Come on Spring!!!

Hey ya’ll!!! Did you miss me? I had to take a little bloggy break because I wasn’t feeling it, but now I’m back in the saddle. I had a case of writers block, and then I felt gross in some outfit photos. So I took a little break to gain some perspective. I’ve kept up sewing these past 2-ish months and I might get around to posting what I’ve made (but I probably won’t). If you follow me on Instagram (cynbular) you can see what I’ve sewn.

Since I last checked in, I’ve moved into a bigger apartment by the river (these photos are taken on our private dock?!?!?!). I’m so bourgeois now. Unfortunately, our rent is higher and I have much less money (AKA none) in the budget for sewing related expenses. Confession: I “donated” plasma to buy some fabric a while back. Desperate times people! I guess that makes me a sewing addict. I also reached 200 followers, which is rad. Hi, everybody!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let me get to the good shit. I’m desperate for Spring to start and I think that’s obvious by this not quite weather appropriate outfit. Brrr… it was chilly when I took these photos today.

The skirt is Simplicity 1690, one of the newer Leanne Marshall designs. I played with the directions of the stripes to have a little fun with the ruffle. This went together well and I’ve also made the blouse pattern for my mom. This pattern is fine by me. The only snafu I had was from not reading the directions. I ended up making this a little too tight so I fixed that by adding this little button and tab on the waistband to give me a little more room. I’m undecided on my fabric choice though. It’s a nice cotton sateen, that I was hoping would read as nautical. Looking at these photos it reads as more of a prison/ jailbird stripe.

The t-shirt is made using the Maria Denmark Birgitte basic tee pattern. This is the size small. This pattern is a great basic pattern to make yourself some cake with.

It was hard to get this color to photograph well. It’s a *super* bright neon yellow cotton jersey. I think I’m going to go back and finish the sleeves and hems with bands because I had a hard time getting the tension with my twin needle right, and it looks tunneled.

I also made the flower in my hair. Gosh, I love my hot glue gun. I just muslined the bodice for Cambie, and it looked awesome, so I think that will be next. I also muslined Retro Butterick 5209, hoping it could be my Sew for Victory dress. That was bad news. There was so much side boob I looked like Miley Cyrus. That was been knocked out of the sewing queue.

xx, Cynthia

Foxy: Simplicity 2154

I’ve been working on the blouse from vintage repro Simplicity 2154 for the past week. This little blouse has been on my must make list for quite a while. Since it is Jungle January, I decided to pull out the only piece of “animal print” in my stash. This counts right? It has animals on it

I generally stay away from quilting cotton, but I couldn’t resist this cute fox print when I saw it. It’s Japanese, which seems to be the homeland of all things cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This top is pretty basic and I was able to squeeze it out of only one yard of fabric. The only instructions I deviated from was that I didn’t interface the bow. I didn’t see the point after I cut it on the bias. These two photos are the only ones I was able to take without my sweater on because it was so COLD. See my inability to smile… haha I hate being cold.

The only new technique that went into making this top was I made a fabric covered button for the first time. Unfortunately, I don’t have a closeup photo of it. I centered one of the little fox faces over the center of the button.

I’m looking forward to trying this pattern out with a fabric with more drape. I’d like to see this hanging a little bit closer to my body in my next version.

xx, Cynthia

Simplicity 1873 v 2.0

I made another version of  Simplicity 1873. This time I made version A. One thing I’ve learned from my other version is that I’m not short-waisted like I thought I was. My other version hits into my ribs. This time I added 3/4″ to the bodice and it’s more comfortable. I also made this a little bit larger and now after looking at these photos I think I might want to go back in and take it in a wee bit.

Originally I drafted a peter-pan collar that I hand-beaded (here’s a photo from Instagram). I decided after it was on that I didn’t like it. I felt that it looked a little homemade (because I couldn’t get the curve smooth) so I decided to remove it. I have two vintage beaded collars, so I can have the look when I want it or not. The bow at the waist is detachable also. I used my hot glue gun to attach it to a pin back.

The sleeves on this pattern are so cute. They feature 5 darts to create the puff shape. I fully lined this dress with some black rayon voile. I finished with an invisible zipper and a machined blind hem.

This is a great pattern if you love the classic “fit and flare” silhouette

Hawaiian Punch: Simplicity 1873

Hey guys!!! Like my new glasses? They came in the mail today and I feel like a cool girl in them. Just in time too, now that we’re in the heart of the allergy season I can’t really wear my contacts as much, so it was time to update. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way let’s talk about this dress. I’m in mayjuhh like with it.

I’ve been thinking about what makes something “me” and makes me want to pull it out of the closet over and over again. My favorite me-make by far is my Bow Dress. The reason why it works IMO is because it’s a basic fit-and-flare shape (my favorite silhouette) paired with a fun print that I love. I bought 3 yards of this “Tales of the South Pacific” cotton batiste from Gorgeous Fabrics for super cheap ($5.80 a yard) and I still have almost a full yard left over.

This pattern was very easy to make. I made view C, but omitted the button tabs. It’s a simple 2 dart scoop neck bodice paired with a very *full* skirt. Before I started making the pleats, I had about 8 feet of skirt to shrink down to 29 inches. I really like the instructions Simplicity gives you for the construction. For instance, they have you attach the bodice and lining using this technique, I first learned from the Slapdash Sewist. It seems to be that Simplicity is figuring out that home sewists don’t want to hand sew unless absolutely necessary.

This dress was well drafted and came together quickly once I got started. I made a size 10 to eliminate ease, but had to use the dart placement for the size 12 to accomodate my girls. Speaking of my girls, did ya’ll notice the unfortunate print placement on my bust? Michael Kors would eat me alive, a circle over each bewb. Oops… I lined the bodice with some unbleached cotton muslin, and also underlined the skirt with muslin since this fabric was quite sheer. I finished the hem with a machine blind hem and inserted an invisible zipper

Simplicity 1876: Tie-Dye Surprise

I’m calling this dress Tie-dye Surprise because I’m surprised that I like it. Ha. This dress has a few quirks, and I’ll get into them in a bit, but it’s perfect for what I made it for…

Let’s start with the fabric. I found this mystery fabric (it drapes like rayon and definitely breathes, so let’s call it rayon) at the thrift store. I thought, “hey, I can use this for a muslin and maybe make it a wearable one. I *do* live on the west coast, which is, the only place where it’s still cool to wear tie-dye.” Now summer is approaching (80 degrees today?!?!? holla), and that means shows and festival season for me, and this tie-dyed fabric starting calling out to me wanting to be a hippy summer dress. When fabric talks, I listen.

I finished this last Wednesday afternoon, just in time to see SBTRKT play at the Wonder Ballroom. I danced a shit-ton in it! So if dancing is a criteria for your makes, then this pattern passes. I’m also going to wear this next week and dance and sweat some more. Therefore, this dress is a success. Let’s get into the nitty grtty now, I’ll start with the good and then get into the bad.

Things I like: I really like the gathers on the hips. As a pear shaped lady, I usually avoid accenting them. In this case, I feel it gives a va-va-va-voom Marilyn Monroe-esque silhouette. This dress is princess seamed which I haven’t done before. I am now *for* princess seams. Fact: I would vote for them for president. Princess seams are prettier than darts IMO. The instructions were very clear and thorough.

Things I don’t like: I made this dress too big. Yarghh! So, I’ve been on a huge Simplicity roll, I can’t help it. Now that I know they more or less fit me, it’s a lot easier to just try another one out than to deal with fitting. But, I’m learning that I need to anyways, and that an inch and a half of ease is actually a lot. I’m also learning that I probably need to stop being a baby and start doing FBA’s (full bust adjustment for those not in the know). This dress is a bit of a Monet (Clueless reference), good from far, but far from good.

I was fitting as I went (I thought), but it came out weirdly large and small, at the same time on my bust. Here’s how I fixed the “too big”; I made the center back seam larger (a full inch FYI) and also pinched out another inch at the sides which I sloppily tacked down with hand stitches (messy girl). Now for the “too small”; The drape doesn’t fully cover my girls. Instead of making a 12, I should have made a 10 up top with a FBA, and then tapered to a 12 for the hips. Live and learn, amirite?

There’s one more thing I effed up. I’m not sure if it was a drafting error or a Cynthia error. Hopefully, you can avoid it. When I stitched the bodice and drape to the lining, I sewed up the little hole you’re supposed to leave to allow you to knot the neck tie around the drape. To fix this I stitched a sloppy button hole, so I could slip the straps through it. This little number is a fine example of down and dirty dressmaking.

I’m moving this upcoming week so I’m not sure how long it will be until I have something new to show ya’ll. Peace.

Tulip Skirt- Simplicity 2512

I really like this skirt because I feel it seamlessly fits in with my style and wardrobe. This is pretty much how I dress everyday. I mean, you can’t go wrong with denim… amirite? Adorable tangent, this koala tank was my husband’s when he was a little boy. Isn’t that cute? I picked it up when we visited his mom for Christmas. These pictures were taken at Smith Rock in central Oregon. We went there this past weekend to do some camping and rock climbing. I think it made for a very picturesque photo locale.

I made view B of this pattern using some thrifted denim. This skirt was sitting on my mannequin as a UFO for over a month. Originally, I made the ties that are shown on the pattern envelope. However, this denim is very heavy and it had WAY too much bulk. It was a thick, lumpy mess when I installed the zipper. Grody! This sat unfinished waiting for me to unpick the zipper and ties. In fact, it was sooo heavy duty, I broke my seam ripper unpicking this.

I didn’t use bias binding at the top of the waistband like the pattern calls for. Instead I stitched and turned the band. Because of how heavy the denim was, I zig-zagged over some dental floss to make the gathers. That was much easier than trying to pull on the bobbin thread. It just kept snapping. The only thing I think I want to change about this skirt is to make it a little more narrow just at the hem. I’d like to accentuate the tulip shape.

Oh yeah, you should enter my giveaway! Peace.