Month: February 2020

February Makes – Black History Month Designers and Fabric

It’s February, which means it’s Black History Month. In honor of Black History Month and showing support to Black owned businesses in the Sewing Industry I joined the Instagram challenge hosted by @sewnaturaldane and @onesweetsew.

My first make for February is this Lisa top from Style Sew Me Patterns. I love this top it is a quick and easy make. This is the second one I have made using this pattern and I love them both. I need to find the other make it is in a Pink Camouflage, my favorite fabric and I can’t find it.

This one is made out of a Vino Camouflage I purchased at the San Francisco Fabric Outlet. It can be found here. The Vino is no longer available online, but the same fabric can be found in brown, grey, green. purple, pink, white, and black camouflage combinations.

This is Vogue 1314, by Tracy Reece, a Black Pattern Designer for Vogue, it is now Out-of-Print (OOP). I tried sewing this dress when I started sewing 5 years ago and it did not come out as planned. I had no idea how to line a dress, do the rousing or any of that in the construction of the garment. So this year for Valentine’s Day I decided to make this again and it came out great. I have no plans for Valentine’s Day, but I love this color and the dress, so it became an honorary Valentine’s Day Dress! This fabric was purchased at Michael Levine’s in Los Angeles, about 4 years ago. Still sewing from my stash.

This fabric is from My Daily Threadz

And as much as I love this dress and the way it turned out, the bodice is too tight. I can’t move in it, the struggle was real getting out of it. LOL!!! I do know that I need to adjust the bodice moving forward when making garments out of non-stretch materials. I am so sad, because I even added pockets to the dress, who doesn’t love a dress with pockets. I am going to salvage this fabric. I don’t know how yet, but I might extend the opening down the front and have it be an open shirt dress. Not sure, but I am sure I will figure something out. This fabric is too fabulous for it to be a Mannequin dress. No ma’am.

Me Made January – McCall’s 7531

For the month of January I completed 8 pieces. Here you will find 3 of the dresses completed using McCall’s 7531, one of my TNT’s and an absolute favorite dress to make. It can be styled with a printed or solid fabric and look absolutely different each time you make it. I went with prints for all of these. I love a good fun print, it’s kind of how I make my garments my OWN.

Yes you will see this dress again as part of my Spring/Summer collection, which I will start the first week in March. I plan to do some solid colors using View C.

This fabric is a knit border print that I purchased from Michael Levine a few years back. I say a few years because I can’t remember when I actually purchased it. Too much fabric shopping over the years. Did I really just admit that? Oh well!!!!

This green snakeskin like fabric was also purchased at Michael Levine, I think, if not there it was from Angels Textiles. I did a lot of fabric shopping during time I spent in Los Angeles and of course I can’t find my fabric album. I usually take photos of all the fabric from each trip in order to reference back when posting a blog in case someone wants to know where to purchase the fabric or something similar in print.

The last dress is out of this knit, but I am sure what kind of knit this one is. There is a good amount of stretch to it, but it has a silky feel to the fabric. I need to learn more about this fabric because I love how it feels against the skin and it was a nice and easy sew. I didn’t have any issues sewing this one. I have about 1.5 yards to make a tank top for the Spring.

These 2 dresses were made in the past using the same pattern. I guess you can see why I love it so much it.

I blogged about this one here.

  • Front – Round 1

Pattern Description: McCall’s 7531 Misses’ Knit Bodycon Dresses – Learn to Sew

Pattern Sizing: 4-14, I cut a size 12

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, it looks just like the pattern envelope when I completed it.

Were the instructions easy to follow? The instructions were so easy, by the time I made it to the 2nd dress, I have made this dress 5 times, I didn’t need the instructions.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? How easy the pattern is to make and the endless possibilities you have with the sleeve variations. Also depending on the fabric used, this dress can look so different each time it is created.

Fabric Used: Green Snakeskin look is an ITY Fabric, Black white tan look is a knit, Rose and white border print look is a knit, Floral print is a double knit, and the Blue white, black look is a double knit. All this fabric is fabric that was in my stash and purchased a few years back. I am sewing down my stash. The floral and blue dresses were the first made, but I hadn’t added to the Review until now. I want to say I made them both in 2018 or 2019. The other 3 looks were just made in January of 2020.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: No alterations needed I made view B for all of these looks. For summer I plan to make View C

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes as you can tell this pattern is one of my Tried and True (TNT) patterns. It’s quick and easy. What girl doesn’t want a new dress that she can she made herself?

Conclusion: Great pattern and I can’t wait for Spring/Summer Sewing. I will more than likely start that collection first week in March. Happy Sewing!!!