Nothing to see here folks! Just another men’s tee turned manligan, using this lovely pattern. But you know what they say…a manligan a day keeps the doctor away. Or should it be Mandigan? So confused. Diagnosis: Manligan Fever. The only known cure: make more manligans.
I wish you could add things to your cv like, ‘Applicant can completely shred, devour and re-use an entire men’s t-shirt in minutes’ and people would bow, not laugh! Admittedly, I felt a little guilty cutting this one up. There may have been a conversation with Mr Cirque Du Bebe and a vague hint dropped, like ‘wow that’s a reeeeeallllly cool shirt, I would wear that one’. Sorry baby it wasn’t me. It was the FEVER!
Hands down, this is the best outcome of last year’s new-clothes-free year. Usually I would be devising a scheme to get my mits on that gorgeous Etsy dress. And it was only because buying wasn’t an option, that I even considered sewing. Now it seems crazy to have ever considered buying!
Which came first, the pattern or the piping? I bought this pattern, found the piping and fell in love with that ‘nautical wiggle dress’ in three unrelated incidences. True. I snapped up Vogue 8280 after first seeing it here and there it sat in the stash waiting for the right fabric… and for me to grow some balls. I jumped on a review site and found lots of lovely but very sensible versions for the office. I was still hanging out for a cheeky wiggle dress and when I saw this cute fabric with little jolly-rogers and anchors…Vogue 8280 was free from her shackles!
I had a good feeling about this one. A pattern combining a fitted bodice, sweetheart neckline and pencil skirt is a guaranteed never-fail for broad shouldered, narrow hipped, up-side down triangle shaped girls. Choosing the right size was kind of important since I am yet to figure out the making of a muslin and some of the reviews recommended you size down. According to the pattern I was between a 12 and 14. I cut the 14 to be safe but when I held up the pieces it just seemed too big, so went back and cut the 12. So far I seem to be getting away with shrinking seam allowances down if I’ve cut too smaller size rather than entirely re-fitting a bigger size. For now.
The bodice fit perfectly and with pinning help from an obliging girl at the fabric shop, I took in the sides of the skirt and changed the shape. Not leaving without my wiggle!
And yes they are fake…eyelashes. I was SO excited about how to style this dress to capture its retro rockabilly spirit. Yet to get in touch with my inner ‘girly-girl’, I had to search Pinterest for ‘pin-up’ style make-up and buy some basics. According to this tutorial you must have pin-up eyebrows so off they went for a wax. The beautician was not familiar with these so called pin-up eyebrows but somehow we nutted out that they had to be long and thin, with a high arch, please. As you can probably tell, I had fun hamming it up for the camera in a deserted (at least I think it was) carpark. Not hard to do when your eyelashes are an inch long.
One of the reviewers said she highlighted all the instructions for the particular view you want to sew because they jump about. Which it does. Invaluable. My personal tip is: write yourself encouraging messages along the way, which is especially good for sewers previously brought to tears by a vogue pattern.
There’s no denying…2012 has arrived. And so has the KNIT-erviews! Made by Rae is hosting a blog-world-first with a whole week devoted entirely to sewing with knit fabric. It begins TODAY and I’m super excited to be taking a little part, sharing tips on making knits work for you (not the other way around) and my not-so-secret sources for superior knit fabrics. Don’t spend another moment fearing things that stretch…it’s a must-click-now!
To welcome a brand new year of sewing and maybe also because Archie has two shirts on rotation, I just had to sew something new. Last year I was wooed by the old-school, grandpa charm of this pattern and it has been sitting in my stash, taunting me with its ‘intermediate /advanced’ classification on the front, ever since. When I finally stopped being dramatic and just sewed the damn thing up, it came together quickly and similarly to a 90 minute shirt. What had at first seemed like lengthy instructions, just turned out to be thorough. I hereby pledge to be a less dramatic sewer in 2012!
Aaah, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of hunting down interesting knit fabrics. If I hadn’t I tried out this tutorial and experienced my first ever knit project success, I would never have started looking for cool men’s t-shirt to cut up. I’d probably still be ferreting through the generic selection at a local fabric department store, missing out on magical finds like THIS! Who would throw this out? And don’t they know how on-trend triangles are?
Some things you may find useful: it calls for clear elastic to stabilise the shoulders but I had none so used cotton stay tape to the same effect. Also, to give the front button placket some body, you are meant to interface it with iron-on interfacing, the knit kind. I had none of that either so I checked the non-stretchy iron-on interfacing to see if maybe there was a bias to it and found it stretched perfectly along the grain in one direction. Yay for improvs that work!
Does anyone else like to indulge in ridiculous head games? Lately, I’ve been looking back through 2011 with my should’a, would’a, could’a goggles on. So, as a little feel-good exercise, I decided to make a collage using ‘collage’ (funnily enough) on Picnik. And seeing it all like this…turns out I haven’t been sitting on my butt all year. Step away from the whip.
This was a great way to finish the year on a good note, kind of like hanging kindy art on the wall again. I can’t recommend this enough, if you’ve been doing some sewing / crafting this year and could do with a little self-nurturing!
Crazy Christmas mode has hit and we haven’t even got the tree up! There is a whole bunch of sewing going on behind the scenes but everything is a WIP right now. So…I thought I’d share with you some baby boots from last year. The story is, around the same time, I came across the Japanese cotton/ linen blend fabrics on Etsy and this pattern. I think my Etsy ‘favourites’ crept up to eleven pages of fabric. I was planning to make the boots to sell on Etsy and modify the pattern to make them easier to get on. But I ran into some ethical issues, namely: using someone else’s pattern eeek! It’s a steep learning curve this sewing / blogging business but I know for sure that I definitely want to go about it with integrity and create Good Craft Karma (which I’m sure is responsible for telephone dress success). I realised how much thought and time must go into pattern making, and I certainly don’t want to rip off a fellow crafter’s hard work. A pattern making course might be called for in 2012…
I'm Sophie. Seeker of Sewing Highs. Join me, as I whoop-whoop zipper flys and cry over shrunk fabric. Our destination: the ultimate hand-made wardrobe.
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