A couple of dresses & a shirt

I have been hopelessly looking for the perfect dress for years now. Something that is comfortable, easy to wear during the summer and winter. Of course something with pockets. I want something very simple in the design, that will show off the fabric.  For a long time I drooled over these dresses at Tumbleweed in Portland. They are all very cute, simple lines and beautiful fabric. Looking at the dresses I always felt that I could make one that would be perfect for me. I even had a dress that was very close to what I wanted, I bought it at a garage sale and wore it till the fabric started to give out at the underarms. I called it the summer Christmas dress because of the colors. I should just take it apart and make a pattern from this dress, but for some reason I keep thinking that I will find a pattern that would be just perfect. 

When I first saw the Dottie Angle Dress Simplicity 1080, I thought this is it. But I had some problems when I made the first one, I might have made it too small. I believed the finished measurements thinking that I would make it a little more form fitting by making a medium. It does fit but I have a feeling I will rip out the seam under the arm the first time I wore it and was too active...like gardening. So I made another one this time I made a large. It was a little too big, the arms gaped and it felt like and looked like a potato sack. I had a friend over watching me make the dress and we decided to cut off the strange flap of the sleeve, thinking that a sleeveless dress would be nice, we also put in bust darts because it looked like it needed them when I tried the dress on. This did not improve the drape of the dress. The fabric was a quilting cotton so it did not drape as nice as I thought it would. Of course after a couple of washings it may loosen up. I like the fabric and I have not give up on this dress or the pattern. I just have to find the way this pattern will fit me. I may need to adjust the darts or try something different with the sleeves.

The next pattern I found that I thought would be great is from "A Verb for Keeping Warm" called Endless Summer Tunic. I really liked the simplicity of the dress and it had pockets. Well after the making two dresses that I felt were fails, at least for now, I decided to try the Endless Summer Tunic. It's a very simple layout and really the directions are very simple, thought I would like some illustrations as I'm a very visual learner. I used thrifted sheet to make a muslin. I liked the dress but when I was done I tried it on and Oh WOW it was short. I also think I need to make it one size larger. That seems to be a theme for me right now...one size larger. Maybe I will get someone to actually take my measurements so I can get this right. Interesting enough while I was looking for other images of the dress I found a blogger that made one of the Endless Summer Tunics in the Alabama Chanin Style.  I can't wait to try the pattern in a knit. 

Which brought me back to my favorite pieces of clothing...anything from Alabama Chanin. I had made one of the long sleeve shirt a year or so ago...that was a fail..I used some very strange jersey that had very little stretch. I decided to try it again as I really love loose long sleeve shirts in the winter. They are great under sweaters. I had bought what looked and felt like a tissue jersey at a resale store. I started to hand sew the shirt together but the thin material was almost impossible to work. The seams looked terrible all bunched up and very fragile looking.  So I took out what I had already sewn and used my serger to make the shirt. I used a rolled hem on the neck line and along the bottom of the shirt. It's very thin fabric and I will see how it lasts. I struggled the entire time with this material,  I believe the reason this 2 yards of material was at the resale shop was because the grain was off. But we shall see, for now I have a simple undershirt to wear this winter. I have a couple of things coming from Alabama Chanin that I bought at the Orange and Black sale last week, I can't wait to start another hand sew project. 

Dottie Angel Dress Simplicity 1080

I was very excited to finally get to make the pattern from Dottie Angel. It's a simplicity pattern 1080, and it was hard to find in the Portland area so I finally ordered it on line. I have been a fan of the Dottie Angel blog for a couple of years have always loved her style and in particular the house frock she was always wearing...it had nice large pockets. When I saw the pattern I knew it was a dress for me. I had several of the same problems that others had. The tucks were too high and the instructions for the arms was kind of funky. I have never put bias tape on the inside seams either. I'm glad I decided to make a muslin for this pattern as it was easy to fix what seemed to be fitting problems. Several others lowered the tucks by about 2" and did variations on the sleeve. I  removed the ties that go around the back. Thought I lower the side tucks and I think I can go even a little lower by about 1/2" or more as there is some strange gaping around the underarms. I like the pattern and it's pretty straight forward if you understand sewing. If I was a beginner I would have been very frustrated, I mean I was frustrated when I made the dress...it fit terribly...even my husband commented that it "fit weird". After researching on line about others problems here & here , you can also see Dottie Angel Facebook page that has several photos of the interior of the dress, these helped me a lot. The dress is super cute and when I made adjustments to fit my body it's really comfortable. I was happy that I made a muslin. The fabric that I used was an old sheet I got at the goodwill specifically to use the fabric for this type of project. Though now I want to dye the dress a little darker...maybe a blue. I can see myself making several of these over the winter months for next summer...or I can wear them all winter with a sweater...either way I see several more of these dresses in my future.

All Girl BBQ

I have been having an All Girl BBQ for about 12 years now. It started at a friends house and when she stopped hosting the event I took over the task. It's become an annual event for a lot of ladies that I know, they ask me all year if I'm going to do it again as they are cleaning out their closet or they want to dye their hair again. It's the one day a year when I kick my husband out of the house from 2-10pm. I set up make-up, nail polish and hair dye in the driveway, there is a huge table of good and drink in the garage and in the way back on the "talk show set" I put all the clothes. Needless to say the clothes are alway the center of attention at this event. Though dying hair takes a very close second only to eating (which is necessary to living so I don't really count it). I felt a little sad this year as my local neighbor girl Sophie was going to be out of town with her cousins on the day of the event...so I didn't tell her. Only problem was her father let it slip as he was tasked with keeping my husband busy, he was talking to Sophie on the phone and said he had to keep Chris out of the yard because of the BBQ. She started to cry and told him she wanted to come home right now because it's the thing that she waits for all year. Next year I will make sure she is in town for the BBQ. 

Anyway, we had a couple of other young ladies...Elliot wanted to color her hair with pink & purple. He mother helped her and she loved it..it does look really cute. I think her mother did a really good job. Another friend brought a bunch of dirty temporary tattoos, I have one that says kiss my ass in really nice cursive script...you almost can't tell what it says. Katie did some cool yellow dye in her hair that glows in backlight. Too bad we did't have a black light to check it out, it was a nice color either way with her blond hair. Elliott also found the serial killer mask and had a great time with it on, at one point she was looking at her self in the mirror moving her head back and forth like she could not believe she was making it happen...it was a both creepy and cute at the same time if that is possible. Mara found a beautiful black dress with some wonderful lace on the bottom. It fit her perfectly! 

We were attacked with water balloons by the boys next door (boys get really jealous when you tell them they can't do something), we were able to steal their super soakers and attacked them back. Fun was had by all...except a couple of ladies actually got hit by water balloons...but mostly the boys were not able to get the balloons over the garage. It was very hot so the water shower was not terrible. At one point the boys stole the golf cart and my niece chased them down the street covering them in lipstick. They referred to the mess as war wounds. At the end of the evening my husband and brother came in and we all sat around the table, drinking and eating till very late into the night. I was happy to wake up and find the dish fairy had done all the dished and cleaned up the last of the food...THANK YOU KATIE!!

Alabama Chanin Dresses

I have several Alabama Chanin Dresses. The top photo shows off my favorite and likely the one I'm most proud...the Turquoise and Silver Paisley Fitted Tank Dress. This pattern is from Natalie's last book "Alabama Studio Sewing + Design". The pattern has 4 panels, making it really hard to mess up. The pattern is called the Fitted Dress/Skirt/Tunic you can make a skirt, a tunic or a dress all from the same pattern, just cut off the top or the bottom of the pattern piece. It's very simple and flattering pattern, the nature of knit fabric helps it fit to your own body. "Alabama Studio Sewing + Design" includes more stitches which compliment the simple lines of the patterns in this book. 

I have made 5 of the Tank Dress from Natalie's 2nd book "Alabama Studio Style". This is a 6 panel dress that flairs out quite a bit on the bottom. A fitted top with a nice swing to the skirt of the dress. The tank dresses were made with one layer of fabric except for the Burgundy Merino Wool with a mauve cotton layer under it. This dress is a very warm dress, last winter I wore it when we went sledding with the neighbor kids in the snow.  This dress has perfect panels for interesting and fun details. I reverse screen printed a chandelier then beaded the image on one of the dresses. Reverse screen printing uses a bleach to bleach out the color of the fabric. Sometimes you find wonderful colors under a dark color. You can use soft scrub...it contains bleach and works on most 100% cotton knit fabric. On the Merino Wool Dress I did some simple Eyelet stitches along the bottom of the dress. It adds a little interest and is something that I work on when I have time, it's a work in progress. 

I'm really looking froward to Natalie's next book due out in spring of 2015. She is taking pre-orders starting thursday October 30th.  She is also having a 24 hour sale at the factory and on line...25% off...for 24 hours on thursday October 30th. Get yourself a DIY kit so you have a new skirt or dress for Christmas, or give one of her DIY kits to the sewer in your life. 

I wear these dresses on a regular basis, they are comfortable and some of the easiest pieces of clothing I have ever made. When I think back to how afraid I was of knit fabric I laugh because in a lot of ways it's much easier then woven material. You can make clothes a little snug and the knit fabric will hug you and fit to your body. Very flattering! Of course there are some items that I have made that were WAY too big but that was mostly because I had chosen a 4 way stretch knit. I still have a lot to learn about knit fabric but I'm getting better with each garment I make. 

New Adventure

I left my job of 25 years. I have no job waiting, I do not really have a safety net set up, but it was the right thing to do. I had been unhappy for a couple of years. I kept going to work because I loved the people I worked with and well to be honest the health benefits were GREAT. Now my husband & I are looking at health care, we signed up for Cover Oregon and hoping that we can keep the doctors that we have been using for the past 5 years.


Now I get to go to events on the weekend, wake up and play with the kitty's and my favorite of all….sew whenever I want to sew. I can stay up till 2am making a shirt for my husband or a dress for myself. It's all a little frighting but also new and exciting. 

Hat Museum in Portland Oregon

We went to the Hat Museum located in Ladd's Addition in Portland Oregon. It's worth it if you are at all interested in hats. There are over 1000 hats and one of the coolest hats is made from a very large mushroom. You have to make an appointment to go to the museum and only 6 people at a time, but it's worth the time as the tour is amazing. 

My latest Pendleton Rug, I'm on a mission to make 20 of these and try to sell them on Etsy. I love staying up late nights watching movies and crocheting these rugs. It takes me about 2 hours to complete a rug. 


As promised here are some better photos of me in the fashion show, they were taken by a good friend who attend the Quilt!Knit!Stitch! convention…Thank you Tina!!

All the lovely ladies that made dresses and were in the fashion show

Me wearing my saltwater sandals and my very comfortable Party Dress. 

Quilt!Knit!Stitch!

I attended the QKS event at the Oregon Convention Center on Friday August 15th. I was in a fashion show with about 7 other ladies that had made dress from Mary Adams book "The Party Dress". My husband attended the event and attempted to take some photos. I love my husband but he is not a photographer. 

There were a couple of Mary Adams dresses on display at the event.

A very blurry photo that my husband took as I was twirling in my Party Dress

All the ladies that made a Party Dress at one of the workshops that Mary taught in Portland a couple of years ago (Mary is in the center wearing all black). She is offering the class again at Mill End Fabric Store August 23 & 24, 2014. 

I arrived early because there was a class Pendleton Woolen Mills sponsored demonstrating how to crochet a wool rug from scrap that the mill use to toss in the landfill. Her rug was above was beautiful. Mine below looks a little like pizza. 

 I have always loved braided rugs and recently tried to crochet a rug from fabric scrap. The results were not what I wanted but I would not give up. In the class the woman talked about how to make all your stitches very loose. As someone that has crocheted in the past that was very confusing. Today I went to the Mill and bought some of the scrap for $2.10 a pound. The scrap looks a little strange, it's very loose and frays easily. I bought a lot of gray, blue and black scrap. My understanding is once you wash the rug it felts up nicely. I will be cool to say it's a Pendleton Wool rug that if you put it in front of a fire it will not burn, it's a natural flea repellant and it's totally washable!!!

 I see several of these small rugs in my future, the one I made took me about an hour to complete.