Sunflower dress w/t puff sleeves: simplicity 1873

I start to give names to the dresses I sew. I named this Simplicity  1873 Dress, "Sunflower" because it's yellow and reminds me of sunny days.

This is the first Cynthia Rowley pattern I made. I love her style and have bought most of her patterns. I made View A of the pattern with puff sleeves.

I read the reviews and people are saying the neckline is a bit too high for View A. I think it's perfect to add a Peter Pan collar but I did lower the centre of the front neckline by half inch. I love the Peter Pan collar, it’s so cute. I must thank mixtlii on Burda Style for the tutorial on drafting a peter pan collar. I am very happy I found this red/pink/white check fabric from the quilting section as a contrast to the yellow dress.

The puff sleeves are another feature, they are as cute as the collar. Sewing the pleats took a bit of time but it's well worth it. It's also my first time to sew sleeves. It turned out to be much easier than I thought. I highly recommend this video from Threads on YouTube, it's the best tutorial on sewing sleeves.

The pleats on the skirt are also worth mentioning. There are two separate side front panels which are cut at an angle off the grain line which make it flare out nicely at the sides.

The fabric I used is Cotton Gingham. I cut size 8 above bust and grade to size 12 around the waist. I also made a SBA. I feel the dress is a bit too tight. I think when I make it again next time, I will cut size 10 with SBA.

Feel free to leave any comments. Also I am making Vogue 1351. Stay tuned.

Halter neck dress based on Simplicity 1876 by Leanne Marshall

It’s a lovely sun-kissed day and we took the chance to discover Dromana Beach and Arthurs Seat .

I spent time on Friday night to finish off this Halter Neck Dress so that I could show it off today. And here is it: my little dress and the beach.

I am a fan of Project Runway and Leanne Marshall. I have been planning on this Simplicity 1876 pattern for a while. The fabric I used is polyester satin and bemsilk lining.

I have always been intimidated by wearing strapless dresses, thinking it would fall off anytime. Now I learn if the dress is a good fit and properly made, it can be as comfortable as a normal dress. So fitting is paramount for this pattern. I did a test muslin for the fitted bodice, lots of fitting and re-drafting the pattern. 

I also have a quick tip on baste stitching the bodice pieces – stitch them in a continuous stitch. It saves your time cutting the thread and pulling threads to feed the new piece.

It’s my first time to sew boning. After a bit of research, I found it’s quite straight forward. Instead of inserting the boning into the casing, I sewed it in between the layers because it was too wide for the casing. I used sew-in interfacing instead of fusible.

Thanks to divabuddha’sreview, I used four side pleats on each side instead of gathering. I also lined the skirt and the vent. Lining the vent is a challenge and since it was the last step I had already lost patience. I admit the hem and the vent are not perfect. 

The jellyfish is a surprise discover for us today and we seemed to have fun with it.

Floral satin retro blouse: Simplicity 1590

This is an overdue review on Simplicity pattern 1590 view A. I finished it a week ago. This is my second attempt on this pattern after the view B. The result is amazing.

View A has a scoop neckline. I used floral satin this time and it gives a very different look compared to my last version (view B). It is shiny on the right side and a cotton flannel on the wrong side. 

Here are some construction tips and pointers:

1.       I cut size 8 above the waistline and size 10 below. My fabric is 150cm width. It turns out I only need 1 metre fabric instead of 1.20 m as per the pattern envelope. Here is my pattern layout:

2.       Also shown is the above photo, I shortened the back of the peplum just like my last version.

3.       Use a French seam on the two front side seams which join the peplum and the front. Firstly, with WRONG side together, stitch a ¼ " seam allowance at where the peplum joins the blouse. Trim seam allowance and press seam open. To sew the darts, with RIGHT sides together, stitch another ¼” seam from the edge to the dot, then stitch on the dart lines. It encloses the raw edges inside the darts and makes it so much neater.  

4.       Choose the right buttons. I am lucky enough to find a bag of buttons in a op shop for $4. A few of them match well with my fabric.

Feel free to leave a comment :)

Coming up is my review on Leanne Marshall’s Halter Neck Dress! Thanks for stopping by. 

The Sun is finally out!