A New Dress, Marci Tilton's V8817

That's right. I said V8817 and it seemed like a good idea at the time! I made a great fitting top that I love and reasoned it would make an equally great dress but  I'm not so sure about this one.

Here is the top

and now the dress

I finished the neckline with a narrow band

I added another narrow band of black here to outline the curved seam.

I used black cuffs

and I guess this wasn't such a great idea. What I wish I had done was to add an exposed zipper and make the back minus the curved upper back piece. I could still make that happen but I probably won't.

The fabric is scuba knit. I LOVE SCUBA KNIT ! ! ! ! !
I could do a whole post about SCUBA KNIT !
I first used it for yoga pants and absolutely fell in love. There will be more garments made with this wonderful fabric. I buy mine at Fabricville It is smooth, doesn't pill like ponte and wears exceptionally well

To take care of those wrinkles , I added a light shoulder pads and that made all the difference ( no pic).

So, can I have your honest opinion ? What do you think? Is it ugly or am I obsessing ? I would really appreciate your opinions.

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Lots of Sewing Going On

As usual, right after Christmas is a productive time for me in regards to sewing. Today I'll show you two really fun tops I came up with after being inspired by haunting the net-a-porter site all through the holidays. Another really cool site is farfetch.com which is a French site but being a French speaking lady ,for me , that is no problem.

I'm not citing any particular design, but my meanderings through the above websites just made my mind race with ideas of my own.

The first one is my own version of McCall's 6992.  My twist is that I used a piece of faux fur left over from my Christmas scarves paired with a beautiful heavy weight ponte left over from a pencil skirt made last year.

A few details :

I just love this thing ! It feels yummy on and I've worn it three times in the last week because it's so warm and cozy and it is so very cold out right now!

My second piece is View B of Marci Tilton's 8497, now out of print. You may recall this top I made in the fall using View A. I've really enjoyed wearing that one and this one is made partly of the same quilted fabric.

i was really inspired to make something in black and white after perusing the above mentioned sites. I had a hard time deciding between a jacket and a top. Finally it came to me that a top would be appreciated in these cold winter months , so voila!

The two fabrics are different but both are quilted and equally soft. The white is available at Marci Tilton.com  and at Fabricville for you eastern Canadians.( I bought the black fabric at Fabricville as well .)


As in my View A version, I used strips of the cables  for the neck band and the curved trim. I again wrapped the trim around the neck and front curved seam and top stitched. On the pattern Marci left the front curved seam raw and it  simply lays on top of the other side and stitched down.

I used the back of View A. I toyed with the idea of zippered pockets but decided against it in the end.
This was a lot of fun to create . I'm wearing it right now and am loving it! What do you think?

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Next up I have a scuba knit dress to show you but that will be later in the week.

I do hope you have time to sew this weekend.
Happy Sewing!

Happy New Year and Christmas Sewing.

Happy 2015 to all who drop by to have a look. I've taken a much needed break from all things blogging but I'm back and as my energy returns after the hectic Christmas season, I'll be sewing some special pieces made from my fall online fabric shopping spree so please check back  in a week or so.

I tried my best to stay away from Christmas sewing to lessen the stress and fatigue of the season but I just couldn't resist the lovely , light weight faux furs that Fabricville stocked this year. A twisted infinity scarf seemed like the perfect gift for sisters, daughters-in-laws and grand-daughters. I remembered to take a few pics so here they are.

These were easy and fun to make except for the fur flying all over the place!  I should stress that not all faux furs would work well . The ones I chose were light weight and not too thick.
In case you want to make one, here are the dimensions that I came up with that seemed to work just right...34"long by 16" wide. I bought .4 meter for each scarf but cut off from the width as the yardage came in a  60" width.

I sewed the length of the scarf, turned to the right side , twisted once and joined the ends matching up the seams, the half way marks as well as the quarter way marks . Of course there is always a length that has to be done by hand but I finished off using a very wide zigzag stitch and sewed off the  fabric.

I made a princess dress for little Poppy, and little fur capes for her and Riley to go with their Frozen princess dresses.( The dress is suppose to be Anna's dress from Frozen. ) No model pics unfortunately.

I had a gorgeous jacquard knit bought in Montreal a while back and one of my sisters really liked it so I decided to make her a topper using View A of McCall's 6844.I used the reverse side of the jacquard for the front band and on the pocket trim. ( I added pockets but they are not included in the pattern. )

I made one last item. I copied a RTW poncho that I own for one of my daughters in law. The fabric is a rather heavy fleece-backed  sweater knit from my stash.I used the selvedge for the hem finishes.

Because of the thickness of the fabric I made the collar single layered .Essentially, this poncho consists of two squares with a neckline cut out at one corner. The collar is a simple rectangle.

Well the grand kids are coming for a sleep over so I'm off.

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