Sew Colette - Truffle Parade

8 comments

It's my favorite part of Sew Colette, parade day! I just LOVE looking at the Flickr Group and seeing what you have all been making and how different everything looks with the various fabrics and modifications. Ok, ok, let's look at the pretty dresses!

IMG_3020
I loved Karen's Meringue skirt and I love her Truffle dress! She omitted the ruffle and added a bow to the front. The fit is spot on too.

My Truffle 'Muslin'
Sarah's added details are perfect for her dress! The pearl at the top is so dainty and her zipper is perfect. Do you have any tips on doing a zipper like this, Sarah? I'm in awe!

Truffle Dress
Liz did such a good job on her dress! The ruffle shows up very nicely (I'm jealous) and the dog in the background is awesome. Liz, my dog Frankie likes to be in front of the camera too.

Colette Truffle 1
What's not to love about my BFF Rochelle's dress? The piping, the belt (I am dying to learn how she did it), and the fabric are so perfect together.

There were other dresses that I wanted to post, but I can't hog all of you before Sarah gets her post up! ;) Thank you for sewing along with us!!!

_______________________________________________
Schedule for sewing the Truffle dress designed by Colette Patterns.
March 2nd: The Muslin
March 8th: Perfecting the Fit
March 29th: Truffle Parade

8 comments :

Post a Comment

Final version of the Truffle dress

25 comments

 My final version of the Truffle dress is completed and I couldn't be happier. Wait, I think I'm in love!

It's funny, originally I wasn't too excited about this pattern. That's not to say I didn't like it, I just didn't know that I was going to become obsessed with it. I want to make this dress in every color! I want one without a ruffle, one with piping along the collar, and one in a Hawaiian print. This dress is SO comfortable, fits nicely (I didn't have to make any adjustments!), and it was easy to sew up.

Luke had to run off to band practice and he only took a few pictures, so I took one of myself :)

I wasn't crazy about the waist area because there was a visible line where the prints didn't match up. I solved that by making a purple sash to tie around my waist.

I made sure to "take my time" on this dress because my Grandma said to. She did NOT like my muslin because the zipper wasn't perfect. Even though I took my time, the dress didn't take long to sew up the second time around. I may have converted to someone that is a fan of wearable muslins :)

Tomorrow I will be posting some of my favorite dresses from the Sew Colette Flickr group. Excited!


_______________________________________________
Schedule for sewing the Truffle dress designed by Colette Patterns.
March 2nd: The Muslin
March 8th: Perfecting the Fit
March 28th: My final version of the dress
March 29th: Truffle Parade

25 comments :

Post a Comment

What's up Cupcake?

3 comments
Christine asked if I would be the Featured Friend for March on her blog. Would I?!?! It made my day that she asked me :) If you would like to learn more about me and see photos of some of my projects, as well as my craft space, then check it out. Even if you don't care about what I say, you should still go look at her blog to get inspired by her sewing projects or to get ideas on baking amazing desserts.

And just so this post has a photo:


3 comments :

Post a Comment

It was a Mad Men weekend

22 comments
I wore my Truffle muslin this weekend. I figured that it was appropriate since the fabric is from the 1960s (I think) and it was the premiere of the new season of Mad Men.



Frankie came out to run around while Luke was taking photos of me.


 Kind of a close up. It's still hard to see the flounce, but it's there. After wearing the dress all day on Saturday I decided that I love it. It's comfortable, can be dressed up or down, and doesn't get too wrinkly. This is definitely going to be a summer wardrobe staple, I can't wait to finish my next dress, so I will have two from this pattern.


The next two projects I made over the weekend are not Mad Men related, but I wanted to post about them anyways. I made a little flannel blanket for my dog Frankie, but Stella the cat decided that she liked it.


The blanket was so quick and easy to complete, it took around fifteen minutes. It was fun using a decorative machine stitch for the edges. Those cool stitches don't get used enough.


My friend Shawntel came over on Saturday night and I embroidered this for her. It was my first time embroidering lettering and it was hard! I need to practice more.


My friend Ariana came over on Sunday night to watch Mad Men with me. She supplied the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and I supplied old fashioned drinks. I made them kind of strong, Ari kept joking that we were growing hair on our chest :) The episode was amazing, by the way. I am so happy that I added AMC to our Dish plan. Plus, it comes on at 6:00 because we have satellite!


After watching the episode and looking at the cover of Newsweek Magazine I had a great idea: why not make the Licorice dress (an upcoming dress I am going to sew for Sew Colette) look like Joan's dress? Do you see the similarities or is it just me? Yes, I think I will make my dress look like Joan's, thank you very much :)


 Did any of you watch the episode last night? How hilarious is Sterling? Oh, I downloaded the song Megan sang (Zou Bisou, Bisou) on Itunes today. I'm a dork.

22 comments :

Post a Comment

Truffle muslin is finished, finally!

11 comments
It's hard to see the drape on the front, but it's there!

Last night I finished my muslin for the Truffle dress. It took me a while, but I can't complain because I learned a lot. It was my first time sewing in a lining (I decided that linings are pretty awesome), my first time using a stretchy, light fabric, and my first time sewing in a zipper the wrong way. I'm glad that I messed up the zipper on my muslin because now I won't do it on my nice fabrics!

The top is a little big, so I may need to do a SBA, but other than that everything fits great. Hopefully I will have my final version done by next week. It all depends on how much work the animals will "let" me do this weekend...

11 comments :

Post a Comment

Sew Colette - Sewing the final version of the Truffle dress

1 comment

 If you don't remember, earlier this month I asked if any of you had any tips or tricks on cutting and/or sewing with slippery fabric. There were some good responses, so I thought I would share them as everyone is working on their final versions of the Truffle dress.



To all the ladies above: thank you for taking the time to send me these helpful tips! That's what I love about the online sewing community, everyone is so nice and willing to share sewing knowledge. Be sure to click on their comments to check out their blogs :)

_______________________________________________
Schedule for sewing the Truffle dress designed by Colette Patterns.
March 2nd: The Muslin
March 8th: Perfecting the Fit
March 22nd: Sewing the Final Version
March 29th: Truffle Parade

1 comment :

Post a Comment

Jinx

13 comments

Do you ever jinx yourself when you are sewing? I do all the time! Last night I was working on my muslin for the Truffle dress and I thought to myself, "I can finish this tonight. All I have to do is put in the zipper, sew up the sides, and hem the bottom. Easy." That was when it all went wrong.

I don't think I pressed the zipper open enough with the iron which was the problem. When I was sewing the needle kept going through the actual zipper part (yes, I was using an invisible zipper foot) which is a nightmare when you are trying to zip it up. I pulled the tab so hard that the zipper left a gap between some of the teeth. Luke tried to fix it and pulled the whole tab off. Like I said, "NIGHTMARE." So, I had to take the zipper out and in the end wasted one hour of my time and didn't make any progress.

Have any of you done this before? I'm going to have to be more careful when I'm sewing!

13 comments :

Post a Comment

Little Frankie

13 comments

I wanted to say THANK YOU for all the sweet and helpful comments on my post last week about my new dog Frankie, especially to Rochelle! She went above and beyond and emailed me several times with tips and answered all of my annoying questions :)

Just to update everyone, Frankie is doing great! She is practically potty trained, comes when called for the most part, and understands what "no" means, which is so awesome! She is the sweetest dog and loves to cuddle. I am so lucky to have such a well mannered dog. It has definitely been an adjustment for me and the cats though. She is not mean towards the cats, but doesn't understand why they don't want to play with her and chase her around. It has been hard because she gets jealous when I am petting them, she pushes them aside and hops in my lap, which is something we need to work on.

P.S. Veronica pointed out that our dogs are twinnies. Isn't Doris Day so cute???

13 comments :

Post a Comment

Sew Colette - Choosing the right fabric for the Truffle dress

6 comments

We all know the importance of choosing the right fabric to go along with a pattern. For the Truffle dress there are two different fabrics to take into consideration: the outside, or "shell" fabric, and the inside lining fabric. Personally, I have never sewn in a lining, so this was all new to me and gave me something to think about.

I knew which fabric I wanted to use (I bought it at Mood last year), so I brought it with me to the fabric store to figure out what to use for the lining. I wanted the perfect combination, so I held my fabric up to others to see how they felt together. Sarai made it very clear that the lining fabric was there to provide structure, so I ended up choosing this black cotton that felt nice paired with my soft drapey fabric.

My wrinkly fabric. Sorry I didn't iron it for the picture.

In the past few projects I did not make a wearable muslin and had only cut and sewn the minimum number of pieces necessary to figure out what size to go by. This time I decided to make a wearable muslin, but because I needed to use fabric that would be similar to the final fabric my options were limited at the store I went to. I got the same lining fabric as above, but in white, to go with my "groovy" fabric. Lavender named my fabric :)


Have you picked out your fabrics yet? What did you choose? 
_______________________________________________
Schedule for sewing the Truffle dress designed by Colette Patterns.
March 2nd: The Muslin
March 8th: Perfecting the Fit
March 15th: Choosing the Right Fabric
March 22nd: Sewing the Final Version
March 29th: Truffle Parade

6 comments :

Post a Comment

Puppy!

30 comments
Sorry for being MIA the last few days, but I have an excuse: Luke and I adopted a puppy from Woods Humane Society! We had our hearts set on adopting a boy, so we could name it "Frank," but when we saw this sweet little girl we changed our minds and named her "Frankie."


 Frankie is a Jack Russell Chihuahua mix. She weighs a little under ten pounds, is a little over seven months old, loves to cuddle, and likes going on walks. She is a little skittish towards men, but it's only been a day and I think she will come around. When we adopted our cat Lebron from the shelter he was scared of everything and everyone, but now he is the most loving cat. Hopefully, this will happen with Frankie too.


On Sunday I spent the day sewing this dog bed for Frankie. Lebron immediately sat down on it to test it out, so I took a photo :) The fabric is a quilting cotton with an awesome retro circus look to it. The whole project looks easy, but it still took a while! Well, the piping and stuffing were the most time consuming part, but I will go into details in a later post.


Frankie LOVES her toys, especially her Gumby one, I had to get her that. You probably don't know, but Gumby was my first boyfriend.

Me and Gumby circa 1986(?) in Santa Monica, California.

So, dog owners: do you have any tips for me? I have never had an indoor dog before and I know house training can be a lot of work... Luckily, Frankie has been such a good dog so far (knock on wood), but I can use all the advice I can get!


30 comments :

Post a Comment

Mad Men

17 comments
You guys. This is how gross I am  ready I am for the new season of Mad Men. I went to AMC's website and saw that there was an option to Mad Men Yourself. So I did.

Just chillin with Don Draper.


I am officially a huge creeper with too much time on my hands!!! Oh, there is also a party guide that gives you tips on throwing your own Mad Men themed party. It gives suggestions for music, drinks, decorating, invitations, and more. Should I throw a party????

17 comments :

Post a Comment

Truffle dress - perfecting the fit

4 comments



The majority of people, like myself, need to make alterations to patterns in order to get a good fit. This is the third pattern that we have sewn for Sew Colette and Sarah is amazing and has went over a lot fitting techniques for the Meringue and Pastille that have been helpful to many people. Below I have made a list of them:


Thank you, Sarah! If you have any specific questions for Sarah, me, or the ladies in the Sew Colette flickr group then please ask away.
_______________________________________________
Schedule for sewing the Truffle dress designed by Colette Patterns.
March 2nd: The Muslin
March 8th: Perfecting the Fit
March 15th: Choosing the Right Fabric
March 22nd: Sewing the Final Version
March 29th: Truffle Parade

4 comments :

Post a Comment

Weekend adventures and sewing treasures

16 comments
I had a wonderful wonderful weekend! On Friday night I decided that I wanted a new shirt to wear the next day, so I made one. Knowing how to sew is definitely a perk for those new clothing impulses :)


I made my second Sorbetto and once again added sleeves. The fabric is a quilting cotton with a print that I adore. The Sorbetto is such an easy pattern to sew up, so I bought some pretty purple fabric to make another one, but without sleeves this time. Pretty soon I will have a closet full of them!



Can you tell that I love leopard print stuff? When my friend Pari and I went fabric shopping on Saturday I bought this fun knit for a shirt. I've never sewn with knit, so wish me luck!



When I come home after shopping my husband Luke always jokingly asks me, "did you buy me any presents?" This time I had something! This huge panel of canvas will be perfect to hang in our garage.



In my past few projects I have made muslins just to test the fit of the most important pieces and have not made a wearable muslin. For the Truffle dress I decided to change it up with my muslin and completely make the garment from the fabric above. It is a wild print, but it is most similar to the fabric I am going to use when it comes to feel. When I wear it I will look like I have time traveled to the 1960s! haha



To celebrate the eighty degree weather yesterday Luke and I went with some friends to Avila Beach and had a blast. The weather was definitely warm, but the water was the opposite. I got in, but even after five minutes it was so cold that it hurt! Yesterday was so much fun, I can't wait for summer!



Last night I worked on the crib sized quilt top. The top will be completely finished once I add a border. I keep going back and forth with this quilt. Should I give it to Luke's little sister or to my goddaughter? Little Dailey (goddaughter) has already gotten a blanket from me and Ariana (sister in law) has not gotten one and she LOVES the one I made for her mom. The size might make it more appropriate for a baby, but Ariana loves the color pink. I need to think on this.

16 comments :

Post a Comment

Sew Colette - The Truffle Dress

7 comments

It's chapter three of the sew-along and it's time to get started on the Truffle dress from the Colette Sewing Handbook. Right now we are going to jump right in with the muslin, but if you need a refresher on taking your measurements or cutting out your patterns, then please check out the links for either. And if you have any questions please let Sarah or I know, don't be shy to ask! Or you can always ask the ladies in the Sew Colette Flickr Group.


For this dress both Sarah and I are going to be using slippery fabric and I wanted to ask all of you a question: do you have any tips or tricks on cutting and/or sewing with slippery fabrics? In the future I want to post your ideas into a helpful list for anyone that needs it. So, what works for you? What doesn't work?
_____________________________________________________
Schedule for sewing the Truffle dress designed by Colette Patterns.
March 2nd: The Muslin
March 8th: Perfecting the Fit
March 15th: Choosing the Right Fabric
March 22nd: Sewing the Final Version
March 29th: Truffle Parade

7 comments :

Post a Comment

Sew Colette - Pastille Parade!

10 comments

It's the Pastille Parade Day! Below I have posted photos of some of the talented ladies from the Sew Colette Flickr group.


Pastille 2
Karissa Jo from KittyKittyCrafts looks amazing! The color is so pretty and those pleats turned out perfectly. The background behind her is cool too!

My Pastille Dress
I've featured Rochelle from Lucky Lucille twice now, but I can't help it! I love everything she makes... and secretly want to become her BFF! :) Don't you love the changes she made to the dress? My favorite part is how she made a collar from the facings.


The 'Pastel Pastille' Dress
Christine from What's up Cupcake? is another person that made some awesome modifications to the original dress pattern. She added some lace to the bottom pleats that peak out just a bit. You will have to check out her blog for the closeup photo. Check out her blog anyway, she posts some amazing sounding recipes!


Pastille in progress
I know that it's not quite finished, but I wanted to feature Symon's dress. This is the first fitted dress she has made and so far it looks really good!

Polka-Dot Pastille
Rachel used such a cute fabric for a perfect spring dress. Couldn't you imagine yourself wearing this on a sunny day of wine tasting? I know that I could.

Thank you to all of you who participated in this chapter of the sew along! Are you having fun? I know I am, I'm just so happy to have made a couple of garments and it's still the beginning of the year. Thank you all for motivating me to stay on track :)

Next up, the Truffle dress!
_____________________________________________________
Schedule for sewing the Pastille dress designed by Colette Patterns.
February 2nd: Sewing the muslin - using washers
February 6th-11th: Fitting techniques and making a croquis.
February 16th: Choosing fabric
March 1st: Some of my favorite dresses from the Sew Colette Flickr group

10 comments :

Post a Comment