Category: Fashion Sewing

Sewing projects that I have done that are inspired by my needs, desires and what is happening in the fashion world.

Animal Print Brocade Holiday Party Dress

I love this dress! I thought it would be too poofy and make me look bigger than I would like to look, but after wearing it, I was OK with the poof.

Vogue Pattern 1434 by Isaac Mizrahi in animal print brocade

I used Vogue 1434 to make this dress. It’s a Vogue Patterns American Designer pattern designed by Isaac Mizrahi:

V1434 by Isaac Mizrahi Pattern Cover

V1434 Pattern Envelope Back and Line Drawings

I cut out this dress in a size 14, making a fitting muslin of the bodice first, which took some minor tweaking at the shoulders and bust princess seams, but the fit was pretty great overall. I cut it from a beautiful Italian animal print cotton blend brocade in metallic cream, rose and peach shades from Oscar de la Renta I ordered from Moodfabrics.com:

Oscar de la Renta Cream/Wint/Rose/Peach Animal Italian Cotton Blended Brocade Fabric

Pattern Cutting the Brocade

I had a nice red silk crepe de chine fabric in my stash that was just barely enough yardage to fully line the dress:

cranberry red silk crepe de chine for the lining

The dress was fairly easy to construct with a basic princess seam sleeveless bodice and full pleated skirt and deep pockets, lined by the same pattern pieces for the bodice and different patterned pieces for a gathered skirt lining.

The most time consuming part was making the pleats.

I traced the pleat placement using the handy pleating guide included in the pattern pieces:

Pleat Guide Pattern Piece

I found that this would have been helpful had all my pleat tracing work had actually shown up and stuck to the brocade fabric once it came time to sew them. Instead, I actually held the guide up to my fabric as I pinned each pleat in place, then carefully basted them down:

Pinned and Sewing Pleats

This took the most time and attention, but it was worth the work!

finished dress!

I love how the lining turned out, accept the fact that I didn’t take the time to make French seams on the skirt as the inside of the lining could show my mistake or if anyone looks at it throughly inside and out. Oh well, I might just pink the seam edges so they don’t fray.

Mood Fabrics even sent a little label with the fabric that I sewed into my dress below my Love, Stephanie label. Oh, the little things make all the difference!

Labels Pinned and ready to Hand Sew Into Lining of Bodice

Lining of Bodice with Labels

this dress is fully lined in red silk crepe de chine

This dress was a huge hit at the two little holiday parties I went to Saturday, and I plan to wear it to another party on Sunday! I even met a woman who wants to talk to me about making some custom dresses and apparel for her! Plus, friends of mine have been dying for me to make them something custom, and we have some really great project ideas in the works! So exciting!

I was going for a dress inspired by these dresses I pinned on Pinterest:

Eliza J dress at Nordstrom

Lanvin Jaquard Dress

It is so very cool to be able to make my own clothes, and then wear them and “sell” my work to others!

The Deep Pockets are Wonderful!

Love My New Dress!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and and Happy New Year to ALL!!! MWAH!!

December 20, 2015
Colorblock Dress

I busted out this dress, hopefully just in time to make the deadline for the Patternreview Colorblock Contest! If not, no biggie, just a prize gift certificate to my favorite online fabric store, Mood.

There were a bunch of wonderful entries, so I might have come in about 5th place, maybe, with this little dress:

I saw this dress pattern, Burda 6851:

on the Simplicity.com website, and thought it was perfect for a color blocked project (I believe my first!), and something I could easily interpret for my needs.

Once I started researching the pattern online (Google, Yahoo Images), with only one other pattern review on Patternreview.com, I found that someone pinned on Pinterest this pattern as an, um, EXACT copy of a Donna Karan dress from her Fall 2015 line, so of course I was even more excited to make this dress!

This dress was a pretty simple sew. The hardest part was adding the zipper, which was instructed as an invisible zipper, but I chose a semi-exposed, plastic zipper with black trimmed zipper teeth, a black zipper pull, and a clear white plastic zipper tape, as my seemingly cool zipper alternative:

Well, my cool zipper idea kind of backfired because the zipper is a tad too heavy and stiff for the ponte knit weight, and the ends of the zipper are super plastic-y and won’t behave with the top and bottom seams, thus leaving a bumpy, lumpy and scratchy interior of the zip area. Not great, but a good effort.

Had I had the time, and sewing buddy to help, or an exact clone of myself to come in handy, I would have “pinched out” at the mid back of this dress to avoid that nasty bubble at the back. I also would have adjusted the underarm weirdness at the dolman sleeve “meeting”:

As well as lost the trying-too-hard “deer in headlights” look on my face. Really Steph?

Overall, it was a great dress to sew up in a few days. I may sew it again, I may not, but I really should be making my own patterns at this point, and making them unique.

Oh well! I enjoy letting others do the pattern making (thank you Burda!), and doing the fabric and construction stuff for me, thus my love affair with commercial patterns!

Tootles for now and see you soon!

Happy Holidays!

December 15, 2015
Sequin Mesh Strapless Gown

I finished this dress in the nick of time to wear out to the Portland Fashion and Style Awards held at the Portland Art Museum last night.

black sequin gown from Vogue 2237

I love simplicity of this style and the slight train on the back of this gown:

Back of gown

Credit must be given to Vogue Patterns for putting out this designer pattern number 2237 from Badgley Micshka. This was a wonderful pattern to sew as it went together fairly simply and was a good learning experience.

I traced off the pattern on to Swedish tracing paper and made adjustments to the length of the bodice and the skirt. After measuring the pattern and comparing them to my body measurements, accounting for an additional 3″ high heel, I found that I needed to add 2″ to the bodice and 5″ to the skirt portion of the pattern.

I then cut out and sewed up a muslin of the gown as well as the corset for fitting. My lovely friend helped me pin this dress and make notes on the muslin where to take in and let out.

I found this lovely sequin mesh polyester material at Fabric Depot in Portland, Oregon and thought it had the perfect drape and sparkle for this project.

sequin mesh material in a grey-ish blue

sequin mesh material

I got a flesh colored Ambiance lining that matched the color of my skin to line the dress so that it appeared to be see-thru when wearing:

The sequin mesh material was perfect to sew with as it is very soft and the sequins are as well. I was able to sew it without having to remove the sequins from the seam allowances with saved a bundle of time.

I love the scalloped and fringe-like selvedge of the material and was hoping to trim it off and incorporate it into the dress either at the hem or the top edge, but I ran out of time to do this. I suppose I can go back and add it at another time, or use it for another project. It is just too pretty to toss out!

Here is the muslin and sequin fabric draped on my dress forms:

sequin fabric draped and muslin pinned to dress forms

The pattern design includes a corset-like under structure that holds up the strapless gown that is sewn into the lining. I added 3 additional boning channels to this at the front and under the bust for added support.

Interior of bodice foundation with added boning channels at front

right side of bodice foundation

I used a heavier weight muslin for the structure part of the corset and the same lining as the gown to line it. Turned out really great!

I did have to make several fitting adjustments to the outer part of the dress as at first the muslin needed to be let out, but then in the sequin material, which does have a lot more “give” than muslin, I had to take it back in. I had to make fitting adjustments a couple of times actually, in order to get the nice tight fit that a strapless gown requires in order to stay up. Thanks to my part time job doing bridal and special occasion gown fittings and alterations at David’s Bridal, I have learned a great deal about fitting gowns and this knowledge came in quite handy!

After many hours of fitting and sewing this dress (and leaving off some steps as time was up!), I really love the outcome of the gown and was excited to wear it to the big event! I may go back and make adjustments to the “peaks” of the bodice so that they are a little pointier and less rounded at the top, and the lining drove me nuts all night as it was coming up over the edge of the dress and showing! At least the lining is flesh colored and it was not as noticeable, but I still was not happy with that.

After looking at photos, maybe the bodice was a little too tight as my boobs looked kind of squished. I guess I didn’t realize that I can fake a pretty good cleavage in this kind of dress! Cool!

I was rushing to finish in time (as usual) and sewing on the hook and eye at the back when I was supposed to be on my way to my friend’s house to get ready, but we made it in perfect timing, so it was all good in the end.

black sequin gown from Vogue 2237

Back of gown

Very good actually!

And here I am wearing a little hat designed by ElizaBeth Rohloff. She was nominated at the Portland Fashion and Style Awards for Best Accessory Designer, but sadly didn’t win (this time!). It was fun to wear!

Off to the event! Bye!

November 16, 2015
Draped Back Jersey Dress

I drafted and sewed up this loose fitting draped back dress using the guidance of this blogger Moldesdicasmoda:

It was a fairly simple dress to sew, with just a front, back and back band piece to make.

Pattern from the blogger Moldesdicasmoda.com

I lowered the front neckline, but I think I took a little too much off as it sits pretty low in front:

Front neckline

I added a little stripy bralette from Free People underneath the top for interest under the drape:

with Free People strappy bralette underneath

This is a super comfortable dress to wear as it is an essentially shapeless fit.

Loose fitting dress, but still chic

I am quite happy with it overall, and it was a lot of fun to wear to a fashion show in town!

Just throw on some heels and go!

September 13, 2015
Printed Silk Palazzo Pants

I’m in love with these pants! I made them in a wonderful, silk charmeuse with a big, bold swirly floral print I purchased at Mill End Store in Milwaukie, Oregon a few years ago. I originally bought this fabric to make a maxi dress, but decided that they would make great flowy pants instead.

I made these using New Look 6271 pattern:

These were fast and easy to make. Using my serger to make the side, inseam and crotch seams made it go pretty fast.

I added 3″ to the leg of the pant and another 2″ to the hem. I wanted these to be long and flowy and to have a deep enough hem to weigh down the drape. I think I ended up with 2″ for a hem.

I let the pants hang for a day or two before I hemmed them so that they had time to relax and “grow” if they wanted to.

Pants hanging before hemming

I also made a couple of quick sketches just to practice and to get ideas of tops I could wear with these pants:

Yup, that’s me!

I love these pants and they are SO comfortable! It has to be a “skinny” day to wear these as they can really make the thighs, butt and waist look just as wide as the pants if you are not careful, or make sure to wear something form fitting on top to balance out the fullness of the pant.

I was going for a summery, beachy look such as these images:

I will definitely be making more of these pants. Maybe out of linen, a soft cotton, rayon or silk again. I love them!

Adios Amigos!

July 25, 2015
Denim Sheath Dress

This dress was completed just in time to wear to the Pattern Review weekend retreat in Los Angeles back in April 2015. Here is a photo of me and Deepika Prakesh (who is amazing and hysterical!), the founder of PatternReview.com, at the group dinner that weekend.

With Deepika at PatternReview weekend in LA

I met so many wonderful sewers and connected with them in a special way. Here is my new buddy Kristin that I also met on this weekend retreat:

With Kristen G. at PatternReview weekend in LA

I used Vogue 8995 pattern to make this fitted sheath dress with interesting seams:

I’m always looking out to expand my creativity with commercial patterns. I really consider this denim dress sort of another muslin version, a draft, to see if I like the dress and want to “move forward” with it, creating other dresses from this as standard. So fun! And good sewing practice too!

I really enjoyed making this dress. It took some time and planning, as I originally wanted to add metal studs to the shoulder yoke part of this dress, but then decided that would make it too limiting. I may go back and add the studs though and give it a bit of an edgy look. I did use a metal-look plastic exposed zipper for this dress to give it a little back interest. The dress looks actually kind of flat and the seams are not apparent in this dark fabric. perhaps some top stitching would have been a good idea for this to really help the cool seam lines “pop”. Next time….

Seam detail of denim sheath dress

I made up a muslin and asked my good friend and fashion designer Rachael to help fit it for me. She was great! I definitely will be using her fitting help again in the future!

The dress is made up of a dark wash stretch denim and a stretch silk lining. I serged the fabric edges of each cut out piece of the pattern for both the outer shell of the dress as well as the lining. I use my awesome Baby Lock Imagine serger to overlock and stitch seams as often as I can. It’s a beautiful machine!

I will like to make up this pattern again, but making changes to the neckline, carving it out a bit so that it is not quite so high. Also, I will taper the skirt to more of a pencil skirt.

The opportunity came up to have a photo shoot done at The Nines Hotel, a really lovely, luxury hotel in Portland, Oregon, and I grabbed it! An acquaintance of mine, Gina, has a photography business Afar Photography and wants to expand her portfolio, so asked me if I would like to have some of the clothes that I have made in the shoot. Heck YEA!!!!

Here are some of the great shots she got of me in this dress:

At The Nines Hotel in denim dress

Exposed zip of denim dress

Of course, I have a little bit of fashion inspiration for this sewing project:

LBD sheath influenced by Audrey Hepburn

Red fitted sheath dress

Versace sheath dress

I love my new dress and thank my friends for helping me make this a great one!

Denim dress in doorway

July 8, 2015
Geometric Print Silk Blouson Dress

So easy to just slip on with some cute shoes and jewelry.

I finished this dress just in time to wear to a local fashion show tonight. I love how easy and chic it is, and was a snap to make.

I used Vogue 8915 pattern to make this dress. This is the third time I have made this pattern, and most likely not the last time.

I used this lovely silk charmeuse in a geometric print that I had in my fabric stash from about 4 years ago, purchased at Josephine’s Dry Goods in Portland, OR. I love this print because it is different and artsy without being too crazy. I originally bought it for another Vogue pattern, but decided to not make that one as it is a little dated.

It was a fast and easy pattern to cut out, just a front and back cut on the fold, the sash, and the pockets (I did not do pockets this time).

Back view, Vogue 8915 pattern

This is my pattern layout:

I, of course, have pinned some inspiration dresses on Pinterest for dresses like this:

I am excited to slip in this dress and wear it out, hopefully get some good photos of me in it, and maybe a client or two out of it (a sewing client, mind you!).

Cheers!

June 18, 2015
Silk Crepe De Chine Tunic Blouse

I just finished this lovely silk crepe de chine tunic blouse in a beautiful shade of blue:

Crepe de chine tunic blouse in colbalt blue

This was not the fastest thing I have sewn, as I took my time making couture seams and hand sewn finishes, even self-fabric covered buttons. This fabric is so lovely to wear, but quite finicky, delicate and slippery to manage and to sew, that I had to take my time for each section of the construction process.

features center back pleat detail

I used New Look 6374 pattern, view A to make this top:

Pattern cover for New Look 6374

I have seen this style of top all over the place in stores, in magazines, on people, so I have gathered up a few images of the look I was going for with this top:

I look forward to wearing this new silk top, and most likely, I will be making it up again in other colors soon. Exciting!

May 17, 2015
The Joy of a Black Jersey Jumpsuit

I finished this jumpsuit just in time to cram into my luggage to bring to the Pattern Review Weekend in LA this past weekend and it was perfect for the occasion! I met with some wonderful fellow sewing enthusiasts and we talked about and shared all things sewing related all weekend. It was amazing!

Speaking of amazing, this jumpsuit was a joy to wear and SO comfortable! I got many compliments on it and it was fun to wear!

I used McCalls pattern 7135 from Khaliah Ali view C.

I have been wanting to make and wear a jumpsuit for some time now, but didn’t think it would look good on me and might pull and tug in all the wrong places. I decided to go for it and tried out this pattern.

I added 5 inches to the pant leg at the “lengthen/shorten here” line, added 1 inch at the bodice front and back, and cut the back with a seam allowance instead of on the fold as the pattern instructed in order to add an exposed zipper here for fashion interest and for ease in removing the garment.

Next time I make this pattern, I would add another inch to the leg so that I can actually make a hem, and take out some vertical length I added to the back so that it doesn’t bag out (I added too much here) for a better fit.

I used a strip of fusible knit interfacing to insert the exposed zipper and it turned out great:

So, I think that with experimentation, adjusting for fit, and the right fabric (a.k.a trial and error), plus bumping up the exercise and carefully watching what I eat, jumpsuits are a possibility for me and I will try this pattern, and/or other jumpsuit patterns, in the near future. Why not! If Diane von Furstenberg can do it, and sell out of it, why can’t I!

(Cue: Fashion Inspiration):

I am overjoyed with my newly sewn jumpsuit, and am glad I tried it out!

With my new sewing buddy Kristin (a.k.a LeftCoast) at PatternReview weekend in Los Angeles.

April 26, 2015
Plaid Shawl Transformation into Throw Pillows

My friend purchased this lovely plaid fringed shawl (no, it is NOT Burberry!) and asked my to make some throw pillows out of it:

Plaid Shawl with fringe

The pillows were pretty easy to make, however it did take some extra time to plan out the cutting in order to keep the fringe border intact and on the outside of the pillow edges and to get the invisible zippers installed correctly.

Normally making a pillow with fringe or a piped edge, you can just sew right sides together with the fringe or piping sandwiched between the two layers and facing to the inside, then it is turned right side out. However, this fringe was already part of the edge, so I opted to first sew the long sides, with the invisible zipper prestitched on, right sides together, but the fringed edges I top stitched them closed on the outside, close to the fringe:

Top stitching the fringed edge

Unfortunately, I was not able to match the plaid on the front of the pillows to the backsides which is a little disappointing. I would have needed more fabric to do this (probably another entire shawl!) or cut off the fringe from the shawl and reattach it as trim.

These pillows took about three hours to make, including the strategic cutting of the shawl and sewing.

Taa Daa!

Overall, they came out really nice and make great accent pillows for a couch or a bed. I hope my friend enjoys them for years to come!

Plaid pillows with fringe made from a shawl

March 26, 2015