Sew Very Cheeky

Back in April, I was at Stitch Sew Shop in Alexandria and found a bolt of Nani Iro's Lei Nani Double Gauze in Navy, and fell desperately in love with the fabric. My friend was with me, ostensibly to control my mad fabric buying habits, and instead encouraged me to buy it. It didn't help that I already had a pattern in mind - the Magnolia, view A, by Deer and Doe. I'd been meaning to make it for a while, and this gave me the impetus. The lady at the cutting counter at Stitch was very helpful - the Nani Iro gauze is 43" wide, and doesn't have full even bleed bleed across the bolt, as you can see below. The shop had already cut the pattern out and had it on file, so we took the bolt, and laid out the pattern pieces  to estimate how much additional yardage I might need to fit the pattern on a smaller width fabric. I still somehow wound up with an extra couple of yards. I remember buying an extra yard for prudence, but at least my friend who was with me can now use the...

 I bought a length of a lovely sunshine colored, ombré striped seersucker last summer, planning on making myself a sundress with it. I finally used it last week. I thought the Centaurée Dress by Deer and Doe would work perfectly (spoiler alert! I was right!). I really love the details - the double straps made from the bias tape along the neckline, the triangle point bodice. I also knew it would be less than straightforward to do a bust adjustment - which is probably why I waited on it. There is a sew-along which gives you really, really good direction on how to assemble the dress. The two that I found the most helpful were the advice in the muslin , and the SBA .  The muslin pointed out that if you're doing a bodice mockup you really should baste on the zipper so you can get accurate sizing. Normally I make a line and struggle ridiculously to pin my muslins/mockups to myself. Adding the zipper is both genius and a no brainer. Also more difficult than I thought as I did only...

In spring of 2020, I signed up for the Introduction to Garment Sewing class at  Finch Knitting and Sewing Studio  in Leesburg, one of my favorite local fabric and sewing spots. The class was once a month for several months, and it introduced me to such great things as Swedish Pattern Paper (honestly, at this point I should own stock in it), how to read a pattern, how to draft between sizes, how to transfer patterns, how to gather, how to sew darts, what a bust adjustment was, and many more skills. Honestly it was the best thing I've done for myself in a long time. In person learning and being able to ask questions is wonderful. Youtube tutorials can only take you so far, helpful as they may be. It was eventually indefinitely postponed and then canceled due to COVID-19, but before that happened, I had chosen my first pattern for the class - the Myosotis Dress by Deer and Doe . One of the things Sylvie, my instructor, had told me that I have since kept to heart was that a) you s...