Leather and Lace

Well, actually it's slips and motorcycle jackets, but kind of the good girl, bad girl thing anyway ;)

As I think you all know, the first sew along at Sew News will be the Valentine Slip from Sew Chic Patterns. The sew along will begin the week of March 2nd, so it's just around the corner! Just in case you haven't thrown your name in yet, Laura Nash of Sew Chic is giving away a free pattern. You may enter the give away HERE. Laura has a post up on her blog about the slip that you might want to take a look at as she offers a few other design ideas. You can find it HERE.

I have actually made 2 Valentine slips. Below is my first one. I used a lace and backed it with tricot. I wanted a slip that you couldn't see through.

 The back has a lovely neckline, but is quite plain.

I accented the lace with black tricot. As I was working on the slip, I felt that it needed a little something more, so I went tearing through my ribbons and found this lovely vintage ribbon that a friend had given me.Although the pattern is quite different from the lace, I think it works beautifully.

I edged the bottom of the flounce with a piece of black lace. I thought it finished off the flounce nicely.

 This is the slip that is in the magazine.

I edged the slip with lace. Take note that the lace did not come just as you see it. It was a strip of lace that I cut apart to get the desired shape. Once the lace was on the slip, I felt it needed a little something more, so I beaded it with pearls.

 I added the lace trim to the bottom of the flounce, but I did not bead it as I felt that the added weight of the beads might pull on the flounce.

If you aren't the lucky winner of the free pattern, but would like to join the sew along, you may purchase the pattern HERE. I still owe you pictures of me in the slips and that will be coming soon.  

Now, the Islander Motor City Express Jacket pattern! My pattern just arrived yesterday and I am so grateful.

I had been sent a PDF download of the pattern. The PDF is 35 pages!!! As you know, I typically love downloadable patterns, but 35 pages is a LOT to tape together.

If you decide to make the jacket, by all means, spring for the printed pattern. Taping all those pages together verses the tissue pattern....I want the tissue pattern!!

I haven't decided what fabric I will use for the jacket, but I'll be raiding my little store of fabric today and making a decision.

Get Your Motors Running....The Cool Down and a Guest Post

Good Morning Everyone and a big thank you for participating in the Get Your Motors Running Challenge. Yes, there was voting and there is only one prize to pass out, but I really hate to call it a contest. It was a challenge, a challenge to take a rather small piece of fabric and come up with something not only wearable, but interesting. The nine who completed the project all went far and above the challenge. All of the garments were beautiful, well executed, and a good use of the panel fabric.
But as I said, there was only one prize to pass out and it goes to the lovely Miss Cennetta of The Mahogany Stylis!!!!!! Congratulations Cennetta :).

As you know, Cennetta will be receiving the Islander Pattern, Motor City Express Jacket and the accompanying Craftsy class. I'm sure Cennetta will use both to create an incredible jacket!

Now for a little surprise!
I was especially intrigued with the design that Debbie of Lily Sage and Company did, so I asked her to do a guest post for us and let us in on her design and drafting process. 
Enjoy the post!

It's been asked of me to explain how I went about designing this dress, so I will do my best to describe my methods. I'm self-taught when it comes to sewing and design, so I am aware that some of my methods may be unconventional, but they seem to work for me (most of the time!).
I actually started with a pattern that I had made more than a year ago. The pattern was for this drop waist dress. I've made several dresses using this pattern, including some long sleeve variations, which you can easily find on my blog. My love of the drop waist is a poorly kept secret.

I created the original drop waist dress pattern by draping, with the help of a favorite text book. I only have some very basic draping skills, but I do find it to be the best way for me to achieve a good bodice fit, as well as get my head around unusual  or new-to-me designs.

So my starting point was a drop waist dress with long French darts and a front zipper (in those days I was breastfeeding on the hour!). This is how the flat pattern pieces of the bodice looked.

My first step was to redraft the side seam to incorporate a triangular side panel. To do this, I lined up the side seams with each other,and drew in new lines where I wanted the side panel seams to go. Here, I've pinned together the front and back bodice pieces.

Now you can see where I re-drew my side seams to make the panel. The overlay is the side panel piece from my Challenge dress. The purple line is the where the original side seam would be.

I also had to consider the dart size at this point. By adding the side panel, I was also reducing the size of the dart. I wasn't too bothered by this because my bust is a little smaller (without the breastfeeding!) since I'd made the original pattern. However, I still found the dress a little snug across the chest (not bust volume) after my first muslin, so I ended up adding a tiny bit of extra width to the front side seam.

This is what the final pattern pieces of the challenge dress (bodice) looked like. The back piece, to the left, also shows the extra wedge that I added to the back to increase the A-line shape of the dress. My original muslin didn't include this and I found that the dress looked to "flat" at the back.

In the picture below, my drop waist dress pattern is overlaying my Challenge dress pieces so you can see how I extended the length and modified the shape of the bottom.

When I finally had the bodice shape right, I went about drafting the flounce. I measured and traced the contour of the bottom of all the bodice pieces and drew up a skirt that extended along the natural A-line shape of the dress. To turn the skirt into a flounce, I slashed it in 2-3 places to give it a slight flare. There's a great tutorial (http://ozzyblackbeard.blogspot.com/2014/11/self-drafted-flounce-skirt.html)  here, on how to create a flounce for a skirt.

The organza panel is simply a part of the skirt. I drew up that panel after I was happy with the skirt shape.

Hopefully, this explanation gives you a better insight into how I came up with my design. I, for one, always find it interesting how the flat pattern pieces look compared with the finished 3D garment.

Thanks Debbie!!!!
Debbie's design would translate beautifully to a color blocked garment. You could also use a lace where she used the sheer organza, so lots of possibilities. 
Now, go get your motors running!!!!
Happy Sewing Everyone!
Be sure to come back by tomorrow as I have another super duper surprise in store for you ;) Hint, hint, it includes a pattern!!!!! 

Get Your Motors Running! And You Get To Vote!!!!

We're deviating a little from our usual Monday Morning Inspiration post, but I think this will be especially inspirational!!!

Last September, Janet Pray of Islander Patterns gifted me a bolt of this wonderful fabric. It's a shirt weight barkcloth. I loved it at first sight! My original intention was to make a ball gown and use the panels to create a full skirt. I had 11 panels, so plenty to create a full skirt and enough left over for the bodice.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to share it. Then an idea popped into my head, so I called Janet and ran my idea past her and she loved it. 

I knew that Janet was coming out with a new Craftsy Class and that it would showcase her new pattern, the Motor City Express Jacket. Since I had 11 panels of the fabric, I thought that I would share 10 and of course keep 1 for myself. So I chose 10 bloggers to participate. Each blogger received 1 panel, approximately 20" wide, by 60" long. They could do anything they liked, but it needed to be made into a garment. They were free to mix the panel with another piece of fabric, or use it all alone. Out of the 10 chosen. 9 completed the project and what an amazing(really amazing!!!) job they did! Please click on their links to read about their inspiration and design process.

Debbie of http://lilysageandco.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-floral-fabric-challenge.html

Shams of  http://communingwithfabric.blogspot.com/2015/02/challenge-accepted.html

Cennetta of  http://themahoganystylist.blogspot.com/2015/01/black-and-white-contest-and-wardrobe.html

Mari of http://seamsterpatterns.com/get_your_motors_running_sewing_contest/

Lisa of  http://www.poldapop.com/2015/01/get-your-motors-running-va-vvrrooooom.html

Rachel of http://houseofpinheiro.blogspot.com/2015/02/modern-chanel.html

Rosy of http://www.sewingadicta.com/2015/02/the-mysterious-lady-tribute-to-rhonda.html

Stacy of http://stacysews.com/entry/2015/0201_modern-barkcloth/

Andrea of http://www.sewtofit-andrea.blogspot.com/2015/02/project-runway-contestant-or-not-this.html

So, this was a challenge and YOU get to determine the winner!!! I'm so glad it's not me as I just can't choose a favorite. The winner will receive Janet's new Craftsy Class along with the Motor City Express Jacket pattern. It's a great pattern with lots of zippers!!!! 

So now we need your help to choose a winner. Please go to each contestant's blog, read about her process and then come back here and vote for your favorite. Voting will end at midnight on Monday February 9, 2015 and the winner will be announced on Tuesday February 10, 2015. How will you ever be able to pick a favorite??????

**As you can see, the voting issue has been fixed and the voting is well under way. If you would like to vote for your favorite contestant, just click on the HEART in the upper right hand corner of the thumbnail and your vote will be registered. 

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