La Latina Pin-Up Dress (Part II) and the Marine Pin-Up Dress

Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles!  I'm finished both of C's dresses!  We're headed into Vernon this weekend so I can do a final fitting with her and hem the bottoms but other than that - dishes are done dudes!

Here are a few shots of the finished La Latina Dress in my rapidly emptying house:

Front View

Back View

Close Up of Bodice (sorry for the horrible lighting)

I used the bodice of Simplicity 2250 - Cynthia Rowley and then modified a vintage pencil skirt pattern I had in my stash for the bottom.  I think the dress turned out pretty well; the reds aren't 100% the same but I think it's pretty darn close.  She can always wear a wide belt to help separate the colours (and add a chic touch while she's at it) and that should solve the problem.

The second dress I've created for C has sort of a vintage U.S. Marine pin-up vibe to it...  So I'll call it the Marine Pin-Up Dress!  Don't ask me how I come up with these ideas...  I blame it on being brain-dead from all the packing I've been doing lately!

Close up of my bewbs and the button details

J'aime la Tour Eiffel!

Back view (close up) - check out that invisible zipper!

Back view

Front view

Oh man, I look sooooo awkward in that last photo - ha ha ha!  Oh well, tant pis!  I did another combination of sewing patterns to come up with this little gem.  The bodice is based on a vintage McCall's 6081 pattern that I picked up at the thrift store for about $0.10, and the skirt is based on Simplicity 3673.  Since I found the McCall's pattern at the thrift store, it was a size too big so I had to grade the bodice down a size.  It actually was pretty straightforward and was very easy to make!  I used a red Asian floral satin fabric given to me by my husband's grandmother and then lined the bodice with a white cotton voile I had in my stash.  Since C lives in Vernon, summers can be so friggin' hot and nothing shows sweat like satin, I knew that I had to line it with something to help keep her cool.  Unfortunately you can see a bit of the white around the edges if you move your arms around, but I didn't have any red cotton on hand and the white helps the colours to pop better than if I'd used black to line it.  The skirt is made of a navy stretch cotton twill that I had in my stash.  I also added a couple of fun nautical navy buttons on the shoulders since lots of the inspiration dresses C showed me had cute little button details on them.  It all came together rather nicely if I do say so myself.

The hem might look a little odd in these photos, but I have just loosely pinned it since I need her to try the dresses on first before I hem them for realz...  She's a good 3-4" shorter than me.  Hopefully C can send me some pics of her wearing the dresses later this month while she's on vacation in South Padre, Texas.  Seriously, I've never heard of this place before in my entire life, suddenly in the past 2 months I have three friends who have been / are going to this place!  It looks amazing (judging by the photos).  I'm sure she'll have a great time, and look sassy while she's there in her new dresses!

My first attempt ever using Photoshop... please be kind!  :)

Hope you all have a sassy day!

Caramia

xxx