We all know I am a huge fan of all things peasant style. I even have a Pinterest board called "Oh Peasants....How do I love Thee!" Where I keep all my inspirational ideas. It is a simple, timeless and flattering style on almost anyone.
You may remember early in the summer (when it mattered that my AC was out) I made a very summery Giselle dress. It is a dress I wore a lot over the summer. But the v neck is too low and I did some serious thinking about the changes I wanted to make. The overall concept is great and the pattern was very easy to change. I am a great sewer but a little lazy. No way I am drafting a pattern for something for myself when there are great patterns out there to buy. BTW you can by the Giselle and all her other lovelies here.
Last week I had a fancy dinner party to go to, so about a week before that I realized I did not have anything to wear. Our weather has been unusually cold. So I needed an actual winter dress. I looked through my sewing stash which is huge, and I found some black stretch velvet that I wanted to use. Then I had to decide on a pattern. Giselle came to mind. But I wanted some embellishment, because as much as I love black, this dress deserved a little something.
I picked some stretch lace out of my stash, I like brown and black it is a little unusual as a combination. But not weird and for sure wintery.
For a more comfortable fit, I had to make a few adjustments to the bust. First I made the v neck less deep, then I created a seam down the center from the v to the top of the bodice to accommodate my shallower neckline. Additionally I added about an inch of length to the bust cup to give myself a little more room. Some would call this the "full bust adjustment".
Another change I made, because I have to make it to everything I make for myself, is that I narrowed the shoulder and raised the armhole. I have tiny shoulders in comparison to the rest of me. I know it sounds like a lot of adjustments but I always have to make them so I have gotten good at it. I did all this without measuring just eyeballed it. Plus I was using stretch velvet which is very forgiving.
However one adjustment I forgot to make was making an adjustment to the bodice and the back that accounted for all these bust adjustments. So once again the back was too long. Which the first time I made it I blamed Kati & her pattern (SO sorry!!) but it was me! And my flakiness. This picture is not super easy to see but I had to cut about an inch and a half off the bodice bottom to make it match up with the back. Which actually made the bodice the right length for me so like magic it worked out.
To attach the lace, I first sprayed it with spray-on fabric adhesive. I let that dry and then sewed it on. I tried pinning but the fabric was stretch and the lace was stretch and life is too short to battle with stretch fabrics! I also made a small change in the sleeve band, instead of elastic I used a wide band of the stretch velvet to make a sleeve band.
I hear that Kati is making a wool Giselle. Hmmm....... I may have to borrow her inspiration and make myself a couple more winter versions. Now I just need to figure out how to carve a little time out to work on something for myself!
Happy Sewing,
Chrissy
You may remember early in the summer (when it mattered that my AC was out) I made a very summery Giselle dress. It is a dress I wore a lot over the summer. But the v neck is too low and I did some serious thinking about the changes I wanted to make. The overall concept is great and the pattern was very easy to change. I am a great sewer but a little lazy. No way I am drafting a pattern for something for myself when there are great patterns out there to buy. BTW you can by the Giselle and all her other lovelies here.
Last week I had a fancy dinner party to go to, so about a week before that I realized I did not have anything to wear. Our weather has been unusually cold. So I needed an actual winter dress. I looked through my sewing stash which is huge, and I found some black stretch velvet that I wanted to use. Then I had to decide on a pattern. Giselle came to mind. But I wanted some embellishment, because as much as I love black, this dress deserved a little something.
For a more comfortable fit, I had to make a few adjustments to the bust. First I made the v neck less deep, then I created a seam down the center from the v to the top of the bodice to accommodate my shallower neckline. Additionally I added about an inch of length to the bust cup to give myself a little more room. Some would call this the "full bust adjustment".
Another change I made, because I have to make it to everything I make for myself, is that I narrowed the shoulder and raised the armhole. I have tiny shoulders in comparison to the rest of me. I know it sounds like a lot of adjustments but I always have to make them so I have gotten good at it. I did all this without measuring just eyeballed it. Plus I was using stretch velvet which is very forgiving.
To attach the lace, I first sprayed it with spray-on fabric adhesive. I let that dry and then sewed it on. I tried pinning but the fabric was stretch and the lace was stretch and life is too short to battle with stretch fabrics! I also made a small change in the sleeve band, instead of elastic I used a wide band of the stretch velvet to make a sleeve band.
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| Here I am all dressed and ready to go. |
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| These shoes where a mistake! My feet hurt the whole time! |
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| These will be the ones I wear with it in the future. |
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| Slightly blurry b/c taken by the kiddo. |
Happy Sewing,
Chrissy
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