Fashion Plate: Louche Garden Home Tour Dress

It's so hard to get into winter when it's 75º outside!  I found this amazing cotton sateen on fabric.com and I had to find a pattern to pair it with.  I chose the Louche Garden Home Tour dress from ModCloth, though the fabric would look just as nice as a shirtwaist dress like the Paint a Picturesque dress.  I'm using McCall's 6350 as the base pattern again.  (It's still widely available!  Just check Hancock Fabrics or JoAnn's.)  The ModCloth dress is a racerback with straps that cross in the back.  That is a very easy adjustment to make.  Check out my Fruit Cart Fashion Plate for some other information regarding the shirring on the sides.

 

I finally finished my On the Job dress!  I hope to have a post up about that soon.  I have to take some photos.  I hate that I'm not as productive as I was earlier in the year.  I'm not sewing as fast as I'm bringing new stuff home.

 

Happy Tuesday!

Fashion Plate: Fruit Cart Dress

Make This Look: ModCloth Fruit Cart Dress by ellelittle featuring dresses

ModCloth has this style dress in several different fabrics.  I chose the Fruit Cart Dress for this week's Fashion Plate.  To create this style, grab yourself a copy of McCall's 6350 (now out of print, but still widely available) and 3 yards of Michael Miller's Farmer's Market Apple Dot fabric.  The ModCloth version has shirred side backs, which you can easily recreate.  You will need to double the width of those pieces because shirring reduces the width by approximately half.  Then you can just follow any shirring tutorial, such as this one by Flossie Teacakes.  I just love the sweetheart neckline on this dress next to the apple print.  It's just perfect!

Fashion Plate: Diner Delight Dress

Make This Look: Diner Delight Dress by ellelittle featuring dresses

I love houndstooth and I think this Michael Miller fabric is so classy! There are lots of colors available in the basics collection if the red sells out. The good thing is that this fabric is regularly stocked and reorderable, so check around if you can't wait for it to come back in stock from fabric.com. I've chosen Simplicity 2444 again for the sillouhette of the dress.  ModCloth's Diner Delight Dress does have a waistband.  That detail is easy enough to add on your own.  I was going to order the MM fabric in teal, but there's only 1 yard left!  Sad panda.

Hopefully it will be back in stock soon!

Any ModCloth items you want to challenge me to find fabric and patterns for?  Link 'em to me!

Fashion Plate: Bingo Barrel Roll Skirt

Fashion Plate: Bingo Barrel Roll Skirt by ellelittle featuring cotton skirts

 

I have a bonus Fashion Plate for you today!  ModCloth just introduced the On A Barrel Roll Skirt in Bingo and I had to find the fabric to recreate it.  Go back to my last Fashion Plate post for other details.  You can still use Gertie's tutorial for making this skirt.  I happen to think the pocket is adorable on the Bingo Barrel Roll skirt (I wasn't a fan of the pocket on the music notes skirt), so I highly recommend adding a self-lined patch pocket.  Measure your hand to get an idea of how big to make the pocket.  I'm guessing you would need 11x17 to get a 5x8 finished pocket.  That was a tangent!  The fabric is Timeless Treasures Bingo.  I love the dotted tights with the skirt, so I'm linking to those too!  This is such a fun look. 

 

Fashion Plate: On A Barrel Roll Skirt

Make This Look: ModCloth On A Barrel Roll Skirt by ellelittle featuring Bea & Dot skirts 

This one is so easy!  The inspiration is Modcloth's On a Barrel Roll Skirt.  The skirt featured on ModCloth is actually a 6-gore skirt, but why would you want to cut all those pieces (yes, more structure, blahblahblah) when all you really have to do is use Gertie's Gathered Skirt tutorial.  All you need is your waist measurement and desired length in order to cut your rectangles.  You can even add side seam pockets to her tutorial instead of using that giant patch pocket shown in the ModCloth version.  Way better right?  The fabric I chose is Kaufman's All That Jazz metallic.

I'm not naming names. . .

I'm still trying to come up with a different name for my weekly series about copying a style.  I've been calling it "Make this Look" because that's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the first dress I knew I could copy.  Here's what I've come up with so far:

• Crafting Fashion
• You Can Make This
• Steal this Style
• Style Hacks
• Looking Good in Stitches
• Designer Duds DIY
• Copycat Crafts
• Crafting Fashion
• Creating Couture
• Adapt this Style
• Hack this Look

It's been really difficult to come up with something unique.  I came up with "Crafting Fashion" thinking this was THE ONE!  Nope.  It's taken.  "You Can Make This"  Nope.  "Steal this Style" probably not because, again, this exists in several different iterations.  I don't love many of the other names I came up with for one reason or the other.  I'm not showcasing anything couture, it's not crafts, just copycat designs, etc ad infinitum. 

Naming things.  Why you so hard??/?  I was getting a bit discouraged that when I come up with something brilliant, someone else is already using it.  I guess that's a sign it wasn't that brilliant,  huh?

And I was feeling all kinds of sorry for myself until I thought about these:

Image from Here

You would pick an outfit and rub the colored pencil over the plate to get different looks.  Different patterns.  Different style ideas.  That's basically what my series formerly known as Make this Look is doing.  I give you the tools you need to recreate a certain fashion.  Just like a Fashion Plate.

From wikipedia:  A fashion plate is an illustration (a plate) demonstrating the highlights of fashionable styles of clothing. Fashion plates are not depictions of specific people, but are instead generalized portraits, meant only to dictate the style of clothes that a tailor, dressmaker, or store could make or sell, or to show how different materials could be made up into clothes.

As of today, my design hacks are going to be called Fashion Plates.  And I'm kind of excited about this.  I've also created a tumblr.  You can find my blog there as www.fashion-plates.tumblr.com.  It's quite primitive so far, as I need to figure out how to work that site.  I'm just going to be linking from here to there, so if you are already following my blog, you won't miss anything!  :)  It will take me a little while to retag and repost and all that jazz, but you will be seeing Fashion Plates regularly in the future!

Fashion Plate: When the Night Comes in Emerald

Make This Look: When the Night Comes in Emerald by ellelittle featuring an emerald dress

Here's another ModCloth knockoff:  When the Night Comes in Emerald by BB Dakota.  Using a less poufy skirted version of McCall's 6466, a floral lace, and emerald green kona cotton, you can be ready when your night comes!  This could be a perfect option for your holiday parties.  I find everyone wears black or red at parties, but very few wear green.  What's up with that?  I love this dress.

I'm ellelittle on Polyvore too if you want to find me!

Fashion Plate: Breathtaking Tiger Lilies Skirt

Make This Look: Breathtaking Tiger Lillies Skirt by ellelittle featuring skirts

I found another clone! I'm on a roll. You can make this gorgeous skirt from modcloth using the Zinnia pattern that was just released by Colette. It's a perfect match, right! I picked out a rayon challis for the skirt. Rayon challis is something I can never find in the store. I wish it was around more in my area. Rayon challis has a smooth and luxurious hand and a swooshie (I made that word up. DGAF.) drape.
This fabric is a fantastic "bottom weight" fabric--great for dresses, skirts, pants, etc. That's not to say that it can't be used for tops, just that this is a heavier fabric compared to something like voile--super lightweight and floaty and demanding of a lining for a skirt. If you are feeling a little lazy and don't want to make two whole skirts in order to make this look, go for something like that rayon challis.

This is my third Make this Look so far. How do you like it? I'll keep it up as long as I feel inspired. It's fun for me and it helps me expand my pattern detail knowledge. Having to really look at the garment from ModCloth and see if it has princess seams or side darts or pleats or whatever. It's a little bit of a challenge for me and I LIKE it! I also try to match the fabrics or find something that would just work well for the finished garment.

I would love to see any of your ModCloth hacks.  Got any?  Link em to me!

Pinteresting: With some Costumes

I listed nearly all my old Halloween costumes on ebay last week, so I've taken to Pinterest to find inspiration for this year.  I'll hopefully have some money to spend on a new costume, or, better yet, come up with a crafty idea to make my own.  I used an LBD and about $5 in supplies to make my costume last year.  I was a black widow spider.  It was a piece of felt from the fabric store ($0.35), a hair comb ($3 for 8), a package of spider webbing ($1.97), and some black tulle ($1).  I think it was my best cosume so far and it cost me almost nothing--perfect because I was going to drop a few grand on a vacation a month later.  Anyway...on to the costumes.

Love the honey badger

 

Wonder if I could find this in football version?

For that "special" man in your life

adorable kid's costume

 

Love this!

 

You may be looking at my Halloween costume right here.  I could totally pull this off.

 

This pin has 29 DIY costumes for adults.  This one is my favorite!

 

My mom is a huge fan of Halloween.  She dresses up every day in October.  I think that's too much like work, but she enjoys it.  What are you wearing for Halloween? Let me know in the comments!

Fashion Plate: Rock and Bowl Dress

Make This Look: Rock and Bowl Dress by ellelittle featuring rock dresses

This week's Fashion Plate is the Rock and Bowl dress from Modcloth. Simplicity 2444 is such a great base pattern. You can give it a poofy skirt like this one or slim that skirt down using a different skirt pattern in the Project Runway collection. You really have endless variations of styling and creating with this pattern. Just change one thing about the bodice and switch up the fabric and you can have a holiday dress or an everyday work dress or any shade in between. The fabric for this look is Asbury Bowling Pins in Lime. There are several other colors if the lime happens to sell out (only 17 yards left). I find that ModCloth uses a lot of lapped zippers in the dresses. I think that's pretty cool! I have a love/hate relationship with lapped zippers right now. I need more practice.

Fashion Plate: Dimmer Party Dress

Make this Look: Dimmer Party Dress by ellelittle featuring lined dresses

I decided to give this Polyvore thing a shot.  I found this really cute dress on ModCloth, the Dimmer Party Dress.  I thought the fabric was familiar and sure enough, it's the Scary Lighting fabric by Michael Miller.  Fabric.com happens to be sold out of this colorway, but I'm sure you can find it somewher else.  The sillouette I thought this dress most resembled is New Look 6910.  You'll have to add the pockets and collar to the dress, but the princess seams and A-line shape is right there.  I love this dress!  This fabric is stealthy Halloween too.  There ARE bats there, but they blend in so elegantly!  This is my first attempt at Polyvore.  What do you think?  I'm also taking suggestions at the label.  I love Make This Look, but that is a tumblr already and I don't want to steal.  You Can Make This?  maybe?

September Stash Enhancement!

I bought some new fabric from fabric.com about a week ago and it finally arrived!  I didn't go too crazy.  I bought three yards of Michael Miller Eiffel Tower in Turf Green and one yard of a stretch lace.  The MM fabric might become a Chantilly or another Colette dress and the lace is to try to recreate my favorite underwear.  TMI?  Not sure.  I buy those underwear in triples because the lace always tears after a couple months.  So annoying.

 

And on Thursday night, I was gifted with a bunch of other fabrics from a quilter.  Some of the lengths are just too small for me to do much of anything with, as I'm not a quilter.  Some of the other fabrics were decent lengths.   Let's get to the haul.

This green and navy poly blend was 42" or 44" (can't remember).  It's already cut into a Hazel dress.  I just can't get enough of that pattern.  I think this was a 60" fabric, which is why I was able to get so much dress out of so little fabric.  I hope to sew that up this week.

This is actually a BLACK background.  My camera hates black.  There is maybe 1/2 yard here.  It will be a struggle to get anything out of this.  Maybe a tank top?

I think this is 40" of what appears to be a crepe back satin.  I like the dots, but this might have to become pillowcases.

This is a decent length of a poly blend.  I don't remember it having any stretch to it, so this fabric goes into the Danger Zone.  It's another black fabric.

I love this one too.  It's 30" of a home dec fabric.  More pillowcases?

More polyester Danger Zone fabric.  This one even comes with some holes in it.  I do have somewhere in the neighborhood of 52" of this one. 

I think this one was 60" of a polyester "let's pretend this is silk" fabric.  Not sure what this will be.  I might just list it on ebay and hope for the best.

 

About a yard of a purple dotted knit.  This could be PJs.  We'll see.

Random tiny bits of fabric for more pillowcases.  This is probably what the gifter had in mind with all these fabrics.  I do like the colors.

This is about 54" of knit.  It looks very childish.  I don't know any kids to make PJs for with it.  That's exactly what this fabric reminds me of.

A fancy stretch knit (dance type) fabric.  I could see myself making a slip with some lace detail out of this.

More weird "let's pretend this is silk" polyster taffeta stuff.  I hate taffeta.  I think it's 50" worth.

 

Getting new fabric is always fun, especially when it's free!  I know I won't be able to use all of it, but even just that green and navy stripe was worth the effort of picking the fabric up!  I got my serger last week and I successfully threaded it and sewed a project on it.  I don't like using the blades.  I might once I figure out the fabric feeding placement, but for right now, those things are lowered. 

 

I need to get busy sewing!  My fabric tub is overflowing now.  FWP?  It is nice to have a bit of a fabric stash built up because I can think of something I want to make and find something to make it with in the stash.  I also just hate letting that money sit there.  How do you get over that?  I know I have the money when I buy the fabric, so I really should just forget about it.  I just feel like what I bought is being wasted by just sitting there in the bin.  How do you get over the "stash guilt?"

 

~elle

Free Craftsy Course!

If you ever wanted to take a Craftsy course and just couldn't afford it or life got in the way, here's your opportunity to take one for free!  FREE!!!  Just click or type http://www.craftsy.com/classes to take you to all the classes!  It says "Free" instead of giving a price.  (Obviously if it doesn't say free, the offer expired or you already signed up for your one free class.)

This one about making sugar orchids looks really neat.

The couture dress class has so much great information for fitting and adjusting your pattern pieces.

I enrolled in the Jean-ius class several months ago and I listened to most of the lessons.  There is lots of prep work involved in this project, but that is all to ensure you get the perfect finished item.  I'm getting sized out of the market and haven't bought new jeans in many years.  I needed this class.

I decided to enroll in Shoot It! for my free class.  It's normally $49.99, so I thought it was quite the bargain.  I should be able to listen and watch and put the lessons right into practice.

Go get a free class!  Have a great week,

~elle

Meanwhile in Florida. . .

It's crazy hearing about all the snow that is falling in different parts of the country.  I was heading into work after church on Super Bowl sunday (February 3rd) and it was just such a beautiful day.  I was compelled to pull over to walk along the beach and take some photos.  I can't really say for sure, but I'm sure this is why people move to Florida. :)

I hope everyone enjoys making their snowmen and sandcastles, whichever you have the pleasure of making!
Have a great week!
~elle

elle Little Shop!

I decided to open an etsy shop!  This was a hard decision for me to make.  It's that marble that's been rolling around in my head for years.  I just decided now was the time--the exact moment I'm slammed at my regular work and don't have much free time for anything.

I am working on the prototypes, if you will, of what I will be selling in the shop.  So far I have two sizes of these zip-up ditty bags.  They really hold everything--makeup, camera, phone, a change of clothes (but not jeans, lol), wallet, etc.  I also have thoughts of making divided baskets, grocery bags, carry-all totes, clutches, and wallets.  

I need to turn all this fabric (and much more) into stuff!  Picspam to follow:

 

The pink one is the larger size.  I just stuffed it with 12 fat quarters to give you an idea of the amount of room.  It is also roomy enough for 100g of yarn, though zippers + yarn = danger zone.  I'll work on something for the yarns that won't threaten your wollmeise.

The smaller brown one only holds 50g of yarn comfortably, though this one seems much less threatening to the yarn.  The larger one might need to be made a bit taller so it can be more of a true knitting project bag.  What do you think?  If I made the handle bigger to fit around the wrist, it could be a more portable project bag.  One could just pull the project out and leave the zipper open slightly and walk and talk and knit.  Hmmm.  Thinking out loud.

What do you look for in a project bag/stuff sack/tote bag/wallet/wristlet?  Please let me know! 

My goal is to get 8 bags listed on etsy by my birthday--February 21. 

Have a great week!
~elle