House of Mouse Caroline Dress and a Giveaway from Indiesew!

Another work-appropriate dress? Yes, please!

This is the Caroline dress from Mouse House Creations, a new-to-me indie pattern designer. 

A few weeks ago, Steve from Indiesew, a new online retailer/community dedicated to indie patterns, contacted me and asked if I'd like to work with them. We decided to do a pattern review and giveaway, and they let me pick the pattern.

After carefully browsing the patterns to find one that I would actually be willing to buy -- I got this pattern free, but I wanted to choose something I'd buy for myself even if I weren't getting the pattern free -- so I chose the Caroline Dress for several reasons. The price is not outrageous; it includes several options for different looks; it fits my personal style. 

And also, I was intrigued by these cap sleeves.  Aren't they interesting? They're not set in as sleeves at all, but instead are created as part of the bodice. The seam is slightly curved so that they lie well on your shoulders.

The pattern comes with long-sleeve, short sleeve and cap sleeve (seen here) options. It also comes with four different length options: above the knee, at the knee, below the knee (seen here) and peplum. Finally, it has two different necklines. I made the high neckline, but there is also a scoop neckline, which I'll probably try out at some point.

The skirt doesn't actually have a pattern piece -- just dimensions -- but, there are instructions for making either a pleated skirt or a gathered skirt. I chose to do pleats. I used a very heavy fabric for this, and I didn't think gathering would work well. 

And you'll never guess what that side seam is hiding....

Pockets! My favorite!

The dress is fully lined, which is my preference for most dresses.

The lining is a lovely cotton batiste in a nice slate blue. The main fabric is a fantastic mystery fabric that I bought from Charlotte. She was destashing and once I saw this fabric, I had to have it. It is fairly thick linen-look cotton, but very soft. But I don't mind the thickness, because my office is FREEZING! 

The best thing about this dress, I thought, was the fit. This is a straight-from-the-paper fit -- the only tiny change I made, which I make to every single pattern ever, was grading from one size at the bust to the next size at the waist. Not bad fit-wise, eh?

Now, while there are lots of similar patterns on the market, the huge strength of this pattern is the amount of hand-holding in the instructions. It has color pictures of every step -- this would be a perfect pattern for beginners, and I'd highly recommend it if you're learning (or if you're like me and are addicted to new bodice options).

I'm definitely a fan.

But now, the fun part! Indiesew has agreed to give a digital copy of the Caroline Dress to one of my readers. Yay!

To enter, leave a comment here and I will randomize next Friday, July 25, for a winner. 

Good luck and happy sewing!

Things I've Sewn Lately: A Betsey Johnson Floral Pendrell Blouse

I love my first Sewaholic Pendrell blouse so much that I immediately made a second one. 

This fabric is a fantastic Betsey Johnson cotton print I picked up from Mood when I was ordering my beloved Oscar de la Renta bow-print twill. And, of course, when I got the Pendrell pattern from Jennifer, I saw this fabric hanging in my closet and with the slightly '80s look to the pattern (is that just me?) I decided it had to be made.

Unfortunately, I'd only bought a single yard of the Betsey Johnson fabric. Luckily, Mood must have been generous with its cutting, because I had just over a yard. And with some creative cutting (the bias facings were done with quilting cotton and one of the sleeve ruffles is pieced) I made it work. But I definitely had to lay out the pattern pieces multiple times. 

Luckily, with all my '80s inspiration, I was watching "Pretty in Pink" and it didn't seem so bad. 

Since the fit on the first blouse was so good, this one sewed up in a flash. I had a bit of a problem making the ruffles match, but, if I'm being honest, that's no fault of the pattern. I rarely cut notches into my patterns, so I went to eyeball this one and got it wrong TWICE before I finally measured it out and got it right.

Hey, I'm nothing if not stubborn!

I'm not convinced that I love the styling here -- I wore this blouse to work today tucked into jeans with little black flats, and I liked it much better. I think such a statement at the shoulders must necessitate a closer-fitting bottom, maybe? 

Either way, I really like this blouse. To me, it feels like wearing a birthday party -- which is a strange thing to say, I suppose, but it really does! It feels festive. 

Last week, I discovered, too, that my awesome sewing pal Juli, who I met at the last NYC meetup, made the exact same view of this pattern in the exact same fabric! I think it must be that this fabric just exists to be made into Pendrells, yes?

What do you say? Molly Ringwald marathon, anyone? Mood still has the fabric if you want to get in on this. ;)

Advice Needed: Am I Finished?

Last week I had a super stressful meeting coming up at work. So what did I do the night before said meeting? 

Stress sewing, of course!

Here we have a Sewaholic bonanza --  a Hollyburn from a thick brushed cotton from Mood and a white Renfrew.

I love the combination of navy and white. I am a sailor, after all. I had some white piping left over from some baby sewing I did for my God-daughter, so I decided to add piping to the waistband of this skirt.

Of course now, in retrospect, I think I probably should have used piping in the pockets. Instead, all I did was white top-stitching at the pockets and hem.

I keep going back and forth about whether I like the piping at the waistband and the top-stitching elsewhere or if I should have done piping at the pockets and a blind hem.

What do you think?

Work-at-Home Chic: Another Hollyburn Skirt

Well, we had another massive snowstorm last night. I'd originally planned to travel to New York today with Christine to buy fabric for my wedding dress, but, of course, we had to postpone -- which means we're going to Lladybird's meetup in a couple weeks instead! So we'll get to hang out with some lovely blogland babes AND get our shopping done. 

Anyway, instead of an awesome shopping trip, I took advantage of the beautiful scenery to photograph one of my favorite recent makes!

This is a grey corduroy Hollyburn skirt. I love my first Hollyburn so much that when I saw a lovely soft grey corduroy at Fabric Mart in Pennsylvania, I snagged a couple of yards for a Hollyburn. It's very slightly stretchy, which makes it super comfortable.

While I did button tabs on the waistband of my first Hollyburn, I decided a plain waistband would be best here.

This pattern takes no time at all to make up -- I finished this entire skirt in a single night. Instant gratification!

The most difficult part of this was pressing the corduroy so that I didn't squash the lovely cords. I read somewhere on the Internet about someone using a piece of corduroy as a press cloth, so I tried that. I also ironed from the wrong side.

As per usual, I cut the pattern pieces and then serged all the edges before sewing. I love the clean look of serged edges.

I wear this skirt at least once a week -- it's perfect for working at home because it's nice and free below the waist. I can run around with the dogs and sit with my legs crossed comfortably.

Plus, I always think it's nice to wear actual clothing when I work at home. Too many days of yoga pants and sweatshirts and I start to feel grody.

My current favorite way to wear this skirt lately is with fleecy tights, a long-sleeved T-shirt and the shawl my mom made me. (Usually I wear slippers instead of snow boots!)

You may have seen this shawl before -- I wore it tons during Me-Made May last year. It's a favorite of mine. It's so easy to wear and it's super warm. I think she knitted it from an acrylic yarn? I adore it and really want a second one. Maybe after I finish the sweater I'm knitting.

I definitely love the Hollyburn pattern and will probably make several more of this skirt. It's super versatile, very simple and -- of course -- it fits perfectly.

Hope all my fellow East Coasters are enjoying the snow! (At least a little bit.)

Things I've Sewn Lately: Victory Patterns Lola

 Greg and I finally made it out to Seattle. Though the weather has been a bit rainy today, the sun made a brief appearance late in the afternoon and we were able to snap a few photos of my Victory Patterns Lola dress.

The fabric, like my red Lady Skater, came from Girl Charlee. This fabric is actually why I placed an order in the first place. It's a Primp-brand sweatshirt fleece with a mouse print. And the mice have hearts for eyes. I swoon. 

This is the absolute softest fabric and it was really inexpensive (I think they've sold out, sadly, because I no longer see it on their website.) I bought two yards without a project in mind -- which I almost never do -- but inspiration came when I started seeing Lolas popping up in different blogs. 

I opted to buy Lola as a PDF and I will say it was super easy to assemble. The pieces joined together much more easily than more PDF patterns I've used. And the construction method and style lines remind me a lot of my beloved avocado hoodie, so the process seemed really familiar. I always think princess seaming is so flattering. Sweatshirt dresses I've owned in the past have been very boxy, so it's nice to have one with a little shape. 

There is an underbust seam, which made for an easy way to grade the sizes. I cut a four in the top and an eight at the bottom. All the bottom pieces are graded from a six at the waist to an eight at the bottom to accommodate my pear-shapedness.  

The dress has enormous pockets, which can only ever be a bonus in my book. I was worried about drawing attention to the aforementioned pear-shapedness, but instead of leaving the pockets baggier at the top, as they're supposed to be, I left them to mirror the shape of the bottom of the dress. The fabric is stretchy, though, so I can still put my hands in my pockets. 

The pattern directs you to use ribbing for the hemline, neckline and sleeve bands, but I just used self bands -- I'm not a huge ribbing fan, to be honest. 

The dress is super warm and comfortable, and, of course, wearable with my Jalie leggings, which seems to be a theme in my sewing this winter. 

I sewed the majority of the dress on the serger and did a little top-stitching with a ballpoint needle and wooly nylon thread I bought at Sil Thread in NYC on my last trip there.

In case you were wondering about the backdrop for these photos and the "interesting" lighting, we took these pictures with the Fremont Troll in Seattle (he lives under a bridge.)

We had a nice chat. ;-)

And as a bonus, Mr. Troll lives near a brewery Greg likes, so Greg got a growler of beer to share with his sister!

If you've made a Lola dress, share it in the comments -- I'd love to see some more takes on this. I feel like there has to be a cute way to turn it into a regular (non-dress) sweatshirt, right?

Things I've Sewn Lately: A Valentine's Day Lady Skater

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! 

We've had tons of snow here the past two days -- there's about a foot of it out in our yard right now. As a result, our flight out to Seattle to spend some time with Greg's sister and her fiance got canceled. We were all supposed to go out for a lovely dinner tonight, but clearly that won't be happening. And I couldn't seem to make reservations for anywhere tonight. So a lovely night in it is! At least we were able to reconfigure our schedules with work and get a new flight out for tomorrow afternoon, so that's something! 

Anyway, back to a more cheerful topic: sewing! This is the lovely Lady Skater dress by indie pattern company Kitschy Coo. I'd never heard of Kitschy Coo until I started seeing this dress pop up on lots of blogs, but I can see why it's been making frequent appearances around the interwebz. It's amazing.

The fabric is a cardinal red ponte de Roma from Girl Charlee. I ordered from Girl Charlee for the first time right after Christmas and I could not be more pleased with the service and fabric. Plus, they give you 10 percent off your first order. I will caution you, though, in case you order this fabric, that it definitely can snag. But the upshot is that ponte is just a dream to sew.

The Lady Skater goes together exceptionally quickly. I actually made it the night before a party. I wasn't rushing or anything -- this dress is just that easy! 

It's also a good base for accessories, so I felt totally justified in buying the leather bow belt I'm wearing in these pictures. 

 It must also be said that this dress is super comfy. It's like wearing pajamas.

The one and only thing I don't like about this pattern is the sleeve length, which is a touch awkward on me. I love three-quarter sleeves, but I feel like these are hitting in an awkward place -- probably because my arms are a bit on the long side -- and bunching in my elbows. I think in my next version I'll either lengthen them a bit or shorten them to just above the elbows.

Make no mistake: There will be a next version. Or six.

I'm really proud of the top-stitched collar on this dress, too. I've been trying to do my top-stitching more neatly lately and I think it's paying off!

I definitely recommend both the Lady Skater and Girl Charlee -- I'm really pleased with the way they worked together for this dress (if you couldn't tell.) 

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Please do share if you have any exciting plans so I can live vicariously through you. ;-)

Things I've Sewn Lately: Plaid on Plaid on Plaid!

Oh my goodness, ya'll. I've cracked the shirt. 

My love of plaid flannel shirts goes deep. But I've rarely been able to buy any, because they are always -- ALWAYS -- too short for me in sleeve and in body. Thankfully, I've learned to sew.

I ordered this plaid flannel from Mood with the Archer shirt in mind, and it's delightfully soft and snuggly. I pre-washed it about three times, though, because flannel is so shrinky. And I intend always to dry this shirt on the line.

It must be preserved at all costs!

I'd never used a plaid fabric before, but, after reading multiple tutorials, including one by the lovely Lladybird Lauren, I decided to give it a try.

I made a muslin of view A of the Grainline Studios Archer Shirt and, somewhat predictably, decided to add five inches to the body of the shirt before take two, which got me to the perfect length for me. I wanted to be able to wear the shirt with my beloved Jalie leggings and still cover my toosh.

I also graded between sizes at the top and at the bottom, as we pears are wont to do.

Do you see my mistake at the back? (Other than not pressing the pleat after washing/before photographing, woops.) I did the collar upside down! I decided just to go with it, though. It doesn't bother me at all since I don't usually look at the back of my neck, and I was out of fabric by this point.

I also somehow ended up with the buttons on the wrong side. But who cares about that? I can't even tell anymore.

I cut the back yoke, front button placket, collar and cuffs on the bias.

The buttons I used are simple tortoiseshell-look plastic buttons from JoAnn Fabrics.

I loved my first version so much that I scurried right out to JoAnn's to buy some more plaid flannel. I wore the first shirt something like three times in three days and decided I desperately needed a backup.

Enter the buffalo check Archer!

I got the button band on the right side on this one!

And I put the cuffs in like a ninja. (Bridesperson Kelly was visiting this weekend and was present for the photoshoot; he insisted on the ninja hands. This one's for you, Kelly!)

I, like everyone else in the sewing blog world, can't say enough good things about Archer.These are by far the best plaid shirts I've ever owned -- and the only ones I've ever had that fit!

These were fun to make and a nice break from wedding obsession! Though, speaking of wedding obsession, which of these two hairstyles do you like for wedding hair? Either? They're my current top contenders. 

Anyway, go forth and conquer the Archer if you haven't done so yet! I'm already planning to make it a third time -- solid grey flannel, I think. Hurray for clothes that fit!