I’m so behind on blogging! so this is part one in what I hope is a serious attempt to catch up… so I made this little black dress a little while ago… it’s light and floaty and breezy so really it’s a summer dress. And I’m wearing it here on basically the coldest day of the year… ha! But I do like it styled like this for winter! so I guess… good?
The fabric: which I appreciate you can’t see at all in any of my pictures, because of its matte-ness and it’s blackness, sorry! anyway; it is a lightweight crisp fabric that has a very slightly bumpy, seersucker-y quality to it… I’m not sure if it’s silk or cotton or linen but I’ve a feeling it is a combination of two of those components. I bought it in Fabulous Fabrics quite a long time ago for another project, that I’ve completely forgotten what it was so I decided the fabric was fair game, eventually! I’m seriously trying to use up my stash this year… yes I’ve probably said that million times before but I’m really serious this time. I think I’m doing quite well! because I’ve bought just one piece of new fabric all year. I really want to buy some more lovely fabric that I am really really keen on… but am trying so hard to be good about this!
Anyway, the lightness and crispness of this black fabric was perfect for this design, so I’m very happy I had it and it was pretty much the perfect size piece too… so it worked out really well. Oh, the design! Well, it’s the Fibremood Dolly pattern, which is big and floaty and has huge, gathered sleeves, so it’s very trendy, I think. I do like it though! I really like the neckline with a little tie to pull in a gathered V neck. It was so cold on this day I actually wore it for real with my mustard cowl, and also my shearling coat as well as the usual underpinnings pictured, brrr. I’m excited for when I can wear it all summer long!
Oh ok, so I’m just going to slip another extra thing in here…. did I mention our wonderful youngest son Sam has become engaged to his beautiful lady, Lainey? We’re so happy and excited to welcome this lovely lady into our lives, she’s the most gorgeous girl and has willingly and happily acted as a model for our little pattern company a few times, so her face has definitely been seen around here before! Anyway, they recently moved into their own house and asked if I would mind hemming their lounge room curtains. Of course I hate hemming curtains, but it was absolutely lovely to go and hang out with them while I did it. It took an entire morning basically and we chatted away and it was a really nice morning in the end. So I didn’t hate it at all in the end.
First thing to get made was a shirt for Tim… He has a job now where he has to look smart, so I decided to make a business shirt… I bought the really lovely deep maroon, mini-scale gingham cotton shirting from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, and used Burda 6874, my kinda go-to shirt pattern since I semi-retired Burda 7767. d’you know 
For Kelly’s top, I’d chosen the asymmetrical cowl top from Pattern Magic 2; the shape of the cowl is dictated by the shape of the facing. It’s always a bit of a challenge to draft your own patterns, but well I love a challenge! and I knew the shape of this top would be super flattering for Kelly and suit her beautifully… I cut the pieces on the bias and inserted a maroon invisible zip in the left side seam, so it zips down undone… however Kelly says she can squeeze into it without having to undo the zip which is cool. I think the bias-cut is what gives it that little bit of stretch.
Next up! a pullover/sweatshirt for Craig! truth now… I was running out of time, and steam! and this fair near killed me!
With the bias binding facing up, and following the previous stitching as a stitching guide, topstitch the pressed edge of the bias binding down. Since you’re using the previous stitching as a guide, the width of your double-topstitching will be nice and even from the outside.
And, last but not least! I also made a few more little hardback notebooks… just fun little things, however I do know that the recipients do actually use notebooks regularly so I know they will be useful too! I used mostly a mixture of leftover and old papers; from old scrapbooks, some with the children’s scribbles still on them! I’m sentimental that way 😉 , various papers, musical paper, some pale coloured wrapping paper, writing stationery; just lots of different stuff.
All fabrics and buttons are from Spotlight, both a crisp cotton print. Funny thing, while I was making each shirt, I kept each guy’s shirt super secret from that particular guy, but was less careful when that guy wasn’t around. So every now and again they would catch sight of the other one’s shirt. And even though I was careful to say to them, “btw, this is NOT for you!” they each privately thought the other’s shirts WERE for them, and were looking forward to wearing them! I’m sorry! but yes, I was telling the truth 😉
I altered things very slightly on each shirt… the pockets are different on each one. They both have two breast pockets; but Craig’s has arrow-pointed bottoms, and I did a little bar tack on the top edge of the topstitching, in lieu of the usual triangle. I don’t know why, just a whim. For Sam’s, the pockets have a rounded bottom, and the regular triangle at the top edges. I chose shiny black button for his shirt, to pick out the black feather borders, and unobtrusive, white, matte buttons for Craig’s shirt, to allow the floral to truly shine, hehe.
Over the years since I first drew the pattern out I’ve had to slightly alter it and custom fit to each of my boys each time I’ve made it. They keep doing annoying things like working out and growing taller with longer arms and gaining a bit here, losing a bit there as time goes on. So it’s always a bit more of an exercise than just whipping out a pattern and zooming it up with the greatest of ease…. NOT!
The air force blue looked pretty cool and right up his alley and it’s a very nice weight, I loved it upon first sight. However, after washing it and hanging it out to dry, then laying it out for cutting, I discovered to my amazement that the “stripe” actually was more of a gentle, slight “wave” of stripes across the fabric looking like this ” ~ “, NOT a straight horizontal stripe. AAAAUGH!! and being “slight” of course, means it really comes across like a bit of a boo-boo, rather than look like an intentional wave, which I could work into the design somehow. Nope, this just looked OFF.
Oh, the hoodie strings… in each case I made a self-fabric drawstring for the hoodies, bar Tim’s, as explained. To make a drawstring in the jersey, I cut a 1-2cm strip of fabric across the grain. Most jerseys have a natural tendency to roll or curl up across the grain, and you can use this to full advantage while making your drawstring.
