Butterick B6554 Wrap Dress

I'm on a roll lately.

I'm just gonna keep cranking out new pieces and buying new fabric because that is what my life is currently all about!

I finished Butterick's B6554 recently and finally got around to taking photos today.

This is my 1st mobile post because my laptop's fan recently died and I would prefer not to overheat my computer while the other replacement fan is being shipped! 😆😆

We decided that today we needed to take photos in our soon-to-be-new city of Grand Rapids, Michigan! More details forthcoming but we are really excited for a change of scenery and a new life.

We goofed off quite a bit in these photos as you can see. The backdrop is downtown Grand Rapids on the iconic blue bridge.

For this dress, I used about 5 yards of fabric from fabric.com (my go-to!) of Kaffe Fassett's "Lake Blooms" fabric. Fitting that it would be called "lake blooms" since now I am on the opposite side of the lake from Chicago.

The colors of the fabric are gorgeous!

So Patrick's mom is in the background here yelling "fritos!" instead of "cheese". Interesting choice, but it works I guess?!

I just love how this dress came out!

I'm glad I ended up having to choose another fabric since my original choice was not enough yardage. It was just one of those happy accidents.

Carlos from Vogue Patterns posted a "Sew the Look" on this dress. I was inspired so I went and bought the pattern! Screencap below.

Overall, this dress was such an easy sew! I made the top a size 10 and graded the waist into a 12, but I probably could have done a straight 10 as it is a wrap dress.

Now I want to make the 2 other versions of this pattern! There is a strappy tank version as well as a shorter wrap look.

And here we are all on the bridge together!

I've really been taking some time this summer to relax, regroup, and get ready for the next adventure and phase in my life. It's been more than time to do this and it's been really cool to sew and be creative for a bit while in transition to a new life.

Hope everyone else is having a nice summer too!

Comments

Latch Hook Rug Update

A little under a month ago I received all of my supplies to take on one of the biggest long-term projects I have ever taken on - a self-designed latch hook rug. I don't know why, but I am clearly nuts. So beginning today I am posting photos each month, (preferably on the 1st of each month) progress of this gigantic shag rug. See how I started it here (scroll down past posting of my $10 dress). This is a photo of it today: Yes, I used the candelabra for scale. Haha. This rug is really soft and is fun to run your fingers through. It doesn't look like much was accomplished, but though the number of packages we have gone through of pre-cut latch hook rug yarn already I have calculated that we've used over 2500 strands for this ie.) 8 packages. I also just ordered 10 more packages of lime green since that's what I ran out of first and 6 more packages of straw yellow. There is still quite a bit to go, but you see the blue row square...

Shingo Sato and the Art of Transformational Reconstruction

So I got really excited on my break at work today when I got an email from Burda about a webinar they're doing on a pattern technique called "Transformational Reconstruction" developed by Japanese designer Shingo Sato. I hadn't even heard of Shingo Sato until today let alone his design technique but oddly, it's sort of the path I'm going down with my designs anyway as seen with the Sunrise Panel dress as well as the Petra Dress and the pattern making involved in those designs. What I did there is perhaps a "light" version of Sato's where the darts and shaping are hidden in the seam lines. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know that my design aesthetic focuses largely on color blocking, unusual seam lines, and a love of anything psychedelic. Note: All photos stolen from the internet. Sorry! I'm super-excited. Let me know if it's yours and I'll take it down. Shingo Sato teaching. More designs using...

Section 4: Sewing Basics/Reading a Commercial Pattern

I was actually going to skip over this post since I know that all of you already sew a bit, but then I realized that there are lots of great links and resources to use for sewing and decided I couldn't skip over all of that! I also might have a few things that I might be able to clear up on a commercial pattern for some of you - you never know. We're going to go over a retro pattern - Simplicity 6959 to be exact - because that's a commercial pattern I have used most recently and am familiar with. Much of the information I'll be going over is standard for any pattern so it doesn't matter which pattern you have. Interspersed will be links for sewing tips, tricks, techniques so don't worry if you already feel like you can read a commercial pattern perfectly - there are goodies for advanced sewists too! Alright, so here is Simplicity 6959 - The first thing you will want to look at with a commercial pattern is the back of the pattern packet. What s...

Manic Pop