Striped Dress is Finished! (with pics)

So, the dress is finally done. The waist is unfortunately snug, due to not cutting the skirt front on the fold. Other than that, it's pretty cute. All pictures were taken by Andrew in City Park, which is beautiful.I am going to try to make better photo shoots.

The dog is gnawing on his foot, I think he stepped on a stinging caterpillar.
From the side.
The tie in the back. My hair looks nice in the back? Wow. You can see how the upper back is soo poofy over the shoulder blades. That will be fixed in the final version.
The front, which is cute.

Minus the sausage feeling around my waist, I like it!

Garage Sale Loot

I of course went to bed at 9:30 instead of finishing the dress- it looks less smock-like on a person.

Andrew modeling a funky polyester I got at a garage sale. Stay tuned, I am going to make a poll for which pattern to use with it. The flash dulled the colors, they are even brighter!!! 1 dollar.
These were 10 bucks but sooo cool. They are 4-5 inches high and made of painted metal. Aren't they cool?
This semi-frightening painting is on canvas. Parts of it are made 3-D with yarn and stuff. Andrew is horrified by it and was trying to talk me out of it, even after I made it clear it is going in my classroom. It looks loosely Inca/Maya/Aztec enough for world history. It was 10 bucks, which is as cheap as a poster.
Andrew, modeling our new towel-apron covered in giant, scary pansies.
And that is all for today!

Weekend goals and giveaway dress pics!

Look! Cheryl (my giveaway winner) got her dress and it fits and she likes it- how cool is that?

You can read her post on it here: beep!

I have been staining a picture frame that I bought at a garage sale last spring. It is on its first coat of clear varnish, so i hope I can finish it up this weekend and get some good pictures. It's a really awesome, seemingly hand-carved frame that's maybe 2 1/2 by 3 feet.

My blue striped dress is nearly finished. If I can find anything not-horrifically bad on tv tonight I will finish the hand sewing- sleeve and neck facings and the hem. It is definitely falling into muslin category. Since I screwed up and didn't cut the skirt front on the fold, the waist is extremely tight. I feel like a snausage. But I am learning about what to adjust for the final version, which I picture in a nice eggplant purple fabric with a lining. And I never do linings!

I also want to do the hand sewing on my cape. It still needs the armhole and neck facings sewn down and the bottom hemmed. This sounds like a weekend of hand sewing, which I dislike. Boo.

On a happier note, my frame is awesome and maybe I'll go to some garage sales. Plus, the students have exams this coming week, so all I need for Monday and Tuesday are typed up lesson plans. That is so much more free time!!

School happiness:

Not only will I have my own classroom next year and not move from room to room with my stinkin cart, I will only be teaching 6th grade!! Yay!!!! Or as my boyfriend puts it, half as much work for the same amount of money. Lol. Next year will be infinitely better! (9 more school days!!)

Well, that's my life for the last week. Hope yours is good too!

A little weekend sewing...

Garden update:

These are in the beds in the backyard. The far row is zucchini (courgettes) and the near row is pumpkin! This bed gets the most sun, so they are doing the best. I don't know if it's the birds or the stinging caterpillars, but all but 3 of my watermelon sprouts are gone! I should go buy some more seeds tomorrow!

T-Rex got his nails clipped today; the vet tech said he was a very good boy.
Here's some more progress on my next dress:
If you look at the last post, I have made the skirt too. I went back and picked out the seams and added the pockets.

The ties are so long because they cross in front and tie in a bow in the back. (Let's ignore my heap of sewing stuff on the floor- yikes)

Hopefully, I will get more done this weekend, but I also want to relax, clean out my car, etc, get all my school stuff ready for Monday..... if only the weekend was a little longer! :)

Striped Dress and Veggie Tuesday

Look how big my lemons are!!!

I finally got my color card from Vogue Fabrics. It's all 57 colors of Ambiance bemberg lining. So in the future, I can decide on my color and order it online without worrying that it might be off! Yay!
I put together the skirt of my dress without really reading the directions. After the fact, I noticed that I did not put in the pockets. Boo! So now I have made extra work for myself by rushing- you would think that someday, far, far into the future, I will learn my lesson. As for right now, not so much.
I also didn't cut the front piece on the fold. oopsie doopsie!

Tuesday What I'm Wearing

This is my outfit for today. I had planned this out on Sunday when it was in the 70s, and now its getting cold. Oh well, I'll stick it out. Once again, sorry for the terrible self-timer pictures.

I wore this dress with my cute green shoes (from Payless) and my pink coat (from Nordstrom's). And yes, it is identical to my green coat, but in a different color!!

Inside, I wore it with my blazer from Banana Republic. I know I should sew myself some more blazers, they are so practical. Plus, it wouldn't be $180. However, blazers are hard and I doubt it would fit like this one, which is a petite. It's my lucky blazer, I wore it to my job interview when I got my job!:)
Just the outfit. My 2nd period class liked yesterday's dress. Today, 4th period liked my outfit. Yesterday, they sang me happy birthday. Today, a few girls complimented my outfit and then the whole class got into it, just to be ridiculous.

Simplicity 3914 - Black and White Day Dress

Due to the fake-hurricane Ida, I got a three day weekend- a hurrication (hurricane + vacation, everyone uses it, I can't claim I made it up). I already had gone to Jo-Anns the weekend before, so I was ready to sew.

This is the fabric, a black cotton with wavy lines of tiny circles in white. I thought it would be perfect for the pattern, which is for a striped dress with stripes in 2 directions.

The pattern is Simplicity 3914, for a cute dress with short sleeves and a full skirt. The pattern is undated, but it looks very 50s- early 60s to me. The girls on the front have pig noses and are pretty scary. If you love the pattern and are insane, you can buy it here for $55. Yikes. I made an 11, which is for a 31'' bust. I was afraid it would be too tight, but it has a nice ease. It's perfect for a work dress. The pattern calls for 4 3/4 yards, but I bought 4 and it was fine. Luckily.

Sewing up the pattern was fast and easy. I am proud that I set the sleeves in perfectly, since that is the second time i have ever done set-in sleeves.

My only caution: I thought the darts looked overly long, and I was right. I had to pick them out and shorten them. It created a 80s Madonna cone-boob look, which was very ugly. So if you make it, shorten the darts.

I wish it had pockets, but since it is a three piece dirndl skirt, I don't know how that would work. Oh, also I made the sash from view 1 and 3. It looks nice.

(The dog trying to ruin my picture)

All in all, a cute dress! Plus, I probably made the whole thing in 3-5 hours, including cutting. it was really easy. And that includes an hour sewing the hem by hand inf ront of the tv.