Flirty Flamingo Playsuit

This month I decided to join in for #SpringForCotton hosted by the lovely Rochelle over at Lucky Lucille. 

Then I stumbled onto The Monthly Stitch and saw that the challenge for the month of April was "Put a BIRD on it!" 

So, since flamingos are, in fact, birds, I decided to stitch up and use this flirty little play-suit to complete both challenges! 

As you know from my last post I spent the last two glorious weeks in the Sunshine State enjoying some lovely times with my family. I just managed to get this finished up in the last few days of vacation and had the chance to have it photographed with the lovely palm trees. I miss palm trees so much. But I digress.

This play-suit is a mash-up of McCall's M6969 and the skirt from Vogue V9000. I did view C of the romper and just used the skirt pattern as a template for the gores.

My fabric for this project is this lovely,vibrant, flamingo print, 100% cotton, shirting and a solid pink quilting cotton. I'd been eyeing the flamingo print for about four months and happened to go in with a 50% off coupon and snagged 5 yards of this for only $25! That's a huge bargain as far as I'm concerned.

I also settled on self-covered buttons for this project.

For the construction of the first part, the romper, I decided that I wanted to do a solid color top and use the flamingo print on the bottom. I wanted it to look as if it were two pieces without actually being so. I also liked the idea of being able to wear the romper by itself with a belt and have it still look like a two piece set.

I added the white bias binding on all of the hems. I really liked how the contrast of the white played against the brighter colors.

Due to the long trip and baggage regulations, I was only able to bring limited supplies with me to my mom's. Luckily, she is also a sewist and was willing to share her sewing room with me during my stay.

That also included getting to sew it up on her Husqvarna Viking Designer 1!! This thing sews like a dream. Seriously, it's worth every very expensive penny. While I hope my mother lives forever, I also hope she leaves this to me in her will... unless she decides one day to upgrade and feels the need to pass this on to me. I wouldn't complain one bit.

Lovely woman that my mother is, she also played my photographer for this project. Usually I just photograph my makes on Millie, my dress form. Unfortunately, she was still at home in Ohio and my mother doesn't have one. So that meant, I had to get dolled up and get outside and in front of the camera. We are by no means professionals, but they didn't turn out to bad for cell phone pics. 

So there you have it. This is #vintagepledge make number 3 for me! I'm over half way to my goal of 5 for the year. I guess it's time to unpack, clean up and figure out what my next project will be!!

Much love!!

#CapeletAlong with SewRetroRose

I just finished up a sew-along collaboration between the lovely Beccie from SewRetroRose and Decades of Style, completing this lovely 1930's Capelet. 

Let me just tell you what an amazing project this was. I really feel that this one stretched my limits as a seamstress, and I learned some wonderful new techniques along the way.

Before I get to photos of the finished project, let me walk you through the construction.

On Beccie's (SewRetroRose) suggestion I made a muslin for this project. I'm glad I did because while I didn't need to make any huge changes, I felt much more confident when cutting into my fashion fabric. I must admit I do love the plaid fabric I used for the muslin, so this may get finished and be wearable one day.

I decided on this lovely light pink and brown houndstooth corduroy that I had about 4 yards of in my fabric stash. I felt that it had the perfect weight and drape for this project.

The bodice came together really easily in this project. I didn't add the extra length to the cape as Beccie did with hers, nor did I do a full lining. I wanted to and honestly I bought a lovely chocolate brown satin that was to become the lining, but I chickened out on that at the last minute. Next time I'll try the lining! I promise!

This project was the first time I'd done bound buttonholes. I'm so pleased with how they turned out, even though I ended up with a few minor mistakes, they came together so easily.

This is one of those minor mistakes... I didn't think about the nap of the fabric and which direction each facing was well facing... Oops. :) Honestly, I ended up with two going each direction in a alternating pattern, so I'm gonna sell it as a design element! ;)

Next I moved onto the cape itself. This was very easily put together.

Here is the cape pinned onto the bodice! Thank to my lovely Millie being there for fittings. She's such a fabulous helper... and so quiet!!

And now here it is stitched into place. I did have to adjust the stitch line a bit because it didn't lay just right the first time I sewed it down. 

After that it was just a matter of finishing the armholes, adding and tacking the facings and sewing on the buttons. I was so excited to be in the home stretch on this one. I knew from using Millie that it was going to fit, but I really wanted to see how it looked on me, and that was next to impossible to know for sure without those buttons.

I catchstiched all of my facings, which was another first for me. I've never used that stitch before. I also bound all of my seams with bias... it's a slightly different shade of brown that my fabric, but it's on the inside and no one should notice.

I'm sure your all eager to see the finished capelet by now. So thanks for sticking around through this long and picture heavy post! You're undoubtedly the best readers around!

Here she is in all of her glory. I feel like calling her Clara because I feel like this is something Clara Bow would have worn and loved. It's just the right amount of glamour and sophistication.

Picture credit to silentsaregolden.com

I chose large brown wooden buttons with a filigree pattern jigsawed out of the center. I searched for days for the right buttons and I'm so pleased with these.

 

So there you have it! My completed Decades of Style 1930's Capelet! Now she needs a skirt...

Look for this make in the near future... but not so near future. I'm leaving on Friday with my two little ones to get on a jet plane and fly home to Sunny Florida!! We'll be gone for 17 days and it will be a much needed vacation from work and the cold dreary Ohio spring. See you all when I get back! There may be an update or two during the time I'm gone, I am taking my laptop, but there may not be if we get too busy having fun. So don't despair if you don't see me. I will be back!

Much love to you all!!

~MissKacySews