Pattern gorging

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

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!

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

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.....

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

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

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!