Gray Sewaholic Lonsdale

My first Sewaholic pattern!
I really like the style of this dress but it is a little tricky to get into and out of alone. This gray version was sort of intended to be a wearable muslin in that I would wear it if it looked ok. My plan was to finish it and then add a bicycle theme by either embroidering bicycles on it or block printing or painting a cog onto it (the one you see in the picture...). My grand plan was to wear it to the Bicycle Coalition "Members Only" party. And I did. But. As is often the case, I was racing to finish it as the party was starting. So, I just tied the cog into the center knot. And it looks just fine there!

the finished product

Since I ran out of time, I added 1" wide binding to the hem (instead of actually hemming, which would've taken too long).

the back + wrinkles!

The back has wrinkles, I will do some amending back there next time. In this picture it sort of looks like it's too tight under the arms, which i suppose could also cause the dress to scrunch down toward my waste and be wrinkly, but do have other evidence that the problem actually caused by it being too loose.

Details: I made it in a size 12, which was too large in the bust. Because I didn't want to take the whole thing apart (the bodice is lined and I had already put in the waistbands), I undid the side seams enough to pull in about 1/2 inch on both sides and graded out to the existing seam close to the waste. I think making a size 10 bodice graded to a 12 waist will be adequate for future projects, as the size 10 will fit better in the bust and will be slightly shorter in the bodice.

The Final Product, in the photo booth

Side craft:
I traced and then made a linoleum block design from the cog. I only have water based inks at home so this bleeds terribly in the wash, but it looks good. I'll use it for other crafts I'm sure.

A test run

The Garden Shirt

I finally finished Pancho's garden shirt! I only have this one picture of it because I was so excited to take it to him to wear while he worked in the yard.

The history of the shirt goes like this...
He picked out the fabric in October 2011 when we went to Britex while on a visit to San Francisco. I had never made a man's shirt before and I didn't have a pattern at the time, but I did eventually find the Negroni by Colette Patterns and that is the pattern this is modeled on. Before making it in the Britex fabric, I did a test run using a grey cotton. Here is that version (I have a lot more pictures of it because I was so amazed at how awesome it was):

It has flat felled seams!

I like this little loop detail

And this is us, on our way to our friends' wedding

I made the grey version in a size small, but in the length of the medium. It has a narrow fit on him, which I like, but he didn't want that in the garden shirt, since it's purpose is to wear while working! So I straightened out the side seams and added a little width around the lowest part of the shirt. You can almost see what I mean here:

I also removed the scallops and put fewer buttons on the front (he didn't like how high the top button was on the grey version). 

This was my first Colette pattern and I loved it. The instructions were beautiful and easy to follow, even that crazy picture of how you're supposed to turn the shirt out around the yoke! It seemed impossible, but made perfect sense when followed.