McCalls 6696, kind of

I was so anxious to finish my altered shirtdress that I pawed through my mom's button stash last night (I'm visiting her, obviously) and found 9 silver shank buttons that fit my buttonholes. 

So, here is my kind-of-shirtdress, made from Sawyer Brook's beautiful Vieux Carre and McCalls 6696.

 I admit I removed most of the shirtdress details - most obviously the collar, but I think this makes for a more casual summer dress.  I wore it out to the grocery store and lunch today and didn't feel too fancy or retro.  I even got a few compliments!

 I kept the yoke and gathers in the back, which gives it a little bit of shirtdress feel and makes it so airy and comfortable to wear for summer.

 I didn't use the skirt pattern pieces at all since I simply didn't have enough fabric for the full-skirt option.  What I did do is cut my whole piece of fabric (2 yards, I think) to length for the skirt and then cut out my bodice pieces from the remaining white portion.  The skirt is all one piece, buttonband to buttonband.  I just did some simple math to figure how many and how big pleats to make to attatch it to the waistband.

I explained how I did the hem here.

I am really enjoying wearing my new dress today.  I think I have been successful in my attempt to make an everyday dress that is comfortable and cool for summer!

Macaron Progress

A few pics pics of my Colette Patterns Macaron progress.

 Why is it that this looked nicely pressed on the ironing board and it looks a hot mess here?

 The fit of this seems to be great.  Check out these little neck darts on the back. 

I also really like the side zip feature to leave no center back seam.

Slow sewing progress

I'm coming along on my little shirtdress I mentioned here.  Actually, it is complete except for the buttons, which are winging (or rolling, more likely) their way here from Sawyer Brook at the moment.  I already made my buttonholes, so I hope I don't regret that... like if the buttons are a millimeter larger than advertised.

 Here is a shot at the hem.  The fabric has a border print that looks like embroidery.  I stitched over the scallop-edged print with a narrow zigzag and trimmed the fabric for a scallop hem.  The white you see in the photo is the bottom of the button band.

 Since I am just waiting for buttons, I also started my next project, Colette Patterns' Macaron.  I've admired this pattern for awhile but always passed, thinking "it's not really my style."  You know what?  I just like it, so apparently it IS my style.  :-)  I love the example photo so much, I'm basically replicating it with my fabrics.  Here are all the bodice pieces with the darts pinned and ready to sew.

Shopping ban!

Whoops, I dropped off the Me Made May posting bandwagon there.  I'm proud that I did commit through the whole month though, wearing something me-made every day.

While going through the motions last month, it occurred to me that I have a LOT of me-made stuff that is very serviceable.  Why do I still reach a lot for my store-bought things?  It's not that I don't like the things I've made.  I think it's just that I have so much purchased clothing!  I've bought way more than I needed in years past, and I still buy when I don't need to even though I've gotten much better. 

From this realization, I decided I'm going to have a clothes shopping ban for the next year.  Shoes are ok (hehe) and socks and undergarments, but other than that, I can't forsee a need.  The only thing I can't really make are fine-gauge sweaters, and I think I have plenty of those to get me through the year.  Of course, I can sew and knit to my heart's content, and I'm not putting any explicit limits on fabric or yarn purchases, though it's always better to shop the shrinking stash. 

Time to go get sewing.

Shirt dress begun

Here are some crummy nighttime pics of my current project, a white shirt dress. The interest will come from the skirt portion, made from a pretty black and white border print. The pattern is McCalls 6696. I have just altered the neckline to a scoop instead of a collared shirt look.