Plaid Peek-a-Boo Party

The December challenge over at The Monthly Stitch was "The Party Dress" (I know we are just about half way through January and I'm just getting this to the blog!)

I did start a formal party dress, but I've got fit issues with the bodice that I have to fix, so instead I made a completely new dress, one that I could wear on Christmas Day ... because I always, always wear a new outfit on Christmas Day.  This was most definitely one of those sew like crazy projects that I started just two days before needing to travel.

Geektastic marries Vogue

I have been hanging out to make this dress for what seems like ages.  I purchased the pattern early this year but put it away thinking that when summer arrives I will get it out again.  Then I discovered Spoonflower!

I can't remember what month but this fabric was the winner of the geek contest on Spoonflower.  The colour was amazing and it just spoke to me.  Now ...  I don't usually go for novelty prints but this, well I just had to have it.

Spring calls for Group Sewing

Today is the first day of spring and to kick it off I am participating in a couple of group sewing activities.  Luckily I can sew one garment for both - oh year love that!

I love sewing dresses and who doesn't like a good cotton fabric, but I don't usually sew vintage!  Athough now vintage includes the 1980s I probably have a few patterns from that era in my statsh!  Anyway my intuition must have known something I didn't, because about three months ago when sewingpatterns.com had a Butterick sale I acquired this Butterick Retro '51 pattern.  The dress to the left particularly caught my eye.

This pattern wasn't even on my sewing 'to do' list, then all of a sudden it is first out of the box for September - don't you love how a good group activity changes things :-)

Last week I took a wee detour to The Fabric Store hoping to get some inspiration for fabric.  I was hoping to find a cotton voile or similar light weight cotton that would have a transparent nature.  Next thing I knew I was at the counter with this fabric!

The pin in the centre will give you a sense of the size of the pattern.

Now this is sooooo far removed from my comfort zone, but the purple and blue combination found a soft spot and intuition said 'BUY IT'.   So what is a girl to do ... follow her intuition of course!

To keep inspired and gain some confidence in my selection I joined the Fall for Cotton Flickr group - check it out there are some great patterns and amazing fabrics to google over.

Check out this fabric!   I ordered this from Spoonflower, not long after I discovered the awesomeness of custom made fabric. 

Two yards of cotton sateen - devine!  At the time I ordered it all I knew was that I wanted to make a dress with it, one with a fullish skirt.  Then along came this pattern from Kay Unger in the Vogue collection, the perfect combination. 

On my way past the Fabric Warehouse yesterday I called in to pick up some lining, 100% cotton batiste, which is lovely and soft to match the cotton sateen, knowing that this pattern would be at the top of my sewing list soon now that it is Spring ;-)

It feels like Spring is my permission to start sewing summer dresses - well that's what I'm telling myself anyway.  That's not to say that I've finished my winter sewing list yet - still two pairs of jeans to make and a nice wool blazer!  There is no doubt that they will get loads of wear before summer is truly here.