17/02/2012

Violet’s market debut

S.E.W.N.

Since this post was very nearly titled ‘Violet’s Violent End’, I thought I’d take her to the market for some sunshine and dumplings to celebrate our sewing triumph. We had a lovely time, V and I, while my bro crept behind the stalls, stalker-style and papped us…

… fondling vegetables….

…playing dress-ups…

…and demolishing dumplings (that’s my do not disturb face)

I almost gave up on Colette pattern Violet. Let me see… this was meant to be a muslin for something a bit more exciting, but I hoped it might be a wearable one. I found this great 90’s dress at the thrift store with something like New Woman on the tag, and paired it with chambray for a contrasting collar. It all came together beautifully, as you can expect of a Colette pattern. I even combatted the high-ish neckline by taking it in at the waist and sides so it’s a slim fit instead of a relaxed (boxy) style. Everything was looking pretty peachy from the front. But when I turned to the side…

…there were giant ripples pooling at the lower back. There’s no doubt I have a sway back but so far I’ve never come face to face with it sewing. Of course I did what any rookie sewer would do and tried to gather the problem area in with elastic. Not only did it do nothing for said ripples, it created more of them, now at the sides. Gah! I turned to my trusty Colette Sewing Handbook for guidance and committed the unmentionable post-finished-garment-sway-back-adjustment! Basically, I pinched two inches of fabric out, sewed a curved line across and by some miracle my crime against sewing is camouflaged by the pink stripe in the center back. YES!! Another lucky sewing break.

The pattern is now fitted with a proper sway back adjustment ready for V no.2. It was just so fun and cutesy to wear that I think I wouldn’t mind a few of these gals in my hand-made wardrobe.

10/02/2012

Tigerlily Maxi

S.E.W.N.

Australian fashion label Tigerlily are pretty much as ‘Aussie’ as backyard bbq’s. They make beautiful, slightly exy swim-wear and clothing that I used to pine for seasonally, in my pre-diy era. I am blown away that a new fabric store in town (The Fabric Store) are stocking the exact Tigerlily fabrics from their collections…by the yard! This seems kind of unusual, but complain I did not. Grab the bolt, race to the counter, shoulder checking along the way, I did. I recognized this geometric polyester knit from a dress in their collection a few summers ago. A dress that I wanted bad enough to cut and paste it into a word document…these were the days before Pinterest.

I knew I was onto a good thing with the Mission Maxi Dress pattern after I wore the ‘test run’ for three days straight. A bit feral now I think about it. But it’s just a great pattern, especially for lazy girls at heart! For minimal time and effort you get a super flattering, easy wearing summer maxi dress. This version using view C with godet, really grabbed my attention and I assumed my geometric print would make a spectacular godet version. However, in my case, the print had so much happening already that the godet doesn’t really stand out. It’s seems more visually effective to use a plain fabric, like stripes, and get creative with changing the direction of the fabric.

So I may have mentioned in a recent Kniterviews, something to the tune of ‘I don’t change much at all when sewing with knits laa laa di da’. Which is all well and dandy until I tried to sew this really stretchy fabric with a regular straight stitch. No surprises, it puckered like a you know what! Usually I avoid my machine’s stretch stitch function ( uneven stitches?) but in this case it was ten times better than straight stitch. I tried so hard to line up the print but it was ta-ricky. I’m declaring polyester knit as the eel of stretch fabrics, and after much wrestling I still couldn’t get it to match at the center back and side seams. Lucky its a busy print and hides it well. So don’t look too close you lot!

Now I have my own, friendlier on the budget, Tigerlily dress!

07/02/2012

Hootylicious

Boy Makes

Pattern: 90 minute shirt tutorial from here

Fabric: women’s tee + ribbing

Short and sweet post today. I made this for Archie’s little mate, who just turned 4. He’s into owls and I happened to have this thrifted tee in the cut-up clothes pile. I only had small window of sewing time and needed a quickie of the best kind so I turned to the ever-faithful 90 minute shirt, also seen here and here and maybe here. It’s a real confidence builder too when your sewjo needs a boost. Though now its finished I really want to keep it. Is that possibly the lowest form of indian giving, the one in which you don’t even give the present? So I posted it right here where I won’t get away with my crime, since there’s a good chance our little friend’s mummy is reading this…

05/02/2012

Stuff n’ Stay // Villain Edition

Boy Makes

Pattern: Oliver and S sailboat top. Last time I made a 3 and the arms were a bit short, so now he’s a size 4 I made a 5 and we’re good. I don’t think its the pattern sizing, we’re probably a long armed species.

Fabric: Stripey Jersey pinched from a loved-no-longer dress that wasn’t really my style. I didn’t take before photos so you’ll have to take my word for it, but I squeezed out every piece of this pattern bar the hem facing.

Mods: Chunky black cuffs, I like how they look on the cardigans. Instead of two buttons on each shoulder, I used one big button, mostly out of necessity!

Botchy bits: Something is up with my button hole foot. It’s catching the fabric half way through each hole so then I have to tug at it which makes for a really average button hole. I wish I could say its just happening with knits, but wovens too. It’s making me a little nervous, seeing as the next few projects I ‘d like to sew for me have so many buttons in really obvious places. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be attaching giant buttons to hide the mess beneath, though I quite like it here!

Make again: This is one of my favourite boy patterns. I like the details like top stitching and facings, which make for a neat finish and look more complicated than they are. Now that I know it works in a knit…

Make your own Stuff n’ Stay with this tutorial. To make the Villain version, we can bypass a few steps. Since we are using felt we can sew our two layers of felt wrong to wrong side, just make sure the velcro side is facing out. Sew around the edges with an 1/8″ seam (include eye holes), still leaving a little gap to stuff. Once you’ve stuffed it to your liking, stitch the gap closed with your machine still on the right side with 1/8″ seam.

Completely forgot the back molar berry check.

23/01/2012

Land down-under dress

S.E.W.N.

So there we were, heading into the outback for a New Years Eve wedding, sans kids. And here I was, in the passenger seat franticly hand stitching the lining and bodice of a dress I started the week before. As is the way, I had a good few months to prepare aaaaand got distracted.

After all that, I’m not head over heals for this dress. I did a bit of a naughty in buying Vogue 1102, knowing it compromised the number one rule for my shape: high neckline. I’ve been dabbling in some ‘research’ to figure out the what styles suit and what patterns I should go for. By research I mean, watching Trinny and Susannah’s ‘What Not to Wear’ and trying on clothes that aren’t necessarily ‘me’, just for thrills! Apparently, I’m an upside-down triangle. Broad shoulders and chest and narrow hips, means pencil skirts yes, high necklines no. Turtlenecks: BIG NO! Anything with an expanses of fabric across the chest make me look and feel boxy.

Rules Schmules she said! I had a vision of this dress in aqua linen-blend and I thought maybe, just this once I could overlook the neckline. There was even enough of this thrifted fabric, 4 yards! The stars were aligned, it was meant to be. And I love this style, really I do, but sadly not on me. I changed out of it and into a backup dress between wedding and reception. I just felt uncomfortable. Perhaps Vogue 1102 is better suited to girls who are petite up top. If you are full busted or broad shouldered or both, save yourself the heartache and go for a Vogue 8280 type neckline. Or just make it up anyway to reconfirm what you knew you already knew!

Excuse my underwear but this was too good not to share. Have I been living in a bubble? Did you know there is such thing as a ‘low back bra extender’? I was just about to buy some alarming stick-on cups when I saw… a piece of elastic with bra clips/ hooks on each which attaches to one side your bra, wraps around your tummy and hooks onto the other side, dragging it down below the line of your dress. The best part is it attaches to your own bra (and it was a third of the price). You can’t beat the security a proper bra in the event of shimmying/ leakage. As it turns out, 15 hours without breastfeeding led to some seriously engorged boobies. I just wanted to get home!