by Claire on May 31, 2010
I’d better hurry. I need to have this dress finished asap and I haven’t finished cutting it out yet. I plan to wear it to my brother’s wedding this Friday. My brother is getting married to a wonderful, sweet woman, and we all couldn’t be happier for them.
So, because I’m in a hurry, I’m keeping this post short, but thought my sewing peeps would want to see what I’m working on.
This fabric, which I’ve had in my stash for about four years. It’s a beautiful soft tie-dye look on embroidered rayon linen. Won’t wrinkle. Sweet!
This dress. The short view, since the wedding is semi-formal. I made it before several years ago, so it should go together fast. I plan on lining the skirt part with a lightweight cotton lining, so you can’t see through the eyelets. I’ll be using a contrasting tangerine solid color for the neckline binding. The scalloped edging on the fabric (which is a double border) will be the hemline, so no hemming required.
And I hope to catch a couple more tanning sessions between now and then too. Pictures after the wedding.
Later, folks.
by Claire on May 26, 2010
If you’ve been following me from my Little Miss Sew N Sew blog, you know that I love to sew. However, life has been such that I’ve not had time for sewing lately but boy do I have the itch. There have been no signs of summer here so I’ve had to dream about it. Also, my beau has introduced me to tanning, and I’m enjoying this, and I’m imagining a summer with a tan body (and abdomen) and lots of fun things to do. This leads me to thinking about sewing something cute and breezy for myself because I’m pretty turned off by all the stuff in the stores.
So in my five minutes of spare time, I browsed through some of my patterns and came across this vintage pattern. This is the very first pattern I ever sewed, I think – I sewed a simple skirt and an apron before this, but this was the first wardrobe ensemble. The copyright on this pattern is 1974. I think the lines on the shirt and shorts are fairly classic, and I’ve seen some of these skirts in pictures recently. (Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or if you think this is totally not a good idea.)
I am wearing the skirt, below, but I also made the shirt and shorts out of the same coordinating fabric. I was 14 in this picture. Don’t you just love the groovy patterns on the fabrics – and my brother’s plaid jeans? My mom as always was rockin’ the runway. LOL.

Believe it or not, I am down to the size that the pattern measurements call for, and I think the little bandeau top and skirt with a coordinating shirt would be fun for the hot weather we’ll have when my mom and I go to San Antonio in July. Of course, I’d pick some more trendy fabric.
Here’s the line drawing. I like how that little top ties in the back.
I also have this pattern (below) from 1987 and I’ve seen a similar skirt – which are shorts in this pattern, and I’d convert it to a skirt – and top online recently.
From nordstrom.com
If I were to make this today, I think I might alter or remove the pockets and reduce just a bit of the fullness in the skirt, but the top (not the shirt) is classic twist-front style and would look cute in a white pique that I have in my stash.
Again, from nordstrom.com
Anyway, enough of my dreaming for today. Must get busy and work and watch the rain outside… and find a sweater.