Sweetheart Dress - Wearable Muslin

Hello sewing friends,
I finally finished the wearable muslin for MAGAM Joyful June, Sweetheart dress :) The pattern is based on BurdaStyle Vintage Modern Elizabeth Gathered-waist Dress size 34, I modified the bodice at the neckline and armhole. And for the fabric, I used cotton voile that already stayed inside my stash for a while.
Before I write more about the challenge of making this dress, let's take a look of the final dress that I wore this morning. I went out with husband and son visited Leal Senado, then walked around Sao Domingos market.

I always enjoyed flat sketch and I made this one especially for the Sweetheart Dress.

I mentioned before that this dress is based on BurdaStyle Vintage Modern Elizabeth Gathered-waist Dress size 34. I modified the front and back bodices to a Sweetheart neckline and used the skirt as the original pattern had.

My work started with front bodice, I measured the dart center line 8.5 cm above the apex and drew using the French curve to the CF in the shape of half heart, and then drew a line of neckline.

For the armhole, I reduced the shoulder line 6.5 cm and drew a new line of armhole.

I did the same for the back bodice, I measured the dart center line 8.5 cm above the apex and drew a new line of the back neckline in a square shape. Also reduced the shoulder line 6.5 cm and drew a new line of armhole.

The front and back darts is exactly same as the original pattern.

I also made the facings and fused them with fusible interfacing.

I like sewing this dress, especially the fabric was so easy to work with. I sewed the darts and attached the front and back bodices right sides together at the shoulder. Then prepared my skirt by gather them before attach to the bodice.

After that I sew the right side of the dress and sew the invisible zipper to the left side.

Then sewed the facing and hem the dress. Done!

Oh well, I tried the dress as soon as finished and so disappointed with the fitting of the neckline. Both front and back were too big 3 cm :(

So, quick decision I added the darts in both sides - 1.5 cm in both corners of chest area and the same for back side.

These pictures below are the final dress in my dress form, hope you can spot the darts on the wrong sides of the dress. Also, forget to mention that I sewed the bias tape around the armhole facing.

That's it for my today post everyone, hope you are having a lovely weekend :) I am going to share this post to MAGAM Facebook Group and ready to work on the real dress with Joyful fabric :)

Happy Sewing!

Love
+Hana Velvet Ribbon

Me Made May 2016 Round Up

Hello,
Me Made May 2016 has come to an end. It was a great month and I am glad that I managed to wear self-stitched garments and refashioned for the whole month.
My special thank you to Zoe for organizing the awesome challenge, my dear husband who took photos during the whole month and to all my sewing friends for the lovely comments through Flickr. Also, my last thank to my followers in my Facebook page for the likes and comments :)

Well, I am not going to say more, here are the outfits that I wore during the whole month of May. For more detail of each outfit, you can visit my album on Flickr ME MADE MAY 2016

May 1st - 8th

May 9th - 15th

May 16th - 23rd

May 24th - 31st

I think it is enough for my today post, hope everyone have a lovely day and a happy sewing.

Love,
Hana

Finished Mad May, Culottes And Cotton Blouses

Hello...
I finished my Magam Mad May, three culottes and decided to sew two cotton blouses. The weather is getting really hot and I need some easy garments for my everyday wear :)
The culottes pattern is from New Look - Misses pants 6231 size 36  that I shorten the length and modified the bottom. The cotton top pattern is from a dress pattern, BurdaStyle Chiffon dress 01/2013 #108 size 34 that I only used the bodice and modified the neckline, armhole and bottom. I will explain more about my sewing adventure in the below post, now let's take a look of the first garment - wearable culottes muslin that I wore with rtw t-shirt for MMMay'16 day 23

For the wearable culottes muslin, I used the left over woven fabric from my Simplicity New Look pants in deep green colour. Other than fabric, I need invisible zipper, fusible interfacing and same colour of thread.

The process of making this culottes started with modify the pattern based from my pants that I made in February,

• Measured the length from the waist 67 cm for the green and grey, 73 cm for the mint culottes.
• Made 3 cm waistband.
• Added the inner pants at the bottom 2.5 cm and the outer 6 cm, then drew new lines from bottom to crotch for the inner pants and bottom to hips for the outer pants.
• Added seam allowance 1.5 cm in all edges and 3 cm hem allowance.

After I had all the pattern pieces, I cut the fabric and sewing them according to the usual manner.

I started sewing the darts (for back pieces) and sewed the front and back pieces right sides together at the inner legs.

Carefully pinned and sewed the crotch from front to the back.

Then I sewed the right side of the culottes. I didn't sew the left side because I want to sew the zipper first then the rest of it.

Cut the fusible interfacing 1.5 cm wide and fused them in the wrong side of zipper area.

I also fused the fusible interfacing to the waistband pieces and sewed them together and attached to the culottes.

Then I sewed the invisible zipper and the rest of the left side. And the last step was hem the culottes with 3 cm hem allowance (hand sewed hem for the green and mint culottes and machine hem for the grey culottes)

And here is the closer look of the green culottes, front and back views.

Second culottes is the mint colour, it looks more light blue in the picture :)
The culottes length was a little bit longer, 73 cm from the waist to bottom with 3 cm hem allowance. I used 1.5 yards of medium weight rayon viscose, it draped nicely and look better with longer length.
I like it and I already wore with my new cotton top for MMMay'16 day 30

The closer look of the mint culottes, front - back - zipper and back darts

Now it is time for the third culottes, I used 1.5 yards of woven fabric in grey colour. The length is same as the green culottes but finished with machine hem 3 cm.
I love this one more than the other two and already wore it yesterday with my black top for MMMay'16 day 31

And here are more pictures of the culottes in progress and the whole look - front and back views,

Well, finally we reached the final post of the day :) I made the two blouses from the bodice of BurdaStyle Chiffon Dress 01/2013 #108 size 34 with following modification,

• Measured from the middle shoulder down to the hip, 60 cm
• Made V-neckline by reduced the shoulder at the neckline 3 cm and measured from the CF down to the chest 11 cm. After that I drew a new line of V-neck.
• Also reduced the outer shoulder 1 cm and drew a new line of armhole.
• Added 2.5 cm in both sides of front and back pieces at the bottom and drew a new line of the blouse.
• For the seam allowances, I used 1.5 cm in all edges and 2 cm hem allowance.

The picture below is my first blouse, I used 80 cm cotton fabric from my stash. I had this fabric since 2009. The final blouse is so easy and comfy to wear, I like it and already wore with my self-drafted basic skirt for MMMay'16 day 25

The sewing process was fast and easy, I did this top in one morning. The neckline and armholes finished with bias tape, pity that I don't have white colour, so I used yellow. As usual, I sewed the bias tape right sides together at the neckline, then folded to the wrong side and top stitched from the right side. I did the same for the armholes.

Here is the closer look of the first blouse, front and back views.

For the second blouse, I used 1 yard of cotton fabric. It has a lovely red small flowers with green leaves printed on it.
For the finished neckline, I used facing from the same fabric fused with fusible interfacing in the wrong side. And for the finished armholes, I used red bias tape. Here is the detail,

And the last picture of the finished second cotton blouse, front and back views.

Happy Sewing and wishing everyone a lovely day!

Love,
Hana