All I Need is a Reason Dress!

My DD who is the '"Repeat" of this Peat & Repeat adventure is getting married next year.  Recently the "in-laws" hosted an Engagement Party in Atlanta.  So, of course I had to have something fabulous to wear.  I started with the Tracy Reese, Michelle Obama dress.  I loved the look and thought it was a style that would work on me.  Of course I couldn't find a pattern that was just right. But, I came across this Butterick 5782 and thought this would be a good start.  I had originally planned to alter the front and reduce some of the flair of the skirt portion to resemble the Obama dress. 

Initially, I really wanted this fabric or a very similar version.  I searched and searched. I finally found it on this fabulous silk fabrics site, but it was far more expensive than I wanted to pay.  So, as I reconsiderd my fabric choices, I also gave a closer look to the original Butterick pattern. I decided that I, in fact kinda loved this pattern in its "As Is" state.  So, after finding this great Poly Shantung at my local JoAnn's I was set.  As soon as it started coming together, I loved it.  It felt very Mad Men when I tried it on for the first time and I knew I needed a great belt to finish the look.  I found this great buckle at Hancock's and made the belt.  I didn't make any other design changes and I loved the final product. 

My DD made a beautiful purple dress and I'm waiting for her to post it here. (hint, hint, Repeat!)

Play on Plaid

So, as this blog indicates, I have a darling daughter who sews and is almost as obsessed as I am about this activity.  Well, I have another daughter who DOES NOT sew, but loves making requests. And I generally do her bidding!  To her defense, she is in college, but she probably wouldn't be sewing anyway.  Well, a couple weeks ago, we were all in Atlanta, visiting "Repeat", who found this wonderful little fabric supply store.  While there, the youngest daughter found this cute fabric and decided she wanted a shirt.  So, here is the final product.  I let her select the buttons and I was skeptical about them.  But I figured I would just change them when I made the shirt.  Surprisingly, I think they work well with the shirt.  We are going to visit her at school this weekend, so I will be taking this and another shirt (yet to be made) as a surprise for her.  The second shirt is the same pattern, but the fabric is a sheer black (we saw one in Target that she loved).
This was a really straight forward pattern.  I didn't make any changes, except I did put the buttonholes on the wrong side! :-)  This is the second time I have made this faux pas, although this time it was intentional.  While I did a great job (I think) matching the stripes on this shirt, the placket for the buttonhole side didn't match the way the button side did, soooo, switcheroo.  Let's see if my daughter notices it! I used McCall's 6649 for this.  The fabric was a cotton and it went together incredibly well.  I definitely plan to use this again because I am making a "Chiffon-like" version tonight to take with me Saturday!

I seam to always work on things for this one without the benefit of her body present!  For the life of me, I couldn't find the measurements that I had previously taken of her, so this was an "eyeballing" "kreation". It turned out pretty well, but I thought it was much longer than it turned out to be so I have to add another button at the bottom.  I did have the buttonhole there, but didn't think the button was needed.  I was wrong! She loved it, so that's a good thing.

PEAT & RePEAT

I'm so excited!  This is a mother/daughter blog created for the sole purpose of channeling our craziness!  I sew! I love to sew.  When I'm not sewing, I think about sewing.  I have been sewing since I was about 10 or 12 years old.  I wish someone had told me back then that you could make a living doing something you love.  I would have chosen a completely different path.  So now, I just do it for the love of it all. 

My darling daughter is the talented one.  I think that girl could create air if given the time!  I marvel at how easy things come for her. I would love to take credit for teaching her to sew.  I did buy her a pattern, sit down with her and teach her the basics many years ago.  But, she didn't seem that interested back then so I didn't push it.  Then, all of a sudden, she is like Rain Man with the creations and speed.  She is the crafty one too, so this should be LOTS of fun. We also have similar tastes so we shall see how this little adventure goes. We hope you find one or two things interesting here and lots of things to laugh about as we soldier on!