My "Chobits" inspired dress for The Doll Wardrobe 2013 Fashion Design Challenge!

Hey everyone!  I'm excited to say that the blog The Doll Wardrobe is holding a sewing and design contest and I decided to enter.  So far 9 of the entries are posted but there may be more to come. Many of them look fantastic and I love looking through them all to see what others have created. I look forwards to seeing what else is in store for round 1.

Please check out and vote for mine (entry #6) and other entries here:  http://2013dwfashiondesignchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/07/entry-6.html

This is my entry for round. I created an empire waist line gown, inspired by regency era gowns and by a dress worn by the character Chi from the manga series "Chobits"

Chi's dress from "Chobits".

Regency era gown.

To achieve the floral decoration on the dress, I decided hand embroidery would be the best option.  I spent many hours with 5 different embroidery floss colors, an embroidery hoop, my fabric, and needles for this step but the end result was well worth the effort.

Below are a few more pictures of my final dress. I minimized them to conserve space but you can easily view them full sized to see details by clicking on an image.

                       

 You can also see more samples of this dress by viewing my entry on the contest page here (entry #6): http://2013dwfashiondesignchallenge.blogspot.com/2013/07/entry-6.html 

Also check out The Doll Wardrobe which is the blog hosting the contest.  It is a great source to read about clothes and fashion for 18 inch dolls.

So please. Take a moment to vote.  It will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Yellow Dog Shirt Project

I sometimes like to look back through photo albums of past family vacations.  One album I looked at, from the summer I was 12 years old, had an outfit that caught my attention. A yellow shirt I fondly remember wearing on hot days.  It had an oddly proportioned dog embroidered on with dark brown thread.

I lack a "mini-me" so Addy is my stand in.

Anyways, I had a similar color of knit fabric in my stash so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try some hand embroidery and sewing with stretchy fabrics.

The embroidery part was easy enough once i sketched out the little dog and had it in my embroidery hoop. It was the sewing with knit material that proved difficult.  I quickly learned thin and stretchy is a frustrating combo with fabric.  -_-   But after some work it turned out pretty well overall.  I picked up a few little tricks and am ready to tackle stretchy, knit materials again!

Note: The shorts are from a Liberty Jane pattern. The shirt also started from a free Liberty Jane pattern but I ended up fussing around with it.