A Knit Dress

I've been super busy with my final semester of school! I did find some time a few weeks back to make this simple knit dress, though.
It always seems to be the "Simple" and "Easy" patterns that I dislike the most.

A Simplicity Shirt-Dress

So for the first project with my new sewing machine, I went to my local Joann's and looked through a couple patterns catalogues. I picked out several patterns, but I chose to make this cute shirt-dress first.

I chose to make view B with view A's sleeves.

A New Sewing Machine

I celebrated my birthday in December, and my parents told me I could get a new sewing machine. My Aunt has a super nice and very nifty Bernina, so she took me to the little shop where she bought it to choose mine.

Here she is!

It's a Bernina B 530 Special Swiss Red Edition…It has so many more bells and whistles than my old machine could ever dream of having. It will make buttonholes all the same size automatically, which is awesome. It has a knee bar so I can raise and lower the presser foot without reaching around to the back of the machine. I can choose whether I want the needle to stay up or down when I stop stitching, and the pedal has a feature where I can raise and lower the needle by pressing down with my heel. And it has all sorts of fancy stitches! As part of the deal with the Special Edition, I got a very nice rolling case to put it in too. It also comes with a little cabinet sort of thing for the bobbins and feet and other accessories. So far, I love it very much!

A Wallet for My Man

Not only do I sew, but I also enjoy tooling leather. My boyfriend's wallet is starting to get a bit raggedy, so I made him a new one to give him for Christmas. I've made him a couple trifold wallets before, but this time he wanted a long wallet. He told me what he wanted on it, and I found pictures that he liked and made them the right size to fit on the leather.

Then I traced the designs onto the leather.

Here it is nearly finished. His initials are on either side of the top part of the cross.

I decided to add a background texture behind the celtic knot side.

Can't forget a maker's mark. It's in the lower left corner

Here it is all dyed up. I decided to resist the dye over the tooled patterns to make them stand out.

Here is the finished product :)

Bad blogger...

I know, I've been a bad blogger, and I am sorry. I haven't been able to do much sewing, especially here at the end of the semester, but I have been doing some loom knitting. I've made a few hats, some cowls, and a whole pile of boot toppers.

I plan to make another (smaller)cross-back apron for my youngest cousin, who wants to be a baker. I figured it would make a nice Christmas present.

I have also been bequeathed with some ripped-up jeans and too-small shirts from a recent cleaning of my boyfriend's closet. The shirts are quite nice, so I figured I could do something with them rather than give them away. The jeans would have gone in the trash anyways, so I scooped them up to be reused.
I have some shirts of my own that I need to refashion, as well, since they are too tight across the shoulders.

So I have plenty of projects lined up and waiting for me whenever I find the time.

An 1860's Gathered-Front Day Dress: Part Four

Part Four: The Completed Dress

I am very pleased with the results:

Please excuse my awful hair. It needs a trim very badly… Look at the dress not me haha :P

Here I am wearing it over my cage crinoline and two petticoats, and my corset of course. I love the way the skirt hinges out from the waist to help create the bell shape. 

An 1860's Gathered-Front Day Dress: Part Three

Part Three: The Skirt

I knew I wanted a very full skirt for this dress, so I used roughly 5 and half yards of fabric. There are two seams, one on each side. I also took advantage of the selvedges and used them as the waist and hem edges. It makes the print go the "wrong" way (Horizontal instead of vertical to match the bodice), but I'm not overly concerned about it. I faced the hem with a wide strip of fabric instead of lining the whole skirt. I decided to cartridge pleat (or gauge) the skirt to a waistband and then sew the skirt and bodice together. I wanted a dogleg closure, so the bodice closes up the center front and the skirt closes on the right.

Here's the skirt pinned to the bodice. I didn't take pictures of the whole construction process, unfortunately. It was all a huge mass of fabric, anyways, and would have been difficult to photograph.