To Tommy from Zooey...by Jessica...Navy and Red Cable Knit Dress

Zooey Deschanel has been sporting dresses from her Tommy Hilfiger "To Tommy from Zooey" line lately on her show "New Girl," and I really like the dress below:

Honestly, the main part I like is the red belt, but apparently it's not even part of the original dress as you can see from the picture below.

I still like the dress, but I don't have much of a torso and this shape of dress really does nothing for me. It was time for me to make a similar dress but to my specifications.

I did my "cut around it" method. For the bodice, I copied a V-neck sweater that I really like. 

For the sleeves, I copied a dress I made a few months ago, but never posted on my blog. I don't actually post everything I make! Hard to believe, I know. . .

These are all the pieces I would use and then sew together.

I sewed the shoulders together first.

Then sewed the sleeves on.

Then, sewed down the side seams of just the bodice.

Added the ribbing to the sleeve cuffs.

Added ribbing to the collar. (This was tricky to get it to V nicely.)

Then, sewed the waistband onto the bodice. If you notice, I reinforced the waistband with pink ribbing on the inside of the red.

For the skirt, I cut one long piece and sewed the two sides together.

Normally, you would baste the entire skirt portion, but instead, I skipped that step and just stretched and sewed the elastic directly onto the top of the skirt. Also, I learned a trick from the fashion design course I'm taking: To make sure your elastic stays under the needle, pull it up through the foot at the beginning. Great trick!

The skirt.

Then I sewed the bodice waistband to the skirt. Actually, I sewed over the elastic band again doing this. This assures the waistband will stay put and reinforces that area.

Then, I hemmed my skirt. I don't know if you can tell, but when I fold the hem under to the wrong side, I pin on the opposite side--the right side. I do this, because I much prefer being able to see where I'm stitching the hem vs. guessing and hoping that it looks okay on the reverse side when I'm done. It's a little tricky the first time or so when you attempt this, but I believe it is well-worth the effort.

I just used a basic straight stitch to hem. I know the fabric is stretchy, but this part of the hem isn't going to stretch since the fabric for the skirt is gathered so much. Also, a straight stitch is lower profile than a stretchy zigzag. Hopefully, from this picture you can see how I'm stitching the hem from the right side. This keeps you from being at the mercy of your feed dogs that like to jam and pucker occasionally.

The finished dress. I didn't like that extra white stripe on the original dress, so that's why I just used red.

I like the cable knit of this fabric. Gives it a classy retro look.

The End!

Green and Gold 1950s Style Butterick #6945 Dress

At Christmas, my mom gave me one of her old Longaberger picnic baskets full of old calico, muslin, and other cotton weaves. Anyways, I came across this really pretty emerald green fabric with little gold polka dots all over it. There was only this huge circle (folded into 1/4 in the picture below) and a little less than a yard of fabric. I think at one point my mom or somebody was planning on making a Christmas tree skirt with the big circle or something.

I recently read a book about 1950s fashion and the "seamless skirt," that so many women wore as poodle skirts, and really wanted to try it.

A few months ago, I bought a couple of SUPER cute 1950s dress patterns at the thrift store for $.30 each. This is one of them. I really like the notched collar detail and the cap sleeves.

Although the dresses in the picture above have buttons down the front, I just wanted to do a zipper in the back instead, so I went about figuring out how to piece the patterns in order to get the most out of the fabric. The piecing below seemed like the most viable option; however, when you are limited on fabric, you should always play with different piecings before cutting, because you may find a better way. . .

I soon discovered that the piecing below would give me two better options: (1) I could align the back seam with the finished edge of the fabric (the top edge in the picture). Putting the finished edge next to the zipper meant I wouldn't have to worry about folding that edge over twice, because the finished edge doesn't fray! If that doesn't make sense to you read this: It would save me time in the long-run. (2) Also, if you notice the left-hand edge left several inches available for use if I needed it. . .and, um, it ended up that I did need it later!

Okay, this is the truly horrific part. If I were a professional seamstress, I would measure my waist line, put that measurement as the circumference of a circle into a formula, figure out the radius, subtract 1/2 for seam allowance, cut a piece of string that length, attach one end to a pin and the other to a pen, find the middle of the circle with the pin and draw a circle around with the pen compass-style.

However, (and if you know anything about sewing, please skip this part, because you will be ashamed...) I just measured my waist and then ran around the house looking for a circle that was a little smaller!!! I found the lid to a pan, found the middle of the fabric folded like this, and cut! What??? That's really not how it should be done...

I do have to say, though, that it ended up being perfect dimensions to the bodice pattern! Very lucky, especially since I only had one chance at this. (Below is the bodice pinned to the skirt to show that it worked perfectly!)

Here's a trick that I learned from my aunt-in-law who is a long time sewer. I only have three bobbins that came with my Husqvarna Viking sewing machine (I think they are supposed to come with more, but I was a poor college student at the time and bought the display model.) Anyways, if you too are limited on bobbins, but need to change the color of your bobbin thread, you can just take an already loaded bobbin and add the second color on top of it. I can't believe I never heard this step before. It's brilliant!

Horrific Step Number Two: Putting in a zipper. Again, if you are an established sewer, avert your eyes! I know that people say that you need to baste your zipper in to keep the zipper from creeping up or down while you sew it in and throwing off your waistlines, but. . .I never do. Instead I just pin it in place (taking into account the "creepage" factor as I pin) and sew it all in one step! I just get really impatient, because I want to see what the dress will look like, so I skip as many steps as I can to get there. Listen, the dress is well-made, don't get me wrong. . .I just get impatient.

I promise that I ironed this fabric at least three times before posting it here. I think it will need to be steamed before I actually wear it somewhere!

Now for some details:

I happened to have some gold thread, so I did a little detailing around the collar and shoulders.

My green zipper was only 14", so to account for the difference, I added a hook to the top of the back collar. Notice how straight the zipper is! Also, notice the fabric around the zipper. See! It's the finished edge I told you about earlier. I didn't have to fold it under, because the finished edge is. . .well. . .already finished!

Okay, so. . .remember when I pointed out that extra fabric on the left-hand side of the "piecing" picture? This is where it came in handy. The way the dress pattern was, the torso ended up looking super short. I'm not a fan of emphasizing my already short torso, so to lengthen the waist, I added this belt area fabric. It actually looks more proportionate this way than the original pattern anyway, so that was fortunate.

Look at that straight zipper (especially at the waistline)!

The End!