One Big, One Small

I am on a mission to try and burn through all the dresses that I have cut up in my ready to sew bin.  I have creative plans for August and I really would like to do my best to complete as many of these projects as I can before then.  All of these are from my vintage stash of free fabric.  There are certainly more dresses cut up in there than I can probably finish in 2 weeks, but hey ... I'm always up for a challenge.  Unfortunately, I doubt my kids are up for it.  I think I have about 2 more dresses, 2 shirts (one that I may scrap all together), and 2 skirts.  Wish me luck!

The good news is I tackled 2 dresses (not included in the list above).  Actually, the dress I made for myself is from a more recent fabric donation I received.  My friend, Dee, gave me a big box of fabric that was her mothers and I fell in love with this print instantly.  It kinda cut in line before all my other 'cut and ready to sew' dresses :).  

I used this pattern, which I have used before.

McCall's 4769

I struggled with this dress more than I did with the last dress I made from this pattern.  I did a terrible job cutting out the bodice, so it was way smaller than it should have been and I was really worried it wouldn't fit.  Amazingly, it did!  I had sleeves on the last dress and this was sleeveless.  The underneath of this dress is not pretty.  I had a hard time with the way the pattern wanted me to tack the arm holes and all my cutting was just botchy.  I don't remember what I was doing when I cut it, but everything was off and it made sewing it very difficult.  I won't bore you with the details, nor will I share the inside of the dress.  It looks good on and on the outside, so that is all that matters!

Here it is .... One big!

I never know whether it's better to take a photo of the finished product on the dress form or on me.  What do you all think?  Some dresses don't fit when finished on the dress form, so I have to model them on me.  I think it shows better on a human, than on a dress form, but I always feel funny taking and posting pictures of myself.  I'm not much of an "in front of the camera" type of person.

It's hard to see, but I added a few extra stitching lines along the color and buttons, just for a little extra decorative stitching touch.

The buttons for this dress were also given to me by my Mother-In-Law, Barbara.  Her mother also sewed and I was lucky enough to get to pick a bunch of buttons and vintage fabric from her stash.  Gotta love these buttons at only 29 cents!  Free for me.

I added a little belt.  I have to look and see if I have enough of this fabric left for a sash.  I think it would look nice, but I am pretty sure I used every last bit.

Overall, I am very happy with how this dress (the outside, anyway) came out.  I don't have a little black dress and now I do!  It has a Marilyn Monroe feeling to it.  Very vintage-y.

Now, unlike my Fourth of July inspired dress, the vision for this dress hit me when I got the fabric.  Since I was given both the fabric and the buttons, this dress only cost me thread (about 1 1/2 spools) and interfacing (with was minimal and I had on hand).  All and all I probably spent 10 hours and $3 on this dress.  Score!

One of the other dresses I finished was for my daughter.  This was also from my vintage stash.  It has been cut up waiting for me for a while, but Aubrey refuses to wear dresses!  *Sigh*.  Thank goodness for her Preschool graduation and her little boyfriend.  I was able to talk her into wearing a dress I made from this pattern a long time ago.  I told her she had to dress up for graduation and maybe she might want to look nice for Nicholas ;). 

Magic words!  Here is the dress I had made previously and she wore to graduation.  It still fits!

It's so pretty!  There is so much room for play with this pattern.  I added lots of notions to make this extra pretty.

She really liked wearing it.  She loved that she could curtsy in it.  Now she wants me to make more.  

That's my cue!

Here is the pattern.

Simplicity 2461

I am planning on having her help me design her dresses by picking out fabrics and patterns she likes, but first I decided to whip up this dress that I had already cut up before she changes her mind.

Here is the dress, one small!

There is the curtsy :).

I just love that face!!!! :)

I added a few little notions to dress it up a bit.  I used red binding on the collar (mostly out of laziness), red cording under the bodice, and I had 3 cute red buttons left from my Fourth of July inspired dress.

This dress cost me $0.  Fabric was free.  All the notions were scraps or left overs.

Now we can be twins!!!

This dress is also the other dress I made from the first pattern I posted above, McCalls 4769.

Even Bayne can match with his cool striped pants.  I get to have matching options, too!  I might make Aubrey a pair of shorts if I have enough of this fabric left.

Super funky, but super fun.

I LOVE FREE FABRIC!  <3

Thanks for looking!