Simplicity 3823 and a Noodlehead Envelope Clutch
Not gonna lie...I’ve put a few inches on since my wedding dress. Remember how I said this dress was what I was going to be sewing next for a black tie wedding?
Yeeah, that didn’t happen. The bodice is VERY close to my wedding bodice, so I thought I’d use the same pattern. I pulled out and ironed the muslins, wax traced everything and got the whole underbodice done only to find that HORROR OF HORRORS - I’m too wide. Not by much...but enough that I needed to call an audible for this wedding. So, I went with Simplicity 3823, which I had initially purchased for the Muslin from Hell, but this time I decided to make the pattern straight for View C.
When I purchased my wedding dress fabric back in Cincinnati, there was a BEAUTIFUL shimmery purple taffeta that I just had to buy. I’d been waiting for the right time to use it when it just felt right, and this dress absolutely felt right for the fabric.
Because I was crunched for time, I committed the cardinal sin of couture, and I didn’t muslin. I got beyond lucky that it turned out a hair too big, and I could just fold over some of the boning in the bodice and re-sew it down to bring it in to the proper size. Dodged a bullet there!
Sorry for the crappy bathroom mirror shot...I really need a better photography solution! But check out the hem! I’m really into banded hems these days. I find it so much easier to do to finish the garment, and I think it ads a bit of interest to a part of a garment that most people don’t really think about or notice. This is a 3″ black satin ribbon that I simply folded over and sewed all the way around the hem of the skirt.
When I was done with that, I noticed I had about a fat quarter’s worth of purple taffeta left, and so I thought “What the hell! I’ll go ahead and make a matching clutch!”
I used the Noodlehead Envelope Clutch pattern, and made the smaller of the two sizes. Instead of piping and interfacing for the flap, I used a piece of gold metallic felt that I got at the Etsy shop AMarketCollection. To give the bag the sturdiness of a formal clutch, I used Pellon Sew-in Peltex (71F) for the interfacing. I’ve got a whole bolt of the stuff, and hadn’t used it yet.
Inside, I used remnants of my dress lining, a basic magnetic snap, and left out the pockets and zippers that the pattern calls for. Just wanted something simple to carry my lipstick and my iPhone.
I think we cleaned up pretty nicely! Well, at least until the open bar opened up...
Duckface is not normally my thing...I SWEAR.
Up next: finishing a baby quilt for my niece who is due April 7th, another Finsihed Block Swap block, and a charity minion quilt top. No rest for the weary I suppose!!