Sewed 6 dresses in 6 days

I had to get ready for my first FCCLA National Leadership Conference. This was my first year to have students compete in FCCLA at all, and two of them qualified for Nationals. One dropped out, but the other wanted to compete. I also have a state officer this upcoming school year, and they ask state officers to attend NLC before their year begins for training.

The dress code says advisers must wear "professional dress," but I wear business casual at best in my work and home life. So, I thought at least I could sew dresses because I will never be wearing a suit. I had to sew at least 4 dresses and I had 6 days to complete them.

I had enough of the right fabrics in my stash but I went out and bought new patterns because I don't own many dress patterns and none of them were right for the look I wanted. Atlanta, Georgia, is hot and humid so I wanted a basic A-line or trapeze dress for comfort. No belts! I added scarves from the Dollar Tree to dress up the dresses even more, while not getting too hot.

This was my first-try dress. I made A but without a center seam as I wanted to use all one fabric.

This is the pattern for dresses 2-6. I modified and refined the short sleeve as I felt it was not drafted well. I still have some adjustments to make for future use.

The first two dresses did not turn out well, since they were muslins. But I love the fabrics so I will work on altering them to function better for me.

First try on a pattern. I hated the neck detail and felt it did not sew together well. It's a lightweight linen look fabric. On to a different pattern!

Second dress, first try on the pattern I used for all others. Love the fabric, but the darts were wrong for my body. I think it's a rayon blend twill.

Dress in knit and I added a sleeve pleat detail.

Dress in wonderful rayon, again with sleeve pleat detail.

Lovely rayon blend crepe in navy. Love the drape and swing of this dress.

And a rayon linen look that is nice and heavy. Great sheen in person.

Patterns under consideration for 4 dresses

Going to Atlanta for FCCLA National Leadership Conference and need 4 more dresses to look professional every day. Heat and humidity for me mean that I wear things only once, or they get too smelly!

Leaning towards Simplicity 9640 view C and McCalls 6465 or 7711 with short sleeves

I will spread out the pattern tissues and measure a dress I have that fits pretty well to decide which styles and sizes I will be making. Going to use some linen look fabric that's been in my stash a long time and in my mom's stash before that - it won't wrinkle and will feel pretty comfy.

More teal than green on the left, navy in the center, and red on the right.

If I don't have enough red for the whole dress, I will make a navy band for the bottom. I have a light pink to use for the fourth dress.

Wish me luck - I have about 4 days to sew them all!

Knitting and sewing prep

I've been working on a shawl and eventually will be making prayer shawls regularly.  I was working furiously on a final paper for my education class (School, Community, and Family) & had to have a break! I am loving this pattern, from "KnitSimple 33 Knit Shawls: Beautiful Wraps in Cables & Lace" published by Mixed Media Resources in 2015. I found it at my local Michael's store back in February or March. Here's an Amazon Affiliate link: 33 Knit Shawls: Beautiful Wraps in Cables and Lace

Coconut La Croix water with a touch of cream and my current shawl

Getting Organized for Summer Sewing

In the new house, I've been working on a sewing area. Mom came to visit (with Dad & dogs) and helped a lot.

I have my sewing machines and tools in the small room (office) since it has a built in wall unit. Then, all my fabric storage and cutting table are in the big room next door.