A Garden

Its officially Summer and with that comes hotter days and much lighter fabrics. Yay... 

In preparation for it, I have decided to add some much needed floral to my closet. As I search the stash, my kindergartener, says "mama, this looks like a garden, where flowers grow". 

I then decide to check out some older patterns and find a few I want to try, and ask him to pick one.. He chose Mccalls 7119. 

 Always the one to doubt myself, I ponder if I want to make the bands on the bodice a solid color or continue with the same fabric.. Hmmm.. "Black", he tells me when I ask. Because of course I have to ask him. And I think he was right on, as I love the results.

 

RED-y

As a family, we are often busy. But as individuals, I'd have to give the most credit to my girls. They juggle College, secular work and a schedule of volunteer work. So when a recent assembly day arrived and my youngest daughter exclaimed that she had no time to shop and nothing to wear my heart sank. I quickly went to my stash and told her to pick a color her closet was missing and a pattern. I promised her as she walked out to head for school, that she'd have something to wear!

As she left, I could see the concern in her eyes because she knew as I did that I had a deadline to meet since I was also making dresses for a few friends. But I had no intentions on letting her down. Thanks to an easy pattern and some time management my Rissa has her dress.    

 And because she's an amazing young lady with a huge heart, monday after school, she surprised me with this beautiful bouquet as a token of her appreciation for the dress.. I love her so much!!

White Hot

On a recent trip to the fabric store, I came across this gorgeous white linen. Since white is one of those colors my stash is lacking, I decided to get some. By the time I arrived home I had decided that Id make a dress for a gathering. I chose a simple pattern, New Look 6223 last used Here. Except this time I kept the sleeves and just added 6'' to the length. 

 The thickness of this linen made it somewhat difficult to iron and once I cut... ughh.. Horror.

                    I eventually decided against the dress option and trashed the bodice, even after what felt like forever ironing.

I resorted to using my no fuss, self drafted midi skirt pattern for the skirt portion. I actually like it better as the heavy linen allows for a full skirt. I also added pockets, just because.

                                                                     

Pocket

Side View                

How I wore it

Spring forward

Spring is finally here and with its arrival came.. more snow. And not a few flurries as one might hope or think, but actual, "I'm sticking to the ground and you'll have shovel" snow. Yup, those where its words. Speaking of words, Im quite tired of writing "snow and shovel" and would trade right about now for "sun and shine". With that in mind and anxiously waiting to toss the Parkas, I decided to start Spring Cleaning. First stop, my closet. They say, you should always remove everything, wipe down the empty space and to put back what your going to"keep". Since I do this all year round, my toss pile is always much smaller than my to keep. One thing I did notice I have very few of are Midi skirts. That same evening, my son wore a bow tie I made for him Here and I remembered this amazing fabric I picked up at Mood some time ago.

The skirt is self-drafted and started out as a gathered waist, but didn't last long as I eventually decided on inverted pleats. I lined it with white tricot and added hot pink hidden pocks for fun.

I used an invisible zipper at the center back seam and a 2" double fold hem for weight. 

Absolutely love how it turned out, I'm sure it'll be one of many. 

The Black Bow

When I first saw this pattern, I instantly wanted to make it. I also knew that I wanted to make it in black. Which is funny since I never like to mimic the picture on the pattern. Oh well... It must have been the sleeveless bodice with back tie ends.., or maybe its the fact that I'm weak for a patterns with a sexy back... Don't know right now. But off to Mood Fabrics I went and picked up this gorgeous black double knit.  The dress came together quickly therefore making Vogue 1102, a keeper. Although, I don't think ill need more than one of this dress, its a another great pattern to have as a base and to modify from.

 The bodice is self lined with a raised waistline. The skirt is flared and has a back zipper.  

But my favorite part has to be the back bow!

Thanks for reading and/or comment!

While it snows...

This winter wasn't so bad if you exclude the entire month of February! I kept telling my husband, "thank God it hasn't snowed so much.. a few flurries here and there", "winter isn't over", he'd replied.. and then bamm.... FEBRUARY 2015 rolls in with more snow than the previous 4 months. I think I'm going to need therapy for my back from all the shoveling. Anywho.. during one of these february storms, my boo and I went for a walk (because snow is pretty when its falling) and ended up near a fabric store. I decided to go in and warm up.. (right) and as I was warming up, I came across this beautiful cobalt blue fabric. It screamed at me and said.. "you don't have anything like me in your stash", SO I adopted it. At first glance, I wasn't sure what Id make, but as walked back home and he talked about this and that, I drifted into the possibilities of what it would become. When we arrived, and before enough snow fell to start shoveling, I looked at some patterns I had on hand and decided to make a simple maxi since the fabric has texture to it and I was in need of instant gratification. My only debate was, do I want it with or with out sleeves? Hmmm..

 

The pattern I used was New Look 6223 view D, but it turned out to be C since I eventually omitted the sleeves.  I also added length to the dress (no surprise there) by 16". I used the cotton from my previous post Here to line the dress and add pockets. Yes this dress has pockets, because who doesn't like hidden pockets? And this chevron fabric makes it "fun".

I also made some bias tape to apply to the sleeves, although, as I write this, Im not sure Ill keep it that way! The bodice front and back has darts and pleats, and uses a 22"

zipper closure.

                             This picture tells me Im in need of making a statement belt for this dress...

Overall, great dress to welcome in the Spring. Cant wait to wear it! 

In the meantime, let me go shovel....