September - My Favorite Month of the Year

2008

2024

Hello everyone, 

It's my favorite month of the year!  It's also my birthday month. I'm feeling blessed to still be here. All praises to God!

Many of you, who have followed me on social media platforms, know that I celebrate my birthday by making myself a special dress to wear either to Women's Conference or to include with my travel wardrobe to some lovely destination.  I love making a special dress to celebrate my birth and to express my gratitude to God for my wonderful gift of creativity.

2021

2023

2022

2022

This year I didn't make a special dress.  Because there were just too many other commitments.  But, I plan to make something extraordinary next year to make up for the past two years of not making anything special for my birthday.  

So, today I want to share some of my favorite birthday dresses.  I hope you feel inspired to make something special for yourself.  

So, here are some of my all-time favorite handmade dresses.

2016

2018

2018

2019

2014

Midnight Blue Crinkle Velvet and Butterick B5101

 

Hi sewing friends, 

Today I'm blogging my first 2025 sewing project.  I wore this pant set to an 80th birthday celebration a few weeks ago.  

I wanted something easy and quick.  So I choose to make something that I'd already adjusted and tested.  Butterick B5101 was perfect.  The fit of the wrap top was pretty good and the pants were a simple pull-on pant with a yoke.  

The crinkle velvet was purchased at JoAnn's.  It was so easy to sew. The crinkles ran horizontally from savage to savage.  I wanted them to be vertical.  So I cut off the garment pieces perpendicular to the savage. This change gave some added "fake" stretch  around the body.  This affect, in my opinion, gave the illusion of a slimmer, sleek body.   Lol

My review of the wrap is located here on my blog.

As mentioned in my previous post, I did add a few inches to the bottom of the top. I was it to look more like a jacket.

Making the pants were as easy as making a pair of pajama pants. Easy.   So, that's it on the pattern review.

Happy Sewing!

P.S.

I have a few more 2024 reviews to go.  

Rhonda's Draped Cowl Sleeve - A Few Notes and Pictures

All summer it's when a challenge to schedule photo shoots with my daughter photographer due to work schedules and other activities. But slowly and surely I'm trying to catch up with posting pictures of the garments that I've made this year.

Today I want to show Rhonda's draped cowl sleeve dress and top as I would wear them. For my dress, I used Vogue 1314. My fabric is from a shop that was going out of business in New York. I bought all that was left. This is a polyester crushed velvet knit. When I bought it home, immediately I flew it in the washer and the dryer. It washing beautifully. This was an excellent purchase. So here I'm wearing it in the park near my home. My earlier post of making the draped cowl sleeve is here.

Next, I'm wearing my paisley draped cowl sleeve top (McCall 6963) with Simplicity pants (Simplicity 8389). The fabric is a crepy two tone chocolate knit from Vogue Fabrics in Evanston. It's very stretchy. So instead on making the waistband using the same fabric, it's a smooth lycra black knit. I omitted the belt.

This is the end of my current showcase of my Rhonda Draped Cowl sleeve projects. More on the other sleeves later.

 Thanks for stopping by!
C