Baby's First Wrap Dress

What girl doesn't aspire to have the perfect wrap dress? 

So, my goal this year has been when I take a piece of fabric from the fabric closet to use it all!  NOT put any back in the closet.  That turned into a spiral of cutting things and pulling fabric.  The left over fabric from my Andie Anorak was cut into an ellis skirt {still in the cut pile}.  Then I had to pull a coordinating cotton for the pockets and facings.  From the cotton, I cut the innards for the Ellis, another Holyoke maxi skirt.  There were just scraps of the yellow floral left.

2 of the garments in this stack have been sewn and 2 are still hanging out

My friend Marjie had recently made a darling wrap dress for her granddaughters - McCalls 7143.  I had the pattern and thought there might be enough for a dress for Eleanor.  So - the floral was cut at the back and one bodice front.  Then the navy blue eyelet was pulled to be a skirt piece.  I had to purchase the green for the underlap side. 

I traced the pattern exactly to size and didn't add any length.  Normally, Eleanor fits a 18 month width and a 3YO length.  Don't know what I was thinking because this little dress is short!  

Thankfully she's a toddler and wearing a short dress is totally acceptable!  On this day she was wearing it over her swimsuit as we had all gone to a water park.  That's Gramps and Daddy walking in front of her - we were headed to have our picnic!

Although our water park day got stormed out, she loves her very first wrap dress!  

showing her glitter tattoo

Will I make it again?  Yes - but I will make it a true wrap with one really long tie and one shorter one.  It's quite fiddly putting the dress on her and the ribbons to hold the underlap side want to slip and slide.

Andie Anorack

Earlier this year, Rebecca Page Patterns sent out a call for pattern testers and brand ambassadors.  I applied and was selected to be a pattern tester.  

The Andie Anorack was my first real test.  

This is a fairly simple anorack style jacket that can be made in just about any fabric.  The pattern offers you a jacket in two lengths - this 'car coat' length and a long raincoat.  Depending on the fabric you choose, you could have a proper raincoat.

This coat has a lot of firsts for me and while the fit isn't perfect - I'm pretty happy with it for a first coat.  And it's fully lined!

I can definitely see pull lines radiating from the back to toward the hip and from the bust to the hip.  But honestly, I feel like I have enough room.  

Will I make this pattern again - no.  Will I wear this coat?  Yes!  I love this fabric.  I've had it for years just waiting on the perfect pattern.  The fabric and pattern were a good match, I could have done better with the fitting.  

There are certainly things I didn't like about the pattern.  I think the hem should be deeper.  I found the directions for inserting the lining and the back neck confusing and ended up stitching those together by hand. I found some of the fitting directions very confusion.  

Finally - when will I learn to do an FBA rather than trying to grade between sizes?  

Wide Legged Pants - Take 2

In all honesty, this is more like take 4.  But at least I'm sticking with it!

Do you remember my wide legged pants?  In all honesty, they were version 2, but the first version using McCalls 7757.  Take 2 had me slimming the entire leg on that original pair and then transferring that to my pattern. 

So, this is what we're calling Take 2.  I used a completely inappropriate suiting from the fabric closet. Because, I didn't care about the fabric but wanted to see how the changes worked.  The pants are short because that's how much fabric I had, but that caused it's own set of issues as you'll see later this year.

Thanks to Carolyn's amazing picture taking, you can't really tell how much too big these pants are.  It's just at the waist - too much extra fabric.  So, I've added a dart to the center back seam - taking about 1 1/2" out at the center back tapering to nothing about 7" down.  

I will tell you - these pants didn't even make it to the closet!  The fabric was all wrong, the pants are too short - although they do have a little mod squad vibe to them, they didn't stay.  If the fabric had been nicer, I would have worn them exactly as styled - with a long sleeved henley or turtleneck and my jean jacket.  But sadly, the fabric pulled. 

They did however, serve their purpose.  They told me what I needed to do next.  Those changes have been made to the pattern and a black pair has been cut and sewn.  More changes made and I'm currently searching for a fabric to do Take 4 so I can finally, finally, cut into some floral challis for the pants of my dreams! 

Also - can I just share that sewing, alterations, sewing, alterations, rinse and repeat is sucking the joy of sewing right out of me!  I just want to make all the new things!  To keep this train moving in the right direction, I've made a bargain with myself - 1 'fun' garment for every modification and remake that I do.  Soon - I should have the 'real pants' to share with you.