CHAOS & SELENE - Misadventures in sewing and crafts

Victory! SATSUKI DRESS

I love love love the Satsuki dress and I’ve made several dresses and tops from the pattern. This is one of my most recent versions of the Satsuki dress and is made from a lyrca polyestery type material with coppery/gold paint-like splashes (I know nothing about fabric). The pattern is quite easy to put together and I think the most difficult, or rather time consuming part is the sleeve hem because it has a curved edge.

Instructions are given for three styles – version 1 (above), version 2 (my attempt here) and version 1 as a top. However, I figure there are several other variations which could involve removing the peekaboo shoulders or making version 2 a top (which I’ve actually done but left back at my parents house). Buy this pattern from Victory Patterns and check out the gallery while you’re there!

I’ll be posting my Satsuki v2 and my first attempt at the Hazel next!

KIMONO SLEEVE DRESS

I have made this Salme Sewing Patterns kimono sleeve dress twice before and both versions turned out terrible. The first one turned out bad because it was my first real project and for some reason I chose satin. The second was semi-disastrous because the fabric had stripes and I didn’t sew the bodice to the skirt with this in mind. Although I loved stripes, I learned that I had to get better and not be lazy before getting back on the stripes boat. For some reason, when I abandoned stripes I pretty much abandoned all patterns out of fear. I fear no more (or not as much)! And ventured into this project.

The fabric I used is a South African fabric called shwe shwe, which you can read about here. The fabric is usually sewn into conservative dresses for older women. Patterns of the same color are often mixed, but not to the extent that I did here – it’s usually one main pattern and another one for accent.

This pattern by Salme Sewing Patterns is super easy to put together and only has 6 pieces (two of which are the facing pieces). The pattern instructs you to lengthen the fabric 2″ for the hem, which is pretty essential to making sure that this isn’t a super-mini dress.

Although this fabric has no stretch and is quite thick it still falls well and doesn’t look too stiff. If I make another I think I’ll try to add pockets.

SATSUKI DRESS VERSION 2

The Victory Patterns Satsuki dress version 2 (the one with the flounce) is much quicker to whip up than it’s sister (my garment here) because it lacks the peek-a-book shoulders and tie waist. I could go from cutting the fabric to wearing this dress in like two hours and I’m a slow baby sewer. This dress isn’t as sassy as satsuki v1, but is just so fun to wear. Like a stylish moo moo.

Since the pattern has seam allowances included I cut it out leaving the flounce but cutting out the peek-a-book shoulders so that I could make both versions easily while only using one pattern over and over again.

I did have some issues with the facing here, and I had similar issue with first satsuki v2 I made (a project that is in my project graveyard). I top stitched the back neckline and brought up the v-neck a little – like less than an inch.

On to Hazel!

HAZEL by Victory Patterns

I asked for the copy shop pattern but received the tiled pattern for the Victory Patterns Hazel dress but I was too lazy to e-mail back and get the copy shop because I just wanted to get into making the outfit. I really really hate putting together print at home patterns but there were markers for where to cut the paper so it wasn’t too bad. I would it like if pdf patterns were printed in a way where there was no cutting or folding at all – is that possible? But unlike some other pdf patterns, these have seam allowances included. Yay!

Anyway, Hazel is designed to be a dress, but it’s not really my style, so I made it into a top.

Hazel took me on an unexpected journey. I started with satin chiffon and then moved on to poly-cotton and African print cotton. With my first and second attempts I was making this with sleeves, but after messing up one of the sleeves on my second attempt I decided to skip them on the third and finish them off with bias tape. I think it looks better with sleeves and if I ever traumatize myself again I will do it with sleeves. And do it right!

I will be making the other two in the beginner’s series, but I’m taking a break from Victory Patterns because I have a couple Burda patterns on my list.