Challenge: Using the fabric we have selected for you, challenge yourself by making a unique garment and working with a material you may not have used before to create one well-made garment. You can use a pattern of you choice to construct your garment. 
You will be judged on creativity, functionality, craftsmanship, and fit. 

We were all sent the same fabric for this challenge.  A polyester chiffon and I totally forgot to take pictures of it.  It is a panel print and we received two panels.  Shams took a good picture of the fabric for her blog. You can see it here.

I'm not going to lie people I was not excited to see this fabric. My first thoughts, Wow this is hideous.  Sorry (not sorry) just want to be honest with you all and if I can't be totally honest on my own blog then I don't know what I'm doing here.  It's nothing I would ever pick out for myself so I had a real challenge here.  Feeling uninspired my husband suggested I make pajamas.  I thought that was a great idea because I wanted something different as I figured everyone would make a flowy shirt or dress with it.  I thought a little harder and wondered if a jumpsuit might work.  Not quite pajama status but something I could lounge in all day at the house.  If the mail man happened to come to the door delivering a huge box of fabric I could totally answer it without looking like I just rolled out of bed.  I know I risked looking like a convict with all the stripes so I went to Pinterest to ease my fears.  I was quite surprised to see a lot of striped jumpsuits (the non convict style).  But the style of jumpsuit I was most attracted to was this one...

To create this look I did a mashing of patterns.  For the top I used Grainline's Scout Tee.  I wanted a contrasting solid neckline like my inspiration picture so I altered my pattern to do so.  I've done that once before and talked about it here.   I also added an invisible zipper to the center back.  For the bottoms I had a jumpsuit pattern already, McCall's 6083 so I used those bottoms but shortened and tapered them in so they weren't so full.  The waistline is elastic casing and I did the same for the leg hems.  For added detail I tacked on bows to the legs and waistline.  It's fully lined with white polyester lining.  The inside seams are finished with french seams and on the seams like the armholes, serged.

I think the hardest part of working with chiffon is cutting out the pattern and getting a good press on your seams.  When sewing any seams I made sure and used A LOT of pins to keep things in place.   I used a 70/10 microtex needle.  Thanks to my handy dandy Schmetz app I will never sew with the wrong size needle again.

I'm not really as mad as I look in this picture.  Despite the print I really do like the style of this outfit.  I  know part of the challenge was to work with a fabric you normally wouldn't and make something wearable...mission accomplished.

I have to say my jumpsuit served it's lounging purpose for the day.  Vito even got in on some lounge time.  Oh who am I kidding, all day, every day is lounge time for that Pug.

Did ya'll see who the winner of the LBD challenge was??  No??  Well it was little ol' me! 

Click here for original blog post on this dress

A big thanks to everyone for all your support and votes!  I really didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into when I joined this challenge.  It has been really fun but has also taken up a lot of my time and been a lot of hard work. I have learned a lot, cussed a lot and came pretty close to tears so winning this challenge is a big boost to my "sewjo" and just motivates me to push myself even harder in the next challenges. (So full of doubt it's been seriously hard to drag my butt off the couch the last few days).  After work today I thought I'd treat myself with some celebratory fabrics. (who am I kidding I didn't need to win any challenges to buy this fabric but it sounded like a good excuse).

The buffalo check flannel will become an Archer, the purple stretchy boucle a Ballet dress and the cotton scissor print I will be using for my muslin (hopefully wearable) for the next challenge.

I also couldn't pass this boney guy up...it's was the polka dot bow that sold me.

Hope everyone is having a great week!  Any big plans for the weekend???

For this challenge, be creative and make a little black dress for your perfect night out. 

Create a story for us. Are you going out with your husband on a romantic date or a fun night out with the girls? Where will you be going? What will you be doing? Your dress should be able to tell your story. 
You will be judged on creativity, craftsmanship, how the dress tells your story, and fit.

(You can see all the other LBD's and vote for your favorite HERE)
**voting is closed, see who won here

I've owned one black dress in my life and I never even wore it.  A black dress in my closet is something I'm always going to look over.  I like the idea of a black dress but I'm always going to pick a print over a solid.  A black dress to me just seems so somber, like I only wanna wear black when I'm having a bad day, ya hear what I'm saying?  So for this challenge I wanted to create a black dress that would be the first thing I go for the next time I'm going out all fancy like.   A little black dress but better.  My wants were a fun, flirty skirt with contrasting panels.  After searching aimlessly for a pattern I somehow wandered onto Etsy and found Lekala patterns.  What sold me originally was it was exactly what I wanted plus it was only $2.49.  But what got me in the end is you send them your measurement and they cut the pattern to size.  How perfect is this? No alterations...maybe...hopefully...wishing here!  I searched and searched for this specific pattern and couldn't find any reviews of it.  I only found mixed reviews on other Lekala patterns on Sewing Pattern Review.  But at only $2.49 I decided to take a gamble and spend my breakfast burrito money.  I didn't need that burrito anyway.

    

This pattern is a pdf download and has quite a few pattern pieces.  11 to be exact.  I thought it was odd the back bodice piece was the whole piece and just not the side to be cut on the fold.  The 6 contrast strips were the same way.  Seems they could save a lot of paper this way if those pieces were printed to be cut on the fold.  I made it easier on myself and cut those pieces on the fold.  I even cut the front bodice on the fold because I didn't want a seam running down the middle of my chest.  There are no yardage requirements on this pattern.  I cut all my main pieces out of 2 yards of fabric (with some to spare) and my contrast pieces from 1/2 yard of fabric. Also note, no seam allowances.

   

I'm pretty pleased with the way the dress turned out.  It looks pretty much like the model pic but it took me some time to get there.  It was a major bummer that it didn't fit right off the bat considering it was supposedly cut to my size.  I had to do some major taking in.  My muslin looked like a gigantic potato sack.  Alterations made:  Waist darts were extended by an inch.  Side seams were taken in a total of 2 inches on each side starting at the bust and back shoulder darts were added to better conform to my back because of my slouchy posture. 

If I didn't have to deal with all the fitting issues I would of had this dress done in one day.  Another set back was the combined facings.  By combined I mean the neckline and armhole facing is all combined into one facing.  This technique can be a little tricky and one I'm not familiar with.  I had to refer to a tutorial because the instructions were not doing it for me.  However I love the combined facing. There are no stitch lines showing around the armholes or neckline because of this.
I would not recommend this pattern to a beginner.  The instructions are lacking and it helps to know what you are doing beforehand.  Another one pager with no illustrations.  Would I buy another Lekala pattern you ask?  No. Not what I expected or hoped for.  I get a better fit out of the envelope with the Big Four.

My fabric is a cotton sateen from Mood and a sheer white cotton with a floral imprint.  I decided to back the white with a black lining to bring out the floral imprint.  I was worried at first because my skirt ballooned out like I had air blowing up it.  My husband was calling it the Marilyn Monroe dress.  After I washed and used fabric softener in the wash AND the dryer it relaxed quite a bit.   

Another thing to note this dress is a little on the short side.  I wish I would of added a couple inches to the hem.  I was only able to fold the hem 1/4 inch and finish with seam tape.  I wanted to keep as much of the length as I could.

For this challenge we are also supposed to tell a story.  Where am I going in my LBD?  Hmmm I don't get out much so excuse me as my imagination runs wild.  I imagine a night out with my husband to a fancy schmancy restaurant.  While waiting for a table at the bar I will order one of those drinks with the olive...Martini right?  (don't worry I will educate myself before we go).  After stuffing myself with veal scaloppine piccata and creme brulee (ooh sounds fancy right? I totally googled it) and one too many martini's we decide to throw caution to the wind and get really crazy and visit the bar next door for some dancing and karaoke.  After a rather embarrassing rendition of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" we decide to call it a night.  All in all the night was a success!  I manged to not bust a seam and made it in and out of this beast without falling on my face.

Hello ya'll!  First off I want to announce the winner of this lovely pattern..

I had 44 entries and the lucky number picked from random.org was #40.. Ruth Brown.  Congrats to Ruth!  I will be mailing out your pattern shortly.  It's a beauty and your gonna love sewing it up!

Also a reminder if you have a second head on over here to the Fabric Mart blog and vote for your favorite make from this week's challenge.  It was the fabric bundle challenge and you can read all about my make here.  You have until Wed @ midnight to vote.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far.  Orlando would like to remind everyone to take it easy...