My Cambie Bridesmaids Dresses

For background, here is everyone helping me choose the fabric from four choices. I ended up going with a celery green silk dupioni from Fishman's Fabrics here in Chicago. The lining is Nude Bemberg rayon. The fabric came out to about $75 per dress, which is way nicer and still less money than a David's Bridal anything!

I decided on the Cambie dress long before; actually, I let Stephanie and Vicky choose between that and the Lonsdale and that's what they wanted. Oh, I am so democratic. 

Here are some under construction photos when the dress was almost complete: here. 

My mom made Vicky's dress, as they live near each other. It looked wonderful! 

Vicky

 I made Stephanie's a sewed in the zipper the morning of the wedding, thereby forcing my mom to sew the lining to the zipper. Both dresses had to have the lining shorted a bit; the silk poofs out because it is crisp, but the lining falls straight so it was handing out a little. Mom fixed that as well. Thanks, Mom!

Steph

Steph reading my poem selection by ee cummings

Nice side view

before the ceremony. What great bridesmaids!

They looked great and the dresses turned out exactly as I wanted! Yay!

Interview ME! II Dress

Last summer I made my Interview ME! dress, which is a nice-looking, looking-for-work dress. However, as I am job hunting again one year later, I thought "Why not make a new dress?" After making my first Cambie dress for pattern testing, I was so pleased with it/myself that I wanted to make the other view.

I went off to Jo-Ann and found a nice, spring-like blue striped linen blend. It has blue and white and grey stripes. I lined it with Bemberg in off-white, so it can breathe. Or my skin can breathe.  

 I folded the fabric so that the selvages met, but I didn't think about where the stripes would be centered. Derp. So the dark stripe is slightly off center, reminding me slightly of the ribbon on a gift.

 Again, the stripes so not match in the back at all. If you make this in stripes, you need to be more thoughtful and deliberate than I was!

 From the side it looks fine.

 When I robot-dance it looks nice!

And with my interview jacket on, it looks perfectly fine! Also, I am really happy I bought a pair of nude heels. They are so neutral! Oh la la.

Anyways, it's not as awesome as my first Cambie dress, but it is nice too! Is this teaching interview appropriate or should I stick with my grey dress? Or this blue dress? Oh, yeah, it's a purely academic question until I get an actual interview!

An Adorable Spring Dress- the Cambie dress

I was lucky enough to be chosen by Tasia to be a pattern tester for her newest pattern, which she officially released yesterday! The Cambie dress has a sweetheart neckline with gathered cap sleeves and a full of A-line skirt. Tasia writes about it in more detail here

The second I saw the line drawings and her first version I was in LOVE with this dress. It is so cute. For pattern testing, I made view B with the full skirt in a size 2. Her example dress was red swiss dot, which made me jealous, so I pranced off to Jo-Ann to find something awesome.

I am laughing because a woman was walking down the street gawking at  our "photo shoot" LOL

I did find an awesome fabric, a white/purple/grey swiss dot in a floral design. I bought it fully aware that it was another color scheme of my back-button blouse from two years ago. The dress is fully lined with simple bleached muslin. If Jo-Ann had cotton batiste, I would have bought it, but good enough! 

Sewing this dress is a breeze. I followed all of the instructions (obviously, since it was pattern testing) with the exception of putting in a handpicked zipper. I am just in love with that technique and I doubt I will ever do a zipper on the machine again. Other than a fly.

 The shape of this dress is extremely flattering, highlighting the waist and giving an hourglass look. Sorry for the random mix of inside and outside pictures. The sunlight outside is always so harsh. Squints-ville.

 See, it even has pockets! Yay! It is really comfortable. I was able to take these pictures when the weather was nice briefly towards the end of March, but then it got cold again. Soon I will wear it for real!

Isn't this house adorable? With their perfect lawn and cute tulips.

Tasia says it is intermediate, but I think a determined beginner could definitely make it.If you know how to put in a zipper, then you would be good. I expect to see a million of these popping up in sewing-blog-land over the summer! If you are totally jealous now (and I know you are!) you can click over and pre-order one today!

I have been waiting impatiently to share this dress with you, tell me what you think!!