Tamara's Mini Winter Wardrobe -Part 2

Two more pieces are finished and I'll send off the four pieces to Tamara early in the week. The hounds tooth check spring coat will not be ready for another couple of weeks so I don't want to wait till then to send the other pieces.I want DD to be able to wear them now.

The white blouse ( S2501 ), was changed quite a bit. The tie became longer and the sleeves were made narrower with a wider cuff..(I just cut them from another shirt pattern.)I used the body of View A and the collar of View D.[This is one of Simplicity's patterns which have separate pieces for B,C,& D cups so I want to make one for myself].

The fabric is a white pincord cotton shirting which I really love but it's been in my stash for quite some time so my loss is Tamara's gain.As usual with natural fibers,this fabric was a joy to sew.It looks great on Antoinette and I'm sure will look great on DD.And I think it complements the plaid bias skirt quite well too.








Has anyone else out there made this dress S2473?,It's a great pattern!I think it's very Audrey Hepburn don't you?

This should be a nice addition to a work wardrobe for a young woman. I had originally intended to pair this dress with a Chanel-type jacket out of the black and white houndstooth check , but DD asked if I'd mind making her a coat instead. Well, I can't say no to any of my children, so of course I agreed. But then, the sleeveless dress didn't make as much sense anymore. I didn't have enough of this wool flannel to add sleeves so I got the idea that Tamara could wear it as a jumper with the white blouse or a black turtle neck sweater or a black cardigan,even.Hopefully she'll see it that way too.

The fabric again is wool flannel and of course was great to sew . I made the sleeveless and straight skirt variation. The only changes I made was to lower the neckline to accomodate the tie on the blouse.This photo shows how I lowered it.





And I lined the dress although the pattern didn't call for it but a piece like this must be lined.Since I didn't have any red lining on hand and had promised DD I'd use my stash as much as possible,I lined it in charcoal grey Bemberg but made fabric facings to make sure the lining wouldn't peak out. This is how I worked it out.

I sewed the lining and dress together with wrong sides facing each other.



Then I sewed the facings to the outside of the dress in the regular way.



I clean-finished the facings by sewing fusible interfacing to the right sides and turning them to the wrong side and pressing and fusing the two.





That might be too much information so I'll stop there except to say that I hand stitched the edges of the facings to the lining .I put a tutorial on understitching the facings and why it's important to do so here for sewers who are beginners.

This is what the inside of the dress looks like.


I attached the lining to the kick pleat and at each seam and not all around the hem of the dress.I had used a pretty lace hem binding and didn't want to hide it.



I had wanted to do hand picking for the top stitching but it would have taken too long and I have sore thumbs so instead ,I used this decorative stitch in regular black thread and I like the results.





So here it is and I truly hope it fits.



More pics here.

Happy Sewing from Diana