Easter Sewing Marathon Recap

First up, Burda 8155. The fashion fabric was in the clearance section at JoAnn Fabrics for $3 per yard, plus there was some sort of discount going on.


(She's holding a black cat next to her black shirt.)

I added a lining, moved the zipper from the center back to the side, made it an invisible zipper, shortened it several inches, and modified the back slit to accommodate the new length.



Thalia added the plaid high heels from the Payless shoe add, and purple nail polish.



Next, a dress based on the bodice of Burda 9761


We were going to use Kwik Sew 3291 because she really liked the square neckline and short sleeves, but that one pulls over the head (no back zipper) and is consequently very baggy. Plus Kwik Sew is bigger around for each size than Burda (U.S. patterns tend to run bigger than European, plus the fit is different -- you can see it in the shape of the pieces). So I mucked around with the Burda pattern to incorporate the things she liked about the Kwik Sew.



The fashion fabric was a linen from JoAnn Fabric that had embroidery and sequins:



I added a lining through the main body of the dress, and cut the sequins out of the seams of the sleeves. When it was time to hem it I looked through the box of various tapes and bindings I got from Mom when they cleared out their basement, and check it out:


No clue who originally bought this for 38 cents from Kmart (maybe Grandma Dean?), but it matched perfectly:


And since all of those were finished by Saturday morning, I had time to whip up another rendition of Simplicity 3775. I kept the same modified neckline and shortened midriff, but this time used a wonderful knit fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics and shortened the sleeves. I wanted something longer than the cap sleeves the pattern shows, but shorter than the long sleeves, so I just walloped off the long sleeve version.


(My heels are sinking into the yard because it's stupid to walk around the lawn in high heels on a damp morning.)

I need to make some more of these dresses -- they're very comfortable. I discovered I could easily vacuum in it, as well as generally clowning around in it.


All the sewing was done in a little over a week.

Next up: a Victorian costume for a show that AnnaBeth's in. The fabric's in the dryer right now, and the dress needs to be done by Thursday afternoon. More nonstop sewing coming up ....