New doona from the SWA!

SWA – Sewing Weekend Away!

One of the projects I sewed at the May 2013 SWA was a new doona for my bed. First, I must say… I do not recommend sewing bedding. The lines of stitching are long and boring, and having to move approximately 10 metres of fabric every time you need to iron/turn a corner is tiring. #bleurgh

But… OMG I’M SO THRILLED WITH THE RESULT! I put this on my bed, and I swear to God – all I wanted to do was jump straight underneath it! Amazingly toasty looking and feeling )

In case you were wondering, this is the doona/duvet which I fell in love with years ago… and was my inspiration to use this (Spotlight – on sale (!) fabric I picked up some time ago).

Your turn – what did you make at the May 2013 SWA!?

It’s summer in Australia. Shorts required.

It’s Hottest 100 Day/Survival Day/Australia Day here in Australia today… so what could be more appropriate than a post about a pair of SHORTS?!

Shorts. What horrible things to buy in the shops. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve looked for a pair in the shops, they are invariably too tight/short/unflattering Seriously. I’ve never found a decent pair (sport shorts are the only exception to this rule)!

So, this is the third time I’ve made a pair of denim shorts. (I made 2 pairs late last summer and LIVED in them when I was travelling in Cambodia!) The shorts are based the culottes pattern which my previously-posted-about linen trousers were based on too! (Who would’ve thought a somewhat-weird looking pair of culottes would get so much use!?)

Here’s what the finished, super-comfortable, super-weather appropriate product looks like ::

The width of the legs of these shorts are perfect for me – the wider shape is much more flattering than a narrow pair! Here they are from the back ::

Good fit, eh? The shorts have a fly front, and waist band. The “button” used is a proper jeans button (I bought a packed of them in Cambodia last year!) – there’s no thread holding it on… you actually have a metal/rubber screw -like thing which I had to bang in with a hammer to attach it. Not sure if that was how I was meant to do it… but it worked, and seems solid! Oh, but my machine ABSOLUTELY HATED sewing that buttonhole!

Why, yes. I am an innie! I don’t find fly-fronts too difficult to sew, following the instructions always seems to get me there! However, at some point I’ll have t figure out how to sew a zip-protector thingy (you know the piece of fabric placed behind the zipper so it doesn’t touch your skin?). These shorts don’t need one… but I’d just be curious to find out how you add one in!

Hmmm… what else? Oh! This ::

Polka-dotted quilting cotton for the (hidden) pocket lining? Abso-fruit-ly! I find I get so much more joy out of an item if it has fun hidden things like this!

The denim for these shorts was purchased from Homecraft Textiles in St James. It was tough to find the right denim for these shorts – it couldn’t be too heavy, but it couldn’t be too light either. I eventually found this denim which is just the right weight… though, truth-be-told, is a little more blue than I would’ve preferred. The compromise was totally worth it, though.

 

 

Frankensale dress!

So. As most of you know, local fabric store Potter Textiles recently had a big (50% off) sale. As many of you also know, my office is 138 steps from Potters. So, yeah. No “I will only sew from my stash” new year resolutions for me… the fabric was on sale!

In the sale, I impulse purchased a patterned viscose. I *must* have seen this fabric on the racks many times before… but it had clearly never grabbed my attention. But this time – I could picture exactly the dress I was going to make!

The dress is based on the Sewaholic Cambie pattern which I had made once before… which, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about! Whoops. Here’s what I ended up with ::

I opted to make the sweetheart neckline less pronounced  (though in hindsight I wish I’d straightened it). But otherwise, I made the bodice pretty much to the pattern (with a few small fitting adjustments).

Here’s the dress from the back (I also wish I’d lifted the back neckline – next time, Gadget! ::When I made the pattern the first time, I made it with a full skirt. This time, I was making a work dress, so wanted a  a narrower skirt. Having borrowed the pattern from a friend, I didn’t have the pattern pieces for the a-line skirt option which came with the pattern. So I franken-pieced the skirt together using a pattern piece I’d made for an earlier skirt, and then used the pocket pieces/yoke etc from a pair of shorts I’d made!

Here’s how the pockets ended up looking ::

Dresses with pockets are the bestest! I also added belt loops to a dress for the first time. Ace! Also – did you notice my pattern matching on the side seam there? (Sure it’s not like matching stripes or anything… but I made an effort! It counts!)

Want to know the other secret of the dress? Well, I might have had trouble distinguishing the right side of the fabric from the wrong side when I first started sewing. So I might have sewn the darts in backwards. Unfortunately the needle marked the fabric quite badly, sew I decided against unpicking the darts, and instead decided to justify them as a “feature”! Sneaky, eh? Turns out the busy-ness of the fabric means the outward facing darts aren’t all that obvious anyway!

Final thing to say? The dress is fully lined using the lovely black silk-cotton (also purchased on sale from Potters). Lovely, lovely.

Btw – are you friends with Potter Textiles on Facebook? If not, send them a friend request here:: http://www.facebook.com/fabricoutletshop

A summer Gabby

My second sewing project of the Christmas break was my (second) Gabby top!

“Gabby” is a AU$6 downloadable, print-at-home pattern from Tessuti. The pattern is technically a dress, but I opted to shorten it into a top. Gabby is a really simple pattern – it’s made up of a front piece, back piece, sleeves… no zippers/buttons, no darts! As a result it’s a quick and easy sew!

I made the pattern up out of a light weight cotton lawn from Spotlight. (As an aside, I love that Spotlight are now stocking a lot more pretty cotton fashion fabrics… though truth be told, the vast majority of the lawns are in colours/patterns which are no good for me. But, when I spotted these green polka dots, I knew this was a pattern I would wear!)

So, here’s the top I made (sorry, apparently I only take photos of garments after I’ve been wearing them all day ). It’s perfect for summer – cotton, light and breezy.

 

This is the top from the back…

The neckline of the top is finished with bias binding. Now, just between you and me… I didn’t originally intend for the binding to be a contrast/feature – I accidently just sewed it on backwards, and couldn’t be bothered unpicking it! But, sometimes you get lucky, and you end up LOVING the mistake you made! Oh, and somehow I managed to get the bias binding to sit perfectly flat. Not sure what I did to achieve this, but you take it when it happens, right?!

So far I’ve made 2 of these tops, and I have plans for one more – 2012 was a good year for finding patterns worth repeating! HUZZAH!

 

 

Ridiculous(ly comfortable) trousers

So, I had an idea for a pair of trousers… the idea wouldn’t go away, so I decided to just make it happen! I am now the owner of a pair of super comfortable extremely wide-legged blue linen trousers.

The pattern for these trousers was built from Burda 7654 – a pair of culottes (not that you’d probably know to look at them)! Oh, and no, I don’t remember what the Kwik Sew ref written on the pattern was in regards to. :-S

I removed the ugly pleats from the front, shifted the zipper to the side seam (removing the fly front), added back pockets, and lined the upper part of the trousers .

Please excuse all the creases in the photos, and remember that a) these trousers are 100% linen (crease-inevitability) and b) I’ve been wearing them all afternoon…

Nb. My photos have inserted out of order, but I can’t be bothered to change them around… so we’re starting with the back view!

The front view. IMHO, the volume of these trousers mean that I need a fitted top to wear with them – I bought this one (for cheap) specially for the purpose!

I added back pockets, with some detail… just because.

As you can see from this final photo, I lined just the arse-area with some silk cotton (also from Potters). I wasn’t 100% convinced that the linen wasn’t see-through, so I added a lining to the top just to be sure! I used the selvedge for the bottom of the lining (rather than a hem) to avoid any lines/bulk. This worked well. 

So, there you have it. Blue linen SUPER wide-legged, summer-friendly trousers… just because. Consider that itch scratched.

[This was my first sewing project of my Christmas break. Two more to come!]

January 6, 2013 – Unveiled!

The WA Museum is currently hosting an exhibition all the way from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum – wedding dresses! Lingerie! Hats! Shoes! See website. From the website:

Relive 200 years of romance and glamour with this dramatic collection of wedding fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

This exhibition traces the development of the fashionable white wedding dress and shows how both brides and designers have stamped their own style on tradition. It considers the influence of the wedding industry, the effect of the increasing media focus on wedding fashions, and the excitement generated by society and celebrity weddings.

The exhibition features 65 wedding outfits and accessories of both brides and bridegrooms. The range of accessories includes veils, hats, shoes, wreaths, and lingerie.

Interested in going along and checking it out? Well, the exhibition is on display until 24 March 2013. But, a group from the sewing club will be heading along on Sunday, January 6 at 1pm. Visit MeetUp to RSVP if you want to join us!

Just for the record, 98% of the reason I’m going along is to see Gwen Stefani’s John Galliano-designed wedding dress (below)!!

Sewing Club Meets 2013

Hi everyone! For your new, shiny diaries… here are the dates for the 2013 meets of the Perth BSC Sewing Club!

In 2013, meets will continue to alternate between Saturdays and Sundays, beginning at 1:30pm.  Dates for the meets are as follows:

• Saturday, January 19
• Sunday, February 17
• Saturday March 16
• Sunday, April 14 (also proposed month for sewing weekend away)
• Saturday, May 18
• Sunday, June 16
• Sunday, July 21
• Sunday, August 18
• Sunday, September 15
• Sunday, October 13 (also proposed month for sewing weekend away)
• Sunday, November 17
• Sunday, December 15

Most meets will continue to be held at the Sewanista Fashion Workshop in Malaga – thanks to Sandra for her ongoing generosity. (Don’t forget to check out the Sewanista Facebook page!) However, as in previous years, the January & February meets will be held elsewhere – I’ll keep you posted as we get closer to the January meet.

Don’t forget to join our MeetUp page for notifications relating to scheduled meets – and please do your best to remember to RSVP… we’ve been close to or at capacity a few times in the last year, and we’ve got to make sure we have enough chairs for everyone!

See you in 2013 for more sewing!

Christmas (Decoration) MeetUp!

As most of you would know, the next BSCPerth meet is coming up on Sunday, 16 December – it’s the last meet of 2012, and right before Christmas!

The suggestion has been made (supported and accepted) that we should hold the 2012 GREAT CHRISTMAS DECORATION SWAP at the December meet. So, do you want in?!

Here’s what you need to know (don’t worry, it’s pretty simple and straight forward )…

For the 2012 GREAT CHRISTMAS DECORATION SWAP you need to bring along a handmade Christmas decoration suitable for hanging on a Christmas tree! If you want to bring more than one ornament, thus entitling you to take home an equal number of ornaments, you can also do that! Wrap your ornament(s) up, and place it in the box when you get to the meet. Then, it’ll be a lucky dip to see which ornament(s) you get to take home with you! Simple

Need inspiration for a simple Christmas decoration to make? Take a look over on Pinterest,  on the Bugs & Fishes blog, or  just Google (images) it!

Pattern Magic dress for work!

Since my first post on attempting a pattern from Tomoko Nakamichi’s Pattern Magic book over 12 months ago  (remember the boob hole? ), I’ve played around drafting a few other patterns from the book. A few months ago I decided I wanted (another) black work dress – but a more INTERESTING ONE this time. So I went decided to go back and re-try Musubu: Bow B! (Technically this was my third attempt of the pattern, the second became a white linen top, which unfortunately ended up discoloured and had to be thrown out – boo!).

This time, I wanted to incorporate the Bow B bodice fanciness into the bodice of a new dress. I used some black textured (striped) cotton from Potters for the dress, and this is what I ended up with!

First note – the skirt’s shorter than I intended. But by the time I realised it was about 4cm shorter than I wanted, it was too late! Oops! But definitely skill wearable, so that’s okay.

As the photo below shows, the dress is sleeveless. The dress isn’t lined (too difficult!), so I used bias binding around the sleeves, and around the edges of the bow.

Below is a slightly close(r) up of the bow. There’s a few small… let’s call them “quirks” that are apparent to me in this picture/to me when I wear it.

Quirk 1) relates to the fact that my block is a bit dodgy. The dress I originally developed the block from, had a scooped back neckline… and while I raised the back neckline, you can see in the photo below that the collar still sits a little too far from by neck. It’s no deal-breaker though!

Quirk 2) See (above) how the fabric above the bust doesn’t sit flat? The bow is meant to pull that fabric flat, but what I *think* has happened is that I sewed the collar too far down the front loop (see below) – leaving excess fabric not pulled through into the bow. Does that make sense?

Thankfully, none of the very minor “quirks” of this dress affects its wearability at all, so it gets worn quite often! Yay!

A bridesmaid in a Crepe dress!

Recently, my friend C was a bridesmaid for her sister’s wedding. Her sister decided to buy multiple Colette patterns for the dresses, and 5 different shades of green-ish  raw silk for the bridesmaids dresses to be made out of. Four of the bridesmaids had their dresses made for them, but C (who’s still a relative sewing beginner) decided that she wanted to try and make her own (with my assistance). Fun!

When C asked me to help, she’d already had a first go at making the Crepe dress pattern up. The Crepe dress is a beginner-level wrap dress pattern. I’ve made it multiple times for myself! In C’s first version, there were some clear fitting issues, mostly related to the placement of the darts, and the length of the bodice. So, we did some fitting of the dress bodice to begin with. We made up a couple of muslins, in order to test moving/shortening the position of both the bottom and side bust darts slightly, and shortened the bodice. These changes made a huge difference – I wish I had photos to show you!

Going through the muslin-making process, I had to explain to C how important it is to be really accurate in sewing your darts, and keeping your seam allowances just the right width. In the early stages, I even drew 1.5cm red lines for her to sew along (on white fabric) in order to keep the muslin accurate, and make my point! Sorry I don’t have any photos to share of the muslin stage to show how big the difference in the before/after was…

Here’s the dress we ended up with, the photos of which were taken at the end of the wedding evening, so please excuse the slight crumpledness etc!

I *wish* I knew why the bust has a weird “dent” in it in this photo … I swear it fits so well! We also cut a square neckline rather than the sweetheart neckline, at C’s request – nice, eh?

Isn’t that back neckline gorgeous?! Unfortunately the bride decided that she wanted the ties to be tied in a bow at the back (rather than wrapped again and tied at the front as the dress is designed). This made me sad – IMHO, it looks much better with the fabric ties running around the waist twice, rather than once… but the bride gets what she wants on her wedding day!

There was lots of hand sewing in this dress – the hem (which is very, very long) was invisible stitched (I had to teach C how to do this), as were all the facings – I didn’t want visible top stitching lines on a bridesmaids dress! But otherwise, it’s really quite a simple dress to make.  Oh, and did you notice the pocket, just visible, in the second picture? Pockets in dresses… even bridesmaid dresses… #FTW!

Unfortunately, C has just moved with her family to Albany, so I won’t be able to drag her along to any meets in coming months… but I reckon she’s got the sewing bug now (and a well-fitted pattern to re-make!).