Sewing dresses!

Okay, I posted earlier how excited I was about buying The Party Dress Book by Mary Adams. Well, I've just bought two more sewing books, and I'm super excited about them too. The first is Twinkle Sews by Wenlan Chia

I thought I'd like it since I love all the Twinkle knitting books. Wenlan Chia always designs fun quirky chunky knits that are super fast to make and look great. I've made a lot of them, including this hat.

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The second book I bought is Built by Wendy Dresses by Wendy Mullin. It's incredible. It has three basic patterns with a ton of variations (and variations upon those variations) as well as some great sewing tips. I've bought the stuff to make three dresses from it and I can't wait to get started on them

I'm going to make the Lumberjack Dress and it's variation the Empress Dress.

I'm also going to make the Tea Dress. Isn't it gorgeous?

She suggest making the Empress Dress in Chinese red jacquard, but I want it to be a bit more subtle and more me, so I'm using this pale yellow instead.

For the other dresses, I'm using the fabric recommended (red and black buffalo plaid flannel for the Lumberjack dress and peach and black silk for the Tea Dress) because I think they look so cute that way. But I have plans to make other versions later with different fabric. I'm thinking of some bright yellow plaid for the Lumberjack Dress and perhaps blue velvet with a white collar for the Tea Dress.

I went to Hancock Fabrics today to buy supplies (that's where I got the jacquard), but they didn't have everything I needed, so I ordered some stuff from Mood. Here's what I'm waiting for...

Marc Jacobs "mango" charmeuse

buffalo plaid flannel

horn toggles for the Lumberjack dress

frogs for the Empress dress

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Since I can't start on those dresses until my order comes from Mood, I've got another project to hold me over.

I bought this awesome Cynthia Rowley pattern a while ago and I finally picked out fabric for it while at Hancock Fabrics today.

I'm making variation C (the one on the model). Aren't the exposed shoulders lovely. I saw something similar in Fendi's spring 2011 collection, but this is actually more my style.

Here's the fabric I'm going to make the dress out of.

The rosebud cotton is for the main part and the burgundy velvet is for the accent at the waist.

I'll keep you posted on all these projects. I hope you enjoy following along!