Swiss Elegance

Summer at its best

This 2014 summer dress sewing frenzy was all about Plumeti, we admit it, but on one of our visits to the fabric store, my mother who should have been born rich to afford her excellent taste on everything and anything, fell in love with this Swiss Cotton Fabric, to die for!

Story of a Fiasco

Sometimes we dream too big, and often I do not think before I act. This is specially taxing when knitting, coz to not correct a mistake in time might involve either the waste of lots of time undoing and redoing, or the walk of shame sporting it once the garment is finished. Casycoso, or actually, the younger section of casycoso (that would be me) is too proud to go down and redo, so I often sport my mistakes holding my head hight and affirming that it is the only way to make sure it is evident that the garment is Home-made.

Unfortunately, mandatory redo

But when the problem is not a twisted stitch or even a knot in the yarn but the whole thing being disproportionate and the knit being too loose even for a summery breezy jacket, then you have a fiasco. Which is exactly how my Neon project ended. 

Colors are the Salt of Life

The other day, surfing around and away in Instagram, which incidentally I am getting totally hooked onto, I came across a pic published by 

@funincolor 

which sent me off to bed with my head boiling with projects

 

@funincolor publication

First of, when running into such prolific, visually inspiring and creative profiles like @funincolor, one can’t help to wonder but who are these people? What do they do for a living? What kind of magical eye do they possess to always come across the most astonishing and striking color compositions?

Liberty Nostalgia

We are self-confessed obsessed with Liberty Fabrics. I recently discovered the hashtag #LibertyOfLondon 

it's awesome!

Nano's Autumn - Winter 2013 Inspired

I know, I know... How can I find about # just now?…We are still getting acquainted with social media...what matters is that we found it! The thing is that to see all those pictures of Liberty Fabric Swatches Stacks made us very nostalgic. I noticed that some of the fabrics we have used in the past were quite popular and I thought maybe someone might enjoy having a look at what we did with them, the same way that I would love to see what they sewed. 

What has everybody created with their Liberty Treasures?

There is one dress in particular whose pattern we loved. We made a winter dress for my birdie two years ago and repeated it last year in another color. Maybe you think Liberty is not appropriate for winter. Granted, it is a very thin cotton fabric, which in my opinion is precisely the beauty of it. But if you line it and wear it with a jacket, it is absolutely fine. Plus, it's got long sleeves, so it is adequate for colder days.

Front 

The pinkish one on the left its a size 12months (A/W 2012) and the green on the right was 2014 (24months).

Back 

I got the fabrics from the my fav London treasure cave, Shaukat. I mentioned them before, their stock is endless and their prices the fairest I know. But their web is not very inviting, because their pictures of the fabrics aren't very good neither in resolution, size or color adjustment. Nevertheless, if you know what fabric you are looking for, that is your site. 

Velvet Ribbon that ties on the back  

The original design included, and we copied, a velvet ribbon and bow on the back. It does not serve to adjust the contour, it is mere decoration. To us that is all for the best because we particularly dislike extra wide garments that require to be belt-up as to confirm that there is an actual person under them and not just a floating head over a blanket.

Plumeti Heamline Trimming

Both the cuffs and the heamline are trimmed with ruffled Plumeti. To us, the end look of the dress is so detailed that it just exudes an “I care about what I do” feeling that makes us proud.

Plumeti and Velvet Cuff Trims 

Both sizes are quite similar but not quite the same. The main difference is the arm seamline.

For the 1yo we overachieved. The raglan sleeve angled to the midpoint of the back rather than all the way up to the neckline. The sleeve was slightly gathered up on the shoulder to puff it up a little (a little we said!). This complicated not only the pattern but also the construction of the dress. Since we started the pattern from scratch, doing it this way, made it quite harder to ascertain the correct measurements for each piece and complicated slightly the sewing of the armpits. In conclusion, it took us a bunch of time to get the sleeves set in place right.

For the 2yo size we simplified it and we just cut regular fitted sleeves. We kept them, however, slightly puffed up at the shoulders. We promise you the difference went unnoticed. 

Valencienne Trimming and Arm Seam Details 

We included a  shirt-like piece for the chest front and back in Plumeti and trimmed it with delicate Valencienne Lace which is another weakness of us. The materials were expensive and it was hard to sew. We finished it by hand to cover up the seams, but it was well worth it! (in our modest opinion, of course).

I wish I could show you pictures of how it looks on, but unless I happen to catch my little model unaware, she thinks differently than to let me dress her in and out of several outfits more than once a day and to pose for the camera. It is an ultra cute dress, believe me and not too formal either.  

Disclaimer: as often the CasyCoso Case, this dress is based on a Nano’s 2013 Winter model.

Pool Tunic Tutorial

This dress is so wearable and so delivering, that we truly super recommend it for anytime summer time. We love it so much and we believe that it can really be so practical for any of your darling doves that we have even dare to try to put together a tutorial to incentivize you to make it.

This is all you need

 Please keep in mind that we barely know what are we doing, so we are most probably not the best example to follow..but somehow, the end result of what we make ends up looking cool. It must be all the love we put into it, or the cuteness of our little model. Either way, mysteriously enough, the dress turned out to be pretty neat, to the point of making us believe that somebody might want to follow on our steps…hence:

Tutorial for a Summer Dress 2014