Fabulous Free Pattern Friday/The Perfect Travel Dress

For this dress I was inspired by the travel wardrobes I see many of you post. One of the bloggers that I feel is a master with a travel wardrobe is Margy of http://fool4fabric.blogspot.com/. She is absolutely incredible. I am convinced that she can take 6 garments on a month long trip and make it look like she has a new outfit every day. Check out her blog and see what I mean.

I am calling this dress,

The Perfect Travel Dress

So easy to do, just 4 rectangles, well actually 5 if I count the neck band. There are many ways to wear this dress as there are drawstrings in the shoulders and down the sides of the skirt.

Draw up the sleeves and it has a little different look.

The shirring in the top of the sleeve.

Draw up the skirt a bit for a little sexier look.

 Draw it up more and pair it with a pair of tights.

 Draw it up a whole lot more and it becomes a top.

 And of course the sleeves can be lowered or drawn up, whichever you like.

From the picture above and the picture below, you can see that the dress is just a rectangle across the top and another rectangle for the skirt.

To draft the dress, begin by measuring from the top of your shoulder, over your bust to the length that you would like the top portion to be. My measurement was 16". By the way, my fabric is knit. This dress does not have to be made from a knit, but if you do decide to make it from a woven fabric, you will need to include a zipper down the center back or you will never get into it.
My fabric was 60" wide. I used the width of my fabric and cut the rectangles for the top portion of my dress across the width.
The skirt measurements will be your hip measurement, plus at least 1" for ease, 2" is usually better. I always like to have a little extra and take it up if I choose. If there isn't enough fabric, there just isn't enough fabric. So your hip measurement plus 2" of ease by the length that you would like your skirt to measure.

To cut the neckline in the top of your dress, find the center.

Measure over 3" on either side of center and mark. Measure down from center 2 1/2". Connect your marks with a smooth curved line and cut open the front of your neck. For the back you will once again measure over 3" and then measure down only 1/2". I wanted my back neckline to sit a little higher at my neck. If you would like a more open neckline, you can always cut more out, just remember, you can't add back. Put the top portion of your dress aside for now as we will work on the skirt portion of the dress.

Begin by putting the hem in the 2 skirt panels. You do not want the side seams sewn together at this point. Once the hem in sewn in, sew the side seams and try the skirt on. We want some shape to the top portion of the skirt, so pinch in the excess fabric at your waistline. Once that is sewn in place, you will be able to sew the underarm seam of the top of the dress. Leave an opening for the waist of the skirt.
Before you attach the skirt to the top, sew the hem in the sleeves. Note that we have not sewn the shoulder seam of the top at this point. Once the hem is sewn in the sleeves, sew the shoulder seams together.
Now, baste the skirt to the top. It is important that you baste the skirt to the top as it is easier to take out basting stitches than it is regular stitches. Try the dress on. You may want to take in the sides of the skirt a bit more. The weight of the dress can change how the dress sits on the body. If you are happy with the fit, take out the basting seam.

To create the casing for the shirring cords, press open the seams on the skirt and the shoulder seams of the top portion of the dress. Stitch down the seam leaving about a 1/2" opening that your cord will go through.
Cut your cords. I cut mine 1 1/2" wide. You will need 4 cords for the shoulder seams, 1 for each side, you have 2 seams with 2 sides, so 4 cords in total. You will also need four cords for the 2 side seams of the skirt. Sew the cords with a 1/4" seam allowance. I did not trim my seams. Turn the cords to the right side with a turner or a safety pin will work as well.
Thread the cords through the side seam casings. Anchor them in place at the top of your skirt and at the neckline of the top of your dress.
Sew the top of the dress to the skirt.

In the above picture, the waist of the top is sewn to the waist of the skirt.
The final step will be your neckband. I cut mind 3" wide and folded it over. This resulted in a 1" neckband. 3" folded in half is 1 1/2" and then I sewed the band to the neckline with a 1/2" seam allowance.

I'm looking forward to taking this garment on a trip....somewhere! I think I can get by with a pair of brown pants, a ruan, a pair of tights, a jacket to match my pants and one other top and I should be set with the ability to make quite a few changes.
Good Luck if you decide to give it a try.

The Tree Of Life Bag

For those of you who tune in to Fabulous Free Pattern Fridays, the post is still coming. I may not have it ready until tomorrow morning, but it is coming!! It's a fun little item. It's a dress, it's a top, it's sexy and it's not.The thought process has taken a little longer than I had thought it would, but I'm almost there.

I am only three months late on this bag, but I have finally finished it and I am so very happy with it.

I just can't wait to use it.

There's one last little touch that I want to add and that's a zipper pull of some sort.

It's lined and I put a hard bottom in it. I used the heavy weight chip board for my bottom. (As you can see, I did not match my stripes. I was a bit short on fabric. Except for the fact that I have shown the world the inside of my bag, for the most part, I am the only one who will be looking inside.)
I had promised to post the pattern and do a little knit along for anyone who would like to make the bag with me. I do have a question. You can't tell from the pictures, but the bag is rather large. I like how large it is, but some or even most may not. As it is now, the bag measures, 9" high by 17" long by 4 1/2" deep. I can easily change the pattern and reduce the length of the bag by 4" which will result in the bag being 13" long rather than 17". My personal opinion is that this would be a more suitable measurement for most people.
For the materials you will need;
U.S. size 10 knitting Needles
Cable holder
750 yards of #5 Bulky yarn
Purchased handles
Lining
I backed my lining, but we can talk more about this when we get to that point.
I will post the pattern and start my new bag for the knit along next Wednesday. Unless I hear otherwise, I will post a pattern for a little smaller version of this bag. 

Jenny's Jacket

Last Saturday we drafted a raglan sleeve in order to begin preparing our pattern, Simplicity1758,

for the jacket that Jenny had asked me to help her with. From this point forward, all of the posts I do about this jacket will be entitled, "Jenny's Jacket." For all of you who might like to follow along, this will hopefully make it easier for you to find the posts. The posts will also be labeled Jenny's Jacket. Just scroll to the bottom of the post and click on the label and it will take you to all of the posts that involve this jacket. 

Once again the jacket. Once I looked closely at the jacket I realized that it has a raglan sleeve and there is also a princess line seam in the jacket. Princess line seams are wonderful because they give you one more seam for alterations.         

I've chosen to use view A.

Because the pattern has a princess line seam,

you will need to put the two pattern pieces back together as you see in the above picture in order to draft the raglan sleeve. A small word of advice. Before you begin the drafting, cut all the seam allowances off of the pattern. If you leave the seam allowances on the pattern, your drafting can get very confusing. It's much less confusing to cut the seam allowances off and add them back once you have drafted all of your changes to the pattern.
For the next step, you will be following the instructions that I gave you last Saturday for drafting a raglan sleeve. You can see that post here.

 Once you have drafted the raglan sleeve, the front of your jacket pattern will look like the pattern above.

You will need to separate the pattern pieces. Be sure to include your grain lines.

I added on to my drawing so that it would look more like the front of the jacket from the pattern.

Now we need to add the pleats to the front of our jacket. The pleats look to be about 1 1/2" wide. Remember that there are 2 sides to a pleat, so you will need a 3" spread for each pleat. 

On a new piece of paper draw in the pleat lines. There are 4 pleats in the jacket so there are 4 spaces that are 3" wide and inbetween each pleat is 1 1/2" space. 

Fold the pleat lines as you see above. The first pleat looks to start about 2" from the neckline. Place your pattern piece on the pleat lines as you would like the pleats to lay on the front of the jacket. You can trace around your pattern as I did above or tape down the pattern. 

With the pleats taped down or held down, whatever is more comfortable for you, cut out the front of your jacket. 

Once it is cut, pull the top portion of the jacket pattern piece out. The pleats will only be on the right side of the jacket so the left pattern piece will not have the pleats. Our drafting is complete so let the sewing begin!! I'll return next Tuesday with my jacket cut and we'll talk about construction of the jacket. 

I have this wonderful piece of wool that I'm thinking about using, although I'm not sure. I need to think about it a bit more. I have a lovely piece of brown herringbone wool that I thought of for pants, but I may use it for the jacket. You'll see my decision next week :)
Please let me know if you have any questions.

Circled In Stripes

Last year I was the chairperson for our annual fashion show that our sewing club here in Chicago hosts. We usually have two challenges during the year to inspire the members to sew and prepare for the show. The theme of last year's show was Le Tour De France. We "toured" France throughout the show. Our first challenge was a red challenge and the ladies kicked it out of the park with incredible garments. Out second challenge was a stripe challenge. Once again, the ladies did an over the top job with their garments. In fact Cennetta of http://themahoganystylist.blogspot.com/ won the Palmer/Pletsch Win A Workshop Contest with her incredible jacket. You can see her jacket as well as the other winners here.

This past weekend was the opening of the opera season here in Chicago. It's always such a lovely evening, beautiful clothes and wonderful opera. I decided to finish up my dress made from the stripe fabric for the opening night. The skirt is a half circle skirt and then just a princess line strapless bodice. The picture above was taken once we returned home. It was virtually impossible to take a picture at the opera house because it was so crowded.

I am especially happy with the bodice of the dress. Matching the stripes on the princess seam was a bit of a challenge. The photographer at the opera had asked me to sit down for a picture. Hopefully the picture he took was better than this one.

A back view of the dress.

 Close up detail of the trim. My stripes are just a bit off on the right hand side. Oh well.

This is how crazy I can be. In making this dress, I was determined to use what I have. I found the black and gold trim below and thought it was nice but not quite nice enough. Then I pulled out the rhinestone trim and thought, "if I twirl the rhinestones around the black and gold trim, that will give the dress just that little hint of shine that I'm looking for." So, I sat down and hand sewed the rhinestones to the black and gold trim and then sewed the combination to the dress.

The lining of my dress. I love putting something a little unexpected inside my clothes. It's like this lovely little secret that only I am my husband know about(and now you)!

I did do an inner corset. This makes all the difference in the world. Your gown will stay in place and you won't be tugging at your dress all night.

If you'll notice, my right hand is inside a pocket. I love putting a pocket in my gowns as long as they won't show. A little pocket makes for a lovely place to hide a tissue or even a tube of lipstick.  

I am planning to add a tulle underskirt to the dress. I decided to wait and not have it in the skirt for this event as I didn't want my skirt to intrude in my seat neighbor's space.
A circular skirt is such an easy garment to draft. I've posted a tutorial on circular skirts as one of the Fabulous Free Pattern Friday posts. You can see that post here.
A very simple dress, but it has such an elegant appeal, at least I think it does. I'm excited about adding the tulle underskirt and wearing it for dancing!! Fun, Fun, Fun! The circular skirt should twirl nicely.
If anyone would like, I would be happy to do a little tutorial on adding a side seam pocket as I did in this dress. Just let me know.
Have a wonderful day.
Rhonda

Sunday Brunch

Fall has arrived and I couldn't be happier. I love this time of year. The colors are so spectacular and all I want to do is get out and take as many hikes as I possibly can. During the summer, I work in my garden. The garden is now in the process of being put to bed for the winter, so now I have time to take a bike ride or a nice long walk through the forest preserve. When I'm out, I love to have a little something tasty and nutritious to snack on. I found this wonderful recipe last year in a ski magazine. It was just a tiny little recipe tucked into a small space next to an ad. The caption read, "Bake and take these wholesome cookies on your next ski trip for a chairlift ready energy boost." They are great for any time that you need a little boost and they are vegan as well! This is not a brunch recipe, but I love it and thought I would share it with you today. 

Super Cookies

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/3 cup oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I really like cinnamon so I added a whole teaspoon and a little nutmeg as well)

1 cup mashed peeled sweet potato (I used canned pumpkin as I didn't have a sweet potato on hand) 

2 tablespoons coconut oil

4 tablespoons nut butter of choice (I like almond butter)

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup of chopped nuts and seeds (I used pecans, walnuts and sesame seeds since I had them on hand)

3/4 cup tart cherries (I used orange infused dried cranberries)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in small bowl.

I another bowl, cream the potato (or pumpkin), oil and nut butter until smooth.  

Add molasses,

honey and vanilla and mix.

Add dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Add chopped nuts and dried fruit.

 Form balls and place on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet.

 Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly brown. 

Cool and enjoy!

Makes approximately 24 cookies.

The cookies freeze well, so make up a double batch and save for your outdoor winter activities.

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday wherever you happen to be today.