Well, whatta ya know? It’s my 100th blog post! So here I am celebrating that milestone in a new dress in Brooklyn! And when I’m posing in a new dress on cobblestone streets with old trolley line rails, a 19th century brick warehouse, and the grand ol’ gal herself, the Brooklyn Bridge, you know I am one happy camper.

PATTERNS. I combined the bodice from B5486 and the skirt from the Sewaholic Lonsdale to create a sundress just right for a humid New York summer (although it’s been pretty cool around these parts lately, what gives?). When it does get humid around here I definitely prefer sleeveless tops/dresses, so this dress will come in handy. I also love that the design can be paired with a cardigan, so depending on fabric choice this could easily transition into spring and/or fall. Heck, perhaps even winter!

I’ve had B5486 in my stash for a few years now, and I’d like to make the full version one of these days. It comes with a gathered skirt with an option for knee or maxi length. You can also add a waist tie. I used the bodice of view A and modified the neckline from v-neck to scoop, which is much more wearable for me as an office dress. I made a muslin of the v-neck and I think I’d have to do an FBA to give myself more coverage.

Please excuse the wrinkled back skirt – I wore the dress to work that day.

SIZE. I found that B5486 ran a bit large on me so I used a size 8 bodice and size 10 waist (both a size down from my normal Big 4 sizing). For the Lonsdale skirt I used a size 6. Isn’t sewing weird sometimes?!

FABRIC. I really love this fabric and am glad I didn’t wait too long to turn it into something. It’s a crinkly cotton from Mood that I bought during the Lladybird meet-up back in March. Have to admit though, this fabric almost took me down! It was a bit shifty and hemming it was kind of the pits (you may be able to tell). I think it kept growing longer as I was sewing so I’m glad I let it hang for awhile before hemming.

The bodice is lined with a white cotton with peachy-colored flowers, which I bought from The City Quilter on 25th Street. It was so easy to work with – yes! – but I wish I didn’t pick white for the lining. Not because it shows through (which it doesn’t), but because it peaks out from the neckline and that kind of drives me nuts. I usually go for linings that blend in. Thankfully attaching the lining bodice to the outer bodice at the waist as well as understitching the neckline helped.

Doesn’t the boy here look so mini? Funny optical illusion!

NOTIONS. I used a 12″ invisible zipper, which is fine to get in and out of the dress, but in the future I’d try for a 14″ length. The 12″ was the only one Purl Soho had on hand for invisibles, and I just happened to be in the neighborhood when I needed the zipper so there you have it. I remembered that the Sewaholic zipper recommendations are a bit longer than I usually need, and with the v-back I figured it’d be okay. If you’re a pear or hour glass shape it’d probably be a good idea to go with a zipper longer than 12″.

I forgot to interface the shoulder straps. Hope that doesn’t come back to bite me – no stretchy!

Yep, that’s my finished Myrna cardigan for OAL 2014! More on that in another post soon. :-D

MODIFICATIONS.

• BODICE. I already mentioned above, but just to keep modifications together I changed the v-neck to a scoop neck. I also cut the front bodice on the fold. The pattern cover makes the bodice look like it hits at the natural waist, but if you look at the technical drawing on the back of the envelope it’s more empire waist. I decided to lengthen the bodice 2″ so it hit at the natural waist. In the photo above you can also see that I added 1/2″ width to the part where the shoulder strap goes and the shoulder strap piece itself to cover my bra.

• SKIRT. I ended up taking out about 2″ of width from the hem at the center front and back seams. In my other Lonsdale dress I noticed these seams flapped to the sides so I made a mental note to fix that the next time around. I also shortened the skirt to hit just around the knee (I had forgotten that this skirt runs a bit longer!).

A couple of things I’m not so keen on: the way the right armhole stretched out during construction (lining peaks out – doh!) and the look of the dress at the waist seam. The instructions say to trim the darts and then press them flat, which I should have done but didn’t. For some reason I also didn’t trim and grade the seam allowance at the waist properly so there is bulkiness there. I’ve decided to let it go and just wear a belt or a sash, as in these photos!

Here are some detail shots of the dress lining with the zipper opening and the twin needle top-stitching at the hem. Isn’t the fabric neat close up? This lower photo came out a bit more orange than it actually is.

I do love the v-neck at the back! It’s such a pretty feature of the dress. Oh, and see the carousel to the right? It’s Jane’s Carousel (such a sweet name, right?), built in 1922 and originally located in Youngstown, Ohio.

Alrighty, that’s it! I’ll end with a peaceful little spot by the Manhattan Bridge. I’m so happy to have made a great little sundress that I hope to recreate a few more times. You can never go wrong with a sleeveless sundress during a hot and humid city summer. Or a fall-like one, as we seem to be having these days…

On a random note, the pockets on this skirt were just perfect for holding arcade tickets from later that evening at Coney Island. Over 400 tickets in winnings got us a whoopee cushion, slinky, and some other useless junk. :-D Happy August, everyone!

• Pattern: Butterick 5005 diaper bag (also comes with a changing pad and pacifier case, which I didn’t make)
• Fabric:  Cotton (Birch Mod Fabrics, Abacus) from Purl Soho; cotton lining from The City Quilter; hair canvas basted to all outer pattern pieces as per instructions (leftover from my A Fashionable Stitch purchase for my tailored coat last year!)
• Notions: From Botani: 1″ white cotton webbing for the straps, gunmetal finish 20″ zipper, and magnetic snap for the outside pocket (pattern calls for Velcro); plastic canvas from Pearl Paint on Canal Street (pattern calls for cardboard) to add structure to the bottom of the bag.
• Alterations:  None. Three cheers for one-size-fits all accessory patterns!
• News Flash!  Step 34 seems to have an error. See below for my notes on how I fixed it.

Yay, a new-ish creation to share with you! I sent it off to my cousin in San Diego and she just received it earlier this week, so now I can come out of hiding and splash some photos of it here on the blog. Good times, indeed.

I heard about this pattern through Clio of Clio & Phineas, aka the Queen of B5005 – she’s made three already! When my cousin was expecting the first time around I made her Kwik Sew 3749, which I’ve made more times than I can count though I’ve only featured a miniature version here a couple of years ago.

In comparison to the Kwik Sew pattern (which is just a tote bag), I love that this one has big pockets, and lots of ‘em.  It also comes with a zipper placket. Perfect for keeping things looking tidy!

I used a cotton print that’s a little thinner than I had hoped, but I think the sew-in hair canvas interfacing helps to stiffen things up a bit. I was careful to trim away the hair canvas after sewing seams together in order to reduce bulk. Sewing the bottom of the bag to the side pieces proved to be a little tricky for my sewing machine (lots of layers coming together), so I ended up hand-sewing those corners. I love my Janome Sewist 500, a great mid-range machine, but she was skipping stitches with all that bulk – poor lass!

I liked Clio’s use of hardware on her third bag so I thought I’d try some for the first time. I bought this magnetic snap (popper, dome, press stud, what have you) from Botani Trimming. Wow, they have every kind of hardware piece imaginable there! I felt like Scrooge McDuck diving into his vault of gold coins — ooo, hardware. I used this YouTube video from Indygo Junction to figure out how to attach the snap properly.

I bought feet for the bottom of the bag and a lobster claw for a lanyard inside the bag. I decided to nix the feet because they felt too heavy for this fabric (wasn’t sure if it would hold properly). And the lobster claw I just forgot to add. Whoops.

The inside of the bag has lots of room and four big pockets. The instructions have you cut out one piece for each pocket and then turn in the seams before sewing the pockets to the lining. In the future, I think I’d cut two pieces for each pocket, sew them right sides together, turn them right side out, and then attach them to the lining. I had been taught this method in a class at Sew L.A. a few years ago to help strengthen the pocket, and I also think it makes for a cleaner finish inside.

Plastic canvas from Pearl Paint gives structure to the bottom of the bag (also something I copied from Clio). I swear, does that store have everything? Amazingness! Since its dimensions weren’t the same as the bottom piece I cut it to size and then zig-zagged the pieces together (I used two layers one on top of the other for added support).

I read a comment somewhere that the instructions were written in such a way that the zipper comes out upside down when all is said and done. I’m so glad I read that. Can’t even imagine the tears of being at the final stages only to flip the bag inside out and discover I’d have to rip it all out again. Disaster zone! So just make sure you place the zipper tab face up when you’re pinning the zipper placket/top to the facings when you get to step 34 (the drawing makes it look like you put the tab face down).

So here she is! Paired with my “blueprint” mug for size comparison. I think this is a great bag, and it would make a terrific weekender bag for any ol’ person, preggers or not.

Do you have thoughts on what makes a good diaper bag? Do you like prints that scream “baby” or ones that are more “grown up”?

Have a great weekend all. It’s supposed to be a good one! My Sew Sexy Sew-Along dress is coming up next. :)