Frock catch-up

*Updated with proper picture of red dress*

I've made a few things lately but been rather slack with the posting, so here are my last two weekends' efforts:

First up, a Halloween frock. We don't really celebrate Halloween here in Australia, but I love the imagery. I wanted to wear this to work, so I didn't use any of my myriad skull fabric. This is one of the quilting prints I got this time last year from Beaver Creek Quilts. Good old Butterick 6522 again. I wore her on Friday and got some unsolicited compliments on public transport!


This picture of one of my kitties will give you an idea why I had to have that fabric!

The other frock was today's sewing. Kitty got some lovely red ponti at Spotlight during the week, so I nipped out and bought some too (I also bought some snakeskin knit fabric, which I started to cut out but it is a bit slippery so it is sitting half cut on my table).

It was screaming out for a Joan Holloway dress (don't you love how that's become code for a fab fitted retro frock?)
I dug this pattern out of my stash:

It's a 36, which is a size or two too small. So I did my lazy lady's grading and added 2cm to both the front and back centre seam/fold, did a bit of reshaping of the neckline so it wasn't too wide... and voila!

The instructions for that middle bit were a bit of a pain but it has worked out just fine.

Here it is on me. Do you think I need to dust my mirror?


And here she is on me!

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: