Frankenstein Frock Frenzy 2012

During my time off over the festive season I have been very busy in the sewing room.

I bought some fab Shaheen tiki print quilting cotton from equilter last year. When it arrived it was sopping wet in the package, in an Australia Post plastic bag which said that is how they received it. It was like it had been at the bottom of the sea! Equilter were great about it when I notified them, and told me to give it a wash and see if I wanted to keep it, and if not they would refund me. It washed up fine, so I kept it and made it into my New Year's eve frock.

I used bodice D of New Look 6699, but rounded off the neckline a little, to make it a bit more like a vintage sarong dress. I only had 2 yards of this fabric, and equilter had no more, so I couldn't do a proper wrap skirt. Instead I attached the skirt from Butterick 5672, cut on the bias (as the pattern instructs you to do, which I don't really understand as it is designed for stretchy knits.) I cut on the bias because I was using a woven of course and thought it would give me some more wiggle room (haha!)

This means the striped motif is angled on the skirt, but I don't mind that, it makes it look more 'sarongy' to me. The side pleats on the skirt give it a bit of a wrap vibe.

Next I frankensteined Butterick 5672 again. I'm getting my money's worth out of this pattern! This time I used the bodice, but extended the shoulders for a more vintage look. I attached skirt D from New Look 6911, but decreased the pleats on the front from 6 to 4 (total) and left off the waistband.

The fabric is a linen/cotton blend I got at Spotlight. It's extremely red as you can see. Nice and cool and the skirt twirls nicely. I didn't line the frock, instead I used bias binding as facings. It's not especially sheer fabric, and I wanted to keep the lovely lightness and coolness of the fabric for summer wearing.

This frock was an experiment for the next fabric I had in the queue, but I ended up going with a different pattern for that in the end. I've finished that next frock now, and will show it in my next post. Now I have to get out of the sewing room and go somewhere to wear all these frocks!

Deery me

Here's the other frock I was making while Heidi-ing.

It's made of the Joel Dewberry Deer Valley fabric featured in an earlier post. It's delightful! Made from old faithfull vintage Butterick 8149 with some wide straps trimmed with the same bias binding as I put on the top of the bodice. Skirt is good old New Look 6699 as the large scale fabric seemed to demand a-line skirt.




Hooray!

Igor, frock and hat

Last week I did a practice pack for next week's trip and thought I had everything. But then I read the weather for Los Angeles and apparently it is around 25-27 Celcius - so I though I'd better pack a sundress!

Notwithstanding the fact I have about one billion sundresses, I thought I should make another. This is a combo of the vintage Butterick 8149, the skirt from New Look 6699, and a band made up on the spot...

It's not actually a halter, I just haven't finished attaching the straps to the back. I also thought I should make a little bolero to pop over the top if it is even sunnier. This is a frankenpattern of Simplicity 3748 and McCalls 5006. I shall call her Igor:

I also decided to make a hat (why the hell not!) It is the baddana fabric on one side, and some leftover hawaiian print barkcloth on the other:

This is made from the Wild Ginger software called 'Wild Things!' which is a free download of fashion accessories patternmaking software.

Wiggle, robots, wiggle!

Is it really two months since our last posting? What a shocking state of affairs!

I've bought a fair chunk of fabric online in the last few weeks (woohoo for the strength of the Australian dollar!).
I heartily endorse buying quilting cottons online and getting them shipped from the USA. I usually search via Quiltshops.com, and most of the places seem to ship to Australia. A global priority envelope fits 7-9 yards (if they are really skilled envelope squeezers!) and costs $12.95 USD postage. I find they get here in about two weeks and I have never been disappointed with the fabric. NAYY, just a satisfied repeat customer.

So it seemed time to sew a couple of them up:

New Look 6789 from this irresistable "First Village" from Michael Miller:

This went together very easily - or it least it would have if I hadn't chucked in some extra seam allowance willynilly, which I then had to take out again... but anyway, a quick sew and a very comfortable frock:

Then we have the "Robots" from Michael Miller (what can I say, I love their work) which is a frankenstein of the Butterick 8149 bodice and the straight skirt from New Look 6699. I should've trawled our archives first and realised I used a different skirt with more hip room last time... this time resulted in a Robot Wiggle frock:

I am off to a party this evening, so I made a robot reversible pursible to go with

it (lined with green toy soldier fabric):

The other fabrics that I bought recently are:

Happy Camper (this and the two above are from Fabric Shack). This is destined for a shirtdress of some sort for the USA trip next year:

More robots (a shirt for the chap) plus a couple of halloween prints (frocks for me), from Beaver Creek quilts:

I've been most conscientious and prewashed all of these (note to self: don't forget to overlock the ends before chucking in the machine, saves a whole world of tangle).

Tomorrow I plan to either frockify one of the lengths, or maybe start the Great Bolero Experiment of Summer '09. This girl needs some cover ups for sunny days!

Oops, I forgot I made this skirt a few weeks ago too. It's from an old Style pattern, and I think I'll make another in wool jersey for the trip:

Oh my corazon...

So here she is at last. Why did she take me so long? It's a mystery!

New Look 6699 in Corazon heart quilting fabric.