our etsy wedding

I haven't had a chance to work on the raincoat this week, but I wanted to share a few wedding details. I'm leaning *very* heavily on etsy for these, and so far it's working out nicely.

Our escort cards (aka little cards that tell people where to sit- I never knew that word before) are from etsy by cuddlecreature. Imagine 100 of these set out on the table... it will like a sweet little regatta!



Our favors will be envelopes of wildflower seeds, and I had an etsy vendor, Toast and Laurel, make us stickers to put on the envelopes:



And, of course, I've been buying milkglass bowls from the site for the last few months to make our centerpieces, which will look like this:



My nieces, who will be flower girls, will be sporting little blue and white hair decorations from etsy as well:

from Lovely Gifts


from Sweet and Sassy

And finally, to save us from writing our address over and over and over, we bought a custom return address stamp from Paperfinger which looks like a calligrapher wrote our address. LOVE IT. This was easily the smartest purchase we made... it got used a lot for christmas cards and other things as well ;)

Last month, on a whim I picked up a new wedding crafts book by a Martha Stewart editor which has been fun to look through as well:



Handmade Weddings: More Than 50 Crafts to Personalize Your Big Day

It has some simple sewing projects, invitation designs, and fun stuff like that. I love flipping through it, althought I haven't really done any of the featured projects in it yet.

So there you are, a small wedding design update :)

Spring Showers

J. Crew had a cute little rain jacket in their spring catalog this year. I certainly have a ton of raincoats (I did live in Seattle for many years (; ), but they're all of the patagonia/REI hiking type, and I feel kind of underdressed in them out here sometimes. Here's the J.Crew coat - it's a bit fancier than most raincoats.



I posted on artisan's square last month asking if anyone could remember seeing a BWOF pattern that was similar, and a few hours later I had my pattern! BWOF 01-2009-123.



Yesterday I decided to visit BJ in the garment district for some nice raincoating material, and I bought 3 yards of absolutely gorgeous eggplant colored waterproof cotton raincoating. It's a dream to sew, presses really nicely, and although it was crazy expensive ($20/yard) it's still half the price of buying the J. Crew coat, so I feel like I'm coming out ahead here. ;)

Here's the muslin I had sewn up earlier today:




I have the coat mostly finished except for the front bands, the hem, and the sleeves. I ended up leaving it unlined, since the fabric doesn't fray at all. I did insert a back stay, though. It's flannel with horsehair canvas fused to it.





Instead of upper & lower pockets my version has the lower pockets and then on-seam pockets for my hands directly behind them. At the moment I'm leaving off the waist drawstring, and I instead narrowed the back and side seams a smidge.


I went through my button collection and picked out a few botton options, then showed them to the sailor, who had been amusedly following the "let's make a raincoat" adventure all day. What, normal people don't just up & decide to knock off designer rainwear over a weekend? ;) Anyway, he liked a set of navy blue & gold anchor buttons that I had. Of course. I don't have quite enough of them, so I'll have to hit up Pacific Trim to get a few more.

Perhaps I'll actually finish this up before the torrential March downpours start up!

so sweet

My dad finished up the cake topper he made for us! I bought a somewhat generic military groom cake topper off ebay, and he painted it for us to match my sailor's uniform exactly. How sweet is that? :-) He took a picture at the change of command ceremony this summer, then carefully copied all the ribbons and every last little detail. Wow.





Of course the bride's hair is much longer than mine and dress doesn't exactly match my dress, but we decided to just leave it as is, especially given the molded flowers on her skirt. It is, after all, a $10-from-ebay wedding cake topper, so we're happy just to get the uniform right. ;)

The restaurant where we're getting married is making a simple cake for us, so we'll be dropping this off for them to place on top a few days before the wedding. Until then, it will dancing away on a bookshelf waiting for the big day.

project catchup

When my grandmother died 2 months ago, my grandpa said that he wouldn't live another 5 minutes. Well, he did make it a little longer, but just a few weeks. He passed away Friday, so I guess he's back with grandma again. Am I the only one who turns to a lot of fiction when they're really sad? I needed a good book to lose myself in last week, so I downloaded a new novel to my kindle, which I ended up really enjoying. I don't read too much fiction, but after loving the Harry Potter and Golden Compass books, I'm a bit of a sucker for anything involving magic and Oxford. A Discovery of Witches was pretty delightful- great book to lose myself in for a few days.



Since I haven't done too much sewing recently, I'll post two projects I (mostly) finished up a few weeks ago but was too busy to blog.

First, in need of Jonathan Embroidery buttonholes, my Built by Wendy jacket from Simplicity 4109. I also need to sort out how to get off the waxy mark for the stitching line on the front - the wax really settled into the wool, sadly.



I love this jacket, although the sleeves are a bit long for me. It's warmish without being too heavy, and a great length.

And here's another twist dress that I made up from New Look 6802.



My sailor ended up suggesting that I make this - I had a bunch of pieces of fabric out a few weeks ago and was trying to match them to patterns. He said that he liked this print, and that he really liked the twist front knit dresses, so I took his suggestion and made this one. The hem on this dress drove me bonkers, though - I couldn't chalk mark it as I usually do. I'll show you in a post soon the new vintage toy I ended up purchasing to deal with the hem.

a hint of spring

The sun is out today! And it's warm! (-ish (; )

After a week of ice rain and frigid temperatures, any bit of warmth is a great thing in my book. I took full advantage of the sun and had an Upper West Side adventure this afternoon. I rode the subway up and stopped off at Zabars for a babka, and pistachio macarons, and a few cheeses. Mmmmmm. It was a total zoo, of course.

A sunny block near W80th:



Then I walked a few blocks to Joe for a proper latte to sip on a long stroll down Central Park West. You know what really drives me bonkers about NYC? Very few places out here know how to make a latte correctly. Joe, thankfully, is one of the few that make a very nice one. I had a loooong walk with my coffee in the sunshine, and it brought me hope that spring might really be just around the corner.



To celebrate the spring-like weather, I made a little shirt for Ana and a dress for Kate with some spring-ish fabrics. These are from the Delilah line by Tanya Whelan. The pattern for both is the Oliver + S Ice Cream dress, which is a very quick & easy pattern to whip up.






I decided I'd go for Kate's favorite look, the intentional clash, with these, hence floral + plaid. Not too bad... they should be good for running around in the backyard once the snow is gone and it warms up!

fashion model

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of the polka dotted Tulip Dress from the Sewn With Love book.

Kate modeled it for me last weekend when we were taking pictures of my dress muslin. I think she wanted to get in on the posing for the camera business, too. Hence the fashion accessory fan. ;)





She reports that she likes the tulle in the skirt so that it's "really twirly" and it's just the thing to wear to a birthday party.

pattern alterations

If flat pattern alterations bore you, you might want to skip this post!

In the last post I mentioned that I'd like to make a lace jacket to wear over the simplicity dress, and we had picked Vogue 2979, which has a really retro Grace Kelly look to it. Today I was home sick, due to an upset stomach all night, so I felt kind of run down but able to sit at my dining room table with pattern paper and a ruler. I decided a good project was to make this lace top fit me.

Here's my first muslin on my dressform. The front closure in this muslin is a separating zip. The real thing will have a row of buttons, but I wasn't doing that for a muslin. You can see that it really doesn't fit, especially at the top where it "floats" above the shoulders. It's also too tight in the lower bodice (darn holiday cookie eating! trust me, it was worse on me, that's why you're seeing it on the dressform. (; )



I rather expected the neckline issue, I have very small, somewhat rounded shoulders. To fix the float and get the muslin to lay correctly, I made a series of alterations that I make to nearly every pattern. Here's a comparison of the pattern pieces I ended up with compared to the original.



I'll walk through each adjustment - you should be able to see the cuts or redrawn lines below.



* slashed and overlapped the pattern from the shoulder seam to above the bust point
* redrew the upper neck curve
* inserted a half inch of length in the armhole
* inserted an inch of length in the lower bodice
* added 1/4 inch to each side seam
* redrew the waist dart



Same alterations to the back

Yes, this is a little tedious, but necessary. I was taught to make these alterations to the pattern pieces, rather than draping or pinning directly on a muslin & then tracing the muslin, so this is the method I'm most comfortable with. Any of those, however, will lead you to the proper fit.

One thing that this string of ENDLESS MUSLINS has led me to see is that I really do need to make the same alterations to each pattern. Previously, I would scattershoot apply these techniques, and not always make them all together. Having done these to several patterns, from different pattern companies, over and over, I'm seeing how they all work together and getting a better idea of my body shape. It's been very educational and well worth doing even if there wasn't a well fitting wedding dress at the end of all this.

Better muslin pics

Wow, you guys are very sweet- thank you for all the kind comments, and on a muslin no less!

My mom had a go at the bodice and helped me tweak the paper pattern to remove the smidge of excess fabric in the upper bust. We took a slight dart shape out of the armscye tapering to nothing at center front. So I need to re-cut a bodice and stitch it up to try it out. Likely with the same skirt, since I'm NOT sewing those pleats more than I have to. ;) (Scary thought, how am I going to transfer those markings to while silk?? Oh man.)

Anyway, mom really likes this dress pattern as well, but she was concerned that the overblouse in the pattern would be too boxy. We looked at the other choices and decided to make an overblouse from Vogue Pattern 2979. Here's the short sleeved version:



In the pattern it's attached to the skirt, but we'll make one that is not attached.

Here are some more pictures with slightly better light. I had my mom take these, but I had a vintage, fully manual lens on my DSLR. So it was fun taking these. My poor mom.

Back view...



Side...



Front.... serious face because I'm worried she is changing the settings of the camera!



So, there we are.

I also finished up the flower girl "pomanders" aka "balls of flowers on ribbons that flower girls carry" made with silk hydrangea, styrofoam balls, greening pins, and ribbons. I figured these were easiest to make from fake flowers, as I doubt any wedding guests will notice or care that Kate & Ana are carrying silk flowers down the aisle. ;)

early morning wedding dress muslin

I woke up extra early again to sew up the Simplicity muslin I'd cut last night, and quickly ran face first into the most bewildering array of pleat markings I've ever seen on a pattern.

Have a look- but only if you're fortified with more than a small cup coffee!



I had to retreat and make a nice fried egg while my poor brain cells attempted to wrap themselves around all the pleats over more pleats under other pleats, fold on this line, stitch over here. Yikes!!

Well, I'm happy to say that after much seam ripping and puzzling over the directions and trying some more, I ended up with what I thought might be the right arrangement of pleats. I held my breath as I attached the bodice with pins, but everything lined up! hallelujah!

Here we are..... pardon the un-showered hair, the messy sofa, and general I-sewed-a-wedding-dress-before-9 AM-and-took-a-self-portrait-with-a-cell-phone look going on here.



Here's the pattern again.



This dress feels fantastic- the top fits amazingly well for the small amount of alterations I've made, I adore the full skirt, and I'm actually OK with it sitting at my natural waist. Wow... I feel like a real bride in this one. ;)

So there's a little bit of weird extra fabric or pulling above the bust. And again, I'm drawn to patterns with no side seams for pockets! However... I think I found it. This is it! Are you excited to see this made up in white silk taffeta? With a lovely short sleeved lace overjacket? :-D

bodice alterations & a garment district celebrity

I was up early early this morning to make sure that I made it into the city to the garment district to purchase some navy blue silk for my sister's bridesmaid dress. First stop was Rosen & Chadick, where I got 4 yards of really nice dark navy silk taffetta. Lindsay had recommended them, and they had a wonderful selection of silks- and since it was so early I had the store to myself and plenty of assistance picking out a fabric. There was a beautiful deep navy silk faille, but it was over $100/yard. Sigh. Sorry, kid sister, not even my dress fabric is going to cost that much if I can help it! ;)

Next I headed over to Mood. It was 9:55, and they open up at 10 am, so the lobby downstairs had a bunch of design students and other early shoppers hanging out, waiting. At 9:59, in swept Swatch the doggie with his owner and everyone yelled "Swatch is here!!" As if there was any doubt that dog was a garment district celebrity!

Mood had some very nice lighter colored navy faille for $35/yard, but there was less than 2 yards on the bolt and no more in that color. So I decided to not pick up any more (my reasoning had been that if I bought some fabric at Mood that would work, I'd tuck away the Rosen & Chadick taffetta to use for a dress later... as if I have a pressing need in my life for lots of silk taffetta! (; ). Anyway, I ended up buying another 8 yards of muslin at Mood and chatting with the girl who cut it for me about the perils of making your own wedding dress: ENDLESS MUSLINS.

So on that thread, here are some shots from the bodice alterations of the Simplicity dress.

Tracing the outline onto swedish tracing paper


Transferring darts and grainline


Putting in the small shoulders dart and upper bodice length


And the front piece with the same alterations


I read through the directions for this dress last night, and I think I really like the option to have both silk taffetta and lace in the dress- the lace being in the form of the button-over "jacket". Very retro, but it could be cute. So I looked at laces while I was at Mood and snapped a few photos of them. The advantage of lace just on the over jacket piece is that you'd hardly need a yard, so it could be a really $$$$ one without making the whole dress far too expensive. Here's a cotton one that caught my eye there:

Vogue 1745 muslin

You know it's a bad sign when you can put a wedding dress muslin on without opening the zipper. Really, I'm not going for a skintight mermaid dress for my wedding dress but I'd like *some* shaping.

As a reminder, here's the pattern envelope. Tres chic, no?



Here's reality.





Well then. So the Butterick remains in the lead..... one problem with the Butterick, though, is that it has no side seams to put pockets into. Instead the back panel wraps around to the front, and there's a front panel that takes up just 1/3 of the front. So the seams are offset to the center by quite a bit, which hangs very nicely. However, my wedding dress requirements are really:

* cap sleeves
* side seam pockets
* floor length

I may be able to insert a side seam in the Butterick without affecting the gorgeous shape of the skirt too badly, so I'll likely draft that up this weekend.

I'm also thinking of making a muslin of this beauty. Not an empire waist, but I keep pulling it out of the patterns box. It's a totally different look from the 1960s slim dresses that I keep trying, however it's not too far out. I'll make it up and we'll see.

snowy day cozy quilt

This one has been in progress for over a year and I finally finished it up so that I'd have a warm lap quilt for our sofa. Would you believe I only had one quilt I'd made in our home until I finished this one?







it goes very nicely with hot chocolate and snow falling outside.

Details- just a very simple pinwheel pattern out of kona premium muslin scraps & anna maria horner prints. Batting is a cotton batting from JoAnns, back is some more muslin with a fold-up binding. Quilted with very unintentionally wobbly straight lines with my brand new walking foot.

this is a newsflash - Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised and Updated!

I just stumbled over this in my amazon recommendations.... Claire Shaeffer's book is being updated! I love my older version, so this is going straight onto my birthday wish list. ;) Comes out in May. I imagine I'll be done with the wedding dress by then, so in the mean time I'm leaning heavily on the original. It will be interesting to see what gets updated in the new version, though.



Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised and Updated by Claire Shaeffer

muslins and pinwheels

One of my little projects I wanted work on this year was a Photo Project 365- take a picture every day. I've wanted to one for a while, and I figured that the year I got married would be a good one to do it. Well, of course, on Jan 4 I ended up catching a horrible stomach flu (like norovirus or something else super evil) and couldn't even get out of bed for a few days. Don't you love how life corrects your plans sometimes? ;) Ah well, I'm picking up where I left off with it anyway. My parents came down to visit today and brought their sheltie, who found the pinwheel quilt top I've been working on. I think the colors very nicely complement his coat, don't you?



My mom also fit the muslin of butterick 3478 and said that it's her favorite so far. So I have some muslin tweaks to transfer to the pattern, and then there will likely be another muslin, with some drafted cap sleeves. I really like the look of these lacey cap sleeves:



The major changes my mom took in the muslin were to increase the inner neckline dart I'd pinched out so that the shoulders came in even further, and then pinned the side seams out a small amount. We both agreed that the skirt hung pretty nicely, and we'd wait to see how the shoulder change affected everything before making any new changes. I'm so thankful that I have her to come and pinfit things on me- I don't know how I'd get through sewing this dress without the assistance!

Have a wonderful weekend :)