Weekend Sewing

I had a great sewing weekend, although sewing clothing takes a bit longer than making bags or other smaller items, so I get a bit less done these days. I also spend a lot of time deciding on fabrics and patterns. For a while now I have wanted to make an overdress. Since we are in the grip in winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, it always looks great over a polo neck jersey or just a stretch knit top. In a recent post I showed a picture from Sew Simple # 11 where they made a similar dress with stretch knit fabric. That was the original plan and I had the fabric ready and washed ( I also had my fabric ready for my purple chiffon skirt with it's own slip; a denim skirt and a few other items!) but as always, I go with what I feel most like sewing.

I recently bought this lovely, soft, pink and maroon tweed fabric with exactly this kind of dress (we call it a pinafore) in mind. This fabric just spoke to me...

I did not have a pattern for this dress and was not keen to buy one. So I spent most of Saturday organizing my patterns and deciding which one I can adjust to make this dress. Eventually on Sunday I remembered the "Summer Dress" in Sew Hip! No 6. It was ideal! So I traced the pattern and cut out the fabric with a few adjustments. The dress was huge! I had to cut off some of the volume on the sides and I cut facing for the neck, inserted a longer zip at the back and cut the neckline a bit deeper.

This is a close-up of this fabulous fabric. Also of the pockets I sewed on. I could not decide on the colour bias binding I wanted for the pockets and armholes. Eventually I decided on this pink that matched the pink stripes in the dress fabric perfectly. I planned to use my new serger for more professional finishing of the hems, but I got stuck with the threading of the machine! I will have to take it in to the local Singer Shop this week and ask for help.

Back view of the finished dress with the pink zipper just showing. I love this method of sewing zips. I saw it on a blog recently and it takes all the hassle out of zips. You just mark the end of the zipper on your fabric, sew the back hem closed, but use larger sticthes where the zip will be. Then you sew the closed zip on the wrong side and take the stitches out. How easy is that?

I really like this dress and want to make another one from some brown/creme tweed fabric I found on Saturday. I will however make a few changes to the pattern again. The dress was very big, so I will trim down the size. I also need to do something about the neckline, which on the above dress is a bit too wide for my shoulders.

I am currently very keen to make a bag again. I love this pink tweed fabric so I might make a matching bag for this dress. I have also bought so many purse frames, so I really need to make a few. And of course I still have some home decoration to finish off. Time! Wish I had more of it!