Pastoral Peter Pan, Parallel Pintucks

I liked my first  version of Butterick 5315 so much, I made another this week.

I've had this Alexander Henry Midnight Pastoral toile sitting in the sewing room for a few months  and had always thought that something sweet and feminine would be a lovely contrast with the print (which, until you look at it closely, is also sweet. I just can't resist skeletons it seems). I've got some of the blue as well, but for this one I was all for the etchiness.

I made one small change - I decided to put some pintucks in the front. Unsurprisingly, I did this the easy way - pintuck the fabric, then cut the pattern. I measure the first one and did the rest by eye.

I might add some buttons (sans buttonholes) - I've sewn the placket down for now, and will wear it with a brooch like I do with Francoise.

As you can see, Spring is springing all over...

New Look palate cleanser

Hooray for long weekends!

I was excited to make Butterick 5674 in some snakeprint ITY knit from fabric.com (sold out now, but $2.09 per yard on sale!) As the pattern is new and not available here yet, I downloaded it and taped the 50 or so pages together. The frock has a lining, but I've never found it necessary to line a knit frock. The instructions looked a little complicated, so I decided to make a muslin. Unlike me, but I'm glad I did. I tried for a few hours to put the bodice together, but it just wasn't working, perhaps because the lining does something magic? I don't know. Nothing seemed to line up and I couldn't make out the instructions at all. I ended up chucking the bodice in the bin. What a disappointment. I'm glad I didn't waste any snake fabric on it!

I made New Look 6000 in navy ponte instead. Ahh, love New Look! Such a nice, well drafted pattern.

I extended the shoulders a little. The button was one I removed from the epaulette of a jacket a while ago, because buttons on my shoulders interfere with my handbag strap. Recycle-y!
I also recently finished knitting another moderne baby blanket, with an i-cord border this time, and less wonkiness!

Francoise hardly

As soon as I saw this French General fabric, I knew I needed it for... something. My job involves words, so what better fabric? I got a few yards of the stone (which ended up being brown-grey), a yard of the red, and a couple of the blue. My initial thought was napkins for my sister (which I will still be doing), but I had enough of the stone to make a dress.

I wanted something vintagey, and for some reason a peter pan collar popped into my head. I went through my patterns and found Butterick 5315, which is a relatively recent pattern.

I mucked around with pattern a bit - didn't add the faux back pleat, and made the skirt pleats into inverted pleats rather than flat ones.  I also left off the buttons down the front and just sewed the placket down - I will close it at the neck with a brooch instead.

I'm pleased with the result:

She's called "Francoise" because I was listening to Francoise Hardy and Francoiz Breut while I sewed her...

Burda skirt and Style Arc pants

A simple skirt (burda 10/2010) with pockets, in stretch sateen from Spotlight. This turned out waaaay too big in my burda size, probably due to the stretch in the fabric, and how I completely ignored the fabric recommendation. I made the front gathers into 4 pleats to decrease the extreme poufiness of the gathers in this fabric, and took in the back, but the waist is still a good 5 cm too big and would need to be taken apart to fix. I wore it today, and with a shirt over the waistband it's all good.

Here's the Style Arc Linda pants in dark navy stretch bengaline from The Remnant Warehouse. These were super quick to make. Ready to wear pants always fit like this on me, with a slight baggy bit on the outer thighs. I'm not bothered enough to try and fix it. I was happy to see putting elastic in the waist was optional, so I left it out and they are fine.

Front:
Back:

If you need nice slimfit stretch pants, I recommend!

Hello Sailor!

I wanted to make some trousers for work, out of some inky blue bengaline I recently bought. I'd heard good things about Style Arc's Linda pant, so I ordered the pattern. It was a nice surprise to find out that you get a free pattern with your order, and August's free pattern was the Ollie Tunic.
This stripey knit is from Pitt Trading (not sure of the fibre content, but feels like a cotton/poly blend maybe?) and I thought it would work nicely for the Ollie Tunic as there are no darts to interrupt the stripes.
I lengthened it to dress length, shaped the waist a little more and widened the neckline a smidge, although I was hoping for more of a boat neck effect.

Still, a very quick and easy sew!

I will eventually get to the Linda pants, but frocks are so much more fun.

Copying myself again

I am wearing this sparkly frock a lot, so I made another version, in a teal coloured wool-blend jersey I bought while I was in Melbourne. Moggy bought some of this fabric too.

I widened the neckline a smidge to make it more boaty, but I went too far. My bra straps peek out a little. Why do I have to tinker when I already know I like the way it turns out? Why?

It's ok, my hair can cover it.

For years I used my hair to cover the top of dodgy back-zip insertion in frocks. Now I have my fab invisible zipper foot my zips are neat, so I could really cut my hair. If I didn't need it long for this bra strap issue, obviously.

Snap!

 When Kitty visited the other week, one thing we did was go fabric shopping - here you see some faux silk twill (the red with bit fat grey roses - $2.99/m marked as silk but it wasn't - no problem at that price, will be fabulous lining), self stripe bengaline (yay stretch - I see a pinafore) both from Brunswick Fabrics, and some faaabulous silver leopard from Clegs (for an eveningy frock of some description):


From GJ Fabrics in Lygon St, from left to right is green wool jersey (actually like a light doubleknit), emerald-y ponti, and lovely teal wool blend.

While she was here, Kitty also helped me to make Jane more... Moggy. Her proportions were never quite mine, so while she was fine for hanging hems and taking (inaccurate) photos, she wasn't doing what a dressmaker's dummy should do.

Now she does, as you can see on the left.

First we put a suitable sized bra on her, then used wadding to pad her out. Once her proportions resembled mine, I used New Look 6968 to make a tight fitting cover out of some stretch purple denim.

 

To celebrate, I used the new Jane to make a scoop necked version of good ol' Butterick 6522. I finally made a proper right-sized version of the bodice out of interfacing so I can make another thousand versions of it. 

If the fabric looks familiar to those who follow bloggers, it's the same as Livebird's lovely drapey dress.

Hands up all who share the stretch cotton sateen love.

Another reason to appreciate said fabric is that with a frock like this - no need for a zip. Yay!

Sparkles

I was in Melbourne the weekend before last, to visit family and friends, and Moggy and I went fabric shopping. I bought two dress lengths, a lovely teal wool blend knit, and this disco sparkly fabric, half price at Lincraft:

I used the same pattern I used for Shirr-ley, but modified it by drawing 7cm extra at the shoulders to form cap sleeves, and instead of shirring the waist, I put in a casing for a narrow elastic waist for some shape. I made a cord belt for a bit of extra disco pizazz!
The fabric is quite sheer, and feels a bit nylon-y and rough, so I lined it in a thin black poly knit.
I rarely line dresses, I prefer to wear a slip if necessary, but this fabric really needs a lining. It took me a few goes to get it all turned around the right way. I really should look things up online or in one of my sewing books before I try it; that would save a lot of time and unpicking. Maybe that can be next year's New Year Resolution!

Vintage vogue 8728

This vintage vogue reissue pattern...

Plus this vintage cotton fabric (from etsy)...

Made this dress...

I changed the waist gathers to four pleats on both the front and back, because I prefer pleats to gathered waists. I made my own bias binding for the neckline, first time ever! With a bias maker it was easy.

Belt or no?

Masked marauder

El Luchador loco! My first crochet project!
I used this pattern.

There's a few mistakes in there but I don't care! I love him!
This one's for a friend, but I've started another for me because I'm going to miss having the little guy around the house.

(Edited to add: sorry if the formatting is a bit whacky, blogged from my phone)

The look of love

...New Look love, that is...

I had a hankering for a bolero so I popped along to Cleg's pattern and remnant sale (half price patterns, not their fabulous twice-yearly or so $5 for all patterns sale). I wanted New Look ones anyway, so they ended up being not much over $5 each

One was New Look 6935. Cute little collared and collarless boleros, plus some cute empire line frocks (which I may make one day). I made it out of some leftover Ponti. As usual, the New Look pattern made up a treat. This is view D. It's shaped nicely with darts at the neck (hard to see on black, of course!)

I found more of the same Ponti in my stash and decided to make a matching frock. This pattern is New Look 6013 which I bought a while ago  - Kitty made this in leopard in May.

I cut out the front and embroidered a lovely bird from an Urban Threads giveaway (I removed the banner using the fabulous almost-free Stitch Era Universal embroidery software).

The sewing of the dress was super quick - I did the turn-and-sew thing with the neckline, sleeves and hem using the coverstitch. I love that Elna!

Not AGAIN!

As Kitty and I were having our usual online-chatting-while-sewing-or-otherwise-craftifying, we discussed how despite both having a metric heap of patterns, we do often sew the same ones over (and sometimes over and over) again.

That's exactly what I did this weekend.

Saturday was a leopard ponti version of the red buckle dress from way back last November - the vintage Simplicity Slenderette S.183 . I dug out a silver buckle from the haberstash and off she went!

Unfortunately I think the coverstitch on my Elna was going a bit weird so will have to wear it and see if it maintains Hem Stability. 

I'll see if I can get a better picture tomorrow where it's not looking quite so brick like.

Next is old favourite Butterick 6522, made Sunday afternoon after a lovely lunch at my sister's house to celebrate a couple of family birthdays. . 

 

I've now made this one from lace, halloween cats, lurid stretch cotton sateen, black knit with embroidery, tiki print (hmm, where is that frock?) and now goldfish:

As mentioned before, it's a pattern I've had for ages so was cut to a 14 - I now sew an 18 most of the time. So I added 2cm to each seam (side and back) and the centre front, and sewed the back dart 1cm smaller at the waist, tapering up to the existing dart at the top. I used the usual a line skirt from New Look 6557. This is such a quick sew, what with the cut on sleeves, dartless a-line skirt, faced sweetheart neckline and french dart. It's a great style for showing off the pattern of a fabric.

Note to self: trace a version with these additions onto interfacing so I don't have to mark it up every time and adjust the facing. Because we all know I'll make this one again.