Bohemian Dress part 2

Here are the final measurements for the pieces with the seam allowances. I'm planning on using my new bias tape foot for the neckline so I am going to give two measurements. One for using a facing and one for the bias tape method. First for the bias tape method.

A - a + 1 1/4" (which is 5/8" for the top seam and for the bottom seam) = 9 1/4 inches

B - b + 1 1/2" (which is 3/4" for each sleeve hem) = 36 1/2 inches

C - c + 1 1/4" = 9 1/4 inches

D - d + 3/4" = 10 3/4 inches

E - e + 5/8" = 8 1/4 inches

F - f + 1 1/4" = 7 1/4 inches (For the bottom tier of the skirt, cut at least an extra 1/8 for the hem at the bottom of the dress, so for Nerdlet's 7 3/8)

G - g + 1 1/4" = 31 1/4 inches

H - h + 1 1/4" = 46 1/4 inches

I - i + 1 1/2" = 61 1/4 inches (You actually might want to cut f on this one longer if you are unsure of the total length of your dress and want to make sure it is long enough).

J - j + 5/8" = 4 4/8 inches

Here are the differences for using facing. First for the facing pattern, I would use the triangles for the front top piece marked by C and E and a back facing piece by length of 2E by 6 inches (less for a children's dress.

A, B, C, D, F, G, H, & I will be the same.

E - e + 5/8"

Creative Sewing Center here in SA has started branching out from just quilting fabric and I took pictures of some of the pretty rayons that they have that could be used for this dress.

Here are the two I particularly liked, if I was making this for myself.

I let the nerdlet choose fabric from my stash, even among some quality pieces, and she chose a cheap, solid purple cotton that I'm fairly sure I got for $1/yard. So I'll be using that. It's probably better as I'm not sure how she's going to feel about a floor length dress.

Butterick 5523

It's cool here. Yesterday, it was a high of 94 and then the cold front came in. Now it is 52. I had the front and back door open until around 3 am so it is about 65 in the house. This gave me the opportunity to use an outfit on Darth Baby that I thought I was going to have to give away brand new.

Isn't she cute?

I finished Butterick 5523 last night. I really like it, but looking at the pictures, it isn't particularly flattering. I sort of knew that it wouldn't be just from the style, but I like it anyway. It is a bit warm for Texas spring, summer, or fall, but I'm taking advantage of the dip in temperatures and wearing it today.

Looking at the back, it becomes really apparent that when I joke about being built like a linebacker that it really isn't a joke. I made a size 24, but I then took 8 inches off the waist downward. If I make the dress again, I think I'd still use the 24 for the top, but add 2 inches to the bottom of the front and raise the neckline at least an inch. I'm also not particularly fond of the pleated sleeves. I think I'd make it with a short cap sleeve. I do like the dress though and may swap the sleeves out so that I can wear it for more of the year.

Notre Dame Quilts

My younger nephew had his first communion today at Notre Dame in Kerrville. They have two watercolor quilts hanging that I thought I'd share. Both quilts are quite large.

I didn't finish my dress, but I plan on it tonight, if I can get Darth Baby to sleep any time soon.

Bohemian Dress

I'm working on three things right now. I have very little to finish Butterick 5523 which I posted about two weeks ago. I'm playing around in my head images of phoenixes and dragons in attempt at designing and laying out a quilt. This post is going to be about my initial stages of copying this RTW outfit.

My friend found this site a few days ago and can't find the exact pattern, but it looks easy enough to duplicate so I sort of volunteered to make her some sewing instructions to copy it. There were quite a few patterns that are similar to it, but the RTW dress actually seems simpler than most of the patterns anyway. I'll be making it for the nerdlet, but it should be fairly simple to use any other measurements.

Here is a correction to the top front piece listed above.

a - is the measurement from your shoulders to where you want it to land in the back. Make sure for this and future measurements that you account for how much it will come off the body. Add a little more for stiffer fabrics. I think this point should be just below where your bra strap lands. On the Nerdlet, who obviously doesn't wear a bra yet, is 8 inches.

c - is the measurement from your shoulders to where you want it to land in the front, which also would probably be just below where your bra strap lands. On the Nerdlet, this is the same as a, but likely for adult women, this number is going to be a lot bigger than a.

d - is the length of the sleeve or arms. I would add a little to this number as you can sew the sleeve shorter at the end if you want, but you won't be able to lengthen them. Nerdlet's d = 10 inches

e - For this number you divide the desired neck opening by 2. So this number is 3 for Nerdlet.

f - for the length of each of the panels for the skirt, you want to know first how long the distance from the bottom of a and c is to where you want the dress to hang. For the nerdlet, because she is very active and runs a lot, I want this dress to hang off the floor quite (about 2 inches). You take this measurement (for the nerdlet this is 18 inches) and divide it by 3. So Nerdlet's f = 6 inches.

g - this measurement is the hip measurement plus the amount of ease you want. For me, I would add four inches to my hip measurement, but for the nerdlet I measured her favorite dress around where the first panel would drop on her and I'm going with 30 inches (which is 12 inches of ease for her).

h - I'm going to do 50% more on each layer so you multiply 1.5 times g. h for the nerdlet is 45 inches

i - Again multiply 1.5, so i for Nerdlet is 60 inches.

j - Take the desired neck opening divide by two and take this number from e. Nerdlet's j is 3.5.

b - This number is another calculation. For this number you first divide g by 2 (15 for Nerdlet), then you take this result and add d twice (so g/2 + 2d). Nerdlet's number here is 35.

The shapes of the top two pieces aren't exact and will be altered a little, but I'm going to go with these numbers (+ seam allowances) to cut out the pieces, and I hope I have the numbers right because I don't have the nerdlet in front of me right now (or I wouldn't have had time to type this up). Before I start cutting, though I'm off to finish Butterick 5523, as I was planning to wear it tomorrow.

Another zoo trip

I took the girls and my MIL to the zoo today. It was a beautiful day today, cool and breezy and just about perfect for San Antonio in late April for a trip like this. I took pictures of every animal in order to practice.

First though, pictures of my girls:

It seemed like all the animals were active today. Here are some of my favorites.

The girls are doing well. There have been some brush fires outside of SA right noe so we all are a little congested today, but nothing other than that. I've had a hard few weeks recently. After the girls and Q all were sick, one of my cousins ended up admitted to the hospital with a kidney infection and a few other personal things, but they are resolved and I'm enjoying settling back into a routine. The nerdlet and the bear cub are eating like mad and have gained back all the weight they lost. The nerdlet has fat on her for the first time that I've seen, though my BIL looked at me like I was crazy when I tried to point it out. She's also being less bossy and I've even heard her use please and thank you to the bear cub when they are playing together. The bear cub is adding a bunch of sign to her vocabulary and trying harder to communicate with us. She has requested 'Baby Signing Time' by signing all three signs and has signed 'special' which is a sign she has only ever seen in the song at the end of one of the videos. Darth Baby is bigger at four months than the nerdlet was at nine. She still isn't rolling over either way, but she is army crawling, even over things, and will push herself all the way up on her arms to look around. She has four signs she uses pretty consistently - "Mom", "Dad", "Up", and "Eat", and she seems to know what they mean. The girls are all still doing really well as siblings. The older two love to build and play in forts together. The bear cub will take and hold Darth Baby's hand every chance she gets. I love these sweet girls so much.

M4478 - The three hats

I finished the second and third hats today. The nerdlet really likes the first hat and has been wearing it on and off all yesterday and today.

Here are the three hats together.

The nerdlet wearing hers.

The bear cub modeling another. She doesn't like wearing the hats at all, but she does take great joy in allowing me to put them on her head so that she can throw it as far as possible.

IBoL

http://ibol.wordpress.com/building-a-bundle/

This is a project run by a military man to bring sewing (and knitting and other) supplies to women in Iraq that cannot get supplies do to all the troubles going on. The current iteration is targeting widows. Leave a comment on his page and he will send you the address to mail your package to and the details for that package.