Busy Sewing Weekend!

What can I say - Christmas was very good to my sewing room this year! Hubby gifted me with a new sewing machine (a Singer Confidence - helloooo, automatic tension and fancy stitches!), my mother-in-law gifted me with a dress form, Mom gave me a new iron and pressing cloth set, and a variety of enablers other people gave me enough gift cards to truly go bananas buying fabric at Jo-Ann's. The result was a whirlwind New Year's weekend spent sewing actual clothes - not costumes - for the first time in my life.

Also please note that dress forms make for the best post-sewing photoshoots. Now you don't have to see my "I've been locked in my sewing machine all weekend" hair :)

As intended without belt

Belt added on a whim

The biggest project of the weekend was this red t-shirt dress. Some of you may be looking at this and thinking "hey, doesn't that look kind of like..." Yes. You are correct. This is the same pattern I modified to make my red Star Trek dress over the summer. The dress was so comfy and the color was so fun that I decided I wanted a "real" version I could actually wear to work without looking crazy very enthusiastic about my fandoms. It uses the McCall's 7122 "Look, Ma, I'm Sewing" basic, basic pattern. The dress is kind of a sack shape which I think they mean to be a "swing dress" or something. I wasn't sure it looked right so I ended up using some extra fabric to make a belt. However now I'm not sure I'll use the belt. ::shrug:: For what the dress lacks in shape, it makes up for in ease to make.

Close-up of the fancy stitches

In fact, this dress was so easy to make that I took the extra time to try out some of the fancy stitches on my new machine and I professionally-finished Every. Single. Seam. as if someone were actually going to come check my work. The above-pictured stitch is my new favorite for hemming - although I found out the hard way that if you don't decrease your tension a tad it will pop your top thread every 30 seconds. Sigh.

Captive audience

I should also note that the entire time I was sewing I had to wrangle two cats and a dog who were all very interested in what I was doing and in what each other was doing. This picture is a rare moment of peace!

Also completed - a navy circle skirt

The other project I worked on this weekend was this simple navy circle skirt. I love it!! It was so much easier to make than I thought - I let the waistband psyche me out for a while but once I realized that it literally made no difference how big the band was (well, it could be too small I suppose) because the elastic was going to cinch it in to whatever size I wanted to cut it. This navy fabric in particular was a heavier jersey and drapes so prettily :) It's a little shorter than I expected so I may not be wearing it until the spring, but at least now I know how to make an easy skirt in the future. This pattern is Simplicity 1068 and I highly recommend it to any novice sewists. I think I'm going to try to make the longer skirt next.

Up next on the sewing docket... well, we'll just have to see what I do with all this, won't we?