now for something completely new.....

Yes, you read that correctly - I have made something entirely new and not a finally finished UFO either mine or inherited. A few weeks back we had some extremely hot weather, which although it has now disappeared and it's actually rather chilly for early spring I thought it was about time I started making some smart casual clothes for summer.

Going through my wardrobe I realised the majority of my clothes are quite dressy, or they are really manky not fit to be seen outside in. So to fill the hole, I turned to trusty BWOF and have traced off some skirts, tops as well as the bermuda shorts from the 6/09 issue (view 120b).

I even made my version in red linen like the photo in the magazine, although mine don't look quite nearly as sexy as the model:

Even though I usually wear knee length shorts, I thought baggy, paper bag waist style shorts to the knees might look like they belong only on a golf course. So I made these according to the pattern but to my surprise they didn't turn out as short as I thought, in fact they are a good in between length.

I did leave out the in seam pockets though, same reason as usual - trying to avoid extra bulk in my widest spot. These days I'm always carrying around a bag, and it's not like I can fit all that I carry in my pockets any more. I also left off the belt loops purely because I was too lazy to turn another linen tube after doing those tabs.

Speaking of the pull tabs, I didn't have any buckles so I used d-rings instead. I couldn't work out why the tabs turned out a bit too short and are only just long enough to put through the rings, until I realised I made the front tabs from the underlap piece that was supposed to be used for the zipper, and not the pieces I cut out for the tabs! So they look a bit funny this short, and I am considering taking them off and re-doing them (although I probably will procrastinate on that until next year).

I used the Sandra Betzina tutorial over at the Threads website for my zipper and ignored the BWOF instructions all together. In fact I only glanced over the BWOF instructions which might explain why these were so easy to sew. Although it would have been helpful to look at the instructions before sewing the darts and pleats, because those tabs get inserted into the folds of the darts on the back and the front pleats, and I had to unpick mine to put them in!

All in all I'm pretty happy with these, they will look pretty spiffy when I'm out walking with the pram or at play group chasing Anna around who is just itching to crawl once she learns to move her hands and her knees at the same time. In fact I can see another version, perhaps in a stripey seersucker fabric? Hmmm, I shall have to consult the stash........

Oh and thanks to the lovely Teresa/MarieSews for bestowing the Blog De Oro award upon me! I am supposed to pass it on to 10 other bloggers, but seriously with 336 blogs earmarked in my favourites list it's way too hard! Just consider yourself fabulous if you're a blogger

Burda Wof 9/2007 dress 121: the infamous jumper dress

I finally have finished another BWOF pattern – the pinafore dress from the 9/07 magazine. I have seen so many great versions out there on the internets, and I really love the striped versions done by the productive sewists over at the Slapdash Sewist and Miss Celie’s Pants posted at Pattern Review. Hmmm, I could have been that adventurist and individual, but I happened to have some beautifully soft cotton jersey in a grey charcoal left over from the baby ninja clothes I made for a friend a while back, so my finished dress pretty much looks exactly like the pattern photo! I’ve gotta stop being so influenced by the pattern envelope/photo (I am not a sheep, I am not a sheep……), but I did manage to use the stash so that makes up for it.

I decided that this dress would be ideal at this point in time because I am in fact pregnant and am starting to need some stretchy clothes already at 3 months! So to make sure this dress would last me and my swelling belly the rest of winter and early spring (when I’ll be 6 months preggo), I added a bit extra width to the front dress panel and made those pleats a little deeper. Actually the volume around the front is hiding my little paunch, which is good because I'm at that in between stage of looking chubby as opposed to pregnant.

I must say that I love this dress and may make another version in a more colourful fabric to wear in spring / summer over short sleeved tops. I did originally make the bodice in a size larger than I normally wear, in case my bra size increases (here’s hoping) as I’ve heard, which is why I think it looks a little large at this stage and the waist band is a bit of a ‘w’ shape rather than being straight around the middle. But I’m sure I’ll grow into to it in no time!

So there you have my happy news, although I can’t say the last three months have been delightful. I have been unbelievably tired and suffering morning sickness quite a lot, which is all quite normal and I expected it, but I did not expect to be feeling nauseous all day long nearly every day, or that things like brushing my teeth or bad smells would make me retch, or that my skin would not only break out but in weird places like my neck and hairline, or that my finger nails would grow into talons and my hair would grow so much (and not just the hair on my head either, my legs look like woolly mammoths! Sorry, probably too much info…). But I guess that pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing is a journey of surprises and much learning, so I’d best get used to it I guess.

And if you look closely, I am wearing a pair of flat shoes that I recently purchased in the half yearly sales (see Vicki, you are my guiding light!). Quite a few people have been telling me with delight that I won’t be able to totter around on heels for much longer, and although it was difficult I managed to find two pairs of half decent flat shoes from Mollini for the bargain price of $120 for both.

I’ll leave you with a totally unnecessary shot of Oscar the wonderdog, who hasn’t been in any photos of late despite him trying his best to get in the way. This photo was taken in the far back corner of the garden which is his domain (see the deflated ball in the background?) so it’s only fair.

I wear what I sew part 5: Friday casual outfit

If you’ve been following these posts for the last few days, you would notice that I wear a lot of suits. Which I do, so that’s very observant of you! And thank you all for the lovely comments on the suits. But on Fridays, if I don’t have any meetings organised I like to dress a little more casually to fit in with every one else for a change (I’m usually quite overdressed in my office even though it is a corporate environment). However, I do struggle trying to find something appropriate for the office in the dressy casual category so I find dressing on a Friday always takes a lot longer than the usual suit and top combo. This is where laying out a week's worth of outfits like Carolyn does would certainly prove useful.

Last Friday I wore a paneled skirt which I morphed from Vogue 9625. I have made this is as a dress before, but here I used only the skirt part of the dress, added a narrow waistband and shaped two of the panels at the back instead of darts for fitting and voila, I have a paneled skirt. I’ve made this skirt a few times, as well as once for my mother, and it is very quick and easy to sew and only needing a variation in the number of panels to increase or decrease size.

The fabric is a wool (the scratchy type unfortunately), which is a lovely grey colour with fine black lines running through it. I cut the fabric on the bias to get some drape in the way the skirt would hang, and also to have the lines become a feature. And the skirt did drape in lovely folds, until I sewed a narrow hem and then it stood out and became more of an a-line skirt shape, but I still like it.

I’ve wore it to work with a RTW knit crossover top in a vibrant purple colour, with suede flat shoes in a matching colour with silver buckles, which were custom made in Vietnam when I was there earlier this year for the princely sum of $20!

The final tally for the working week is twelve made garments from fourteen worn garments, a grand total of 85%, which is pretty good but as I said previously I did make a concerted effort to select made clothes over RTW since I knew I was keeping score.

What else I discovered:

a) I wear a lot of skirts – this is because pants don’t look that great on my pear shaped figure, and I’m not good at making pants that fit so I don’t!
b) I should always line jackets, especially tailored jackets, they will wear better and probably longer too.
c) I should avoid polyester fabrics, even if the colour or print is great because it doesn’t sew or last as well as wool or other natural fibres
d) I have enough shoes to wear a different pair for 65 days straight, so I shouldn’t buy any more (but I probably will anyway…..)

I wear what I sew part 4: caramel skirt suit

I'm glad you're all enjoying these posts - but here is the last of the skirt suits that I have made (well winter suits anyway, the summer ones will have to wait). This is the outfit I wore to work last Thursday.

This jacket is also made from Simplicity 9839 - the pattern I used for the maroon suit, but I modified the wing collar to a shawl collar, by redrawing the collar piece with a gentle curve using my French curve rule. This jacket I did line, with a bemsilk lining, because it was very fraying and I wanted to serge the seams rather than bind then, plus I learnt my lesson re lining jackets after the maroon wool jacket. The skirt is made from Vogue 9615, which is an a-line skirt with a wide yoke (but I left off the pockets, because I didn’t need any excess fabric over my saddlebags!).



I made this jacket early last year, and have worn it quite a bit. It is made from polyester - yes I’m admitting it, I don’t ordinarily use polyester fabrics because I prefer natural fibres and I find sewing and pressing polyester a bit hit and miss sometimes. But when I saw the lovely colour and pattern of this fabric in Lincraft, I purchased it (when it was on sale of course) regardless of the polyester-ness of it. There are quite a few pulls in the fabric now due to the loose weave, so I may have to retire it soon. It also wrinkles quite badly for a polyester suit – check out those creases in the sleeves after a day of wear, almost makes me want to keep my arms straight at all times to prevent them!

I wore this suit with a RTW boat neck top in a maroon knit, and matching maroon patent leather peep toe heels. So for last week, by Thursday I was at eleven made garmets from twelve worn garments, with my percentage dropping to 92%. But that is still pretty high, so I'll have to see how long I can keep it up past this week that I'm documenting.

And in response to the question asked on the last post from Lucette, winters in Sydney are very mild. Definately no snow or ice, barely any frost even, and if the temperatures dipped to 10 degrees Celsius it would be on the evening news as a cold snap! Sydney is on the coast, and many people still swim in the ocean during winter (not me though), and in fact many Sydney women despise giving up their flesh baring summer clothes during winter so much that they still get around in open toe sandals, thongs (aka flip flops), skimpy dresses and their fake tans, with their only concession to the cold being a scarf!

I wear what I sew part 3: polka dot wool skirt suit

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the previous wardrobe posts - I'm glad you're liking them and I hope I'm not boring you with all the details. I do love blogs about what people wear on a daily basis, particularly Kasmira's What I wore today, because she has such a great sense of adventure and colour combination skills. But boy is it hard work to take a photo everyday, particularly now that it's nearly winter here in Sydney and the light is pretty bad, hence all my indoor photos.


Anyway, on to the outfit that I wore to work last Wednesday:

You may recognise both the skirt and jacket from this suit. The jacket is one of the four that I have made so far from Vogue 2641, the Donna Karan pattern that I posted for the blue wool skirt suit. The skirt is the flared yoke skirt that I made for the Burda WoF skirt suit posted about here, which is Simplicity 5914.

The fabric is 100% wool purchased from Lincraft when it was having a sale, because the original price was $39.95 per metre, but I think I bought it at $19.95 a metre. It is a very smooth and soft wool, not at all scratchy like some wools can be, in an olive green colour, with white and pale brown polka dots. It really is striking, whilst still being subdued because of the soft, autumnal colours.

Because this fabric is a bit thicker than the wool flannel I used in the Burda WoF skirt suit, the hem of the skirt sticks out a bit rather than sitting in lovely folds around my legs. But it does get that glorious swishy action when I walk, so I still like it just the way it is.

I wore this with a white cotton shirt that I made last year, from a sloper pattern that I made after doing a pattern making course at the Sydney Community College. This shirt pattern is brilliant, I get such a good fit and am able to churn out a shirt very quickly using it, so I guess it is another TNT pattern. You know I have so many more TNT patterns than I ever thought I did now that I am documenting what I’ve made.

That would be my messy office in the background - I think all the papers laid out strategically fools a lot of people into thinking I am super busy!

So I am now nine garments worn from nine garments made, still 100%. I have to admit though, because I knew I was going to keep count I did deliberately wear more of my made clothes than RTW clothes, but I still think that most weeks my outfits would consist of around 60 – 70% of made clothes, so it does justify my pattern and fabric stash (are you reading this husband?).

I wear what I sew part 2: maroon wool skirt suit

So continuing on with the experiment of seeing how many of the clothes I make I wear each week, last Tuesday I wore a skirt suit I had made, with a cotton shell top that I also made, so now it is six from six, still a 100%. Yay for me!

I made this suit in 2005, and it is practically my favourite suit out of all my RTW and self made suits, even if the collar style is a little dated. It just fits so well and the fabric is absolutely lovely.

The jacket is made from a 1981 Simplicity 9839 pattern, purchased from an op shop for the princely sum of 50c (which is the most I will pay for a pattern from an op shop by the way!). It has princess seams which result in a well fitting body and a very 1980s style wing collar. The sleeves also have a dart at the elbows for wearing ease. It also has a waistband facing that extends from the front facing around to the back, which gives a nice, curved finish to the hem.

The only thing I dislike about this pattern is that it is for an unlined jacket, and stupidly (plus a bit of laziness) that is how I made it. I finished the seams with bias binding, but since this is a wool suit made to wear in winter, I should have made a lining, and I plan to do so soon.

The skirt is just a pencil skirt which I can’t even remember which pattern I used, but there is nothing fancy or special about it.

The fabric I purchased some time ago from a garage sale, where a lovely old Italian woman invited me in to her lounge room which had fabric draped over every available surface. She made me a cup of tea and told me about a lot of the fabric and picked out bits and pieces for me, and I ended up buying quite a bit of her fabric for a very reasonable price. This fabric has a small scale white and maroon check and was so easy to sew with because it pressed nicely and generally did what I wanted with it!

On Tuesday I wore this to work with a white textured cotton shell top, made a few years ago from Vogue 1826, which also has princess seams and a rear centre back closure, which I used a line of buttons instead of a zipper (and as a result requires contortionist moves to do it up!). You can only see the top of it peeking out in this photo, but I'm sure it will make another appearance sooner or later because I wear it a lot - it fits superbly and goes with practically everything. The shoes are very tall heels to make up for Monday’s sensibility, in a beige linen with brown leather straps and buckle.

I wear what I sew: blue wool suit

I was going to do a post on what I wore during the week to see how many of the clothes I have made I actually wear, picking up the idea from the discussion over on Pattern Review and posts on few other blogs, such as the Lean Mean Sewing Machine and Two On Two Off. I have to say that I actually wear everything I finish (and as you know not everything gets finished!) at least once. Sometimes after an initial wear things may need a little further tweaking (and sometimes those garments end up in the UFO/WIP pile!), but mostly I fix them and wear them again.

But I realise that most of the things I wore last week were made in my pre-blogging days and hence haven't been mentioned here. So instead of one big post, I'd thought I would post them individually so I could give the details about the patterns and fabric for each one.

First up, on Monday I wore this suit I made last year from Vogue 2641, a 2002 Donna Karan pattern which is now OOP. I really love the peplum style, I think it is good style for a pear shape because it was easy to nip in at the waist but flare out to skim over the hips. I also made the matching knee length straight skirt, but with a wider waistband to get that high waistband look. I realise now that I find high waisted clothes very uncomfortable and I plan to take the waistband off and either replace it with a narrow waistband or just with inside facings instead.

Anyway, this is a really great pattern which I have made four times now, so I guess it classifies as a TNT pattern! The fabric in this suit is a wool blend, in a royal blue with black flecks, and a golden thread check running through it, purchased from the Remant Warehouse (which is moving to Botany Road in Alexandria on 2 June for all you Sydneysiders reading this). The button is lovely blue vintage button purchased specially from a shop down in the Rocks called Buttons Buttons Buttons, which as the name suggests sells nothing but buttons, but they literally have thousands to choose from so they are a good spot to pick up something unusual.

On Monday I wore this suit to work with the Burda WoF blouse from my last post, but after I had taken the photo in the last post I had somehow gotten make up on the collar, so I had taken it off to soak before I remembered that I neededto take a photo of the suit. So here it is shown with a RTW top, but in reality Monday's tally was three from three - 100% so far! And the shoes are vintage purchased from ebay, a navy blue leather with cream piping and a silver buckle, which have a low chunky heel that are very comfortable and sensible for those days when I can't bear to squeeze my feet into a real pair of heels!

Burda World of Fashion 1/2008 blouse 125B

Today I purchased the latest Burda WoF magazine available here in Australia, the March edition which is full of patterns I totally love so it was a good buy. I also finished another Burda WoF creation, my third to date. So let's see what the cost to make ratio is now: 8 magazines @$15 = $120, 3 patterns used = $40 per pattern!!!! Lucky I really love this blouse and the jacket I made recently, and I have plans to make lots more so I will get my money's worth, eventually.....

So on to the latest creation. I made the pin tucked sleeve blouse 125B featured in the January 2008 magazine. Imaginatively, I made in a white herringbone weave 100% cotton that I bought in Bangkok earlier this year for some crazy cheap price, and I bought heaps of it too, which was lucky because with those voluminous sleeves this pattern uses a lot of fabric for a shirt. It was lovely fabric to sew with, and lovely to wear so it was an all round bargain in my books.

The pattern was rather simple, it is just a shirt after all. The pintucks were a bit fiddly, but made easier to get straight because of the stripes in the fabric from the herringbone weave. After seeing the beautiful orange stretch satin version the Peacock Chic made, I realise mine could have been a lot harder to sew but could also have been a lot more brighter and fun too! Ah well, I did need another white shirt.

And here is the finished product, after a full day's wear at work (hence my shiny face):

Boy I look really pale in this photo! I did wear it under a suit I also made (yet to be blogged about) in a royal blue with a gold check wool fabric, and a pair of red shoes (of course!), so it wasn't as dull an outfit as the above photo suggests. Because it was rather chilly in my office I kept the jacket on all day, so no one even noticed it was a new shirt. Perhaps the shirt will be better worn under a tunic (ie a jumper dress) or just a vest to show off the sleeves to their fullest.

Originally I made version A of this shirt, with the extra large cuff that is to be worn turned up. I even went and specially bought the 19 (!) required buttons (a trip to the fabric shop that entailed in me purchasing more fabrics) and made all the button holes, but the sleeves were way too long, and my fabric just wasn't crisp enough for the cuff to turn up properly, so I cut some of the sleeve off and made narrow cuffs as per version B of the pattern. Note to anyone else considering making this - check your sleeve lengths!

I also used this tutorial that I found on on Pattern Review for this blouse to do the collar stand. The lady who wrote this tutorial based it on the David Coffin shirtmaking book that quite a few of you are raving about, and after using this technique I can fully understand why.

Well, I have my next Burda WoF pattern already traced off, a jacket also from the 1/08 magazine and I need to get busy on improving that cost/make ratio!

The Posture Improving Dress

One of the things I love about vintage patterns is the poses used in illustrations of the models on the envelope: they have such poise, elegance and tiny, tiny waists (well they usually are drawings and not real life models after all). So of course when we real life bodies make these dresses, the outcome is not exactly the same….

With this dress, made from a 1959 Simplicity pattern, I have to stand up straight because if I slouch those pleats at the waist puff out and give me an unflattering beer belly where one does not exist!

Sewing up the dress should have been easy since it has rather simple lines, but it was made harder by the pattern pieces being those ones where the patterns marking are perforated instead of printed (those dots are ruining my eyesight!) and picking a fabric that required a lot of match at the seams and zipper.

However once past those challenges it came together rather easy. The only alterations I made were to use an invisible zipper at the centre back seam instead of a lapped zipper and to underline the dress with a bright orange cotton batiste - I’m guessing that vintage dress patterns don’t usually call for linings because the ladies of the day wore full slips but I don’t profess to be a lady so I definitely needed a lining! I also left off the pocket because the print of the dress was busy enough so their effect was limited.

I made this dress from a crisp cotton purchased from Lincraft when they had their 50% off summer fabrics sale a few weeks ago. It is a rather bold and busy pattern for a dress, but I don't like being boring so I thought why not? I did make the matching belt, with a big brown button, but it didn't stand out because the print is so busy, so I've worn here instead with a plain brown belt, to match some old brown Witchery t-bar heels I nearly through out just a few weeks ago.

I also made the jacket, from a textured cotton canvas and large plastic buttons I had in the stash. I’m loving the gloriously wide lapel and bracelet length sleeves, and look how good my notched collars turned out! Normally I do an atrocious job on those notched collars and have to hand stitch and steam the hell out of them to get them into line, but I followed this tutorial by Barbara Weiland that appeared in the November 2002 edition of Sew News magazine and it just worked this time.

The lining method was a little ordinary IMO, instead of doing a bagged lining and then turning the whole thing out the right way, the pattern steps required the jacket and facing to be all sewn up, and then hand sewing the lining in. This was majorly fiddly and time consuming, and something for me to remember if I ever make this pattern again (but with 587 other patterns waiting to be made I probably won’t!)

Unfortunately the weather here in Sydney has finally turned cool so I may not wear this dress and jacket anytime soon, although maybe with black opaque stockings and a warmer jacket I could make it work – it is in autumn colours after all.

Hey, you, that's MY fabric!

Another of the reasons that I sew (aside from not having to buy outrageously priced clothes that never fit) is that I like being able to wear clothes that are unique and different from everyone else. It is unlikely that you would ever see someone else wearing your exact same creation because of the millions of patterns out there, individual adjustments to the patterns plus the wide variety of fabric available to make into clothes.

Given that I do buy a fair bit of fabric from large chain stores such as Spotlight and Lincraft it is possible that I would see someone else wearing something made from the same fabric. But it is still surprising to see it, and it hasn’t happened before until just recently when I had two encounters.

First up I spotted a lady wearing a shirt from this same cotton that I purchased from Spotlight that I had made into a skirt using a now OOP Butterick 5172. My husband and I were walking through Chinatown heading for yum cha at the Marigold (the best yum cha spot in Sydney) when I spotted her walking ahead in the same direction. I wanted to go and say something to her, but my husband thought she might be freaked out by that so I didn’t….











Shortly after this photo was taken a few weeks ago this skirt met it’s demise and is now in the great rag bag in the sky (or rather my laundry). It’s a sordid tale of a close encounter in the washing machine with a new piece of red fabric which left it’s tell tale pinkish hue all over the skirt. Sadly a soak in a bucket with colour run remover drained all the life and colour out of the print. Notes to self: (1) read the instructions on packets and (2) colour run remover works exceedingly well but is best used for whites……..

Moving right along, whilst reading the delightful ethellovesfred blog by Claire (who manages to find the greatest op shop buys ever) I see in the background of one of her older posts curtains made from the same fabric (again Spotlight) that I used to make this quarter circle skirt with a wide yoke band (a very flattering cut for pear shapes) made from Simplicity 4599:














And that is just too funny, but since I do use curtains and sheets (usually vintage) to make clothes it’s only natural that someone do the reverse.

and here's one I prepared earlier.....

Sadly nothing new has been completed from my sewing room this week because it turns out that I am part of the 1% of the population who adversely reacts to the flu vaccine, and I have been very sick for most of this week. It just pains me to have several days of uninterrupted time at home that I could have used sewing up a storm, but I was too sick to even get out of bed and watch crappy daytime telly let alone get anywhere near my sewing machine. But I'd say I've caught up on any sleep deficit I may have had, so there is a silver lining to that cloud.


But now it is a sunny Sunday and I am feeling well (just in time for work tomorrow, oh joy!) and the husband and I are heading out to dinner later this afternoon to celebrate my return to the world of the well (and my brother's birthday). However to keep up with my personal goal of blogging at least twice weekly I am going to post about something I made earlier this year. Actually since I've been sewing for eons but only blogging for a few months I do have a lot of older creations that are unphotographed and unheralded, but I may start interspersing them with more recent completions in my posts just to give them their time in the sun too.


I made this sleeveless top from the leftover waffle weave cotton that I used to make the Louis Vuitton inspired suit I blogged about here. The fabric was too pretty to waste, but not quite enough, so paired with some other fabric scraps in black, I morphed this now OOP New Look pattern dress into a top but cutting at the waist and using a shorter zip in the back. Incidentally my mum made this pattern into an ankle length dress made of maroon microfibre with cream straps for my year 10 formal (ie 'prom' in US terminology) way back in 1993. You won't be seeing that photo (even though the dress was finished superbly, yay mum you rock) because it features way too much metal on my teeth, but here's a photo of the pattern instead.



I've worn this top a few times to work, under a black pants suit (purchased RTW, shock horror!) and my favourite black patent heels and it makes me feel very glamourous indeed. In the photo I've worn a chunky black bead necklace that came with last month's InStyle magazine by the designer Claire Aristides - total score for a freebie. But I took it off before I went to work - it felt a little too OTT for my rather staid office, well a little more OTT than usual for me! All in all I'm rather proud of this creation - very thriftily made from offcuts and it totally lifts a plain black suit.

Refashioning a past creation

Generally when I refashion an existing garment, and what I think is universally understood in the blogospheres, it usually involves refashioning an existing bought or thrifted outfit/garment, or wearing it with something new and unusual to make up a new outfit.

This time however, I refashioned a pants suit that I made several years ago that although I wore a few times I was never quite happy with it. It looked a little drab and the fit was a bit too big and loose. It’s made from a beige linen with a bit of stretch, and the pattern is McCalls 2126, a longer line Nehru necked jacket with flat front pants. I made an invisible closure using a large hook and eye to give it what I hoped were smooth lines but just ended up looking blah:















After it sat in the cupboard for a few years not being worn, I decided to completely rework it to get some better use. First the jacket: I took the arms off to narrow the shoulders, took it in along the princess seams, and cropped it to the hip line in a curve. I also added a row of tortoiseshell style buttons I picked up from an op shop (what a find to get so many matching buttons at once!). And whilst the armscyce is still a bit too low but can’t be fixed after cutting, overall the fit and look is much improved. Worn here with a cotton dress I made from a Vogue Calvin Klein pattern, and some vintage amber beads, it has a completely new lease of life.


Not to be wasted were the pants: I took off the waistband, took the zipper out and let out all of the seams. Luckily after a wash the previous seam lines almost disappeared. I then sewed up the front seam where the zip was, folded over the waistband to create a channel and inserted a drawstring. Given that the pants were made looser by letting the seams out, I have ended up with a pair of casual linen drawstring pants that are a good hot weather alternative to jeans. Not too fancy mind you, but probably good for fat days.....


So with about two days worth of attention I have managed to create two good outfits out of one mediocre outfit, and the clothes can now justify their space in my overcrowded wardrobe.

and this is why I sew!

Have a look at this Marni dress that appeared in the latest In Style Australia magazine. Notice anything in particular? It's a rather plain, almost shapeless shift dress style, in a so so print highly reminiscent of the 1980s.

It is however, $1315 and it's made of polyester! Yes, POLYESTER!

That is just plain craziness for a dress that is very simple to make, and would use probably no more than 2m depending on your size. For us sewers we could make it out of a lovely quality silk with custom fitting and still have money left over for shoes and a bag and this month's mortgage payment.....


So I showed my husband this photo and told him to stop complaining about my fabric and pattern stash, I'm actually saving us money!

In contrast, I whipped up this skirt using some roughly textured linen in a grey with black and white thread slub running through it purchased from an op shop sometime last year. Because I didn't have all that much fabric, the pattern (Vogue 7937) was an excellent choice, because it comprises of six narrow panels, with two vents at the back (I made version A). The panels of the skirt made it easy to get a good fit, and the yoke facing instead of a waistband is super comfy.

Modelled here by moi accessorised with a $10 knit top bought on sale, a leather plaited belt from an op shop and blue strappy leather heels bought about two years ago from David Jones on sale. Just call me thrifty!

UFOs are taking over my life!

Sally commented on my last post that quilters use the term UFOs to describe those WIPs that never get finished - trust me I know that term very well! But here’s a question for you: when does a WIP become a UFO? For me, it’s when I put aside a project because of some frustration, and start on a new project or three. A few months will go by, I will have a clean up of the sewing room, and the WIP in progress will enter what I like to call the cupboard of limbo – much like the waiting room for ghosts in that crappy movie Beetlejuice the cupboard in my sewing room is full of unfinished objects hanging there, taunting me…..

Some of the UFOs only need minor work to finish them, such as hemming or a button and it’s just plain laziness on my part that I haven’t finished them. Others need taking apart and major fixing such as resetting a sleeve cap or taking in to make them wearable. However, with so much fabric and patterns, I do get somewhat impatient with the difficult child and like to move on.

You know how the fabulous Erin over at A Dress A Day writes her drabbles about the Secret Lives of Dresses, stories of how they were once worn and loved but now are left behind as fashions change and their owners fade? Well I often think that about UFOs: such high hopes were had when pinning the pattern, cutting out the fabric and sewing up those first seams, but something changed, went wrong, and the dress that was once meant to be entered that realm of never was, maybe never will be.

Maybe I just think too much, but feeling guilty at wastage of time, fabric and money, I entered sewing purgatory, retrieved the garments waiting for some attention and the opportunity to be worn in the sunlight and made a list (I’m good at list making, completing the task is another matter). There are well over 45 projects on that list, excluding a few complete wadders and a few ‘what was I thinking with that fabric/style’ and will now endeavour to complete a UFO for every new project that I do. Plus the success with the white shift dress that was twelve years in the transition phase of UFO to completed object inspired me.

So first up was a relatively simple UFO: this skirt just needed a lining and some serious shortening (from mid calf length to knee length). I actually wore this once, before I realized the faults that needed said rectifications. It’s a vintage Style pattern, made from tropical weight black wool with an inverted pleat front and back made from a narrow piece of Amy Butler cotton in yellow. The pleat back and front gives the skirt a nice swish to it when I walk:

I used this 1980 Style pattern, which indeed was sew simple (just love their pun), but also turned out to be much longer than I imagined, but I think this was because I tend to wear my skirts below the waist and vintage patterns are designed to sit at the waist.









And a big thank you to all those who came over from Sew Retro and posted comments both here and at Sew Retro - it made me so excited and grateful to get all those nice comments! And in response to Karen's question about vintage sizing, I find the sizing runs a little large, but since the older patterns don't often give finished garment size I check using flat pattern measurements, a tissue fitting and a lot of finger crossing.