I love having a dedicated photo space! It doesn’t need to be anything fancy, even in our old space I had a beautiful spot in my kitchen where the light was just perfect and the background seemed pretty great. All I had to do was have my tri-pod nearby and ready to snap the photo whenever the mood was right. I am very lazy after all.
I am very happy that in our new house I found this empty wall that I painted and used some leftover construction garbage for the “floor”. Now I can snap photos whenever I like and they actually come out okay. I really don’t like playing “model” and doing a long photo-shoot with outfit changes. Having something that enables me to snap a photo when I am ready at whatever time of the day regardless of the natural light is essential for my blog and instagram. So now, if only I could figure out a way to train one of my animals to write blog posts for me… then I would really have this blogging thing nailed down. Anyways, let’s talk about the dress!
I have been noticing velvet slowly taking over the sewing world on my instagram and in my favorite fabric stores. I didn’t feel even a slightest pull towards velvet at all. I thought this velvet thing would skip me completely. Until I saw Heather’s dress. I mean just look at that velvet perfection in all it’s simple beauty! The color looks so great on her and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So much so that after a few days of obsessing over it I went out and bought myself some velvet. I needed (yes, at this point I needed) velvet right away so a local fabric store had to do. Thankfully, I easily found this gorgeous burgundy stretch velvet at 40% off sale.
I didn’t even pre-wash it… I wonder if I’ll pay for that later. I figured I needed to have the dress right away. Also the velvet is polyester-nylon mix and hopefully it won’t shrink much. For the pattern, I decided to go with my tried and true modified Lark pattern from Grainline Studio. I made the tee into a t-shirt dress back in summer and I wore that thing constantly. It was so comfortable and the fit was just perfect. The only thing I did differently this time is instead of my original sleeve I used Lark’s 3/4 length sleeve. A longer sleeve seemed to fit a winter dress better.
I was a little worried to work with velvet. I’ve researched some tips and was actually kind of scared from reading about working with velvet. I was worried my serger wouldn’t take it, or my iron would burn it and the velvet would not cooperate… I imagined a disaster of a sewing experience. So before I started I did a couple test runs of velvet remnants on my serger and with my iron. My concerns were baseless in the end, I had no issues whatsoever! The fabric was not too difficult to cut, behaved itself with my serger and ironed beautifully as long as I didn’t press on the fabric with my iron and instead just hovered it and used a lot of steam.
I hemmed the sleeves and the dress itself using a blind stitch on my sewing machine and then gave it a light press. The dress came together in one hour! It was so fast and easy that I was left standing there thinking why don’t I have more of these dresses? Also, I am now obsessed with velvet and I want everything velvet now. It’s so pretty and feels so luxurious. And it’s totally okay to constantly pet yourself because it is so soft and cuddly, right? The best part is that it looks like I put a lot of effort into my outfit and am ready for some fancy outing, whereas in reality I feel like I rolled out of bed and threw another set of pajamas on.
I think I will be wearing this dress for the Christmas dinner with Shaun’s family and New Year’s celebration with my family. I am also trying to convince myself that it is totally okay to wear it after holidays. I don’t know why I think that this is holiday only dress, one can wear velvet every day, right? Especially if I dress it down.
What are your takes on velvet? Yay or nay?
Love,
Anya
OOOHHH! Nice and yet oh so simple! Love it!
Thank you very much, Abbey! I find simplicity works so well with velvet, don’t you 🙂
Oh my!!! I know I wax lyrical about your makes generally… but I’ve got to say it again, I LOOOVE everything about this, especially how the nap of the fabric just lifts the colour! It’s a good job you’re not standing next to me right now because I would be stroking the hell out of that thing too!!! It’s just total and absolute fabulousness (that’s a word, right?!)
Thank you so much, Sarah! haha I agree! Something about the nap of the fabric that just elevates it and makes it look so luxurious. hahaha I understand, I couldn’t stop stroking the fabric all day either. And fabulousness is definitely a word 😉
Looks great on you. I don’t think it has to be holidays only either. I’ve always loved velvet!
Thank you! Ok good, I tend to create these “rules” in my head that certain garments should be work a certain way. So silly! It’s so liberating to let go of that!
Gorgeous dress! I’ve never been drawn toward velvet before, but I’ve seen so many cute velvet dresses lately that I’ve definitely come around!
Velvet really is popping up everywhere! I wasn’t really drawn to it at first either, but then something changed 🙂
It’s lovely! Perfect winter frock! I’m not really a velvet girl. I grew up with it in the 90’s and have no wish to revisit it for myself! 😉
Thank you! haha I can relate! I also grew up in the 90s but we didn’t have a lot of access to velvet so I didn’t get a chance to get sick of it 🙂
Very nice! Perfect for the holidays, and why not wear it later on? There’s no reason to hoard all the fun stuff for the end of December. January and February need some love, too. I have to say, I am very envious of your photo spot. No doubt I too would take more photos if it didn’t involve so much prep!
Thank you! And I agree! I will make sure I wear it after the holidays. There is no reason to hold off all the fun and sparkly things.
Oh thank you! I am very lazy so the less prep the better it is! 🙂
I used to really dislike velvet, but I am now fully onboard. I bought a RTW velvet top before Xmas and I have worn it non stop. I also made velvet cushions for my brother. I think I may now need to sew some velvet clothes! Love this dress. The colour is beautiful!
Velvet cushions! That sounds really nice and pretty cool! I would imagine it would be a very comforting and soothing cushion. Definitely something I would want to keep on my lap while watching TV. Well, now I need a velvet cushion!
I love your dress too – so creative to make a Lark dress with luscious velvet (secret pajamas 🙂 I laughed reading it was like rolling out of bed and putting on another set of pj’s. Just my kind of garment! The second garment I ever made in sewing class in 1972 was a velvet jacket (my teacher had a fit) and it turned out pretty good. I wore it to death honestly and thought I looked pretty cool wearing it with my ripped,torn and wildly patched jeans 🙂
Thank you, Kathleen! hahaha right? That’s exactly what I am talking about and it is definitely my kind of garment. Oh wow! Your second garment was not only a jacket, but a velvet jacket?! That’s so inspiring! I bet your teacher was slightly petrified lol distressed denim and velvet jacket together sound like a pretty awesome and edgy outfit. I kind of want one now…
This is beautiful Anya! And I’m so flattered to have inspired you. I was totally planning to skip the stretch velvet trend too, until I was at my stepsister’s bridal shower, and one of her friends was wearing this beautiful stretch velvet shift dress. I couldn’t get it off my mind! And now I want all the velvet too! I didn’t pre-wash my fabric either, because I really wasn’t sure what to do with it. And honestly I’m still afraid. I think I might hand wash it and hang it to dry. I look forward to seeing what other velvet garments you end up making!
Thank you so much, Heather! Sounds like I fell for your dress the same way you fell for your sister’s friend’s dress 🙂 I can’t get velvet off my mind at all now.
I think I will also hand wash my dress and hang it to dry. I am just so worried about the fabric.
I also found some pink velvet online and I am planning to make a pink velvet Linden… We’ll see how that turns out!