Self-Stitched September Recap and a Giveaway Winner

Oh Self-Stitched September! How glad I am that you're over. Just kidding.

Overall, it really wasn't bad.  In the year of blogging/sewing, I've made up quite a wardrobe for myself. And it was nice to revisit some of the garments that have been tucked away in the back of my closet.

Of the 30 days in September:

• I only missed one day, because I really didn't even leave the house.
• I photographed all days, except for two. I actually think it was only just one, but for the life of me I can't find my picture for day 29. I wore my grey Rooibos dress with the matching plaid belt.
• I only wore a handful of repeats, usually separates.

My last day of Self-Stitched September was spent camping.  I didn't really have anything that I had sewn for those kind of conditions, but I did wear a cowl that I crocheted.

With the end of Self-Stitched September, also came the end of my month of giveaways.  I hadn't had a chance to pull the winner for the Whimsical Ornament Giveaway.  A few people submitted responses after the deadline so I unfortunately had to turn them away.  But the chances were pretty high for the two participants (3 entries) on the post.  And the winner is...

Yara!  

Congratulations Yara, I'll be reaching out to you to get your details for your prize.

Self Stitched September Days 21 - 28

Whew! Backlog of Self-Stitched September posts.  Here are days 21 through 28.

Day 21:

What I wore:
My new Colette Crepe dress.  I know this dress is going to get a lot of use. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Day 22:

What I wore:
My brown, polka dot dress. Perfect for work with a nice cardigan, and so comfortable.

Day 23:

What I wore:
My Summer Sails dress. I spend a lot of time in the sewing room working on more of my Fall items.

Day 24:

What I wore:
My Amy Butler dress that I made last October.  I think I've only worn this once or twice since I made it, but pulling out of the closet reminded me how much I like it.  I think it'll be going back into circulation.

Day 25:

What I wore:
My Sew Weekly inspired dress.  It looked like it was going to be a nice day outside but it became a bit grey and dreary - though luckily still warm.  I wore this out to lunch with a girlfriend and received some very nice compliments on it.

Day 26:

What I wore:
Well, Day 26 was crazy busy and I didn't end up getting a picture of my dress.  By the time I remembered, I had already changed out of it and did a whole bunch of dance practice, so I would have been too gross to get back into it.  But I wore my plaid summer dress.  This is one of my favorite work dresses that I like to pair up with a brown belt and some brown heels.

Day 27:

What I wore:
My new grey, Ginger skirt with a store-bought blouse.

Day 28:

What I wore:
The plaid, Vogue dress that I made last November.  I paired it up with a brown cardigan and belt.

You made it all the way to the end? Well, only two days left! Woohoo!

Vintage Roses Dress

I've been wanting to make the Colette Crepe dress again for some time now, but haven't had the five yards of fabric that just called out to me.  I picked up a Groupon for a fabric shop in San Francisco that specializes in vintage fabrics.  I waited until the last minute to use it, so of course, I ended up making a frantic trip to the city to check out the store, Urban Burp.

The store had a great selection of fabrics - most of which had been part of the owner's personal collection.  The prices ranged from moderate to pretty pricey, but with the Groupon, I felt a little better spending the money.  I ended up getting a little over five yards of a beautiful blue, cotton fabric, with a pink and yellow floral print.  I knew just what to make with it.

Fabric: Vintage, floral cotton
Pattern: Colette Crepe
Notions: Zip, zero, nada! Gotta love Crepe.

I love this version of Crepe! Second time is definitely a charm, especially because the first time I made the pattern, I was still pretty new to sewing garments.  But as usual with Colette patterns, the fit is great and it was easy to assemble.

Our heat wave is only going to last for so long, but I think it'll still work for the rest of the Fall season.

 

Parading around in polka dots

My latest Fall dress is all about the polka dots.  Since the fabric itself had a lot going on, I wanted a simple design to display the fabric.  I've had Vogue 8473 in my collection for a while and it looked like the dress was simple enough, with just a few darts in the front.

Imagine my surprise when I found that the dress itself only had five pattern pieces.  I think I actually let our a cheer.  The only problem was that the lining was basically repeating the pattern twice. Eh. But I'd rather do that then deal with facings, hand-basting, etc.

Fabric: Brown and white polka dot cotton. Internal lining is a plain brown cotton.
Pattern: Vogue 8473, just the dress for now
Notions: Just a zipper

I love that this pattern only had a few darts on the front bust pieces, and no gathering. So easy!  Assembly was really fast and the directions were very easy to follow.

I'll definitely make this pattern again and I can tell the dress will be one of my Fall staples.

Self-Stitched September Days 19 and 20

Day 19:

What I wore:
My Peggy dress with it's red bow belt.  It's been a while since I've worn this one but I still love it.  The red pleats are hard to see in this picture, but they're there.


Day 20:

What I wore:
My Pendrall blouse with some grey slacks.  I wore this to the office and then as I was making my tasty pear and prosciutto pizza for dinner.

MTL: Rally the Loops...

Minus the loops.

As usual, when I saw the Sew Weekly Make This Look feature a few months ago, I wanted to make the featured dress.  This time, it was the Rally the Loops Dress.

I ran out and picked up the pattern and fabric.  I wasn't really sure how I was going to do the pockets, but I was so eager to start on the dress that I really didn't even want to think about it.  By the time I got to the pockets, I decided to just do them as they were shown on the pattern.

Fabric: Tan and black synthetic blend

Pattern: Simplicity 2588

Notions: Zipper

The good thing about the design, was that I could just do the basic pattern with the smaller neckline.  I omitted the optional side tabs and went with the full skirt.  I just cut out some extra black fabric to make the black bow, that I then stitched to the front neckline.

This dress is the first of my Fall palette challenge.  I didn't put a little montage together like I did the Colette Spring challenge, but I picked out my fabrics and have pulled aside potential patterns.  Overall I hope to make:

- 3 dresses

- 1 skirt

- 1 blouse

- 1 jacket/capelet

Possibly: 1 pair of pants (Clover)

Oh, and this was Day 18 of Self-Stitched September.

Sencha and Self-Stitched September Days 14, 15, 16, and 17

Whew, half way through Self-Stitched September! It hasn't necessarily been hard, it just forces me to really think about my wardrobe.  I'm trying to really use all of the garments that I've made.  I'm going to hit some repeats, but I have made enough that I shouldn't have to do too many of them.  It also helps that I'm still making garments during this process.  So here's my newest one, and day 14!

Day 14:

What I wore:
I made a new Sencha blouse! I'm really on a Colette kick right now, and remaking a lot of the patterns that I've already done.  It makes for the ability to really 'whip up' new items, and is such a satisfying feeling.

Fabric: Leftover orange blend from my off the shoulder dress from August
Pattern: Colette's Sencha blouse
Notions: Button, button, who's got the button? (Sorry, was finishing off the last season of Buffy while I was making this one)


Day 15:

What I wore:
My green Ceylon dress.  Love it - so cute and it fits great.  I don't know why I haven't made another one yet, but maybe that'll be part of my Winter collection.


Day 16:

What I wore:
My Colette Sorbetto top with some jeans and a cardigan.  Went out to the movies with friends.  We saw the movie, Jig, which FINALLY came to the Bay Area.  It follows the journey of several young Irish dancers as they participate in the World Irish Dance Championships.  It was pretty inspiring though I don't even dance in the same plane as those dancers.  A fun movie, and I highly recommend it.  It comes out on DVD in the US in just a couple of weeks, and I believe it's already out in the UK.


Day 17:

What I wore:
I finally had a Highland dance competition that required my full kilt outfit.  This was the 'grand unveiling' of my Highland jacket.  This puppy was a lot of work.  It didn't take long to assemble the base - I just had to make sure that I had the right fit with my muslin.  Once that was done, I put together the main base with my mom's assistance on the boning and front zipper.  I wanted to make sure that it couldn't be seen when the jacket was closed, so she gave me some tips and showed me how to insert it with a bit of an overlap.

The most time consuming part of this jacket was the trim.  I had to hand baste it into place, as there are a lot of curves and points in the edge of the jacket.  The buttons were also a bit of a challenge, as I had to be precise in their location and the fabric was pretty thick to cut through.  Normally you thread a ribbon through all of the buttons along one edge, but the new buttons that I had came with a smaller hole that really only allowed for thread to go through. It was easier this way as I don't have to worry about the buttons turning while I dance (a problem I had with my vest), though it was time consuming sewing in all of the buttons.

I'm really happy with the jacket and did a decent job at the competition.  I had fun dancing with the other ladies in my group and enjoyed a cool day (for Fresno).  Wearing a full velvet jacket might have been a completely different experience if the weather had been a few degrees hotter.

Self-Stitched September Days 11, 12 and... 13

Self-Stitched September continues!

Day 11:

What I wore:

As we've already covered, I attended the Gatsby event on day 11.  I wore my green dress, tights, costume beads, and a cute headband that I found via Pinterest.  The tutorial, that is.  I made it in an ivory lace. A cute and easy project. I may need to make half a dozen more.

Day 12:

What I wore:

My Colette Crepe dress... one of the first items that I made. So comfy, so easy, yet it seems to hang out in the back of my closet.  I don't have a good explanation why, I think I just forget that it's there.  I'll have to fix that...

Day 13:

Sneak peek

What I wore:

Ok, now I begin the excuses.  So, I worked from home only leaving to work out for a little bit. So I pretty much stayed in my workout clothes... none of which I made.  I did however, spend most of the evening working in my sewing room, on a new dress.  I tried it on a few times during the night... does that count? Maybe a fail on day 13, but I'm not ready yet to reveal my new dress.  I will say that it's super-cute and I'm looking forward to showing it off in a few days.

Self-Stitched September Day 9 and 10

Two more days of Self-Stitched September complete!

Day 9:

What I wore:

My Colette Parfait - probably the second most worn item that I've made.  To be honest, this was another day that I could have stayed in work-out clothes all day, but I forced myself to change after my Dailey Method class, and went to get drinks with some friends. Sorry for the cleavage shot - I didn't want to stand up in the middle of the restaurant for the picture.


Day 10:

What I wore:

Simplicity 2579... also known as the UFO dress.  I finished this as part of the Sew Weekly challenge in July and have only worn it one other time since.  It was another beautiful day over here and I was out to lunch with a girlfriend.  Wallace was excited to know where I was going.


So tomorrow I'm off to the Gatsby picnic! I hope to meet some Sew Weekly posters, including creator, Mena, and Debi, correspondent from Scotland (so... jealous...).  I'm really excited to go. My period-appropriate dress, parasol, hat, and a lemon cake to contribute to the picnic, are all packed and ready to go!

Blogging Year in Review

I’m excited to announce that September is the one year anniversary of the What’s Up, Cupcake? blog.  It’s been a fun year of blogging! I learned a lot in this year:

I started sewing a lot of my own clothing, making 18 dresses, 2 skirts, 5 blouses, 4 jackets, an apron, my owl Halloween costume, 1 bag, 2 sewing notions and 1 duvet cover.

I branched out and knit more than just scarves, and made a total of 12 items.

I learned to crochet, and made 5 items.

I also started cross stitching, and completed 6 projects.

Not only the above, but I’ve made a lot of friends within the blogging/online crafting community.  My list of sewing ‘idols’ is constantly growing - I’m always amazed by what people are whipping up online.

Here’s a recap of some of the things that I’ve made:

Most satisfying creations?

MTL: Day After Day Dress

Colette Parfait

Most worn?

Colette Parfait

Summer Sails

On second thought...

Marie skirt. I might go back and tweak the fit. I’d like to adjust the bubble shape to make it less ‘puffy.’

Let’s do that again!

Basically every Colette pattern. They’re so great to work with.  I’m going to make another Ginger skirt and Sencha blouse right away, but I’d also like to make another Lady Grey jacket.

Hardest Projects?

Highland jacket

Vogue 1233

Monique dress

So to kick off my blogging anniversary, I have a few things in store for September.  First, I’ll be participating in Self-Stitched-September. This is the first time I’ve participated in a challenge like this, but I’m looking forward to it.  For the month of September, I will wear at least one item that I’ve made a day.  I’m going to try to keep this only to main garments with other items (knitting, crochet, etc) as accessories.

 

Second, I’m going to be doing some giveaways! It’s been a while, so to make up for it, I’ll be doing a giveaway each week for the month of September! Each week will be a new theme, starting with some vintage inspired jewelry.  Stay tuned as the first giveaway will launch on Saturday.  Other weeks will feature a vintage pattern, some yarn, and something crafty.  So if you’re not following What’s Up, Cupcake? now is the time to join in the fun and spread the word.

Thank you to my loyal followers for all of your support! I couldn’t keep this blog up without you.  I continue to challenge myself and learn new things and it’s great to be able to share it with my fellow crafty peers!