My entry for the Little Red Dress Contest - Butterick 5247 again!

I stared at my stash fabrics and my stash patterns for a long time to figure out what I want to make for the Little Red Dress contest. I have lots and lots of red fabrics and great patterns to make 5 red dresses! I was pondering if I should make something really sophisticated or something very practical. Eventually, practicality won over elegance.

In keeping with the theme of the contest, which is 'empower women to take charge of their heart health', I wanted to make a practical dress that I can use for healthy outdoor winter activities (hiking, playing in the snow, etc), general day to day activities of a mom, and even lounging around the house. Most of the sporty, practical, utility dresses I have seen at the shops are all in muted colours: black, grey, taupe, navy, blue, etc. Why not something in a vibrant colour?

This is a lipstick red Polartec material. I have LOTS of it! I have this material in black, green , brown and red. I love this material. It's warm and moisture wicking and has 2 usable sides: the soft fleece side and the coated firmer side. I took advantage of the 2 different sides to make my dress.

The pattern I chose was the tried and true Butterick 5247 (See previous creations here and here).  As this is a dress I will be layering, I used size 14 (otherwise I would have used size 12). It is super easy to sew. I drafted a kangaroo pocket for practical purpose. I used the firmer coated side for the main body of the dress and the fleecy side for the pocket and the cowl neck. 

I look pregnant with my hands in the pocket!

It's not the most glamourous little red dress but it's definitely something that's very useful for me. I have already worn it out for a day and was very pleased with it. I think it will get a lot of use in the colder months!

You can read my review of this pattern at PatternReview.

I've entered the Little Red Dress Contest!

I was browsing through the PatternReview site and saw that they are having a Little Red Dress contest. I LOVE RED! So I signed up for the contest. However, after reviewing the dresses in my closet, I realized that I have lots of Little Red Dresses already!

Red Ponte Knit dress Refashion

Red stretch lace dress

Red sparkle knit dress

 Nonetheless, I have lots of red fabrics in my stash and I have to use them somehow. I went to Pinterest to look for inspirations. I want to make something that I will actually wear on a day to day basis, not just some special occasion gown that requires lots of work but never get worn. I want it to be useful, versatile and beautiful too.

My first thought was to make yet another sweater dress. I have made lots of sweater dresses and I wear them often in the colder months. I was thinking perhaps I could make one with my stash wine red sweater knit but add a slight twist to it:

Then I thought perhaps I could do a sporty dress with the Polartec Windbloc fabrics in my stash:

And then I looked at the big roll of red boucle fabrics in my stash and thought I should make something that can be worn to the office:

Finally I saw my tomato red ponti fabric and thought, 'why not a wrap dress?':

What do you think? I really don't know what I want to make for this contest! And time is ticking along! I don't have much time left to ponder on what to make that is useful and beautiful for me to wear. Any suggestions?

Self-drafted fitted pants pattern take 2: Another pair of corduroy pants

Whenever I drafted a new pattern or tweaked a commercial pattern to my liking, I always end up making too many garments with different fabrics from them. It's no exception with my recent self-drafted, elastic waist pants pattern. It's still very cold in our part of the world, so I decided to use some stash wine red corduroy (with a little stretch) and make another pair of skinny pants with it.

It all came together very easily. This corduroy has a little more stretch than the winter white corduroy I used that time. So the skinny pants are a little loose. No matter! It's comfy and warm and I love the colour. I hope to wear it often until May!

Front

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And here is how I'm wearing it in the snow and slush:

For some reason this photo, taken with the timer is super blurry!

Final Feb is Red Month project - A Little Red Dress Refashion

It's the 2nd last day of February and I managed to squeeze another red garment to finish off the 'Feb is Red Month'. After all the hardwork on the muslins and nothing to show for it, I was ready to have a project that I can actually wear. And I chose knit - because knits have rarely failed me. I was almost always able to salvage a knit garment even if it didn't fit properly at first.

This is a RTW red ponte knit dress I bought with a gift card. Someone gave me a store gift card for X'mas and I didn't know what to do with it. So I went to the Clearance rack and found a few things. This XL dress was huge on me but it's a Red Ponte knit!! My favourite colour and my favourite kind of knit!! And it only cost $4.97! Don't worry I haven't changed my consumption habit. I'm still Thrift Store girl at heart. This is a rare occasion because of the gift card.

Anyway, I used the knit dress in Butterick 5146 as a base, added cap sleeves and changed the neckline slit. It has a slight a-line which suits me well. I thought the neckline looked a bit bare, so I rummaged through my notions stash and found a faux leather strap and buckle set. I thought it might jazz up the dress a little. So this is how it turned out:

 (oh I forgot to clip the thread ends...busted....)

But wait! That's not all. If I want to wear some elaborate jewelry with this dress, I can wear the dress backwards like this:

I'm really happy with this dress - it's red, it's knit, it's travel friendly, it's versatile for work and play.  I can even layer it with long sleeves tees and leggings for the Fall. It's definitely my favourite Little Red Dress thus far!

Refashion: A Tiny Red Dress becomes A Bigger Tiny Red Dress

The February is Red Month theme continues! This time it's a refashion for my little girl. I was given this cute little dress and my daughter loves it. It's actually a dress for a 12-18 month old but she insisted on wearing it even though she is almost 3! The dress hit at her hip and I could hardly pull it over her head. My daughter is a very messy eater and refuses to wear a bib at meal times. But she loves this dress so much that she would wear a bib when wearing this dress.

So I thought I would do a quick refashion with this dress so that she can fit into it comfortably. First, I needed to chop off the very tight top part:

Then I used some remnant red stretch fleece and some hot pink ribbed knit (both used in this project) to make a bigger top to be attached to the bottom skirt. It took me about 45 minutes for this whole project. I hope she likes this new version of her favourite dress!

Red Faux Suede Purse Prototype

As the February Red Month theme continues, I have made a prototype of a cross-body purse that I actually need. I have been needing a good, sturdy, large enough cross-body bag for my stuff and my toddler's stuff when we go out. My old purse is on it's last legs and I haven't seen any suitable purses at my local thrift stores.

I thrifted this upholstery grade red faux suede from my local thrift store last year. I had always planned to make bags/purses out of it. There is almost a metre of this fabric which is lucky for me because I should be able to make a prototype or two out of it.

I have been thinking and planning in my head about this particular prototype for a while. I like cross-body bags because I usually have to struggle with 2 active willful kids and I have no arms left for a purse. I also need a purse with many compartments so that I can store call the coupons, library cards, points cards, little crayons and stickers for my toddler, a basic change of clothes for her, a small pot of homemade moisturizer, my phone, a tablet, and of course my bulging wallet. I know that's a lot to carry around all the time but I'm with my toddler all day long so I don't want to have to pack and unpack stuff all the time.

This is how it turned out:

It's okay but not exactly how I wanted it to turn out. First, it's not big enough for all the stuff. Second, since it's a prototype I just used whatever I have in my stash for the lining. I use a medium weight denim as the lining for the outside zipper welt pocket. And then I used a coated cotton for the inside lining. All that has added a lot of bulk to the bag. If I had use a good sturdy polyester lining fabric the bag would be a lot less bulky.

Although I'm not completely pleased with this one, I'm happy that I tested out the ideas in my head and I learned a lot about making the zipper welt pockets. I test wore this bag today and it's okay. So I'll just have to do some minor design tweaks and change the lining fabric to something more appropriate.

Pattern Review: My Red Lace Valentine's Dress! Butterick 6771

Lace dresses have been all the rage these past couple of years. I'm happy to say that I have made my own little lace dress too!

For the last couple of years I have only been creating garments/accessories/decor stuff using stash patterns and stash fabrics. This one is no exception. This dress is based on Butterick 6771 (published in 2000) and with a red moderate stretch lace that has been in my stash for at least 8 years. It was one of those off-cuts in a cheapy bin. I made the short dress with a redrafted neckline and no sleeves. I was going to add sleeves but hubby said it looked better without sleeves.

I chose size 12 but it was a little loose. Knits are all different in stretchiness so I was happy that it has a centre back seam which allowed me to tailor the dress a little more instead of just tweaking the fit with the 2 side seams. The dress came together very quickly. I would have loved to use clear elastic to stablize the neckline and armholes but the shininess of the elastic was showing through the lace so I opted to just fold it back and stitched on top. The stitching is very obvious to me but hubby said he wouldn't have noticed if I didn't point it out.

I was going to lined the whole dress with this gold moderate stretch knit but I wanted more versatility for the dress. Without a sewn in lining, I could wear the dress with a black slip or a nude slip underneath.

The dress is very comfortable (that's why I like knits!!) and easy to wear. I'm sure it packs very easily too. Now I have a new Red Lace Valentine's dress to wear! I just have to arrange for some babysitting for Valentine's Day......

February is Red Month!

I can't believe it's already February! We are in the 2nd month of 2014. Where did the time go?

This month's theme is Red. This means I will concentrate on creating garment/accessories with the red fabrics in my stash. I'm hoping to create something nice for myself and my daughter in time for Valentines day! It's already Feb 6! I'd better start looking through my fabric/notion/pattern stash now!

Do you have any sewing themes for each month?