Two Too Short No More

After the annoyance of the last dress (I'm still considering my options for what to do with it--I like too many of the fabrics to want to just donate it like I usually do with dud projects), I was happy to have the idea of adding length to some dresses that I liked, but were a bit too short for comfort.  That seemed like something that would be quick, easy, and greatly improve the wearability of the dresses in question.

And it worked! 

First was a dress I made a few months ago, which was limited in length by the amount of fabric I had.  I thought I'd added enough of the accent fabric to make it long enough, and, at first, it seemed like I had, but, no--even with my short legs, the dress was a bit too...youthful...for me.

After I had ripped up a lot of what remained of that accent fabric, for the failed patchwork dress, I realized I could have used it to add another layer of ruffle on the previous, much-liked dress.  Fortunately, I had, in the efforts to find fabrics that seemed suitable for that failed project, unearthed some forgotten light blue gingham that could work instead.

 

The light blue gingham that was on the dress already was a smaller scale, but I didn't let that deter me.

I made it the same width as the upper skirt, so there was no gathering necessary.  Side seams were done french, because I didn't want to change the brown serger thread.  The hem was sewn with the quarter inch hem roller.  I sewed the new layer at the same seam where the previous two had been attached.  Fast, easy, and the dress doesn't feel quite so aggressively like a 1990s riot grrrl babydoll dress revival attempt.

The other rehabilitated dress is from late 2023.  Note that the write up blithely talks about shortening it by six inches, and that being fine because I'm also short.  It was not fine, although I do suspect that, even though I'm pretty sure I pre-laundered the fabric, it may have continued to shrink for a few washes.  For whatever reason, it felt more like a generous tunic length than a short dress length.  I did wear other things under it, but I wanted it to be a dress.

When I found the fabric at the thrift store a few weeks ago, I decided to get the floral interlock even though it wasn't perfectly my aesthetic, and it inspired this project because I thought it would be highly amusing to use it to extend this dress, because both fabrics have a very distinct Early 1990s Aesthetic.

They went together even better than I expected.

 

I had drawn the 6"-shorter lines directly on the pattern tissue, so I used that to cut the additional pieces, with the front piece on the fold and the back with a center seam.  I cut the hem off of the dress, right at the stitch line, before sewing the new part on with a 5/8" seam allowance, and it also got a 5/8" hem.  The total length is now 35"--since I absolutely know that I did prewash the additional fabric, I hope it will stay at 35".  I'll find out whenever it gets cold enough to make a long sleeve knit dress practical again, whenever in the unforeseeable future that may be...

Well. Don't like it.

The bodice is Simplicity 9153, which I've used many times (I'm wearing a dress made with it now), and I like the individual fabrics, and I like the way they combine when next to each other, but, overall...no. It's incredibly Not Me.

 

 

Pattern Mash Up Experiment (with a Weird Cheater Quilt Print)

I didn't realize how odd the cheater quilt print was when I picked it out at the craft thrift store--I mostly noticed that it was in colors centering around purple, and that was enough to charm me into purchase.

It wasn't until I started working with it for this project that I realized that it was basically made up of diagonal stripes, and fairly high contrast, too

 

So I played with that, and also encountered a problem with it.  However!  The main point of this project was to try adding the collar, from a 1950s pattern, to the old stand-by 1980s extended sleeve bodice, and that seems to have worked out nicely.

Thrift Cloth! From the Regular Thrift Store!

It's been a long time since I've seen yardage in the regular thrift store, and probably longer since I've seen any I wanted to buy.

I had to run some errands last Friday, and stopped in the thrift store, just because I could.  I have a list of things I'm hoping to find in thrift stores, and I was happy to find one of those: a mechanical Bissel sweeper (in a cheerful blue, too.)

The section where it was is next to the racks where they hang bed sheets, curtains, and other large fabric home goods.  I usually ignore those, but, since I was in that area while making sure the sweeper worked, I naturally glanced over...and saw a print that was absolutely yardage.

I wouldn't say it was calico, because it was also very obviously possessed of a high polyester content, but it did have a 1970s/80s ditsy calico style floral print.  I quickly noticed other pieces of yardage hanging next to it, and then some more a few feet away.  Some of them...I even liked!

Oh, hey! A person clothes!

I have been doing doll things, but decided this week that I should sew a dress with some of the coordinating fabrics I picked out the last time I went to the craft thrift store.

While I had picked them with the intent of making another proper Gunne Sax dress, I don't particularly want to wear a proper Gunne Sax dress right now (they have too much waist definition, and I still don't feel like have a waist.)  What I have enjoyed wearing is the babydoll dress I made a few months ago

except

it's just a tiny bit short. So!  I thought I would revisit that same dress design, but...just...an inch or two longer.

 

(and then I took photos fast this morning before wearing the dress for the day, and then discovered that the full-dress photos are all blurry, because I'm still not used to the 50mm lens.  The close-up pictures are sharper!)

Still sewing doll clothes

Including, but not limited to, everything here but the Midge-faced P.J.'s shirt (which is from Generation Girl Chelsie) and cardigan (which as an old Etsy purchase), and Stacey's purse (that's a Zuru MiniFashion piece--someday, I do want to try sewing doll purses)

Things were made from a combination of my own patterns, Japanese doll sewing publication patterns,  person-size pattern piece guides that were scanned and enlarged to doll size, and a few things were made without a pattern.

Another Motorcycle Jacket...but not...

Although I do have plans for more human-size sewing, honestly?  Right now I've sewn a lot of what I wanted to sew for wearing this summer (pull-over dresses.  several of them.)

And while I don't think I'm going to make posts here about all of the doll clothes I'm making, I will make posts for the more involved items, like the overalls in the last post that were made using (mostly) a pattern intended for human size.

This time, the pattern is from one of the Japanese doll publications with scans currently available on The Internet Archive: Doll Coordinate Recipe Volume 5.  On page 18 is a Momoko doll wearing a motorcycle jacket, and.  Well.  You know me and motorcycle jackets.

The pattern is on page 66, at half scale.  I set the PDF at 100%, screen capped it, and took it into a graphics program where I doubled the size, then split it into two to print because it was too big to fit on a single page.  The seam allowances at this size were ¼"/6mm, so I figured everything was scaled properly.  Nope!  The finished jacket ended up significantly bigger than something meant for Momoko, which was actually fine, because I was making it for a Barbie.

 

Yeah no I wasn't going to make it from pleather, who do you think I am?