[UFO Pun Here]

So I cut out the pieces for this tunic in February

of 2018

 which was about the time I started trying to accept the shape my body is now, and I think I realized even then that it was not a shape that would fit into this shape of tunic.

But I still decided yesterday to finally sew it.

Impulsive

So I should be sewing doll clothes for a trade that will happen soon, but my brain said, "nah" and I sewed this completely unplanned dress today

One Person's Curtains, Another Person's Dress

I think it came from one of the thrift store cloth grab bags--this green floral 35"-wide cotton that someone had crudely sewn into two curtains, complete with severe light fading near the top edge of one.

I initially thought I'd use the in a new patchwork bedspread, but then I started worrying that the old cloth might be prone to weakening and ripping--a not-unfounded worry, since the reason I want to replace the patchwork bedspread we have now is because it has a few pieces of an old cloth that has weakened and ripped.  So I found some other prints to mix with it and set the project aside for...uh..a while.

When I sorted and re-organized cloth a few weeks ago, I realized that, even though I worried it might wear out as a bedspread (which is used every night), it might last longer as a dress?  So I combined that with the desire to make a faux Burda 6401 and sewed this

 (embracing the idea of Granny Chic)

Swirl-a-Gray

I showed how I converted a regular sleeve pattern into a bell sleeve pattern in the last post, and now's the post for the first dress made with that modification...which, as I also mentioned, was not the first dress I had intended to make, or even had cut out, with that modification, but I decided it was less hassle to cut out an entirely different dress than to change the bobbin thread.

The original reason for hacking the sleeve pattern like that was so I could use Butterick 6470 to mimic Burda 6401, which also didn't really happen with this dress

I can do that

Burda patterns were recently on sale at JoAnn.  I don't pay much attention to Burda, because they don't  go on sale often, so I had a look and Burda 6401 caught my eye.  It's a lot like the dresses I've been making, only with a gathered bell sleeve, so yes I liked it.  I was plotting my trip to JoAnn when I had a second thought about how very much like the dresses I've been making it is, especially the dresses like this that I've made by adding a gathered slightly A-line skirt to the shirt pattern from Butterick 6740.

I found a few pattern reviews for the Burda, and they all mentioned how roomy it was.  Yeah, that sealed it--I didn't need the pattern, I only needed to hack a bell sleeve for the pattern I already had.

And bell sleeves are easy to hack!

Découpage Dress

Once again with Simplicity 9153!  And again rounding the neckline and cutting the skirt much narrower and on the fold.

Not as colorful this time, though

I was aiming for a vaguely mori kei/Lagenlook/Japanese Sewing Book/granny chic style.  Not sure if I hit that nebulous target, but I did once again have to patch an area at the top of the skirt before gathering it, as I had to do with this earlier dress...onlyyy this time it wasn't an unnoticed cut that necessitated it, it was me accidentally ripping it when fiddling with the gathers, yay.  And I forgot to change the top thread to something better coordinated than the light gray I used for the rest of it.

Truth is, I hadn't remembered that was what I had done on the other dress until this one was finished.

So I decided it wasn't finished.

Extended Shoulder Shirt...for dollsssss

In March, I had an idea for altering one of my doll patterns to make a shirt with extended shoulders, and then I kinda forgot about it, then remembered and felt guilty for not finishing the pattern, then I used the unfinished pattern a lot in sewing for a trade and I realized it had more potential than I expected, and I finally sat down and finished it today.

 The initial idea was only the short sleeve version, but I eventually realized that a sleeve variation could work, too (the fact that there are raw-edge bottoms on both of 'em was completely unplanned, and, indeed, something I only realized as I was editing this post.  My brain does stuff like that a lot.)

 also possible: adding a gathered skirt

as well as cutting it short and adding a skirt (oh hey look it's like the dresses I've been making for me  lately)

And and as you can see, the one pattern, originally intended for Curvy-size Barbies, fits larger bodies pretty well, too

 Tulabelle's hands had to come off to fit through these sleeves, but the short sleeve version fits fine over 16" dolls' hands

I find this really easy to sew, as well as being surprisingly fun, because it has a "loose sweatshirt" vibe even when made from wovens.

...and now I'm wondering how it would look with a fancier woven or even lace...