Hello out there! You guys, I have had a couple of posts in Draft mode for months but haven’t been motivated to finish them or get photos in a timely manner–lazy blogger alert! 😉
What have I been up to? Apart from the usual life stuff, I have actually been sewing quite a bit! I’ve made 19–NINETEEN!!!!!–things since I last wrote, with 2 more in progress. 11 of the 19 weren’t even for me: Tom got 6 new baseball tees (aka Easy Palate Cleansers), and someone I love got 4 adaptive tops ahead of a moved-up medical procedure, followed by a Driftless cardigan to celebrate her ongoing recovery. I have photos of 0 of those things, LOL. I may share Tom’s t-shirts eventually, depending on whether 1.) They are all clean at the same time for photos (highly unlikely) and 2.) We feel like it. I do kinda have my heart set on a .gif of him where he stands still and his t-shirt changes though!
As for me, I have 3 pairs of Lander pants/shorts to show you (photos are done, post is mostly done but I keep re-writing it because it was over 2500 words and UGH), plus 4 Driftless cardigans, plus this thing today. There is one thing I made that I’m not going to write a standalone post for, because it is far from my best work sewing-wise:
That’s a ponte dress made from M6886 and modified to have a split hem and elbow-length sleeves. I made every possible mistake on that project, which was a last-minute thing because I had a gig and was panicking about what to wear. 
(For instance: I confused the CB seam I added for a side seam and sewed it up accordingly, on the serger to boot. FUUUUUUUUUUUUU.)
But anyway, on to my most recent project! This thing proved to be a queue-jumper, both sewing-wise and blogging-wise: I bought and printed the pattern last Friday, and finished the dress this Saturday. 😀
Presenting the Myosotis dress, View A, from Deer & Doe!
So fashun
A Twirl in 4 parts…1
…2
…3
…4
Back view, now with creepy grabby claw hands
Cupcake Wrapper
Obligatory “Thanks, it has pockets” photo
Yep, I can still see my feet…
Slightly evil?
Surely I’m not the only one who gets these weird, immediate urges to sew something specific RIGHT NOW, am I? That’s exactly what happened with this project; I totally overlooked the pattern on its (very recent) release day, but then got sucked in so completely that I shamelessly copied the sample. I was so desperate to make this thing that I even put the PDF together myself instead of waiting for a copy shop or print version. Yep, that’s right: I couldn’t wait to make a big white ruffled muumuu. 😉
I wasn’t kidding when I said I copied their sample: they linked the fabric they used (a white-on-white seersucker from Fabric.com, of all places) and I bought it. Normally I really dislike seersucker–I don’t want my clothes to look like they’ve been slept in and re-worn sans ironing–but I thought the added texture would help this dress feel more interesting. And honestly, I still dislike seersucker, or at least this one: this shit feels like thick paper towels. But I think the texture works with the design and don’t regret the choice; I have about 1 or 1.5 yards left over though (D&D calls for 3.25 yards and I bought 4 because I was reading the 45″ width requirements, derp) and I really, really don’t know what to do with it. UGH.
My fave photo of the dress “floofed” out!
Swish swish
Pattern Notes
This was my first-ever Deer & Doe pattern. (I know, right?) On the whole, I’m really pleased with it! The PDF was fairly compact for a full dress–29 pages–and the pages lined up beautifully. All the pieces fit together pretty well (more on that later) and overall, I felt that the product was professional and well done.
I made a size 34. The only pattern adjustment I made was to add 1″ of length to the bodice; the darts were hitting me in the right place, so I opted to add it at the waist. Mostly I wanted insurance: this pattern has a raised waistline but I didn’t want to be in empire waist or pregnancy speculation territory! (Plus their brand ambassador is 5’8″ and she lengthens their bodices too, so I felt like this was the right call.) I snooped finished Myosotis dresses on Instagram and saw that some people were getting drag lines at the shoulder near the collar, so I made sure to check the shoulder slope and back measurements before beginning; I didn’t make any adjustments there. The dress is a little tough to get on and off, since the waist is closed and I have broad shoulders. (My waist might be smaller than the dress’s, but my shoulders definitely aren’t!) If I’m being really picky, I could use a hollow chest adjustment along the front opening: it sits away from my body a bit.
I kept the skirt short (i.e., unchanged from the pattern), mostly to keep it from feeling frumpy. Needless to say, I am SUPER GLAD I added that inch to the waist, because this thing is short! And the waistline is still quite above my natural waist–by about 2″. But the dress easily passes the “fingertip test,” so it’s office-appropriate in my opinion. (Having short limbs for your height DOES have some advantages!)
Okay, “bump watch” scenario has not been totally avoided…
Note to self: do not jump around in this thing at work.
Construction
Myosotis is a really simple project, particularly if you’ve made button-up shirts or shirtdresses before. I sewed the entire thing on Saturday, complete with multiple breaks. (I did cut it out on a different day though, which helped!) I did as much as I could with my serger; french seams would have been too bulky, and I wanted finished edges to prevent fraying. I did NO hand sewing for this project: the hems are topstitched, and even my buttons are sewn on by machine. (Seriously, I do not know why I waited so long to use the button foot that came with my machine–IT IS AMAZING.)
The directions were fine, though I pretty much just read through them once and then went about my business. I didn’t use their collar method, because the Four Square Walls method is still usable for a Mandarin collar and that’s my preferred way. (Having said that, the collar isn’t my best. Womp womp.) I think the open neckline is really pretty; it balances the volume of the rest of the dress and puts a bit more skin in the mix, which I like. My front bodices aren’t as sharply angled at the turn as the sample or line art, so I may not have clipped far enough into the seam; I blame the white-on-white-on-white situation going on, plus sewing at night with sub-optimal lighting–it was hard to tell the difference between thread and seersucker after a while! 😉
My biggest disappointment, apart from inadvertently making a dress out of paper towels, is the gathering. I bought a gathering foot for my machine, but we will need to spend some quality time getting to know each other because we…weren’t instant friends. Plan B was to turn the needle tension up on my machine, which actually produced beautiful, even gathers. But when the time came to attach gathered stuff to non-gathered stuff, I was disappointed by how much I had to relax the gathering to get things to fit together. 😦 I expected capital-G Gathering, you know? So they aren’t very evenly distributed because I had to keep letting them out between the side seams. I get it: the pieces need to be wide to achieve the shape of the dress. But UGH. The only pieces I’m really pleased with are the sleeves, which look nicely–and intentionally–gathered.
Some gathers…sorta.
Conclusions
Aside from a few complaints about the fabric and the gathers, I really am pleased with this project. It’s fun and easy to wear, and I think I did a good job on the sewing (distribution of the gathers aside). Plus it’s like nothing else I own, so it has that extra “novelty” appeal. I am sad that I can’t wear it home for hair appointments though, LOLOL. 😉
“Meh, the shoes are okay I guess…”
“Dude, you’re blocking my shoes.”
“Come here, buddy!”
Or don’t…
Honestly, I probably won’t make View B because it’s too plain for me–if I’m going oversized, it needs to have something going on–but might try View A again at some point. (In a flannel for Fall? Or a sleeveless version?) Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just make peace with paying $13 for a pattern I used one time and move on with my life!
And can I just say that I have never been happier NOT to be a vlogger? Because I cannot for the life of me figure out how the fuck to pronounce this pattern’s name. My-OS-otis? Me-OS-otis? Myo-SOTIS? Mitosis? Milo-and-Otis??? 😉
And now it’s time for OUTTAKES!!!!! And also a .gif, which may actually be the best one yet.
Another blog, another jump FAIL
Come on, lady! How hard is it to jump gracefully?!?
UGH, Seriously?!?
There ya go!!
“I’m A Little Cupcake,” which is my version of “I’m A Little Teapot” meets Riverdance I guess…
Well folks, that’s it for me today! I should be back really soon with my Landers, which have been patiently waiting since FEBRUARY to get blogged. 😀
Life in A "Mads" House 