Tiramisu - Version 6

This version gave me some trouble and may end up being my pajama version.

 I used the wrong side of this purple rayon knit because the right side seemed slightly shiny to me.  The whole bodice  and waist part seemed really loose.  So I took some fold over elastic and stretched it tight across the under bust seam.  It was still gaping over so I just tacked that shut.

 That fixed those two problems, but then I noticed the rippling in the shoulders and the pocket areas where the interfacing was.  I say was because I decided to serge it right off since there was still room in the bodice.

While those problems were fixed, what you can't see is that my shoulder and armhole seams no longer align perfectly and the FOE is no longer one continuous piece. It might not be a big deal, but it bothers me enough that I might not wear it out of the house.

Notice that my bear cub is feeling much better and is now playing with the remote controls again.  It takes a lot to bring her down and after her first dose of antibiotics she started eating and drinking again and is ready to play.  She is a super trooper.  She has surgery scheduled to remove her tonsils and adenoids on the 29th and I'm hoping that she recovers fast from that, too.

Tiramisu - Version 5 - The Rorschach Version

Every once in a while, someone blogs about 'slow sewing' and a lot of times the implication is that those that sew quickly are careless and inaccurate.  I may be slightly defensive since I've always worked a little faster, learned faster, and tested faster and had this accusation thrown at me my whole life.  I'm actually very careful with my work, though I do look for ways to speed up efficiency whenever I can.  I'm hoping this dress will show the precision of my work.

I don't do stripes and I'm not that into chevrons either, but I do like deliberately chosen patterns, and being a quilter, I'm no stranger to fussy cutting.  When going through my fabric stash/collection to choose for more Tiramisu dresses, I decided that I wanted to use something with more color and also a pattern that might be good for this.  I picked up one at a recent Jo-Anne's sale of their red tag clearance items that I loved.

It's a cotton poly blend knit with much less stretch than the ITYs.  I was a little concerned about that, so I tried it on for size after each seam sewn.

 Here you can see my higher hip throwing off the center a smidge.

This is how the conversation with Q went.
Q:  That is really cool.  Definitely my favorite.
Me:  I think it's like a Rorschach test.  What do you see?
Q:  Hamburgers and french fries.
For some reason, he thinks it's funny whenever any makes reference to the Rorschach test to make it about food.

This is the first card in the Rorschach test.

 I see two baby piglets sucking on the bars of a motorcycle.  Anyone have an interpretation?

Tiramisu - Version 4

I decided to try this as a maxi dress.  The fabric that I choose wasn't long enough to put all of the 15 inches extra of the length into the skirt so I put some of it into the waist.  This didn't work perfectly because a) the ITY fabric I used was heavier than the other one and pulled all the parts of the dress down, b) the pockets are really far down on my hips (I'll likely go back and serge them off because they hang slightly funny from there position and they are too low to use anyway), and c) I'm so short waisted that the extra length draws some attention to some of the weirdness of my shape.  I still like it and have little doubt that I will wear it, but I'm not overwhelmed with happiness over it, like I was with version 2.

Now that I'm taking better pictures I'm noticing that the fact that I have one hip bone higher than the other and turned out is way more noticeable to other people than I ever knew.  I've always walked a little funny and when I was little, they discovered that my whole right leg is situated oddly - higher and turned out - but it never occurred to me that you could actually see this difference from the back.  I'm surprised I was never teased about it.

My bear cub is sick and my mom took the other two girls, so I've had some time to sew.  I actually have four other Tiramisu dresses already cut out.  Have I mentioned yet that I love this pattern?

Tiramisu - Version 3

I think this is version 3 of a dozen or so that I'm going to make.  I'm thinking that I need at least one maxi version and one in polka dots (like Kadiddlehopper just posted) and one in red and ...

Anyway, today I was planning on installing a second dead bolt in our front door.  Last night, Q and I picked up a lock and a jig for the drill so that I could drill the hole in our metal door.  Turns out, though, that we didn't buy a dead bolt, but just a regular lot, and instead of returning it and getting the one I need, I decided that I needed to finish version 3.

I think it was time well spent.

Now, I'm off to clean my bathroom really well so that I don't feel guilty cutting out more versions of this dress.

Tiramisu - Version 2 More Info

I promised more info on my new favorite dress and here it is.  We don't own a full length mirror so I learned to use the timer on my camera and it's kind of fun, so hopefully no more blurry dark bathroom pictures. 

First, a picture of the fabric that I used.  I have enough for another garment if it doesn't take too much fabric so that's nice.

Here are my changes to the front bodice.  My version is on the bottom.  The first thing I did was trace the right side.  Then, I took the back piece and matched it to the top drawing a line straight across (for the DDD version it was slightly higher from the stretchline to the shoulder).  For the bottom, I drew the bottom right corner another size down and curved it smoothly to the other side meeting where the bottom of the sleeve would be for one more size out.  The last thing I did was draw the underarm piece for the 35 and then traced a line from the bottom of the sleeve to the shoulder point.

And here I am in the dress in a much clearer photo.

I love this dress enough that if I didn't live in the heat of Texas, I *might* consider shapewear.

Tiramisu - Version 2

I would like to introduce you to my new favorite dress.

Sorry about the poor pictures.  I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this dress and so I didn't have anyone to take the pictures and I'm too tired to try again.  It was so worth it though.  I think I'm going to live in this dress.

I used an ITY knit and I changed the bindings to stretch velvet FOE.  I changed the bodice from 35DDD to a 40DD and the midriff band to 40 to 35, and in the ITY I don't think the changes were necessary and I ended up taking it in a smidge around the waist.  I also changed the skirt pieces so that the front is one piece and the back is one piece.  For my next rendition, I probably will change the back bodice piece to be one piece, too.

Anyway, I really love this dress and I'm thinking that I'm going to be making a handful and wearing it all summer long.

My Tiramisu

I ordered the Tiramisu dress pattern after reading about it on a ton of blogs and most recently Moonthirty wrote that she made it without alterations and it fit her perfectly.  It came really fast after my ordering of it and I moved everything out of my sewing area so that I could give it a shot.

I had a lot more problems with it and my first rendition did not come out so beautifully.

It's a lovely dress but it's a bit form fitting for my taste.  I could wear it but it's a bit snug around my arms.  It might be because the knit I chose (another gift from my cousin, who is my fabric fairy) has very little stretch, but I'm not sure that I want to just try it in a looser knit.

Now the pattern goes up to D sized cups and I am a DDD.  Instead of doing any of my normal methods for a FBA, I extrapolated from what they had as A, B, C, and D to two more cup sizes.  The dress I made is pretty much the 35 with this extrapolation.  This resulted in my having to gather the front bodice vertically and horizontally, but again I think that was from the almost complete lack of stretch in my knit.  I don't really know what fix I'm going to try for attempt number two yet, but I do like the style of the dress and I do want to make myself one.

My mom was visiting today and this dress became instantly hers.  It's a little roomy in the bodice, but when I tried to take that room out, the back became tight on her so it remains just a little roomy in the bodice.