nest full of eggs

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The 2-in-1 Party Dress

{Part of this post was first posted on the Project Run and Play blog last week, I'm reposting it here in case you missed, plus I'm adding some more details...}

This was one of my ideas of remixing The Party Dress, a free pattern and tutorial by The Cottage Home. I'm a huge fan of this silhouette! One of my absolute favorite things to sew is a party dress (special occasion, holiday wear, church/Sunday School, flower girl type...) like the: Jingle Bell Dress, Bow Dress, Purple Rose Party Dress, The Little Blue Dress, Purpledicular Dress, Gabriella Dress Knock-Off, Red Christmas Fairy Tale Dress. Party dresses are a super fun way of expressing your creativity. Think of it as a cake and you get to decorate it any way you want to.

Some of the changes I made to The Party Dress pattern/tutorial were... instead of having the button closure in the back, I installed an invisible zipper and added a hook and eye closure. I sewed French seams for the side seams of the skirt and used liquid seam sealant on the skirt back seam. I went monochromic. And I created a narrower sash, downsizing it to the width of the beaded trim that I found.

I sewed a regular dress in size 4, then also a sheer silk overlay in size 5, making a second look possible, adding versatility to my little girl's wardrobe. By creating a sheer silk overlay The Party Dress becomes The 2-in-1 Party Dress. The silk sash with beaded trim can tie around either version of the dress.

There were a couple of little details that I added to the sheer silk overlay. Since the tutorial calls for a construction where you need to topstitch around the armholes, I decided to make the finished edges prettier since this is sheer fabric and that means all the seams show, so with machine embroidery I added embroidered topstitching around the armholes and decided to continue this same idea around the neckline as well.

What looks like large polka dots on the skirt band are actually fabric flower petals which I found at the local craft store in the cake decorating section.

I simply tucked in these fabric flower petals into the skirt band as I was sewing along.

So I actually made the skirt band an encased hem (like a bias bound hem ~ just think of the skirt band as really wide bias tape) and did the topstitching on the skirt band part. I ended up making the skirt band 7 inches wide instead of 5 inches in order for the flower petals to fit.

I added thread belt loops to both the dress and the sheer overlay by using this vintage belt loops tutorial.

I also made a cardigan sweater to with it... I bought this white cashmere sweater at a church bazaar...

intended for me to wear...

but later discovered this hole in it...

so I downsized it to my daughter's size, finishing off the bottom and sleeve hems with this lovely Liberty of London bias tape that a friend sent me...

then I removed the yellow buttons and replaced them with white buttons.

See you here tomorrow when I'll be blogging about stripes and polka dots...

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Project Run and Play Guest Post

Today I am visiting the Project Run and Play blog, sharing one of my ideas on how to remix The Party Dress, a free pattern and tutorial by The Cottage Home. Click right here to check out my guest post.

Thanks so much for joining me at nest full of eggs this week !

Monday, January 7, 2013

The Party Dress Remix

Season 6 of Project Run and Play is here and for week 1 the challenge is to remix The Party Dress (size 18-month through size 5), a free pattern and tutorial by The Cottage Home. Looking for inspiration? Well, I did a bit of research and have a ton of ideas (many with links) to share with you...

This is a perfect pattern to play around with and have fun with...

color blocking
sew together your own fabric (with piecing) then cut out the dress pattern pieces out of your new fabric
change the front neckline to a square neckline
make the back a v-neck back
instead of a gathered skirt make it an a-line skirt, circle skirt, lengthen the skirt to floor length
turn it into a princess dress
turn it into a costume/dress-up dress
add a collar and sleeves
sew the bodice section using sequin fabric
thick stripes
move the skirt band up and add bows around it
3 layer bubble skirt in ombre
change the front bodice to be a faux wrap style and have a big bow tied in the front instead of the back

details and nice finishing touches:

add pleats on the bottom of the skirt
put in pleats instead of gathering the skirt
embellish with anything (ribbon, beads, trims, rickrack, lace, pompom trim, etc)
add piping along the neckline and arm holes
find some super wide ribbon to use in place of the pattern's original skirt band and attach it to the bottom of the skirt like a French seam as done in the Lazy Days Skirt (free tutorial by Oliver + S)

fabric ideas... how it looks with:

Who says it has to be a party dress? To make it into more of an everyday clothing item raise the waistline, eliminate the waist detail, and turn it into a jumper type dress like:

There are so many other ways to remix it of course...

I'm excited to see how you remix it and can't wait to show you what I ended up creating… Happy Monday, see you tomorrow.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Red Christmas Fairy Tale Dress

My daughter's Christmas dress got done just hours before it was worn, thankfully my son's Christmas outfit was completed in mid-October (you can find the Patchwork Blazer tutorial here). This was not the Christmas dress I originally had planned back here, that dress will have to wait for a future project.

THE PATTERN// Oliver + S Fairy Tale Dress, size 5, view A: a fitted dress, fully-lined, special-occasion dress with crinoline, a Peter Pan collar, tulip cap sleeves, tubular waistband, and front bow detail. It is given a 3 out of 4 scissors rating.

THE FABRIC// Deep red/maroon/bordeaux taffeta, although it looks almost purple in some photos, it doesn't look purple in real life. Deep red tulle for the crinoline and deep red cotton for the lining.

THE SEWING// I followed the pattern and instructions very faithfully. The only change was that I used a 9" invisible zipper instead of a 16" one (as I had bought all the materials months ago thinking I was going to sew a different dress), so the dress is a little tight to put on and take off. This is my 3rd time using this pattern. I first used the bodice for the Purpledicular Dress, then used the whole pattern view A for the Gabriella Dress Knock-Off, and now sewing it for the 3rd time I really think it should be given a 3.5 or 3.75 out of 4 scissors rating as all of those wonderful details are super duper time consuming. I'm not a huge fan of sewing collars, this one is OK. I'm also not a huge fan of sewing in those dreaded set-in sleeves, but these tulips cap sleeves are a dream to sew and the end result is absolutely lovely! This is the 2nd time I've sewn this dress with the sleeves and I think I need to adjust the bodice front where it attaches to the sleeves because she is so narrow in the shoulders.

FYI, the curls in her hair were achieved by using Curlformers, one of her Christmas gifts.

It had been way too long since I sewed something specifically for Christmas... way back in 2009 it was a green polka dot peasant dress with red & white striped knitted accessories.

The calendar is turning 2.0.1.3

May it be a year filled with fun sewing :)

Monday, December 17, 2012

Scandinavian Christmas 2012 Guest Post

Today I am visiting Kathryn at the Pickled Herring for her Scandinavian Christmas 2012 series. Half of my ancestry is Swedish and I am sharing one of my ideas on how to have a more Scandinavian Christmas with a Glogg tote gift bag. Be sure to check out all the posts during the series.

Merry Scandinavian Christmas!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Nordic Christmas 2012

From November through mid-January the American Swedish Institute (in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is decorated for a Nordic Christmas. They have a separate room for each of the 5 Scandinavian countries: Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. This is how they decorated for Christmas 2012... if you are not able to make it in person, enjoy this photo tour...