The dragon flower bag

I made another bag as a gift this year, this time for my mother-in-law. She was with me when I bought the pattern and seemed to really like it, so I sewed it up for her.

I put my hand in this picture so you could get a sense of the size of the bag. The clasp is actually on the back side, not on the dragon flower side. The exterior is made from an ultrasuade material, the dragon flower is a really interesting cotton and the interior is also a cotton that in a happy stroke of luck pretty much exactly matched the exterior.

When the cat's away

Kent’s not actually a cat but he is out of town for work – he left this morning. So rather than sit around and feel sorry for myself, I cut out and sewed a dress. Disclaimer: no pictures because I cannot seem to take a decent self-picture to save my life. 

Anyway. I made New Look 6071 with long sleeves out of a purple ponte knit fabric. Fortunately I read reviews by others who’ve sewn the dress because the directions get wonky at step 7. That’s unusual for New Look patterns but this time it flat omits making a button hole for the self-wrap front of the dress.

When my photographer is back at home, I’ll get some pictures. I’m just glad to have done something constructive today that had a happy ending.

Another day, another dress

Yesterday I finished up Simplicity 3833 – one of Simplicity’s vintage 1960s dresses. I love this pattern a lot. Empire waistlines are a great look on me, and the way this dress is designed to skim the rest of the body does kind things for my . . . shall we say lumpier areas. It's got two very deep darts that start almost by the waist and angle up into nearly the center bust area (hard to see those darts in the picture, I know).

I made this from a cotton/silk waffle weave I got from Fabric Mart. Originally I was going to make a shirt from it but it seemed a little too crisp for that. The crispness works well with the lines of the dress and helps the dress hang better. I will say that pressing this stuff was painful, because if I let the iron get too hot, the fabric would get shiny. So I used a pressing cloth all the way through.

I did line the dress; the waffle weave fabric would have been slightly see-through and I’d like to wear this dress to work. I should add that I do not own nor do I want to own any slips, so lining the dress was the better option.

Here's a close up of the fabric so you can better see the texture.