lower your presser foot

Another Burda potato sack made good: 3/2009 #113

2012-01-27T22:54:00.001+11:00

Trena (aka The Slapdash Sewist) was absolutely correct in saying that I've made the most of the boxy styles that Burda has been dishing up for the last few years - I've made yet another maternity dress from a normal sized Burda pattern with the merest of tweaks to make it cover the basketball I'm carrying around at the moment. I used pattern 113 from issue 3 of 2009, which looks like this:

And all I did was raise the waistline seam a few inches to instead become an empire seam above the bump, added a little extra width across the front and dipped the hem at the front so that it sat relatively straight, and in no time this is what I came up with:

I used a white and navy blue stripe knit from the stash for the bodice and some navy jersey bought from Spotlight for the skirt. I sewed this mostly on my overlocker, and just used a twin stitch for finishing the hem and other edges.

I've gotten a lot of wear out of this one so far as it is really comfy whilst still having good coverage. The pattern is quite deceptive because I didn't extend the sleeves at all, yet they did turn out a lot longer than I thought they would from the pattern line drawing. But a bit of shoulder and upper flabby arm coverage is good for me at the moment!

Although this was an extremely easy pattern to make, I did have trouble with the neck facings. I don't know if I traced these wrong or what I did incorrectly, but for some reason the back neck facing was way too wide but the front neck facing was too short so that it wouldn't sit flat. So in my usual meticulous and highly professional sewing manner *cough cough* I fixed it by cutting a slit in the front facing at the button of the 'v', folding a pleat in the back facing and holding the facing down all the way around with iron on double sided interfacing!

So far it's holding up well, and I only have another 9 weeks of wear anyway.... Speaking of which, that basketball I alluded to? Check this out:

Eeek! This baby belly is so round and so out there this time around. I seriously had 5 different people at work this week ask me if I was about to start my leave soon and then nearly choke in surprise when I said I'd be working for another 6 weeks! But I saw the obstetrician this week who assured me I am measuring normally and the baby's head is down and not in some weird position. But the baby hasn't dropped too much, it still sits above Anna's head with a little help of some heels (yes yes I'm still wearing them):

In the comments to the last post Jean asked if I would be induced this time around too. I'm hoping with all my fingers crossed that this labour starts and progresses naturally (not too long after the due date either!) because I've heard that induced labours are more painful and I could do with a little less pain. Plus we missed out on the excitement of the dramatic movie style waters breaking, and the mad dash to the hospital so if it happens naturally it'll be like a first time experience (well that bit anyway, the rest I remember with vivid clarity).

I've just found out that my sister in law is going to be having her second son a few months after I'm due, which is exciting for them and good for Anna because now she'll have two male cousins to torment! But as for me I still have absolutely no idea what I'm having - this one is moving around a lot more than I recall Anna doing, plus I am more tired, a different shape and had much worse morning sickness but I'm also running around after 3 year old plus working part time, am nearly 35 now and having been trying to maintain a better diet this time around so I don't think anything there's anything meaningful in those differences. I'll have to wait and see, just like nature intended!

The final stretch

2012-01-19T22:40:00.000+11:00

I've clocked up 30 weeks of pregnancy this week, so in theory 10 weeks to go. Since Anna was 2 weeks late (and even then required quite a lot of inducement to come out) I'm not holding my breath that this one will be on time.

Ironically this time I feel much heavier and have quite a lot of aches and pains but I haven't put on as much weight as last time. In fact I have a few maternity clothes I made last time that are still too big for me to wear - I wore a skirt to work during the week that I got sick of pulling it up so I accessorised with some bulldog clips to cinch it in!

But still I have grown out of a few clothes due to my expanding rear and hips, mostly my casual clothes which is what I need most now given that I only work part time this time around and spend quite a bit of time at the park, the library, the museum or other kid orientated places. So even with only 10 weeks to go I'm still sewing maternity clothes - I have the fabric and the will, so why not?

This latest dress is the ultimate in comfort but is not one of the best looking dresses I've made, but for once appearance isn't exactly at the forefront of my mind as I try to waddle around in our summer (which has been quite mild to date thankfully!). So I have actually been wearing this quite a bit, although I feel a bit sloppy and blah. The only review for this pattern on Pattern Review notes the same issue, so I guess it's not just me.

I used Burda 4/2010 #122 which need very little modification to make it maternity friendly. In fact after wearing this a few times I'd say it needed no alteration at all, but to be safe I added a bit extra width to the front dress panel but it's so roomy that I don't think I needed to do that at all. I also stuffed up by sewing the front bodice and lining together at the neckline and the shoulders, plus the same with the back bodice so I couldn't join the front and back together at the shoulder! D'oh..... But I was too lazy to unpick since I sewed this dress mostly using my overlocker, so my dodgy solution was to just lay the front piece over the back, topstitch along the shoulder and then sew on four buttons to cover it up. Yes, I was even too lazy to make buttonholes!

The other changes I made was to leave off the front opening placket and instead I just sewed on a few buttons on the front where it should be have been - I just couldn't be bothered making the placket since I knew I wouldn't wear this unbuttoned. The pattern also required a double layer of the fabric (recommended jersey) but I thought that was unnecessary and too hot for summer so I only made a single layer for the dress body and just a self lined bodice. And I left off the rectangle square at the front that makes a channel for the tie, instead just leaving the tie loose so I could tie it above the baby bump wherever I wanted.

The fabric I bought from the Remnant Warehouse a few months back when I bought the swimsuit fabric. I don't recall the fabric content label, but I just thought it was a cotton jersey in grey marle with fine black stripes. After washing it and smelling that unmistakable wet dog smell I realise it's actually wool jersey which made the price I paid ($9.95/m at 145cm wide) an even bigger bargain. I might remake this blah dress into a simple skirt post pregnancy to get some better use out of the fabric.

Speaking of the swimsuit fabric, yes Kyle it really does say Nookie Beach which is a bit funny given the connotations but it's actually a fashion label here in Australia and I guess this is remnant from their summer line a while back. And thanks everyone for your flattering comments - we really are our worse critics but I am finding also that the older I get and the more lumpy and bumpy I get post child(ren) I am also getting less self obsessed about how I look. Yes I am aware of my faults, and I try to minimise them through what I wear, but I've also realised that this is as a good as it gets - I'm sure when I'm 60, 70 or 80 I'll wish I look like I do now!

In the nick of time: Kwik Sew 3416 done

2012-01-14T23:06:00.000+11:00

It's probably way too late for Christmas related puns, but I did manage to finish sewing my maternity swimsuit on Christmas night just before we left the next morning for our holiday. And I'm so glad I did - I like how they turned out so much that I only wore the ones I made and not the tankini I had purchased 'just in case'. And they didn't fall apart either - they withstood swimming at the water theme park, the beach and the hotel resort pool with nary a popped stitch (phew!).

This is probably the bravest photo I've posted on my blog so far, but hey this is what I look like at 27 weeks pregnant - lumps, bumps, bruises, pale, freckly skin and one sizeable baby bump:

To recap I used Kwik Sew 3416, view A although I made two shoulder straps instead of a halter strap.

I modified it to make a maternity swimsuit by increasing the length of the front body piece and gathering at the sides so it created a ruched effect across the belly. I also added a bit of extra width across the front as well, but just cut the bodice and the crotch/bottom section to match my current measurements. Here's the inside of the gathered section:

The other change I made was to fully line the swimsuit instead of just lining the bodice and crotch section as per the pattern. I did however follow the pattern exactly for the rest of the sewing since this is my first swimsuit attempt, with mixed results. It looks good on the outside - I twin stitched the edges so it looks pretty much RTW from the outside:

but it is a huge mess on the inside though! The straps get sewn on last so the raw ends of the straps are visible, and the overlocked edge with the elastic stitched on by zig zag looks quite messy.

Worst of all though is the way the bra cups are sewn in. The pattern says to snip a cross at the bust point of the lining fabric, stretch the lining fabric over the curve of the bra cup and zig zag stitch around the edges of the bra cup. Then you have to cut away the lining fabric close to the stitching line so that the bra cup is exposed, like this:

Not only does this look a little bizarre and most unlike RTW, but the raw edge and the zig zag stitching is a little *ahem* itchy against that sensitive area of skin (sorry if that is too much info!). If I were to make this again I would make put another layer of lining fabric in that covered up the bra cups to avoid this. I would also possibly insert an underwire into the bodice as well to give a bit more shape and definition - you can see from that side on shot above that I am not overly endowed in the chestal region, but what I do have has sagged after pregnancy and 13 months of breastfeeding so I could use a little 'lift and seperate' action happening!!

So for about $20 I have made myself a pretty decent pair of maternity swimmers. Whilst I do think swimsuits are extremely expensive (the last non maternity suite I purchased was $165), I do take my hat off to the sewists - these are extremely fiddly and rather time consuming to sew comparative to the size of the garment!

Little miss three

2012-01-11T22:22:00.000+11:00

We've finally returned home from our annual Christmas visit to the inlaws / holiday. It is so nice to sleep in your own bed and be in your own space - parents reading this will nod in agreement when I say that a holiday with a small child is actually a misnomer, it's just parenting in a different location with the added challenge of being out of routine and in unfamiliar places! Add to that being six months pregnant in stifling Queensland heat it just adds up to it being harder than staying at home.....

While we were away Anna turned 3 and in the tradition I started for her I made her another birthday dress (2nd birthday dress here and 1st birthday dress here). It was tough work to get her to put it on because her favourite dress at the moment is a Dora the Explorer dress given to her as a hand me down that she wears practically every day unless she's been naughty and I make her take it off to wear some shorts and a tshirt as punishment!

I made a vintage pattern, Butterick 2194, which is undated but I think is circa 1950s possibly early 60s.

I made it from some cotton plisse in a pale purple white polka dot fabric, with contrasting white cotton collar and cuffs. I think it is very cute even though it has a touch of school uniform about it, especially since I made her pose in front of my inlaws house as though it were the first day of school:

It has buttons down the back of bodice, and is heavily gathered around the sides and the back so it passes the twirl test nicely:

Sadly all that enthusiastic twirling resulted in a a big fall, so we had to bribe her with some jelly while we patched her up:

Check out that pouty face - she has certainly turned into a little drama queen!

Hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season. I have a few days left before going back to work next week and with Anna back at daycare this week my real holiday is just starting....

From my family to yours

2011-12-24T18:24:00.002+11:00

Merry Christmas!

It's very cliched to say that Christmas has snuck up very quickly on us this year, but I cannot believe it's already Christmas eve!! Thankfully all my Christmas shopping has been done and mostly wrapped and the decorations are up so that's the bulk of my tasks done. But what a week I've had - put in three days at the office, did a gestational diabetes test (negative woo hoo!), hosted a party with our neighbours at our house, went to carols by candlelight, braved some late night shopping, babysat four kids for a few hours with a friend while we tried to get them to sit for a nice group photo (exhausting and fruitless) and cleaned my house (including my sewing room) from top to bottom. No wonder I feel about 90 years old at the moment!

Of course I didn't get everything done that I had on my to do list. My swimmers are about 75% done, all that I need are some straps and to sew the leg elastic on, but apart from that they look pretty awesome. I did think about saving the fabric for post pregnancy, but I think I've bought enough fabric to make a maternity swimsuit as well as a normal sized one - swimsuits really do use up so little fabric. Hopefully I can squeeze in some sewing time tonight after an overexcited little girl goes to bed.

After Vicki commented on the last post that Snapfish were having a 50% off sale on their calenders after she had bought one at 40% off without free postage I spent ages uploading photos and ordered 4 calenders by the cut off date for guaranteed pre Christmas delivery. Well here we are on Christmas eve and they are nowhere to be seen, but I guess I should have paid for the express post option and not just settled for the free standard shipping. Vicki I hope your calendar turned up in time - it will make up for not getting that extra 10% off and free shipping!

I did however manage to finish these Christmas decorations I started last year:

Better late than never right? I also slaved away over a gingerbread house, seriously it was so fiddly to construct and decorate that I decided halfway through that I would probably not make another one of these again, and then when the kids I was looking after managed to destroy it in 2 minutes and eat most of it in 30 minutes I definitely decided not to make one again!

I also wisely decided not to sew any Christmas presents this year because I knew I would only stress myself out and not finish them anyway. But I did make some cabbage patch doll clothes of all things for a doll I'm giving Anna for Christmas. It's actually my childhood cabbage doll that I've cleaned up and am gifting to her - possibly cheap, but I like to think it's nostalgic and sentimental. I seemed to have kept the doll (and my sister still has her identical twin doll too), but for some reason the clothes have gone missing.

I also spray painted an old cane basket I had in a red gloss paint to store all the clothes in. Far out sewing those little bitty clothes are fiddly, but it's a good use of fabric scraps. It's also really hard to find cabbage doll patterns - Butterick have stopped selling them, there are no free patterns on the web and the ones for sale on ebay are exorbitant. I bought one pattern for a shirt and jumper dress, but I ended up drafting a pattern for a simple a-line dress, pants and a skirt.

And that it is it for my crafty adventures for this year. I doubt I'll have time to sew or post again between now and our annual trip to the inlaws, let me say now thank you all for following along with my adventures this year and sharing your own too in your comments and on your own blogs - I really love being part of our sewing community.

I hope you all have a happy and calm Christmas and new year. Darwin residents - I hope the cyclone doesn't eventuate, and Christchurch residents my fingers are crossed that your ground stops shaking for the next few days at least.

Don't you hate it when this happens?

2011-12-11T21:23:00.001+11:00

The alternative title to this post, to use a good old Aussie phrase, is well that would be bloody right!

About a month or so ago I found myself driving to the airport to pick up the husband and was a bit too early due to some unheard of light traffic. The Remnant Fabric Warehouse happens to be on my route to the airport, so I stopped in to have a look at what they had on offer. They had such a great range of swimwear fabric for only $9.95/m that I had the crazy idea to make myself a maternity swimsuit. Mind you I've never made a swimsuit because if there's one garment you want well cut and well made to make sure it's flattering and that it won't fall apart on you while you're wearing it, it would be a swimsuit! And of course I've not made a maternity swimsuit either, but I figure if I could avoid paying $150+ for a maternity swimsuit that I would only use for the next three months then it would be worth a try.

So I picked up this dark grey and watermelon pink fan print fabric which according to the selvage was made for Nookie Beach (a local label) by Publisher Textiles:

Pretty fabric, right? I also picked up some skin coloured lining, swimsuit elastic and some sew in bra cups, all for a good price since the prices at the Remnant Warehouse are generally pretty good. Only I got an email from them last week informing me that they're having a 25% off everything sale! Since I haven't cut out the fabric yet, I could have just waited a little bit and saved 25% (or more likely bought 25% more fabric instead). Don't you hate it when you have poor timing?

But it gets worse.... It turned out I didn't have a single swimsuit pattern among my collection of 600 plus patterns, and the itty bitty bikini patterns in the Burda magazine weren't exactly what I wanted. So a few weeks ago I popped into Spotlight when they were having one of their very frequent 20% off everything sale and picked up Kwik Sew 3416 pattern:

There are hardly any swimsuit patterns available, but amazingly Kwik Sew had quite a few patterns to select from, but I thought this one would be the easiest to adapt for maternity given it has a seam under the bust line. So with the 20% off and an extra 10% from my VIP membership I paid about $13 for this pattern (yes Kwik Sew patterns are very expensive in Australia). And in another coincidence in poor timing last week they sent out their latest catalogue advertising 50% off all patterns, and helpfully enclosing a 15% off voucher to boot!

And then a few days ago I popped into an op shop and found not one, but two swimsuit patterns for the grand total of $1.... Sure they are 1980s style, but with a little modification they could be modernised: McCalls 9089 and McCalls 9566, both long out of print.

So after all of these grrrrrrr moments, I thought I had better get started on that swimsuit. I'm happy to say that my test swimsuit made from some lycra I had in the stash has actually turned out quite well so I'm thinking I might just be able to do this successfully after all. But the final annoying moment? Queen Bee maternity currently has a sale on maternity swimwear (with free postage in Australia), and I bought a tankini in solid blue for $54 marked down from $128!!! Oh well, I'm sure I could use two swimsuits given I have a beach holiday coming up soon and just in case mine turns out ordinary.

learning from my mistakes......and then some!

2011-12-08T20:33:00.001+11:00

After my failure to make the white shirt from the last post long enough in the front I was determined not to do that again. Well I've certainly avoided that problem with the latest blouse I've sewn, with tons of length to spare. In fact if my bump grows big enough to need the extra length I've included this time around I will freak out. See for yourself:

Ha ha I crack myself up sometimes! I suppose I could re-hem the front and shorten it slightly so that the dip at the front is not so exaggerated, but that would mean adding something else to my extremely long to do list so I think I shall live with it.
In answer to Dib's question posted in the comments to the last post about whether I'm only modifying Burda patterns for maternity wear the answer is no - it only seems that way. I try to pick patterns that already have a hint of maternity about them so that it's not too difficult to modify them, and it just so happens that Burda have been specialising in patterns for loose flowing smock / potato sack styles that are ripe for modification! But the added benefit of Burda is that since I'm already tracing them out it's convenient to make the modifications to the pattern at the same time.

But for this blouse I used Simplicity 4589 because it was an easy style to modify given that it has no shape to it whatsoever. All I had to do to make it work was to increase the width of the front by about 10cm, and increase the amount of gathering under the yoke to accommodate that extra width. Actually I used a series of small pleats across the front because I think it looks neater than gathering. I also made a matching tie to wear with it because without cinching it in it has a bit of old fashioned smock look about it.

I made this in a soft cotton which I recently purchased from Spotlight for no particular reason, so I was glad it didn't join the stash and instead got make into something quickly. The fabric though had huge potential for misplacement at the bustline (if you get my drift) but thankfully with the gathers across the front I shouldn't have that problem.

Although this is comfortable to wear, looking at these photos I think I should have made the next size up across the bust because it looks a little tight under the arms. Clothes not fitting me at the bust is certainly not a problem I've had before! Perhaps widening the yoke would let the front fall more freely.

In answer to the comments in the last post, Carol I think the reason the white shirt stayed clean is because I work it to work and didn't spend the day with Anna. As with all toddlers she is a major mess magnet and I usually get some fallout from her too! Gail I am hoping to wear this post maternity, I'm sure that by adding the pleats at the front and elastic casing around the waistline that it will be a flattering fit.
And now to get on with the rest of my to do list - why is it christmas seems to come around more quickly every year?

Wardrobe 101: the white shirt

2011-12-02T21:19:00.001+11:00

In every article that a fashion magazine runs on wardrobe essentials the basic white shirt is always included. It's a bit ho hum boring, but I do admit a nice crisp white shirt is a versatile wardrobe builder that goes with loads of outfits in all sorts of occasions. And when you're preggers you need as much versatility as possibility, because you eventually get to a point where you'll wear anything anywhere as long as it fits!

So I decided to make a white linen shirt from Burda 6/2008 # 107, the shirt option of the pattern I previously made this grey cotton dress from. Since I had made this previously with maternity adjustments I knew it would fit and so I was able to sew it up from cutting out to finish in just a few hours. And here's how it turned out:

I wore this to work on Monday (with the grey pants from the last post) which is why it's looking a little wrinkled, but that's to be expected (and accepted) from linen. I left off the front gathers that I had put in the grey dress because this fabric was a little stiffer and so didn't drape as well but also because it doesn't look shapeless without them so I didn't bother. I like how the darts at the back give a nice fitted look whilst still having enough room for a comfortable fit.

However I don't think I cut the front long enough to cover my bump for the entire pregnancy because looking at that side view it looks like it sticks out a bit. The shirt covers the bump nicely now and perhaps with high waisted skirts and pants it may work, so I shall see whether I need to make another one or not.

Thank you for the lovely comments on the grey linen pants to the last post, they have proven very handy this week when our weather turned unexpectedly cold and these are pretty much the only pants I have that fit at the moment. I've grown out of my normal pants (for obvious reasons) and out of my maternity jeans (due to expansion of my rear not the bump embarrassingly) but I'm also not big enough yet for the other maternity pants I made last time around.

I have already cut two pairs of shorts out using the same pattern although I might add some details like patch pockets or button tabs just to jazz them up a little. Speaking of cutting out, Shannie and Dibbs I'm fortunate enough to have a dedicated cutting table in my sewing room which has extra tall legs so that the surface height is just under my bent elbow so I don't have to bend at all although just standing for any short period of time these days is enough to give me a sore back. But I'm sure you both know plenty about that since you're both pretty much at the same stage as me.

Connie (Grandma C) my official due date is March 30, although I'm taking that with a grain of salt given that Anna was two weeks late! So I'll be delivering at the beginning of our autumn which will be nice weather wise, but I'll still be in the third trimester during our summer. I should have learnt my lesson last time around because being heavily pregnant in summer was far from pleasant!

Extreme Burda 6/2011 #114

2011-11-25T21:28:00.001+11:00

Regular users of the Burda magazine know to take their pattern descriptions with a grain of salt. It says the pattern is easy? Translation: don't follow their instructions, work it out yourself and then it will be easier. It says the design is trendy and you'll turn heads? Translation: you'll just look like one of those uber chic fashion students trying to outdo each other to make it onto a street style blog and whose fashion hardly anyone else will understand. It says this barely there slip of a dress or cut to there blouse is perfect for the office? Translation: if your office is a bar or a bordello, why then yes it will probably be perfect!

So I really should have known better when I decided to make the wide leg pants (#114) from issue 6/2011:

I hardly ever make pants because getting a good fit is just too much hard work in general, and even more so for a pear shape. Plus I do prefer to wear dresses and skirts so not making pants isn't an issue. But being preggers a pair of elasticated waistband wide leg trousers should be a simple sew with few fitting issues. But then I had to go and choose this pattern didn't I? The magazine does describe them as wide leg so I should have taken that literally.

I chose this pattern mainly because of the waistband, thinking the only modification I would need would be to lower the front crotch rise so that the waistband would sit below my bump. Except these pants were so wide and so long that it was just plain ridiculous! Seriously, after tracing the pattern for my (newly increased) hip size, I did a flat pattern measurement and realised the pants would have about 15cm ease on each leg, and be too long by almost 12 cm. And even after I had removed a fair bit of that width and length, after I had sewn them up I still ended up reducing and shortening them a bit more because I just looked clownish. In fact I probably looked as silly as the model photograph in the magazine:

An Angelina Jolie lookalike and friend making faces at a parrot? What the.......

Granted I am not a Nordic giantess with legs up to there, and nor did I sew these up in a drapey silk jersey as suggested in the magazine so it's probably all my poor pattern choosing. But after all that whittling down, I now have a super comfy pair of linen trousers to wear on those days when I can't be bothered shaving my legs:

I made the waistband a combination of elastic for comfort and a drawstring so I can be confident that my pants won't end up around my knees when I have a whingy toddler tugging at my pant legs in Kmart (I'm sure all the mothers reading this just know what I'm talking about!). And I left off the inseam side pockets too because when I had to take in the side seams further after sewing them I just couldn't be bothered and literally just sewed a straight line from waistband to hem. I also dipped the front waistband down so it sits on the lower part of my bump, but not quite underneath:

So after all that I have a pair of simple and basic pants, but it's those basics that make our wardrobes go around isn't it? And now I have gone to the effort of refining the pattern perhaps I'll make it again before I get a waistline back and have more difficult fitting issues!

Every body needs a LBD: New Look 6000 the maternity version

2011-11-20T14:43:00.001+11:00

I had a night out with some girlfriends last week, and legitimately had cause to stand in front of my wardrobe and wail "I have nothing to wear!". It seems that all of my maternity clothes are either for work or are quite casual. Luckily I had the foresight to think about this several days in advance of the event because it gave me time to make an old standby for a night out: a little black dress. Well in my case not so little, but you get the drift!

I decided to modify New Look 6000 into a maternity version, because up until about two weeks ago I was still wearing the purple ponti knit version I made a while back and it looked quite good - I just didn't want to pop any seams or stretch the fabric too far. This time though I decided to leave off the large collar and three quarter sleeves with cuffs since we're now coming into summer and the cap sleeve version would be a much better choice.

I used a black ponti knit, which is fast becoming a favourite fabric of mine to sew with because it has the stretch qualities of a knit with the stability of a woven whilst sewing. This one was labelled a 'super ponti' and besides being $10/m more expensive at Spotlight (at $24.95/m I was glad I waited until they had a 40% off sale) it is a more thicker fabric with slightly less stretch than the purple version I made.

So I figured that to accommodate a baby bump it would probably be best to put those radiating pleats on both sides of the waistline plus a bit extra width there to create a little 'pouch'. And I'm happy to say it worked, sort of.....

Here's the front of the dress:

Looks pretty nice doesn't it, especially with my new yellow shoes? Ah, but look at the side version:

See how there is way too much excess fabric there below my bust line? And that pointy bit of fabric behind my head? That would be the zipper sticking out because the back neckline was way too wide for me, something that I guess the collar on the purple version concealed. I know that when my bump gets to be bigger I'll probably need that extra fabric and it will fit just fine, because when I pull the dress down over my bump it goes away:

But since I'm a little vain and I want it to look good now, I decided to sew a wedge of the fabric across the middle joining up two of those pleats so that the excess fabric gets tucked into the inside for now but I can take out the seam later on when needed. Here's what the inside now looks like:

And the outside:

Being black the seam isn't overly noticeable, and whilst doing this didn't completely eliminate the problem (you can see it still looks a bit puffy) it has improved it a great deal. I also fixed the gaping back neckline by putting in a dart on either side of the zipper, although I was too lazy to unpick the neck facing so I just put the dart through both the fabric and facing (tsk tsk tsk!).

In the end it turned out pretty good, and now I have a basic dress to wear to work with office appropriate pumps or I could fancy it up with party shoes and accessories for a night out.

Maternity modifications

I've had a few people ask me for more details on the modifications I've been making to the patterns I've used so far, so I'll try to give a little more detail each time.

1. For this pattern, the first thing I did was to change the front dress pattern piece from a single asymmetrical piece (because the pleats are only on the one side in the original pattern), to a pattern piece to be cut on the fold so that I could have identical pleats on both sides. No rocket science here - I just folded down the centre from the centre front neckline to the centre of the bottom hem.

2. Next I cut the pattern in two across the waistline and added an extra 5cm in length to the front pattern piece. And then I added an extra pleats in that additional length so that the centre of the dress would be 6cm longer but not the side of the dress. I also added a little extra width in this area too, bu straightening out the waistline curve. Here's the original and modified pattern pieces so that you get a better idea of what I'm saying:

3. Finally I dipped the front hem so it was a bit longer at the centre front curving up to the back hem at the sides to make sure that when my bump gets bigger the dress isn't too short at the front a la mullet style of dress. You can see in the photos above that the front hem sits lower than the back at the moment, but that will gradually even up.

If I were to make this again (or of course had I made a test muslin first) I would probably add less length to the middle section, and possibly move those pleats down a little so it was more fitted under the bust and more gathered over the bump.

And in other good news I'm now 21 weeks, so I've reached the halfway mark. So far all good, not too much weight gain this time around although the return of morning sickness most days (albeit mild) has probably helped with that. I've also been having very low blood pressure which combined with the heat we're now having means I am quite exhausted and having dizzy spells which resulted in me fainting whilst in line to buy Anna an icecream! So overly dramatic and embarrassing, but my obstetrician is not concerned about it all - his advice was just to lay down when I feel dizzy. Easier said than done!

little red dresses: Kwik Sew 3665 & New Look 6960

2011-11-10T20:59:00.003+11:00

Whilst I still had red thread in my overlocker I decided to quickly make Anna some little dresses now that the weather is really heating up around here. In the space of one child free afternoon I managed not only to make these two really cute dresses, but also gave my sewing room a much needed clean up - such a productive afternoon!

First up I made this red dress from some stretch linen leftover ironically from a maternity dress I made for myself when I was pregnant with Anna, and some red polka dot fabric for a contrast ruffle:

I used Kwik Sew 3665, from which I've made the top several times before and it turns out the dress is just as quick and easy. A simple raglan sleeved, elastic drawn neckline and sleeves means that it just comes together so quickly.

To break up the two red fabrics because they weren't quite the same shades of red, I sewed some twill ribbon on:

I think it looks really cute, although it is bordering on a christmas decoration theme! I wish I had an equally cute photo of Anna wearing it, but she was being a cheeky little monkey posing in various ways and pulling silly faces, but you get the idea:

The second dress I made from some red gingham with a printed border that I picked up in a country op shop last year when I had to travel for work.

I chose a simple pattern to make the most of the fabric, New Look 6960 which appears to be out of print now even though I only recently bought it:

Like the other dress, this is a very simple style but I really like that rounded yoke. I made sure to use the pattern with fluttery cap sleeves (view D) because her day care centre is really strict on sun exposure and if a child comes in wearing sleeveless tops they have to stay inside and play, even though they slather them all in sunscreen.

And look at this pose - she's obviously been watching her mum pose for photos far too closely 'cos unprompted she slid one foot forward and put her hands on her hips!

And before I overload you all with cuteness, check out this belly shot of my almost 20 week bump:

The Burda afternoon dress: 4/08 #116

2011-11-03T22:46:00.000+11:00

Regular readers of Burda magazine know they regularly make outrageous and outlandish claims in their magazine. They'll show a very low cut top, or short skirt, or backless number and describe it as being perfect for the office. Or these crazy pants that are in my latest magazine (8/2011 #115):

which they describe as "these trousers are a real work of art. The pencils legs end in wide hem ruffles! Watch out! When you're wearing these trousers you'll attract more attention than the sights." No I didn't make that up, or add those exclamation points - that's just Burda being too funny for you.

But they did describe my latest finished project as being so quick and easy that you could cut it out and finish sewing it up in an afternoon, which turned out to be entirely accurate. I made dress #116 from the 4/2008 issue, which funnily enough I bought the fabric when I was pregnant last time around meaning to make it then but didn't find time! If only I knew how quick it would take. The pattern looks like this:

It's not a maternity pattern, but I thought that the gathering at the bust would lend itself nicely to stretch across a growing belly. And I was right, the only modification I made was to grade out from a size 38 at the bust to a size 42 for the waistline, and this combined with a stretchy polyester knit fabric it fits swimmingly, with room to spare:

Although I must say if I wasn't pregnant I wouldn't be too impressed with the way this looks, the style of the dress could easily give the impression of a baby belly even if all you'd had was a good sized meal.

This is a fairly simple style, with the bodice sewn separately to the front skirt, and the back a single piece cut on the fold. Interestingly the depth of the v-neck is controlled by that gathered central piece which goes up and over the neckline and is sewn to the seam line of the bodice on the inside. I made that flap a little bit longer so it didn't pull the v-neck down quite so low, although it's still a bit va va voom for me! But I have the *ahem* assets at the moment, so I may as well make the most of them while they're there.....

And thank you all for the congratulations on finishing a UFO, I guess you all share my sense of achievement on getting one finished! And while several of you marvelled at me keeping it for more than 10 years, I don't think it's the oldest thing in my UFO box (gulp!). But I did have a bit of clean up, throwing out some UFOs in awful fabric that weren't worth finishing, and moving some others that are in nice fabric into the refashioning pile to make something better for Anna instead. So now I only have a handful of UFOs leftover...

In response to the comments from the last post:

Connie (Grandma C) - you are so right, I am loving the maternity spanx (and loving asos.com for delivering within a few days for free shipping too!). I think I may have gotten a size too big because they are firm but a little loose around the back waistband, but I'm sure I'll grow into them. I can already feel the benefits of the support, because it doesn't feel like my belly is heaving from side to side when I walk. Kimberly - I was worried about them putting pressure on my belly because I too feel nauseous when something is too tight around the waist, but these are just like firm pantyhose but with a super soft stretchy panel across the belly so it's all good. In fact the only downside to the maternity spanx is that its made from pantyhose like material and not a silky finish like other shapewear, so I've found that unlined knit dresses tend to cling to them and gather between my legs as I walk.

Beebee - good point that not all accessories need a purpose, I didn't think of it from that point of view. Although I guess them being called 'accessories' and not 'necessities' makes that clear doesn't it?!

Jean - those red shoes from the last post are my wedding shoes, well spotted. Since I have so many pairs of shoes, and I look after my shoes I have quite a few pairs that I've only for many years. In fact my winter boots are at least 10 years old, and I've only re-heeled them once and they're still going on strong. As for this baby, we've decided on another surprise delivery so we still have a while to go to find out whether I get to sew more little dresses or whether it's time to start sewing little cargo shorts.

something new, something old, something blue.....

2011-10-26T12:36:00.002+11:00

I didn't have a traditional wedding so I didn't get to fulfill that old wedding tradition. Whilst I did wear something new, it was a bright red dress!

My latest finished project however certainly fits the bill. When I put away my failed wool jacket a few weeks ago into my UFO pile of shame, something I hadn't added to for at least 2 years, I pulled out a project to finish to even up the balance. Luckily I found a half finished dress that is quite unstructured and flowing (ie a shapeless sack) which even though is a non maternity pattern it still fits my now quite large bump.

I must have started this dress over 10 years ago, because all the seams aren't overlocked despite them fraying like crazy and since I've owned my overlocker I overlock everything. The reason this became a long term UFO is that I sewed the armhole facings on the wrong way, so they kept turning out despite me understitching and top stitching to get them to lay flat. Once I realised what I had done wrong I must have tired of unpicking all that stitching because this fabric is a loose weave, the thread matched exactly and it was painful to say the least to undo it all.

But to make up for my recent UFO I persevered, and not only unpicked the facings, but also took out the centred back zipper so I could replace it with an invisible zip, and also unpicked the side seams so I could line the dress. So essentially I started this dress from scratch!

And in hindsight it was probably better that I didn't finish it at the time and instead let it sit until my sewing skills improved and my attention to detail increased. If I had of finished it back then it would be a very unlovely potato sack and unlined despite the loose weave and risk for transparency because way back then I rarely bothered with fussy details such as lining!

I'm not a 100% sure since it's been so long since I started this project, but I think I used a now long OOP New Look 6355. It's the closest match to the dress, although my dress seems to have extended shoulder straps that look a little like cap sleeves, which this pattern doesn't really show:

The fabric I used is some powder blue polyester/rayon (definitely a man made fabric) herringbone weave fabric, and I lined with with a thin cotton voile in pale grey so that I would have a natural fabric against my skin during the summer heat. Since I wasn't entirely sure about the pattern, I used the dress fabric pieces as a pattern for the lining. And here's what I came up with:

Unsurprisingly it's a little tight across the bust since I've had a bit of growth in that area since becoming pregnant, but amazingly it has enough room to cover my now 4 month belly and I should get a few more weeks wear out of it at a least. Post pregnancy I could put some vertical darts in the front and back to give it more shape. But for now if I wear it with a belt it gives a bit of definition and takes it away from the whole pregnancy smock look:

Although I must admit I'm a little on the fence when it comes to wearing a belt like this when pregnant: I've seen many pregnant women (both celebs and us mere mortals) dressed like that looking fantastic, but I feel a bit silly since it's rather pointless because it's not holding up your pants or defining your waistline! But whatever it takes to make yourself happy I guess.

I'm just as guilty though - I *may* have just ordered some maternity spanx for myself. I bet you didn't even know such a thing existed right? Check these out:

I need a little support because I'm already sprouting an impressive forest of varicose veins on my thighs, plus last pregnancy I got the worse chafing between my chubby thighs so I think this will definitely help with that. And if helps eliminate VPL and the jiggling going on back there these days, especially when wearing knit dresses, well that's just an added bonus I figure!

when 2.5 year olds choose their own clothes....

2011-10-20T21:37:00.000+11:00

Long time readers of my little blog may recall when I first announced Anna's birth I titled the post: "Introducing my future fashionista". A little tongue in cheek of course, but I was sort of referring to how I expected her to behave in her teenage years or at worst in her tween years. But it turns out that at the grand old age of 2 and a half, Anna has very firm ideas on what clothes she will wear each day. Like mother like daughter I guess, because she has a definite preference for skirts and dresses (with stockings) over sensible day care clothes like tracksuit pants and shorts!

She's gotten a little cranky with me lately because all of the sewing I've done has been for me, so I decided to whip out some simple and very quick elastic waist skirts for her. Seriously, what can be simpler or quicker than a piece of rectangle fabric with a seam at the back, a hem and an elastic waist? The hardest part was picking out the fabric, but once that was done it took about 30 minutes to sew these two up:

Happily she was very excited to see these two hanging in her cupboard and insisted on putting the blue skirt on straight away. But for a simple trip down to the supermarket this is the ensemble she insisted on wearing:

Not too bad right? Well, have a look at what she chose to wear with it:

She was the best dressed toddler in Coles that day! Look out Zsa Zsa Gabor!

Burda 6/2008 #108 - non maternity dress for the growing belly

2011-10-16T22:43:00.000+11:00

Goodbye cold, hello fabled second trimester energy spurt! Well mostly, I still have an annoying cough and the odd feeling of morning sickness now and then, but on the whole am feeling a million times better and have managed to get quite a lot done in the past few days.

First of my recently finished projects is this dress that just yesterday I finished hand sewing all the buttons (my button foot is broken, sigh) and wore today to my mum's birthday lunch:

It's made from Burda 6/2008 #108, which is a shirt dress with gathers at the waistline and the back:

It's not a maternity pattern, and nor does it appear to be overly potato sack like, but all I had to do to make it fit was to grade out from a size 36 at the bustline to a size 42 at the waistline and raise those gathers a little from just above the natural waistline to instead just under the bust to make an empire line. And while it drapes nicely now over my four month bump:

it also has ample room to grow into as this gust of wind helpfully demonstrates:

The pattern calls for a self fabric encased elastic waistband from those darts in the front wrapping around to the darts in the back, but I left that off to make it easier to remove the darts one by one if needed due to belly expansion. In fact I originally wanted to do a few lines of shirring in place of those darts so that it would stretch, but I just could not get my sewing machine to shirr which was annoying. According to my google research a lot of people have trouble getting their Brother sewing machines to shirr, but even following this You Tube tutorial which describes adjusting the bobbin casing tension I still couldn't make mine work. In fact all I achieved was to ruin the factory seal on my bobbin casing and I still can't get the tension back to how it was before I fiddled with it.

I love this fabric, not only because it's grey but I like the subtle pattern and the crispness of the cotton. I bought it from Spotlight maybe two years ago for no particular project but just because I like it, so I'm glad I finally found a worthy use for it. And I'm not the only one either - after I posted a photo of the fabric on this post a little while back Claire emailed me to ask where I had purchased it from since she had been searching for it to replicate a H&M top she used to own which was made from the exact same print.

Anyway this was a super easy pattern and I can guarantee you will see another version of it since I bought some linen blend fabric last week to make another, and I will possibly make a shirt length version of it too. It has raglan sleeves which makes construction quicker and easier, and I followed the David Coffin book for the shirt collar and stand (helpfully illustrated in this tutorial by Sigrid). I especially love how the darts in front result in graceful folds in the skirt which isn't something apparent from the Burda model photo but is probably because I made the skirt wider from the bust down than the pattern is designed for.

Even the darts in the back deal with my swayback issue nicely without any pattern fiddling:

I should introduce you to my sewing friend, a display mannequin that comes with a detachable maternity belly that I bought for a bargain price on ebay a while back:

For the last year she's been standing naked in a corner of my sewing room, but is now certain to come in handy!

Burda 8/2009 #128 - the maternity version

2011-10-12T22:39:00.000+11:00

Second week of my cold and I can't say I'm feeling any better at all. My annoying dry cough is giving me major rib pain, but on the upside is driving my husband nuts which is payback for his snoring lately due to his hayfever which is driving me nuts! And I got to take another week off work, so there's always a silver lining to almost any situation.

But I did manage to squeeze in small spurts of sewing over the weekend, interspersed by longer bouts of laying on the lounge and I have completed the first of my maternity sewing. Ironically it's not one of the projects I had lined up from the fabrics I posted about a few posts ago, but a spur of the moment dress based on my most worn and favourite Burda dress, no.128 from issue 8 of 2009. It's the three quarter sleeved tulip dress which looks like this:

My first version I made exactly as per the pattern, even down to the grey herringbone wool fabric and the grosgrain ribbon belt:

To say I love this dress is an understatement - I wear it frequently and it always makes me feel great, and ladylike. Then I made a summer version in a bright fuchsia coloured stretch cotton drill with cap sleeves:

So I thought a maternity version of this dress would be a great addition to my work wardrobe. And I had purchased some dark grey ponti fabric from Spotlight a few months ago when they had a 40% off sale which was just perfect for re-creating the original version I made. And here it is:

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It fits nicely now, but still has enough room and stretch for me to grow into it for the next few months at least. And it was so simple to modify for a maternity version: I simply raised the waistline seam to an empire line, made the front skirt piece wider by 10cm and made each of those pleats a little deeper. I had previously modified the back pattern piece from a single dress panel to a skirt and bodice, so I raised the waistline seam on the back to an empire waist as well to match the front. I even remembered to make the dress longer at the front so the hem line dips down right now, but with a bit more growth in the belly area it will even out.

When I made the fuchsia version of this dress, I lined the bodice which enclosed the underside of the cap sleeve nicely. I chose not to line this dress because I want to be able to wear it during summer but I was also too lazy to draft some armhole facings, so all I did was turn under the edge and top stitch it down. It's hardly noticeable, and I really doubt anyone will be staring at my underarms!

The only thing annoying me is the front neckline is gaping open, which is not something I experienced in the two previous versions I made. I don't know if it's because this is a stretchy knit and not a woven, or because I didn't interface the neckline, or possibly even a combination of both. Looking at the photo of the Burda model I see her dress slightly gaping at the centre front too, so maybe we're both hunchers with our shoulders slouched forward! But I don't plan to undo it to fix it though, it's just something I'll live with.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to once again consume my body weight in vitamin C and annoy my husband some more with my coughing!

lounging around

2011-10-06T21:02:00.001+11:00

My lounge and I have become the bestest of friends this week - since last Sunday I have had a terrible cold and a horribly annoying dry cough which is passing sooo slowly because when you're pregnant you can't take any of those fantastic cold + flu medicines that either dry you out or make you sleepy, either of which would be a godsend at this point in time.

We went camping last weekend which was a long weekend with some friends, and after two days of good weather on Sunday the sky opened and there was torrential rain and gale force winds. All around us tents were flattened or blown away completely, luckily ours was still standing. Although that did mean we had to pack it away in the rain - all good fun though. All the best camping stories have some sort of 'what were we thinking' component to them don't they?

So instead of having a productive long weekend and week sewing wise, instead all I have achieved is catching up on some boxed DVD sets I got for christmas last year (Bewitched and Mad Men) and straining my stomach muscles from all the coughing. I even wasted two work free and Anna free days at home laying on the lounge. Oh dear, this is a dreary story isn't it?

But to cheer me up, and to liven this blog post up, check out this huge box of patterns my parents picked up for me in some small town op shop in the middle of nowhere on their recent holiday:

These are mostly 1950 and 1960 vintage, and unbelievably most are in my size too! Plus there are lots of cute kids patterns too. What an absolute score, far better than receiving a souvenir t-shirt or hat for sure. These are my favourites:

And thank you all for your comments on the last post - I am so touched that so many of you are sharing in our excitement about the next addition to our family. Suzanne your comment about me being brave enough to go for #2 made me laugh, because for the first 12 months after Anna I swore I would never have any more children, then the next 12 months I swore I would only have another child if Anna started sleeping more and stopped being so tiring, and it's only in the last 6 months that I have come around to thought of going through it all again. It's my husband that is the clucky one - he wants three children and this combined with him turning 40 this year meant he was eager to have another.

We have decided to opt for another surprise delivery again, so we'll all have to wait until late March to see whether I'll be sewing little boy or little girl clothes. I don't mind either way what we have, although a little bit of me wouldn't mind another girl - their clothes are so much cuter to make than little boys. I only just told Anna yesterday that mummy is having a baby, because she has no concept of time and the next 5 and a half months are really going to drag out for her. I wanted to leave it longer to tell her, but she overheard me telling one of her daycarers and she understood straight away what was happening. She is very excited, always kissing and hugging my belly which is cute, and she seems convinced it's a little girl. Hope she won't be disappointed if a little boy comes out!

And as for morning sickness, I'm too sick with my cold at the moment to be able to tell if it's still hanging around!

Happy sewing everyone, hope you're all more healthy than I am at the moment.

uh oh, here I go again

2011-09-28T22:34:00.000+10:00

Abandoning that jacket has done wonders for my sewing mojo - in the last few days I have I sewn a new dress that is just in need of a hem (which I need buy a new twin needle for) even though it wasn't one of the fabrics I had in the photograph in the last post. It was just one of those random spur of the moment choices which I think has reignited my love affair with sewing - being able to sew what you want is great! Plus I have already pinned up my next project which is one of those in the photo from the last post (yeah I'm really lame at sewing with a plan!).

I also treated myself to a new pair of shoes to celebrate the arrival of spring, which should go nicely with the grey fabrics I have lined up for my next two (maybe three) projects:

Oh and I should share with you the other accessory I am currently rocking:

I'm having another baby!

I've popped out so much earlier than last time - I'm nearly 14 weeks now and already my normal clothes are way too small and the belly has almost gone from that 'had too much to eat' look to a definite baby bump. Of course it doesn't help that I always sew my clothes with the closest fit possible because there's not much room in them for expansion. This dress which was luckily made from a stretch cotton sateen was bursting at the seams when I took this photo two weeks ago and has now been put away for the foreseeable future.

Morning sickness this time round has been far far worse than last time too - I am still having a close inspection of the inside of toilet every morning even now at 14 weeks. In fact it's been such a frequent occurrence that Anna's new pretend game is to yell out "I sick mummy" and then run into the bathroom, lean over the toilet and make a very realistic vomiting noise. Oh dear, I hope she forgets this one soon!

Plus I've been so exhausted lately, which is normal but made even worse having a toddler to run around after. That is the main reason behind my lack of productivity of late, it has been way too hard to drag myself off the lounge each evening.

So you can expect a bit of maternity sewing around these parts for the next 6 months. I really enjoyed the challenge last time of adapting non maternity patterns, although lately Burda has been quite helpful in offering up billowy shapeless styles in the magazine for the last year which will be great for maternity styles with very little adaptation. Plus there are a few other bloggers who are currently maternity sewing too, in particular Kitty Couture whose style I love and I'm sure I'll get a lot of inspiration from even though she is in a different season to me.

And now I need to brave the fabric store tomorrow to buy that new twin needle, hopefully I can escape without buying more fabric because I have my eye on some more shoes instead!

breaking my UFO rule......(sigh)

2011-09-25T22:10:00.000+10:00

Last week I studiously applied myself to finishing the black wool jacket. Seriously, I did. I forced myself to work on it an hour each night until it was all sewn together, including a rather funky paisley print lining:

but before I sewed on the ruffled peplum which would have been the final step, I tried on the jacket after sewing in the sleeves to insert the shoulder pads. And the fit was appalling! My fault of course for not making a muslin, but I've sewed several Burda jackets before and have found that a size 36 is a good fit, plus I did flat pattern measurements which seemed ok. But once it was sewn I could see that back was too broad, the shoulder seam too wide and generally just a little too big overall. All fixable of course, but it would require unstitching quite a few seams but unpicking black thread on black fabric with the added fussiness of block fused whisperweft interfacing is a task that I was just not up to at the moment.

So sadly I have broken my self imposed no new UFO rule which I have adhered to for the last 2 years. But KayY's comment that sometimes the right garments are just started at the wrong time resonated with me, so I'm considering this one a 'seasonal' UFO and will put it at the top of my to do list next winter.

To even things out I pulled out a summer dress from the UFO box while I was putting this one away, and have already started working on pulling it apart to re-sew and finish it. So all is well with my little universe.

And Vicki you are so right that the jacket was holding up the sewing queue. The relief of putting this jacket aside is obvious - I spent a few quiet hours on Saturday afternoon tracing out 4 Burda patterns to go with these spring fabrics I pulled from the stash recently that will become my next four projects (from l-r dress, dress, wide leg pants, dress):

So expect to see some colour (and finished projects) around these parts soon!

Procrastination city - resident: me

2011-09-17T22:59:00.003+10:00

I am so annoyed at myself right now for my self imposed rule of creating no new UFOs. Sure it's meant that I've finished every project I've started for the last two years, thus not wasting fabric or effort but right now it's killing me! I've started making this cute jacket from Burda 9/2010 #126 :

from a piece of black wool melton that I happened to have in the stash. I actually started it over a month ago and haven't sewn a stitch yet. It's progress was interrupted by making Anna's dress for my grandfather's funeral and my sequinned jacket for the party (both necessities), but really I've dragged my feet on all the steps so far: steaming the wool and pretreating the interfacing, cutting out the pieces, block fusing all the pieces and marking the darts - which is where I'm up to now.

This would have been a lovely jacket worn over all those colourful summer style dresses I made during winter and that is the real problem. It's spring around here now, and we are having glorious sunny days, so my brain is telling me I don't need a cozy jacket made from wool melton no matter how cute! So every time I go into my sewing room instead of sewing I've been going through my stash picking out lovely cottons and linens for summer sewing, flicking through my patterns and - the ultimate sign of procrastination - cleaning up the sewing room!

But I will finish it because I shan't let myself break my no new UFO rule now. I'm hoping that by posting this I will shame myself into finishing it quick sticks so I can report back next week with a photo of a sweaty me out in the sunshine wearing it! This post is a virtual kick in the pants, hope it works....

Thanks for all your lovely comments on the sequinned jacket, it is a surprisingly great addition to my wardrobe. And I've even found the perfect thing to wear with it over summer:

These sparkly Seed shorts in an oh so flattering boxer short style, available for the bargain basement price of $249.95.

Oh that's right, I have lost my willpower not my mind! But jokes aside, if you look closely you can see these are constructed with a silk underlayer, and the sequinned layer is a separate outer layer which is a good way of dealing with the scratchiness of sequined fabric. Ah there are lessons to be learnt everywhere we look.

Mysummertouch - I too thought that to sew sequinned fabric you needed to cut the sequins off from the seam allowance, but I tried just sewing over this fabric as normal on a scrap bit and it worked just fine. I did break one needle when I went too fast, but by going a bit slower it sewed together like normal fabric and the seams pressed flat. I think it's because this fabric is actually tiny little metal rings, instead of small metal discs like traditional sequins, so the needle was able to sew in between and in the middle of the rings. I'm glad it worked out like that, because cutting out the sequins from the seam allowances sounds pretty tedious, and I probably would have procrastinated on this one too!

Samina - I am not really a fan of sequinned garments either, and in fact when I was in the fabric store I was actually looking for a nice embroidered silk or some other textured colourful fabric when this caught my eye. Again I think it's because it's not the traditional large, reflective sequins in gaudy silver or gold ( or red shudder) but is a little more subtle.... I hope.

Vicki - how could I have forgotten Sofie's formal dress? It is the perfect balance of fabrics and colours. I wish I had worn something with that level of style to my formal instead of the black sheath dress I wore (thinking I was uber cool).

Anyway fingers crossed I report back in with a finished jacket.......

Sparkly sparkly - Burda #101 7/2011

2011-09-09T21:24:00.000+10:00

Thank you all for your diplomatic comments to my last post, magoo you are so right that everyone has left very polite comments! And snarktastical what a good idea to cut the top off to level it and then flip it over - the reason I didn't cut the top off was because I didn't want the crumbs in the icing sugar, but now it just seems so obvious.....

In the end it didn't matter, because the cake tasted fantastic (how could it not with that much icing on it!) and my husband was very surprised and happy because it's the first time someone has made him a themed birthday cake! I cannot believe that he escaped childhood without a train birthday cake or some other creation from the Australian Womens Weekly birthday cookbook (the most famous book for cakes in Australia). Actually I find it a little sad, as I have lots of memories of my birthday cakes from when I was little, but perhaps the Chinese don't go over the top the way that some of us do!

We had a small party for about 50 people at a local restaurant for him and his best friend who was also 40 a few days earlier, so of course I needed something new to wear. I decided to make this sequin jacket from Burda 7/2011, model no 101.

It's a number of firsts for me. Firstly, not only did I make something from the Burda magazine within the same month I received it, I actually made this about 2 days after it landed in my mail box. Now if only I could do that each month I could fully justify the purchase.

This is also the first time I've sewed with sequined fabric too. I was a little wary of it because the fabric was $50/m, but it turns out that it was no harder to cut or sew than a thick denim - I just went slowly and carefully and there were no problems. I chose this bronze coloured teeny tiny little sequins, which even though it's on a stretch mesh background it's quite heavy fabric:

I made a minor change to the pattern cutting the back piece on the fold instead of having a centre back seam. I couldn't work out why there was a centre back seam at all because the pattern doesn't provide for any shaping along that seam, so I figured it was best to have as few seams as possible since I wouldn't just be able to overlock the edges as usual. I would have liked to have also eliminated the shoulder to cuff seam by cutting it out as one piece (therefore only having the side seam and underarm in one long seam), but my fabric wasn't quite big enough to do that. But surprisingly the sequin fabric pressed quite well so the seam sits flatly.

Here's my version:

It is quite shapeless, but it draped nicely almost like an itchy heavy cardigan because of the weight of the fabric. I left this unlined as per the pattern, but I might go back and line it because the fabric is a little scratchy against bare skin, and I found that without a solid foundation like interfacing or lining the neckline stretched out a little and the jacket kept sliding off my shoulders due to the weight of the fabric. Although a closure at the front might help keep it on too. We'll see, I'm usually quite bad at going back to fix something once it's made and worn, and who knows when I'll be wearing a sparkly jacket again!

On the inside I bound the seams with sheer grey organza strips which on the one hand turned out well because they are almost transparent, but on the other hand the organza is fraying a bit because I was too lazy to double fold the strips so that the raw edges were on the inside. Live and learn. I wasn't sure if this fabric would fray, but I was worried that the sequins might start falling off near the cut edge and plus they were a little sharp in places so it was good to enclose them.

For the neck facing I used strips of the selvage, and for the front facing I just cut the pattern pieces out with the front edge lined up against the selvage so I could just fold it under twice and hand stitch it down. This worked out well, because if the jacket flipped out a little the facing wasn't too noticeable because it was the same colour as the inside of the jacket anyway.

So for such a simple shapeless little jacket I actually rather like this. It's totally unlike anything else I own, and is by the far the sparkliest thing in my wardrobe but it's good to break out of your usual style sometimes and try something new I think (especially if your look is rather classic and somewhat sedate like mine). Plus I can see me wearing this with dark denim jeans and heels for a more casual look, so it may be versatile than I would expect from a sequined jacket.

why I'll stick to sewing......

2011-09-02T22:38:00.000+10:00

so it turns out I'm not the all round crafty superstar I like to think I am!

Ever seen on random food blogs or other amusing sites really really bad birthday cakes that are labelled epic cake failure? No? Google it, trust me you'll get a chuckle or two. Well I hereby submit my own entry in the cake failure stakes:

For my husband's 40th birthday on Wednesday I decided to make him a golf themed birthday cake since he's a golf fanatic and clearly I have a little too much time on my hands. Sadly it didn't turn out like the picture I had in my mind, probably because I started with this lumpy lopsided base cake:

I should have just bought a slab cake instead of baking one! Never mind, I slathered it up with buckets of butter icing in a nicely off putting shade of green, with a circle of water based icing for the 'putting green'. Stick on a flag made from a toothpick, a breath mint for a golf ball and some spearmint leaves for shrubbery and you've got yourself one hot creative mess!

I am a stickler for accuracy though, did you notice the smoothed out icing for the fairway surrounded by the rough? That's so my totally out of scale little golfer figurine had somewhere logical to sit of course!

Well I'm clearly not above laughing at myself, so feel free to share some of your epic cake failures please to make me feel better!

And I so apologise to people who have left me questions in the comments from a few posts ago and I have not answered yet! Sorry, here I go:

Carol asked whether I could sit in the grey plaid Burda skirt with the godet I posted here. I found sitting in it ok, although the godet got quite wrinkled after a day of sitting and the skirt did have a tendency to slide up a little so it felt like the waistband was right under my bra! But that could just be me not being used to wearing higher waisted clothes.

prttypnk asked on the same post why I thought dresses are more fun to do. I think I like sewing dresses more than anything else because I like wearing them more than anything else - they usually look great, are so simple to wear and I don't have to think about mixing and matching clothes.

Bodie asked on the same post what tracing paper I use for tracing Burda patterns. I bought some architectural drafting paper from Eckersleys art supplies (which just happen to be down the street from Tessuti's in the city), but it turns out that probably wasn't the best place to purchase it. If you read the comments to this post you'll get some far better ideas of where to source a good supply - my readers know everything!

Gail - I can't wait to see what you've made with your purchases from Bewitched Fabrics. I did see the sale signs in the shop window when I went past on the bus to work last week, but I assumed wrongly that they only sold bridal type fabrics. I will definitely have to check it out now!

getting back into the swing of things

2011-08-30T22:04:00.000+10:00

Thank you all for the condolences and empathy regarding the situation with my uncle, I cannot believe how common it is for petty family squabbles at times like these.

With all that has been going on I lost my sewing mojo for a little while there, and before I knew it almost a week had passed and I hadn't even stepped foot into my sewing room. Plus we've been having confusing weather lately - some really warm days followed up by some cool days, so I've been at a loss of what to sew next.

But with a little one that is growing so fast, there is always something to sew. The extra long pants I made for her at the beginning of the year are already becoming a bit Steve Urkel in length! Remember Steve Urkel when he looked like this?:

Source: http://coopbra.glogster.com/steve-urkel-house-party/

Well he's now all grown up and looks like this:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaleel_White

I'm starting to feel very old now that kids from tv shows that I watched when I was kid are all adults now - even Winnie from the Wonder Years and Punky Brewster have kids of their own!

Anyway, getting back on topic, I made these cargo pants from the Spring 1/2011 Ottobre magazine:

I made these from a very bright piece of purple gabardine that had been sitting in my stash for a while that I couldn't quite picture using for anything else, but it turns out it's a perfect colour for a little girl.

Ordinarily I find sewing little people clothes quite easy and straightforward because there's not really the complex fitting issues and they aren't usually fiddly because kids don't particularly like fiddly clothes. Well not these cargo pants, between the endless amount of topstitching, the front pockets, the leg pockets, the rear pockets, the ties on the leg pockets, the zipper and flyshield it all took ages. But they look cute, I got some lovely comments on them from several people and she who now decides her own outfits was excited and agreed to wear them straight away, so they are a winner!

And they proved perfect for a day of bouncing on a jumping castle at a local school fete on the weekend:

And to keep the enthusiasm going I've already started my next project - a mesh sequined jacket to wear to a birthday party for my husband we're having this Saturday night at a local restaurant. Lucky me I have tomorrow off work but Anna is off to school (happy happy days) so I can finish off the jacket, get a haircut, and bake a birthday cake - he turns 40 tomorrow so I should make something special and big enough to hold 40 candles!

the sad occasion dress

2011-08-23T22:34:00.000+10:00

At the risk of turning this blog into a soap opera, we've had another week of dramas around my house. Last Wednesday my grandfather passed away, which given he was 93 was not unexpected but still rather surprising since the last time I saw him a few weeks ago he actually looked healthier than he had in a while. But it is also a relief that he has finally let go - 93 is a long life and he had been rather sad, anxious and in despair at his failing body.

But that is not the soap opera part. My rather obnoxious uncle had organised the funeral in the hours between my grandfather's passing and him informing the rest of the family of my grandfather's death. So not only did my uncle exclude the rest of us in organising the details, he organised it for 5 days after my grandfather's death despite knowing full well that my parents (my grandfathers only other son) are in the desert of Western Australia somewhere on a holiday. For those of you not familiar with Australia, Western Australia is far far away from Sydney. He would not change the day either even though we could not reach my parents. Luckily two days before the funeral my parents finally came into a small town, got some mobile reception and finally heard the news. Several flights later on very expensive air tickets they managed to get back just in the nick of time much to the feigned relief of my uncle.

But that is not the end of the soap opera part. The exact same thing happened when my grandmother died about 4 years ago. Yes, the exact same situation. My parents were on another holiday this time in the Cape York bush (again far far away from Sydney) when my grandmother passed, and my uncle once again organised the funeral a few days after her death without consulting anyone else. And again my parents had to rush home to make it in time for the funeral.

The annoying thing is that my uncle was not even that close with my grandparents, and yet he felt he had the right to try to exclude my parents from being able to farewell them. My grandparents were actually living with my parents before they went on their Cape York holiday, and my grandparents had gone into respite care for two months only while my parents were on holiday and afterwards my grandfather continued living with my parents until recently when he was moved into a nursing home.

But this is a sewing blog, and despite a glimpse into other people's family politics being fascinating in much the same way as driving past a car accident, let's have a look at the cute dress I made for Anna to wear to the funeral. I ummed and ahhed about whether to take her, but I did in the end because the service was held an hour and half away from her childcare and I didn't want to be in a rush to get home to get her in case things went too long. She behaved herself well though, sitting quietly through the service and then being cute and bringing some much needed distraction and levity during the wake.

Since all of her clothes are brightly coloured in typical toddler fashion I thought about making her an old fashioned style black dress with a white lace collar but was worried that would look too Wednesday Addams! So I made view 1 (the black dress) from this vintage Style 2168 pattern, which is from 1979:

from this fabric which is actually a maxi skirt my mother made and wore in the 70s. It's a lovely brushed cotton with a pretty floral and graphic print and suits the dress perfectly:

The fit is spot on too, which surprised me since I've found that commercial sewing patterns, especially the vintage ones seem to run large but this one was perfect. It has an ultra cute peter pan collar, bell sleeves which are cinched in at the wrist with elastic and puffy shoulders.

Paired with some purple stockings (my choice) and a leopard print jacket (her choice) it was the perfect choice for a sad day.

And now I hope to get back to some regularly scheduled posting. Life without dramas is always best don't you think?

Burda1/2011, skirt 113 done

2011-08-11T21:54:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the recent blog silence, we had to take an unexpected trip interstate to visit my husband's parents as my father in law has sadly been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Even though it's a quite small growth because it was discovered early, esophageal cancer is an aggressive cancer and he's been told that he has about three years even with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

And on top of the trip I've had my own very minor but annoying ailments to contend with: tonsillitis again, a severe migraine and now a stuffy head cold. Bring on spring I say! So I'm sure you can all understand why I've had nothing to report around here, not that I expect you all to be waiting on tenterhooks for wise words - I know I'm not that interesting.

But I did manage to finish sewing the hem on my recent project: Burda 1/2011, skirt 113:

I even made mine from some glenplaid wool just like the magazine photo, which of course led to frustrations in pattern matching. Here's my finished product:

I think it looks ok, although I think the waistband yoke is either too wide or I should have made it a bit smaller so it sits higher on my waistline because it looks a little off to me. And looking at these photos it seems the hem may not be straight either because it looks to be sitting higher at the back than the front, although that could be my dodgy posture though.

The pattern was super easy and would have been quick to sew if I didn't make it from a plaid fabric. The skirt is excessively long though - there are two versions in the magazine, a long (calf length) and a shorter one (knee length), but I found that I had to lop almost 15cm off the length to get it sit anywhere near my knee. Which of course meant I had to take out the godet and resew it in higher up the back centre seam. I also put in a centre back zip instead of a side zip just because I find side zips tend to ripple over my lumpy hips and thighs so I like to avoid that!

Pattern matching on the side was a success:

and successful on the front too, but I should have lined up the apex of the yoke with a stripe instead of having it off centre - I should have paid more attention when cutting out the front skirt on the fold.

Pattern matching on the back was a mixed result - vertically pretty good but horizontally it is way off. But as many of you have pointed out before no one should be staring at my butt enough to notice that anyway!

I'm pleased to have finished this project, but it certainly doesn't hold the same excitement for me as a newly finished dress I have to say. Next up I'm working on some pants for Anna since she just won't stop growing taller, and I'm pretreating some wool fabric for a jacket for myself which is the least exciting part of a project but must be done to save tears later right?

fun times to be sure

2011-07-27T21:42:00.000+10:00

Thanks for all your fabulous comments on the last dress, I'm pretty impressed myself with how it turned out. I actually wore it the other day with some black opaque stockings and a cozy black cardigan so I didn't have to wait until summer after all. I must admit it's a very snug fit because the fabric doesn't have any stretch to it and I've sewn it with very little ease which was necessary to squeeze it out of a metre of fabric cut mainly because I forgot to add some ease since the previous dress I made from the pattern had some stretch to it. However it is wearable since it's sleeveless (ie no restrictions to arm movements) and it makes me stand up straight with my stomach sucked in so it's a good dress for improving my posture too! Winner all round.

So I wish I could wow you all with another fantastic dress but instead I've been sewing a skirt. In grey. Hmmm, could be a yawn fest but I'll reserve judgement until I've finished it. What's been keeping me from sewing is the mounds of washing I've been doing lately since Anna decided to start toilet training herself. I was hoping to wait until summer when it would be warmer, but she has started demanding to use the toilet and taking her nappy off so I chose to go with the flow so to speak. She hasn't done too badly so far, just a few accidents here and there when she's been too engrossed in what she's been doing to remember to go to the bathroom. The fun just doesn't stop coming when you have small children does it?

I did sew a few pairs of tracksuit pants during the week for Anna since she needs some clothes that are easy to get on and off. But they are too boring to share here, so instead I'll show you a little corner of our loungeroom that we recently made over to make into a reading corner. According to all the design magazines I've read the key to minimising kid mess in your house is to dedicate spaces for them. So I turned this corner of my loungeroom:

which really was a mess, becoming a depository for things like the Nintendo Wii box and floor fan. Now it looks like this:

Ahhh, much better and my little bookworm likes to gather her toys around in a circle while she "reads" to them from a book interspersed with yelling at them "are you listening to me?" and "I told you to sit still" - I'm guessing that's something she's picked up from daycare because I am a saintly mother that never ever would say something like that!

The bookshelf is just the Ribba picture ledge from Ikea which is just screwed to the wall and is the perfect depth to hold several books in a display style. Because I bought the black one (not realising it also came in white), I tried to cover it up with some bunting made from some unused vintage hankies cut into half to make triangles:

Now I feel like part of the 'it' crowd because every second blog out there features bunting of some sort - it's ultra trendy these days and oh so easy to make.

I bought this very cute cane chair from a lady who told me she'd had it since she was a little child, and the chair is at least 50 years old:

It's in great condition given it's age, except the cream colour paint the previous owner had painted it with has started to peel, so I'm thinking about painting it a vibrant colour. I'll just add that to my to do list. It is the perfect height for Anna to sit in.

Above the chair I hung this little print in an opshop found frame:

which is a free download available from here from the Feed Your Soul art project which is a very cool site with loads of awesome free prints.

And to up the bunting ante I downloaded some alphabet bunting from Ruffled blog (another free download) to make the word 'read' on the wall - I just love pointing out the obvious!

Finally, I sewed some cushion covers from some brand new still in the packet vintage sheets I picked up at the op shop a few months ago. These sheets are so gorgeous, and the cotton so thick and smooth (they aren't made like this anymore regardless of thread count) that I was hesitant to cut them up. But they aren't quite big enough for Anna's single bed since we bought her a very luxurious pillow top mattress - mainly for my comfort since I've spent many nights sleeping in there with her! Plus I figure this way I get to see the fabric rather than have it hidden away on a bed somewhere. There's heap of fabric left, so no doubt I'll make these into little dresses and pyjama pants and anything else I can think of.

Thank you for letting me share this little tour of my house with you - I tell you sewing home dec items is far more enjoyable when the outcome is so cute!

To answer some questions in the last post:

SewRedHot: Birkenhead Point Spotlight is the closest to my house but I shudder at the thought of going there because it's small, messy, overcrowded and has the worst customer service. I usually go to the newish store at Lidcombe which is a little bit further away but I can bribe Anna with a stop at the playground at Bicentennial Park on the way home if she behaves while I shop! I haven't been to Rockdale for ages, but I'm sad to hear it's not the cavern it used to be.

Gail: I did pop into the Lincraft store in the city to check out their sale, but that place was craaazzzy with the line for the counter nearly out the door. I decided 50% off their mostly horrible fabrics was just not worth queuing for.

Littlebetty: it won't be too long before Spotlight has a 20% off everything sale, I always wait for their sales too since they're so frequent!

New Look 6968 again, and again another winner

2011-07-21T22:28:00.000+10:00

I've found another reason to love New Look 6968 in addition to the great fit and cute neckline options: it's very economical too. I bought this gorgeous Japanese cotton from Tessuti's last year when I bought the fabric for my failed entry in their annual competition:

I originally bought it to make a dress for Anna, but then I thought the fabric was too nice for a 2 year old's dress who would either grow out of it quickly or ruin it so I decided to make myself a top instead, probably a sleeveless shell top like one of these I made recently. Luckily I didn't get around to making something from the fabric too soon, because after making that last New Look dress I thought a dress would be better because then the fabric in all it's prettiness could be seen instead of being hidden under a suit jacket. See there is a good reason for stashing your fabric!

Since I had originally planned an eeni meeni toddler dress, I only bought 1 metre and it is the usual width of 112cm, so I didn't have too much fabric to play with but thankfully it didn't shrink too much after pre washing it. Choosing the sleeveless and collarless version of this dress, and cutting one pattern piece upside down (there's no nap to the fabric so it was ok to do that) I managed to eek out this dress:

Please excuse the flash photos, but we're having torrential rain and extremely grey days at the moment so it was the best I could do. In fact I cranked up the heater just to take this photo, and I have no idea when I'll be wearing this dress out, although I could layer it up big time and just dream of summer weather.

To say that I love this pattern is an understatement, Carolyn and Judidarling you are both so right when you say this could become my TNT dress pattern! I managed to cut out and sew this in two evenings (about three hours in total) because it is such a simple but well fitted pattern. Because I only just squeezed the pattern pieces out I didn't even try to match the print figuring that the print was so busy no one would notice, so that saved a fair amount of time (and sanity!) just sewing the side seams without trying to line up the print.

Besides which wearing a belt helps in hiding any noticeable pattern mismatching at the waist seam:

although to be honest it's probably only perfectionists that sew our own clothes that would either notice or care. But I do think that a dress with a waist seam looks better with a belt or tie of some sort around it, so I'll wear it belted regardless.

The pattern called for lining the bodice only, and sewing on neck and sleeve facings, which I found a little bizarre because from what I could see the lining extends to the neckline and the facings are just sewed onto the lining. Instead I chose to fully line the dress, leaving off the facings and constructed it using the sleeveless dress lining method (ie sew at the neckline and armholes, turn inside out, sew the centre back zip and then the side seams absolutely last).

So all in all I am extremely glad I made this pattern acquisition, even though my pattern stash is out of control and I am trying hard not to buy more!

Jacquie - I'm ashamed to admit that I rarely leave Spotlight without purchasing a fabric, even if I have only popped in there to get a zip or some thread! They do have a large range of fabric which makes me feel sad for all the cotton and other fibres that were sacrificed to create such ugly fabrics, but at the moment they do have a lovely range of stretch cotton sateens and some printed cotton lawn that they are claiming to be Japanese. I'm also lucky that my local Spotlight is relatively new so it is spacious, well laid out and generally tidy so you can actually see all the fabrics.

Katherine H - I too love Cue and I have a few of their suits because I think its worthwhile investing in a well fitting suit, but otherwise I find their clothes extremely expensive for what they are. But thank you for the lovely comparison!

KID, MD - thank you for naming the 'ink blot' tests, I never knew what they were officially called but now I do. And Jean, you crack me up!

And Cidell and Sewingprincess, what can I say? Thank you so much for the very flattering comments - you both made my day!

taking a new look at New Look

2011-07-14T21:57:00.000+10:00

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the purple dress - I guess it's a winner in all your books just as much my own! In answer to the questions/comments to the last post:

Lizzie - I sewed this dress using the sewing machine since I didn't do a muslin and wasn't brave enough for the finality of an overlocked seam. I did overlock the seam edges, though that probably wasn't necessary since I don't think fabric will fray. Just habit I guess!

Katherine H and Dilly - I don't know anything about knit linings or how knit linings work I'm afraid, I've never actually sewn a knit garment with a lining (actually I sewn very few knit garments at all). But I do have a RTW suit that is made from a stretch lycra/cotton blend, and it has a lining of knit (sort of like matte texture swimsuit fabric) and it seems to be sewn the same way as normal. Anyone else have any tips on how to line a knit dress, or better question do you ever bother lining a knit dress?

Anonymous - the next time I wore this dress I did wear an old fashioned slip under it, and it worked fine. And thanks for the tip on using whisperweft for the interfacing, I do have some stretchy interfacing I picked up from a garage sale one time, but it's quite stiff so I can see that whisperweft would be a much better weight.

And Trena (aka the Slapdash Sewist) - this whole post is dedicated to you! I've used New Look patterns in the past that have ended up as shapeless potato sacks, so I was pleasantly surprised how this one turned out. I did completely ignore the pattern sizes though and instead went off the finished garment measurements and used nil ease since this was a knit fabric.

To test whether this was a one off miracle for New Look, I've just made another New Look pattern I picked up at the same time: New Look 6968.

This pattern is quite similar to the last but with some different neckline options and I couldn't choose between, so I bought them both. I made view C, the dress the model is wearing, but instead of using a leopard print I used this dusty pink graphic print stretch cotton sateen picked up from Spotlight some time last year:

The print reminds of one of those inkspot tests used by psychiatrists, but it looks pretty good made up into a dress:

And loh and behold, another nicely fitting dress with minimal fitting changes. Again I made a size 8 on the top grading out to a size 12 on the bottom below the waist, instead of the size 8 bust, size 12 waist and size 14 hips the pattern sizing suggested. I didn't do a swayback alteration either because I knew that with the waist seam and darts in the back I could get a close fit without one, and look how it turned out:

Hmmm, this dress may be competing with New Look 6000 in the favourite stakes! The collar on this is very interesting, there's basically this hole in the left side collar:

that the tie-end of the right side collar slides through:

up and over to look like this:

And the back of the collar looks like this:

Since it is winter around these parts and I've made yet another summery style dress, this is how I wore it work on Wednesday:

It still looks good hidden under a jacket, that neckline tie peeks out nicely and is like wearing the accessory you're wearing when you're not actually wearing any accessories! I'm so hopeless at remembering to put necklaces on in the morning and Anna is good at fiddling with them until they break so I really like this tie detail.

So moral of this post: don't overlook New Look, there are some hidden gems amongst their offerings. Plus they're (generally) really easy to make, which makes a nice change sometimes.

New Look 6000 - my new fave

2011-07-05T13:38:00.000+10:00

I don't look at the pattern catalogues all that often since I already own more than a lifetime's worth of sewing patterns, but when I saw this gorgeous dress made by Mushywear in blue and then by Livebird in a vibrant red I just knew I had to have this pattern. And since Spotlight was having a sale on patterns last week I took it as a sign to go and buy this pattern:

It's New Look 6000 which has many positive reviews over on pattern review and I'm certainly giving it my big tick of approval. I even stepped out of my comfort zone and sewed this with a knit fabric, albeit a ponti de roma which is such a stable knit that it sews like a woven would anyway. And here's my finished dress:

It's actually a rather straightforward pattern despite the lovely details so it didn't take too long to make, and sewing with a knit fabric certainly helped that along as the fit doesn't need to be so precise since the fabric can stretch to match the curves. I cut out a size 8 on top grading out to a size 12 in the bottom even though according to the measurements I should have used a size 18 on the bottom. This dress has 9cm (3in) of ease built into the pattern which I think is alot for a dress of this style, and since I was using a knit fabric I figured minimal ease would work. And it did, look at this side view to see how snug the fit is (with no sway back alteration at all):

Although it's not that snug under *ahem* my bottom, the wind had just started blowing which is also why the collar has flipped up at the back. It also explains the look on my face - it was cold outside without a jacket on!

The pattern doesn't instruct you to interface the collars, and I left it out because I thought that six layers of fabric at that centre front neckline (the two collars, dress and facing) would be thick enough without two layers of interfacing as well. But now I think I should have because the collar is a little floppy and I find myself adjusting it frequently, for a knit fabric like this it would have better staying power if it was reinforced.

I didn't sew on a button on the collar as per the pattern because I wanted to wear it with one of my many brooches instead, but of course today I forgot to wear one! It still looks good without button or brooch though.

The sleeve cuffs are interfaced, and they sit much better than the collar. I used some fabric covered buttons for the cuffs which I think works well with the sixties style of the dress.

The only thing I don't like about this dress is that I made it unlined as per the pattern instructions. Normally I do line all my dresses because I think it makes them more substantial and I always wear pantyhose to work so it is necessary. But I didn't have any stretch lining in the stash, and I didn't want to interfere with the stretch of the dress fabric so I left it out. I've worn it today to work with a body shaping slip underneath, but I can still feel the hem of the dress sticking to my knees and riding up a little as I walk. A lining would also eliminate the flippy floppy neckline facing too. The next version I make (and yes I am already going through the stash to find the right fabric) I will make a full lining and eliminate the facings.

But all in all I love this dress, particularly this deep purple colour - I wasn't brave enough to go red like the pattern photograph but the purple is still an eye catching colour. I particularly like the elbow length sleeves which are just perfect for winter and very flattering too.

And aren't these photos great too? I wish I could claim credit for them, but they aren't my new found skills in action but rather those of my very talented colleague Ann who took these photos outside our office for me this morning - I thought you'd all appreciate a different background to my living room for a change! That's the Hyde Park Barracks you can see behind me, a convict building built in 1819 and is now World Heritage listed (and that's history lesson for today!).

There's a hole in my wardrobe....

2011-07-01T22:08:00.000+10:00

Anna has a CD full of children's songs which includes the very annoying song "there's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza....". Please forgive me if that line is now stuck in your brain, because it's been looping around on replay on my internal ipod for a few days and is driving me nuts!

But it does aptly describe the way I felt when my favourite top came out of the wash like this:

After many washes and soaks in whitening powder, this simple white shell top made from a white cotton waffle weave finally waived sayanora with a little tear in the neckline in the centre front. I made this many years ago, pre blogging days in fact, so I certainly got a lot of wear from it.

I suppose I could have undone it and cut the neckline a little lower than that tear, but that probably would have taken more time to do than just to sew a new one. So I just made a new one. In fact I made two new ones, because even though this is just a plain sleeveless shell top it's actually quite a versatile garment: I wear it under suits because there's no bulk or collars to worry about, it looks good with full skirts because it's quite fitted and it even wears well with jeans because it's long enough to wear with mid rise cuts.

Using Vogue 1826, an OOP Michael Kors pattern, I made a replacement one in white from another piece of textured cotton I had in the stash.

Actually this is a remnant from another white shirt I made, because this top is sleeveless, collarless and princess seamed there are only four skinny pattern pieces and I can eek it out of the smallest amount of fabric.

The pattern calls for a zipper at the centre back, but I like the look of the buttons so that's what I went with instead. The top is fully lined with a thin white cotton poplin, and I made this using the method for lining sleeveless dresses - sewing the side seams last and pulling the back through the shoulders. I also bagged the lining and sewed the buttons on by the machine, which meant that this top was entirely done on the machine - so much quicker than hand sewing that's for sure.

In fact this was so quick I made it Monday night and wore it work on Tuesday, and then on Tuesday night I made another version which I wore to work on Wednesday. And this second version isn't a plain white version, but rather a bright orange and navy blue patterned wool crepe that I picked up in an opshop a few years back. To make this one a little different I used navy satin piping around the neckline and armhole, and navy blue buttons down the back:

It's much brighter than I would normally wear, but I guess it's good to break out of your mould once in a while, especially for office wear which can get pretty dull at times (especially with my predilection for grey). But since it is winter around these parts, it was mostly hidden under this navy RTW suit I wore it with:

These two tops are actually versions 4 and 5 that I've made from this pattern, with the original white top being the first, a black one the second and white/beige print the the third, but I doubt they'll be the last!

Old habits die hard

2011-06-28T15:40:00.000+10:00

Thank you all for the suggestions on what to wear with the blue dress - I think I need to set aside a day for some dress up time to see what I have in the wardrobe that could work, but I realise now that I do have many options. There is no formal dress code at my work, only the one I set for myself because I find it easier and quicker each day just to put on a matching suit each morning, but perhaps I should be more creative in what I wear. Either way I don't think that the orphan dress will be without a partner(s) for long.

I don't want to harp on about my new overlocker too much because I'm sure you'll all got the message of how much I love it so I'll try to make this my very last reference to it. Because it was such a pain to change threads in my old overlocker I used to decide on my sewing projects based on what colour thread was in the machine, and as a result used to do many projects in a row in the same colour. Well I guess old habits are slow to die because after making my blue dress I decided to knock out one more quick project in blue before changing threads for another project. Totally unnecessary now of course since it takes mere minutes to change threads, but it's a cute dress so I'm glad I did.

This project started life as a dress given to me by a friend who has a naughty habit of buying things without trying them on and not always bothering to return them either (yes Catherine, I'm talking about you!). Anyway she gave me a bag of clothes that she thought I could wear or make something out of since the fabrics were quite nice, including this stretch denim dress:

When I tried this dress on the short length, the pleated empire line and the sheer shoulders reminded me of this:

source

Not a very good look at all! At first I was just going to take off the bodice and make it a pleated high waisted skirt but I already have two denim skirts so instead I took it completely apart and made this dress for Anna:

It's Simplicity 2320, the cap sleeved version of the grey corduroy dress with the red flowers I posted here. The orange fabric is some cotton paisley print from the stash, and I reused the zipper from the original dress so overall this dress cost me nothing at all except for an hour and a half of my time.

I'm really impressed with this pattern - it's quite simple to make, isn't an overly fussy nor too simplistic style and it's possible to achieve a very different look depending on choice of fabrics. I can see a few more versions of this dress in Anna's wardrobe before she grows out of the size.

This dress was perfect for the sunny winter Saturday we just had to chase some bubbles:

For having a cup of tea:

And for munching on a matching orange lollipop:

Blue dress, blue skin

2011-06-25T21:59:00.000+10:00

It's becoming harder and harder to drag myself away from lazing in my nice warm lounge room and head into my sewing room which probably explains why it took me a bit over two weeks to finish my latest dress. Instead I've been living vicariously through all of your blogs, especially those of you who have been sewing up pretty summer dresses - isn't it amazing how the prospect of warmth and sunshine gets our motivation going?

I too have made a nice sleeveless summer dress which is a little bit crazy since it's so cold around here, and will be for the next 2 or 3 months, but hey sewing on a whim is the best kind of think. I sewed dress 130 from BWOF 2008-12, which is the exclusive design for that month's issue:

The fabric suggestion for the bodice is for chiffon or like fabrics, which is typical outrageous Burda because even though the bodice is gathered it is also unlined, and I seriously doubt whether those gathers would give enough coverage for decency's sake! Plus the pattern as designed uses self fabric for bias binding around the neckline and armhole, which to me seems really fiddly and I would not have had the patience to do. Instead I opted to make mine from a thin polished cotton in a navy blue diamond shape dot pattern for the bodice, a wool gabardine in navy blue for the skirt and fully lined the top and bottom with Bemberg lining. All fabrics from the stash too which is a nice bonus.

I found the fit on this dress to be absolutely perfect with hardly any alterations, which is a relief because I threw caution to the wind and didn't bother with a muslin. I cut a size 34 for the bodice and a size 38 for the skirt and deepened those darts as well as shaping the sides in order to get the two sizes to fit at the middle. And look at this side view, no swayback alteration and yet this fits like a glove:

Because I didn't use a thin fabric like chiffon for the bodice, I chose to use a series of pintucks at the front rather than gathers which I think looks just as good (please ignore that stray bit of fluff on the bodice in these photos - I didn't notice it until afterwards d'oh!). Although I think it doesn't sit as flat along those vertical seam lines in the front as a soft flowing fabric would have since I used a crisp fabric, but it's not too bad:

However the back is also the interest point of this dress because instead of being the standard centre back zip from neckline to lower back, the zip extends to the top of the skirt only and the bodice instead buttons up at the neckline with a diagonal overlap like this:

I think I was overly worried about gaping there at the back and have put the buttons too far towards my shoulders and hence the strain lines that you can see. But it's not too tight or uncomfortable so I think I'll leave it because if it does gape open then my bra strap at the back would be visible because the overlap isn't huge there. But this is also probably the one dress where my poor posture is actually of benefit: because I tend to slump forward this helps the bodice at the back sit flat against my back!

Overall I'm really happy with this dress, even the length was just right for me too without having to shorten it. The only problem with this dress is that I think I may have created an orphan because it's far too cold in my office all year round to wear it without a jacket, and the two navy suit jackets I have don't match it enough in terms of colour or texture. I am trying to be less matchy matchy, but I'm afraid that I just can't stand wearing the same colour top and bottom if they don't match exactly - picky I know! I did wear it to work the day after I finished sewing it with one of the navy blue jackets from another skirt suit but it just didn't feel right - I felt frumpy and just wrong all day.

So I'm thinking I may either make a white jacket which would also go well with a few other dresses I have, or sacrifice this dress that I made ages ago and have only worn about three times since which is made from the same fabric (this dress is the leftovers of that dress) and then I can be happily matching. Or since I'm a sewist with plenty of fabric and patterns at my fingerprints the answer may be to do both - all in good time of course.....

scrap bustin' time

2011-06-21T21:49:00.000+10:00

I'm always on a mission to use up my fabric scraps in a useful way, not just to clear them out of my sewing room but also to justify to myself the need to keep them in the first place! It's just that it can be so unbelievably fiddly making stuff out of little scraps, and I'm not even talking about sewing together a bajillion little squares to make one big quilt.

With wet and cold weather around here recently I needed something to keep Anna occupied too, so I delved into my humongous scrap bag and cut out a whole stack of teeny tiny dresses, tops, skirts and pants:

to glue on to these little paper dolls I picked up for a few dollars from an art supplies shop:

Total success! It kept Anna occupied for at least 10 minutes (only about an hour less time than it took me to cut them out.....), although I think she liked the glueing and tasting the glue best of all. Every Australian kid eats some Clag glue at some point in their young lives, it's practically a rite of passage:

And now we have a whole village of paper dolls with somewhat mixed up fashion sense:

Best of all I have this awesome tin to store all the pieces in:

I purchased this tin of shortbread biscuits last Christmas purely for the pretty tin,and I knew it would come in handy soon enough. Take that, doubting husband of mine.

So that took care of a small percentage of the fabric scraps, now to find a use for the rest of it!

And thank you all for the lovely comments on Anna's skirt in the last post. I didn't pick up on the special connection of making something for Anna from something her great grandmother made many many years before she was born, but now I realise it is pretty special. Her great grandfather is still alive, but he didn't really recognise the fabric - although I don't know if that's because he is 94 and a bit ill at the moment, or whether it's purely because he's male and doesn't notice these things!

thank you, Queen Elizabeth

2011-06-13T22:12:00.000+10:00

Us Australians are grateful for the Queen of England gracing us with another public holiday to celebrate her birthday, even though it's about two months after her actual birthday and we don't really have any celebrations like they do in England. But we're not complaining, we love our public holidays!

For me it meant extra time to get some sewing in, do a photography assignment for my course, go out to dinner with some friends and sneak in a sleep in too. And best of all? My normal three day working week has been shortened to two days, yippee!

I actually made sewing my photography assignment as the task was to pick a subject, theme or narrative and take 10 shots demonstrating the skills we have learnt in the course: correct exposure, different shutter speeds etc. And I thought what better narrative than the story of how us sewists transform fabric into something wearable?

I started with this oversized navy polka dot dress that was sewn by my late grandmother and has been sitting in my refashion pile for a few years:

It was just a shapeless shift dress, but she had sewn it with French seams for the side seams, so I just cut it across the width into three rectangle 'tubes' of decreasing length keeping the side seams intact. Because the polka dot fabric is a thin rayon fabric, I used a cotton poplin in navy blue as a lining cut a little longer so it would peek out:

The waistband casing is actually the lining fabric. What I did was sew the lining to the skirt, right sides together, flipped the lining to the inside but instead of pushing the lining all the way in and then pressing the edge, I left a few centimetres of the lining above the sewn edge of the waistline to form a casing for the elastic. All I did then was to topstitch around the top and the bottom of the casing, insert the elastic and I ended up with a contrasting waistband. Too easy! And it looks so neat from the inside too:

Of course it wouldn't be one of my projects without a minor stuff up! One that I didn't find until the end and have decided to live with: I accidentally sewed the wrong side of the lining to the right side of the skirt before I flipped it to the inside and so the overlocked edge of the skirt lining peeks out a little bit:

And I used the rolled hem feature on my new overlocker on the edge of those layers which works brilliantly of course! On my old overlocker I had to change the foot plate by unscrewing it, removing and screwing on the other one, and change the presser foot as well as play with the tension to get it to work. On this one though all I did was take out the left needle, flick a lever, turn the dial and hey presto out came perfect rolled hems.

Best of all the recipient sure likes it (oh you didn't think this is a skirt for me did you?):

For my photography assignment I also took a series of photos of the steps involved. I actually only used the pattern shown below as a guide for length because this skirt is basically just a dirndl skirt (rectangles gathered at the waistband), so the pattern piece is really just for show more than anything!

this one is supposed to show the needle going up and down - trying to be artistic!

Because this is only a community college course there is no pass or fail, but I hope my tutor and class like the photos. We had appalling weather here over the weekend but I think they turned out well!

sewing machine monogamy

2011-06-08T22:26:00.000+10:00

Claire (aka Seemane) asked me in the comments a few posts ago whether I would keep my old overlocker threaded in a neutral colour and continue to use it. That was my initial plan, until I was half way through sewing my latest project and then I realised there is just no going back! The main reason I got the new overlocker is because it is self threading with auto tension, but the other reason is that I could never get a very good stitch on my old overlocker because the tensions was never quite right.

So I was sewing a rather simple tshirt out of some interlock fabric from the stash using the old overlocker because it was still threaded with navy thread, when I realised I should just change threads in my new overlocker because the threads my old overlocker was making were all loopy and droopy and were driving me mental trying to fix the tension. Five minutes later my new machine was threaded up and it made a much better stitch that looks so much better.

I made a short sleeve version of the boat neck top 108 from Burda 2/09, such a simple pattern with just three pieces and a turned down neckline:

I even got a few of those stripes lined up at the shoulder seams too which I was pretty pleased with. I think I might have a little problem with stripes though, I seriously have about 7 stripey tshirts in various colours and sleeve lengths in my wardrobe at the moment! It's a tad chilly around here now that we're in winter so this is how I wore it last week:

Ok so it's not snowing weather but it is down to single figures which is pretty cold for us Sydneysiders. In fact it's so cold I'm thinking of making a jacket for the dog because he's quite lean and has been shivering like crazy lately the poor thing.

I will keep my old overlocker as a back up machine, but I don't think I'll be using it anymore though. Like I said, once you've tasted champagne you can't go back to vinegar!!

In answer to other recent questions:

Jean - the Opera House was lit up in different colours and patterns, changing every few seconds so it was quite spectacular.

Sewingelle - I had my old overlocker serviced not that long ago which improved things slightly, but I could still never get the tension quite right. Hope you had better luck with your machine!

Georgeina - for the bibs I used a terry towelling nappy for the back layer, and a mix of woven and knit cottons from the scrap bag for the front. No inner waterproof layer, mainly because I didn't have any waterproof fabric in the stash, but I find with the nappy fabric on the back they are quite absorbent anyway.

Yoga bag for non bendy people

2011-06-03T22:14:00.000+10:00

I am not a yoga aficionado. I could never follow the sequence of poses and nor could I ever get my body to co-operate either - I was never very flexible or fit even back in the days before I had Anna when exercise wasn't given last priority in my never ending list of things to do each day. But I have recently started a course in digital photography and since we did a night field trip this week to practise photography in low light and no light situations, I needed to carry my tripod along with all the other stuff I usually carry.

Then I spied a lithe lycra clad lunchtime exerciser bouncing off to a yoga class carrying her rolled up mat in a drawstring bag with a shoulder strap and I realised that is exactly what I needed to make. However because I didn't want my tripod to get knocked about (or it to knock me about), I quilted two layers of cotton with a layer of batting in the middle. And after about an hour or so I had a highly functional bag made fully from stash materials:

To pretty it up I sewed a ribbon with a faux tape measure printed on along the shoulder strap, which was also handy for finding the handle in the dark since I made this out of black cotton drill. I bought this ribbon from Typo store (a stationary store) in the city of all places, bought only because I'm sucker for cute things:

So simple to make - literally a rectangle of fabric sewed along the long edge to create a tube, a circle of fabric sewed onto the bottom and the other end turned over to create a casing for the drawstring. Sew on a long skinny rectangular strap and you're all done! Amy Butler even has a free downloadable pattern for a yoga bag as well as some other pretty cool patterns, if you need a little more direction than my one sentence description.

So glad I did make it though, everyone else in my class sure had their hands full lugging around their tripods. No photo of me demonstrating how great it is (the downfall when you're the photographer I guess), but here's my little model still in her jarmies modelling it for me:

Of course you want to see the photos I took don't you? Too bad I'm going to show you anyway because I'm a little bit proud of how much my photography skills have improved in the last 6 weeks since I began this course. The Vivid Festival is currently on in Sydney, and down in Circular Quay (home to the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge) there are many buildings lit up and other light installations in place. I went on Tuesday night with my photography class but also went back on Thursday night with my husband and Anna because it was just so much fun.

Clearly I have much yet to learn, but they're not too bad are they? Hopefully this means my blog photos will also improve too now, although since taking photos of myself involves a tripod, remote control and a fair amount of finger crossing I can't guarantee it!

super Saturday

2011-05-29T22:47:00.000+10:00

I had a very rare Saturday to myself, so I made the most of it by ignoring the housework and spending most of the day in my sewing room. My new overlocker is such a joy to use - it takes no time at all to thread (in fact it is so quick it's a bit scary!) and the tension is perfect no matter what fabric or thread I use. It seems to have inspired a new found enthusiasm in me because I managed to make a dress, a dressing gown, two pairs of pants, finish off some UFOs and repair two blouses that had been sitting in the two do pile for at least the last year. And I also cleaned up my sewing room - phew, what a day!

First up I made this very cute little dress for Anna from a fine wale corduroy in soft grey with bright red flowers. I used Simplicity 2320, which is a Project Runway pattern, but I had far more success with this pattern than the last PR pattern I tried to make for myself. It's just a simple pleated front, yoked dress with puffy sleeves and is unlined so it didn't take too long to make at all. I used a size two for the width but a size 3 length, but apart from that the sizing was pretty spot on surprisingly. And best of all Anna seemed to like it, even if she does excel at pulling cranky faces in photos:

Then I tested the machine on some knit fabrics, because that has been sewing Achilles heel to date but I think my new BFF may have solved that for me. I sewed two pairs of little tracksuit pants for Anna from some French terry in a daggy doggy print (that Anna loves) solely using the overlocker - no sewing machine at all. This is the first time I've done that because my previous overlocker didn't produce stitches tight enough for seams but oh my! this is such a quick way to sew. I don't usually bother with making things like tracksuit pants since they only cost $6 a pair to buy, but since I had the fabric in the stash and these two pairs of tracksuit pants only took about 45 minutes it wasn't a waste of time at all.

Next I made Anna a dressing gown from some super soft polar fleece I had bought this time last year to make her a sleeping bag. Anna's favourite phrase at the moment seems to be "it's bery bery cold mummy", so I think this snuggly gown should do the trick.

I used Simplicity 5815 which is a vintage sewing pattern and it would have looked so cute in a quilted satin fabric with lace details around the pocket and collar just like the pattern illustration, but I didn't have anything like that in the stash and I went with function over form on this one. I also sewed this entirely on my new overlocker and I used snaps instead of buttons so that was another short cut but overall I think I spent more time vacuuming the fluff that distributed everywhere in my sewing room when I was handling this cut fabric than actually sewing it.

So by this stage it was getting late in the day and my sewing room was clean so I was a bit reluctant to start a new project. But I still had an hour or so to myself, so I fixed some small tears in two blouses that have been sitting in my fixing pile for way too long, and then finished off this stack of bibs that I discovered I had cut out last year and never finished:

Not that Anna wears bibs all that often anymore (she needs to but refuses to do so), but I figure it's one less UFO to deal with and its baby steps in tackling my large box of UFOs....

So I have to say the new overlocker is totally fantastic and now I'm inspired to get on with making some new things for me. The old saying goes that a good crafts(wo)man doesn't blame their tools, but I certainly think that good tools help alot in creating some great craft.

I hope you all had equally peaceful and productive weekends too!

yippee! One denim jacket, finally done!

2011-05-25T20:46:00.000+10:00

I am so happy that I've finally finished sewing my denim jacket - it was becoming such an obstacle for me due to my self imposed no more UFOs rule and a major drain of sewing mojo to boot. It really shouldn't have taken so long to make, it's just that life got in the way and then I procrastinated a fair bit too. It was totally frustrating sewing this - not that the pattern was difficult, but it was fiddly, but I sure am glad it's done 'cos I've already worn it twice since finishing it last Saturday - success!.

To recap, I made jacket 116 from Burda issue 4/2009 which isn't actually designed for denim but rather 'lightweight jacket fabrics'. It wasn't a problem sewing this pattern in denim, but it sure takes a lot of physical exertion wrangling a heavy and thick fabric. But it also meant I could leave out the lining and instead just overlock the inner seams and use bias binding on the facing edge, which in theory should have made this quicker to sew.

I fixed the collar issue I had previously by ignoring the notches I had made and instead matching the centre back seams of the jacket and the collar which seemed to work. I also did sew from the centre back seam outwards to the sides - I usually do this for stretchy fabrics but thought I could get away with it in a firm fabric like denim. I don't know what I did wrong in the first place, because when I checked the reviews over on pattern review no one else encountered that problem so it was clearly me tracing the pattern notches wrongly. But there is still a fair distance from the edge of the collar to the edge of the jacket front, which I assume is a design feature:

You can also see there all the topstitching I did, which was the cause of most of my frustration. My sewing machine did not like stitching over those bulky seam intersections at all, and there were a lot of skipped stitches no matter how slowly I stitched. And sewing those button holes were a complete nightmare because the plastic buttonhole foot just refused to move the fabric along so I had to a bit of pushing and pulling. But I think it looks pretty awesome with those hammered on metal buttons, even if it looks like the front is one button short:

Luckily I had read on the pattern reviews that the turned up cuffs were drafted too narrowly to turn up without wrinkles, so I fixed the pattern before I cut them out. The turned up cuffs make this a 3/4 length sleeve which is a bit daft for winter but it is a look I like so I guess I'll wear with my shirt sleeves hanging out the bottom.

I must admit that when I first put this on I was rather unimpressed with the jacket, mainly because I wanted to wear it open but the front of the jacket naturally sits overlapped. But when I saw the photos I got over myself because I see it doesn't look too badly worn open either:

And best of all I've finally got something casual but smart to wear with my refashioned skirt. I bought this skirt a few years ago in an op shop because it's made from a caramel coloured wool jersey and I intended on pressing out the pleats and making something else from it. But since I've seen several sunray pleated skirts in a similar colour around in the shops instead I lopped 20cm off the bottom to take it from mid calf to knee length, and repressed those pleats to make an 'on trend' skirt:

And now I've finally given myself permission to go and use my new overlocker. I have cleaned up my sewing table and set it up so it's about time I powered it up and got sewing.

a new addition to my family

2011-05-18T20:25:00.000+10:00

All of you that have been advocating a little brother or sister for Anna can just calm down, not yet my friends, not yet! But I do have a new addition to my sewing family, which was a lot less painful to procure but I'm sure will bring me lots of happiness:

Ever since Carolyn mentioned that her new overlocker not only threaded itself but set its own tension too, I haven't been able to get such a magical machine out of my mind. But when I looked into it, it turns out the Babylocks retail for about $3000 here in Australia, which is a lot of moola or a lot of fabric that I could purchase instead, so I thought about whether I really needed it.

After struggling with fixing the tension on my crappy Toyota overlocker for at least an hour the last time I switched threads, and choosing my projects based solely on what colour thread was in the overlocker I decided it was definitely time. I did leave the brochure hanging around the house before mother's day, but when that didn't work I just went and bought it for myself instead!

I went with the Enlighten model because I really like its features. Not only does it thread itself with a whoosh and not require any fiddling with the tension, it also changes between overlocking and rolled hem with a flick of a lever instead of having to change the footplate and presser foot like my other machine, it also does flatlocking, a funky wave stitch as well as having some really bright LED lights so I don't further ruin my eyesight sewing at nighttime.

source: www.babylock.com.au

Sadly though I have been too busy and a little bit sick with a manky cold this week to get it out of its box and use it yet. Plus I haven't quite finished that annoying denim jacket yet, so I'm forcing myself to finish that first before I get to use my new BFF. The good news is that I only have buttonholes and topstitching left to do on the jacket, so hopefully I can get it finished sooner rather than later.

avoidance

2011-05-11T21:36:00.000+10:00

Sooooo, the denim jacket and I are still not seeing eye to eye. Actually, it's still sitting on my dressform sleeveless, hemless and with a wonky collar. I put it aside momentarily while I waited for some buttons I ordered online to arrive, and while the buttons have since arrived at my house my inlaws have too so my time in the sewing room has been extremely limited lately. Thankfully they're off to China this Friday, so I hope I can get to the bottom of my wonky collar problem soon and finish this project. I am determined not to let it become another UFO.

But I did manage to slip in a teensy bit of sewing before the inlaws arrived last weekend, and made a simple denim skirt for Anna since I still had blue thread and denim needles in my overlocker. This is from the fabric leftover from the jacket - gotta love being able to use up those larger fabric scraps instead of stashing them for years!

I used Simplicity 3040, which is a 1970s pattern that I've made before in a bright yellow cotton with back topstitching. What I like about this skirt pattern is that it is a quick and simple sew, but it's also appropriately modest for a little girl's skirt. I don't want to sound preachy, but it disturbs me a little (ok a lot) all the toddler clothes that are short, tight or just tacky.

This skirt is so simple, just an a-line skirt with an elastic waist and it was also good practice for my top stitching - between this and my nearly finished denim jacket I've become quite the pro at it! The skirt front has patch pockets:

I used a decorative stitch across the back patch pockets and added a little bias ribbon tab to the pocket to give it a bit of RTW look:

Here's the finished product on my budding model who is becoming much better at smiling for the camera:

It seems this skirt is good for practising one's tai chi moves:

And for just being a cheeky little monkey too:

the best thing I've ever made

2011-05-02T14:44:00.000+10:00

It's funny how that despite all the beautiful fabric and sewing patterns I have, a simple dress made from a vintage pillowcase may just be my most favourite thing I've ever made:

Although it could just be the model, she's one of my better creations too!

easter roundup

2011-04-27T22:28:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, hope you all had a lovely easter and didn't consume too many easter eggs. We had a great time camping, in fact Anna is still talking about "camping in the bush" so I guess that is a good sign. It didn't rain at all where we were, but it was a bit chilly so there was a bit of warming our hands by the fire

eating some easter eggs (well an Easter Bilby in this case)

a bit of fishing with dad (without catching anything though)

photographing our friend's dogs and generally running riot with the furry ones (there were three dogs there much to Anna's delight!)

and playing house in the tent!

But the best way to top off a weekend away is a day at home all by myself! Thanks to the wonders of being a government employee, I took today off work using my accrued excess time while my husband went to work and Anna went to daycare. And it was bliss - the only problem I had was choosing what to do on this very rare day to myself.

I spent the morning doing many loads of washing, as well as tracing out some Burda patterns since there were no little hands tugging on the tracing pattern and asking repeatedly "what are you doing mummy?" - it made the task a little bit easier! These are what I traced:

Jacket 116 from Burda 4/2009 to make in a stretch dark denim.

Skirt 113 from Burda 1/2011, probably in a grey glen plaid check wool, just like the magazine photo.

Jacket 126 from Burda 9/2010, possibly in black wool crepe to match the tulip skirt from a few posts ago.

Top 121 from Burda 9/2010, which is a big call for me because I don't really have too many knit fabrics in my stash to sew it from and nor are knit fabrics and I the best of friends, so we shall see.

After a cup of tea and time to uncross my eyes after tracing all those out, I got to work on the denim jacket for a few hours before the whirlwind came home from daycare. And here is the progress so far:

The bodice is all sewn together and topstitched, all that is needed are the sleeves, hem and buttons. It's actually a pretty straightforward pattern despite having 15 pattern pieces, and about six million kilometres of topstitching. However, I seem to have run into a little problem - have a closer look at that collar:

The collar sits much closer to the centre front on one than the other, despite the fact I matched up all the notches so I have no idea what I've done there. Now I'm in for a bout of unstitching and head scratching to figure out how to fix this - luckily there are still some easter eggs hanging around to help me on that journey.......

like losing my right arm.....

2011-04-20T09:04:00.001+10:00

ok, I'm being a touch melodramatic but I left my camera at my parents house over the weekend and now I feel lost without it! It's funny that pre-blogging and pre-child I only used to get the camera out if it was a special occasion or I was going somewhere, but these days I take photos pretty much every single day now. It probably explains why I have more than 10,000 photos of Anna and she's only 27 months old..... I've also never had so many photos of myself either, although most of the photos of me aren't of me doing exciting things or in exciting places - just me in my lounge room awkwardly posing in my latest creation. I'm sure you all understand and have the same photos too.

Anyway all this babble is aimed at setting up an excuse for the following very ordinary photos, I had to resort to my little automatic camera which has copped some battering since I let Anna play with it to keep her away from my DSLR. She has surprisingly snapped a few randomly good photos though - maybe I have a little Annie Liebovitz in the making?

Not that I've done much sewing to photograph, I've been alternating between being really busy and being really tired but after doing a wardrobe clean out of my little beanpole I realise that nearly all of her clothes are now too short, and since it's getting cold around here sending her to day care in three quarter pants or mini dresses just wasn't going to work. So I made her a little shift dress from a brand new still in it's packet 1970s pillowcase, that is a good thick polished cotton and will look awesome paired with a long sleeved top and some tights:

I just cannot imagine what sort of bedroom decor someone would have for this vivid purple, black and blue pillowcase to be a good choice, but it makes a bright child's dress. No photo yet of Anna wearing it, but it got her seal of approval because she ran around with it saying "oooooh pretty".

Next up I made her some jeans in dark denim left over from a denim skirt I made last year. That's what I love about little kids clothes, you can eek them out of the smallest bits of fabric, not that it's made a real dent in my scrap basket yet!

I used Kwik Sew 2216, which is OOP, just because I've made these several times before and I knew which size fit Anna. In fact I think the first time I used this pattern was about this time last year, how's that for symmetry! This is an older pattern (1980s?), so it has a bit of room around the butt for bulky nappies, is a bit high waisted and has surprisingly skinny legs for a kids pattern:

I top stitched in certain areas using the triple stitch feature with a traditional orange/brown thread which resulted in a satisfying store bought look. The orange snap instead of a button isn't the greatest look, but a button is too fiddly to do up on squirmy Anna, and those hammer in metal snaps drive me bonkers! I also made the legs extra long so that she could wear them with turned up cuffs, which seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days:

The only thing I've noticed with kids jeans, and the Ottobre pattern I used recently did this too, is that the yoke and back pockets sit really low, right down the backs of their legs. I guess their little butts just aren't big enough for those to sit on their backsides like adult jeans.

Not a very exciting blog post today I'm afraid, but better than blog silence. I don't want to leave my blog quiet for a few weeks in case I lose all of my wonderful followers, but also in case I run out of steam and never return. And I don't want that - I love having connections with fellow sewists all around the world, and I certainly value each and every comment you all leave me.

And now I have to go and sew some tracksuit pants for Anna because we're going camping this weekend and it's going to be very cold. And I mean real camping too, none of this powered cabins in a tourist park but honest to goodness tents in the bush with no showers, toilets or electricity! Luckily we're going with my parents who have a fully kitted out campervan and we're going to the same spot we've been camping at since my sister was 6 months old, which is a good 30 years ago now. But still, it's going to be interesting getting Anna to sleep in a tent. Wish me luck!

One last thing - no more mention of the failed dress please people! It's annoyed me so much I've already ripped out the invisible zip for re-use in another project and the fabric is in the scrap bag - maybe I'll make Anna a mini corporate dress one day from it!

when things turn out even better than expected

2011-04-14T22:17:00.000+10:00

After that last project failure I decided I wanted something not only quick and easy to make, but also something that would actually work out! So I started out by taking up the hems of two pairs of jeans that I've had sitting in my mending pile for at least a year now. Isn't that terrible? In the time it's taken me to sit down and hem them I've made god knows how many complete outfits from start to finish, yet it's taken me this long to spare the 10 minutes it took to cut and hem my jeans!

But still feeling a little worn out and wary of another failure, I decided to make a simple skirt. I really want to expand my smart casual wardrobe, so I don't just always wear jeans and a nice top when I go to the movies or out for a coffee but it really is a big hole in my wardrobe at the moment. I settled on my fast becoming favourite shape, the tulip skirt from Burda 9/2007, skirt 116:

I really like this shape because it looks less like office wear than a pencil skirt, but a little different to a plain a-line skirt too. Plus it is surprisingly flattering even though it has extra fabric around the hip line, which I suspect comes from emphasising the waistline. And since I've made this before, I knew it would fit so it was a winner on all counts.

This time I've made it from black wool crepe, lined in black bemburg:

Handily it has pockets too, so I can stand around looking too cool for school:

And so even though I just wanted a skirt to wear in casual situations, the wool crepe fabric has made this skirt look really quite good so now I'm thinking of making a cute cropped jacket to go with it from the same fabric so I have a funky skirt suit as well.

The fabric was a total bargain too - I bought a huge length of it from a garage sale for a couple of dollars, but when I got it home and opened it up I realised that there were moth holes along one edge of it. This fabric is very wide, so I just cut off the ruined part and washed the rest of the fabric in a warm cycle in the machine. Normally I would treat wool crepe with more care, but since this was cheap and almost ruined anyway I took a risk. It only felted up a little but didn't lose too much of its drape so no harm at all. I did keep the fabric in a big zip lock plastic bag though in case there were still moths or eggs in it, because I didn't want to infect the rest of my fabric.

So all in all, the fabric and the skirt turned out better than I had planned. Now I just need some cute tops to go with it, which is another big hole in my wardrobe!

Thanks for all your commiserations re my last failed dress project. It was my first Project Runway pattern, so not an auspicious start but I am contemplating making another Project Runway pattern but this time a girls dress for Anna, so hopefully that turns out better. And to assure you Gail that this dress is too small, this is as far I can get the zipper up:

Beyond saving I'm afraid!

project failure: Simplicity 2337

2011-04-07T21:05:00.000+10:00

After two fitting toiles and a week of blog silence I bet you were all expecting to see me back with an awesome finished dress right? Sadly I've committed a basic and unfixable stuff up and the dress is now a monumental project failure. It seems that when I transferred the pattern alterations from the fitting toile to the paper pattern I forgot to add seam allowances, meaning that this dress has turned out to be way too small. Even super duper spanx won't help me squeeze into this one. Sigh..... I guess I should have made a third fitting toile instead of being cavalier and jumping right into it. The problem with using the good method for lining a sleeveless sheath dress is that you can't really try on the dress until the very end, because the side seams and zipper are sewn practially last.

And I really dragged my feet on this one too. For some reason my enthusiasm waned quite early on in this project, and I really had to force myself to finish it since 'no new UFOs' is my mantra now. There were several times when I dragged myself into my sewing room that I found myself cleaning up, laying out fabric for future projects and pulling apart another garment for refashioning instead of sewing this dress - all helpful but nonetheless procrastination.

Here's the pattern, Simplicity 2337:Here it is, on but not zipped up fully (not pressed and with the lining half hanging out): Luckily this fabric was a total bargain - I picked it up for $1/m during the after Christmas sales at the Spotlight near my inlaws house in Ipswich, and then a few weeks later I saw it at full price for $14.95/m at my local Spotlight here in Sydney! It's just a polyester blend fabric, but it's a nice dark charcoal colour in a fine herringbone pattern and had a lovely drape. I suppose I could go back to Spotlight and track down some more of this fabric. This pattern had so much potential, but it won't be realised for a long long time because I've completely lost energy for this pattern and am moving on.

But for everyone else who may be contemplating this pattern, I'll give you my two cents worth anyway. Firstly I have to say all the problems with this pattern were my own doing: I stupidly bought the pattern size to fit my hips (sz12 - 20) and not the smaller pattern size that would have fit my bust. It's much easier to add extra room to the hip and thigh area than it is to grade down several sizes at the bust, especially for a pattern like this one that has a complicated bust area.

The good:
- the finished dress measurements are included on the pattern at the bust, waist and hip points which is very useful because it saves having to do a flat pattern measurement.

- Instructions for an invisible zip are included instead of the usual centred zipper. I always use invisible zips when making dresses or skirts because it looks neater so I didn't really need the instructions, but for beginner sewists using this pattern it would be helpful.

- I like how it offers different sleeve options and variations to the front of the dress, you could easily make several very different dresses out of this one pattern.

The bad:
- this dress has so much ease that if you sewed the size for your body measurements that the dress would be rather loose fitting. Maybe it's just me liking my dresses to be close fitting, but I think that ease of 7.5cm at the bust, 10cm at the waist and 11.5cm at the hips is a lot of ease!

- the dress is unlined which I don't think is ideal for a structured dress like this . But having inserted a lining into my too small but awesome dress, it was really tricky and a bit messy to line due to the cross over panel at the front, so perhaps it was too difficult and beyond the scope of this pattern to include instructions for a lining.

- the pattern instructions are a bit lacking in parts. Some parts are missing completely:
I held the paper up to the light to see if step 6 was written in invisible ink, but no, it was just left out! Not that I followed the instructions since I was changed the order completely to insert the lining, but it may confuse/annoy beginner sewists using this pattern.

- the 'designer' touches are a little naff, but I suppose might appeal to some. - the instructions for finishing the back vent are a little basic and messy looking for an unlined dress, would it have been that difficult to include instructions for a mitred hem? No offence to anyone who uses the method below to do their vents and hems, I did it this way for a long time before realising that a mitred hem isn't that much more effort but looks a millions time better.

- the pleated sleeve version that I made looks a little floppy and somewhat silly. Perhaps if I interfaced the fabric or used a stiffer fabric it might have been better.

For anyone else making this dress who also wants to line it, I'll share how I did it because it took me ages to figure it out (not that this is necessarily the best way to do it though):I made the lining from the pattern pieces, and sewed the front pleated panel and the lining together at the neckline right sides together and then turned in which eliminated the need for a facing. I also sewed the left front panel (the smaller triangle bit) to the lining at the neck edge right sides together and turned in, again eliminating the need for a facing on that piece too.

Then the tricky bit - I sewed the front pleated piece (fabric and lining) to the side piece fabric only and the left front panel fabric only to the bottom of the left front panel. Essentially this wedges the front pleated panel into the princess seam of the dress. And then I sewed the lining of the left front panel to the lining of the side panel to the bottom of the left front panel. And then I sewed the front panel lining to the side panel lining together as normal below the left front panel. Whilst it left a little hole like this at the bottom of the left front panel: when that left front panel is laid across the dress it covers up the hole completely. Now if you imagine that raw edge is actually wedged between the princess seam of the lining, the entire front dress is lined with only the bottom edge of the left front panel still visible in raw form, although I overlocked that bit. For comparison, if you chose not to line the dress and instead face the neck edges this is what it would look like:
I'm thinking those instructions are as clear as mud! If anyone is making this dress and would like a bit more detailed and possibly clearer instructions, just email me. So now I'm contemplating what to make next. I want to start on the Vogue skirt suit from a few posts back (the one with the back peplum and bell sleeves) but I think I'll do something simple first to cleanse the palate and get my mojo back. Maybe even something in black so I don't have to change the thread in my overlocker yet. See, I'm even procrastinating on doing that!

But to finish on a good note, I completely forgot to thank Mary Collins for awarding me a Stylish Blogger award a few posts back - so thank you! I really like how Mary has listed all of her UFOs on her blog (nearly as many as me!), maybe I should do the same because then I might be motivated to finish them......

small diversions

2011-03-28T21:18:00.027+11:00

Oh you guys are too funny - all that love for that fabric I so boldly declared to be ugly! Maybe my photos didn't convey how the colours match the colour of boogers and baby poo (sorry for being coarse). But a big part of the overall horribleness of the fabric is it's feel - it's a nasty polyester that has a scratchy feel, wrinkles if you look at it the wrong way and was so slippy and slidey it was difficult to sew with.

Anyway the dress is looking promising fitting wise, but I haven't progressed much further than cutting out all the pieces. Sadly I backed up my tonsillitis last week with another stomach bug over the weekend, so energy levels and enthusiasm for getting off the lounge have been rather low I must say.

I did manage to eek some sewing time in over the last week though to make some pants for Anna. It seems that Anna has sprung up another two inches overnight because all of her jeans and pants are now three quarter length, so what better reason than to use one of the Ottobre magazines I bought recently? I made the bootleg jeans from Ottobre 6/2010:

and what everyone says about Ottobre is so correct, the fit on these are much better than those I've made from the Big 4 pattern companies. The waistband sits near the waist, and not under the armpits, and the fit is trim and not too baggy. I liked these so much that I made three pairs! First up a pair of boring plain black corduroy ones which will be a good staple in the wardrobe of a messy little girl:

These are straight off the clothes line, hence the peg marks on the legs.

And then I made a pair in brown corduroy with purple polka dots. Seriously, at what other age could you wear polka dot pants and not look a little nutty?

Plus it's a good match for our dog, and you all know how much I love to be matchy matchy!

And for the third pair I refashioned them from a pair of wool/poly blend pants that someone gave to me that never fitted correctly, so instead of trying to alter them to fit me it was much easier just to cut them down to make a little bitty pair of pants instead. For these ones though I left off the back patch pocket, and bound the pocket edge with grosgrain ribbon to make them look a little dressier:

They were perfect to wear slouching around at the Australian Museum:

and for getting soaked in while 'feeling' the falling water!

I managed to make these quite quickly, probably about 1.5 hours for each start to finish. I took a shortcut by leaving off the fly shield - it's a nice detail but a little fiddly and not really necessary for kids pants. Also it makes things go quickly when you're not trying to fit around adult curves and solve the multitude of trouser fitting problems. However I did put some elastic in at the back waist to get a closer fit, especially as we have started toilet training and can hopefully get rid of the nappies soon.

I also made them extra long so I can let down the hem in case she keeps growing the way she has been. Someone told me once that the height a child is at two is half their adult height - Anna was about 90cm at her second birthday which means she'll be 1.8m/almost 6ft!. Not quite as tall as her dad but much taller than her mum....

ps. Samina - my wedding ring is back on my finger, I just try not to think about where it's been!

the UGLIEST fabric you've ever seen

2011-03-19T20:51:00.017+11:00

I proclaim that blog title as a fact, not a question. I apologise for what I'm about to do to your retinas, but Lizzie asked me in the comments to the last post to share how I make muslins (aka a toile.)

First step is to find a fabric from my stash that I won't ever wear in public but is similar in fabric content, weight and drape to the fabric I plan to use for the final garment. And this fabric certainly fits the bill:

In my defence though, I often buy fabric in bulk lots either from the op shop or garage sales and that's how I end up with gems like these in the stash. But since I'm a hoarder (albeit an organised one and not out of control yet), I never throw any out, no matter what level of ugliness it is. But clearly even ugly fabric comes in handy sometimes!

Now I'm not a professional dress maker, and despite the amount of muslins I've been making recently I don't even make them all that often really. So this ain't a professional tutorial, I'm just sharing with you what I do.

After picking the right fabric, I tend to make the first muslin straight off the pattern with just a few alterations to the pattern that I always make such as a sway back alteration and a narrow shoulder adjustment. I don't bother with interfacing or facings although I do fold under the finished edge 1.5cm so that the finished neckline isn't lower than thought at the end (yeah I learnt that one the hard way). I put both sleeves in too, because getting a good fit around the arms and shoulders is important to me. And now that I've discovered that I have one shoulder lower than the other I now realise why the fit on both shoulders always turned out differently!

And then while I'm wearing the garment, standing in front of the mirror, I basically pinch and tuck and fold and pin the garment to my desired fit, and draw on the garment where I need to take it out (usually around the hip). Literally, like this:

And then I unpick all the seams, transfer the changes to the pattern or make a new pattern piece if it's too different. I've read some pattern making books that recommend using the muslin pieces as the actual pattern which makes sense if you're making something once, but since I want to get rid of the ugly fabric eventually but keep the modified pattern for future usage, I just make the changes to the pattern paper and stick a post it note in the envelope of the changes I made.

If I'm lucky there's not too many changes after the first muslin and I'll then take my chances and go on to make the final version. This dress however needed lots of reworking, to the side panel alone I've reduced the side seam quite a lot, pinched a little excess out of curve of the princess seam, as well as reducing the width of the front panel and the back panel too!

So I'm now onto my second muslin for this one, but it's looking promising. I'm so looking forward to finishing the muslin for this one and binning that ugly fabric - it's depressing sewing with it!

Sorry for the short and rather lame post, as I said I'm not an expert on this so I don't have too much to say about the topic. I just do what works for me, even if it rather unorthodox (or slipshod). Plus I'm convalescing at this point in time, I have another bout of tonsillitis. First one for this year, but after the five bouts last year I wasn't too keen to see it come back so early! My doctor says one more bout and she'll recommend I have them removed which sounds really painful but could also mean a week of ice cream yay!

Pattern gorging

2011-03-15T12:31:00.028+11:00

Wow, I'm glad you all liked my fuchsia dress as much as I do! It makes a nice change from the usual lovely but oh so serious style of work dress that I usually wear. I did wear it to work this week with stockings and a blazer but since I didn't line the skirt portion of dress it stuck to my legs and rode up a bit. I'll have to invest in a half slip (can you still buy those?) or make a full lining for it.

My Vogue patterns finally turned up in the post yesterday, I'm so glad they didn't get lost in the system. I did notice the postage cost on the envelope was only $5.44US, so Sewing Dragon they made money out of me too, or at least they certainly charged a lot for handling.....

Because it was $15 postage for 1-3 patterns and they were on sale for $3.99, of course I bought 3 patterns, which are:

Vogue 8543, the skirt suit which you've already seen. I plan to make this out of a light grey textured wool flannel. I know, I know, I'm reverting back to grey but I swear I have just the right fabric in the stash that I want to use for this suit and that's why! Plus I think a light grey colour is a good neutral base for wearing it with vivid blouses and scarves.

Vogue 1156, which is an Anne Klein dress that is quite simple but I like those radiating pleats from the neckline (sunray pleats?), and having not only a princess seamed bodice but also a waistline seam front and back should help greatly in getting a good fit. No fabric picked out for it as yet, but I would like to make it soon(ish).

Vogue 1192, another Anne Klein dress which I discovered after ordering that it had really bad reviews over on pattern review. So this might sit in the stash for a little while, until I feel up to another monumental fitting challenge!

Katherine H asked in the comments to the last post which Simplicity patterns I purchased from sewing patterns.com recently. Only happy to oblige!

Simplicity 2337, my first Project Runway pattern. I'm actually sewing a muslin for this at present and plan to sew the final version out of a charcoal grey herringbone polyester fabric.

Simplicity 2443, a Cynthia Rowley pattern that I bought mainly for the jacket because I don't have many casual, non corporate but still cute jackets to wear with jeans.

Simplicity 2253, which is a formal gown for which I have very little need for in my wardrobe but I thought that maybe I could make this knee length in a cotton for a smart casual summer dress. Possibly even contrasting colours for those diagonal strips around the torso if that didn't look too naff. But since it's a summery pattern it will have to wait a few months now.

Simplicity 2320 which is a children's Project Runway pattern that I'm planning to make a longer sleeved version in a fine wale corduroy for Anna.

Simplicity 2907, another kids pattern that I bought to make Anna a shirt dress but again will have to wait until next summer now. Helpfully the pattern ranges in size from 1/2 to 4 so I have plenty of years to get around to making it!

But the pattern gorging doesn't end there either! I recently bought two Ottobre magazines at the suggestion of several readers who assure me that the fit is better than the Big 4 catalogue. I bought these from Crafty Mamas, who are the Australian distributors, and they arrived very quickly in the mail so I can certainly recommend a purchase (or two) from them.

There are some really cool clothes for babies through toddlers to kids in these magazines, so I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of them. In fact, I've already made a pair of jeans from one of these that just needs a snap or button inserted to be done.

And finally I happened to be in Kinokinuyas the other day when they were having a 20% off all craft books. So I purchased this lovely Japanese sewing book which I hope to start using soon:

Thank you so much to those who offered to purchase patterns in those amazing US sales and on post them to us long suffering Australians in an overpriced sewing pattern market, it is very kind of you but also very evil in an enabling kind of way! As you can see I definitely do not need, and should not buy, more patterns. For now. Maybe in the future I'll be in touch...

Summerflies (of the aptly named Sew Darn Tired) asked how Anna is sleeping - well I am happy to announce that since we made the appointment for the sleep specialist (which is next Friday) the little monkey has been sleeping great! It's like she knew we had reached our breaking point and so her work in destroying us was done. Seriously, in the last two weeks we've had several nights of her sleeping through until 6.30am, and the other nights she'll only wake once or twice but go back to sleep relatively quickly. Don't know how long this will last, and we will keep the sleep specialist appointment, but I'm enjoying it - especially as it means that during her waking hours she is such a more pleasant child to be around. Fingers crossed it lasts.

now in technicolour

2011-03-10T20:28:00.016+11:00

A few weeks ago when I was sick I watched seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men in one sitting, and while it's becoming a bit cliched to be influenced fashion wise by that show what caught my eye the most was the colour of all the clothes. From Betty's lovely florals to Peggy's modern prints, but mostly what I was inspired by are the strong jewel colours worn by Joan. Since I have pale skin and red hair, I thought I should try out some of those strong colours too (although I am realistic that I won't get those curves no matter what colour I wear!).

And then I saw this fabulous teal version of my favourite dress made by Cidell of Miss Celie's Pants fame. The pattern is Burda 8_2009, dress 128 which is the tulip shaped dress:

I made mine out of a dark grey herringbone lightweight wool and have since made a black grosgrain ribbon belt to wear with it, so it pretty much looks exactly like the magazine version:

I absolutely love this dress and wore it frequently last winter. It's such an elegant shape that I feel so well dressed in it even though it's so simple to just slip into it with a pair of shoes and I'm dressed. But because of the wool fabric, the longer sleeves, the colour and the fact that I fully lined it means it's only really for wearing during the cooler months of the year. So I decided to make a summer version in a bright colour, and when I say bright, I mean bright:

This is a stretch cotton drill in a vibrant fuchsia colour which I feared may have been too much when I was sewing it, but I wore it to work yesterday and I just loved the colour. I shortened those three quarter sleeves to cap sleeve length so that I could wear it in the hot weather, and I only lined the bodice which should be fine since it's a very dense fabric so I won't get any see through issues in the skirt area and it's not so tightly fitted that it will bag out after wear.

The other change I made to to this pattern which isn't immediately obvious but helped with fitting was to separate the back of the dress into a bodice and skirt to match the front. The pattern itself is just a single back piece, with a centre back zip and two vertical darts, and the waistline seam of the front finishes at the side seams. I thought this pattern looked a bit unfinished since the front and back didn't match, but the other benefits of splitting the back into two to match the front meant I could get a closer fit by deepening the darts and it also created a natural spot for a belt to sit as well.

I didn't make a muslin since I've made this previously, but it all worked out wonderfully and the fit is great which is a huge joy after all the effort I put into the last dress with no results. The only problem with this dress? The weather is cooling down now and I'll have to wait until later in the year to get a lot of wear out of it!

The Vogue pattern for the suit with the peplum and bell sleeves still hasn't arrived yet, so I have started working on another dress. Another muslin, sigh. Can I just have a rant about Vogue patterns online site though? I ordered a bunch of Simplicity patterns when they were $1.99 from sewingpatterns.com a month or so ago, and the postage was very reasonable and the patterns arrived about a week later - totally excellent experience. Voguepatterns.mcall.com however is a totally different story - three weeks later I'm still waiting for them to arrive, postage was an extortionate $15 for 3 patterns but I still bought them because it is cheaper than buying them here in Australia because I bought during a $3.99 sale. Good thing I have plenty of other things to work on, but still, I want to get on with making that jacket!

dresses galore!

2011-03-08T20:25:00.015+11:00

Some interesting feedback to my last post on the dress fitting issues. Lana from Illinois - you are so right that Calvin Klein patterns are designed for skinny minnies with no shape, which is so not my body type. In fact now that I look more closely at the pattern envelope I see that the model is not only straight up and down, but the dress doesn't even fit her that well despite the pattern envelope describing it as very fitted. Ah well, the pattern is now packed back into its envelope and in the pattern drawer. Even though it was a major failure for me I just can't throw away any patterns! Maybe I can use it on Anna in 15 years or so.....

Another comment that got me thinking was Trena's (aka The Slapdash Sewist) that she couldn't buy RTW dresses because her size variation, which is similar to mine. I tried and tried, but I cannot remember the last RTW dress I bought, I certainly haven't bought any in the last decade, but before that I can't even picture a RTW dress that I've worn either! But I do have these in my wardrobe:

That's 23 dresses up there on the hangers, plus I have another 3 dresses in the wash and I discovered another dress slipped inside one of those hanging up sharing a hanger, so that's a total of 27 dresses! 26 dresses I sewed myself, and 1 dress that I refashioned, but absolutely none are store bought. And that's even after I had a wardrobe purge a few weeks ago and let go of a few dresses that I had made. And I have quite a few more maternity dresses stored away for the next time I do something crazy like get pregnant. Until I put them all together like this I didn't realise how many I had made, but I must say I'm pretty proud of this situation - I'm well on the way to having a fully custom made wardrobe.

Interestingly, there's not that many grey dresses in there even though it seems like I am always sewing with that colour - there are only four (one is in the wash). Quite a few in the red/pink/purple range, only a couple in the black/brown range and a few in the blue shades as well.

Looks like I need some dresses in yellow and green (separately, not together - I'm not an Olympic athlete) to make up the full spectrum!

And my newest dress is hidden in amongst that lot - I plan to wear it to work tomorrow so shall have some pictures soon. It's made from a stretch cotton - anonymous, I sooo agree with your cheaty way to get a good fit!

Thank you AnaJan for bestowing the Versatile Blogger award upon me, it's been ages since I've gotten one of these and I was beginning to think you all didn't love me! Ha ha just kidding... You really should check out AnaJan's blog though, she is the Burda queen - I've never seen someone sew so many Burda patterns with so much success too!

Anyway I'm supposed to pass the award onto 15 other bloggers, but I'm too lazy for that so consider yourself all awarded. I also have to reveal 7 random facts about myself, so let's see what I can think up:

1. I'm the middle child in my family, I have one younger sister and one older brother. We all have red hair and freckles, even though my mum has blonde hair and my dad used to have brown hair (all gone now I'm afraid!).

2. I've been wearing glasses since I was in fifth class (about 11 years old), probably caused by me always sitting in the back row in class because I was usually reading a book under my desk instead of doing maths!

3. I was very accident prone as a child, spending many hours in the emergency department of our local hospital, mainly because I was always trying to keep up or outdo my brother (middle child syndrome?). Falling off the garage roof or out of trees, crashing bicycles or skateboards you name I did it. Broken collarbones and fingers, fractured heel, stitches, bruises, concussions and stitches.

4. My first overseas trip was to South America for nearly 2 months, all by myself when I was 20. I was so naive that I landed in Lima at 3am after flying for about two days straight with no accommodation or transport arranged from the airport to the city. All good though, I met some fellow Australians (we're all over the world aren't we?) and tagged along with them.

5. In high school I despised home economics and the first thing I ever sewed was a pair of fluoro yellow boxer shorts that I never ever wore. I studied technical drawing and industrial design instead - my parents still have a coffee table I designed and built.

6. I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled out in one go, in the dentist chair too and not a hospital stay. In fact it didn't even hurt that much even though I stocked up on a week's worth of canned soup. It's why I was so surprised that childbirth hurt so much, because my mum told me that her giving birth three times without any drugs didn't hurt as much as having her teeth pulled. She was so LYING!

7. My husband and I are both town planners, and we met working together at a local council in the development assessment section. We kept the relationship secret for six months though until my husband found a different job. These days however he's a property developer and I work in environmental policy, so we've left our town planning days behind us, but we do have many many friends in the industry so there's always lots of trade talk when we all get together!

testing, testing, 1 2 3

2011-03-03T20:10:00.024+11:00

Well my wedding ring made it's way out of Anna safely, with no harm to either the swallower or the ring itself! I'll spare you the gruesome details, but I still can't bring myself to wear it yet and it's still sitting in a bowl of disinfectant. Anna is quite proud of her little tale, if we ask her 'what happened to mummy's ring?', this is what she does:

And then she will point to her rear end and say quite loudly "it came out my bum"! That's children for you, keeping it real......

Thanks all for your empathy and sympathy regarding our little experiment in sleep deprivation torture. It doesn't gladden me to hear that other people have suffered from it, but it is nice to know that others have experienced it and are still surviving and indeed had more children. Mary Nanna - you've hit the nail on the head for me, I feel that other people just have no clue how hard some children can be to parent when their own children are reasonably well behaved, and it gets very annoying when they try to downplay what I'm experiencing.

And thanks everyone for your opinions on those bell sleeves - I knew you would all have an opinion or two! However, I'm still torn, I think they look good but it does seem like a lot going on what with the peplum and pleats of the skirt, plus I can see how unpractical they could be. I guess I'm going to have to make a test garment before I decide.

And speaking of test garments, I forced myself to finish the hem on the dress I made recently as a test for a new pattern only because of my resolve to create no new UFOs. I wore it today too, and in addition to the fit of the dress being nothing special, it was also not that comfortable as it was too restricted around the shoulders. Sigh, such a waste of two fitting muslins and one test garment! But at least my expensive and beautiful fabric I planned to use is still sitting safe and sound in my stash until I find the one.

The pattern I used is Vogue 1914 which is a 1997 Calvin Klein pattern, and is so OOP that a google search didn't even find someone selling it second hand, nor any mention of it all anywhere else.

I chose to make View B, which is the sleeveless version pictured in the centre. Doesn't look like anything special does it? But it was the back view that piqued my interest:

I thought that the curved inset band in the lower back of the dress would greatly help with my issues of excess fabric in that area. But it didn't, sadly. Fitting muslin 1 was cut straight off the pattern: too tight around the hips, too big in the bust, and loads of ease in the front and back (typical result).

Fitting muslin 2: I made a swayback adjustment to both the bodice back and back inset piece, added a few centimetres width to the skirt, took out a few centimetres across the bust, and widened the darts in the front. Still not a great fit.

Having gotten sick of sewing and then taking apart fitting muslins I gave up at this point and made a test garment with further modifications: I put a vertical dart in the back bodice piece, also shortened the bodice by 2cm, and lowered those front darts. Here's my finished test garment:

The front doesn't look too bad in this photo, but trust me there is a lot of puffiness in the front there below my bust near my waist. As you can see from the side shots, I can pinch out a fair amount of excess fabric in both the front and back above my hipline:

Maybe my expectations are too high, I want a close fitting dress that skims over my curves without clinging but when you have very large hips, a small waist and an even smaller bust size it just doesn't work, especially in a woven fabric. I'm not kidding, according to the Vogue measurements my bust is a size 6, my waist is between a size 10 and 12, and my hip is a size 16.

Possibly also the fabric I used didn't help either - it was one of those fabrics that I couldn't decide whether it was fugly or amusing. It's a vintage cotton that came in a bulk lot I bought off ebay quite a few years ago, and the pattern is little brown strawberries and orange flowers:

It's no great loss to have made a dress from this fabric that I will probably only wear around the house!

But this exercise wasn't a complete loss, I did learn some more about my fitting issues that I hadn't realised I had, despite having done a pattern making course where we did detailed measurements:

1. I think I'm short waisted, because by shortening the bodice by 2cm it made the skirt fall over my hips and thighs much better.

2. I'm not so sure I need to do sway back adjustments, since that didn't really help anyway and thanks to pattern~scissors~cloth I realise there are other causes of excess fabric in the back.

3. My shoulders are quite uneven, with my right side being about 1.5cm lower than the left. Sewing a larger seam on my right shoulder piece fixed up a diagonal wrinkle I had across the front, so realising this was quite the revelation. But now that I look at the rear view photos of myself, it should have been clear all along:

4. Those French darts on the front of the dress (a combined waist and bust dart emerging from the side seams - thanks again to pattern~scissors~cloth for the definition) don't suit my figure. Seperate bust dart and vertical contour front darts works much better for me, as do princess seams.

Anyway I've put this all behind me now, I have so many other patterns that I think it's unnecessary to further work on this one when I may have the perfect pattern in my stash just waiting for me to try it. Plus I've already started work on my next dress, which in a major departure from my usual it's in a bright fabric. Vivid in fact! Not at all grey. As a teaser here's the thread I'm using:

just checking in.....

2011-02-28T15:20:00.009+11:00

I've read somewhere that one of the ways to have a better blog is to post frequently and constantly. Alas, I have failed on that count. But it's all very well for those fashion bloggers or interior design bloggers who not only have the time but also a lot of (semi) interesting things to post about like their daily outfit, latest acquisition, furniture rearrangement etc etc. However as a sewist with little time (more time in front of the sewing machine please!) and longer lead time in for sharing a project I'm a bit lacking in regular posting these days. Sorry 'bout that, I'm sure you understand.

But I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth, just been dealing with life's little dramas. A horrendous stomach bug made it's way through our little family last week, and even though Anna got over it relatively quickly both my husband and I were very sick. So sick that at one point we were both laying on the grass in our backyard while Anna jumped on her trampoline - God knows what our neighbours were thinking! At least Anna was resourceful, she dragged her little chair from the playroom to the kitchen to help herself to a packet of biscuits from the pantry and bizarrely a packet of frozen peas from the freezer. She used her manners though, also getting a dish out to pour the peas into before eating them.

Once that had passed Anna then decided to further test the waters by eating my wedding ring. Yes that's right, she popped my wedding band into her mouth, nearly choked on it before swallowing it and then happily asked for some crumpets for breakfast! Our doctor says she'll be fine, it'll just take 3 to 5 days to pass through and in the meantime I have to keep checking her output to retrieve it. The ring is insured, I just can't imagine what I'll tell the insurance company if we somehow miss the ring and it gets thrown out with a dirty nappy.

The final drama is an ongoing one for us - Anna's battle against sleeping has ramped up a notch and it's now all out war. We've finally conceded that we can't manage it ourselves and are now booked into see a sleep specialist to have it looked at properly. Although all our paediatrician could offer was the advice to be 'tougher' on her - and this was in response to me telling him that I've kept a sleep diary which has revealed that she sleeps on average 6 - 7 hours a night in 1 - 2 hour blocks, and we spend the other 6 hours trying to settle her! Bear in mind that toddlers should be getting around 12 -13 hours a sleep a night. No wonder I'm exhausted, I'm not imagining or overstating the problem at all.

But I did manage to squeeze in a tiny amount of sewing, and I've finished (except for the hem) a test garment of the dress that I've modified the pattern and made two muslins for. So I guess you're expecting the world's best fitting dress after all that effort? I know I was. Too bad the result is a bit ordinary, but I will share it because I know you'll all have some thoughts on it.

And true to form, like many of you when I'm not sewing I seem to be spending on sewing things instead! Have a look at this Vogue pattern (8543) I bought recently during Vogue's $3.99 sale - please tell me honestly whether those sleeves are kooky or quirky:

I love the lines of the skirt, and the back of the jacket but I'm wondering whether those bell sleeves are a bit too much?

Slow sewing

2011-02-14T19:46:00.024+11:00

Do you remember those tacky souvenir tourist tshirts from years ago that had plastered across the front "My {insert random relative} went to {insert over hyped tourist destination} and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"?

Image from here.

Well my favourite saying this week is "I spent all week sewing and all I made was one lousy belt":

Although that's not completely accurate. Firstly, the belt is not that lousy, it's just lousy in terms of volume of output compared to time spent in front of my sewing machine. Secondly, I did actually do a heap of sewing: I made two fitting muslins, a whole heap of pattern adjustments and am in the process of making a test garment for the next dress pattern I plan on making. After the last two less than ideal fitting dresses, I decided that I should take a little more care in the fitting so that I won't be disappointed in the outcome. Plus the fabric I want to use is gorgeous and at $28/m I don't want to stuff it.

But fitting muslins and patterns that have been folded, taped, cut and retraced aren't exactly exciting blog fodder are they? So back to that little belt, which since it's just a plain band of satin with a few clear sewn on snaps isn't all that exciting either. But I made it to wear with this dress to a wedding I went to last night:

I made this dress back in 2007 to wear to a dinner with my husband's work and I don't think I've worn it since, which is a shame because I really like it. The only reason for not wearing it since is that I've made a new dress for every special occasion I've been to since! But I didn't quite have time this week to make something completely new, so instead I made the purple belt to match my new purple satin shoes.

This dress is a simple design, made from Butterick 3076, that I've actually made into four different dresses, posted about previously here. This version is a black cotton lace underlined with a cream charmeuse, which means is quite heavy but gives just the right amount of volume to the skirt:

I accessorised with a brooch in the centre of the belt because the fabric of the dress was too busy to wear one around the neckline. The front of the dress is quite modest with a high bateau neckline, but the back is quite low cut and all va va voom:

After having such hot weather around here lately, the weather has actually turned rather cold so luckily I had also made a jacket to go with the dress back in 2007 which I didn't need at the time, and I don't think I've ever worn it at all since. So it was definitely time to wear it out:

It's just a simple, rather unfitted jacket made from New Look 6619 but it's made from a textured polyester fabric to make sure it's not too plain. I made version E, the pink version on the pattern envelope:

And now I'm off to sew an invisible zip into my test garment. Fingers crossed the muslins have paid off and the test dress is a success (otherwise I'll be very cross with myself!)

too cool for school

2011-02-02T15:17:00.013+11:00

I don't wish to be mean to my northern hemisphere friends who are currently suffering what sounds like very harsh winter conditions, but here in Sydney it's so unbelievably hot that it's almost too much effort to do anything. Seriously, at midnight last night where I live it was still 33.7 degrees (92 F), and sadly our old weatherboard house really retains the heat so we were sweltering. The extreme hot weather is supposed to last for another few days too.

Anyway it's been far too hot to sit at my sewing machine and sew, let alone concentrate on something. Plus I always feel like my fabrics are getting so grubby being handled in this heat! So here's something I prepared earlier, as the saying goes....

A skirt and a top that I sewed for Anna late last year but didn't get a chance to blog about, probably because my model was being too surly. It seems I'm getting better at sewing with knit fabrics because this turned out pretty good. The skirt is made from a cotton drill in the brightest yellow colour from the stash that I never thought I would ever sew something from, but I really like this outfit even if she does look like she's dressed up like a little bumble bee!

The pattern is a vintage 1970s Simplicity, with an elastic waistband at the back, patch pockets and is unlined so it took me less than an hour to sew, and probably only took that long since I had to change thread colours for the black topstitching and do two buttonholes for the pockets. It has just the right amount of a-line to it to allow space for movement.

The tee is refashioned from one of my own stretched out tees, and I used Kwik Sew 3424. Last time I made this tee it didn't fit over Anna's head, but this time for the neckband I used a strip of really really stretchy black jersey that I measured off her actual head, and not the length suggested in the pattern instructions. Plus I cut the strip from the selvedge so that instead of folding it in half and sewing both edges to the neckline, I just sewed the raw edge to the neckline and left the selvedge edge to roll over. Thanks to Blooms Fabric Obsession for the inspiration on that one! For the hem of the tee I just kept the hem of the existing tee, and lazily I've left sleeve edges raw and now they nicely roll up too. Lazy short cuts, but they don't look too shabby.

Overall I really like this, I just wish I had the confidence to wear bright yellow!

another fab giveaway over at the Blue Gardenia

2011-01-31T09:11:00.005+11:00

Well Denise over at the Blue Gardenia certainly keeps the fabulous giveaways coming thick and fast. She's having another giveaway right now, offering this gorgeous vintage pattern:

or a $25 gift certificate to pick your own pattern if that one is not to your size, three+ yards of raw silk material, a sewing book and some Nars nail polish to boot and all you have to do is leave her a comment, follow her blog or Twitter account. Too easy right?

But this competition closes midnight January 31 - which depending on where you are in this wide world is tonight! Get cracking people....

And now if you'll excuse me I'm heading over to Denise's blog to think of a good enough comment to win me that pattern - I don't know if you've all noticed but I do love stripes!

oops, (nearly) did it again

2011-01-29T20:16:00.013+11:00

Thank you all for your feedback on the grey dress - so many great ideas as well as much encouragement for how it looks as is. This is what I just love about blogging, it's like having a friendly but helpful critical sewing friend in your life when you may not have one of those in real life. I've decided I will wear the dress a few times to see if I can live with it as it is (and I suspect I will probably forget all about the side and back views when I'm wearing it) and if not I will reluctantly get out the seam ripper and think about an alteration. But I will try to accessorise it better - I have plenty of fab brooches and necklaces but just never think about putting them on. I need to do the opposite of Coco Chanel's advice and put one thing more on before leaving the house!

Anyway I think my brain is still on holidays because not only has my sewing output remained low so far this year, I almost very nearly made another shapeless dress. Except I turned it into a skirt and all was saved.

Back in 2008 this fabric and pattern appeared in my SWAP list:

I did in fact sew this dress in 2008, albeit in a different fabric and when I was heavily pregnant with Anna so I made a slight modification to the pattern to add extra width across the front and turned it into maternity wear:

And it is great for a maternity dress! For a non-maternity dress, not so much. I should've figured that out given the magazine model looks to be in the family way, and only review of this pattern on pattern review was for a maternity version as well! I however, thought that if I sewed this in a soft drapey fabric that those folds on the front would just hang down nicely and the darts in the back would cinch it in just so.

Well not only was this dress verrry roomy all around, it's also very low cut in typical Burda style. Last time around I had a more impressive bust line to work with, but now that I've gone back to my less than well endowed chestal region, I had to hoick this dress up so much just to cover my bra straps let alone for decency that the end result was that the shoulder straps would have been 3cm long at most, not the 8.5cm the pattern calls for. All in all the dress looked a bit silly and not a flowy summery dress like I imagined.

So I cut it in half, sewed on a wide waistband and made this a-line skirt instead:

Much better! I really like this, and it's not even grey! The fabric is a soft poly-cotton that I bought a few years ago, and I've made a lining from some black cotton poplin because the outer fabric is rather thin. I also used a longer invisible zip than is usual for a skirt: 35cm as opposed to 20-22cm long because I find with higher, snug fitting waistbands it's harder to slide over my hips if the zipper isn't that little bit longer.

All my stripe matching practice lately is clearly paying off, because the black and white band around the bottom of the skirt matches perfectly at not only the side:

but also the back:

I wore this skirt all day today and not only was it comfortable it barely wrinkled as well so I can say unconditionally that I'm delighted with how this turned out. So hopefully this will re-energise my sewing mojo so that I can get on with all the projects that are in my head!

First dress of the year

2011-01-20T22:21:00.017+11:00

I've finally finished my first garment for this year -something that should have been simple and quick to make but it became a torturous event in the end, but happily I saw it through and it did not become another UFO.

Just before Christmas last year I saw a lady at my bus stop who looked really lovely, and she was wearing a simple shapeless shift dress cinched in at the waist with a chain belt, that was made in a cream colour with thin navy blue horizontal lines, a navy blue yoke and cap sleeves. She also had on quilted Chanel ballet flats and was carrying a quilted Chanel chain handled bag so I'm guessing it was probably an expensive dress. She was also a beautiful Asian lady with slim hips which is probably what made the whole look work, because as we all know horizontal stripes aren't the most flattering of looks.

Now I am not slim hipped, and I don't own any Chanel either but I thought what the heck I'll give it a go and make the look my own. I used this battered 1980s Vogue pattern (Vogue 7454) that someone gave to me a while ago:

but unfortunately whoever made it previously had sewed this into a short top and had lopped the pattern off at about waistline. So I grafted the body of a New Look sheath dress pattern onto it, but I forgot that when I made that dress previously it was too short for my liking, so this dress has the most minuscule hem ever but it's not that noticeable.

For the main part of the dress I used a crisp cotton in grey with a fine black line through it and for the yoke I used some black linen left from another project. I know, I know, I'm back to my previous form of sewing with grey, but it was fabric from the stash which is why I went with it. Plus a white or cream colour would never work with a grubby two year old in my life.

Here's my finished product:

To be honest I'm a bit meh about this. My initial plan was to make this a shapeless shift dress and cinch it in with a belt, but it turns out that I'm a bit vain and I don't want to look shapeless when I'm not and the belt really just bunched the fabric around my waist in a rather unattractive way. So I put some darts in the front and back to give my waist some definition, but I really should have done a swayback alteration before cutting the pattern out to get a close fit. As you can see from the side it still pooches out at the back:

Nothing like a blog photo to show you how bad your posture really is!

I'm also not sure that a belt is right for this dress either, because it competes with the horizontal stripes of the fabric both with a thin and a thick belt:

In fact I like it even less paired with red accessories, which surprises me because usually a red shoe will improve anything!

The other problems I encountered with this dress was that I originally sewed this without a lining, but after I had sewed it together and basted in the invisible zip for fitting I realised the cotton wasn't as dense as I thought. So I had to unpick the yokes and sew in a lining from a thin cotton in light grey, also from the stash.

And then when I put the darts in the front and back it made the dress puff out under the armholes where the solid fabric meets the grey fabric, so I had to unpick those yokes again, take it in at the side seams and sew those yokes back down again. It still does a bit, as you can see in the photo below, but I couldn't take it in too much because it was getting too tight to get on and off.

Phew! So much work for what was supposed to be a simple summer frock.... But I will wear this now, since it took so much effort to create.