So I got really excited to do the Alder Sew-Along. Maybe a tad too excited, because I jumped the gun and made one before Jen finished posting all the tutorial thingies!
Knitting, biking, and eating junkfood at the park. My kinda day.
I made view B because I thought it might look more flattering than view A.
Alder Shirtdress View B, back view.
Note
Riverdale Park!
Notes
I made a size 2 because it matched my measurements pretty much to a tee.
I tried to do French seams… and ended up having to fudge the bit around the pivot point (where the skirt fronts meet the front) because I had no idea what to do re: the French seams! I am looking forward to seeing suggestions from the sew-along about this.
I misread the bit about attaching the collar and nearly messed the whole thing up, but managed to fudge stuff around a bit. I think it looks okay because the fabric is so busy.
This is some cotton I got in Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong.
These pictures are bad. Maybe I’ll post a better one later.
Here’s my first stab at Simplicity 1880. I made style B, the fake-wrap version.
Evan helped me take these pictures.
This dress went to Value Village. Hopefully somebody liked it enough to pay 99 cents for it.
I had made a muslin for this dress, which helped me determine that the waist was around 2 inches too high and the front gaped like mad (hooray for flatness). For the ~real~ version of the dress, I lengthened the bodice so the waist actually hit my waist, but I didn’t do a small bust adjustment. I should have!!!
Back of the wrap dress.
The result? The “wrap” neckline bit gapes quite a bit. I ended up sewing the overlapping pieces together to avoid, um, flashing the universe. But for future renditions of this dress I will definitely figure out how to do an adjustment.
I had done a sloppy job with the invisible zipper because I thought watching a 10-minute tutorial video would be too time-consuming. Ha! Another lesson learned. Feeling productive a couple days later, I unpicked the zipper and re-inserted it and now it looks much better! I mean, I spent so long on the dress anyway, so why was I willing to settle for the ugliness that was the zipper?
Not very flattering in hindsight. PASS.
I made this dress out of cotton that I got in Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong. Mummy picked out the fabric for me. Sham Shui Po is fabric HEAVEN!!!! Blocks of streets lined with shops filled with fabric swatches, and roadside stalls with fabric on bolts and rolls. Roadside stalls selling muslins and rows of shops selling buttons, zips, leather, and all kinds of other sewing bits and bobs.
Here are swatches of the other fabrics I got! At 35 HKD a yard (around 5 CAD)… how could I say no?!
Fabric Swatches from Yu Tex Company in Sham Shui Po.
I’d gone to Sham Shui Po by myself earlier but was not confident in my Cantonese skills to actually try buying anything. That, and I was scared they were all wholesalers. With Mummy’s help, we were able to determine that you have to order a minimum of 3 (or was it 5?) yards of fabric and then return to the shop to pick it up a couple days later.
Oh, and I learned how to slip stitch for the sash. Cool!
Saw this bag by Very Purple Person on Pinterest and decided to make one of my own because I don’t have a purse to carry stuff around in. The pattern is clear and very easy to follow!
I didn’t have a good fabric to match it up with so I ended up using the same fabric for the inside and outside. I added a little pocket to the inside for my phone and wallet.
It seems like every sewer (sew-er?) on Instagram is all about these City Gym Shorts from Purl Bee… including me! They are flattering and adorable.
Purl Bee’s City Gym Shorts
Used the leftover bright floral fabric from my Circle Skirt dress to make these. I got the fabric from King’s Textiles at Queen and Spadina. It might be for quilts. I don’t know. It’s cotton.
This was my first attempt at, um, making up my own design. Basically I cut out two slightly-wider-than-me-sized rectangles, sewed them together (with French seams), bias-bound the neckline and armholes, hemmed the bottom, and made a tie belt. Oh, and I put in a pocket.
The fabric is from a thrifted bedsheet from Value Village.
i’m in ur neighbourhood wearing ur bedsheet
After making that, I decided to make my twin sister Jessica and me matching dresses out of blue linen.
Who wore it better? jk jk don’t answer that.I love this photo of Jess. This lion was hitched to a bicycle outside a dumpling restaurant in Beijing. Also I think she looks really pretty here.
Update: I have since given my dress to Diana because it is a bit too short for me.
justina forever 