A Dress or Two

...or pieces 7 and 8.

Both dresses are made from my TNT dress pattern...but there are several differences besides one has short sleeves and the other is sleeveless.

First lets start with the Fall Greenery Dress

Stats:

Fabric: 

cotton/linen twill from fabric.com

Notions: 

22" invisible zipper

3 yards rayon seam tape
1/2 yard embroidered ribbon from M&J Trimmings
2 yards of lace for the lining hem
2 yards of ambiance lining

At first I was just going to make a sheath dress to go with the "Missoni-like" green cardigan.  The skirt, dress and cardigan would have worked together to make mix and match pieces.  Somewhere in the cutting out process, I changed my mind.  I decided that I wanted a stand alone dress.  Something distinctive and with a little voom especially since I'm planning on making quite a few sheath dresses this fall/winter season.  That's when the sleeves got added back onto the dress.  Then I started playing around with a ruffle on the front of the dress.  After a few options were tried and discarded, I realized that I really liked the selvedge edge of the fabric.  So two strips were cut, sewn together, gathered and then basted to the front of the dress. 

I left the dress in flat form on my cutting table Friday morning when I went to meet friends.  While I was wandering around M&J, I found a piece of trim that I thought would bring a wonderful accent to the ruffled trim.  After some discussion with the group, I bought it and a second piece, just in case the first piece did not work.  Here is what the ruffle looked like flat with the embellished ribbon added:

My original thought was to add some pearls that I had on hand.  I'm glad I took a chance with this piece of embellished ribbon because to me it just makes the dress and takes it in a totally different direction.  This is how I will wear it now:

And that is piece 7 or another day at work...

Piece 8 is part of a jacket/dress combination...but after working on one jacket this week, I knew I didn't have the wherewithal to sew another one!  I totally understand that two days to make a jacket is a very short time...however, I was going for number of pieces this sewing vacay not involved garments.  And the jacket for this dress has a lining...so since I didn't want to rush it...I decided that the jacket should wait for a weekend...where all I will do is work on that piece...  I was happy with that decision...so piece number 8 is the pumpkin linen lined sheath dress.

There is nothing spectacular about this dress except for the color!  It is my normal TNT lined sheath dress.  But finally a piece is done for the Pumpkin Wardrobe...*sigh*  It will work with several jackets/toppers already in my closet and can be worn before the jacket is completed...if I desire.

Here it is alone with a great piece of jewelry from a coworker:

Here it is with a cardigan from fabric from Emmaonesock that I made several years ago:

I finished sewing ahead of time...about 4:30pm and I'm very happy with my total of 8 finished garments.  It is a full week's worth of clothing.  So I even though I didn't sew 9 garments, I do feel as if I fulfilled my goal!

I will do a sewing recap tomorrow...I have to go and clean my bedroom which is a total disaster area!  But suffice it to say that my sewing vacation has been very relaxing!  I've slept late...listened to my creative voice...watched Oprah...and sewed.  I spent a day out with friends fabric shopping.  I saw a movie and had dinner with the same friends.  I'm now ready to rejoin the workforce tomorrow!

You can see all the pictures of the garments, including construction pics that were not included in the blog posts in my Flickr album - Sewcation Garments! 

...more later!