Summer dress of lawn fabric

Heat is full on here and I'm loving it. It just feels like the cells in my body are opening up. No seriously I do.
I haven't been very active on the blogging front, I've just been a little busy personally; not that I couldn't make a couple of hours to blog, its just that I just couldn't collect my thoughts to blog. Just too occupied with other stuff.
I made this summer dress of lawn fabric for my daughter. During the last 8 months that I've been sewing or learning to sew, I've used various types of fabric that I've listed below with a few examples of what I made with them.

- quilt cotton (made all those phus phus skirts, nightie, nirma skirt, poltam skirt - all free patterns)
- tried my hands on rayon fabric - rayon nirma skirt
- cord - inverted pleat tunic, trousers
- viscose - viscose nirma skirt
- not so thick jeans material for skirt
- linen - aanchi dress with emboidery
- cape coat with suiting material
- lawn dupatta tunic

Although I've used lawn fabric before - lawn dupatta tunic, dupatta skirt- I didn't know how good it felt until I tried the other fabric. Now that I've I can say I really really love lawn. It's so soft. Its a pleasure to sew and its so comfortable especially for the summer. When you wear quilt cottons by the end of the day they really stand a meter away from your body, this one - No.

A fitted bodice 3 tiers.

 The inner bodice lined with contrast fabric that I used for - cape coat.
I first put elastic straps but my daughter didn't feel comfortable - I might have made it too tight. I had put lots of stitches over to secure and when I wanted to unpick I just gave up. You can see the remnants of it.. hehe.
My other creations are usually much neater than this. Not because of the remnants, but because I would generally have the starting of the straps tucked inside of the lining. But if I did that I would complicate the finishing of the bodice lining and would have a top stitch which I don't prefer. So compromised.

I've use elastic for the back. To be honest I wanted to try my hand at shirring. Couldn't get to the fabric shop but I was itching to get the summer dress done with the pattern I had in mind - so just went ahead and used the elastic I'd. Its so simple - I may be putting off shirring for a while now.

Finished the hem off with this tape which is made using a bias tape maker but cut straight not diagonal. I didn't have any curves here right to waste fabric.

 I thought it was long before putting it on, but I liked the length after it was on.

 The back is fully adjustable with loops on the back and tie back straps.

 No gaping at the front. I know you may be thinking she is so little.But personally I liked the fact that the bodice is fitted.

Hope you all have a great week.

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Little girl tunic with lining

We have been really busy moving house. It is very close to the current one - just that it is smaller for more price!! I hate it that the kitchen is small and I have to downsize now. We have almost finished moving but are still living in boxes, the kitchen especially. We have either eaten out or in friends places for the last 1 week. The children are having fun tearing up boxes and scattering things all around. Gosh!! I really need to pull myself together and get the mess and the boxes and me sorted :)
Until then enjoy a tunic I made for my daughter about a month back. Notice that it has no visible seams. I'm turning into one of them who has started to give a lot of attention to the inside of the dress.
The outside of the dress is for people but the neat inside of the dress is what really makes me happy. I know what's the point you say!! until you start sewing I say :)
Fabric is a dupatta left over after this skirt project - Flat front back elastic phus phus skirt third try.

 Sorry, should have pressed it.

 The neck isn't that neat I agree.

 Here comes the inside of the dress. Isn't that cool? No seams at the sleeves??

 Super I say :)

 The lining was some leftovers of another project. I turned the hem on the same sides of the outer fabric but you could do reverse.

Bad exposed photos. Sorry about that.
If ever I make a tunic tutorial this neat inside is the one :)

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Aanchi pattern - 3rd try with some embriodery

Proud of this one!!
What did I learn -
1. How to make bias tape using bias maker
2. Sewing convex to concave seams neatly (can do better though)
You will get all detailed tutorials as part of the pattern. Don't worry!!

*UPDATE*: For the full tutorial and pdf download please refer the FREE NIGHTIE PATTERN

You can see my previous 2 attempts of the pattern here and here.  I'm planning to call this Aanchi pattern simply because my daughter says aanchi for sleep. :)
The fabric I used was left over from my favorite favorite cape coat lining.
I made little daisies using this tutorial  hand embriodery from Sarah. Towards the end of the hand sewing I got hang of it. I had to leave the stitches a little loose to get those beautiful petals. Next time may be!! :)

You can see one missing flower towards the center left. I ran out of thread and couldn't wait just for one flower to be completed. Also, the button flap was going to half cover it anyways I thought. But it is clearly visible. Nah?

 I'm very pleased with the inside of the garment. I'm being annoyingly finicky about the inside of garments these days. I love that it has no visible seams even inside of the garment, isn't that cool! ??

The horrible buttonhole again. I need to do something about this.

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First time Trousers rather shorts - Love it!!

I had these lovely trousers of my daughter which must have been 6 months size but my daughter has worn it until one and half yrs. Put them to full use really!! :) The length was three quarters and the fit was perfect when she was one and half. Now that she is two it doesn't fit her over the waist. So I thought why not trace around to make a fitted trouser. I had little pieces of left over fabric from poltam skirt and this nirma skirt gift which I thought would be perfect to try out. I thought I did have the fabric for three quarters but after I started to cut I realised - No. :) But now that I had made up my mind to sew there was no looking back.
The one to the left is what I made and one to the right is what I traced from and just made the waist part and the thighs a bit wider (cut and spread method)

These photos are about a year back. We had been to butlins. Heaven for children it was!!
And these are the inspiration for my polka dots trousers.

Love how neat the back has turned out.

 Sorry about the mess and the balloons all around. Its the only way I can take some photos.
I bought this button just because I liked it and bought the fabric after but they have come as a perfect match.
The most difficult part of the trouser was the fly. I got it wrong twice. And the third time I got it wrong with the left and right sides but didn't bother to correct it :)

 I have put them on for a holiday this year as well - and that was again to bultins :)

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A disaster tunic with sheer fabric

I'm now learning to make ePattern (you can check my progress here) and I made a basic tunic pattern. I have always been thinking of making something with sheer fabric and I thought perfect to give it a try. Let me tell you, it was a disaster. Total !!
Sorry I took the photos in bright sun, you can hardly make out. It kind of looks ok in photos but really bad it was. It has collars and I didn't use any interfacing there. I don't know what was in my mind.  It is so short - had I made it shorter it could be a top but then I'll have to do something with the collar.

Learning:
1. Always Interface collars
2. I made a slit on the back for buttons and it was really easy and quick to do.

Had been to fabric shopping today. Oh what fun!! Have just put them for a quick wash. I'll show them to you  tomorrow. I actually went shopping for nighty fabric and have brought back whole lot of linen fabric. They were so good I couldn't resist. I'm just thinking the nighty hardly looks like a nighty so I could as well use the same patten out of linen that can be worn outside as well. ;) Is that cheating? :)

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Circle Dress - My first proper dress

Hi All,

I made this dress in January but have been so lazy to buy some buttons and then again lazy to sew them . So finally here it is of what I can call a proper dress. Sleeves are really really hard for me. I made one earlier and learnt some lessons. I've been making bits and pieces really and not a proper dress. I think this does qualify for a dress :)
It has a tie back,  low waist, neck bow, puff sleeves, circle skirt which didn't work out very well. :( The bodice and skirt pieces didn't match up while pinning, the skirt was much much larger than the bodice - it must have got stretched out or my calculations must have been wrong. So I cut the skirt at the seams and reduced the waist measurement by taking in at the sides.
The plaid doesn't match up at the sleeves as you can see. Will need to work on that next time.

Happy holi to you all. Enjoy your colours and have a safe one.
Preethi.

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Inverted pleat tunic

Hi All, Hope you are well. I made this inverted pleat tunic that I want to share with you.

Pattern : I traced a t shirt and extended it to make this tunic.
I like the red bright buttons on the back.

 The front of the tunic has a inverted pleat.

You can see on the paper how I made the pleat. This is how I did it to get it right in my head. I
first folded the pattern in half lengthwise and made the pleat to converge at the center.

I pasted the pleat together and then traced again for the front. I could have just calculated the extra fabric in center and added but I wasn't sure of the slight curve at neck.

The sleeves is doubled so no hem at sleeves and looks nice too. :)

Learning:
1. Interface the placket
2. Widen the placket. When worn the last button at bottom keeps coming off so I'm hoping if I widened the platcket and interfaced it, I could solve the problem? And the button holes aren't actually big. They are just right in case you were thinking. :)
Thanks for reading,
Have a nice weekend.
Preethi.

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