All posts tagged: Me

My ‘Hippo’ top (a Vionnet ‘Chiton’ dress variant)

Published by The Dreamstress

Remember how I told you that I had been sewing like mad, but had been too busy to take photos and show you? Yep, this is one of the many things I’ve been sewing. A few weeks ago I had two sewing projects to tackle.  Make something Vionnet inspired to wear to teach the Vionnet Dress class at Made Marion, and make something inspired by an old family photo (or two old family photos, to be precise) for the Sew Weekly family inspiration challenge. The Vionnet was fairly easy (pick a piece of kimono fabric I liked, go from there) and I had my favourite family photos picked out. You may remember this photo from this post: And if you have been reading this blog for a long, long, time,  this one: I love the picture of Grandma, but wasn’t sure how to interpret it as a garment. The wedding picture particularly appealed for the bride and the sophisticated loosely wrapped and draped cocoon shape of her early 20s dress with its hip bow. Using …

Sweet & sour ‘Summer Berries’ shorts

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I told you about the Sew Weekly and showed off my first offering: the Little Black Dress-Clip Dress.  The Sew Weekly theme for this week was ‘buttons’.  I thought about doing something fancy with bound buttonholes, but I end up doing that sort of thing all the time, so there was no reason, and I don’t particularly need anything fancy and tailored and fussy in my wardrobe right now. What I do need is simple summery things, and stuff I can do swing dancing in when it’s hot.  Solution: make a pair of vintage-inspired button front shorts. I’m calling these the ‘Summer Berries’ shorts.  I’d originally meant for them to be quite nautical with white buttons, but when I went through my fabric stash I didn’t have anything that really worked, and the only thing that stood out to me as exciting at the fabric store were some raspberry pink buttons. So now I have bright blueberry blue shorts with raspberry pink buttons.  And I’m eating a blackberry real-fruit ice cream as I …

The little black dress-clips dress

Published by The Dreamstress

One of my sewing goals for this year is to make time to sew more for me.  It’s a bit embarrassing to be a professional seamstress who never wears anything she makes! This goal is being helped by my newest obession: The Sew Weekly.  Every week they set a challenge/theme, you complete it, and then get to post photos of it and brag about it.  I love the inspiration of the theme – it helps me to sew in new directions.  And I love their little wrap-up of the project (see my version at the end of this post) And the brag opportunities don’t hurt either 😉 This week’s theme was accessorize: sew a garment to go with an accessory you already own.  It was the perfect theme for me.  Mr Dreamy gave me the most gorgeous vintage marcasite dress clips for our anniversary, and I’ve been planning to make a dress to wear them with ever since.  And I don’t really have a little-black-dress, so I got to kill two birds with one stone. …