Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Button Button

I was skipping through Shabby Apple's dresses one day, and decided I wanted the "Lois Lane" dress!  Obviously, I made my own variations, so its not exactly the same dress, but mine cost me $6 vs. $79.  I love how its a little nautical, completely modest, and now I finally have a dress that works with breastfeeding.

 
 Cheers to weighing in at 2 lbs. under my pre-baby weight!  No, Doctor, I have not been exercising.  Just pushing 80 lbs. of boy + massive double stroller around town.


Here's a behind-the-scenes demo :).  I always start with a picture.  I don't often work with patterns, but for detailed garments, I'll find a similar pattern, then alter it how I want.  With this dress, I pulled out my generic slopers from patternmaking class in college.  The general concept is to take a sloper and manipulate the darts in order to make or remove seams in different places.  In the first picture, I didn't want a bust seam, only seams in the front so I could put buttons down one side.  I copied this sloper in newspaper, then sliced and taped to make my new pattern piece.


I made the petal sleeves by making two sleeve caps and joined them at the underarm seam.





For the collar, I joined the front and back slopers at the shoulder seam (overlap them a little to make the collar stand up a little) and traced the neckline.


 Ta-da!

12 comments:

Tori said...

So cute, love it!

I'm making more clothes for myself lately but it's a new territory for me with lots of duds! I need to read some actual pattern alteration books to figure out what I'm doing. ]

Camille said...

Thanks Tori! I totally understand--I always tell people I have an attic full of sewing mistakes from experimenting in high school. Its such a trial-and-error art, huh! I love what you make, though! You're such a seamstress!

~Crystal~ said...

Gorgeous! Way to go! And I love that it's versatile for breastfeeding :)

Kati said...

So impressed! I'm always amazed that you whip up a brand new outfit just like that. It turned out so cute!

Julie said...

I'm envious of your mad sewing skillzzz!! Especially since I too have admired that dress at Shabby!

Unfortunately, I'll probably end up dishing out the $89... [sniffle, sniffle]... owing to the fact that I'm dismal with a needle! Haha!

YOU ROCK!

Diana said...

That dress is absolutely gorgeous! I actually was eyeing it when i first saw those pictures of the blessing day. You're amazing.

Sabrina said...

It hurts my head when I see what you can create. You are amazing. It's a gorgeous dress, as always!

Katie said...

it looks even more amazing on you!

Unknown said...

How did you only spend $5!? I'm so glad you posted the pattern pieces. I may just try to create one similar also. I love the vintage nautical looks! Love the lining fabric, totally adds to the finished look.

Camille said...

Abby: I found the blue fabric on Fabric.com clearance for $1.99 and only needed 2 yards. I found the buttons in a button bin at this tiny shop in Cambridge 20/$1, and I had the blue stripe in my scrap pile. $5!

Michelle said...

You are AMAZING! I nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award! http://bumbleberrylane.com/2012/06/18/liebster-blog-award/
Keep up the good work, girlie! Love ya!

Camille said...

Correction, Abby, the buttons were 10/$1!