Kantha and Denim Dress

The Jury (my husband and I!) was out on this dress until I had added the facing to the bottom.  I tried it on and really was convinced I had just created a denim sack.  And, as you can see, it wasn't so  different with a hem but nonetheless I love it.  A lady also stopped me in the street to say how much she loved it which is always good! The hem is slightly shaped which is a nice detail and whilst oversized (I made a 38, would normally make a 40 at the moment) it does have a cocoon shape which is pretty trendy at the moment.  It also hides all your lumps and bumps, hangs away from the body so is cool to wear in summer and with the pockets is super comfortable and relaxed.

I have had the idea of combining some kantha stitched patchwork fabric I have with denim for an absolute age and finally I have.  The pattern appeared on Burda Style here and Spotlight opened in Busselton so I bustled in on opening weekend and nabbed a couple of meters of light weight denim.  The kantha quilted fabric is beautiful and I also lined the sleeves and faced the hem in it.  Its made from recycled saris and covered in fine running stitch.  It was also my 1st go at piping since I made a a Laura Ashley log cabin patchwork cushion in school needlework aged 15 but it seemed to go OK.  I omitted the back seam and sewed the zip in after a margarita or two hence, like I was, it's a bit squiffy.

My only complaint is that the sleeve design doesn't allow a huge range of arm movement but maybe that just means you have to hang your washing on the line another day!  I photographed this dress after wearing it for about 3 days, a bit creased but not too bad so maybe I can avoid the washing for a while.

Ink Splats Cut Out Dress

Hello Hello,

Its been over a year I know...  I haven't stopped sewing, in fact I've made lots of things that I am really pleased with and wear A LOT.  I've even taken some photos but somehow they haven't made it to here.  But yesterday I found myself at the beach in a relatively recent make, so here we are.

This is the hole back dress 116 from Burda Style 08/14.  I had this viscose that I had brought in Spotlight in the sale about 3 years ago and it had been waiting for a project with the required amount of drape.  Luckily I washed it before as it shrank LOTS and I had to do a bit of figuring out to get all the pattern pieces on.

I absolutely love the skirt on this, its full at the back and swishes about beautifully and blows in the wind but the front is shorter flattering length.  I am just not so sure about the bodice.  The neckline is a bit too square.  The shoulders give quite a nice cap sleeve type effect.  I decided to lengthen the bodice 5 cm as I prefer a slightly lower waist.  I should also have lowered the darts as they are almost exactly 5cm too high and create a bit of a pull across my upper bust.  Not sure I would lengthen it so much if I made it again as it sits strangely at the front but hey ho.  It also probably made the hole at the back smaller but that seems ok to me.

The other major excitement is that I discovered my machine's rolled hem foot and used it to sew the long hem.  It worked a treat and was really very easy and much much quicker than it would have been otherwise.  It made it a bit wavy (not sure how to adjust this) but that was perfect with the style of skirt.

Its not my most successful dress but it is easy to pull on and wear and has a nice summery relaxed feel.  I really love the fabric and would like to find some other nice printed rayon/viscose but have not found anything similar in spotty since.

The bodice is all a bit wrong but more than made up for by the skirt.

See you again a bit sooner!

Late to the Party

I made these PJs and even took the photos in time for the party but then I missed it.  Life and things got in the way.  But finally ............I present my 2 new pairs of pyjama bottoms!!!  Both of these pairs of trousers rescued otherwise unwearbale tops from the op shop and transformed them into pretty cute pyjama tops.  They only get seen under cover of darkness (by me and my nearest and dearest) so the obvious reasons I didn't really like wearing the tops out become unimportant and it seems pyjamas have different style rules which mean they are just fine.  I now have 2 sets of PJs that get lots and lots of wear.

1st up lets meet the karate/curtains/kung-fu/chintz pair.  I really am not sure what I was thinking when I made this top.  I did originally buy the fabric for a nightie or pyjamas but then decided to make a kimono top.  Its kind of ok and it did get worn out once - the day I made it of course.  But the sleeves are huge and show your bra and the print whilst very pretty and a lovely soft voile is really not my style and, well, doesn't go so well with the design.  Its pattern 121 from Burda Style 06/11. 

Back to plan A.  Bra showing is obviously no longer an issue if I'm not wearing one!  I had more of the same fabric and trim so enter a PJ bottom pattern from Burda 12/2007 (which incidentally has a much better looking kimono style top).  I have sepia-ed up these pics as it was all a bit harsh with the night time flash photography.  You can see the real colours in the last pic below.

 Next up a stripey vintage sheet pair.  Quite reminiscent mens PJS (although maybe not in pink).  They tone down the sweetness of the top.  I made this one when I was pregnant, (in fact I notice I posted about it 2 days before giving birth!)  It kind of worked ok for that although really the material was not drapey enough.   I tried cutting off the frilly sleeves to improve it and thought about shortening it but it didn't seem worth the effort.  Its one major merit was its extreme comfort (and of course its downside in that it looks a bit like a sack) so pyjamas it became.  I used the same pattern.

These were bottoms were obviously not complicated to make but were something I'd been meaning to do for ages and kept putting off.  I think I knocked them both out in one evening. Thank you to Karen, her pyjama party gave me the push to finally do it.  Two otherwise unloved items are now earning their keep.

Beach Blanket Babylon

This coat started life as a blanket.  I think it started that life quite a long time ago.  It was made in the Albany Woollen Mills, now no longer there.  I don't know when they closed down but I am imagining sometime in the 80s.  I like that this coat has had a long life before and that it was originally made relatively locally.  I cut the label off the corner of the blanket and hand stitched it into the coat.

 



 

And here's the coat. Ta daaaa......

 

 

I made the this pattern from Burda Style 10/2012.   I made my usual size 12 (38) and it seems to fit pretty well.  I left out the inseam pockets as I thought that some on the front would look better.  I'm still planning to put in some welt pockets as I keep reaching down to put my hands in them only to find I haven't made them yet!  My excuse is that it was very cold and I just had to start wearing the coat.  I also brought a couple of buttons as I planned to put one or 2 on to hold it together rather than just the belt.  I still haven't put them on as I wasn't sure I wanted to have a big button hole (or a snap) on the collar when I didn't have it fully buttoned up.  My compromise is a kilt pin.

 

 

I hand stitched the blanket stitch all the way around, using some tapestry wool I got for $1 at the market.  It was quite therapeutic really and a just took me a couple of evenings in front of the TV.  I'm actually really pleased with it.  It kept me warm at the same time too.  Initially I had planned to do 2 or 3 rows of running stitch just inside too but in the end I didn't want to overdo the crafty-ness of it.

I think though that the fact that it does still look quite like a blanket is what has got me so many compliments about it.  I thought it was reltively ordinary but I guess its quite unusual and the fact that it does look handmade does make people comment on it.  I have even had a couple of requests for copies.

Its not lined as you can see so its a relatively easy make.  I did flat fell seams, with a raw edge where I could and I like the rustic look of these.

It was a warm sunny lunch time when I photographed this but its been a wonderful coat for the chilly mornings and evenings. So with the sun shining, a cosy coat for when it isn't and at a total cost of $6 for materials I really have nothing left to complain about!

Sewing for Smalls

I've managed to make quite a few things this May, even if I didn't manage to make the trousers I pledged to for Me Made May (oopps).  The list includes... 2 pairs of pyjama bottoms, a coat/cardi, a big wool coat (nearly finished), 2 little waistcoats and a Briar.

Here are the 2 waistcoats. 

I am so pleased with them.  I can't decide if they are more Fred Flinstone or Footballers Wife?  On my children they're probably veering to the caveman side of things, given nothing stays clean that long and they never look that groomed (the kids not the coats)!  Also incredibly pleasing is the fact that the pair of them cost me less than $2 total (the coats not the kids).  I found 4 remnants of the fur in the op shop for $1.50.  I don't know what got me to buy it but I just saw it and was sure I could get 2 little waistcoats out of it.  The linings are remnants of old vintage sheets that I had already used for other makes (my Chloe and an unblogged top for my mum), the buttons were in my jar (20c the two - op shop of course) and the pattern was from Burda Style 10/12.  The pattern originally had a hood but I didn't have enough fur and thought the weight might also pull the waistcoat off the little people's shoulders.  I sewed them up immediately as I knew the fur wouldn't have many other uses and I wanted to make them before another project stole my attention and inspiration.

I made sizes 104 and 98 (pictured)

My small one rocking the cave woman look, complete with uggs.  Poor girl, styled by her mum and feeling a bit ill too.

I've made a few little girls clothes that I haven't blogged about but I seem to have captured them in some photos so thought you might like to see them.  The 1st one is a 60s style dress with patch pockets on the front.  I made a size 104 which is a bit big but hopefully it will fit for a while.  Its made out of the same lovely soft stretchy cotton as my spotty shorts.  Pictured here covered with flour after a bread baking session with Dad. The pattern is from Burda Style 09/12.

 

The pockets work.

You can just spot the other tunic top, also from Burda 09/12 which has lovely puffy bottoms to the sleeves.  This one is made from some quilting material I brough when I first started sewing again.  I love the print, some how I cut out the 1st front with the pattern off centre but luckily I had enough to cut another as it would have bugged me all the time.

Other seriously exciting news is that I won the Tessuti birthday give away!!!!  Yey me.  I was thinking that I had entered a few giveaways and sometime one of the random picks should randomly pick me.  I mean some giveaways are popular but its not lottery type odds.  Nonetheless I was pretty flabberghasted when I found that I actually had won one, and one with such a great gift as well. 

Soon after seven meters of lovely linen found their way to me.  I've got 1.5m of the blue and pink which are both lighter weight and 2 m of each of the white and beige which are a bit heavier.  I am thinking a buttion up shirt in the pink and maybe some type of tunic/smock top in the blue? Maybe a Tova or Tessuti's Mia tunic - we shall see.  What about the others?  A dress, some wide leg pants?  Does anyone have any good ideas or suggestions for patterns? A great dilemma to have.

Green and Wrinkly

I made myself another one of the crunkly raglan t shirts like my grey one.  Its from Burda Style Febuary 13.  I am just waiting for the buttons to arrive in the post for my Kelly skirt so wanted something to fill the hole(s... there will be 7 buttons) while I wait.  I got this jersey for $1 in the op shop. It actually matches one of the colours in my Kelly skirt to be, I have a shortage of long sleeved winter Ts and I had the pattern already traced so a bit of an easy/lazy choice.  Its just plain green cotton jersey, quite a bit thicker and much less stretchy than the fabric in the grey one. Lazy (or only 1/2 my brain on) seemed to be a bit of a theme.

Kite flying at Yallingup

It ain't perfect but it works well enough.  I had one of those sort of mind blanks where whilst I remembered that the last time I made it I had cut the neckband shorter, because it seemed to be the same length as the opening, I didn't do it this time!  Some sort of muttering in my head about it being less stretchy but all the time I really knew I should BUT I didn't.  I am really a bit lazy and think I didn't want to faff with my tape measure.  Ho hum.  As could have been predicted the neck back is a bit loose and gapes a bit, its also slightly irregular around the front.  But hey ho I think people that pass me in the street will find many much larger flaws in my general appearance to pull me up about.  And well....no one has ever stopped me in the street to criticise either my general appearance or my sewing finish, or even to ask me if I made it in a kind of  'that looks awful you must have made it as you certainly wouldn't buy it' kind of a way so I'm not going to worry.  Still it might have been good if I hadn't let my brain do the same at the bottom.  When I cut the still too long (despite shortening to the shorter length on the pattern since the last one) bottom off and found one side to be about 2cm shorter than the other.  Anyway I folded the cut off bit in half and sewed it on as a band and well obviously it was longer one side than the other..but if I walk with a hunch to the left you won't be able to tell and will be more concerned about my silly walk.

Laziness and wonkiness aside I like it, wore it 2 days in a row and now its in the wash.  Where it will probably shrink because of course I was too lazy to have washed the fabric before (well surely the person who had it before and made something out of it would have done?!).  I guess most people would probably wash anything they got from the op shop before they wore it, oh well.  We'll see.

You can just make out my co-ordinating new van curtains. It was getting a bit dark.

Small people think its really boring when they are not included in the photoshoot.

Good things:

• I can be cosy for winter.
• A mildly interesting staple.
• I have made the pattern twice, whoop whoop, could be a 1st?  It must be good.
• It only cost $1.
• I co-ordinate with the new curtains that I just made for our van, which co-ordinate with the stripes on the side of my caravan..which means that if I make a pair of trousers out fo the same shet I used to make the curtains I will be in full camo.

Slightly Less good things

• Bit annoying the pattern is made for a 7ft giant with very long arms. 
• A mildly interesting staple.
• MUST NOT BE LAZY.  Even neck lines and hem bands would be a good thing.
• I haven't posted the less flattering photos but if I had you would see that if you have a bit of an undefined midriff section (i.e. no waist and some wobble) then its not necessarily the most flattering of tops!

Kite flying seems to make you lean back and breathe in!

Wrapping up

Well nearly at the end of my posts from the beach photos shoot.  This one is a wrap top from November 12 Burda and a pleated skirt from September 12.

I'll start with the skirt.  It was a spur of the moment make, made it an evening as I was waiting for my husband to drive back home from Perth.  The timing was perfect as I finished just as he walked in.  I had had a big tunic style denim maternity top, originally from Vinnies, and really nice but I had had enough of it and so even though it looked OK  as a top post maternity I was over the 'bigness' of it.  Loved the soft dark denim though, the big pleat down the front and the big wide hem. I had a recollection of a pleat skirt in Burda, found the super simple pattern, did a quick trace and a cut out and got to sewing.

Reminds me I need to reinforce the top of the pleat!

It came together super easily, I stole a zip out of an old pair of David's work trousers.  The only small hiccup was that I thought I had made it too small so stole some seam allowance at the sides and didn't leave enough for my zip to sit properly.  Hey ho, I've worn it lots and it hasn't bothered me.  Its practical and goes with lots of stuff, easy to move around in and makes a nice change from shorts for casual wear.  Infact it got worn the weekend after I made it on a camping trip. 

I really liked the collection of 'loungy' patterns in the November Burda and already made the tank.  I had had the red marl jersey for a few months and this one seemed like a good bet.  I lengthened the pattern 4 cm.  

A funny one this can't really work out how I feel about it (not the biggest existential crisis the world has ever faced or anything). I like how it turned out but its not perfect.  The waist band has no stretch, and I keep having to pull it down.  I cut it out long ways as directed so not sure why this surprised me.  The neck too is very low and feels like it doesn't wrap over enough.  Thinking about it its obvious that if I lengthened it but didn't increase the wrap then neckline would go lower.  Keep wondering if I should unpick it and just sew it further round.  I haven't yet but might do.  I've worn it a few times, wore it today in fact with my skinny jeans, the bright red cheering me up on a blustery day and the over long sleeves feeling cosy.  Its also goes really well as a cardi over a dress (and then don't have to worry about pulling it down and showing mid-drift either.)  So its not perfect but it is getting used really quite a lot. 

Making the decision to make more practical, comfy and jersey stuff has been really good. Yey for that.

Fancy Raglan T Shirt

 

I couldn't think of a fancy name for this post, so I put the word fancy in hoping it would make it well..'fancy'.  This T shirt is pretty damn fancy as T shirts go.  I did not buy the material in the op shop and I did not get it on the reduced rack in Spotlight..oh no.

It was snaffled on a brief visit to Perth in January at Potter's textiles.  I don't get to Perth often and very, very rarely on a weekday (when they are open) so it was probably a once in a 5 year thing.  Great little shop which you have to look on a map to find, or an iphone.  They supply material wholesale to designers, manufactures etc. and, quite recently I think, opened up a little shop for people like us attached to their warehouse/offices.

This knit is a mix of viscose, wool, spandex, maybe a bit of polyester?? can't remember exactly.  It is incredibly fine and lightweight and I brought 1 meter of it for about $15.  (and of course a heavily reduced 2m of white jersey with some minor imperfection on it).  I had planned to buy some nice jersey and to make myself more practical every day things, so it all went pretty well to plan.

I made this.  A gathered raglan T shirt, from...you guessed it...Burda Style.  This is from feb 13.  I test sewed a bit of the fabric on my overlocker and it promptly chewed it to bits.  Its pretty ancient and doesn't have a knit setting or anything and I couldn't be bothered to fiddle around.  Impatient and undeterred I decided to just sew it on my normal machine.  This actually seemed to work ok with a narrow zig zag.  I had a couple of slipped stiches but not many considering how fine and slippy the fabric is.

it was almost as long as a dress though, albeit a short one, so I was wondering what to do and whether to cut some off when I kind of gathered it around my waist.  This looked like a good solution so I just sewed some elastic into the sides at the bottom to pull it up.  I could have done with a bit of a longer bit of elastic to go to nearer my waist but it works.  I left the hem raw.

Pluses:

• Sewed it up in a night.
• I really like the gathered raglan sleeve detail.
• The material is so comfortable.  Light, stretchy - definitely worth the money!
• My husband really likes it and couldn't believe I made it.
• It goes great with my skinny jeans and I have worn it lots.

Minuses:

• Its longer than I would normally wear, and a bit clingy meaning that, after too many cakes at christmas, I feel better wearing it with a belt.  It gives me a reason to wear my nice belt though. I would make a shorter one next time.
• Because it looks like I could have brought it from a fancy t shirt shop no one imagines I might have made it.  So no compliments.  Then again that might just be because.... really.... its just a grey t shirt!

Random attempt at Yoga, showing versatility of denim skirt which I will write about tomorrow.