Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

I finished my Liberty print halter dress last night aside from the hook and eye I sewed on this morning. The pattern, McCall's 5315, is starting to grow on me. I wasn't completely sold on it before I started, but I liked the halter and thought it would showcase the fabric nicely. There are four pleats on the front and the back and they create this slight tulip shape on the skirt, which is fun. I was hesitant to start the project for fear of working with such expensive fabric, but I decided I needed to suck it up and just go for it. I thought the Liberty cotton would be very delicate and unforgiving, but I was wrong. Even after ripping out the zipper once, as well as a couple of other minor seam mistakes, the fabric was no worse for wear and held up nicely. It was really great to work with and sew.

Click to see close ups of the dress bodice and the pleats.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Carolyn was in town in this weekend and after having a nice Saturday breakfast with her and Amy, Mariko, and Melissa (and Augie!), I still had some free crafting time this weekend. I did a bit of knitting on the jacket sleeves. Progress seems so slow on this project, but I'll keep plugging along. I also managed to cut out my Liberty print for the halter sundress. I'm afraid to start sewing for fear of messing it up and wasting all that fabric.

The last thing I worked on this weekend was filling up my portfolio. I'm near the end of the fashion design program and this term, one of my classes is Portfolio Development. We're working on resumés and cover letters and selecting a concept/theme that the portfolio is built around. I'm looking through sketches, technical flat drawings, and all of my previous classwork to select representative pieces. I was dreading it, but it was actually fun to see the progress I've made.

Weekend Update

I spent the weekend doing a little bit of sewing and knitting. I actually finished knitting the body of the chartreuse jacket the other night. I actually knit more than the directions called for, but I figured that woul dbe fine since I didn't want it to be too cropped. I bound off for the armholes and put the rest of the stitches on holders while I cast on for the sleeves.

Once that was done, I finally decided what to do with the Liberty cotton that I got at the Bolt sale the previous weekend. I wanted to make a spring/summer dress and after looking through my patterns, decided on this McCall's pattern, view C with the halter bodice. I think I'll probably shorten it a bit. I pre-washed the cotton and cut out the pattern. I hope to make time to cut out the fabric tonight!

I also got some new sewing machine feet. Instead of a flimsy plastic invisible zipper foot, I got this one made specifically for my machine. I'm excited to try it out! I picked up a couple of rolled hem feet.