Sisters' Dresses All Finished

Well, It took me just under two months,but I've made six dresses for my threee sisters. I forgot to take pictures of one dress but Here are the other five.

                                                   New Look 6000, View B, blogged here

                                                 McCall's 600, View A  blogged here.here

                   Silhouette Patterns, The Swing Dress ( modified quite a bit) ,blogged here.here

                                      Silhouette Patterns , the Swing Dress, not blogged.

                   And Silhouette Patterns, Georgio's Top, lengthened to a dress length, just finished.

My sisters are all happy with their dresses and I  struggled a bit with the fit on some of them, but all in all, it was good experience. I wouldn't take on so many another time. I've promised one sister, Gloria a denim pant suit. Her shape is very much like mine except she's taller, so I don't foresee a lot of fitting problems , but please wish me luck.

I want to say a bit about the last dress I made for my sister, Helena.I was able to make this one without any changes at all to the pattern except to lower the neckline a bit and add a little to the length of the cap sleeves. Giorgio's Top is an amazing pattern and is very flattering on. I made this one for myself last summer and It feels wonderful and makes a great dress to go dancing in. I love it and so does Helena.

I was very happy to start something for me this week. I'm working on a Marci Tilton jacket , V8620., and it's so cute!!  I'm having such fun with it!!

I hope you found time to sew this week.

More later from,

My Last Summer Garment...Vogue 1313

The dresses I'm making for my sisters have been a work in progress. I now have five completed. I forgot to take pictures of # 5 before it went home with Pauline but hope to get a pic of it somehow.Of course, I've managed to sew a thing or two for myself this summer but since I have too many clothes, sewing for others has been a good thing.

I've been working on Vogue 1313 for a while now.

At first glance this Anne Klein dress is a very simple design but take a look at the line drawing and you'll soon change your mind. Just look at all those pieces!

Here's my dress.

My fabrics are both ponte in Poly/Rayon/lycra blend. I made a size 12 and didn't need to add any extra to the side seams.I'm wearing the dress and it's actually a little too big. I have lost 8 pounds in the last few months so that may be why  so judge accordingly if you are planning on making this dress. I sometimes have to add to the side seams on a size 12.

I wanted to incorporate a striped chevron effect to the front panels. In order to do this, I had to cut the bottom piece down the middle and add seam allowances.What I should have done was to join the upper part to the bottom and cut them out together to avoid that seam where I had no end of trouble
matching the stripes and it shows.

Here are the changes I made to this pattern.

I changed the French dart to a regular bust dart to lessen the distortion of the stripes.  To see how to do this, look here on Diana's Sewing Lessons.

Originally, I added the pockets but they were not attractive . They showed up as a bump and didn't stay closed so I took them out. I also left out the quilting you are suppose to do to the outer shoulder pieces. I just couldn't see the point of that.

I added 2 1/2 " to the length of the dress. I'm 5'4" tall so you can see that this is a short dress.

 I also raised the armholes 3/4" otherwise they would have been too low.

I foolishly decided to use the chevron pattern on the upper back yoke . Enough said I think!

All in all, my Anne Klein dress is a success if I don't point out the flawed seam across my lower front.
It is quite loose and very comfortable and I think quite slimming. It has a retro look and  I recommend the pattern.

My husband decided we needed to take pics outside this morning ,so here are a couple but I think the indoor one shows it best.

I resisted the urge to peg the bottom because that just wasn't the style of this design, but!!!

                                                    See what I mean about the back yoke?

My sweet little Riley was here for over a week and I enjoyed every day with her. I call her my Little Pixie because she is so slight. I've had a bit of a heartache since I took her and her daddy to the airport this past Tuesday!

I do hope you've found time to sew this week!

More later from