My "Dress to Kill" Knockoff skirt

I finished my knock-off skirt and top!!!

 

I started with many pictures of the skirt style I wanted to copy and decided that the plaid one would be the easiest to see what the original pattern looked like

Here is a picture of the skirt pieces in progress, and the pocket before and after being "scrunched"

After I finished the skirt I used some of my MANY yards of black knit fabric to try different shapes for the tops that I had seen in this designer's 2013 spring collection.     Below you can see examples of the scalloped, panel and bat-wing tees that she will be using.

This was so much fun to make and I'm going to try it in some different fabrics for fall .

"Dress to Kill" knock-off skirt

As I mentioned in my last post I am anxious to try my hand at replicating the look of this designer skirt

"Knocking-off" designer clothing is one of my favorite sewing activities but I limit myself to pictures only, and never copy an actual original (Trying to look at them in stores doesn't work very well any way as the sales people in those kind of stores are VERY attentive).  It seems much more challenging and fun doing it from pictures onlly and nobody can say it's an exact copy.  Also the original pieces are usually in small sizes which I would have to enlarge anyway. This way I just design them to my proportions from the start.

I was getting a little overwhelmed with trying to figure out this whole design and decided to start with just the pockets.  I had just finished Vogue 1218 which had very big pockets that actually hung too far out so I decided to try to alter them to look like the pockets in the above skirt.  Here's the pattern pocket "as is"

And here it is after I twisted it around to try to make it look more like the DTK skirt

I literally just picked it up in the middle and twisted! Then tacked it down when it look right. Just what I wanted except the design skirt pocket might be little smaller.

Now I need to figure out those curved skirt pieces. There are plenty more examples out there to look at, and seem to be made in many different type fabrics. Here is another:

And here it is done in a fall fabric---The pockets are a little different on this one but the skirt pattern itself seems to be the same.  Now to go experiment on that curved skirt piece------More to follow soon!

                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                 
                                                                        
                                                                     

Mizono Dress

VOGUE 1312

I was so glad to see this pattern come out with a dress version!  You can get a free pattern and tutorial to make the skirt version on Shams great blog Tablecloth skirt  She even has a gallery with pics of all the skirts her readers have made.

. I made my dress version in a woven poly gabardine so the angles would really "stick out"and serged them on the outside for better visibility.  I used my TNT top pattern superimposed on their bodice so it wouldn't be quite so bare.  I had originally lengthened it, which I almost always have to do (I'm 5'10") but it didn't really look good longer so I cut it back to original length (at the midrift seam).

                                                                                     

In other news I went to Fabric Mart yesterday (I'm so lucky to live in PA!) and they were having a great sale on their "round tables". As I've mentioned before this is all the fabric that for some reason they aren't selling on their website any more and includes some great designer stuff. Every thing on these 15-20 tables was $1.99.  The sale has been going on for 2 weeks but I still found some great "basics" in neutral colors in high-tech fabrics that I can use for some of the experimenting I want to do when I  attempt to make the following things:

Tornado dress by Rick Owens  $1200  (pretty wild, even for me)

I may use the following pattern by Julian Roberts for my first attempt. I bought this from Center for Pattern Design but do not see it on their website any more.

Another thing I want to try to make is some version of the "Dress to Kill" big pocket skirt

And there are even some older Vogue skirt patterns that are a bit unusual that I'd like to try.  I have loads of summer type fabric I'd love to make up in funky skirts though I probably won't get to wear them til next spring. Stay tuned for some wierd creations!  "Have fabric, will experiment" is my motto!

Fabric Mart's new blog

I was honored by the ladies from the new blog at Fabric Mart to be their first guest blogger. They did a good job of going through my old blogs and included the ones with sewing designs that I would have chosen myself as most creative.  Here it is and you can find out on it the other three bloggers who made the trip to FM with me and are HUGE Fabric Mart fans!     FabricMart's BLOG

On another note, I am still finishing up summer projects that involve crochet and sewing.  Here is a "retro" look I made with tie-dyed knit fabric (Vogue Sandra Betzina's 1297) and a crocheted vest from the 70's
to go over it

        Stay tuned for more summer outfits shortly as I want to finish them up and start on Autumn!

Sewing Crochet challenge---purses

I'm trying to make up some of my Vogue patterns for summer before the new Fall ones come out.  Today I quickly made up version A of  8816 (my outfit picture comes later)

I made it in a light weight jersy knit and it made up quickly and gives just the right amount of "coverage" to my aging body. I may even consider lengthening it to dress length.

Since I am trying to add CROCHET items to my sewing I decided to take a look at some of the designer crocheted purses and found several:

These 2 are from Dolce and Gabbana-----the granny square one is over $2000 and reminds me of and afghan!

I discovered that crochet is so popular this year that it is even used to make shoes!

from relatively inexpensive sandals  --------to pricey ones from Missoni:     

So, taking these all as inspiration I came up with the following outfit:

          

I have to admit that there was a pattern for the sandals in the last "Interweave Crochet" magazine which I was dying to try! Here is another picture of them ----I started with crocheting around a black flip-flop sole with the thongs cut off.

                                                          

Missoni crochet inspiration

I love the way one of my favorite bloggers, Carolyn of sewingfantaticdiary looks at all the latest runway styles and then decides to incorporate her favorites into renditions that are attractive on her. She even names her collections sometimes!

Well, I've been looking at this summer's Missoni collection and it uses LOTS of CROCHET, my favorite activity of the moment so have decided to attempt some Missoni "knock-offs" that will be appropriate for me.

Here are some actual Missoni  crocheted pieces that I would love to try to "knock-off":

                                      cool top and the wavy pattern is perfect for crochet

This is called "crochet Knit"---would be fun to figure out the stitches---love the colors

Maybe a skirt like the bottom of this dress?

                                                                                                           I'd love a long tunic just likethis!

I think this is a scarf!

I really love this but would need to make a slip-dress to wear under it---the model seems to just have tiny black underwear on!

I'm thinking I"d sew a skirt like this and crochet a MUCH larger top in co-ordinating colors!SSo, stay tuned as I attempt to got through a Missoni "knock-off" challenge----I'm off to check my yarn for colors I need.

A crochet/sewing challenge

I've been reading some of your great sewing blogs and have gotten into a sewing mood again! However I am still in love with crochet and all the new looks using it from the designers.  Therefore, I've decided to challenge myself this summer with mixing the two skills.  I"m going to try to make (and show you) some things that have both "hook and needle" skills in the outfits.    Here's my first combined outfit:

The dress is a pattern from the new Vogue Knitting CROCHET magazine.  Yes, that's right, crochet has become so popular that conservative old Vogue magazine has just published a magazine dedicated to "hooking"!          This was actually listed as a "bathing suit" cover-up----No WAY would I have worn it as that so the sewing part came in making a co-ordinating simple slip/dress to wear under it---my "crochet" friends seem to be more impressed by that than the dress!

Stay tuned for more in my self-challenge Sew/Crochet (or maybe knit) projects----I have boxes of patterns, fabric and yarn to work with!       peg