Category Archives: Sewing

baby Arthur

29/01/2020 5:46 pm \ 23 Comments \

Our new baby grandson is here!!!  We’re so excited and thrilled with him, he’s such a beautiful baby boy, speaking in a totally non-biased way, of course!!   note: so clearly above photo is NOT of new baby grandson…  sorry!  But thanks to R2D2 for modelling the new beanie!!

I just had to make a few new things to welcome our family’s new bubby…

Items one and two are my favourites, obviously!   I knitted a little yoda beanie, based upon this terrific free pattern by Shinah Chang on her FuzzyCloudDesigns blog.  I used the pattern for the ears, but adapted my own for the beanie itself, my yarn was completely different and with a completely different gauge from the recommended.  I think from memory I cast on 60 stitches? and for the crown I did the cast off in a 6 segment fashion. In other words, 1 per 10 stitches in the first cast-off row.

The yarn is from the big bag I picked up off a neighbour’s verge recently.  I cannot believe someone was throwing away so much great yarn!

I made the matching onesie using my current favourite onesie pattern, Burda 9434.  I made it using a scrap of cream coloured cotton jersey, and white plastic snaps, that I bought along with their matching tool from Spotlight.  I don’t know why I haven’t used these before! because they really are far superior to the metal versions…  I’m only sad that the white plastic did not take up the dye, like AT ALL.  Oh yes, I obviously dyed the cream onesie to make it motley brown, like Yoda’s robes.  I used dark brown thread so it would match the final colour.

I think it turned out super cute!

The other onesie is pretty plain, and in retrospect rather boring, it’s saving grace is that it’s for size 3 months, and I’m pretty sure Tim and Kelly have basically hardly anything in this size yet.  So it will come in handy  🙂

omigosh, he’s really so beautiful!! thanks Tim for giving me permission to post this!!  I’ll never ever tire of watching it…  🙂

In complete random and unrelated-to-sewing, life stuff; Dolly Parton- yes, THE Dolly Parton! – set the following challenge meme and I had great fun fulfilling it on behalf of Mischka.  Behold, the cuteness!!

 

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rusty drapey dress

19/01/2020 11:14 pm \ 14 Comments \

I made a new dress!  The pattern is Vogue 1343, a Tracy Reese design; and I used this beautifully thin and slightly crisp georgette from Minerva in colour Rust…

The fabric is gorgeous, yes?  I really really love the deep rich smoked-paprika colour, definitely my colour, and just enough sophisticated black, grey and off-white thrown into the print to keep everything looking sharp.

I bought the pattern ages ago, and have wanted to make it for even longer!  obviously, haha…  I really like the multitude of details it has; it’s not your average little shift dress at all.  To be honest, halfway through I wasn’t liking it very much; there were a few little problems so I’d gone off it a bit, and had pretty much decided I was NEVER going to make the pattern up ever again.  But once it was finished and I tried it on and was like… hmmm, ok I get it now!  I think it ended up way cuter than I expected!

The first problem was that front neckline drape.  It’s beautiful isn’t it?! but SUPER low cut in its original format.  I did actually make it up as is to start with, but it was so crazy low almost the full bridge on my bra was on show.  Ridiculous!!

And it’s pretty difficult to remove width from the cowl once it’s been cut and you’ve folded and sewn all those pleats etc… so I pulled up the drape by opening up the shoulder seams and removed 1 1/4″ in height from the neckline edge of the front shoulder yokes instead, tapering to nothing at the armhole edge.  I kept the height at the armhole the same, because the armholes on this design are not huge already and you don’t want them tightened up more!  The back yokes are unchanged.

You still get masses of drape, but a little less scandalously so, and at least I’ve got complete bra coverage now!

This picture also shows how the armhole edges are finished with bias cut strips.  The back neckline edge is finished the same way.

 

The next problem was finishing the hemline.  The pattern includes separate facing pieces for the hemline; which are attached, under stitched, and hand-stitched to the dress.  I had doubts this was going to work for georgette but trialled one and of course it looked terrible.  So I did what I should’ve in the first place; stitched up the side seams with French seams and just finished the hem in one go with a narrow hand-rolled and -fell stitched hem.  Much nicer!

Oh yes! French seams!  The pattern stipulates them and of course they are the perfect method for this fine and floaty fabric anyway.

I do love how the folds give this lovely soft fall of fabric in the skirt

The last problem… not really a problem but just a little annoying? according to the pattern you stitch the skirt to the bodice, matching side seams etc… well there is no way the side seams can be matched in this design so I think this is a mistake in the pattern…

this is the bodice back and the skirt back pieces… you can see the notches are way off, for a start.  It’s almost like there’s a missing seam allowance on the skirt back?!

It’s ok though in the end, because you can actually fit the whole bodice into the skirt without any dramas.  Just let go previously held notions of notches and side seams aligning, match up the centre fronts and backs obviously, and bob’s your uncle!

I didn’t have any matching buttons, but wait a minute, what do I have here? but a small handful of leftover ivory-crepe covered buttons leftover from when I made 100 of ’em for Kelly’s wedding dress!  I’d covered lots of extras; partly because some of my earlier ones weren’t up to scratch, and also just because I wasn’t sure how many I’d need.  I painted some with leftover acrylic “blackboard” paint, and they’re perfect!

My rouleau straps turned out super skinny!! 3mm… rather chuffed with this!  It’s all thanks to quality of this super fine fabric, I think  🙂

This is used for the button loops and the belt loops too; the latter will probably not be used because my favourite belt doesn’t really fit through them!  Yes, this is a design greatly improved by a belt, I think.  Partially because the waist is elasticated, and I looooooooathe elasticated waistbands with the fieriest of fiery passions!  This one is hidden nicely under my old, super-wide belt… which also hides those super skinny belt loops.  Ehhh…

And… this is my first thing out of my “make nine/twelve” for this year!  Here is my updated mud-map….

I may have had my doubts while I was making it, but I’m very happy with the outcome in the end!!  I love the rich colours of the fabric, the design is quite unlike anything I’ve used before; in fact that goes for the style of the dress too!  Well a change is always a good thing for the system and I plan to wear this both on cool days of summer, and warmer days in winter too.  Who knows, I may even make up the pattern again one day!  🙂

Details:

Dress; Vogue 1343, in a fine paisley georgette
Belt; super old, emu leather
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp boutique

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och aye

27/12/2019 8:27 pm \ 12 Comments \

My final creation for the year! and a couple of other things too, since of course I found/have recently finished more unblogged items which I am including although technically I didn’t “make” them.  But first things first… I shall start with my new tartan dress.  I did make this!

I think I’ve had a bit of a thing for a voluminous skirt lately, and this one is also on the flooffy side!  I used a pattern I’ve had on my “want-to-make” list for years; Burda 10/2009;119, but altered it somewhat:

A)  mine is longer and at the same time, more voluminous, more of a midi length than the knee-length in the magazine,

B) I added in extra seaming, to showcase both a bias and an on-grain tartan layout, and making it more user-friendly to put together, and

C) I changed the width of the skirt panels so I could pattern match the tartan across the skirt pleats and still get the correct width panel into the waist.

(A) needs no further explanation, so I’ll move straight on to B …. The pattern has you cutting a full-dress length centre panel that is pleated from neckline to waistline… rather than have a whole lot of, possibly unnecessarily bulky pleats in my bodice, AND having to pattern match the darn things… I cut the centre panel of the bodice separate from the skirt, and as a finished width, with no pleats.

I also cut the back bodice in three pieces similarly to the front; with a centre back centre bodice on the fold, and two bodice side pieces; and put an invisible zip in the left side seam of the dress.  Not only does a side seam zip make it easier to put on and take off the dress, but obviously … no pattern matching of plaids along either side of an invisible zip!! Since I was cutting the back bodice in this way, I took the opportunity to rotate out the waist-shaping darts, incorporating the shaping into the seams.

I’m doing the Burda styling thing here…

The back skirt pieces were cut similarly to the front skirt pieces; so as to have two side pieces and a generously pleated centre panel.  Maximum skirt volume!!!  Oh, I also cut all pieces so the bodice seamlines would match up vertically with the skirt seamlines… it just looks a lot neater.  OH! and also my skirt side pieces are just a touch more flared all round, not by much, just a few inches at hem level each side, but multiplied over the four gores and it adds up nicely!

As for point C; I carefully folded and basted the plaids together so as to pattern match the tartan perfectly across them, and then cut the centre front and back skirt panels at the finished width as indicated in the pattern.  Because of the width of my plaids, the skirt centre panels ended up a lot wider than those in the pattern, which is fine with me #maximumflooff

Originally I kept the pleats stitched together vertically for a little bit at the top of the skirt, but in the end decided it looked nicer for them to flare out immediately out of the waistline.

The skirt side pieces, as with the bodice side pieces, are cut on the bias.

can I just point out… ^^ those little Sophie-ears!! ^^

The last modification, which almost goes with saying because I’m a well-documented pocket freak, was… well I guess it just got said!  I used my most used pattern piece for this, which is one I drew up to fit my own inelegantly large hands.  I cut it from an old Vogue magazine cover, which is a nice thick glossy card; and it lives permanently stashed in a handy place adjacent to my sewing machine.

My fabric!  is a really nice, poly-viscose suiting from Minerva.  I realise poly-viscose might not sound very nice, but it really has an extraordinarily realistic wool-like feeling to it and is lovely and soft against the skin!

One of the things I really like about this dress is that while it definitely has a winter-y vibe to it, it’s sleeveless and not body-hugging either, so I think it’s going to be ok to wear it in spring and autumn, and even cooler summer days too.  In winter it would definitely need a long sleeved skivvy or tee underneath, and tights, and I’m looking forward to wearing it like that too!

The next thing!  I didn’t make this dress but I did devote an entire day to making it fit for Kelly to wear so I’m totally OK with documenting my creative input here… I remember now it was presented to me basically a few days before I flew out the the US for my holiday with Yoshimi, which is why it slipped my mind to document it here before! 🙂

Tim and Kelly were groomsman and bridesmaid respectively for their friends T and G; who were likewise their groomsman and bridesmaid respectively! and together Kelly and G had ordered the below dress off the internet … and btw, can I take this opportunity to say? never ever ever order a dress off the internet at the last minute!  Kelly had specified “for maternity” and sent in her measurements and it was “supposed” to be made to measure – inverted commas there because of course when it turned up it was instantly apparent that it was not at all suitable for maternity and also, nowhere near made to measure.  For a start, there was an insurmountable gap of five inches between the two sides of the invisible zip, and obviously poor Kelly with her pregnant belly was going to do even more baby-growing in the two weeks before the wedding!

She brought it around for some urgent adjustments…

When I opened it up, I could NOT BELIEVE the innards of this dress… it looks so soft and floaty and comfortable in the modelled picture, doesn’t it? well far from it; the insides were built like a Sherman tank…

The bodice lining AND the underlining were interfaced with firm and inflexible horsehair stiffening that had been securely fused to the fabric. The princess seams were boned, believe it or not, with the boning going directly over the bustline.  SO uncomfortable!  The skirt looks softly gathered into the waistline with a little self-fabric belt, and you might think it had an elastic waistband? well NO, of course the skirt was gathered into a securely stitched and totally inflexible waistline.  The neckline/off-the-shoulder ruffle was very not-Kelly too, she’s just not a ruffle person at all.  So the first thing was to cut it off, as neatly as possible close to the neckline edge, leaving a chic little spaghetti strap.

I actually needed to harvest fabric from somewhere to put some wedges into the side seams of the inner skirts anyway, so was glad to be able to get some so easily from the ruffle!

I opened up the side seams of the two inner layers: the underlining and the lining; and inserted wedges to add in the needed 5″ of extra width, so the zip could close at the back.  I had a bit of pretty-good matching linen, which I used for the bodice; these wedges needed to be strong because these were the layers that had been stiffened with iron-on interfacing, I also ended up using the linen in the skirt underlining for opacity, and the chiffon from the ruffle in the lining, so it looked nice on the inside.  I know it didn’t really need to “look nice” on the inside because this was emergency butchery at best, but you know; old habits die hard!  After all this, the ribbon hanging loops needed unpicking and repositioning too.

just to clarify; this is the INSIDE of the dress!!  I needed to say this because yes indeed I’m aware it all looks a wee bit scrappy… 😉

For the shell; I unpicked and opened up most of the waistline seam and let out the gathers for the required 5-6 inches of needed extra width, then restitched it up.  And re-inserted the belt loops.

Finally, it’s hard to see from the before picture, but the bodice had too much vertical height, and horizontal folds of chiffon ballooned out quite unattractively over the bust and waist seam… so I turned up as much of the extra volume as I could into a sort of horizontal “cuff” just underneath the top neckline edge.  Cassie kindly hand-stitched this down invisibly for me  🙂

It was all a bit rough and ready really, but at least Kelly was comfortable, and carried it off beautifully, plus I think she looked lovely!  And look at my handsome boy!!

The last thing, that I worked on yesterday actually! was binding this baby quilt… When we went down to visit Craig’s parents for Christmas, his Mum took it out and asked me if I could please bind it for her as she was not going to get the time or the opportunity to finish it herself.  Of course I obliged!

She had appliquéd and embroidered all these cute little motifs on squares of calico, and patched the quilt top together, and quilted it with decorative stitching, stitched around the edge where the binding was to go.

She couldn’t find any more of the blue fabric that she had wanted to use for the actual binding, but I assured her I could probably find something that matched.

It took a bit of searching because I didn’t actually have a nicely matching plain blue cotton after all, but I dug out this old shirt of Tim’s? Sam’s?  I’d thought it was one of Craig’s old shirts but he assures me it wasn’t his.  I’m not sure now which of the boys it belonged too, but I thought it was a lovely colour match for the quilt! checks in soft green and yellow, and blue too.  I cut strips on the bias and bound the quilt by machine on the top edge, and by hand underneath.  It was quite interesting to me that the sleeves were plenty for the job!  I’ve always marvelled at how men’s sleeves take up a TONNE of fabric, and here’s more proof!

btw, I could not find a good tutorial online for a nicely mitred corners for a quilt; all the ones that popped up had you encasing the edges in the folded-up bias strip and just machine stitching the lot, catching the underneath edge along with the top edge all in one go.  Maybe I’m a snob, OK I probably am! but that just isn’t nearly neat enough for me and you run the risk of the machine stitching underneath looking all wonky, and maybe even not catching the underneath edge at all, since you can’t see what’s going on under there.  In my opinion.  So I worked out my own way which I think turned out quite neat, and think I’ll write a tutorial  on here sometime, when I get time.  If I get time.  Next year, no doubt!

SO CUTE!  I think Tim and Kelly are going to love it!

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jumbo checks

19/12/2019 2:33 pm \ 19 Comments \

Oh hey! I made a new dress!  And I have writer’s block!

 

Obviously the second thing is not the least bit interesting to anyone who just wants to read – or in my case; write! about sewing… however the silliest thing about it is that it is not only hindering my efforts to document the things I’m making; the very purpose of this blog in the first place! but even sillier, it is preventing me from wearing it! Since I have this crazy self-imposed rule that when I wear something I really should have blogged it first.

 

So I bit the bull by the horns, or whatever I even mean by that accidental mangling of metaphors which I just decided to leave there after tapping it out without thinking… oh man… and decided the only thing to do was to wear it.. TODAY.  Thus forcing myself to sit down and attempt a blog post, and hopefully loosening up that pesky little brain block… and letting it soften and dissolve and become ethereal enough so it floats up and away and out of my head, like a puffy little cloud.  Bye bye writer’s block!!

What am I even writing about??  OH! My dress!  Of course!

yes, it’s a bit windy today… 😉

So, a few months ago, I was contacted by Sarah, of Super Cheap Fabrics, who offered me a length of fabric.. I chose this lovely, light-coffee coloured,  jumbo plaid-ed linen.  It’s absolutely divine, really.  I’d been inspired by a dress I’d seen irl on a lady; a very chic friend of a friend.  It was too long, too wide, the check too large; and I became completely inspired by the overall oversized-ness of the scale of this dress!  Like a child wearing her sister’s hand-me-downs with the thought she was going to grow into it, eventually.  I subsequently found out she’d had her dress custom-made up on a holiday in south-east Asia.

I used Vogue 1312; a Lynn Mizono  pattern that I’d bought years ago… it has a “tablecloth” skirt, very similar to the one Shams posted on her blog, many moons ago.

could not resist the inevitable twirl!!!

I went to some effort to incorporate a few things – well, ONE thing –  I really really wanted for my dress; namely, pockets.  I know, I know, we seamsters are so weird about pockets… the difficulty about pockets with this particular design was the invisible zip in the left side seam.  While of course it’s easy to put an inseam pocket into a regular side seam, it’s actually extraordinarly difficult to finagle a pocket in a side seam that has a zip in it…

in the end I settled upon the aforementioned in-seam pocket in the right side seam, and on the left side, I put in a single welt pocket, about an inch away from the seam with the invisible zip.  Sounds simple, yes?  NO!!!  Because the pocket is only on one side not both, and I’m a pattern-matching lunatic, I wanted both the pocket and the invisible zip insertion to be as seamless and invisible as possible.  I know.  I don’t know why I do these things to myself…. anyway, careful pinning and even more careful and slow sewing, and I think I did it…

Here is the front, all zipped and pocket closed and (hopefully) reeeeasonably, sorta, invisible.

and now, the unzipped, showing-the-pocket shot.

I think I’ve shown this next feature before, but I often find the bottom inside end of an invisible zip has a slightly scratchy area, pretty much invisible to the naked eye but it makes itself felt after you’ve been happily wearing your garment for a few hours.  You can feel it if you rub your finger over it a few times.  So I generally wrap the lower end of the zip in a bit of fabric, like so; and stitch it down to the seam allowances.

So, as soon as I finished the dress, I was so happy I immediately flung it on and took a few pictures, shoeless.  I love how it feels! the oversized ness is exactly what I wanted.  Large, flooffy dresses feel so incredibly feminine to me; which is kind of funny when you consider the well-established “modern” feminine perception tends to be for tight fitting and short.

I rushed out for a location shots too, but when I got back home I felt a little cool – it’s 24C today, but funny thing, 24C feels, dare I say it? cold? compared to over a week of 35C++ !! haha… so I put on a T-shirt underneath; and I think I REALLY love it with the little sleeves underneath.  I love it like this so much I might even just add little sleeves to it permanently?  Hmmm, food for thought!!

Sophie very often comes up for little cuddle while I’m taking pictures in this spot… it’s near “her spot” in the house.   Hehe, this picture of her little head sneaking into the shot above as she crept over to me gave me a laugh.  hello, my darling little snooky snookums!!

 

Details:

Dress; Vogue 1312
T-shirt; the Closet Case patterns
Nettie in white jersey, details here
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp boutique

I have just two more things to share here before the end of the year… hurrah!

 

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golden Collins

13/12/2019 5:39 pm \ 4 Comments \

I’m now desperately trying to blog everything I’ve made this year, within this year… so fair warning: brace yourself for an onslaught of making-spam…

First of all; this little dress!

I actually made this back in September! but cold weather and general lack of… shall we say? love? for the dress prevented me from wearing it for a while, or obviously blogging about it before.  However all is now well, because the dress has easily reached its 30 wears, and is probably going to go on to at least 300 wears before I say sayonara to it… how is this so? you may ask… since devoted followers (ha!) of my daily ootd blog will have no doubt noticed it has made not one single appearance over there.  I shall now explain… yes, I had not much love for it once I’d finished making it, which is strange because it actually ticked a number of very good boxes; it feels very nice to wear, very comfortable, and it is well made if I say so myself.  I think it was the colour; yellow should suit my Autumnal self; but I decided this particular yellow was too close to my skin tone to really look good on me.  I thought I might dye it, sometime.  But before that happened, the weather warmed up a bit, I took out my old summer nightie to wear to bed and was saddened to see that a hole, that I had fixed up twice before, quickly reappeared in such a ghastly, final manner I had no choice but to ditch it.  Yes, very sad, and I was too busy to make another nightie straight away … what to wear?  then I noticed this dress perched on top of a pile of summer dresses, waiting to be noticed.  I was like, well that will do for now, as a stop-gap.  But you know what?  I’m really enjoying wearing it!

Fabric; a pale yellow quilting cotton from Minerva, printed with gold snowflakes.   I think it’s part of their Christmas range.  My previous nightie was made of quilting cotton too, and so I’m accustomed to the feel of it.  It’s very comfortable! soft and lovely against the skin.  I’ve discovered that quilting cotton makes GREAT nighties!  Since I’d intended it to be a proper dress, I have to admit it did turn out a leetle bit over-engineered for a nightie; it’s got facings, pockets, inset strips to define the seams.  A bias bound hemline, for heaven’s sake.

Some deets:

Pattern; I used the Collins top pattern by In The Folds; I’ve previously made this once before, to make this palm leaf lace top here.  This time, I lengthened the appropriate pieces to make it dress-length.  In doing so, I extended the front and back diagonal lines right down to meet at the hemline in a nice neat V.  I decided to highlight this feature, by insering an inset strip into the seamlines, just like I did with this dress.  The bias cut contrast strip is mustard silk crepe; same stuff I used for my Fibre Mood Faye dress.

I’m rather thrilled with the sharpness of that point!

Cutting my “outer” pieces had used basically every last scrap of the snowflake fabric, so I unearthed a short length of soft yellow silk dupion from my stash; a remnant in merited from my grandmother.

From this; I cut my neckline/armscye facings, the voluminous pockets, and the bias cut strip I used to hem the dress,

For the button at the back of the neck; well I didn’t even really need to make an opening, since I’ve always found I can slip this dress on and off without un-doing the button! but I’d made provision for it, so needed to finish it off…

I took out one of the leftover buttons I’d covered in ivory crepe for Kelly’s wedding dress (self-covering button kit purchased here) and painted it with some gold paint.  This itself is leftover from when I made my Queen Rutela costume; I used it to paint my “jewellery” and my “hair”

So that’s it!  I have a wonderful nightie and have enjoyed wearing it a lot, since it’s basically like a proper dress.  Actually, it’s kinda half nightie, half dress… I think of it as loungewear.  I can take out the bin without worrying what the neighbours might think, haha.  Maybe I’ll even eventually dye it like I originally planned, and wear it out one day!

Details:

Dress/nightie; the Collins top by In The Folds, in printed quilting cotton
Lilac shoes; made by me at a Shoe Camraderie workshop, details here

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scribble-y sundress

06/12/2019 1:07 pm \ 9 Comments \

I’ve made a new dress, and how gorgeous is this splashy, scribbly, fireworks-y print!  And the way this divine rayon challis ripples breezily against my legs was actually quite quite delicious… it was extremely hot when I took these pictures, like 39C, so soft whisper-y cool, featherlight stuff felt like exactly the right thing to wear.

While we were in San Francisco, Shams took us to Britex.  According to basically everyone who knows; Britex is a “must-visit” for the fabric enthusiast… like, every single, San Francisco shopping recommendation to me included in some form or another ” …and Britex, of course”

And I most heartily concur.  This place is insanely fabulous and I could’ve happily spent all day there..  The walls are stacked floor to ceiling with, well it felt like thousands of bolts of strong solid colours, arranged by colour to make a rainbow mural of fabric itself.  What a sight to behold!  I was crossing the rainbow bridge!  Is this heaven?!!!

I die…

can you even…??  #sigh  And this was only ONE floor, there was another one too!

Shams introduced us to the lovely owner, Sharman Spector; who was so kind and welcoming to us foreigners.  I learned that Britex is a Legacy Business, which means it is one of a “longstanding community-serving business that is recognised as valuable cultural asset to San Francisco by the Office of Small Business. Preserving Legacy Businesses is critical to maintaining what makes San Francisco a unique and special place.”  … and thank you, Professor Google for that succinct explanation…

Obviously, this is a wonderful idea, one that I wish we would adopt over here.  Imagine a world populated by lots of small businesses offering unique and special services?! This, and many other utopian customs are just part of the enormous appeal of San Francisco, and I should add, New York City too.  I think they are very innovative and future-thinking over there, while still keeping firmly in mind what is important to the happiness of human beings.

Anyway… my dress!

Sharman kindly gave me a length of this lovely “scribbled flowers” rayon challis; it’s delightfully whisper thin and feels coolly divine against the skin.  So I envisioned a floaty, nothing-y little wisp of a dress.  The print is quite oversized, so I could’ve got away with a longer dress, I think, but I’m very happy with this length; I think it’s both cute and chic, and the higher neckline balances nicely with the higher hemline.

Pattern; is my own design.  It’s very simple because I really wanted this lovely eye-catching print to shine…   so I’d made a similar dress for my friend L at the beginning of the year, a clone of a favourite dress of hers, and I couldn’t get the design out of my head.  Mine has a few key differences which I wanted to implement; namely it’s quite a lot more A-line… MORE float!! … and has pockets.  I altered the width of the top bits too, and the armscye.  Actually, the armscye turned out to be a bit of a boo-boo…  once it was hemmed it was just a leeetle bit low-cut.

You could definitely see bra-action… and I decided that if the bra was going to be seen, at least it could be a bra designed to be seen, and that went beautifully with the dress, complementing it.  I toyed briefly with the idea of a hot pink thing, – sawww tempting!! – but in the end decided the perfect bra to match this was in fact a plain black, strapless bra.  Strapless, well obviously, and plain black in order to not fight with the amaaaaaazing print, and to offset the black fabric I used for the tie.

For the bra; I used my old faithful McCalls 2772 swimsuit pattern pieces for a strapless bandeau bra; the only mods I made were to make boning channels using the side seam allowances, and inserting a short strip of boning.  This keeps the bra structured and upright and not fold in on itself while I’m wearing it.

I also gathered the centre front onto a 7cm length of black elastic, just because I think it looks nice! and I also shortened the back straps by several inches, to make it nice and tight.  Strapless bras have a tendency to migrate south, if they are not quite tight!  I like my underwear to be in sets, so I also whipped up a matching pair of undies, using the bikini bottom pieces from the same pattern.

Oh, the dress neck-tie, I cut from a black satin remnant, leftovers I think from this black Forsythe dress I made for Cassie, three years ago.

The front and back of the dress are actually different from each other, even if they LOOK identical! so in order to identify the back I used this little Kylie and the Machine label I got in the Perth Frocktails goodie bag.  It’s pretty cute, isn’t it? even if I kinda had a fleeting wish it was one of the “the is the back” labels; well I can swap that out if I ever buy a set.

But for now; it’s finished, and ready to keep me chic-ly cool in this extreme heatwave!

Details:

Dress; my own design, in this beautiful printed rayon challis from Britex 
Bra and knickers; McCalls 2772, black poly
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp boutique

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Forget-me-not Sabrina skirt

03/12/2019 1:35 pm \ 5 Comments \

In spite of being a Forget-me-not pattern I almost forgot to post this!! Except I didn’t, because here I am posting it.  But I had forgotten? for a little while anyway; that forgetful state of being ending as soon as I remembered.  I guess it’s technically not possible to “almost” forget something.  You’ve either forgotten something, or you haven’t; either one, or the other.  Like, maybe you DID forget something, but then all of a sudden, you DID NOT forget that something.  Ahem.  Yes, my brain does indeed love to devolve into such ridiculous semantics, arguing to and fro with myself.  Ultimately I did not forget, which is the main thing…

So, the skirt!  I made it a few months ago, as a tester for the pattern; it’s the Sabrina skirt pattern by Johanna of Forget-Me-Not patterns.  This is a really nice pencil skirt design of a deceptively simple appearance, I say “deceptively” because it has so many options for custom-shaping it to hug your own individual curves exactly, you really have no choice but to find that perfect fit… To start with, it has shaped gores; three in the front and four in the back; plus waist darts as well.  Additionally;  this very comprehensive pattern also contains separate pattern pieces for three different fit versions;  a straight fit, a mid fit, and a curvy fit.  You select which version you’re going to make based upon your own personal hip-to-waist body measurements.  It’s an amazingly detail-driven pattern!

The pattern also includes separate pattern pieces for the optional lining, and instructions for installing it in two different ways; the easy way or the more advanced way.  No prizes for guessing which one I chose to try out!

The advanced way results in a beautifully installed lining, with all seams and edges neatly and perfectly enclosed inside..  I’m over the moon with how my lining turned out! all steps are meticulously and carefully explained, and I found it very easy and straightforward to follow along.  In fact, the instructions are absolutely excellent; and I can highly recommend!

Fabricwise; I used a piece of rather lovely rusty-orange wool tweed, a leftover scrap inherited from my paternal grandmother, and a not quite matching deep raspberry lining fabric from my stash.  I had just enough of each to cut out the skirt, with zero leftovers.  It always makes me feel like celebrating when this happens!  It didn’t even feel like too much of a risk; entrusting my precious fabric to an untested pattern, because I knew with all those fitting seams and darts I’d be able to fudge fine-tune a really good fit.  I’d chosen my size based mostly upon my child-bearing hip measurements, and didn’t have to do much in the way of special fitting alterations, just nipped it in just a little towards the waist.

So, I finished this just as the winter was ending, and I’ve had to tuck it away to wait for next winter. I am really looking forward to wearing it though.  Not only is the fabric kinda special to me, knowing it was from Marnie, but a sleek, perfectly fitting pencil skirt is a no-brainer, yeah?  very much my style.

I’m happy!

Later edit: this skirt now has pockets!  see my how-to here:

and another edit! this skirt has been shortened!

  

Details:

Cowl; hand knitted by me, details and my pattern here
Merino tee; Nettie tee pattern by Closet Case patterns, details here
Skirt; Forget-me-not Patterns Sabrina skirt
Tights; made by me using my own custom-fit pattern, details here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique

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a cute little floral frock

27/11/2019 6:55 pm \ 3 Comments \

Oh hey.  I made a dress. Wot a surprise!  No seriously, how cute is this dress?  Like, I think it’s rather cute, eh.

did I make my shoes too? why yes I did!  thanks for noticing!

 But of course what am I here for? but to provide the exact deets on how you can procure such hacked cuteness for yourself too.  AND; be happy about how you not only made it yourself but that if you do so, you’re also raising funds towards an excellent good cause too… and did I mention there is a competition? with prizes?!  No? well you could be in the running for a sewing machine, or an overlocker machine!  Check out all the deets here!!

So, a few months ago I was contacted by Rachel of the Foldline re taking part in this thing, the third annual sewing blogger “hacker” tour with Simplicity/McCalls.  Hacker?  yes, I can tell you’re immediately interested, since all of us who sew also LOVE to hack; butcher; ham-fistedly riff upon  add our own little “something” to a design, yeah? well, the tour is an initiative where proceeds raised from the sale of a small range of Eminently Hackable (TM) patterns nominated in the tour will go towards the Eve appeal charity… In all seriousness the Eve Appeal is a truly excellent resource to raise awareness of gynaecological cancers, and to provide a port of call for those wishing to seek information about the condition and the community.  The site helps people with where to go and what to do, who to call for medical and non-medical cancer advice and support, should that situation arise in their lives.  Like everyone else, I have very close friends and relatives who have gone through this dreadful experience, so I know sites like these can be a very soothing thing to turn to, when your closest loved ones just don’t know what it’s like or what to do…

I’m like, well GOOD ON Simplicity for being a part of this!   here is the list of Simplicity sewing patterns that are part of the hackathon for the appeal…

S8378 XXS-XXL
S8658 XXS-XXL
S8700 XS-XL
S8701 H5 (6-14) U5(16-24)
S8888 XXSl-XXL
S8929 XXS-XXL
S8930 XXS-XXL
S8991 XXS-XXL 
S8992 XXS-XXL

btw, the patterns I’ve listed above are all directly linked to the Simplicity website, but are NOT affiliate links,  I would always disclose an affiliate link and in any case have so far had a super impressive, grand total of ONE affiliate link in all my decade of blogging – my goodness, how time flies! – but anyway,  rest assured I am not making a single cent out of this!  it’s all going to the Eve appeal!

Anyway, I chose Simplicity 8658… which is a pretty nice, loose, basic raglan sleeved tunic top, with some optional ruffle action going on… and I made a dress.  Of course, one doesn’t have to “hack” the pattern, if you just want to make it up just as it, that’s fine!  However, I couldn’t resist a few tweaks, here and there, just because not only do I love a good hack-attack but also I do love a cute little summer frock and could see how this pattern could so easily become the CUTEST summer frock imaginable! and I think it turned out ok too!  … and I have thusly, and dutifully, documented any and all such tweaks in excruciating detail, right here because well, I am a blogger after all…  Bloggers, must blog.  It’s what we do  (shrug)

I used  this beautiful navy blue floral, cotton and linen single gauze from Minerva    to make my dress.  I’ve always waxed lyrical about how much I love navy blue and pink as a colour combo, so no need to bang on further,  it’s just… CUTE, that’s all.  Navy blue, and pink; am I right?  And the texture of this stuff is just as lovely as it sounds; almost exactly like nani Iro double gauze, except it’s a single gauze, so not quite as “cosy” which is a very good thing in our very hot summers! and still with the same, super soft and exceptionally lovely light-as-a-feather touch to it.  I love this fabric so much!

When I opened the pattern I was pleasantly surprised to find included a large sheet of grid paper, printed with 1″ x 1″ squares all over.  Obviously to make your pattern-hacking plans just that much easier!

After some thought, I decided to make the following hacks:

  • cut the back on the fold, as one piece
  • cut the front as two separate pieces, with an overlapping V-neck opening.  This would have little self-fabric loops and self-covered buttons to “close”.  Inverted commas around that “close”, because actually the V-neckline is wide enough that I can just pop it on over my head, no need to undo any buttons at all  #cleverNON?!
  • use the lower ruffle but lengthen it considerably so it actually transformed the tunic into a full-blown dress  #DOUBLEclever…NON?!!
  • put in pockets.  Because, obviously, pockets.

So above are my cut-out pieces.  Additional pieces to the pattern are the two front facings, which have exactly the same profiles as the front opening edges, at 5.5cm wide not including seam allowances.  I added a 1cm seam allowance to both the front opening edges, and the facing front opening edges too.  I applied lightweight iron-on interfacing to the facing pieces.  And, the pocket; which is basically self-drafted, though I can barely even write that with a straight face.  I laid my hand down and drew around it for heaven’s sakes.  It’s pretty big, because I have big ungainly hands.  This is seriously my most used pattern piece, of all time.  I use it in every single thing that I possibly can!

First step: stitch together the sleeve pieces, as directed.  I opted to overlock all seam allowances to finish, using my overlocker and navy blue thread.

Stitch the back sleeve pieces to the back piece.

Belatedly stay-stitch the back neckline (woops!)

Interface the front facing pieces and finish the raw edge on the overlocker (or HongKong seam, or bind, or turn under and hem, whatever)

Make a skinny rouleau or “spaghetti strip” for the button loops; by cutting a 3cm (1 1/4″) wide strip on the bias, folding right sides together and stitching to give a 6mm (1/4″) tube, turn right sides out  (a more detailed description on how to make rouleau strips here)

Cut into 5cm (2″) lengths for the button loops, and spacing them evenly; stitch them into place along the opening edge of the right front.

Lay facing pieces over the bodice front opening edges, and stitch.

Trim, and clip into the point.  Press open, under stitch.

Cut a 2.5cm (1″) bias strip, and apply to the entire back neckline to finish, including both sleeves as well as the back piece  (this technique described in more detail in this post here).

Pin the front bodice pieces to the front sleeve armscye, abutting the neckline edge of the sleeve hard up against the front/front facing seamline.  Fold the front facing back over the front, right sides together, and enclosing the front sleeve between the two.  Pin, and stitch.  (apologies for the photobombing camera strap)

Trim corners, grade seam allowances, and turn out.

Attach buttons to the left front bodice piece, corresponding with the button loops.  I used self-covering buttons, purchased at this etsy store here; and covered them with the same floral fabric as I used for the dress.

Measure where you prefer your pocket pieces to lie – this is a personal preference determined by your own arm length – and attach the pocket pieces to both  ruffle/skirt pieces, front and back.  Stitch side seams of ruffles, going around pockets  (inseam pocket insertion described more fully in this post)

Apply gathering stitch to top edge of ruffle/skirt, draw it up to fit the measurement of the bodice.  Stitch, over gathering stitches.  Hem sleeves and ruffle, and yay! it’s finished!!

I’m so happy with this dress! and really enjoyed brainstorming how I could transform the basic pattern to get the look I wanted.  Let’s be honest; hacking IS fun, and is always something to consider as part of the creative process for those of us who make our own clothes.  I would absolutely love if my dress here inspired anyone reading this post to perhaps join in with the hack-along… it’s open to everyone throughout the world! and what’s more runs all the way through January so there’s still plenty of time to get involved.  You can share your creation on social media and use the hashtags #hackalongday #hackalongparty #hackalongvintage in order to be in the running to win one of the pretty generous prize pool  … see all the deets here.

Please let me know if you do join in!

Here’s some more inspiration from the other bloggers taking part, using other patterns from the list, please do visit and check out the very creative and interesting hacks from these very creative and interesting ladies!

1. Thursday 26th September
Juliet, from Sew So Natural
https://sewsonatural.com

2. Thursday 3rd October
Abi, from Crafty Pinup
https://www.whatabimakes.co.uk

3. Thursday 10th October
Rachel, from The Fold Line
https://thefoldline.com/blog/

4. Thursday 17th October
Susan, from Susan Young Sewing
https://susanyoungsewing.wordpress.com

5. Thursday 24th October
Brittany, from Brittany Jones
https://www.brittanyjjones.com

6. Thursday 31st October
Bianca, from Sleepless in Bavaria
https://sleeplessinbavaria.com

7. Thursday 7th November
Amy, from Almond Rock
http://almondrock.co.uk

8. Thursday 14th November
Victoria, from Victoria Lucille Anne
https://www.victorialucilleanne.com

9. Thursday 21st November
Sara, from The Sara Project
https://thesaraproject.com

10. Thursday 28th November
ooo, that would be ME! haha

11. Thursday 5th December
Rumana, from The Little Pomegranate
http://www.thelittlepomegranate.co.uk/

12. Thursday 12th December
Emily, from Self Assembly Required
http://selfassemblyrequired.co.uk/

13. Thursday 9th January
Marie, from A Stitching Odyssey
http://www.astitchingodyssey.com

14. Thursday 16th January
Portia, from Makery
https://makery.co.uk

15. Thursday 23rd January
Barbara, Lisa and Louise, from The Pattern Pals
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChdhdeKB7n39vstdMNGgX3w

16. Thursday 30th January
Jen, from The Gingerthread Girl
https://gingerthreadgirl.co.uk

 

Details:

Dress; Simplicity 8658 modified, single cotton/linen gauze
Shoes, my own design and made by me, details here

 

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