The spring dress in progress. This is a Folkwear pattern “Glamour Girl” which I am making up in a rayon by John Kaldor. I started with a muslin which was completed several months ago, and required no changes. Amazing yes? The only changes I have made from the original pattern was to self face the yoke back and front ties. I have also added a soft knit fusible interfacing along the neck edge. I managed to get the front and back dress sections complete, but they still need to be sewn together at shoulder and side seam. An invisible zipper will go in at the side seam, and the sleeves are 3/4 length with shirring at the forearm. I have a wonderful red blazer I made last year from a Claire Schaeffer pattern which I am hoping will work with this dress. Hope I can work on it this weekend.
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Fun!
Fun is a good word for it. It is certainly fun to work on and I hope to get thru my work today so that I can have some more fun. I cannot find my original post and do not remember if I mentioned a jacket, but I pulled the jacket from my closet this morning a burnt red wool crepe made from a Claire Schaeffer pattern and it looks simply marvelous with it. Hope you get to have some fun today too.
Do you summer in Wisconsin? Where is Gordon? I am in Sugar Camp between Eagle River and Rhinelander.
Lynne
Gordon is in Douglas County about 30 miles South of Superior. Most beautiful ground on the face of the earth! We hope to retire there. Gail
I went to their website and in their gallery is a photo of the dress. It is darling. Looks like you're doing an excellent job with it. I like you mannequin too, may I ask what brand it is? I need a new one, I've "outgrown" mine.
Thanks for sharing! Now I am daydreaming of Spring too and maybe going back to sewing garments which was my first love. With fitting issues, I switched to quiting and art quilts and dollmaking for over a year now. Thanks to you, I'm ready to try some Spring attire. Mary
(I spent most of my summers in Wausau, Wisc. growing up. I have so many fond memories and loved it there. I always thought that's where I'd settle down, but ended up out West.) Mary
Edited 1/29/2009 8:18 pm by MaryinColorado
My first passion is dressmaking, but I also enjoy quilting I have a goal of creating some art quilts some day....I just can't seem to do all the things that interest me. The dress form is an older wolf form which I recovered many years ago. I have also outgrown it so it is padded to approach my new shape. I can recommend Fabulous Fit dress forms I have one of theirs which I use for work, they come with 2 removable arms and body pads to create your personal shape. You can find them on the web.
I grew up in southern calif and miss it horribly especially this time of year. Wausau has our nearest Joann's .
Thanks for the encouraging words, I did not get a chance to sew on it today, next chance Sunday.
Lynne
http://www.sewingcafewithlynne.blogspot.com
Love the dress...Can't wait to see the finished project!
Deb
What a pretty, feminine dress. I think it has a nice silhouette without the sleeves. Are you planning to use shoulder pads in it? Thanks for sharing the photos.
hmmm. shoulder pads, I will keep that in mind. Someone had mentioned to me that this forum was addicting, and I could not agree more. I am checking in before work, as soon as I get home, before I go to bed. And if that was not enough fun I find it personally motivating, now I have to get this dress done, because people want to see the finished item. It is just the boost I needed, a dose of energy. Thanks to one and all for the support.
Lynne - if you like check out some of my students work at http://www.sewingcafewithlynne.blogspot.com
I only mentioned the shoulder pads since they were mentioned in the pattern description on the Folkwear site. I enjoyed looking through your students' work, though it was a brief look; I'll go back and look more carefully tomorrow. Their work looks very nice - they've taken on some challenging projects, haven't they?
Yes they know no boundaries. I think that is the challange with adults is that they don't have time to waste so they want to sew, what they want to sew and don't like limiting themselves to much. They also have high expectations for their end result. But by sewing in a group like we do they can learn from what each other is doing, they hear the same information repeated over and over, they encourage one another to "go for it" and you always have a fitting partner. I am very proud of the progress each of them has made. What kind of sewing do you like to do?
Lynne
Garment sewing, mostly. But right now I'm working on some purse accessories - wallet-type things, basically just to sort and hold the myriad of cards I carry around with me - library, insurance, pharmacy, etc. My MIL needs a couple of these desperately - she spends way too long looking for her cards while people wait in line behind her in a check-out line. So when I get a prototype done, I'll make some more for her and others. I'm having fun piecing together scraps of fabrics from my stash. I'm using a rather bulky, stiff interfacing, and trying to figure how to make it fold flat without having wrinkled, bunched up lining. I'm sure somebody else has figured that out already, but I have to re-invent!
sounds like a fun project. I have a friend who loves these types of challanges she has a specilized zippered tote/organizer for just about everything many of them with embellishment techniques she wants to explore. Please post pictures when you have it all figured out.
Lynne
Thanks, I will try to post photos, though I don't manage to get the best images with a camera. I'd love to see your friend's things. I've been cruising around on the internet trying to see if anyone else mentions the same problem I'm having, but haven't stumbled on it yet. The usual danger with that is that I spend too much time looking around, reading, etc., and not doing. It's fun to take on a "small" project - I have to say, though, that pulling out all my sewing stuff to do this small thing produced the same "tornado-struck" look in my house that a large project would have. :>)
My friend will be in the studio on Monday, I will have her read the posts and see if she can impart any valuable assistance. I can relate to the time issue on the internet. Its like fishing sometimes you cast your questions out there and you get a bite right away and then other times you just troll and troll without sucess.
Lynne
How kind of you. However, today I've played with my materials and managed to work out the problem. I simply folded the layered fabric, heavy interfacing, and lining as I wanted the "wallet" to fold, and allowed the layers to shift as they would with the "turn of the cloth", then trimmed the interfacing and lining to fit the outside fabric. Then I fused the fabric and lining to the interfacing using strips of fusible so that I could work out toward the edges from the folded center. So far so good. I ran out of thread as I was satin-stitching the edges, so I'll have to wait until I get some matching thread to finish. I'll try a photo tomorrow am.I'd still love any tips your friend can offer.
Edited 2/1/2009 8:26 pm ET by Josefly
Sounds like you figured it out! Well done! While my husband is watching the game I have managed to get my side seams and zipper in on the spring dress, and I am going to try to get the sleeves together before I call it a night.
I'm eager to see the finished dress.I'm headed out for more thread now, but spent the morning figuring how to make a larger folder to hold more cards. My first was just a small one for two or three medical insurance cards. After having my wallet stolen from my zipped-up purse (which was on my shoulder at the time) a couple of years ago, I don't want all my cards in the same place ever again, but I still want them in my purse.
I spoke with Peg about how she proceeds with these wallet/card projects and she says that she does not interface the card pockets but that she uses a decorative stitch along the top fold of each. She uses a similar technique to what you describe but that she has the actual cards on hand so that she can pleat the fabric up over the card, pins it on either side and then repeats for additional cards.
I threw caution to the wind today and finished my dress, I am contemplating replacing the tie at the front waist with a vintage buckle. Think I will play with that tonight after dinner, once that's decided I will post pictures.
Oh, I think I would like the dress with a buckle instead of a tie. You got a lot done today, it sounds. Do you have collect vintage buckles and buttons, or just happen to have one on hand? I'm eager to see how the sleeves look with the ruching.Thank you for the description of what your friend does on her purse accessories. The pleating to form the pockets sounds like the way I did mine, but I didn't do the decorative stitching on the edges - I love that idea. I did put a narrow strip of interfacing inside the top fold of each pocket, to prevent stretching there. The only decorative stitching I did was on the outer cover - where I pieced some scraps together. And the interfacing was just between the outer cover fabric, and the pocketed lining. I did use narrow strips inside the top folded edge of the pockets.
I don't know that I would call it a collection...I have about half a dozen but of course the one that works best with the fabric was still on its original card with 4 matching buttons. It was incredibly difficult to remove that buckle from the card, it's still haunting me.
Lynne
That's funny - congratulations on making the decision to use the belt buckle. I'm sure I would still be debating it - would get frozen with doubt about decreasing the value of the buckle. But consider, instead, that you've enhanced its value, by pairing it up with a dress of its era, and because it will give you so much pleasure every time you wear the dress.
Oh, Lynne, I spent some more time reading through the posts on your blog. Fun. You have a couple of guys in your class? Neat - and the shirt that George is/was working on - great job with the stripes. And I liked your video-clip showing how to knot a thread - I've never seen that done in all my years of sewing. But I used it today as I was basting some layers of fabric/interfacing/batting together for my wallets. So much easier than my old way of rolling the loop of thread between my fingers - my knuckles don't let my fingers move the same way they used to.
I am glad you enjoyed the blog. I just posted pictures of the finished spring dress. Let me know what you think.
Lynne
http://www.sewingcafewithlynne.blogspot.com
Smashing, just smashing! The description provided for the dress is perfectly accurate! You did a wonderful job on it. The buckle on the ties is the perfect accent. It takes the whole thing a step up into the extraordinary. I love the little details like that that make a garment into something special. Bravo! Cathy
Wow! Thank you so much for the kind words. I am really looking forward to the next project, still unsure on what that will be. I still need to post pictures with the jacket, but ran out of camera battery......*%&#
Lynne
I love it. Just now got a chance to read your message and see the photos on your blog. I think the style is so feminine and flattering. The sleeves are very pretty. And your buckle is just right.
Very pretty. I can't wait to see it with the jacket!
I love the retro fabric. Pretty and shapely.
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