I'll post that one when I take pictures). I spent forever altering it, and I ended up taking out an entire foot (6 inches/side), and it doesn't really fit right in the middle front or back. So for this one, I took out about two inches from the middle front, two inches from the middle back, and two inches per side, knowing that the stretch satin wasn't quite as stretchy as the ribbed knit. I guess that was a little too much, though, because I can't get it on and off myself. Also, the front pattern piece is a big C that you gather along the long side to make it straight. Directly under the bust, however, has no crosswise stretch, just to warn you!


I made the pink side a tiny bit longer than the teal so it shows a little bit--I did that on purpose so both sides weren't peeking out on both sides of the dress. I haven't gone around and tacked the hems together yet.

Reusable grocery bag practice sew along

For those of you hoping to learn to sew from the upcoming Coffee Date Dress sew along, this is for a little practice! By this point, you should have figured out how to thread your machine and sew a straight stitch on some scrap fabric.

My finished Charlie Bag

These groceries came from my kitchen for the picture, which
is why the milk and soda are only half full. I don't actually
drink soda, it was leftover from a meeting.

This pattern is simple, practical, and good experience following a Burda Style pattern. Also, since it's not something you're going to wear, it will be more forgiving of mistakes (unless your groceries are really high maintenance). I'll walk through the steps of the free instructions from Burda Style (click here). The name of the bag is the "Charlie Bag." For a beginner, this whole thing should take 2-3 days. For the real sew along, I will break down the instructions. This way, though, you guys can set your own pace and figure out how long things take. I used a contrasting thread so you can see what I'm doing.

Sexy date dress

I love love love the coffee date dress pattern (well once I altered it). I've made a dress from this pattern before--before I started my blog--I'll share that with you when I post the details of my June sew along. 


I decided to take the dress up a notch and made it out of black satin. It's something polyester, so even though I loved the fabric when I first got it, I got frustrated with it pretty quickly. Still, I think it turned out nice! The dress definitely benefits from a belt, so I chose red... and my new three inch heels that are actually comfortable and walkable. Here's the final product (you have to click read more to see the rest of the pictures)!

Crazy dress

I made this dress from Burda Style Magazine 02/11 #116. The pattern called for a sturdy fabric like gabardine, but I had this fabric and had envisioned a loose fitting, waist-tied tunic type dress for it for a while. When I saw the sketch of the pattern, I immediately grabbed this fabric and decided to overlook the fabric recommendation.

The pattern itself was very straightforward, and I would suggest it for a beginner. I had some trouble matching up lengths (esp. on the sleeve cuffs), but I think that was because of my choice in fabric--the sleeve cuffs are cut on a bias, so I think they stretched and ended up being too long. If you decide to make this dress with a slinkier fabric like I did, I would recommend facing one side of the little sleeve cuffs with a lightweight interfacing. I also had trouble sewing a straight line at the waist to thread the string through, again because of my fabric choice.

Instead of using elastic, I just used a strip of fabric that I sewed shut and turned right side out. The top is a little too big--not sure if that would look different with a sturdier fabric. I'd rather it be tighter throughout the top, but oh well. It turned out kinda cute. Not my favorite ever, but it's a good spring/fall going out outfit!

 

Garden dress

Burda Style Magazine picture for the dress

I made this dress about a month ago. I was waiting to post it until it was warm enough to take pictures outside, but since that's not happening any time in the foreseeable future, I decided to take pictures with my indoor garden, which is doing well now that there is more sun. It's Burda Style Magazine 02/11 dress #101. Click the picture to see the pattern and other people's variations of this dress.

I loved this pattern. It was super simple. The neckline is my favorite part, and the invisible zipper is my best ever. Now I only need a white belt! The black doesn't really match, and I think it looks best with a belt so the gathering doesn't poof at all. This fabric hangs very well. I love it!


The dress is fully lined--the bodice is lined with some leftover batiste from another project, and the skirt is just lined with the rest of the pretty floral fabric from the outside. The instructions said to use stay tape around the armholes and neckline, but I didn't have that, so I ironed on some interfacing to the lining:

Soooo shiny

I was really excited to make a Marie-inspired skirt out of this shiny blue fabric I got (the Marie skirt is a free Burda Style pattern). Kinda like silk dupioni, only not real silk.

Mom's Christmas dress

I forgot to take a picture when my mom actually wore this on Christmas. I made her the dress (from Burda Style magazine, 09/10 109B--the same dress as my announcement dress). I followed the pattern almost exactly with my mom's size, but I added the sash to tie in the back like I did with mine.

My mom got these navy blue suede boots earlier in the fall, and I knew she would never wear them since she didn't have anything to wear them with. I made her this dress to go with the boots. I also bought her gray leggings to match.

She wore the dress again out to dinner on new year's, but she couldn't find the leggings (I guess they were in the laundry), so the outfit is not complete in these pictures, but it's ok... still looks good!

The announcement dress

This is the dress I made to announce my engagement at Thanksgiving to some extended family. It was my first Burda Style pattern (09/10 #109B), and it turned out great! Unfortunately, the September patterns aren't posted on the website, so I can't link to it. The only thing I changed from the pattern were two strips coming out the sides to tie in the back for shape/decoration.

It's a simple tunic look dress made from crepe-backed satin. I didn't actually use crepe-backed satin, I used a thicker regular satin and the reverse side of that fabric. And the best part of the fabric is that it has some stretch to it!

Yes, I do realize my face looks ridiculous in this picture, but I thought it was the best one of the dress.