Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Clothing cavalcade

Before I begin the post, I wanted to answer a couple of comments that I wasn't able to return personally.

Jill asked:
I love the monk's bag! Did you follow a pattern, or is it one of those things you just whip up?

Well Jill, first, thank you! Like I said, I love it! I kind of followed a photo of a monk's bag in one of my Japanese bag books, and took the dimensions of the straps, but everything else I made on my own. If anyone is interested in a tutorial (even one person!) I'd happily post one. It's an easy quick bag.

Kelly asked:
Hey, is that the same CK duvet that Carrie Bradshaw has on SATC?

What good eyes you have, Kelly! It is the same duvet. I bought it years and years ago, then I saw the same one on SATC. Isn't it the same old story, the bloggers create the trends and Hollywood copies them! But seriously, this duvet has really held up over the years - I really love the Calvin Klein linens (even though they can be expensive).

Onto the post! This spring and summer, instead of buying my clothes, I've decided to make them. Well, I'll still need to buy things like t-shirts and unmentionables, but here's a start.


Pattern - McCall 'sM5313 View A
Fabric - Amy Butler Slate Morning Glory, 2 yards
The idea behind this jumper was to create something that could have come from Anthropolgie, but it looks more like something from Urban Outfitters. Even though it makes me look four years old, it's a comfy dress that was easy to make. However, the pattern was a little more confusing than it needed to be, and there was a lack of detail that was lacking (e.g. topstiching around the top and straps) that I added myself.


Pattern - Simplicity 4589 View A
Fabric - Cotton Voile from Michael Levine Fabric, One yard
This is another one of those patterns I would never have bought if I didn't see it make on Nikki-Shell's blog. It's a cute simple pattern, a little boxy, but very versatile.

The fabric is from one of my favorite stores in the fashion district downtown, Michael Levine. It can be hit or miss, but they sometimes have great bargains, like this fabric, $2 a yard.


Pattern - Simplicity 4086, View F
Fabric - Re-form Pears from Superbuzzy, 2 yards
This is a home decorating fabric that was perfect for a skirt. The pears ran across both selvedges, so I still have a strip of pears that I can use for a bag or something else. Although I love the skirt, I still have issues with the sizing of skirt patterns. I like to wear my skirts low on my waist, so I made a size 14, but it was still a little high. Who are these women with skinny skinny waists who can wear size 8? I don't think they exist.


Pattern - McCall's M5042, View A
Fabric - Amy Butler Sage Lacework, 2 yards
I'm going to say this up front - I hated making this dress, from beginning to end. It turned out ok in the end, but the pain of making it has prevented me from objectively seeing it. Does that make sense? To me, it's a blur of seam ripping, seam ripping, and more seam ripping.

While I was making this dress, I realized that I'm not only high waisted, but thick waisted. So I wanted to find a pattern that was had a higher waist with a similar feeling. The problems occured when I decided to make the lining (which really didn't need it) and cutting the wide skirt, because it didn't fit onto my pre-shrunk fabric. A sidenote - I think Amy Butler's fabrics from her Lotus line are just fantastic. I know that everybody's using them, but I think they are still original enough to make a unique piece of clothing.

Anyways, I'm not going to bore you with even more details, but I'm glad it's done. How do you celebrate the completion of a dress?

Pizza with the family! This one was with olive oil, basil, garlic, romano and burrata cheeses... yummy...

12 comments:

Stephanie said...

I love reading your blog and the latest clothes you've made. I think all of the pieces you've shown here are fantastic. I particularly love the skirt and the lotus dress. That lotus dress is wonderful! I totally understand though how a frustrating process can taint your vision of the final piece. I'm currently working on a dress and realized last night the two fabrics that I thought would go together don't really. Ugh. I'm not going to give up though!

Carol said...

wow, you are a sewing fiend! i can't imagine sewing that many garments, let alone so quickly. i love all the pieces in your spring collection. (and the pizza looks scrumptious too!)

Anonymous said...

So many cute clothes! You're great at choosing the right fabric for the pattern!

Anonymous said...

love all your clothes! especially that dress. i have that same pattern but still haven't had time to make it! what size did you make? i feel that butterick patterns fit abit odd.

Erica Bunker said...

So many fabulous pieces! I'm doing the same thing, sewing all of my Spring/Summer wardrobe. This sounds like a SAL!

Sarah said...

So adorable, all of 'em! My sewing abilities extend to sewing on a button or fixing a seam that's come undone, so I'm sufficiently impressed.

Anonymous said...

I'm very impressed with all the sewing you've done. Everything looks great. I especially like the pear skirt. It reminds me of Mama making clothes for us when we were little. By the way, would it be bad for me to be that one person to be interested in the monk bag tutorial?

Anonymous said...

love the clothes! I would also like a sewing tutorial for the monk's bag please :-).

Anonymous said...

Oh goodness, so many gorgeous things! You've been busy! Thanks for responding about my inquiry about the monk's bag. I'd definitely be interested in a tutorial! I've been trying to wrap my head around this one, but it's not working very well!
Thank you,
Jill

MinaG said...

Wow, talk about a sewing "machine"! Everything turned out great! You have a beautiful new wardrobe! And I think the sage lacework dress is fantastic, it looks like it fits perfectly! I hope you can look at it with a new perspective after some time passes and the blur of seam ripping goes away and see how lovely it is!

yaiAnn said...

Cute, cute, CUTE!! Guess, what Memorial Day weekend in LA. Will you back from Japan?

Anonymous said...

All of your new clothes great, I love the fabrics you picked out and they fit you great.