A Sundress

Last year for the Fourth of July I made a sun dress that had little flags all over it. I was thinking about wearing it for Memorial Day too but the dress is a little too small and I don't love it as much as I did last year. While I was on etsy I found this child's dress pattern, Simplicity 3981.

The description says Simplicity Pattern No. 3981- Girls -Simple to Make- one piece dress and jacket. Dress has shoulder straps, back zipper, corded piping at waistline, and full gathered skirt. Jacket has back button closing, notch detail on front and is faced or lined. Short sleeves or sleeveless, with or without contrast collar.

I love the simple white sundress with a blue ribbon and a red ribbon border. It's not too over the top. You could wear it whenever but at the same time it's great for the Fourth of July or Memorial Day. 

Obviously it's too small, so I figured I would keep an eye out for a simple sundress with a plain straight bodice like this one. Fortunately I happened upon a free pattern today for just the sundress I was looking for!

Horrockses Fashion is a british brand established in 1946 selling bed linens. The Linens are adapted from many of their original dress designs from the 40's and 50's. They don't have any dresses yet but on their website they offer a free pattern for a sundress!

It's just the type of bodice I wanted to find for this dress and who doesn't love a free pattern!

 I think I have enough white fabric for this dress. All I would need is the red and blue ribbons and it seems like it should be a very quick and easy sew. 

Of course I'll have to find the time for it still! Lately I've been trying to finish up the numerous other sewing projects laying about. Plus a lot of little sewing things like hemming some dresses and some pants and sewing on new buttons for a dress. I did spend the day thoroughly cleaning and organizing my sewing room the other day though! I love sewing when I've just got the room cleaned up and organized! 

18th Century

Lately I've been really interested in the 18th century and while I'm still doing research I definitely would like to start sewing some things. Of course I'd have to start with the basics since I have no 18th century underthings.

American Duchess is having a giveaway right now for a pair of Pompadour Court Shoes or Kensington Colonial shoes. I've been wanting a pair of her shoes for a while now! They are all so beautiful!

I would definitely love to get a pair of the Kensington shoes to start my 18th century sewing off. What a great giveaway!

An Old Skirt made into a Sundress

 I bought this skirt a while back at an antique show and I absolutely loved the pattern and fabric of it but the waist was just a bit too small and made it uncomfortable to wear.

Since it's summer and it is a summery print, I thought i'd just cut it shorter and make a sundress out of it! I used one of my favorite sundress patterns Simplicity 2880. I've used this pattern three times before actually. 

Even with cutting the skirt there wasn't a ton of fabric to work with so I couldn't mess up at all.

The trickiest part of this pattern is the inverted v in the bodice. On my previous attempts at this it came out more rounded and even a little to the side.

This time I knew I had to get it right so I tried to search how to do an inverted V seam and the only thing that came up was this tutorial. It isn't the most detailed but it got the job done and I'd say my point on this dress came out much better!

Vintage Nightgowns

This winter I realized I needed a warmer nightgown and since I'm usually really picky about nightgowns, I wanted to sew my own from a vintage pattern. I spent days searching online for different patterns to find one I liked and I bought a couple.

I bought two nightgown patterns, Advance 8488 and Simplicity 2646.  I made the Advance one first in a soft blue flannel. The pattern was easy and went together very quickly! It was missing the sleeve band though, and I had to make one of my own and for whatever reason I still haven't been able to get the measurement right and so the sleeves are a bit snug. Other than that I really love this pattern and I quickly made another in red. I didn't have as much red flannel so I made it in the shorter length. 

Now that it's getting warmer I would love to make this pattern in a soft cotton. It's the perfect nightgown for me and I could make twenty of them! 

 

The simplicity pattern though didn't come out nearly as well. I didn't like the sleeves or just the fit in general. I actually still haven't fully finished it still. Im trudging through finishing up the sleeve bands, the neckline, and buttons. I will finish it soon, but I wont make this pattern again! When I finally finish it I'll get some pictures of that one!

I did buy one other pattern, which are pants and a top and I suppose I will get to it eventually but probably not till next winter. 

Finished Chenille blanket

I finished up the Chenille blanket I was making over the weekend. I meant to finish it almost two weeks ago and things came up, but I had the time this past Sunday and it's on my bed at school finally!

I rounded the corners on this blanket because I did it on the last and I liked it a lot. With this blanket though, I used the more silky blanket binding and first it was too bulky to fit around the round edges. So I cut it in half and that seemed to work better but it didn't look as nice as when I used the cotton binding.

The Shorts

I started out by lining these shorts because the fabric itself was pretty light and I figured I might as well just to be safe.
The shorts required two tucks in the front, I've never turned the tuck and sewn straight across the bottom at a 90 degree angle before though. I read this in the Colette Sewing Handbook. I'm not sure if it really made much of a difference but I feel like it is just one of those small details that makes it more secure and maybe just a little bit better looking! I really recommend this book, it has a lot of great tips and it's easy to understand with great pictures.

And here are the shorts!! They are a little oranger than I thought they would be... but the more I think about it the more I like them that color. I wanted to get them done and I didn't have any orange zippers
so I used yellow and you really don't see it anyways. I really like these

shorts a lot. I would definitely make these again. Here is the bandeau top also, I added a little blue bow to the inside so that it was easier to tell what side is the outside. I still haven't added any buttons, I can't decide what buttons I like best there.

Right now I'm working some more on my second Chenille blanket. I wish I had some pictures of the first, but I gave it away as a gift. I'm working on this one right now. The main fabric is this pretty floral and I love it. For the three layers of flannel I did pinks and a blue.

I'm hoping to finish at least a corner of it tonight before I go back to school tomorrow!

2871

Here's the finished top and skirt! The only details left to do are the buttons on the top and the zipper for the skirt, which I need to go get. I'm starting the solid orange shorts tonight and then I'll take some close up pictures of the rest of the outfit.