McCall's 5923 Sheath Dresses
It's been a while...
I don't have to tell anyone who writes a 'blog how time consuming it can be. I have such admiration for bloggers such as Carolyn and Shams for keeping us all inspired and excited about sewing. The fact that they take their time to give us all so much is, quite frankly, humbling.
I took a break from 'blogging last year, partly because this is a sewing 'blog and I spent several months working on my looms/knitting machines and partly because when I had the rare free moment, I wanted to spend it on my hobbies and not 'blogging. Selfish, I know. (grin)
Anyway, as the song says (sort of), "I'm back and I'm bad!".
I have several sewing projects to post, so I'm going to work at them in reverse time.
With that in mind, my most recent sewing project(s) are two lined, fitted sheath dresses made for my DD who will be completing her medical residency in June and will be entering the professional world, which means she'll no longer be spending all day every day in scrubs, aka medical PJs. The kid needs new clothes. She placed her order for several garments on her last visit after pulling fabrics and patterns from my formidable stash.
Fashion Fabric: Silk Tweed from Fabric Mart Fabrics dot com
Lining Fabric: Silk Georgette from my stash except the lower center front panel (ran out of fabric) which is silk habotai.
Pattern: McCalls 5923:
The most difficult part of making this pattern is matching the front and back side pieces (cut on the bias) at the side seams. It took forever to place them, but since I made this dress twice (well, three times actually, but more on that later) I got the placement techniques down pretty well.
2. Purple/chartreuse wool jacquard plaid with chartreuse silk charmeuse (say chartreuse charmeuse three times in a row) lining:
Fashion Fabric: Plaid wool jacquard from Haberman's Fabrics, Royal Oak, MI
Lining Fabric: Silk charmeuse from my stash
Pattern: McCalls 5923 as shown above
With that in mind, my most recent sewing project(s) are two lined, fitted sheath dresses made for my DD who will be completing her medical residency in June and will be entering the professional world, which means she'll no longer be spending all day every day in scrubs, aka medical PJs. The kid needs new clothes. She placed her order for several garments on her last visit after pulling fabrics and patterns from my formidable stash.
McCall's 5923 Sheath Dresses
1. Black/white/yellow silk tweed with silk georgette print/silk habotai solid lining:
Lining Views:
Lining Fabric: Silk Georgette from my stash except the lower center front panel (ran out of fabric) which is silk habotai.
Pattern: McCalls 5923:
2. Purple/chartreuse wool jacquard plaid with chartreuse silk charmeuse (say chartreuse charmeuse three times in a row) lining:
Fashion Fabric: Plaid wool jacquard from Haberman's Fabrics, Royal Oak, MI
Lining Fabric: Silk charmeuse from my stash
Pattern: McCalls 5923 as shown above
Both dresses are sewn with TIRES silk thread, one of my favorite sewing indulgences.
I'm mailing these off to my DD tomorrow, and if she hasn't been binging on the nachos and beer or wine this weekend (she has a rare weekend off) they should fit just fine, since the dressform I use is a perfect rendition of her shape. I made it that way starting with a child's adjustable dressform and adding a bra, padding in appropriate places, and a stretch slip pulled over all of that. I then marked the vertical/horizontal lines of interest by sewing black twill tape in place.
Oh, in case the black/white/yellow windowpane check dress rings a bell for any of my long time followers, I actually made exactly this same dress for my DD in 2010. She was in med school then and was focused on more important things than dress maintenance. After wearing it a couple of times, she tossed it in the washer/dryer. Yikes. The dryer setting was "extra crispy", I think. With vigorous pressing, I tried to straighten it out as best I could, but it never was quite the same. She loves that dress and still wears it in all its wonkyness from time to time. However, she really wanted a new one from the same fabric. This silk tweed came from fabricmartfabrics.com on some huge sale, so I had bought a ton of it. Good thing. So now she has a replacement for that silk tweed dress made back in the day.
I'm mailing these off to my DD tomorrow, and if she hasn't been binging on the nachos and beer or wine this weekend (she has a rare weekend off) they should fit just fine, since the dressform I use is a perfect rendition of her shape. I made it that way starting with a child's adjustable dressform and adding a bra, padding in appropriate places, and a stretch slip pulled over all of that. I then marked the vertical/horizontal lines of interest by sewing black twill tape in place.
Oh, in case the black/white/yellow windowpane check dress rings a bell for any of my long time followers, I actually made exactly this same dress for my DD in 2010. She was in med school then and was focused on more important things than dress maintenance. After wearing it a couple of times, she tossed it in the washer/dryer. Yikes. The dryer setting was "extra crispy", I think. With vigorous pressing, I tried to straighten it out as best I could, but it never was quite the same. She loves that dress and still wears it in all its wonkyness from time to time. However, she really wanted a new one from the same fabric. This silk tweed came from fabricmartfabrics.com on some huge sale, so I had bought a ton of it. Good thing. So now she has a replacement for that silk tweed dress made back in the day.
12 comments:
Thank you that was so sweet of you to mention me. I didn't realize you were still reading my ramblings! Your daughter is a lucky woman because those are of course amazing dresses. Glad to see you back blogging!
Beautiful dresses, both of them, and the work..., well, what could I say!
The one in chartreuse charmeuse chartreuse charmeuse chartreuse charmeuse is just gorgeous, I love that combination of colors.
Both are wonderful works of art. Lucky daughter!
Beautiful dresses - your pattern matching is perfection.
Great to see you blogging! Those dresses are wonderful and I bet look great on her lovely figure. Very nice work, Kathryn.
Gorgeous dresses! Lucky daughter, and lucky you.
Wow! Beautiful dresses --- pinpoint perfection matching plaids! Lucky DD!
Lucky your daughter has the same taste in fabrics as you do! Very beautiful and very bright :). Thanks for posting again as your sewing is such a treat to see.
Gorgeous dresses for your daughter.
It's great to see you back, although we perfectly understand why you were absent! You do such amazing work, thank you for inspiring me to sew better!!
How lovely to have your presence back in the land of sewing blogs again. I have been an avid follower of your work for many years. Your enthusiasm, attention to detail and depth of knowledge and experience is so inspiring and motivating. I do not have a blog but yours is one of many that I get great benefit from. Welcome back !
Jan
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