Vogue 8622 Evening wrap

To match my bluish-black evening dress, I made Vogue 7161 evening wrap. Since I was afraid the color was too much of a "look at me" style, I decided to make a classy one and choose this Vogue 8622 View C.

I used a black polyester chiffon.

I love the french seams finish!
When I bought the pattern, I was afraid how seams will look since I don't have a serger. But french seams are fantastic: you just need a regular sewing machine, with straight stitch. And it looks so nice and neat.

You just have to pay attention to start with wrong sides together.
By the way, I made a mistake when making the lower sleeves seam: I haven't noticed how they wanted to put it...
They should be shorter because they should be fold toward the top of the sleeve.
But I finally like how it looks, and this avoid me some hand sewing.

And look around my neck: it's a home-made beads necklace!


A view of the back, with my evening dress:

Neck and bottom pleats were king of annoying to make because of the slippery chiffon.

I like how neck pleats look, but I'm less convinced by the bottom ones.

Here, another picture of the back, over a white top. This way, you can clearly see some french seam.

I enjoyed sewing it and I love the look, I might wait to find a silk chiffon to do it again.

Vogue 7161 Evening wrap

I made the evening wrap Vogue 7161 from Elizabeth Gillet view A, to match a dress for a wedding.





I used two polyesters silk shantung from JoAnn's.

It was really easy to make and the good point is it stay in place alone!
I would say the bad point is the fusible interfacing. The pattern doesn't tell you on which side ironing it (I put it on the clearest one). And I think it makes the wrap a little weird even if it help keeping the shape.
Next time I would try without fusible interfacing or with a double sided fusible interfacing.

McCall 5913 Coat

I made this McCall's 5913 "coat" before Christmas. I first wanted to make it as a comfy fleece for home. So I made the view C, long with a sash.
It turned out so nice, I finally wore it for going out.

It was really easy to make (no lining). This was my second sewing project and the most difficult part was the buttonholes. For my (old) machine, you have to add a buttonholer which is impressive. After giving a few tries, I manage to understand how it works, and it's pretty easy. And they look so great!

I hightly recommend it and will definitively sew it again next winter in a coat fabric, but a little longer and with lower holes for the sash.

Japan Couture Dress

I've made this purple dress with a japanese sewing book. It seems to be a trend in France among sewer to use these books, even without translation, according to the number of member on the JCA's web site.

I used the book they call "01 - Every day camisoles et petits hauts" and made the pattern number 14.


ISBN: 978-4-579-11043-8

My realization:

I added a lining for cold days and remove the zipper since the dress is large enough to put in. I will have to redo the lower seams since it doesn't look so great, due partly to the lining.
The fabric is the leftover from my Vogue 8527 clutch bag.

What I love with this pattern is that you can use that for a summer dress, a winter dress worn with leggings, or a tunic if you had a belt. And in purple (yes, it's purple, even if you might not see that so well on the pictures), assorted with green it's a great outfit for Mardi Gras!
I plan to make one in a white printed cotton for a classy summer dress.

I haven't found so many english websites about japanese sewing, but you should search! They have plenty of books. Even without being able to read instructions in most of them you have pictures to illustrate the steps.
If you click on the "JCA's" picture, you will end up on this website, on a page with all the other realizations for this dress.
Even if the site is in french you can look at all the pictures just by clicking on any book front page on the left column to see what people made with that book. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask me!

Fabric flowers

I made an organza flower to ornate an evening dress.
It's really fun and easy to do.

Here's a "how to" in pictures:

I cut six organza flower shape in two sizes for this final flower.

You can find explanations and pictures in this wonderful blog:
Organza Flowers by Reese Dixon
and on Jo-Ann website:
Classic Elegance Flower by Jo-Ann

Nightgown

I made this nightgown as a Christmas gift for KiKou (the other half of the [Kikuyu] "brand"). I used a brown organic cotton knit and an orange cotton bias.
I spent a long time trying to draw the home-made pattern, and end up changing everything on the muslin directly on KiKou.

I'm happy with the result but it was pretty difficult for me and I won't sew again without a pattern for a while !

Winter cushions

Still in the Christmas gifts, this is the present I made for my mother. It's a set of three covers for cushions. They are for the winter/Christmas season, because of the print on the fabric: a brown printed with white and blue trees ans Season greetings cotton from HobbyLobby.
The other fabric is a blue dupioni silk from fabric.com
The pictures colors are not the real ones because of the lack of light.

The front:

The back:

A close-up view:

And I made the buttons with some brown oven-bake clay (Bake shop). It was my first try with clay, but I'm happy with the result.

--------------------- Update August 11th, 2010 ---------------------

I'm not sure I will ever try to do my own buttons since those are finally kind of sticky.
Does anybody know a way to avoid that?