Deer & Doe Myosotis - Maximized

After wearing the heck out of my first two versions of this dress, I started dreaming of a maxi version...

Picture taken by the pool surrounding the Temple of Dendur

So I made one. I used this rayon challis from Michael Levine fabrics that I purchased in June 2012. The blog post about it is here! This is the first of the four pieces I've used...why?

I finished this dress about 10 days ago. I wanted to wear it to meet Tasha at The Met. We were seeing The Heavenly Bodies Exhibit. I knew she was wearing a new skirt that she'd made from fabric given to her from my fabric collection.

While we were there we took advantage of the amazing backgrounds the Museum presents and took pictures of our me mades. So please forgive me but this post is picture heavy. Because of that, my review of the Exhibit will be in a separate post.

This was a doorway that was an entrance to 

rooms in The American Wing

Now some details regarding the construction of this version.

Supply List ~
4 yards rayon floral challis 
white rayon piping from Daytona Trimmings
3 - 7/8" white & creme buttons from the button collection

Construction Info ~
Besides adding length, putting the collar back on, making this sleeveless, and adding some piping, those are the changes differentiating this from the other two.

I will say that I did not start out adding piping to the bodice. It happened because when I assembled the front pieces I saw this and could have kicked myself...

It really annoyed me that I didn't single cut the fronts. However, this was the first print I'd used for the dress so I didn't think of it. I would have recut one side but had no more fabric.  While I began with 4 yards of fabric, it was 45" wide so it went fast.

The piping was added to save the front. After I started I realized that it really was needed to give the print some boundaries ~ a place for your eye to rest. I'm glad I took the time to add it. While it definitely added some sewing time, I gained so much in design.

The last construction item I want to mention is I added more fabric to the skirt. Instead of cutting the pattern width for the skirt pattern pieces, I used the fabric width of 45". I debated about adding stabilization to the empire seamline. I went with topstitching instead and will store the dress flat and folded instead of hanging. Hopefully that will prevent any fabric growth. 

Normally I hem the garment right away but I let it hang for two days. I wanted to insure that any growth that would occur could be cut off before hemming the dress.

So yes, I complicated the heck out of a simple to sew dress! Thank goodness it's my last version for the season.

Pictures of the dress in action ~

Obviously I really love the pockets!

Not really thrilled with my collar but I'm living with it

A few pictures of the dress in front of some museum highlights ~ 

In front of the fountains out front

By the Temple of Dendur

Conclusion ~
The best thing about a sewist taking your pictures is the attention to detail. I love the close up shots Tasha took of my dress. This version is bold (very bold) due to my fabric choice. I received quite a few compliments while I was waiting for Tasha to arrive. It also wears differently than the first two. It has the looser fit that's all over the internet not the closer fit my cotton & denim versions have.

I won't make another one of these before next spring though I love the way this style of dress wears. I have a few other things I want to sew and fall is looming. I'm starting to get the urge to sew shirts and jackets again so you know there must be a chill in the air! *LOL*

Tasha - thanks for spending the day with me...it was sooo much fun but most especially thanks for the amazing pictures!

More National Sewing Month blog posts will be up soon!

I think I left some for you!

My fabric buying has been off the chain!  I don't know if it's because I didn't buy a lot earlier in the year or if the sales have been especially great this fall, but quite a few boxes of goodness have arrived. 

Some of it is my Christmas fabric buying - I always purchase flannel for kid's pjs and some fancy fabric for scarf gifts around this time of year - but there's a whole lot that arrived that's just for me.

I haven't done a fabric post in awhile so let me share some of what's new to the sewing cave.

Now while I know that some people abstain from the Black Friday sales, as someone who has worked in retail and understands how those sales fuel the entire Christmas season for some stores, I happily participate. However, all of my purchases were from small businesses, so there is that!

First up purchases from Fabric Mart ~ 
Yeah, yeah I know. I'm addicted to Fabric Mart and their sales. I have to admit that I don't even remember what the sale was, oh yeah Black Friday! I wanted velvet - so I bought a few pieces - and one more piece of shirting.

Grape velvet, black/brown animal print cotton velveteen 

and blue/white check shirting from Fabric Mart

The gray velvet (2nd from top) is from Chic Fabrics

Next up Michael Levine ~
I saw this amazing denim on their site about a week before the Black Friday sales and waited for the 20% off offer.

As you know I'm currently collecting denim and whenever I find something spectacular I'm purchasing a few yards of it. Three yards of this amazing fabric now lives with me!

The final Black Friday purchase was from The Smuggler's Daughter ~

2 yards of cut out blue/gray pleather & gold/black burn out velvet

Another weakness of mine is unusual pleather fabrics. I have quite a few of them in the collection - usually only a yard or two - because I want to primarily use them as accent pieces. You don't need 5 yards of accents ~ well I don't! *LOL*

So I bought these three pieces from fabric.com ~
After my daughter and I decided we wanted to sew pjs for the grand babies (yes we're sewing together! kinda excited about that!) I pulled out the flannel supply and realized we needed to add a little to it. 

One more Fabric Mart purchase ~
My last purchase the one that I had to get permission from Miss Gaylen to buy was again from Fabric Mart. But I have a really good reason, they are having their pyramid sale and if you buy $100 worth of fabric you get 60% off. That means you only pay $40 for $100 worth of fabric - it was too good to pass up so I bought these ~

Rayon knit for t-shirts for the grandbabies

5 yards of midnight blue denim with spandex for my denim collection

Burnt out olive green velvet for Christmas Scarf gifts

Some discounts ~
As mentioned above The Fabric Mart pyramid sale is going on now. Check it out here. BTW, today - 12.9 - is the last day for the pyramid sale so if you're interested, check it out now!

Also Smuggler's Daughter is offering 30% off all regular priced fabrics until December 31st if you're a member of their email listing. The discount code you need to add at checkout is included in the email.

Conclusion ~
A couple of days ago I wrote on IG that I was done with fabric purchases for 2016 and hopefully that's true...cause there are 23 more days left to December and the Sewing Cave is bursting with fabric!

Thank goodness I will have 11 days off during Christmas with quality time to sew! I'm not making a list this year...I'm going to work from the very long one that I'm presently toting around.

...as always more later!