The Sally Dress

My multi-talented and super sweet friend, Shannon, from Very Shannon and Luvinthemommyhood, has just released her latest sewing pattern for The Sally Dress, and I was lucky enough to be a tester for this pattern and be a part of the pattern tour!

Shannon's Sally Dress Pattern is just as amazing and simple to make as her Sweetheart Dress Pattern. I adore them both, and even better, Ella loves wearing them both!  To see the Sweetheart Dresses I made last year, click HERE and HERE.

The Sally Dress Pattern features two large (I mean really big) pockets that are just perfect for active little girls who love to carry around stuffed animals, Little People, Barbies, or even Legos. Ella has had no trouble loading up those pockets while playing around the house or when we run to the store.

Another great detail of the Sally Dress Pattern is that it has no closure and just slips on and off over the head.  This is great for little ones asserting their independence in the "I can dress myself" department!

Back View

The square neckline bodice and shorter skirt length give this pattern a vintage vibe.  In addition to sleeveless, the pattern offers two sleeve length options:  short and 3/4 length.  I think the sleeveless version would be great for fall or winter with a t-shirt worn underneath it.

Although the pattern instructions don't include details for adding piping around the neckline, armholes, and waist, any experienced sewer can do it.  It took me roughly an extra hour's sewing time to make and sew on the piping.

The bodice is fully lined, and Shannon's pattern instructions and illustrations provide you with detailed steps on how to do this effortlessly.  Thank you, Shannon, for letting me test The Sally Dress Pattern!  I absolutely love it!

As far as the fabrics I used to make this dress, I was recently contacted by Kelle of Ann Kelle designs for Robert Kaufman about using some her fabrics.  Immediately, I knew that the Sally Dress would be perfect to showcase several of her coordinating fun, colorful prints.

I made this very outdoorsy version of The Sally Dress using Ann Kelle's Woodland Pals fabric in Bermuda for the bodice and skirt, Remix Small Chevrons in Bermuda for the outside of the pockets, Woodland Pals Raccoon in Bermuda for the pocket lining, Remix Dots in Bermuda for the bodice lining, and Remix Stripes in Bermuda for the piping.  You can purchase all of these prints at a variety of online and brick and mortar retail fabric stores.

Ella loves looking over the skirt for the hedgehogs, bunnies, fox, moose, deer, and mushrooms. Sometimes I turn it into a game to see how many of each she can find or if she can identify the colors on the pockets.  Who knew that fabric could help your pre-schooler learn her colors and to count!  Thanks again, Kelle, for all the fabric!  I love the quality, the colors, and most definitely the designs.  Fun!

Want to make your own version of The Sally Dress?  Then be sure to head to enter the contest below to win your own copy of the pattern.  If you just have to have the pattern right now, then head over to Very Shannon to purchase your own copy of The Sally Dress Pattern.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks sewVery much for coming by today!  Please be sure to visit all the other amazingly talented bloggers on the Sally Dress Pattern Tour for more inspiration!

Hope you'll visit sewVery again real soon!

The Teardrop Bag

After days of sewing and multiple roadblocks, I have finally finished my Teardrop Bag!

I bought this pattern months ago from my friend, Janelle, at Emmaline Bags and Patterns.  I have really enjoyed using her patterns, and I can now say I have completed the Emmaline Bags and Patterns trifecta--The Emmaline Bag, The Steph in the City Bag, and now The Teardrop Bag!  I feel like I deserve a really big prize, especially after conquering this last one.

As you know, not all projects go smoothly from start to finish.  In fact, most of mine rarely (if ever) are done without some sort of issue (whether it's human error or machine error), but my Teardrop Bag endeavor had more than its fair share of challenges.

First, I printed out the pattern months ago when I purchased it.  I read through the instructions on my computer then, too, but opted to not print them out.  No big deal.  I do that all the time to save paper, ink, and space. However, I can only guess that I failed to check the scale of the pieces I had printed out and taped together.  I discovered this error only after I had cut out all the lining pieces and the rectangle pieces of fabric used to cut out the outer bag.  My pattern pieces were 3/4" shorter in width than the fabric!

What I then learned is that when printing out pdf patterns on my HP Deskjet 1050 printer, I have to use an A4 paper size instead of Letter and make sure that I check the actual size option.  I've been having issues with pattern printing for a while now in the form of some lines being cropped from the print area (but the pieces are normally to scale).  I have no idea why I suddenly thought to try printing them out on A4 paper, but it seems to have solved all those printing problems!  Yay!

Ok.  So back to the issue at hand.  Since I had already cut out several pieces using the scaled down pattern version, I had to run with it, which ended up being just fine because this bag is huge!

Now I've finished cutting out all my pieces, and I go to the ironing board to starting fusing the fusible fleece to the outer bag when I discover that my fabric has faded spots all over it on one panel.  I then inspect the left over fabric more carefully and realize that roughly 1 1/4 yards out of the 2 yards of the Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 Bloom Granite fabric I ordered online was flawed! Luckily, there was enough undamaged fabric to cut out duplicate pieces of the ones that I had to replace.  Ugh!

Next hurdle was deciphering the pattern instructions.  You see, I opted to make my Teardrop Bag with both the optional gusseted zipper opening and the o-ring handle mounts--both of which were additions to the original pattern instructions.  Because of this, you have to skip some of the original steps and jump to a different page here and there.  With two children constantly running around and interrupting me, it's a wonder I got this bag finished at all!

I'm glad I made a gusseted zipper opening since I never have, and Janelle's written instructions and photographs made understanding each step of the process very clear.

However, I'm not sure I really like the gusseted zipper opening on this bag after all.  I thought it would be nice to have since the opening of the bag is so large, but I find it somewhat awkward to zip and unzip.  It actually requires both hands which sometimes can be a bother.

At first, I goofed up and sewed the zipper in wrong for the inner pocket.  I was distracted by my children, (so they get the blame for this, too!) but I picked it out and fixed it.  I learned how to sew a zipper pocket from Janelle's tutorial that is included with all her patterns. It's really a great tutorial!

I also added a slip pocket to store my phone and tin of mints.  No problems with this step!  Whew! But I wish I had sewn it in a little lower.  The gusset zipper gets in the way of the top of the slip pocket.

I used a lot of pins to secure the outer bag to the lining before sewing them together.  Because I used canvas fabric for the lining, the overall bag was rather stiff and at times a challenge to maneuver under my sewing foot.  I have never been poked by pins as much as when I was sewing the outer bag to the lining!

All was going well on the third and final day of bag construction when I had to use the seam ripper to remove one stray stitch where I had sewn on the o-rings.  I guess I don't know my own strength, because I pushed the seam ripper so hard that it slipped and sliced open the top of my left hand index finger.  It began to bleed immediately, and I thought I would faint!  I can't stand the sight of my own blood.

I'm not so sure I agree with Janelle's difficulty rating for the Teardrop Bag. She has it listed as Easy -- For Advanced Beginners.  Now, like I said earlier, I've made all three of her bags, and the other two were listed as Intermediate to Advanced which I agree with her on that.  But with the gusset zipper and o-ring handle options that I chose to tackle, I believe that the Teardrop Bag rating is most definitely an Intermediate to Advanced bag.  Without those options, then I would agree with her rating.  Would that distinction on her pattern have deterred me from tackling the exact same bag I made?  Most definitely not!

Overall, I'm very excited about this bag and have really enjoyed using it the past several days.  The exterior fabric is gorgeous, and I really love how nice the bag looks with the way I pieced the coordinating fabrics together.

This is the first time I have ever used canvas as the lining of a bag, and although it was a little challenging at times to sew, I'll use it again.  I like how it makes the bag have more structure without using interfacing.  In fact, the only other thing I used was some fusible fleece on the back side of the outer fabric in order to give it a little more strength.

So, there you have it!  That all said, this is one whopper of a bag!  I'd say it's the biggest I've ever made.  Even bigger than this Sweet Pea Tote I made last year!  Although I made my bag slightly smaller than the regular sized version (due to my printing error), Janelle's pattern offers you an option to make it even bigger!  I think she refers to it as the XL size!

It's so much larger than what I would normally carry that I made up a matching zipper pouch to keep small items neat and tidy inside the larger Teardrop Bag.  I also threw together a matching tissue holder.   Since this post is now way too long, I'll share more about them another day.

Oh, and the bag matches the Commuter Cowl I made, too.  Ella took this picture of me--not bad considering she's not even 4 yet!

Linking up at these parties as well as others shown here.

This bag has been featured at these fun parties!  Thank you!

Commuter Cowl

I've been wearing my new Commuter Cowl as often as possible over the last couple of weeks!  It's a super, simple project that took me less than an hour to put together.

The pattern for the Commuter Cowl is by Luvinthemommyhood, and it's one of the 18 patterns included in the Sew Fab e-pattern bundle that's on sale now through Feb. 11th.

I used fabric from my favorite designer, Joel Dewberry.  One side of the cowl is Aviary 2 Bloom in Granite and the other side is Aviary 2 Ironwork in Granite.  

I also made a matching bag that I'll share with you later next week (there's a sneak peak of it in the picture above), so be sure to come back for a visit then.  If you don't want to miss that post, be sure to sign up as a follower through GFC or email, and you can always Like sewVery on FB, too!

Thanks for stopping by, and please do check out the pattern bundle through my site.  There's a great variety of projects, and you just can't beat the price for that many patterns! There's a huge giveaway with the pattern sale, too, so be sure to enter!  

Oh, and I have to give credit to my daughter for taking these pictures.  Not bad for an almost 4 year old!

Another Sweetheart Dress with Extras!

As promised, I made a second Sweetheart Dress using Luvinthemommyhood's terrific Sweetheart Dress pattern!

To see the first fun, playful Sweetheart Dress I made, click here.

Before I actually made the first dress, I had the idea to monogram the bodice, but I didn't have any yardage of solid cotton on hand.  It took me a few days to make it to the fabric store to pick some up, and I just love how this turned out!  This style of bodice is just perfect for embroidering either a monogram or a fun design.

Since the bodice is fully lined, I used my Brother PE770 embroidery machine to stitch out the monogram on the outer bodice piece before I sewed the top of the dress together.  I chose to go with a monochromatic look by using a thread the same color as the dress.

For the back closure, I opted to use two hooks instead of a button.  I really like the look of the heart with this type of closure, plus it was faster for me to sew than the hand sewn loop I did with the first dress!

I was much more careful with the finishing touches of this dress.  For instance, I made sure I did a neater job of topstitching the bodice down to the skirt.

When we were at the store picking out the solid pink fabric for the dress, Ella spotted this cute pink netting type fabric that has small hearts all over it.  It was like it was meant to be!  I immediately thought about adding this to the skirt of this version of the Sweetheart Dress, but after getting home with the fabric, I began to worry that it might not hold up as long as the rest of the dress.  Instead of making the netting a permanent part of the dress, I opted to make it a separate skirt (similar to an apron) that maybe she can wear with something else in the future.

To make the heart skirt, I cut out the fabric the same width as and then a few inches longer than the skirt of the main dress.  Fold over and hem the raw edges (if you want to, but it's not necessary with this type of netting material) and then gather the top of the skirt to match the skirt of the dress.

I then cut out two pieces of the cotton fabric that were 4" long x the width of the fabric.  I sewed them together so that the seams were on the sides and would match up with the side seams of the dress.  I then ironed the sash like when you make double folded bias tape (so that both raw edges are encased).  Insert the gathered edge of the heart skirt into the folded sash, pin like crazy, and then starting at one of end of the sash, sew the sash closed and the heart skirt all at once using a 1/8" seam allowance.

The next "extra" I decided to add was the jacket.  Since it's still pretty cool/cold here, and Ella doesn't have a cardigan sweater that would work with this outfit, I made this sweet, simple jacket to go with her second Sweetheart Dress.

To make the jacket, I used Simplicity pattern 2270.

I've had this pattern for a while but had never taken the time to try it out.  It was very simple to make, and I mostly followed the pattern instructions.  I think the only thing I did differently was sew the sleeves on to the bodice pieces first and then sew the side seam of the sleeve and bodice all at once. I used the size 5T for the jacket just like I did for the Sweetheart Dress.

I think this jacket looks like it was meant for this dress!

And since I still had plenty of both fabrics, I whipped together this simple little bag because special outfits need a special bag--right?!  The jacket pattern (Simplicity 2270) comes with the pattern pieces and instructions for making this bag.  However, I did add the heart skirt to the bag as an afterthought, and I constructed it the same way I did the heart skirt for the dress with one exception--the bag skirt is not removable.  It is sewn on to the bag permanently.

There you have it!  My dressed up version of the Sweetheart Dress with a few extras thrown in for fun!  Now Ella is all dressed up and ready for Valentine's Day!  She is definitely my sweetheart!

Also, check out my latest pattern purchases.  You can read all about them and buy them for your own here.

I'll be showing you later this week a couple of items I've already made from these patterns.  One is the Commuter Cowl, another great pattern from Luvinthemommyhood.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  Please sign up to follow the blog by GFC, email or by liking my Facebook page.  See you again real soon!  Have a great day!


Linking up at these parties as well as others shown here.