SewBaby News

    Hello everyone. This linen dress is the first thing that I made after my husband passed away 2 months ago.  At first, it was a real struggle- I kept putting things together the wrong way and having to rip it out and do it over again.  I probably shouldn't have chosen an asymmetrical design with fabric that looks the same on both sides for my first project!  But as I finished, I felt a real sense of accomplishment!  I have to say that creating something unique and special was just what I needed to feel a little like myself again.  I used three coordinating pieces of linen- a deep coffee colored brown, a milky cream, and an abstract print with whipped cream, cloves, and cinnamon it- thus, my cafe au lait dress!    Linen is so wonderful to work with.  You do need to accept that wrinkles will be part of the look though, which I am fine with.  For the pattern, I used Vogue 1694 which is a Marcy Tilton design and the ...

It's almost the 4th of July! Even though there will be no fireworks this year where we live due to Covid 19, I still made a dress that would be something that I would wear on a typical 4th of July.  This is a shirtdress using McCalls 7351 for my pattern and  stretch poplin with a border that reminds me of a string of firecrackers! I used View C hem, and View D sleeves to get this combination. This is what the fabric looked like before I cut into it.  It had a solid red border on both sides, and a slight stretch.  I was perplexed as to how to use the solid red in such a way that it would accent the main fabric,  and decided to have one solid band down the front, at the sleeve hems, and the other solid band on the sides of the handkerchief hems. This meant turning the grain of the skirt pieces horizontally.  Here it is on my dress form in progress.  I would have loved to have made the collar in the solid red too, but just didn't have enough...

I have a treat for you today- I've found a pattern that I really, really love, and it is EASY!!  I mean, you cannot go wrong with this one, it is just that good- no fitting prowess required, about as easy to sew as you could ask for, and amazingly, it works as a dress, just as well as a top.  And I can prove it because I made it three times, with wildly different fabrics, and I think (IMHO) that they all look pretty darn good! The pattern is McCalls 7979.  It is a Palmer Pletsch design. I recently found this purple floral cotton interlock remnant at a thrift shop, and just had about 1 yard of it.  It was so, so nice!  But 1 yard isn't enough for a sleeved top in my size, so I decided to mix it up with another fabric.  I had a black sweater knit that I thought would be a nice contrast for it.   I added the kangaroo pocket- that wasn't part of the pattern, although it's certainly not hard to draft your own.  You could also insert side...

I've been a Burda magazine subscriber for over a dozen years now.  If you're not familiar with Burda, it's a sewing pattern magazine published in Germany.  Sometimes their designs seem a little wacky at first (and I'm the queen of wearing wacky things, so I can say that).  But, after a few years they start to grow on you, and before you know it, you wonder why you waited so long to make some of them!  That's the case with this dress from the May 2012 issue of Burda magazine, design #107.  It was so memorable, that it was always in the back of my mind for when I found the right fabric. Here is their version: And here is mine:  I used two colors of 100% linen from Fabric Mart.   I didn't originally intend to mix them, but when I got my package, I thought that the colors looked really good together!  This was a technically challenging dress because I had to do a full bust adjustment, which with that wacky front was a r...

It's the last day of September, but we're supposed to reach record breaking temps for the next 3 days.  And we're not alone, I heard that up to 50 cities are supposed to break records today.  Then the bottom drops out and our temps will drop 30 degrees.  So, I'm going to enjoy wearing some sleeveless dresses while I can. This is made from Butterick 6050.  I made it from an interesting cotton/lycra jersey with the print on the diagonal. I wanted a pattern that wouldn't have many seams to match that diagonal print.  While the front is rather basic, turn around, and the back is pretty cool with an open area and a twist!  Yes, the twist is supposed to be there.  When taking the photograph, my husband said- I think there's something wrong back there- it's twisted.  LOL!  That's the point!

It's summertime here in Illinois!  Even though I love to be outside and spend time in my garden, I also am quite concerned about preventing sun damage to my skin and covering up as much as is reasonably comfortable.  For that reason, I decided to make some shirtdresses that would be lightweight, breezy, yet, tightly woven fabric that would offer some degree of SPF protection, and cover at least my upper arms and shoulders.  I've heard that the most important thing for sun protective fabric is tightness of the weave.  RIT makes a wash-in sun protective powder that is supposed to last for up to 20 washes, but I haven't tried it yet.  I don't care for sunscreen- it tends to make me sweat and feel greasy, so I've been favoring blocking the rays more mechanically with hats and clothing.   In the photo on the left, it looks like I'm wearing a camisole- I'm not, that's just the line where the sun protection from my hat ends-guess I need to button...

Happy Fall!  Wine and Chocolate- two of my favorite things that go together so well! It's no wonder that I would be drawn to them as colors in my wardrobe too.  In my last post from August, I had shown you my sewing plans gathering fabrics in browns and reds for making some clothes for September and October.  I actually completed everything over the Labor Day weekend, but September has been too darn hot to even contemplate taking pictures of everything!  Finally, we've got some beautiful cool weather, so now I can show you!  This dress is a rayon lycra knit, and I used New Look 6525 for the basic pattern, but just 3/4 length sleeves. I really like the variations in this pattern, and I can see it  becoming a TNT (Tried and True) style for me.  One thing that I changed was to add a knit neckband.  The pattern instructions want you to use bias tape, which is never going to look as good on a knit fabric as a neckband will. I also ad...