Dayana Sews, Too! New dress from Vogue Pattern V2046

Welcome to my sewing life, which runs parallel with my knitting life! Granted, knitting was at 90% and sewing at 10% for many a year, but the so-called sewing "bug" is like a trusty cold -- it always comes back.

If you have the patience, scroll down to read my sewing origin story.

Just like in knitting, I follow (patterns), and don't lead (design). But also like in knitting, I rarely use a pattern as given -- a good fit must always be the goal!

This dress uses Vogue Pattern V2046, which comes with a short-sleeved, shorter skirt version. (For the sewists out there, my Pattern Review entry is here.)

I tend to make a lot of long-sleeved dresses because (1) I don't like pants much, (2) I live in the cold state of Maine, and (3) I have long arms and can never find ones that fit. At first look, this is a straightforward dress with a princess seam bodice and a gored skirt. However, this pattern not only has a fun subtle fringe element, but also combines pieces on the bias (diagonal) with pieces cut on the straight of grain. This is a great way to highlight cool plaids or tweeds.

I fell in love with this tweed I found in my local discount chain store called Marden's. If you are a crafter of any sort and are visiting Maine, DO NOT miss a visit!! This beautiful fabric was only $9.99 a yard. Just try to find an edgy wool tweed for that price. It does have a strand of color-changing single-ply acrylic yarn that I can recognize only because I'm a knitter. It pills only along that strand!

Also like in knitting, I'm a big fan of advanced techniques and complicated tailoring. This dress actually has three layers. There is a conventional lining that hangs free under the dress, but there is also an "underlining" that is cut exactly like the fashion fabric and sewn together with it for stability and structure. This is especially helpful for tweeds, which tend to be loosely woven and easily unravel at the edges.

Obviously, though, the most challenging part of the dress was matching the lines. The bodice alone has 8 pieces on the bias. I knew that if I tried to match every little thing, I would fry my brain. I'm not even sure if the cadence of the lines in the fabric would tolerate matching everywhere. I decided that the key places that I needed to match to impress my friends (namely, you!) were the center midline seams and the horizontal seam matching the bodice to skirt.

To try and match stripes on pattern pieces, I use colored pens to mark the pattern pieces at 5/8". Don't match at the edges of the pattern, you'll be sorry!

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the amount of matching I achieved. And the fit, wow, the fit! If you want to read more about how I fit this pattern, read my Pattern Review.

The final touch was the fringe. You are supposed to take a pin and pull strands off to "release" the fringe, but I decided, for now, to let it be. The fringe is cut on the bias, and I could see that it would be all different sizes and crimped in funny ways!

I've been trying to remember my first ever sewing project and I think I've got it. Back in the 90's, the local dollar store had a rack of ties. They must have been truly awful to be only one dollar each, but from my point of view, they were pure gold for a wacky tie skirt. If you knew me in high school, you'd know that wacky was my brand. I remember occasional days tucking two whole halves of tights into my underwear just so I could have two different colored legs to go with my outfits. Grabbing my mom's old Bernina to figure out how to sew ties together got me started on a sewing path that has continued throughout my life, 35 years later.

This is an example of a "tie skirt" by Doodlecraft.

Previous to the last two years of intense sewing, my longest phase was in college at Wesleyan University, where I worked for the theater's costume shop. It was definitely a leap from normal clothing, especially since the goal was to look good enough from 50 feet away or more. My first show, Shakespeare's The Tempest, had us making corsets for every actor, men and women alike. I wish I had gotten credit for Boning 101!

Later, when we costumed Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, I made a full 1890s women's suit from a historical costuming book using "radial projection grading." That was a real trip. I even had to RIT dye white brocade to get the exact color of lavender that the designer Leslie wanted. To this day, I have no idea why she trusted me with this task. There were 14 slim pieces to that damn jacket bodice and everything had to be to the millimeter. Somehow, the actress ended up properly clothed and I remember Leslie saying, "It wasn't perfect, but you did an amazing job." She did not give compliments lightly and that kept me on track.

1890's walking suits from Tigerlily Threads

Even later, when we did a 60s play I was introduced to embroidery. We couldn't afford beaded fabric, so Leslie had us take vintage animal printed clothing and hand bead it with sequins. The good news was that she paid overtime for this couture work, sheesh. It was basically a white collar sweatshop but I loved it.

What got me into my recent phase? Closet Core came out with a monthly pattern "Crew" subscription and I thought it would be a fun way to re-boot. I enjoyed my first year but quickly realized that I preferred doing designer knock-offs and tailoring. Thank you, Ebay, for my now ridiculous Vogue Pattern collection.

Read more about my craft storage here.

As I return to blogging, I will be sharing more than knits. What else do I do? Gosh. Miniatures, crossstitch, crochet, handstitching, beading... Dayana Miniatures, Dayana Crossstitches, Dayana.. Dabbles! 

Till the next craft!

XO,

Dayana Knits

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