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:

Red Shirr-ley

I made another version of Shirr-ley, because I wear the first version a lot.

The fabric for this one is a cottony knit (I though it might be a poly cotton due to the weight, but having worn the frock a few times, I think the extra weight is maybe elastane not poly. I can tell because it's been stinking hot on a few occasions when I've worn this, and I haven't expired from the heat like I would with even the smallest bit of poly. Why this doesn't happen with elastane or lycra, I don't know.)

The knit is from Pitt Trading. I bought it with making another Shirr-ley in mind. I like the retro print.

I didn't bind the neckline or armholes this time, because I didn't have anything in quite the right colour. I would like to make a neckline flounce for this one, maybe a turquoise little something? Or a big brooch? The neckline feels quite plain. But maybe that's just because I'm used to fancy!

Olive surplus

Despite having a giant stash under my cutting table (12 x 55l boxes! eek!) I can't resist buying more when I see it. I went past Cleg's in the city last night and found some sludgy green poly-lycra crepish knit... it's one of my favourite colours at the moment so I couldn't resist. $5.95/m was also a bit irresistible.

I pondered what to make last night. I decided something wrappy-drapey would be good, so I thought of the very popular New Look 6429 (which I am wearing today for inspiration). Such a comfy dress and one that takes longer to cut out than sew...

However I decided to make a few changes. I put 5 cm through the torso since the other one sits a bit high.

I used clear elastic inside the turned-over neck so it wouldn't gape. I may have gone a bit overboard, but the gathers are in keeping with the side gathers and the back so I think that works OK (if I don't like it after a few wears I should be able to take some of the elastic out)

I also decided to square off the back bodice point and put on a straighter skirt with gathers:

It sits a bit lower than I planned, but I think the effect is rather 1940s which is just fine by me!

The colour doesn't come up too well in the pics - it's more like this text (note to self: learn some more html)

And I'm back

My stash of patterns and fabric has been in storage for nearly two months, boo! Mr M and I have moved house, so there has been a lot going on. It was worth it to get a sewing room. Well, hopefully I will have a sewing room once we get all of the junk sorted out.

I'm back on the sewing machine wagon now.

First up was my friend S coming up to stay at our new place for a weekend, so I could make her a frock for an awards night she's attending. It's difficult to see because it's black, but it's a v-neck, with tie gathered shoulders, and a shirred high waist. Made in a satiny polyester. It's what she wanted. No pattern, I just traced one of her dresses for size, then shirred away. Still loving the shirring obviously. Magic. The pic is the frock on me, it looks better on S. Darn. Well, it was made for her.

Today I made a shirred sunfrock for a friend's daughter's second birthday. I have used this fabric before for a little frock. No pattern necessary; I cut out a rectangle 50cm long and about 60cm wide, hemmed all around, shirred 10 rows, sewed the one seam (reinforcing the shirred bit of the seam a few times to catch all the shirring elastic. We don't want any pinging) and added straps. Easy. Just as well, because today was the last chance I had to make something before the big day. I hope it fits. Surely the magic shirring won't let me down!

By the way, the photo is taken on the huge rock face we have in our new back yard. Naturey!

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: