Finished: Simpilcity 1803 and other stuff

 

My love affair for this pattern began when I spotted it featured on Sew Weekly's Make This Look. I had been obsessed with the dress from ModCloth that inspired the dupe for some time. I just wasn't willing to pay $80 for it. Plus, not only am I thirty, I've also had 4 kids. I was worried not only how the dress would look on me but also how I could pull it off.  I filed the pattern away on my Pinterest inspiration board and waited for the next Simplicity .99 sale. When I finally got my hands on the pattern, I sat on it for months waiting for fabric inspiration. In the meantime, several (now nearly famous) renditions of this pattern popped onto the blogosphere. Swoon. Even though I planned on making an alternated view for the bodice, my love affair became an obsession and I finally decided to cut into a pretty swiss dot rose print cotton I had been holding onto.

This dress was surprisingly easy to put together. I took other blogger's advice and cut based on the finished garment measurements. This pattern has 4 inches of ease built into it! wow. I cut a straight sz 12. The fabric was incredibly sheer so I underlined it in a white cotton batiste for the bodice. I didn't have enough batiste for the skirt so I have to wear a slip with it but it works out. I made no alterations aside from reducing side seam allowances to .5 inches at the waist and tapering in to almost an inch at the under arms. I topstitched the yoke to prevent puckering, something else I had read about.Unfortunately it still pouches out and if I could I would have cut the whole yoke a size smaller. Since I bought the larger set of size, 12 was the smallest I had.





I also chose to randomly pleat the skirt instead of gather it. Sometimes gathering is too puffy around my waist and I think the pleats are a bit more flattering.

 When it came time to install the zipper, I managed to find a perfect match from a lot of vintage zips I just thrifted. Huge, cheap ($3) lot, all still in packing from early 50's to late 70's. It is a shade of pink that matches the roses. Awesome. I thought about sewing an exposed zipper and decided against it at the last minute. I should have gone with the exposed, I think. I won't show you a close up of this lapped zip because in all honesty...it's a bit of a mess. But it looks ok from far away so I'm good with it.

Scrunchy Face, Scrunchy Yoke

  So that's it. Easy peasy pattern and I super love the results.

 In other EXCITING news, last week I opened up my reader for my daily dose of blogs and was presented with a lovely surprise. I was included in Sew Colette 2.0's Hazel Parade on Rochelle's blog Lucky Lucille (and how super sweet and awesome is she? Lucille's pretty darn adorable, too!). This was a huge honor, because as I told her on Instagram (are you following me? I love sharing pics! I'm everfive),  I was inspired by  her creations specifically when I made that dress. Oh, and small side note- I wear that Hazel at least once a week and I complimented every.single.time. yay! So anyhoo, I get this fantastic new button on my sidebar (woohoooo!) and I actually shared my blog with my personal friends through facebook. Something I hadn't been doing..I'm not sure why.


So now for a couple of thing completely not sewing related but still big to me so I thought I would share. Early this month I got my first tattoo. I've been wanting a tattoo since forever but never got one for different reasons. Earlier this year, when my best friend and I turned 30 and I celebrated my 10 year wedding anniversary all in the span of 4 months, I promised myself I would immortilize this time of my life with a tattoo. I picked a lyric from my favorite song by my favorite band The Graveyard Near the House by The Airborne Toxic Event. I love it, it means so much to me and my life. Now I have 4 more planned. I'm hooked.



 On top of that,  2 weeks ago my sister and I traveled down to Richmond to see The Killers (a very very very close second on the favorite band scale. Can I just have 2 favorite bands? I say yes.).It was in a very small venue and honestly it was a once in a lifetime sold out show that we were lucky enough to snag tickets for. We had so much fun waiting in line for 7 hours (!!). We met awesome people, got right up front and experienced an amazing show. Then afterwards....we met Brandon Flowers. No big deal.