Tag: Love Notions Patterns

The Look For Less: J. McLaughlin

Published on by operazhenshchina18 Comments

Sheath dresses have never been a go-to garment choice for me due to their unflattering appearance on my non-rectangular figure. Despite being a misfit for my natural shape, I have always envied the look of a classic sheath style. Especially stunning are the Lilly Pulitzer dresses in their tropical prints and cool, neon hues.

Lilly Pulitzer

In a past issue of Julie’s Picks, a certain collection of fabrics caught my eye. It was titled, “Winter In Palm Beach”. Amid the blue-toned fabrics was a NY Designer swatch that made me believe it was once used for a signature Lilly dress. Curious, I emailed Fabric Mart and inquired about my hunch. As it so happened, the fabric wasn’t Lilly Pulitzer; it was J. McLaughlin.

When I found an image online of a dress made out of the exact fabric I had purchased from the swatch club, I was stunned.

J. McLaughlin Carly Dress in Mini Scribe

More shocking was the price. A similar style dress in the same Catalina Cloth™ as my own deadstock yardage ran upwards of $200. Decidedly, I made it my mission to create the look for less.

With the success of my Santa dress, I knew the Tessa Sheath pattern would be a perfect fit in its full length for my attempt at the upscale knockoff.

Did I make adjustments to the pattern ? Yes. In addition to lengthening the pattern by an inch, I experimented by blending sizes at the hips, but didn’t like the results. Rather, I graded out from the hip to include an extra 1″ seam allowance to the hem and sewed the prescribed 3/8″ seam allowance. This worked beautifully !

I also learned how to add fisheye darts to the back of the dress to bypass the painfully tedious process of cutting and splicing the pattern to make my mandatory swayback adjustment. Going forward, I intend to employ this method when making garments as it took away the hassle of back pattern alterations and gave me better-than-anticipated results.

And that perfectly notched neckline ? I followed the instructions from an article online and watched a video about how to mark and sew the notch all together with the facing. But the real secret was PerfectFuse Light interfacing used on the front and back facing pieces and decreasing my stitch length to just 1.2mm at the bottom point of the notch.

The deadstock J. McLaughlin fabric I purchased was under $10 a yard and I used less than two yards for the entire dress. So, for less than a tenth of the price of a store-bought designer dress, I had my very own luxury piece at a fraction of the cost. Plus, the fun I had while recreating this design and the inner glee I felt in revealing its sophisticated origins gave me a feeling of utmost delight.

Toi, Toi, Toi,

Mary Martha

All I Want For Christmas is a Red Santa Dress

Published on by operazhenshchina112 Comments

Ever since I was a little girl, I always dreamed of having a “Santa” dress. The rich red velvet and white fur trim around the neck, cuffs, and hem would give me festive feelings of delight. Watching the classic film, “White Christmas”, would heighten this desire every year.

Vera-Ellen, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Bing Crosby in “White Christmas”, 1954

Despite my intentions, the hectic holiday season would always get in the way of my December dream. However, when I was approached to give a program to a retiree group highlighting the Christmas songs of the ages, I knew my time had come. The premise of the program was for me to wear an era-specific costume to match a song that was to be played after I modeled its corresponding outfit. The audience, in turn, had to guess when the song/carol was originally written based on my costume. For the 1990s, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” was on the list.

Mariah Carey in the “All I Want For Christmas Is You” music video, 1994

Hooray ! The Christmas program gave me a fitting excuse to create my Santa dress. While the task seemed simple, it certainly had its challenges. I can’t count how many mock-ups I sewed of different bodice patterns, only to have them be too tight when sewn up in the desired stretch velvet. What was wrong ? Almost giving up, I tried one last pattern.

The Tessa Sheath Dress from Love Notions Patterns popped into my e-mail inbox one Friday as part of the company’s Feature Friday. For $5, I thought I would give it a try.
My first mock-up was promising and when I added length to the bodice, it was perfect. Because I knew I was going to attach a circle skirt to the waist seam, I didn’t bother printing the rest of the PDF pattern. Once sewn together, I measured the circumference of the waist seam and used Mood Fabric’s Circle Skirt Calculator to map out my radius and fabric lay. The calculator worked its magic and gave me one circular piece of velvet, with no back seam to sew.
Fluffy faux fur purchased from Amazon was sewn/glued to the appropriate places and… that was it ! I finally had my Santa dress.

This dress is so much fun ! I have worn it constantly over the season and love giving its skirt a twirl.

One of my favorite features of the dress is its red stretch velour, which hangs heavy in its drape.

Just look at those folds !!

Merry Christmas !

Toi, Toi, Toi,

Mary Martha