Butterick 6094 and Smuggler's Daughter

Hello again!  Twice in one week?  That must mean that I've been sewing.  Super short post tonight, as it's already late. Remember when I won the Everyday Casual Contest?  It really wasn't that long ago, so I hope you do. If not go here.  Well, one of my prizes was a $25.00 gift card to the Smuggler's Daughter.  Which of course I spent well more than that.  This is what I bought:

and a blue rayon double knit or ponte, which is no longer available.  I decided to make Butterick 6094, as I've been obsessively thinking about it for the last couple of weeks.  From the front it seems like a simple shift dress, with some interesting seaming. 

But from the back:

This is what I've been obsessing about.  But the issue I have is that, when the neckline is this open, it makes the back too big, which makes me feel like my dress is falling off.  I finally tried a solution I've been thinking about for awhile.  For the back, I cut a straight size 12.  For the front, the very top bodice piece, I cut a size 12, and then a 14 for the midriff piece and skirt.  I then did a full bust adjustment of 1/2" which was the difference of the 12 and 14.  This allowed the neckline to fit much better and the back to fit as well, but also allowed for my stomach and hips.

I think it turned out really well.  These pictures were taken after wearing the dress for 13 hours, and it still looks nice.  (Except for the fact that my hem fell out.  Blech!  I have to fix that!)

Here are some close ups of the bodice.  I used the cotton to face it, which also prevents the neckline from stretching as there is no stretch in the cotton fabric. 

Oh and I forgot the best part.  No zipper!  I made this dress in 3 hours last night, with 20 minutes of hemming this morning.  (I cut it out on Tuesday night.)  Anyway, off to bed for me.  Until next time, happy sewing.

P.S. As you can see I'm terrible at cleaning up my thread ends, what's your bad habit in sewing.  Leave a comment!  I wanna know.

A Coat Just in Time and a Weekend in Kyiv

So I finished the coat- to find that it's a tiny bit too snug in the waist.  Boooooo!  I'll still wear it, as I spent way too long on it, and it's definitely fall here. This morning was 40F (roughly 4C, I think?) 

I am also not digging the patent leather piping.  It made it very difficult to iron the jacket.  Overall, let's just leave it at, I am not thrilled with this one.  I hope that it will grow on me? 

 I don't think it's the pattern.  I honestly think that overall it's just not the right silhouette for my current shape.  The jacket came together pretty easy.  It was expertly drafted.  Let's take a couple more looks at it.

The insides look pretty nice.  At the last moment, I realized that I wanted the lining to hang free, so I biased bound the bottom edge and the sleeve edge.  I will be honest, this was the best finishing I have done on a lined sleeve.  Why are sleeves so difficult to finish?

Enough of the jacket.  I bet you are wondering about the dress underneath? It's a pre-blog make, made back in my year in Yekaterinburg, Russia.  It's Colette Patterns Peony. The fabric was bought in a bazaar in Izmir, Turkey.  I think it's one of my all time favorite makes.  I did have a hell of a time fitting it, as the neck decided to gape a bunch in the back.  I ended up having to put in some darts.

 

Well, as this post has been mainly pictures and not much about what I made, I'll continue on that vein and post pictures of our weekend in Kyiv.  We went to what is known as Sculpture Alley, the name of it in Ukrainian/Russian is Little Landscapes Alley, and it's also known as Mosaic Alley.  All I can say, it was pretty fun.  Along the path there were three separate playgrounds, and sculptures in between.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

 

 

I'll leave you with a picture of a snail coffee stand.  They are all over the city.  There are a ton of coffee stands, more than I expected.  It certainly will feed my addiction.  Now it's time for me to clean up my sewing mess on the kitchen table, I cut out B6094 tonight, and I hope to sew it up tomorrow.  This is the version that I did, as I only had 2 yards of the blue fabric.  I also tried something new, I'll tell you about if it works.  Or complain about it, if it doesn't.  Until next time, happy sewing.

And I'm back! Shoe Tuesday Resumes

Hello dear readers!  I'm sure you assumed that I might have fallen off the face of the earth, rather than just move to Kyiv, but here I am in my new apartment safe and sound.  It took us longer that I thought to get internet and to get somewhat settled enough for me to start to put together my sewing room.  Speaking of, here it is, in all of it's empty glory.  Haha, who am I kidding, even with barely any of my sewing stuff, it's still a mess.

The sewing room will also be the guest bedroom, so I hope that means we might have visitors.  The lamps in the background are going away.  The pinky/red carpet is in three out of four bedrooms.  I think it's pretty much the only thing I do not like about our new apartment.  I'm thinking carpet squares or wood foam tiles. 

Something like this, but I'm thinking in grey.  I hate to say it, but I realized as much as I complained about cleaning my all white digs, I really miss all that neutral color.  This apartment is a lot of reds/corals and greens.  Once we get our stuff, I'll do a post showing you around the place.  My guess is that you're wondering what sewing I've been up to.  Well to be honest, it hasn't been much.  I did finish the skirt I started in Kansas. What skirt you ask?  The one that I was messing around with painting poppies.

Here it is in it's wooly-ness.  You'll have to excuse the pictures, my photographer was coerced into taking them, when he clearly didn't want to.  I should get my tri-pod in the next couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed!  You can also see the top part of my shoes, well boots.  They are new, I had them custom made when I visited Bogota, Colombia this past March, and they just arrived.

 

Here is the whole outfit.  I paired the new skirt with a previously made Mannaquim top, and a J.Crew blazer that I have had for at least five years.  Should we take a closer look at the skirt or the boots first?  Let's finish up with the skirt, and then we'll move onto the boots.

 It is of course a variation of Vogue 2514.  I do need to go back and take it in the waist some, as it is slightly loose.  The reason why is somewhat a funny story.  Apparently, I used two different versions of V2514, so the back was about 2" longer than the front.  I had already done all the edge finishing work on the back, the vent, and inserted the zipper, and the front was already painted, so I did what any sewista would do.  I matched the bottom of the skirt, and sewed up the side seams.  I then inserted the waistband, starting at the front middle and going around.  I made sure that it looked reasonably straight, and then sewed.  I cut the excess fabric off on the back, and finished the waistband.  It worked out ok.

A closer look at some of the flowers.  They turned out pretty decent, I think.

This is why I didn't redo the back.  Because my serger is still in transit, I used bias binding to finish most the edges.  I didn't want to have to re-do that.

Moving on.  Let's take a closer look at those boots.  I'm so excited about them, and I think they'll really help in me making my own shoes.  Speaking of, I almost have all of the supplies, so hopefully starting with next shoe Tuesday, I can switch to a weekly wrap-up on making a pair of shoes.  I am just waiting on the ingredients to make the paste.  (Funnily enough, Elmers+cornstarch+water.)

Here is a closer look at the boot.  I love the curved brogue-ing going up the outside.  The curve matches pretty exactly the curve of my calf.  You can see how curvy my calf is.

 

A closer look at the leather.  It is extremely soft and supple.  I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  I am super happy about the non-slip sole, that will be extremely important come winter.

 

 Of course someone else loves the boots too!  Next up, I will finally finish my fall coat, because the temperature is certainly dropping here.  It's usually in the 40s in the morning.  Ack!  Until next time, happy sewing.