#thelittlereddressproject

”Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah,  and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Luke 1:39-45

       Hello everyone:) I hope everybody is enjoying the Holiday Season so far! I've been a little MIA lately, lol. I'm about 4 months along right now and have been a bit tired and unmotivated to do much sewing. I really wanted to participate in the #thelittlereddressproject this year though, and it definitely helped perk me up. I feel more excited to sew now overall & I have a maternity friendly coat pattern that I'd like to get at once Christmas & New Years is over.

 

    For my dress I chose this beautiful stretch crushed red velvet (Fabricville) and used a McCalls pattern I've had in my stash for a few years now. Its unfortunately out of print, but I think burda has a similar one available. I had already cut my pre-pregnancy size 10, so I made a quick muslin to check the fit. I was able to just use a smaller seam allowance on the side seams and front under the twist and I was fine! I had to add a curve to the back, otherwise it looked like a sack, lol.

    I used a new blade on my rotary cutter & my trusty cutting mat. I definitely found it helped reduce slipping to have the fabric right side against the mat and cut in a single layer.

    This is one of the front crossover pieces that I trimmed a bit of the SA off, then overcast the edges and just turned over once to hem (with the help of wash away wonder tape).

The recommended double hem was too slippery so I found this worked better for my particular fabric choice.

     I reduced the back-waist length a bit and forgot to add a bit of length to the skirt. I wish I had made it an inch or so longer:/ I had to make a very small hem. Not sure what the proper way is to hem velvet, but I used a simple machine hem (plus I was in a rush to wear it to church the next day Sunday!). I overcast the edges of the skirt  and used my 1/4" hem foot, just eyeballing it. I think it works:) I did the same for the sleeve hems. I used a straight stitch throughout and stretched my fabric slightly as I sewed. I probably could have used that method on the neckline, but I was winging it as I went, lol. If you're using velvet for the first time, definitely practice on some scraps first.

     The front twist is pretty plunging so I tacked to keep it modest for church:) I may take the stitches out and re-tack it slightly lower though. I received so many nice compliments on it. I realized its not often I sew solids, I usually gravitate towards prints. I'm really liking this deep red & its very "Christmasy":) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

See you all next year!:) xo