June Challenge Summer Dress #4: Preview

I am finished with my fourth dress but haven't had the time to take decent photos yet, because I'm off on holidays to Norway. However, I didn't want to leave before giving you a little preview of my dress before June is over:

I will have internet in Norway but may not be able to respond to all of you as quickly. I hope to get up some nice pictures of my fourth dress, a June Challenge review post and some more related stuff at the weekend but will be posting from our little cabin by the sea. The internet will hopefully be up. Fingers crossed. Hope you get lots of sewing done and perhaps some final June Challenge dresses. Keep filling up our little flickr group with photos!

Do You Need Motivation?!

June Challengers, there is one more day to go! Do you need some motivation and a quick dress fix?

I have lately been inspired by a couple of youtube simple dress making tutorials. The dresses require no pattern and only basic sewing skills and can easily be made up in an evening. In many of these tutorials the fabric required is very little and often it's some sort of jersey. So, if you need a quick dress fix and have some jersey lying about you could give one of these dresses a try. I have already completed my four June Challenge dresses, but there is always July....and more sewing!

This video is by RebbSew. She has a lot of sewing videos on youtube. She shows you step-by-step how to make very simple dresses and tops with a hand-held camera and absolutely no talking. But her videos are so clear that no explanation is necessary. My favourite one is this little stripey dress tutorial:



I also discovered GiannyL's video stream. She also has no-talk sewing videos but she poses in her dresses. Her videos are really cute but some of her dresses are a little too much on the sexy side for my taste. I'm more of a flat granny shoes, vintage cardigan and below-the-knee dresses type and think showing off my bare shoulders is already pretty daring. But this dress is really cute:



And then there is ThreadBanger's video stream with lots and lots of different dress tutorial videos. My favourite is this shirred dress tutorial although I'd probably only wear this sort of dress on the beach:



What I find so refreshing about these videos, especially the two ladies who sew up their own simple dresses, is that the apporach to sewing is so much more casual than my own. A sort of cut-and-go style with lots of experimenting. Whenever I sew I'm much more careful about taking measurments, thinking about what patterns and what size to use, making muslins, cutting properly or even truing seams. Their style is pure DIY: a sewing machine, some fabric, pins and go! I have made very few projects that I have appraoched this way.

What about you? How do you sew? Do you often sew patternless? Do you just take a piece of fabric and see where it takes you? I think I want to try making more projects with a more freestyle approach. Anyways, I hope the videos have given you some inspiration should you still want to make a last-minute June Challenge dress. Cut, Sew, Go!

June Challenge Summer Dress #3: Purple Swing Dress

Finally, I have pictures of my third June Challenge dress. Sorry, the pics are not great. My boyfriend snapped them quickly before I left the house to meet with some friends yesterday evening. I used the Swing Dress pattern available over at Sense and Sensibility Patterns. I used the e-pattern version and had to print and tape all the pattern pieces together. Still better than paying and waiting for shipping.

I had to make almost no changes to the pattern. I only let out the side seam a tiny bit in the waist and shortened the skirt. However, if I make the pattern again, I will shorten the bodice slightly and add a little width across the bust to prevent the front from pulling. Also, I'm not in love with the way you have to hold the front overlapping pieces together with a brooch. I would prefer if they were sewn shut and would not gape and the brooch was only decorative. Still, I might make the dress again with some minor changes and a popping, colourful fabric to modernize the style of the dress.

with hand-knit flower brooch bought at a handmade market in Norway

June Challenge Dress #4 has to be hemmed today and then it's all done. I see that some of you are getting close to finishing your four dresses as well. Well done! Nommh has already completed more than four. Check them out on our flickr group. We'll all be dressed in style this summer (or winter down under)! See you!

A Word of Warning: Seam Finishes and Scallops

First off: love how more and more dresses are added to our June Challenge flickr board! Check them out here if you haven't seen them yet. I'm finished with June Challenge Dress #3 and will share pictures soon. One more to go! I hope I'll make it in time.

In other news: my black shirt waist dress has been saved! I spent some time at the weekend encasing the raw edges of the dress with grey bias tape and zig-zagging the others properly. I clearly didn't do a good job finishing the seams when sewing the dress, as the raw edges came out of the washing machine all frayed and tangled up. Now the dress looks a lot neater from the inside.

Sadly, what also happended is that the corners of the scallops at the hem started to fray and unravel on the outside. The corners of the scallops have to be clipped very close to the seam so they will lay nice and flat when turned. But since the dress is made of linen (which frays a lot) the scallops didn't hold up in the wash, but the raaw edges came through to the right side at the corners. Disaster!

I solved the problem by zig-zagging neatly around the edge of the scallops from the outside. The stitching is hardly visible when the dress is worn but the scallops have a neat finish again and will hopefully survive more machine washes.

How do you sew scallops? Has this happened to you before? Any tips and tricks on sewing and clipping scallops correctly so that they don't fray?

A New Day, A New Dress Inspiration: The Swing Dress

First off, thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my black shirt waist dress. I really appreciate it! I have since washed the dress and discovered that I have done a terrible job on the inside seam finishes. The dress looks like it has tangeld-up seaweed inside. Oh, I so wish I had a serger. But I don't, so I'll spend the weekend with a roll of bias tape getting those seam ends nicely tucked away before the dress unravels completely.

Also, after finishing my black shirt waist dress I went through a few inspiration-less days with no desire or urge to make a dress at all. Sometimes your mind just goes blank and you forget about all the ideas you've had. That's why it's good to keep a notebook or sketch book you can turn to when your mind is numb and uninspired. I have one but don't use it half as often as I should. But, luckily, I have plenty of online and offline inspiration folders to carry me over the dry spells - and from whence comes this inspiration: The Swing Dress.

Click for inspiring pictures of finished Swing Dresses

Not long ago, I'm sure you remember, Casey hosted a 1940s swing dress sew-along. I couldn't participate but stored some pictures as inspiration for the future in one of my many folders. And now the right time seems to have come: it's a summery dress, I have farbic I can use to make it and I could buy the pattern as an e-pattern instead of waiting for shipping until July :)

I've already assembled the pieces for a muslin and I'm in love with the fit. It seems too good to be true, but as far as I can see from my muslin, the only alteration I need to make is add a little more width to the waistband. I don't think I've ever used a pattern where I only had to change one tiny thing. It must be a good omen and sure is welcome in a month of sewing four dresses. Also, the sew-along tutorials on Casey's blog, which can all be found here, are very helpful and will certainly speed the sewing along. So, June Challenge Dress #3 is on its way....

Tutorial: Adding a Button Extension to a Bodice

Following my recent shirt waist dress project I thought I would write (and draw :) a little tutorial on how to add a button extension to a bodice pattern. A button extension can be added to any bodice back or front as long as the bodice is not too tight (gaping!). In this case a little ease added on to the bodice will help to prevent gaping. There are two different ways of adding a button extension to a bodice. First:


FOLDED BUTTON EXTENSION

For this extension you add onto the bodice center front (or back) the required amount for folding over the edge for a button extension. In this drawing you can see the button extension that needs to be added on to a bodice front. The broken line is the center front line. You want to place your buttons along the center front line, therefore you have to extend the bodice on both left and right side so that they can overlap at the center front.

The part that is filled in red is the extension you will see at the front when the garment is finished. The blue part matches the red part exactly, only mirror reversed, and folds back. The last bit is the seam allowance you need to add on. Especially with smaller button extensions I make the seam allowance as wide as the extension itself. So this means that for a button extension that is 3 cm wide you will need to add 1.5 cm (half the front extension from CF) + 3 cm (full extension for folding) + 3 cm (or less - for seam allowance) = 7.5 cm. When you fold your extension it will look like this:

You won't see anything at the front and you can either just fold the extension without any sewing or fold it and sew the extension shut along the edge (shown in pink). I usually choose not to sew the edge. Once the buttons and buttonholes are sewn into place the extension will no longer unfold but stay put.

SEW-ON BUTTON EXTENSION

Another method for adding a button extension to a bodice is by adding a sew-on extension. This is useful in case you have already cut your garment and decide later that you would like buttons along the front, or if you have too little fabric to cut the whole piece in one. This method is also useful for refashions. Any old t-shirt or sweater can be made into a blouse or cardigan by adding a sew-on extension.

In the drawing you can see the sew-on extension. It is twice the width of your desired extension plus seam allowance on either side. It is folded over your center front or back and then sewn at least along the inside edge (pink), and optionally along the outer edge, through all layers.

DETERMINING THE SIZE OF THE BUTTON EXTENSION

Before you draw your extension onto your bodice you have to decide how big the buttons you will sew on will be. The size of the buttons will determine the width of the extension. I sometimes forget to calculate what width I need beforehand and just go with whatever width I fancy for the style, but this sometimes ends up in uncentered buttons. So, I generally recommend to decide on the size of buttons beforehand. This diagram shows, what I consider, the correct placement of buttons on a buttonhole extension:

The button should be placed excatly in the middle of the extension and should be half a button size away from the side edge. So, if say, your button is 2 cm in diameter your extension should be 4cm wide. This way you can place your button right at the center and with half a button width away from either edge of the extension. I don't have a hard and fast rule for the distance between the top edge of the extension and the button, but I would say it should be no less than half a button width and no more than the full width of the button.

PLACING BUTTONS AND BUTTONHOLES CORRECTLY

Buttons should obviously be spaced evenly and sit right at the center of the extension. Depending on the style of the garment and the size of the buttons the distance between the buttons can vary. However, always consider that a button should be placed where the apex of the bust is to prevent gaping. This is really important, particularly for the more busty among us. Threads has a great tutorial on button placement.

For buttonholes, have a look at this drawing:

I used to sew my buttonholes so that the middle of each buttonhole would macth the center of the button, but this is not the correct way of doing it. Your buttons will be centered and the center fronts (or backs) will match up if the center of the button corresponds to the inner corner of the buttonhole in a horizontal buttonhole and to the upper corner in a vertical buttonhole. It makes sense if you think about it, because when wearing you will naturally stretch the front apart and/or the blouse will hang, pulling down. Naturally the buttons will come to rest at these points of the buttonholes.

One last note: Don't forget to interface your extensions before sewing!

I hope this tutorial was helpful to some of you and inspired you to make yourself a shirt dress for the June Challenge. Happy sewing!

June Challenge Summer Dress #2: Shirt Waist with Scallops

My camera is working again. Yeah! So here is my second June Challenge Dress for your viewing pleasure :)

It's surprisingly difficult to get good pictures taken in full sunlight :)

This dress is on the extreme opposite of the colour scheme to my first June Challenge Dress: it's black and only black. Black may not be a very summery colour but it sure makes for an excellent wardrobe staple.

I used the same pattern as for the Ghana Dress for the bodice. I only took away the cap sleeves and added a button extension to the front. Again, the skirt is only a rectangle but a much smaller one this time. The scallops at the bottom are faced and I used an invisible zipper on the side seam.

I love the dress for its versatility and easy wearing. These pictures were taken on a trip to our local river for swimming and the dress is perfect for such trips. The simple black can be combined with fun belts, cardigans and shoes to make it a little more colourful and when the weather cools down I can use it as a jumper and wear t-shirts and blouses underneath.

I'm planning to take some more pictures on how the dress can be worn. These pictures just don't do it full justice.

I love how our little flickr group page is filling up with lovely pictures of all your dresses! Keep up the sewing, we'll make it! It's only half-time, lots of sewing time left....Happy June sewing!

June Challenge Summer Dress Inspiration: The Shirt Dress

I'm finished with my June Challenge Dress #2! Only I cannot show it to you. As I was taking pictures of it today my camera suddenly shut itself off and I haven't managed to turn it back on since. I hope it is not broken! I hope it will recover. No! I might be able to get pictures done on a borrowed camera some time this week. I really, really hope so. What will I do without being able to take pictures??? Nooooo.

In the meantime, I will share some summer dress inspiration with you about a style I really love but have never worn or sewn before (Well, until June Challenge Summer Dress #2 came along): Shirt Dresses. I think shirt dresses look really smart and can be worn and styled in so many ways. Here are some of my favourite versions:

1. Electric Blue Shirt Waist Dress (Source unknown); 2. Hello, Nostalgia Dress by ModCloth; 3. Afternoon Sweets Dress by ModCloth; 4. 60s Chiffon Shirt Waist Dress (Source unknown)

The green chiffon dress with the collar and bowtie is so pretty. All these dresses can be made using a very simple pattern, like the ones I posted about here by adding a button extension to the center front of the pattern. Alternatively, there are, of course, numerous beautiful patterns available, in which the work has been done for you already. Vogue 8613 is a nice pattern and would work well to recreate the electric blue and stripey red shirt dresses above:

This Vogue 8577, which looks like a Vintage Vogue pattern but isn't, is also very pretty. The polka dots are gorgeous:

One of my favourite shirt dress patterns is this one from Butterick. It has a Peter Pan collar. Go Peter Pan collar!

Burdastyle has a ton of shirt dresses as well. Remember the Jonny Dress from way back when burdastyle patterns were still all free and the site had a small but manageable selection of patterns (Sigh...the olden days):

I've been wanting to make this dress for so long. I especially like their version with transparent sleeves. But maybe this is something for the colder months. And then, of course, you could take any shirt pattern and just add a skirt and, voila, you have a shirt dress. Should be simple enough. Are you planning on making a shirt dress for the June Challenge? Which patterns are you using or are you going to modify a dress or shirt pattern? Any shirt dress favourites or are you anti-shirt dress?

Quick Update before Bed

So cool!

A few quick updates from me before I have to go to sleep after a long evening of sewing:

•  Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my Ghana Dress. This is so encouraging! My dress has even been included as a featured project on the burdastyle front page. I don't think this has ever happended before.
• I'm really excited to see how everyone is getting on with the June Challenge. A few lovely dresses have already been completed: The 1am dress by Dibs, Burda 101 dress by Freya in a lovely swiss dot, and a pretty flowery dress by Shawnta. Did I forget anyone?
• My second June Challenge dress is almost done....almost...
• I'm in the process of switching from Bloglovin' as my blog reader to Google Reader, although I don't really like using all of Google's services (can they look inside my brain?), but what can you do? Their stuff is just good. My decision came after seeing this great video found here: 
 

Google Reader Tricks for Craft Bloggers from Diane Gilleland on Vimeo.

Did you know about all these features? Hope you are all having a great time stitching up your summer dresses. See you soon...

June Challenge Summer Dress #1: The Ghana Dress

Tada! My first June Challenge Dress is completed. This dress was already finished on Thursday but the weather was terrible so I didn't get a chance to wear it straight away to get nice pictures taken. The dress is called the Ghana dress, because the fabric I used was brought to me from Ghana by a friend who visited there last summer. Unfortunately, neither of the lengths of fabrics he brought were long enough to make a complete dress, so I decided to combine both fabrics into one dress. It didn't look like the two fabrics would go together at first, but surprisingly they do!

I used one of the lengths for the bodice and skirt part and the other one for the tie at the waist, all the facings, the in-seam pockets and for lengthening the skirt - because it was too short and looked silly.

It looks as if the pattern I used is this one from burdastyle magazine 02/2011 I posted about last week, but it isn't. I would have liked to use it but I'm very weary of using commerical patterns these days. I use them for inspiration but often use my own slopers to make the actual patterns. This is mainly because with almost all commerical patterns I use I have to do a labourious, very large FBA, which requires several muslin fittings and more alterations resulting from the FBA.

So, the way I solved the problem for this dress is that I used the bodice of Vogue 8615 - which is a custom fit pattern with separate pieces for A, B, C, D cups - which fit me perfectly cut out in the D cup. I then altered the bodice the way I wanted it to look, moving the dart around, cutting a deeper neckline and adding cap sleeves.

The skirt is simply made of three rectangles (one at the front and two in the back - to allow for the back zip) and I also added a long tie that can be tied in the back or front.

This dress is one of these dresses I wasn't sure I was going to like at all. I made it with fabric I've had in my stash for almost a whole year and never dared to cut into - because it's not like I can go buy more in Ghana anytime soon. Inspired by the June Challenge I put an end to procrastination and hesitation and just went for it. And I love it!

I'll probably use a similar pattern for my next dress to keep it simple. I already have some ideas but haven't started yet. Go June Challenge!

Design Inspiration: Sika Designs

It's the second of June and I have finished one dress already! Woohoo! I don't have photos of it yet. I want to take some in the sun and, of course, as soon as June came around the rain did too, so I cannot even wear my dress. Sniff. The weekend should be a bit sunnier so I'll get photos done then. Hopefully. In the meantime I'll leave you with some more summer dress inspiration which will give you a little clue to what inspired my dress....

I've been wanting to post about this fabulous designer for ages: Sika Designs. Sika is a UK-based label who draw their inspiration from West African prints and designs. Their fabric is all sourced from Ghana where it is made using traditional methods, such as tie dye and wax prints. I love the way their collections are inspired from traditional African prints and colours but with modern and quirky designs and styling. My favourite Sika collections are kaleidoscope, wonderland and fusion. Here are some fun pictures from the kaleidoscope and wonderland collections:

Sika: Scope Wrap Dress

Sika: Wonderland Shirt Dress

And some more versions of these pretty dresses in various farbics:

The fusion collection is a bit more subdued than the kaleidoscope and wonderland collections but nevertheless beautiful:

Sika: Fusion Empire Line Dress

Sika: Bow Shirt Dress

Sika is a wonderful place for June Challenge summer dress inspiration, especially if you want to bring some colour into your summer wardrobe. By the way, three new people have joined our challenge: Dibs and the Machine (love the name of your blog!), two hippos, and Shelly. You can join our little Flickr group too: info here. I have also added a list of participating bloggers underneath the June Challenge badge in the right-hand column of my blog. Let me know if I forgot someone! Keep up the sewing and have a nice June evening or day, wherever you are...