first make of 2014 - lola dress by victory patterns

I know I haven't finished my Top 5's of 2013... but didn't want to wait to show you my first sewing project of the new year, Victory Patterns Lola dress!

 

I had picked up some medium-weight, heather grey sweatshirt fabric at a surplus/salvage store for something around $3/yard. Looking at the opposite side, I suspect it's some kind of performance fabric. It washed great, and I still have 1 1/2 or so for another project! I also had plenty of matching grey ribbing in my stash from a Fabric.com sale.

 

The Lola pattern is a casual sweatshirt dress, with princess seaming, raglan sleeves and a hi-lo waistline that's actually quite flattering. Makes for a dress that's super cozy without being frumpy. I purchased the PDF version, which meant taping all those pages together before cutting the pattern out. That part took more time that the whole dress construction! (Or at least it seemed like it!) I made a size 8 with no alterations and it fit great, although I did accidentally loose some length at the waist because I sewed the skirt on backwards and had to cut and re-sew.... oops! 

Everything was constructed on the serger, aside from the little triangle at the neckline and the top hem of the pockets. My seams came out a little wobbly as I'm still learning my serger, but for a sweatshirt dress like this no one will notice! The pattern includes notches to line up along the princess seams and other curved seams, which I thought was a great benefit for easing those curves.

I love the raglan sleeves and princess seaming... so flattering!

I would totally recommend this pattern, and hope to make it again. And looking ahead to my  new year sewing plans, it seems that 2014 is going to be the year of the indie patterns!

How about a iPad selfie to end the post? Until later!

a present to me, from me! - a sewaholic renfrew christmas sweater

Who can resist purple reindeer sweaterknit?!?! I think it was from Joann's last winter, and I loved it then, but not the price, especially since I was so new to sewing and my success rate was still not too high. Then this summer it moved over to the clearance rack, which then was 50% off the clearance price, and it was finally mine!  I knew right then that a Sewaholic Renfrew Christmas sweater was in my future!

And here it is! I enjoyed Tasia's pattern. She has you construct it a little differently than most top patters, and it comes together really well. I only made a few alterations right at the end. I took the bottom band in 3-4 inches. Her patterns are designed for pear-shaped ladies, which I am definitely not! I also had to shorten the sleeves quite a bit (and could have more, but didn't want to cut off any reindeers!), and took in the cuff so the sleeves would stay up when scrunched to 3/4 length. The smaller band and cuffs gave it more of a sweatshirt shape and I totally dig that for this sweater, but if I were to make this pattern as a regular jersey t-shirt I would grade down the hips and arms to get a slimmer fit.

I did a fairly good job matching up my stripes, only a few spot got askew. The cuffs were supposed to have a band of purple right after the stitching, but that got lost during construction, but I made sure to line up the facing-together reindeer to the center of the bodice front and back. 

 

And check out that awesome neck binding! I carefully cut my strip from the fabric to make the patterned band, lined it up nearly perfect, and attached and top-stitched with a nice, even zig-zag. Next time I will cut the band just a wee bit smaller as it gapes ever so slightly, most of which I was able to combat with a good steaming. I constructed everything on my regular sewing machine with a slight zig-zag stitch, then finished the seams on the serger. I'm doing most of my sewing this way right now, not quite yet trusting my mastery of the machine to do my seams right on the serger.

And now "'tis the season" to be busy, so there may not be a post again until after the 25th. In the meantime, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all! Whatever you celebrations may be, I hope they are merry and bright!