Reuse

It took me almost an entire month to make this dress last year ~

The sewing journey was involved and I learned a lot as well as ended up with that amazing dress.  Which by the way, I've only worn twice!  

Originally I'd intended to make a jacket to wear with the dress from the wool tweed which I used for the base of the dress. I spent so much time on the dress that I really had nothing left for the jacket.  So even though the front and back were cut out and attached to the pattern pieces...that's where they still were when I went looking for the fabric.

See this fabric has recently been haunting me.  Seriously, talking to me in the middle of the night...playing around the edges of my mind in meetings...and pushing into my thoughts on my long bus ride home.  I only remembered the jacket pieces, however, when I pulled the fabric out of the garbage bag it was stored in (along with leftover pieces from this jacket), I found a full yard of fabric. As well as another 1/2 yard...enough to make a dress and not the skirt I originally thought about.

My mind basically exploded!  Peeps, the fabric and lace used in that dress was costly and here I had it stored away.  Bet that's why it had started to haunt me! *LOL* Anytoway, (yeah I know that's not a word!) I've decided to use the fabric and the lace with McCalls 6988.

This is View C of the pattern, and the lace will be used in the center panel only, which will make this dress work wearable! Yes!!! I've shown the dress with the three quarter sleeves but if I don't have enough fabric I will change them to the shorter sleeve from View D.

I haven't started working on this yet because I have to finish my ponte dress first but won't this be amazing! I'm so thrilled that this will be my first fall garment especially since I will finally be using the leftover fabric...and it can stop calling to me at all hours of the day and night.

So I'm sure you're wondering what happened with the leggings for Princess Lena...they will be up soon.  I need my model to showcase them but believe me again more easy sewing...seriously easy sewing. Now I know how Katie turns out so many pieces every month.  Again something made entirely on the serger.

This is my next sewing journey which I will be oversharing here on the blog! *LOL* It's getting cooler outside along with getting darker earlier, fall is definitely on the way. This dress will make a great first fall garment!

Oh and I didn't buy any more ponte from the Fabric Mart 50% off sale...*sigh* I can't say the same for the 50% off suiting though...

...as always more later!

MSN Lace Challenge - Part One

For the month of March the initial nine bloggers at MSN have been challenged to use lace, any type, for their garment. I've been pondering, thinking and worrying about what garment to make and how to use lace.

My first idea was to copy a Dolce & Gabbana dress that I found online...

But the desire to interpret that garment faded when I found this Oscar de la Renta dress at Neiman Marcus...

Oscar de la Renta

Close up of lace dress

The silhouette is similar to the D&G dress but the lace that Oscar used is what caught my eye.  See I've made several lace pieces before...

Trendy Lace Dress

Erdem Inspired Lace & Linen Dress

Lacy Burda 8869 Cardigan 

However, I've never made one using Guipure Lace.  One reason being the price ~ because it ain't cheap!  The second was because I'd only thought of Guipure Lace used in formal dresses and wedding gowns.  Even though the outfit that I'm planning is a little on the dressy side, there has been so much lace of all types showing up in designer and regular RTW lately, that I decided to go for it.

Here are the fabrics that I'm using for my interpretation minus the peach silk charmeuse (for the lining) that I still have to purchase...

Wool Tweed & Guipure Lace in Peach

This will be my Easter Dress.  The good thing about it is that it won't be too dressy to wear to church where you can rarely be overdressed.  Okay a ball gown might be a little over the top there but otherwise dressy works.

I will start with my TNT dress as the basis.  However, after taking Susan Khajie's lace class at Mood NYC there will be a lot more handwork in this dress than in the two pictured above.  That's just one of the techniques that I learned during that class that I will incorporate into the making of this dress/outfit.

A coat may also make an appearance...not sure if it will be a part of the Mood garment or added later on.  It depends upon how much time I have but since Easter is the last Sunday in March, I'm sure it will be a little chilly.  I'm starting on the dress today, cutting out the wool tweed.  The plan is to use the back seaming of the CK Dress and my regular dress front with side darts.  Next up will be more construction info...

...as always more later!