Reviving my maxi

Pattern Description:
McCall's 6073 Misses' and Women's dress in three lengths: Pullover.
Pattern Sizing:
8-16 18w-24w. I made a 20w.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
I made version C, the maxi dress. For the most part it did look like the version on the envelope. I made a few minor changes to my version and that is why it is not exact.
Were the instructions easy to follow?
They were. I originally used this pattern a couple of years ago to make version A for a friend and had to refer back to the instructions a couple of times, but they were very easy to follow.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I love the ease and quickness that this pattern goes together. It is a great pattern to use to build your summer or vacation wardrobe in a short time.
Fabric Used:
I used 3.5yds of a spandex/tricot/4 way stretch fabric of some variety. I am not sure of the exact contents as it is one I got for free. The fabric has this great green, white and black geometric print with silver foil sequins on it.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I made only a handful of minor changes. First, I eliminated the elastic in the shoulder seams. I eliminated the neck binding in favor of a narrow hem. To still get that "V" in the center back with the narrow hem, I did a .5" dart at the center of the neck. I changed the band from the same print to a solid black tricot to break up the print and add a little more visual focus. I also used 3/8" elastic around the waist instead of the recommended 1/4". As a bigger girl I wanted a little more security for my elastic.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Absolutely! I am actually thinking that I may do version D, with the contrasting bodice, skirt and midriff, next for a great color blocked look.
Conclusion:
After all of the initial problems I had with this dress, through no fault of the actual pattern, I am beyond pleased with how it turned out! I even made a matching hair bow for it.  I am planning on wearing a lot of dresses this summer and this is a great way to start out that collection. I have also decided that I now need to take a vacation just so I can show off this dress, and hopefully some more, to their full summer potential!

I *heart* my readers

The wonderful Pam from A Notion to Sew nominated me for the Liebster Blog award!  Yay!  Thank you Pam, I love reading your blog as well and now have a few others to follow that you presented the award to!

The rules of the Liebster Blog award are: 
1.  Thank your Liebster Blog award presenter on your blog.
2.  Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
3.  Copy/paste the blog award on your blog.
4.  Present the Liebster Blog award to 5 blogs (with 200 followers or less).
5.  Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment.

I am passing this award on to some of my favorite must-read blogs.
1. Miss Sews-it-all
2. Vacuuming the Lawn
3. It's a Sewing Life
4. Weekend Crafting
5. The Pretty Pickle

On a side note I have solved the problems I was having with the maxi dress.  A review and post is soon to follow.

I have a confession to make

I have my blogger set up to email me whenever someone leaves a new comment so I do not miss anyone, which I assume most others do the same.  Well, I just realized I had been emailing commentors back and I wasn't even paying attention to the fact that they were no-reply blogger email addresses!  I want to apologize to anyone who did not receive an answer to any comment you left.  I totally should have noticed that for-ev-er ago!  I promise I was not trying to be rude!  I really do appreciate and read all the comments everyone leaves!

It has been a long road

This is another one of those posts that I have been meaning to write for a while now, but never took the time.  Back in August my family came to visit and my mom unloaded quite a bit of my old things on me.  This gym bag was one of them.  I didn't even know this bag was still around and was pleased when I saw it.  It is my very first machine sewn project!!  I did it in my 7th grade home ec class, which was back in 1995!  From the far away picture above it doesn't look to bad! But upon closer inspection,  I see just how far my sewing skills have come.

 First we have all these stray threads just sticking out of practically every seam.  That is now one of my biggest sewing pet peeves!

 Look at how I matched up my straps.  Eeps!

 Oh wait I take that back.  Look at this matching job!  Looks like a missed by a bit.  That white line you see between the two green straps is the guideline.  From what I can remember we picked what colors we wanted and then all the pre-cut and pre-marked pieces were sent to us.

Look how wonky my zipper is!

  I am surprised that in our very first ever sewing project we put a zipper in.  When my brother took home-ec, just a few years ago, they just sewed a pillow!

 What a mess!  Notice how there is seam allowance that is not serged?

 Why yes, that is my finger poking through a hole in my seam!

What was your first sewing project?  Do you still have it?  If so, I would love to hear about it!  Post a comment below and link back to your blog to share with all of us!

Spring Cleaning

Now that spring has officially arrived I am starting to clear out a few things and with it plan out our adoption fundraiser garage sale.  Right now we are planning the first one for sometime end of April/beginning of May and probably a second one sometime in July.  So, I am putting a call out to everyone!  While you are doing your spring cleaning please consider donating any of your unwanted items to us. We need as much as we can get and  would be incredibly grateful to anyone who is willing to help us on our adoption journey.  If you are wanting to help please leave a comment below or message me at smclevenger(at)gmail(dot)com and I will give you the address to send it to.

Just to get started check out this article about Clutter Control on Oprah.com.

160th Anniversary Singer

 

Have you seen this machine?  I don't know how I have missed it! It is the 160th Anniversary edition Singer.  I kinda like it!  They have it on the Jo-Ann's website on sale for $399.99.  It pretty much does everything that my machine already does, but mine does not look this cool!  I totally want an old school Featherweight just for looks.  The reviews on the Jo-Ann's site and Pattern Review aren't too bad.  All the negatives I read are things I can totally live with.  This is officially on my Life Registry board!

The Maxi That Wasn't

 Remember when I said I wanted to sew a maxi out of this fabric?  So, that didn't work out so well for me.  I figured that this dress should have taken me 4 hours, 5 at most with my procrastination, to finish.  About 30 minutes in I had to call it quits.  Why?  Well both my sewing machine and serger decided they absolutely hate something that is in this fabric.  Surprisingly it is not the foil sequins!  For some reason when I serged it, all the stretch was removed and the serging was incredibly tight.  I thought this was just my tension.  No matter how I set the tension it did nothing to help, but when I serged on other knits it worked great!  Finally, I decided I could live with the serging on the shoulders and moved on to finishing the neckline.  Both my stretch stitches and regular straight stitch started skipping stitches and rippling the fabric like crazy.  Once again I tried it on another stretch fabric and it worked fine.  I even tried quite a few different needles in various sizes and what nots.  Nothing made it any better.  My final determination was that it was something in the fabric because I remembered the yellow knit jacket I tried making where the fabric had the same issues.  Unfortunately,  I don't know what was in either fabric that I can pinpoint as being the problem.  Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated by it. This went on for about a day before I came up with what I hope will be a solution.  I spoke with my previous employer and he agreed to let me come into the shop sometime this week so I could use the industrial machines there.  I am not sure when I will get out there, probably near the end of the week though.

Major Haul

This is something I have been meaning to post about for quite some time now and just had not found the time.  Well I am making the time.  So, a few weeks ago I found out I was losing my job.  Our shop was closing it's doors.  While we all expected it was coming it was still pretty hard since over the last 7 months I have grown to really enjoy my job and everyone there.  That was a first!  Since the shop was closing my boss said we could have free reign on the scrap fabrics!  I think that my partner in crime, Jenn, and I had big glossy anime eyes upon hearing this!  This was a bad bad bad thing to hear being the fabric hoarders that we are!  I don't know exactly how much fabric she left with but I do know it took me 3 days to completely go through everything and tally up my yardage.  I brought home 162.75 yards!  So much for my one and only goal this year of using more than I am bringing in.  Granted there was about 25-30 yards of fabric that I took so I can donate it to Ball State's fashion department.  I scored some fantastic pieces that I am excited about using in the future.  I also took home one of the reusable Jo-Ann's totes full of sample swatches that are the perfect size for bows and a second tote filled with binding straps and trims for the bows.  I will definitely be able to fill my Etsy shop with some amazing bows now!

In the end I had to purchase 4 new 66 gallon Rubbermaid tubs to store all of this new fabric. And those are just for the knits!  I was able to cram the wovens in with the rest of my fabric stash.  I feel like maybe a destashing will have to take place before our garage sale fundraiser.

One of the fabrics I got is 3.5 yards this 4 way stretch spandex with sequins.  Instantly I thought of doing a maxi dress with it.  McCall's 6073 to be exact.  I had made the short version of this dress for a friend a couple of summers ago and remember it being quite easy.  What do you all think?  Is this print going to be to crazy busy for a maxi? Or should I go with my gut and make the maxi?