I've always loved making capes; it was one of the first things I learned to make when I began my sewing journey a few years ago.
They are comfy and cosy and little girls just adore the fairy-tale element, reminiscent images of Little Red Riding Hood skipping along the path through the woods to visit Grandma.

For my Red Riding Hood cape, I have used Minerva's wadded quilted coating fabric in this rich Wine red colour.
For the hood I went for a stunning luxury faux fur courchevel, I'm not very experienced sewing with faux fur, the main issue I found being all of the stray hair from cutting up my nose for the next 3 days!!!
I watched a couple of YouTube videos on working with faux fur and as suggested, I used a craft knife for cutting, making sure I only cut through the fabric and not the fur.
I was initially worried as the faux fur is very thick, and with the quilted fabric I knew I was going to run into issues with the layers going under my machine foot, I did use a few needles but once I got the stitch length right it made things run more smoothly, increasing my stitch length made sewing through all the thick layers a lot easier.

For my cape I used Violette Field Threads Blanchette pattern, I always find the patterns easy to follow and the photographs are invaluable when sewing each step.
For the ties I used a wide velvet ribbon and I have lined it with a pretty fairy-tale themed cotton.

This cape is surprisingly cosy and does keep my little one warm, I love the fur/fabric colour combination and I'm really pleased with the quality of the faux fur.


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So here it is!
My Bustierdress, but it is not really a dress. I made the Rose Cafe Bustier and a skirt.
I have Black Swan Vibes in this, do you agree?

For this project I used flocked mesh fabric. Who doesn't love a nice dotted fabric? 🖤
I lined the bodice and the skirt with black woven suiting fabric. The skirt also has 2 layers of tulle underneath.

The bodice has foam cups. I added velvet ribbon to cover the seams and used a wider one for the straps. It was the first time that I used rigilene. But this is not my favourite to use. I like steal boning more.

Do you like this project? It was really fun to make. But I will keep to my vintage clothing.

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1950’S STYLE FAUX FUR GLAMOUR

Making one of my vintage style dreams come true, thanks to Minerva! For this project, I am finally diving into one of my sewing fantasy!

INSPIRATION

I am a huge fan of all Cruella Devil’s looks in the 1996’s 101 Dalmatians movie Her style and extravagance, inspired me in my own style development, since my childhood. I always been over the top fashion wise! Not a surprise…. I know…. 😉 So, as soon as I saw the leopard fabric on Minerva.com, I was really inspired and I new I had to create an outfit worthy of Cruella Devil.
My main inspiration comes from one of Anita’s original sketches, of a Dalmatian wiggle dress with a matching capelet had always been a fantasy outfit. The outfit of my dreams, very glamour, classy and extravagant; with a vintage touch. We can clearly see the late 1930’s early 1940’s fashion elements from this look. (See my inspiration photo on my previous post.)

Now that I found the perfect fabric on Minerva’s website, my fantasy outfit will finally come to life!

FABRIC

I am an animal print lover, especially leopard print and I love it even more when it is faux fur! To me, animal print is a neutral, it goes with everything!
This short pile, Velboa Faux Fur Fabric Brown 1175709 , is perfect to make a glamourous winter dress. It has a nice body, soft hand and gorgeous rich colors, the animal print is also very well done. I Love the fact that the faux fur is not too thick and was easy to cut and sew with. I was apprehensive to make a wiggle dress with faux fur, even if it was short pile. Turned out it was a joy to sew with, the fabric pressed nicely too, it was very unexpected for me.
Since the back of the fabric is rough I limned the entire dress and cape with Anti Static Supersoft Lining Fabric 1079848, to ensure the dress to nicely sit on the body and avoid static.

DESIGN AND SEWING

The pattern I used for my project is the Stanwyck dress, an expansion of the Stanwyck skirt 1241400, from Charm patterns by Gertie. The Cape, is a pattern that is available on her patreon.
This project was special to me, so I took the time to assemble the dress and cape with vintage couture sewing methods. I have flatlined all my pattern pieces with calico cotton to give more body to the dress since the dress I am making is very structured. I want to make sure the fabric stands well on the body.
The dress and the cape is fully lined, I love it when my garments are as beautiful inside than outside, the gorgeous gold Anti Static Supersoft Lining Fabric I chose was perfect and made the dress glide on the body beautifully.
I wanted to balance the outfit and didn’t want the leopard print to overpower the look, so I have handsewn some Velvet ribbon trim 1078064 all around the edge of the cape, cape collar and skirt hem. I think it adds a really nice touch and make the leopard motifs stand out even more!
To emphasize the waistline; I used a black contrasting pocket lining on the skirt to create a more interesting look and the illusion of a smaller waist. Especially while wearing the cape, I didn’t want my silhouette to look like a leopard rectangle!
Overall, the project took 3.5 meters of fabric. I have some left to make myself a matching hat, purse and gloves! I will show you the outcome, once they are finished!
I hope I have inspired you, to make your own fantasy garment. If you want to see more vintage inspired dressmaking, you can join me on my adventure on Instagram @gorgeouslyvintage

So long Makers!
Happy Sewing!

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Celebration dress
There are some gorgeous makes from McCalls 7745 so I decided to make this pattern for my Minerva Brand Ambassador dress with this awesome John Kaldor crepe print.

I’ve not worn a party dress like this so I through I would try the high/low hem version and sleeves. The ruffles I add on another version of this dress.

This soft and drapey polyester crepe fabric is as you would expect from John Kaldor is easy to sew and wear. Make sure you have new sewing machine needles on your machine as I forgot to change my sewing machine needles and some of the stitching pulled the crepe threads
This fabric is a really good weight and is completely opaque, so it was perfect for this dress. The skirt has some great swishing ability that’s why I thought this crepe fabric would suit McCalls 7745 skirt.

What I think you’ll love is the bodice of all of these dresses is lined. The lining for the dress I made is a soft cotton fabric. I chose white as the lining colour so it would make the white part of the print more brilliant.

When you look at the print close up, the blue is an ink blue colour so you could think that it’s black but it’s blue.
If you’re worried about making this dress fit your waistline, stop worrying because this dress is secured by waist ties on both sides on this dress. I used velvet ribbon trim from a previous Minerva project for this dress.

This is a forgiving style and perfect for travel and you need a great dress for a cocktail or party occasion.

Because this dress is a wrap style dress, I made zero adjustments to this pattern.

The bodice is size 12 and waist and hips are size 14.
The seam edges are overlocked with a 3 thread stitch.
Making McCalls 7745 in a John Kaldor crepe of any description is a sure fire winning combination.
Ah. What I should have said from the get go is this pattern had cup sizes A/B, C and D. I used C cup because that the bust size I become when I’m on holidays.

What I had added to this dress are 2 snaps. 1 snap is a the bust opening and the other snap is at mid thigh level so the dress will swish open to a point that I’m comfortable flashing my legs. That’s the beauty of sewing your own clothes. You can make them as revealing as you’re comfortable with.
And I’ll leave my review at that point because it’s great to find a pattern that you can wear for demure purposes and for times when you want the world to notice your zest for life.

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Hemming McCalls 7745

In case you're wondering about how much effort you need to put into finishing the hem of this dress, have a close look at the 2 hem finishes in these photos.

One photo shows the hem finished with a simple 3thread overlocked stitch and turned over once.

On this John Kaldor crepe it works well.

I got a bit picky and decided to turn the hem up one more time to hide the overlocked edge for a more refined finish.

As you can see, the hem doesn't show so I really didn't need to turn the hem up twice to hide the hem edge.

You do get a much neater finish but if you're pushing for time, overlock the edge and turn the hem up once.

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