Fall Ottobre Dress

I have long been on the lookout for an easy to wear, dress up or down tee shirt dress!  Even though I have a great pattern - I'm still always looking for the next best thing.  Why is that?

But truthfully, when I have a beautiful piece of fabric, I go back to my Ottobre Tee Shirt Dress.  I first made this dress in 2013 and the only change I made to the pattern was to add 2 fisheye darts at the back waist.  At this point in time I think I've made 7 dresses from this pattern and see no reason to stop anytime soon! 

I've used ponte, ITY, and a painted sweater knit.  This dress just works for me!  The pattern, if you are wondering, is from 5/2013 and it's the Friday Evening Dress (4B).

The Fall version of this dress was made in January 2018 in a last minute rush to make something new for me to wear on vacation!  This dress is so easy for me to whip up and know it's gonna fit and i'm going to feel great wearing it. 

This time I used a beautiful Fall color ITY from FabricMart.  I can make this raglan sleeved dress with just over a yard of 60" wide fabric and have it done in about 2 hours from cutting to hemming.

This dress kept me warm and feeling good while we traipsed all over Italy & France worn with knee high boots and tights. 

I don't even mind how my back view look when wearing the Ottobre dress.  With 4 darts - 2 shoulder and the 2 added fisheye darts in the back to counteract sway back pooling, 4 raglan seams, and then 4 hems - it's a quick one!

The dress doesn't really cup my rear, but the wind was blowing.  It does, however, hug closer to my back thanks to the added darts. 

If you have this issue of Ottobre - try this dress!  I don't think you'll be mad about it.  You can see some of my many versions of this dress. There will be more - I already have one made up from a FabricMart bundle that's just waiting for photos.

Graphic Fall Ponte Dress

At the end of last summer I met up with a couple of the Seattle Sewing Girls and we went shopping at District Fabric.

I spotted this fabric and snapped up 4 yards.  There will be many, many more garments made from this yardage.  

The dress is #4 from Ottobre May 2013.  I first made this pattern back in October 2013, and this is the fifth time I've made it.  Like the previous versions, I feel very pretty and feminine in this dress.    

While this may not be the best silhouette for me, I like it.  And will wear it and make more.  The print was so busy that I paid no attention to print placement while cutting.  That black blog right under my belly might not have been the best decision. 

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner!

JB and I were playing while taking photos.  We were trying to recreate this darling photo of Oonaballoona, when JB said - back up - Nobody puts Baby in the Corner!!

The green in this dress matches the green in my tights perfectly!  While I don't do it often, it's kinda fun to wear colored tights.  Brown is usually my go-to, but these are fun.  

I really, really like this dress.

In the past year or so, I've been rather meh about blogging.  But I miss being in this space.  So, I'm slowly starting to update the blog, making things more consistent between posts, working on branding, etc.  Let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bandwagon Fan?

I was asked to travel to San Jose for a work event.  This is pretty huge because generally, EAs with my company do not travel.  The partner I work for - specifically asked that I travel and attend the event to help.  It actually turned out to be a good thing that I was there because the local EA called out sick.  Anyway - for the social in the evening, Seahawks clothing - or at the very least - colors were required.


Well, anyone who knows me, knows that JB is an EAGLES fan.  There is one Seahawks hat in our house and that's it.  I wasn't going to buy a jersey or shirt that I wouldn't wear.

What I thought I'd do is swing into JoAnn's and get some Seahawks logo'd cotton and make an infinity scarf.  When I got to JoAnn's on the Saturday before I left - they didn't have any Seahawks logo'd fabric. 

What I did find was a deep blue and green striped fabric with a tiny glittery silver stripe between the colors.  So I bought 2.5 yards.  I took it home, washed it, ironed it, played with the layout - cut out another Ottobre Sheath Dress and sewed that baby up in time to leave for the airport at 6p on Sunday!

The sleeves are elbow length with no bands and the neckband was cut with the striped going vertical rather than horizontal.  After I was done I thought - I should have cut it on the bias, oh well.  I put fusible interfacing in the hem of the dress and sleeves.  Otherwise - nothing remarkable about construction.

This dress has seen lots of wear already in it's short lifespan.  It made an appearance in San Jose with grey boots and a silver cardigan - but it was hot and the cardi got ditched early.  Then on casual Friday - I wore it as pictured.  And of course it made an appearance at the Superbowl watching yesterday.  Most of the women there wanted their own Seahawks dress.  But it will remain one of a kind. 

***  While this dress might not be my best look - horizontal stripes, close fitting, clingy knit.  I will say - it's comfortable and forgiving.  I feel very girly and curvaceous and not necessarily as aware of the shortcoming of my shape when I wear one of the 4 dressed made from this pattern that are in heavy rotation in my closet.  So - I think I will continue making this pattern and learn to accessorize to my advantage. 


you can just see the silver sparkle and neckband stripe
going the opposite direction.

***  While JB is getting better at taking photos - he takes more than one, he makes me laugh, we move around the house (remember when he took one shot?).  Now I need to start asking him if my clothes are hung up on anything apparently. 

***  I am really ready for a haircut!  My roots are very obvious.  And long - man, my hair is getting long! 

So - what do you wear that makes you feel comfortable and fabulous?  Is it your 'best' look?  What about the garment makes you feel that way?  Is it a color, style or shape?

So - to answer my heading question - nope, not a bandwagon fan, just a *team player*.


Holiday Fail

 

Another version of the Ottobre knit sheath dress.

Fabric is a wool jersey from Mood Fabrics, bought last Fall.

I thought it could be a wrap dress, but the fabric was thick.

The leaves are silver and painted on.

 

I really like this dress.  It's fully lined and easy to wear.

 

So, you may ask - why is it a fail?

Well, I originally made it thinking I could wear it to my office holiday party.

When I finished it and put it on, JB said (and I quote)

"It's short!"

 

I ended up making another dress (full length) to wear to the party.

 

There was enough fabric left over that I made magic pencil skirts for both of my girls.

I really wish they both lived close, because I would totally do matchy/matchy photos.

Blue Birthday Dress

 Another version of the Ottobre dress.  This is version 2 and I have made 3 so far.   This was the dress I made for my 50th birthday.  JB thinks it's fantastic. 

I feel comfortable in this dress, not that you can tell from my face.  I wore it all day without a cardigan or a scarf or anything to distract from the dress - well except for my new red cowboy boots!

The fabric is a ponte that I got from Girl Charlie.  I loved it when I saw it and then I wasn't sure what to make with it.  Then I made the grey ponte dress and figured this fabric would work with that pattern.  So the day before we left for vacation, I headed to the sewing space and cut the fabric out.  I sewed it all up and then decided it needed to have just as lightly lower neckline.  So I folded the dress front in half and took my French curve to it.  The neckline is now a curved v. 

I do need to take it back down to the machine and shorten the sleeves.  I wasn't sure how long to make them and they are just a bit too long. 

In Palm Springs on vacation I wore the dress with bare legs and white sandals.  But today I wore it with my new red boots!  I got several compliments today half of them on my dress and half of them on my boots. 

I imagine there will be more versions of this Ottobre dress in my future.  But I'm thinking they will be solids to show off some of the great scarfs, handknits, and jewelry that I have. 


And just because you want to see them - here is a picture of my new red boots!  And yes, they were comfortable all day.  And Fun!  For some reason - wearing cowboy boots is fun.