Purple Dress Jacket

I have wanted to make the girls a summer jacket since the begining of summer ! Finally got around to making it. Normally i love "quick and easy" but with this project i decided to spend more time...

...so I decided to make a fully lined jacket to include a collar and pockets. Buttons on sleeve hem and shirring was also added later. Shirring came about when I decided the jacket was a bit big and wanted to make it fitted. Buttons on hem came about when 'daddy' said the jacket needed 'extra wow factor.!'

'Take this sis'

I decided to have this photo shoot in the park since well, jackets are outdoor clothing. their purple jacket seems to match the playgronud. lol

Wheeeee.........
Can you see the button detail on sleeve?

Jacket E used.

This was available from 3-8 yrs, as I wanted it smaller I scaled it down. Does anyone want to know how to scale a pattern down? Haven't really seen the tutorial but could do one if anyone is interested.

Different buttons used for girl jackets

I was going to use the deep pink buttons thoughout but lost two buttons so had to go for a slightly different type of pink.

Fully Lined

Jacket was fully lined including the sleeves!!

Shirring detail.

The pocket detail.

Added a bit more colour by inserting this colourful striped fabric into the purple fabric to make the pockets.

See, I did take my time. Remember I had to make two of everything. The shirring bit was done 8!! times, i.e done on left and right sides, thats 4 times and separately for lining also.

So why did I call this a 'dress jacket' you say? well its the length of a dress.
In hind sight a summer jacket shouldn't be knee length rather just below the waist. Not a problem we will use this for autume then, ha.
Thanks for reading. Hope you have been inspired.
Regards.

Lace with Satin dress.

Was quite excited when I came up with the idea of mixing this little yardage of lace I had with satin left over from the girls birthday dress. As I got a bit tired of making (waistline) gathered dresses I wanted a full circle skirt...

Circle Skirt

...I got a full circle skirt. One of the girls actually loves to twirl around and around in her dresses, guess she would have enough fun in this dress.

Twirling...

Puff sleeve detail.

First time making a puff sleeve, it took about an hour to make four sleeves!! 

I gathered sleeve cap as normal and used shirring elastic to make three rows of shirring to the sleeve hem. I love how it turned out though.

Back view

Had a bit of issue getting a smooth line at the centre back when attaching the invisible zip to the skirt. (where the crease is). I sewed on zip three !! times, but still no luck and i just gave up. Does anyone know why this happens? never had problems with satin before now. :(

Purchased flower added as an embellishment.

Little flower detail added to the side.

Overall this turned out pretty OK, but I just don't feel a connection (if am allowed to say that!) with this outfit.

Maybe its the (plain) colour or I had higher expectations...

Can't even put my finger on it.

Anyway its done and they will wear it. Sure they will like the full skirt. :)

With regards to a comment I received from Marie, I always make two of everything but sometimes I use one girl (the more willing one) for a photo shoot because it is faster and easier to deal with one than two. :)

Until you have reason to be here, see you around.

Black floral trousers

This post has been updated with pictures...

Saw this fabric.... loved it.

                                                                                                                             

Butterick 4861

...saw this pattern, decided to make it in long grey version.

Everything went pretty smooth in the construction and was finished in one afternoon.

The only issue I find is it doesn't go with everything except white or black. Go figure.!

SassyT told me to try them with blue, and it goes. So guess I was wrong. lol

After this matching issue I decided that since I had full control over the things I make, before making anything up, I will find what it goes with, shoes, accessories etc, conclude on all this before making.

The fit is OK straight from the box, made a size 8, no bulging issues here or there.

That's all for now.

Until you visit again...

Cream and Brown polka dot dress

Wanted to make a bubble dress for the girls, got this fabric and decided it was a perfect match.

Its some sort of satin polyester blend fabric. 

I just love this bubble dress.

Was going to use my simplicity pattern for this bubble but believe me I just didn't 'get' the instructions on the pattern about how to make the bubble so I decided to use my imagination. This worked out just fine.

Let me explain.

This is a fully lined dress. i made sure the length of the lining was shorter than length of dress fabric.

I sewed the hem seam before the waist seam.

Putting both fabric and lining together using normal seam allowances I sewed an elastic round the fabric +lining to create the gathers at the hem. 

when this was turned right side up, the bubble was formed.

Main principle is because lining is shorter than fabric, after it is sown together, lining pulls up the dress fabric and a bubble is form.

Sorry no pictures to explain, if you interested in full tutorial, let me know and will arrange one.

 Actually made dress in February. Was going to add extra details using same colour brown velvet fabric for a bow. I looked for over month and couldn't get brown velvet in the exact same shade!!!

Plan b was use any dress fabric in same shade. found that and bow was made.

This is the back view, can you see extra detail

This back detail idea was from simplicity 1913 but it was mostly used in front or at the side of the simplicity dresses

Love this dress so much we used it for our family picture.!

Got this fabric really cheap, wishing a bought more of it now... like a whole roll of it. lol. joking.

Stay tuned as although I haven't blogged a lot lately. I have made a lot. Once pictures are taken, they'll be here.
That's all for now...