Two More Fendi Inspired Colorblock Knit Dresses - Teal, Tan, and Grey - Blood Orange, Plaid, Brown, Grey, and Tan

I love this Fendi dress. . .

. . .So I decided to make two more!

I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but I took a little time to refine the shoulders/sleeves pattern and I brought the drop waist up a little from my last endeavor. I still like the first dress, but these ones are just a little more comfortable and fit just a little better. Once I was happy with my pattern, I simply cut out both dresses and sewed them together almost at the same time. This really cut down on construction time--doing two at once.

It's crazy how just changing the color scheme gives the dress a whole different look. I think these teal green/blues make the dress look sporty whereas my last one looked european.

This blood orange one looks bookish and Autumn-y.

The dark orange part isn't double knit. It's actually semi-stretchy faux suede. You use what you have!

The End!

Fendi Inspired - Colorblock Knit Dress - Salmon, Black, Tan, and Grey

Whether or not you liked my Fendi Inspired outfit a few weeks ago, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the salmon, black, tan, and grey dress that I used as inspiration.

 You can see the front and back of this dress here.

I went to a thrift store and found a bunch of different colors of double knit polyester and then realized I had the exact colors to make this same dress! The pattern isn't a traditional one and it's been baffling me, so I've been putting this one off for a few weeks to wrap my head around it. Then, husband and I didn't leave the house on Saturday, so I decided to make this dress. I have run out of the brown packing paper that I've been using to make patterns, so I taped some newspapers together for this one. It took several hours to figure out how, not only the dress is put together, but how to proportion it for my body--decidedly NOT model shape!

Anyways, skipping ahead several hours, here is the finished dress. Pretty good, huh? Actually, I found the salmon, tan, and grey in double knit, but I couldn't find any black jersey that was thick enough to support the thicknesses of the other fabrics. Fortunately, I found a thick black maternity skirt at another thrift store and just cut it apart.

 It's harder than you think to get the seams to match up. This fabric is really thick. If I didn't have a Husqvarna, I would have been dead in the water!

 You would be horrified if you saw how I put the collar in...I cut the white off a dress I was getting rid of...Anyways, you'd be horrified. I did it in like five minutes.

The sleeves were the hardest part to pattern because they didn't follow the traditional pattern. I don't think I got them quite right, but I will make another dress using this pattern and I will fix them then. They are good enough for this first try, though!

The End!

Breast Cancer Awareness Jumper - Pink and Tweed

For some reason, the colors aren't coming through on this one the way I'd hoped. Anyways, I bought a yard and a half of this sort of brown and pink cotton tweed a few weeks ago. I've had to go to work a lot this week, so I had no time to do anything with it. Today I had off, so I decided to make something with it.

You can't really tell, but it's tan and black together with a light pink stripe going one way and a bright pink stripe going the other way. I wanted to make a jumper with pockets to wear with this light pink long-sleeved sweater/shirt that I have.

The side seam patterns match up and the front bodice stripes are exactly off center to the waist strip in the front and the back.

It has pockets!

Aaand then my camera ran out of batteries. Consider yourself aware.

The End.

The Ralph Lauren Bed Skirt. . .Skirt

This is my first and only piece of Ralph Lauren clothing. . .and I made it! 

I had this Ralph Lauren bed skirt that I couldn't use on my bed because we have a base-board that doesn't allow for a bed skirt.

I keep seeing fashion shows and reading in fashion magazines that a great closet staple is a knee-length khaki gathered skirt. It's flattering on every figure and looks great with everything from a tank top, to a sport coat, to a nice sweater. I really wanted one, so I made one!

Here's a tip I learned from reading several other blogs: to make a gathered skirt that looks good on you specifically, measure your waist line and multiply that by 3. That's how much material you need. Even though this material was pre-gathered, I still had to baste it to gather it properly. I added a folded-over panel of fabric to the top for a belt-line and this is what I came up with:

Obviously, I couldn't wear it like this because there is too much material around the waist. I thought about darting it like the picture below:

But I have a very short torso, and I felt like this option would assure that I wouldn't wear this skirt, like...ever!

So then I got the bright idea to make the skirt in such a way that I could wear it two ways, as a hip hugger:

All I do is fold the fabric over and it fits the top of my hips. This helps me looks like I'm not as stumpy as I really am. However, the back had these two corners sticking out from where I'd sewn the zipper, so I sewed this decorative piece over to make sure the back lies flat:

Here's a close-up if you couldn't see it in that last picture:

But if I want to wear it with more of a high-waisted effect, I can also fold it back up, because I sewed belt loops along the top:

This give a cute retro, "bread bag" waistline look. 

As one last little touch, I even left the "Ralph Lauren" tag on the inside seam! Haha...

The End!