creation

Hello! I’m back! I hope everyone enjoyed Sophia‘s (aka iro iro) crochet color tutorial. As I’ve written before, I’m not terribly good at crocheting or knitting, but I definitely want to try her collar pattern. I’m in awe of all her petite crochet animals, such as this tiny owl and elephant… so cute!

I’m slowly getting back to normal self again. The delivery was tougher than I thought, and I’ve been experiencing massive hormonal changes, which are quite overwhelming. But I will save the thought for another time.

While I experience the change in my life, I think it is crucial for me to spend some time, even if it is five minutes, to do things for myself, something that I really enjoy. As for me, it’s sewing! So I’ve been finally working on Casey’s 1940’s Swing Dress sew-along. I know I’m way behind this sew-along, but better late than never, right?!

I print out the pattern, and instead of cutting my size from the glued pattern sheet, I decided to trace my size as the instruction recommended. By the way, it was a bit frustrating to glue these pattern pieces together, since there was no grid line:(

I traced size 10,  which was my pre-pregnancy size…I’m hoping that this dress will motivate me to go back to my pre-pregnancy size..lol.

After tracing the pattern, I made some adjustments:

One of the adjustments was to shorten the skirt length by 9″. It was pretty easy, I just needed to take 9″ at “shorten or lengthen here” line.

I also decided to go without the sleeves. Although the sleeves on this dress are lovely, I think I would wear the dress more often without sleeves, for nursing purpose, so I can slip on and off the shoulder easily. I also like to wear a cardigan with a dress, so sleeves can be bothersome with a cardigan on. Next time I make this dress, I would like to modify the sleeves to butterfly sleeves or bat sleeves..what do you think?

As recommended at Casey’s sew-along post, I used infusible interface for the midsection belt and then underline it to give more structure and stabilization. The fabric I used for the dress is very light chiffon like polyester fabric.

I was terribly confused by the instructions on how to sew shoulder part! Did anyone else have the same experience? I feel like the patterns and instructions can be much simpler somehow. I tried the shoulder part three times, sewing and de-stitching the mistakes over and over. I finally made it (pic above), but if you’d ask me to do it again, I probably won’t be able to repeat the same…This will be another adjustment to the patterns I will make for the future.

I was also confused by the instruction 1, about a dart in bodice back. I just could not get it. I wasn’t sure where the dart was supposed to start and end. So I completely ignored the instruction.
And guess what happened?! The bodice back and skirt back did not match up. The bodice back was longer than skit back where they were supposed to meet.

 So I used a short-cut, and gathered the bodice back so the line matches with skirt back. I kind of like the end result, since the front bodice has a gathered detail, I think back can use one as well:)

Here it is..almost done! I still need to instal a zipper on the side and hem the dress. I think mine looks more like a Grecian dress than a 1940’s swing dress. I really can’t wait to wear this!

So I finished three dresses using my scraps – as you can see, these are not really scraps at all, since the fabrics were big enough for me to make dresses for an adult:p Sorry the design of the dresses are nothing new, but I wanted to make something easy and fun to sew for the time being. More new designs are coming up soon…:)

I love the white flower buttons I used for Project 1 and 2. I found them on etsy, a shop named “Forsythe Company Store“.  The shop has a good selection of vintage buttons and other cute stuff, and I found the prices to be very reasonable.

I listed these items for sale on my etsy shop – and for my lovely blog readers, I set up a coupon code “SCRAPHEAP” for 20% off of all items listed in my shop🙂 The deal will last until I finish the scrap heap project!

I wrote about the scrap heap project that I will be working on during my maternity leave. Actually, before I start my leave I already jump started the project:p It’s coming rather slow, since I’m trying to experiment different techniques that I usually avoid when I’m busy, such as pin tucks, and lace insertion.
I got the idea for the lace insertion from this Colette Pattern post. I made a lace insertion on the skirt hem, just like Sarai did for her dress. I think it turned out lovely, but was disappointed after I completed the skirt, because the zipper I used was too short and there was no way for any skinny person to put her butt in! This is what happens when you are pregnant and can’t test the project as you sew.. So I asked Andy to take out the zipper for me (He is great at doing it! I hate de-stitching seams), and tried again with a longer zipper. And guess what happened? The zipper broke while I tried to put the skirt on my dress form. Ha. So I gave up! The skirt is still incomplete:( 

Anyway, going back to more positive side – I love Colette Patterns blog! I am always inspired by their ideas and introduction to different techniques. I think Sarai’s post on surface cording, piping, bias binding and layers of lace is so pretty!

What did you guys work on this weekend?