Valentino Panel Tried 'n True Dress

While I was working on this dress, using such fine fabrics, I truly felt like I was sitting at the grown-ups sewing table.  Honestly!  See I use nice materials and I make pretty garments.  But the fabrics used in this dress, from the Valentino panel to the china silk lining are all top notch pieces.  Using them just makes me feel like I've arrived! *LOL* 

You want to see pictures of the finished dress right?  So here you go:

Stats ~
Fabric:
Valentino Silk Panel
Black Silk Satin

Photo Courtesy of Mood Sewciety Blog

Notions:
22" invisible zipper
China silk lining
Rayon seam binding
1" black lace
Farmhouse Fabrics Fusible Knit Interfacing

Sewing Machine Set-Up ~
**I used the straight stitch foot for my sewing machine.  
**The stitch length was set at 2.7
**Gutterman black thread

Construction ~
In my last post I described how I handled turning the panel into the dress front. The back of the dress and the sleeves were cut from the black silk satin which is a little heavier than the lightweight & airy Valentino panel used for the front. So I added some stay tape at the shoulder seams to assist with stabilizing the dress front and the back of the dress. After all of the work in this dress, I didn't want the shoulder seams to pull apart from strain.

The invisible zipper went in the back perfectly and then the lining was added.  For the sleeves, I cut off a 2.5" band of the black fabric at the hemline.  Then I added the 2.5" wide rose print band.  I left the band unhemmed until I could decide how wide I wanted the rose band to be.

Making Your Own Version ~
My dress is made from my TNT pattern.  If you'd like to make a similar type dress, I would recommend Vogue 8786...

I actually thought of using this pattern with the panel but didn't think I had enough of the rose portion of the panel for the front yoke.  Mood has a couple of interesting border prints, as well as an assortment of panel prints on their site that could be used to make your own version of my dress.

Conclusion ~
This dress is very light and airy.  It is amazing because the fabrics feel so wonderful against my body.  I'm thrilled that I was able to turn the Valentino panel into the vision I saw...the entire sewing journey was a joy especially since I ended up with a great new dress.

...and a few more pictures of me in the dress...

Dress back showing solid back and floral band on sleeves

Front neckline and side sleeve showing floral bands

Side view

Another view of the front

My daughter really loved how I used the print and I really hope that I did it justice.  I can't wait to wear it to work!  Finally, a parting shot...my daughter makes me laugh so hard when she's taking these pictures and then she continues to snap pictures while I'm cracking up...

...as always more later!

I'm Leaving it All in the Front!

In my opinion, the most important aspect of making this garment work is ~ perfect pattern piece layout.  Laying the pattern on the panel to get the optimum effect was my first priority. To achieve that I made entirely new pattern pieces. These pieces allowed me to use a single pattern layout. That way I could most effectively use the fabric, as well as, have the ability to see how the pattern pieces lay on the fabric.

Background Information...
But before I even got to that point, I did a little research.  Gigi, who use to blog at "Gigi Sews" has a great blog post (yes, her blog is still up and accessible) on how to best use a large scale print called, "Pattern Matching Tutorial".  This is a fantastic post with great pictures that I read through a couple of times.  Gigi also did a series of posts on The Sewing Divas blog, called "Distinctive Prints" that I also referred to before working with my panel.


Why did I use these blog posts?  Because I've seen some of the garments that Gigi has made which have excellent pattern matching. I wanted to walk in the footsteps of someone with that kind of proven sewing experience and emulate it. Because to me, this dress will ONLY work if I'm very careful with the pattern placement on the dress front.  Can you tell that I was hyperventilating about this aspect of the dress' design, wondering if once again I've bitten off more than I can chew?

I laid the pattern pieces out several ways on the panel until I decided on the one above...which was really my first choice but I wanted to see the other options to make sure I wasn't missing something. Then I carefully pinned it all down and cut it out. Okay, honestly I laid it out, pinned it down and let it sit for a few days while I walked around it...stared at it...and let it marinate before I finally took the scissors to it!


Construction Techniques...
Since I have a limited amount of fabric for the dress front, I block fused the floral piece of the panel to insure that I wouldn't have to recut the facing piece.  

This was done to insure that the yoke piece 

was not distorted by my handling of it...

Here is the front stitched together...

I still have to make some decisions about short sleeves vs. sleeveless and I have to work on the back...but I took a breathe, put on my big girl panties and moved forward...I mean it's only fabric, right?!


...as always more later!

A Lacy Tried and True

Lace pieces are in.  Lace pieces are so in that they are everywhere.  Earlier this season, I did a post about lace inspiration dresses and this version from my TNT pattern was one of the first garments I put on my spring/summer sewing list.  It was just a matter of finding the right fabric which I found earlier this year and dyed last month.  It was finally ready to be used...and this is the end result...

Some stats ~
Fabric:
Cotton lace - tea dyed to get the antique color

Pattern:
TNT dress pattern

Notions:
22" invisible zipper
beige silk charmeuse fabric
striped bias binding
rayon seam binding

Construction ~
Okay this is my TNT dress pattern, there are no new construction tips. However, I did have to take a lot of care when applying the lace to the silk charmeuse underlining.  That was a three step process.  

*First the two pieces were pinned together using ALOT of pins to insure that the lace fabric was attached together everywhere.  
*Then I ran a basting stitch through the center of the two pieces and around the edges of the two pieces.  
*Finally the sides were serged together.

The point of all these stitches was to insure that the two pieces functioned as one. I didn't want the dress to be two pieces - a lining and the lace fabric...again going back to ease of wear. I also had to take care when inserting the invisible zipper. 

The cotton lace was very bulky in certain points so I wanted to leave some space for the fabric to meet but not get caught in the teeth.  Even stitching the seams had to be done more carefully so that I wouldn't catch any of the lace or the lining in the stitching.  

As well as putting up the hem...at one point I thought about just cutting around the lace motifs and leaving them as is.  But I thought of this great idea too late into the sewing process, because I didn't have enough full lace motifs to follow through.  I ended up adding a one inch hem, pressed up carefully and pinned at every motif.  I added rayon seam binding to the hemline and then carefully hand stitched it to the underlining.  Which ended up not being careful enough, since I had to go back in undo some of the stitching and sew it down again...but it was worth it!

Some final thoughts ~
*I had to take a lot of care with sewing this dress because of the thickness of the lace motifs.
*Even though I've made this dress several times, these fabrics caused it to fit a little closer than usual.  So I have very small seams to insure that it has the ease I want in the final dress.
*The silk charmeuse lining is inserted with the matte against the lace.  The shiny side looked too dressy for work.
*This was an expensive (for me) dress to make up ~ the cotton lace was $20 a yard and the silk charmeuse was $32 a yard.  Not exactly inexpensive but worth every penny because I got the dress I wanted!

Making your own version ~
Since my trendy lace dress is made from my TNT pattern, I'm once again featuring current dress patterns that you can purchase or may already have in your pattern collection, to make a similar dress.

McCalls 6505 

Vogue 8766

McCalls 6460

In Conclusion ~
I'm glad that I've made my own version of the trendy lace dress and using this particular fabric presented enough of a sewing challenge to make this a very rewarding sew. This dress embodies the spirit of my "Ye Olde Familiar" series because the fabric is the essential element of the dress. So this is one more completed dress off of my sewing list. I'm now moving onto my July project!

A few more pics...

...as always more later!

Meet Peyton ~ Final Thoughts

This was a very interesting journey.  I got three wonderful new work dresses and I've crossed another inspiration/idea off my spring/summer sewing list...so a few final thoughts...


Lining vs. Underlining ~
I underlined two of the three dresses because I've reached that stage in my life where my internal thermometer doesn't work like it use to.  I've noticed that in the summer heat that the rayon bemberg linings stick to me unpleasantly...and I mean STICK to me!  I've also had issues with the linings catching and bunching up around my hips from all the crap I lug in my too big handbags while racing to and from subway, the bus station and home.  I also noticed that the dresses I underlined wore better especially when I used a cotton batiste underlining.  So my choices are totally based upon ease of wear and not some sewing rule or pattern instruction.


Finishings ~
I'm sure that once upon a time my dress pattern came with facing pieces for the neckline and armholes.  I've long since ditched them.  If I don't insert a full lining into the dress, I always use bias binding to finish off the neckline and the armholes...and even when I do insert a full lining, I still add bias binding to the armholes.  I like this application because I like hand stitching the binding into the dress especially when I've underlined the garment.  Especially since I can hide those stitches in the underlining fabric.  This finishing technique has become part of my signature just like the lace that I add to the linings of most my dress and skirt hems.


Knock-offs ~
This is a really simple silhouette to knock off and it will work with most body types.  It can go from casual to dressy based upon your fabric choices...a really great option if you're looking for the one dress to add to your wardrobe.  So I used my TNT pattern to get these dresses and since that pattern is no longer available to help you knock-off my knock-off, I've found the following pattern:

Butterick 5706 is the perfect sheath dress if you want to make your own Peyton dress.  It comes with a scoop and v-neckline...it's sleeveless, or with short sleeves and three-quarter length sleeves.  It's also sized 8-24 and would work for many of the design changes that I make to my TNT pattern.


Wearability Factor ~
Each Peyton was made from a different type of fabric so of course each one wore differently.  To me, the cotton pique and linen versions wore the best.  The silk developed quite a few wrinkles and held them more than the linen did.  However, all three were comfortable to wear without any wardrobe malfunctions.


In conclusion, I'm so glad that I took this journey.  The dresses are so me and this has been a really gratifying sew.  I would also like to thank everyone who left a comment, asked a question, or just stopped and admired the pieces.  The compliments of fellow sewists who understand the passion that drives me to create, is appreciated so much! Lastly, pictures of all the dresses are in my Flickr album.


...as always, more later!






   

Embellished Peyton

My final version of Peyton was the most involved one because I just could not leave it alone.  I picked the black/white cotton pique fabric for the last version...

The first embellishment I planned was the white piping that I put at the neckline and armholes.

Then I realized when the dress was just a shell that it needed something down the front of it.  That's when I dug around and found this black and white ribbon for the front.  Now the ribbon was a little wider than I wanted but I folded and pressed it flat then stitched it down to the front of the dress.

Finally the ribbon tie was added because truthfully my piping at the v-neckline was woefully inadequate.  Don't know what I did but I couldn't stand the thought of removing all of that piping and redoing it.  Camouflaging it just seemed like a better way to go...and this short piece of ribbon was in the stash.  A piece that I found while digging around looking for the original black & white ribbon.

This dress was underlined with white rayon bemberg lining because I've found that cottons slide better with something silky next to them.  A few stats:

Fabric ~

Black & White cotton pique 

Notions ~

22" black invisible zipper

White piping

1" wide Black & White striped ribbon

1/2" wide black & white striped ribbon

Linen bias binding

White rayon seam binding

It was a pretty involved sew and took quite a bit longer than the first two.  It also involves a lot of hand stitching...first on the bias binding that I used at the neckline and the armholes.  Second at the slit in the dress front and finally on the hem.  The best thing about the interlining is that all of the hand stitches were stitched into the interlining and not the fashion fabric.

A few more pics...

Worn with the ivory B6002 jacket

I've cut out the purple ponte cardigan but it will have to wait to be sewn because I've moved onto my version of the Lace Dress.  Since I'm pretty far into the construction process, it will probably be next...or maybe not...the purple cardigan may yet show up...

A parting shot of all three Peyton dresses...

...as always more later!

Peyton One & Two

This is the first of the three dresses that I made from the Peyton collection...and the first in the "Ye Olde Familiar" series.  I easily duplicated this dress from my TNT pattern by making a simple alteration. Instead of cutting the dress front on the fold, I folded down a v-neckline in my pattern and cut out the front with a 5/8" seam allowance.

Some stats ~
Pattern:  
TNT Dress Pattern
Fabric~
Linen floral print from Vogue Fabrics in Evanston purchased here with Cennetta & Patti
Notions ~
22" off white invisible zipper
3 yards of white cotton bias binding
2.5 yards white cotton/poly bastiste
off white rayon seam binding


Construction ~
*The fashion fabric was cut out and then underlined with the cotton batiste lining.
*The front was sewn together
*The invisible zipper was sewn into the back 3x - yes, 3x because I made a huge mistake...

...see even experienced sewists need to use their seam rippers from time to time because I sewed the back neckline to the back hemline!  Probably why I have three of seam rippers around at all times! *LOL*
*The back and fronts were sewn together and pressed flat.
*I added binding to the neckline and armholes because I underlined the dress.

*The binding was topstitched at the neckline and the armholes.
*Rayon seam binding was added to the hemline and hand hemmed.
**The dress was finished.


I leisurely sewed this together one Sunday.  I chose to make this version first because I want to make a purple ponte knit cardigan from Butterick 5760 (inspired by the one Pauline made) to wear with this dress and this dress from last summer.  So look for that soon, well right after I finish the next two Peyton dresses.


A few more pics...

Peyton #2:
This is dress number two of the Peyton Series and is the one that looks most like the inspiration dress. 

Some stats:
Fabric ~
silk tweed from the collection 


Notions ~
22" tan invisible zipper
bemberg rayon lining
tan rayon seam binding
linen bias binding


Construction ~

• The difference between this version and the other two is that this one is lined and not underlined.  
• Which of course means that there's more hand stitching in this version.  
• Otherwise, ditto on all the construction information from the first floral Peyton dress.
• Except that I also added bias binding to the sleeves instead of turning the lining and flipping.
• And I handstitched the lining to the slit at the front.

A few more pics...

These were taken at my job

As I stated before these dresses were a breeze to put together primarily because they are made using my Tried and True (TNT) dress pattern.  So two down and one more to go...

...as always, more later!

Prepping the Fabric for the next one...

Continuing on with the "Ye Olde Familiar" series, the next dress will be made from this lace fabric:

I've wanted a lace dress of my own since they started showing up in the designer collections and in the stores earlier this year.  I even did a post on it called, "Inspiration" and after looking at quite a few lace dresses, I realized that I didn't want a white one or an off-white one.  I desired an antiquey tan one and since the fabric I bought earlier this year isn't really the color I want... I've decided to tea dye it.  Now I've used this process before, on the fabric in this dress...

...and it's a simple yet time consuming process that I posted about here.  I will work on transforming the fabric this weekend, to get it ready to sew next weekend.  While I'm stirring the dye pot, I will continue sewing the last dress and a half of the Peyton series.


These Peyton dresses have been fun to sew since each dress is different due to the fabric selections, as well as, details such as lining or embellishments.  They will make great work dresses...even though I ended up not sewing during the last Thunder/Heat game.  Too busy screaming at the TV set in the fourth period...*sigh*


So you know where I've been today...finishing up the Peyton series...hopefully pictures of me in the finished garments soon!


...as always more later!

A Sneak Peek

So last night I came home to watch the Thunder vs. Heat NBA finals.  I decided to be gracious and watch hoping that the Thunder would pound Miami into the ground since they eliminated my favs...the Boston Celtics!  And as I sat in my sewing room, not only did I cheer (quite loudly I might add!) for the Thunder to roll over Miami, I also decided to start working on the next Peyton dress.


Now I say next because my first version of the Peyton dress is done.  Sewn, pressed, hanging and waiting to be worn...now the second one is halfway done...here's a sneak peek...

There's another Thunder/Miami game tomorrow night.  I'll be in my sewing room praying for the Thunder to Roll and hopefully working on finishing up the second Peyton...it calms me to sew when the basketball action gets hot!  *LOL*


...as always, more later!

Meet Peyton...

I saw these dresses in Talbots June catalog and I knew I wanted a couple of my own so I added these dresses to my summer sewing list.

Yesterday when I received another email advertising these dresses, I decided to move it in front of the Preen knock-off because I'm still not thrilled with the orange fabric for the bottom of the dress.

I've chosen three fabrics for my versions...

 the silk tweed that has been in the collection for years bought 

from the Vogue Fabrics Booth at the Worcester Sewing Expo

a purple floral linen print that was 

part of the recent Vogue Fabrics haul

and a black 'n white polka dot cotton pique from Fabric Mart

I'm using my TNT dress pattern and this is one of the first dress ideas from my "Ye Olde Familiar" series.  As I stated before I have no great desire to try and find a different dress pattern from my pattern collection for these dresses because I want the beauty of the fabric or the technique I use to be the primary focus.  


My desire in sewing for myself is always to be as creative as possible (within the confines of my company's dress code) in silhouettes that are flattering to my body.  To achieve these two goals this season, I'm gonna bore the heck out of you, showing you dress after dress based upon an un-purchaseable pattern.  I've planned seven or eight of these dresses and depending on how much sewing I get done, hopefully most of them will be finished before I start planning my fall sewing.


So I've cut out all three of the fabrics and I'm working through picking out linings (some will be from cotton batiste and some from rayon bemberg).  I'm underlining the fashion fabric pieces so that the dresses will be one piece because lately linings have been making me hotter than normal. Underlining the dresses will give me the finish I want, as well as, add some heft and help with opacity.   


This is where I am now.  I will update as I go along.  I'm looking forward to some production sewing and knocking these three dresses out quickly.


...as always, more later!