Plan Part One: Finish My Projects

Yes, the first part of my Self-Stitched-September plan is fairly straight forward -- finish  my half completed projects. I'm off to a good start this week with an evening spent working on my now belated birthday dress. It should be ready for photos by Wednesday. Yay!

 

 Next on the agenda is a green stretch cotton Ginger skirt I started in Vancouver. All it needs is a zipper, hem and the waistband facing.

 

After that, this very cherry red rayon will finally make its way into Vogue 1120, minus the belt. It's all cut out, and the pleats basted shut. I started this dress before I really knew anything about fitting, so it's going to be a bit of a surprise once I get it together. Hoping for the best!

Getting all three of these projects done brings me up to four me-made dresses and two me-made skirts that I can actually wear. I have a few other me-made garments that just don't fit at the moment, so they're sitting this challenge out. Stay tuned for next week's plan of attack.

During my countdown to SSS, I also have to get a birthday present together for my younger sister. I chose this white cotton poplin from Fabric.com, printed with cream bones that look like herringbone from a distance. It's just her kind of print. Now if I can just pick a garment that won't eat up all of my selfish sewing time...

Taking the Pledge

I, Madelaine, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-Sept '11. I endeavour to wear one piece of handmade clothing each day for the duration of September 2011. Handmade accessories are nice but only count as extras.

You may remember my previous attempt at one of Zoe's challenges, but most likely not. That's because I only had four handmade garments that were wearable, one of which (the blue skirt) was an emergency stitch up. I ended up wearing a lacy knit scarf most days just to give it a good try. As you can see, I was also terrible at documentation photos. Lots of bad mirror shots. I think I lasted a week. 

 I have a few plans to make this time go smoother. One is that instead of daily photos, I'm going to keep a chart of what pieces I wear each day. This will hopefully prove useful in figuring out what I want to make more of in the future, by seeing what I actually like to wear. Keep an eye open for my other idea on Monday.


Anyone else joining in?

Birthday Dress in Progress

I've been planning this dress since April, and finally got to start it on Friday. It would have been a lot further along if I'd taken some recent weight gain into account before cutting my fabric. As is, I had to rip out the side seams and resew at 1/4" instead of 5/8".  It's still a little snug, but much better than it was. it may also be so snug because the dress was cut on the cross-grain, which I think would have less give? I only bought 2 yards of the main fabric, and cutting it sideways was the only way to get both body pieces. The nice thing is that I get to use the selvage as the hem.

I used a contrasting fabric from the same line for the neck bands and for the tie belt. I really like how the purple tones in both prints help to harmonize the patterns. Originally I wanted to make a bottom band out of the same fabric, which would have let me cut on the straight grain, but I really didn't like how that much brown overpowered the floral print.

Here's a close up of the V-neck, which I didn't quite manage to line up perfectly when cutting. I usually wear the V to the back on my other versions of this dress, so it really doesn't bother me too much. It's also much less noticeable in person. I am seriously in love with both these prints.

Pattern: Anna Maria Horner Socialite Dress

Fabric: Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush line Bubble Burst in Rich and Turn of Events in Plum

Photo Location: Backyard