The first item I made was the book report dress. I wanted to make it all in one colour and I made a few little alterations to the pattern based on this t-shirt from Daks that I bought at Christmas time
Note the zipper and the quilted shoulders and sleeves
So I borrowed those ideas and incorporated them into my dress:
Size 4
I quilted the fabric onto a fusible batting first before cutting out the back yoke. It was surprisingly quick to do and produced the result I was after.
It really isn't that wrinkled in real life!
I inserted invisible zippers at the front and back yoke shoulder seam. They are not perfect but I think they will look OK once the dress is on. Perhaps next time I will make the zipper more of a feature like the Daks's t-shirt
The only other modification I made was to use the "burrito method" to enclose the stitching for the back yoke and its facing just like on a man's business shirt. The batting added quite a bit of bulk which made this a little bit more of a fiddle than it might have been but it turned out looking very tidy on the inside.
And to finish off, I found a little sparkly button in my button box that matched the dress colour perfectly.
Although the photo is out of focus
On Sunday, I made a skirt using the rather appropriately named Sunday brunch a-line skirt pattern - although it would have been a very late meal if it had been needed at the time suggested by the pattern!
I cut up an old Anna S dress that I bought for about $5 at a school fair several years ago and tried to recreate something a little like this skirt that I snapped in Tokyo last year.... while trying to not look like I was stalking the child
this skirt |
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Ok, so this looks nothing like the little girl's skirt but you gotta work with what you've got!
And then in the second half of the day I whipped up a roller skate tunic from a Nano Iro print, and some Japanese lawn from Spotlight
And I bundled these up to send to Rosa with yet another Sailboat top I recently completed. I think I have probably had the knit fabric for at least ten years! So, another successful stash bust here and therefore time to buy more fabric....
And look! I managed to get the shoulder pieces overlapped the correct way again
Now, that was a much better way to spend a weekend than doing paper work....
Whoa. The book report is great, love the little zips. Absolutely LOVE that brunch skirt. The fringey bits, the sectioning, the colours. I think it's the best one I've seen to date. Then you went and threw in that Nani Ito tunic. Divine.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I had a lot of fun sewing these and the book report dress turned out pretty close to how I imagined or hoped it would.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure anyone would like the skirt so I'm pleased that you like it. I am so useless at throwing things out and I hate things to go to waste that I still have half of the dress left over...just never know when those bits will come in handy....
These are terrific, the lot of them. I wish I fitted the size 4
ReplyDeleteI particularly like what you've done with the skirt. Great colour combinations and a little bit of funk going on there. Just as well you saved those scraps. Your grandmother (& grandfather) would be proud of you for such resourcefulness
wow i would love the quilted book report dress in an adult size. That's my cup of tea! ;)
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