Maxi refashion

It occurred to me the other day that all those maxi dresses you see around - on sale of course! - would be the ideal candidate for refashioning. I've been finding leopard knit rather hard to find for a while, so when I saw this I thought it would be a good candidate at a mere $20 on sale up the road:

The neckline is way too blingy - it looks even worse in person I think.

So I cut the bling off (interestingly, it came off as one piece which might actually make quite a nice necklace - as you can see in the Afters).

I cut it fairly straight (the back was slightly elasticated and straight so I left it as is), put some pleats at the centre front to dip the neckline, and made the Butterick 8149 gathered straps.

Here is the after. This might even end up being a tripfit, since it packs up small and doesn't wrinkle.

I might need to sauce it up a bit, but I will wear it a few times first.

Random stuff

I am in the midst of knitting a baby blanket for a colleague:
It's the 'Old Shale Baby Blanket'. It's an easy knit, but looks far more complicated than it is. You can find the pattern here.

I also recently made toadstool rattle for a friend's new bub. It's cute, but my version came out more like a toadstool ice-cream cone. Mmm, poisony. (Pattern here)

Finally I have a couple of weddings to attend, so I am on the lookout for fancy fabrics to make up some of the vintage patterns I love but haven't made because I haven't had occasions to wear them. I went looking at Remnant Warehouse today. I came home with two sweater knits instead of glam silks. Oh dear, looks like I will have to do more fabric shopping. Sigh.
I'm thinking the McCalls 5245 jacket from the dark chocolate rib which the label says is a poly/viscose, and maybe another Vogue 2925 top from the teal, which is a wool/acrylic blend.

Luaus and sewing rooms

I'm having a housewarming luau in a few weeks, and not surprisingly I have a few tropical frocks to choose from.

I think I have decided to wear flamingos (see the last link above), but as I'm thinking more of a 60s-Blue-Hawaii-Elvis-movie -theme-luau, a wiggle dress seemed appropriate, so I took her in, and up.

Here she is now, along with a sneak peek of my new sewing area, wooo! (I love the old telephone desk I got at auction, but I can't fit my sewing machine and overlocker on it together, so it may be replaced when I find just the right desk) Not as fab as Moggy's purpose built sewing studio, (no, I'm not envious AT ALL), but I am just so happy to have a place where I can keep my machine set up!
Is it bad form to leave your guests for frock changes? I'm having trouble deciding which frock. Help anyone?

Also, I think I have found just the right fabric in the stash for a machine cover, what do you think?

Simplicity 2614, again

In honour of Australia Day (day off, woo!), I organised my stash. Organising in my world doesn't mean colour coding, categorising by type of fabric, oh no no no. I went through my plastic storage bins of fabric and tossed all the post-project scraps of fabric I had shoved in there, many of which were not big enough to make a coin purse. Then I folded the fabrics up properly, which has made more room for more fabric. Yay!

One of the benefits of cleaning up the stash was finding bits of fabrics I had forgotten about. This is a cotton voile I bought from Spotlight years ago, pre-blog. I had made a wrap dress with it, but had never worn it due to the neckline stretching out (forgot to stay-stitch, whoops!). That dress was recently tossed, or donated, I don't remember which. Anyway, I found enough of a remnant of the fabric to make another Simplicity 2614 blouse, with the tie, but without the sleeves.

I made it this afternoon and wore it out to dinner this evening. I just hurriedly snapped a photo outside in the fading light, so it's a bit crumpled; please imagine it crisply ironed.

Which reminds me, I have some crispy M&Ms waiting. Mmmmm.

Florals for everybody!

I made another Vogue 3013 the other day, in some cherry blossom fabric I bought in Tokyo nearly 2 years ago. This pattern is like my fitting shell, it fits me so well. I must remember to trust the pattern though, and not panic and do small seam allowances before I put the zip in. I pulled it around my body prior to zip insertion, and convinced myself it was going to be too small. Of course as soon as I put the zip in it was all gape-a-rama up the top. I probably need to become one of those ladies who scribble all over my pattern envelopes. "Trust the pattern, Kitty!" Wouldn't that make a nice mystery for its next owner?

I also made Simplicity 2614 in cotton voile I bought at Pitt Trading. It was supposed to be the non-tie version, which it was for a while, until I noticed this:

Yes, the largest flowers over the bewbies. Not anatomically correct, but not a good look in any case. Sigh. And I was careful cutting out, or so I thought. The gathers might have pulled them in to that awkward position.
I consulted Moggy, nip-crisis counsellor, who suggested making the tie to distract the eye. She was right, and the blouse is saved, see:

I like it even more now, and I must remember that V-neck cotton tops always look a bit like scrubs to me. (I should scribble that on the pattern envelope. "Cotton + V-neck = Scrubby") The tie helps scrub out the scrubbiness.

Also, I had to re-cut the front facing on this pattern, due to it being a good 10cm too small on the size 8! I did the neck facings 3 times in all, what with them being too small, Then putting the corrected ones on, then ripping them out to put the collar/tie on, which meant cutting more facings... and cotton voile is no friend of the seam ripper. Under that neckline is ugly and holey my friends.

All this for a work top. This is why I don't like making clothes to wear to work. Frocks rarely give me this much trouble.

Wrongrose

As promised, here is the dress I cut out yesterday along with the shruglero. I have named her Wrongrose in honour of Livebird's comment yesterday.

The pattern is New Look 6789, which I have made twice before.

This is super quick to sew, the only thing that took time is the piping on the band (made much easier by the mighty piping foot!).

The stretch cotton sateen is lovely to sew and wear - if only all my floral cottons were lycra-ed!

Here she is with the shruglero from yesterday. Looks a bit mother of the bride, but I think I'll manage.

Shruglero

I think this is a bolero, however the pattern (McCalls 5006) says 'shrug' - so I shall compromise with Shruglero!

I have a dress cut out to match this (New Look 6789), but as I've made it a couple of times before I thought I'd make this first.

I made view D, with 3/4 sleeves. It is supposed to be lined, but since it has a front facing and raised back neck band, I took a chance and left it out - it worked just fine.

I need to decide what button to use to fasten the front - I have a squillion buttons, but none quite right!

More home dec sewing

A couple of simple cushions for the sofa, in green 'boomerang beat' fabric.
No fancy piping or anything, too lazy and the fabric is fancy enough, no?

I am trying to decide what frock to make while I am still on holidays. It's hot here, so a cotton sunfrock is high on the agenda. Hmm.
But I am having a bit of a knit affair. Mmm, knits.

I will have a rifle through the stash. I may be some time.

Black Black Black

The frock below was the muslin for this dress, and which I roughly put together to test my pattern draft. I finished it off today, and it's wearable. This version had a mandarin collar, which we ended up not putting on the official version, because it looked a bit tacked on. I don't mind it on this though.

I made a quick knit skirt too. How many black skirts can one woman need? Well, my other pull on knit skirts are too thick to wear in summer, this one is nice and thin. Ignore the bulges from the tucked in shirt, I wouldn't normally tuck a shirt in, but I did for the photo to show the waistband.

Mended a couple of Mr M's shirts today too, so I'm popular.

Baggage

Part of my trip preparation ritual is making a new bag. I like to have a bag to carry stuff on the plane and for wandering about the streets with a camera and cardigan and bottle of water and all that kind of thing.

So here's this trip's bag - I haven't road tested it yet, so it remains to be seen if it comes on holiday with me:

It converts from the big size (good for magazines and carrying bulkier stuff like the aforementioned cardigan) down to a smaller more handbag-size, by clipping the strap on to the middle d-rings rather than the top ones. The rings stick out a bit, but I don't mind that look.

I was inspired by the Timbuk2 Stowaway bag which is delightful but at US$50 for shipping (the bag is on sale at the mo for US$25) it's really not practical.

I also made the dress from Vogue 1020 yesterday, but it is NQR... I think I need to taper the sleeves. Will post when done, but once again it is black so a little hard to see!

Home sewing

Moving house has meant mostly home dec sewing for me lately. Busy busy busy!

I have 'prepared' curtains. Hemming and clipping them up, putting a bit of lining behind them is barely 'making' curtains. Fabric on the smaller window is vintage, the dandelion print is from ikea.





We bought an outdoor dining setting from ikea, and painted it white. I dipped into the stash to make some tropical cushions for it, and we used it when we had friends over for New Year's Eve.
It pleases me.


I've also finished the moderne baby blanket for friends whose baby may arrive anytime now. It's a bit wonky, due to the instructions saying to pick up stitches one for one to start the next block, even from the edge rows. There may be an errata somewhere, but I didn't see it when I started this months ago, so I started out doing that, before remembering that knit stitches are wider than they are tall, so that trick never works. Hence the wonk. I am choosing to see it as 'hand crafted charm'.

Tripfits Twenty-Ten

Now that the new year has ticked over, it is less than three months until my USA holiday so tripfits must be made!

It's been horribly hot and sticky lately which means I can just about make myself cut out things but don't feel much like actual sewing - luckily it is lovely and cool today so I took advantage of the weather to make a dress:
It's made from a mystery knit from the shop up the road - I did the burn test and got a sort of hair-paper smell and a bit of melty stuff so who knows! It has a nice drape, and doesn't crush - so good prospect for a travel frock. It's a teeny bit low for day wear, but I'll be making some nice straight-across slips so that should be fine.

Item #2 is a travel skirt from this Vogue Pattern, using the same fabric. I lengthened the skirt 15cm as the original was a bit short:

The annual Cleg's $5 pattern sale was on Boxing Day so I went and got a big bunch o'patterns. As well as the two above I also got: