Southwestern Pottery Inspired Dress

Update: Since I have received so many comments about this fabric I thought I would let you know that I purchased it from Fabric.com . They still have 74 yards left as of today and I am planning to purchase some more myself.

I finally did it! I made my self cut into one of my favorite pieces of fabric. Do you ever do that? Love a fabric so much that your afraid to use it. Luckily an event so big came along that I was able to face my fears and go ahead and cut. This week is the first week of the Project Run and Play sew along linky.

I searched through a bazillion (btw, bazillion is not actually a real number) photo's of famous paintings and loved so many of them, but I got zero (zero is a number in math but in philosophy it is the opposite of infinity and not a number) idea's for a wearable item.

So then I played with the idea of statues. A few things started to take shape in my mind, but I needed some color. Finally I looked at pottery, and there it was my inspiration. The pottery of the Southwest.

Here are a few of my favorite inspiration pieces. 

The fabric is a lightweight cotton sateen with just a tiny bit of stretch to it. I used my ugly vintage pattern as a starting point for the bodice and then lengthened it a few inches and made the neckline just a tiny bit lower. The skirt is self drafted. I left an inch of seam allowance on the top of the skirt and the bottom of the bodice.

To create the elastic casing I began by sewing the skirt and bodice with wrong sides together like you would with a french seam and then I flipped the fabric so that right sides were together and sewed about 3/4 of an inch away from the first seam. Before inserting the elastic I sewed the casing down so it laid flat against the inside of the dress.

My Bella was the lucky recipient of the dress. She can't wait for the snow to go away and the sun to come out so she can wear it some more. I really love the way this dress came out. I am thinking about making another one with pockets. They will make great summer dresses. So are you sewing along this season?

Some Sketching and Waiting

Almost all of my sewing time has been going to one big project. At least it's big for me. I would love to tell you what it is, but that would ruin the surprise. There are a few other non top secret projects that I am excited about as well, but unfortunately I am still waiting on fabric.

I've tried and tried to organize my huge fabric stash but those stupid laws of physics always get in the way. You can't fit something with a large volume (no matter how you fold it) into a tiny space. 

The most obvious solution would be to sew only from my stash until I cut it down. Yea, I'm not doing that, but I am only buying fabric when I have a plan for it. That means I am doing a lot of planning and then going crazy while I wait for the fabric to get here.

Fabric.com was having a great sale for 20% off any order over $40.00, so I sketched out my plans, picked my favorite and ordered a lot of fabric. All together the total came to $35.00 (after the sale) and I got 7 yards of fabric and a few notions. My planning also includes using up 2 yards of fabric from my stash. 

The raglan shirt below is going to for be for my daughter Ashley. Her style leans slightly in the direction of tomboy. She hates dresses and ruffles and lace, but she does love the color pink.

Update: See the finished mixed fabric raglan t shirt and a tutorial here.

Next up is a project for my son and husband that I am very excited about. We watched Rise of the Guardians as a family and I studied Jack Frost's sweatshirt most of the time. For a cartoon it shows incredible details. You can even see the seam lines. 

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And finally my ugly vintage pattern remixes. I am planning to get two spring dresses out of this pattern. It is the first on the list to be completed and I will give you all of the details when it's done but here is a peek at what's to come. 

Update : The first dress is done. See it Here

Thanks so much for looking. Feel free to share your sewing to do list in the comments.

My Ugly Vintage Pattern

Update You Can See My Plans For This Pattern Here
If you haven't heard yet (maybe you've been living under a rock) there is an ugly vintage pattern party going on over at Simple Simon. It seems to have taken the blogging world by storm. Almost every blog I click on seems to be proudly displaying the worst of the worst from their pattern collection on there home page. I don't know what it is about these patterns or why we get so attached to them, but it's good to know that I am not the only one. So for your viewing pleasure here is the ugliest pattern in my collection.

Two things scare me about this pattern.

1. It is from the 90's and it's vintage! OMG, when did the 90's become vintage. I feel so old.
2. Had my mother sewn me up something like that sweet little flowery number in the 90's I would have been head over heels with it. It probably would have been my favorite outfit and I would have tried to wear it every day.

That's some scary stuff there. Now, to participate in the challenge all you have to do is show off a photo of your pattern in the linky. You don't actually have to sew anything. However I feel the need to make something out of this. It's like an unspoken challenge.

I have no clue what it is going to be or how I am going to make it into something my children will actually wear...willingly, but I have a few basic idea's floating around in my head. I'll update you when I have more. I hope you will be joining the ugly vintage pattern party as well!