Another Cosmopolitan Dress!

As I posted yesterday, I needed a dress to wear to a banquet I am attending with my boyfriend tomorrow night. I absolutely fell in love with this polyester/spandex knit print over at Gorgeous Fabrics and thought it would be perfect for yet another rendition of my favorite dress. All I have left to do is the hem which I will get to later tonight or tomorrow afternoon. With my blindstitch machine it will take me longer to pin the hem than it will to sew it!

I changed the pattern’s scarf sleeve around a bit, which you can see here at the Sewing Divas. This is a super-easy sleeve to draft and is different yet simple.

I’m undecided about which bag to carry: the celery/beige Goldenbleu Emerson crinkled patent clutch or the black python clutch. BTW, the black python was the first expensive bag I bought with my own money right after I graduated high school. In the 28 years since it’s seen a lot of action!

Shoes were easy! I chose these black patent platformw from ABS:

Mother’s Day Week is over - back to sewing!

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day yesterday (actually, I think I celebrated it all of last week!) and collapsed into bed last night too full to move from the delicious Cuban lunch (with Mojitos!) that I had with my sister-in-law and her family and the mouth-watering filet mignon with grilled asparagus (with Margaritas!) that my boyfriend cooked last night. I’m sure I felt a little more junk in my trunk when I went for my morning run today.

Now it’s back to my Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan Dress in this beautiful Flashback Floral Knit from Gorgeous Fabrics.

I’ve been working on this here and there for an entire week and must get it done now as my boyfriend and I have a banquet to attend on Wednesday night. This only leaves me with a few hours today and tomorrow - usually a piece of cake but I still don’t quite have my Sewing Mojo back…

Banded Surplice Neckline Tutorial

The banded surplice neckline tutorial for the HP Cosmopolitan Dress is up at The Sewing Divas! Here’s the LINK.

HP Cosmopolitan Dress with scarf sleeves

The first piece of my professional wardrobe is finally finished! I am just not back up to speed yet but I should be cranking things out at top speed pretty soon.

I plan on wearing the dress with these comfortable, conservative Via Spiga pumps. Luckily, I already have four pair of conservative pumps that are office-appropriate (brown, black, burgundy and hot pink). They are always good to have around in the event that I am called for jury duty or must attend a funeral or other somber event - or go job hunting! As much as I love shoe shopping I’m glad I can concentrate on the clothes for now.

Of course, I had to rock it out just a little bit with a mabe pearl pendant on a leather choker!

This weekend I will be posting a quick tutorial at The Sewing Divas blog on how to finish the neckline with bands. It’s so easy and a nice way to use a contrasting fabric. You can also see how I’ve finished the scarf sleeve hems with a quick and easy mitering method!

Speaking of fabric, both fabrics used here are from Gorgeous Fabrics! The main fabric is Modern Dots Knit and the contrast is Dainty Dots Jersey. I’ll tell you, living here in the steamy tropics I resisted polyester fabrics for many years but these are so wonderful that I have been reformed! Plus, Ann’s collection of fabulous knit prints is truly TDF and the prices are easy on the wallet.

Donna Karan Spring ‘08: Serious lust

I already have shirtdress on the brain so imagine my reaction upon seeing this shirtdress from Donna Karan at Saks Fifth Avenue. I am head over heels over this dress! Yeah, I know I’d have to be wear one of those uncomfortable convertible bras but it would be sooo worth it! In my ideal world, Hot Patterns would already be working on a pattern inspired by this dress. In the meantime, I’m going to be working on adapting a commercial pattern.

Available at Saks.com for $2895.

Build the outfit #1

As I was getting ready to go out on Saturday night I really wanted to wear these fabulous sandals (which my boyfriend calls stripper shoes - I don’t care, I’ll wear them anyway) and realized that I had only one garment that really went with them - a dress I’d worn last Saturday! How did this happen? So, inspired by Manolo The Shoeblogger’s build the outfit contests I am going to start from the ground up for a change and make a few things to go with the shoes.

My thought is that these are pretty sexy shoes and need something clean, simple and not too bare to keep me from looking like a working girl. What I’ve come up with so far:

Item #1 - White shirtdress: The first one is perfect, the second needs to be a few inches longer

A great pattern to start with is this Threads for Simplicity pattern that I had forgotten was in my stash!

Item #2 - White knee length skirt: LOVE!

Item #3 - White skinny bermuda shorts: LOVE! A definite must-have!

Item #4 - Sundress: the first one would be perfect if it were a few inches longer, the second one has a nice shape but I wouldn’t add the girly details

This forgotten New Look pattern is the perfect base for a sundress! I’ll probably use the strapless version and add tiny spaghetti straps for wearing ease.

Another style that I think is absolutely perfect for these shoes is this Hot Patterns Plain & Simple Iconic Shirtdress. I think this would look fabulous in red because a clingy white knit dress is certainly out of the question!

What do you think? I welcome any and all input!

Hot off the Press!

I was beyond delighted when I received the latest Hot Patterns newsletter today! I have been complaining to anyone who will listen that the styles, both in the pattern books and in the stores, are just so dull - nothing more than remakes of styles we’ve all seen for the past few seasons. Then, along comes the HP Metropolitan Collection!

I immediately thought of Phyllis when I saw the Sleek & Chic Skirts. This is the perfect serious work skirt!

You’ll have to Tie Me Down to keep me from making these tops! I really love smocking - it isn’t easy to do smocking in such a sophisticated way.

This is a great dress-up-or-down coatdress! It would even work open as a light coat for those of us in the tropics:

The Super Fly Skirt would be fab with boots this fall and winter:

This is the perfect little jacket for me! I ADORE the belted back!

I am seriously IN LOVE with the Criterion blouses! How gorgeous would these be in silk charmeuse?

Now these are patterns I can really get excited about!

Presents for moi!

I just LOVE getting packages in the mail so I was very excited when the postman brought me a box from Hot Patterns this week! In it, of course, were my two purse patterns and a beautiful cotton/lycra from HP’s Ebay store (link in previous post). Those of you who know me know that I am always on the lookout for fabulous quality knits - this one is really beautiful! It is so soft and the print and colors are beautiful. I would generally expect to pay $18/yd for a cotton/lycra of this quality so this one, at $12.45/yd was a real bargain. Since the print is so pretty, I think I’ll just make a very simple scoop-neck top with elbow-length sleeves.

My friends know that I generally steer clear of florals, preferring abstract designs instead. On someone my age, an inappropriate or incorrectly used floral can be either matronly or juvenile so I generally use them with caution. I was attracted to the stylized flowers and open spaces in this print. It definitely does not look little-girly or old-ladyish!

No more taping!

Run, don’t walk, to the Hot Patterns Ebay Store and get your copies of the Limited Edition LaRue and Nairobi bags! I printed and taped together the Nairobi pattern last year but never got to the LaRue because I am a knucklehead when it comes to having the correct printer settings - the size just seemed off to me so that’s as far as I got. So, I just bought both so that I could add the *real* patterns to my collection. There are only a few copies left of these limited editions so you’d better hurry if you want one!

You should also check out some of the *gorgeous* fabrics that Trudy picked up on her trip to the Orient. Come on, ladies, join me - add to the stash!

Hot Patterns Cha Cha Cha Dress

You didn’t think I’d really leave you without posting a photo of my new dress, did you? This dress is just too adorable! Leave it to Trudy to give us something that’s not only different and fashionable but a snap to sew as well. The back skirt is a full wrap (two full skirt back pieces) that will not leave you feeling as if you are about to expose yourself - you know what I’m talking about. It will also eliminate the need for a slip in many fabrics. I know I don’t want to wear one when the temps and the humidity percentages are in the 90s!

I’ll share more of the construction with you when I return. One important thing to note is that the ties are quite long. I only wrapped them around the front and then to the back once - they are intended to come back around the front and tie at the side but that was too bulky for this fabric. I lengthened my dress 4″ (3″ would have sufficed) and the ties are still a little longer than the hemline. When I return I am going to shorten them about 4″. For now, they are a “design feature”.

Here’s a lousy mirror picture of the bodice- I figured you’d rather see it than not. Adding the cups as described in my mini-tutorial at TheSewingDivas worked out great and gives me a nice shape.

The beautiful rayon/lycra fabric is from Fabric Mart. I really wish I’d bought more!