Sew and Tell: Color Block Draped Dress

Okay so I kept one of two promises from last week's color block draped dress post. I said I was going to iron the dress and show you pics of me wearing it. Well, here I am wearing it but it is not ironed! Sorry. I just had so much to do and I rather let you see it on me as quickly as possible. 

Doesn't it look better on a person than on the dress form? I certainly fill it out a lot more. I bought my mannequin before I had kids so I got bigger and my mannequin stayed the same, oh dear. 

Side view

Here is is without the belt. I really love it. 

Just to recap, this dress was designed on the dress form from fabric I sewed together. I love this organic way of designing. You can do it too, it's easy!

I still have to work on the neckline and perhaps will shorten it a bit but I can definitely see myself wearing this dress with sandals around my Bronx town in the summer time. 

Te gusta? (do you like?). I read each and every comment so feel free to post and let me know what you think. 

Easy Color Block Draped Dress

By now you probably know that I am a big fan of color blocking and draping. This and last week, I have been doing some fabric stash busting. It's the reason why I haven't posted in a while. This project is perfect for getting rid of those fabric scraps. 

I started with this: a red t -shirt with a print that never sold in  the shop, a piece of blue jersey material from when I was selling draped dresses, and a piece of brown jersey fabric from a color block project two years ago. 

I opened one side of the t-shirt and simply serged the pieces all together. You can also sew them, you don't necessarily need a serger. 

I then draped my color blocked fabric on the dress form. I cut here and there, sewed here and there, and this is the result: a color blocked draped dress.  

Another view. I love this organic way of designing. No pattern pieces, no predetermined place where each color will go. Just simply seeing where the fabric falls best. 

The back view

I apologize for the wrinkly fabric, it definitely looks much better on a person. I promise to iron it and take pictures of me wearing it soon. 

Has anyone else ever worked this way? Just draping on the dress form?

Sew and Tell: Peplum Top T-Shirt Reconstruction

I have officially joined the peplum trend fashion craze with this new t-shirt reconstruction. 

It all started with these two t shirts. Every year, our wonderful aunt gives us a membership to the Bronx Zoo (and all the other outdoor parks connected to the membership). The membership comes with a free t shirt, well two, one for each boy. Each one is always the same size, medium, they usually do not have anything smaller than that. So, of course, my older one takes one and I take the other. I figure Dan will eventually grow into the older one's shirt. 

I had the green shirt for a while and worked well for contrast.

A medium lends itself well to this kind of peplum, princess seam reconstruction because the idea is to make it smaller. Since I am usually a small, this gives me enough room for seam allowance.

 Princess seams give such a nice contour and a peplum is perfect to accentuate the waist. Worn, with skinny jeans, it looks great!

 "Is that a polar bear I see over there?"lol. Practicing my ooh aahh stance for when I go to the zoo.

Can't wait to sport this shirt this summer when we go to the zoo. My hubby usually takes my older son to the Bronx Zoo, but with little Dan, the Central Park Zoo is better because it's smaller. I can see the entire zoo in one visit and feel very accomplished!

As always, I'm curious, what do you think?