Vogue 8315 - Black dress with bow, lace and cuff details

AKA: The black dress that never ends

Okay, finally done with this dress!!! It took 3 weeks of sewing! That is a long time for me to spend on one project. It wasn't particularly difficult, just lots and lots of seams and hand sewing. That skirt has 12 pieces and the long sash is sewn on early so there is a ton of fabric to keep up with. Since I added a lining to the top I had to hand sew the underskirt in place. I also had to really think about the sequencing because this is a mock wrap and the top lining had to come together with the underskirt with no exposed seams.

I moved the invisible zipper up as far as I could in hopes of hiding it under the collar. It still shows. Oh well, I'm okay with it. Only the tab shows and I wear my hair down a lot.

Here are the cute french cuffs:

I was VERY weary of this big bow. I don't like bunches of fabric at my waist. My body type is a square and I don't need any more padding in that area. But because the fabric has a bit of stiffness, it holds the bow close to my body and doesn't droop forward. It DOES take me a while of adjusting to get the bow just right. This bow in the picture needs some attention...

Here's the lace peeking out from under my hem. I would prefer a thicker lace here but had a really hard time finding black lace. If I ever find just what I'm looking for it will be replaced.

Here's a picture of the front insides. I put bias tape along the front facings for a smooth finish and around the armhole seams so there are no exposed seams. That small silver dot is a front snap.

Here's the pattern picture. I made view A, the black dress. I guess that's pretty obvious, though.

I am so excited to be through with this and move onto another project.

We had to take these pictures inside since the sun was right in my face. Anyone who's been to my house before might take notice of our new french doors. They need to be painted, but are such an improvement over the sliding glass door that was there before. That was the first thing I wanted to change when we moved in and it only took us 7 years to finally get around to it!

Just a little bit of randomness

This is for my mom, and anyone else who ever wondered what the Burda World of Fashion magazine was all about. Here's the cover of August's issue:

Inside after the table of contents you will find 2 pages with all the design photos of the garments not on people. (I only scanned the first one.) This is nice since the pictures of the people wearing the clothes don't always show all the details.

For example, the following picture really cracked me up. Um, nice hair. What the heck does the shirt look like?!!

In the middle of the magazine are the blackline drawings, instructions, and patterns on large folded papers that you trace out and cut for your specific size. I scanned both pages of blacklines so you can see just how many patterns you get with each magazine. I counted 45 with this issue. Some are regular, some plus size, some children's, and with this one some are maternity. Some I love, some I like, and some I think are hideous. But, for $6.67 an issue, it's a pretty good bargain. Also, I've been disappointed with the patterns on sale for this fall. A lot of them seem to be very simple without a lot of shape. So I'm really loving this magazine because most of the designs include very cute details.


Okay, Kelly, here is the design picture for the Back to School Vest from Fitted Knits I was working on at your house. I'm using that brown tweed in the next picture.

I'm 5 inches into the 9 inches of ribbing on the bottom. Not bad for 6 days of on and off labor!


That's it for my random information. I'm hoping to post pictures of the black dress that never ends by Thursday or Friday.

Red & blue split-neckline knitted tee

Have any of you read my very first post where I wrote, "...and coming soon, knitting!" about what topics I would be including in this blog? Well, here is my very first completed knitted project! I started my class the first of July and had such a blast! Not that learning hasn't been frustrating. It definitely has. I've spilled some tears.

Anyway, I'm aware it is customary to first do a dishrag, hat or scarf. I started the dishrag and got bored. Knit, purl, knit, purl. Snore. I live in southern Texas and have never once in my life worn a scarf or winter hat. So, I found the simplest sweater pattern that I liked and dove right in.

This is the split-neckline cap-sleeved tee from Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel. First let me write that I'm in love with most of the patterns in this book, and plan to make almost all of them.

Once you get past the sleeve set up, this sweater is basically a straight tube. I could tell from the picture they had it cinched up in the back on the model. So I did some flipping through a few books and decided to put in front and back darts. I really like the fit! I did make a few mistakes. No holes or anything unsightly. Can you see it's not exactly a cap sleeve like the book description? Despite any oopses, I learned a lot and will wear this with pride. Here's the neckline close up. Isn't it cute?!

I learned how to use double pointed needles doing the trim on the sleeves. That folded-picot edging was a fun little detail.

I used a yarn made up of 45% cotton/55% acrylic. It's a little hot, so I probably won't do that again. I didn't want to break the bank for my very first sweater and went with a less expensive yarn. You definitely get what you pay for. All in all I'm very happy with my very first sweater.