2012 in review

I don't think I did a review of 2011 but I have been reading and enjoying everyone else's 2012 recaps so I thought I might join in too. 

First up ... these were a lot of work but so worth it...

 The Burda 12-2008-109 Ball Gown... still love this one...

Burda 7579 Wool jacket with silk lining.  Not worn a lot yet but I am sure I will use it a lot next year.

Dresses that I have worn to death... and need to make more of...

For casual at-home dressing... McCalls 6347

For work and other outings...

the ever popular DKNY Vogue 1250 (I need to make a plain coloured one).

and a big favorite of mine , the snakeskin dress New Look 6097

the tops I have nearly worn out....

Romantic Notes Ottobre 05-2011-11... 

and Burda 02-2009-108 the boat neck top, this one in particular went with everything in my wardrobe..

and this gym top was also used heaps in the cold weather...

Another couple of things I may not have worn so much but do love...

The Style Arc Maggie jacket...

and the Burda 10-2011-126 vest... 

...see the top does coordinate with everything...

I branched out a bit with my sewing this year. 

 I finished a quilt UFO...

and made three bags, this one was my favorite... Vogue 8527...

I also made some cowls, sleep wear, coin purses and a vest for my son.  Burda magazine featured heavily in my pattern choices and I plan to keep this trend up as I like their fit on me.

In 2013, I plan to keep branching out with my sewing in the aim to sew as much of my clothes as possible.  I need to spend time on pants (not a big favorite of mine to sew but I do like to wear them).

I hope you all have a lovely New Year and I look forward to sharing more sewing and crafting adventures with you in 2013!  Ciao!

Burdastyle 03-2008-112 ... the big 5..O dress

It's my birthday... well yesterday actually and I had that big one that starts in 5 and ends in 0!  So I had a party to try and console myself that getting older is not so bad.  Well of course a new dress is needed and I wanted a summery frock for the event.  

The pattern chosen was Burdastyle 03-2008-112 and I bought a lovely silk yoru chiffon and a satin backed crepe (or is that crepe backed satin) to line it.  The silk yoru was a PITA and gave me heaps of trouble, the poly satin back crepe was great to work with.  I learnt a lot about sewing on the bias as I ended up having to resew the side seams in the silk as they had huge ripples in them.  Second time around, after unpicking the side seams. steaming them (in the hopes that any stretched out areas would revert to normal) and then hanging for a day, hand basting, hanging again, then sewing the seams again... I got smaller ripples.  Meh!  I can live with it...

So onto the photos... (I forgot to take photos last night at the party, but got my DH to snap some this morning)

I used the magazines hemming instructions and it is basically a rolled hem sewn on the sewing machine with a zigzag stitch.  Quicker than changing the overlocker to a rolled hem (and buying more thread).  It gave the hem the lettuce leaf effect and was simple to do.  However the silk layer (even though it was cut longer than the lining) had bounced up a bit so actually appears shorter than the lining. 

Apart from the learning curve of sewing a bias seam in the silk yoru chiffon, the pattern itself was quite easy to put together.  The only other difficult part is that the sides of the front bodice are gathered to a certain length and sewn onto the strap.  By the time I fussed about with the fiddly silk, my gather was longer by a few centimetres, but I decided that may not be a bad thing.  I just had to be careful that the other side gathered to the same length so that they matched.

Well I had a great time at my party and the dress was quite comfortable to wear and I would consider making this dress again but in a easy to handle fabric!  

Happy Birthday to anyone else having a December birthday!  

Making it wearable... solutions to problems

Last summer I made McCalls 6078 and loved it but had some issues with how to wear it (without flashing the bra band at the back).  This summer I decided I the needed to make it work.  First up I needed to get the bra out of the way.

I found this at Lincraft and it works.  It clips into the bra clips and the extra band wraps around your body and pulls the back band down.  It is not as comfortable or as secure as wearing a bra by itself but it does the job.

I wore it like that once, but found that the shoulders of the top kept slipping, so decided to add some lingerie keepers which I made myself.  All that is needed is ribbon and snaps....

I know you can buy theses ready-made but there were none in stock when I went to buy them.  I simply sewed a set of snaps to each end of a piece of ribbon and then sewed the ribbon onto the facing at the shoulder seam.

I stitched the ribbon down in the centre of the ribbon and also near one snap.  This is the holder closed...

With the bra strap threaded through the keeper I found the shoulders of the top stayed in place much better ... this is how I wore it when I went out to dinner last night...

and the back...

If you are interested the pants are Kwiksew 3384 made for an Endless Combinations contest.  However since then this beautiful swishy fabric shrunk (did not expect that) and looked all wrong being too short in the leg.  I decided to make them work as well, so took the hem down and re-hemmed them.  I also decided to narrow the leg a little while I had the hem down.  I did like the wide legs but feel I will probably wear them more this way. 

I felt quite comfortable in this outfit (even though I may have been a bit twitchy checking that the bra band was not visible) and am happy with my now wearable top! ... Ciao!  Birthday dress next up!

pattern Pyramid... we have a winner...

... and the winner of the draw is Deadlycraft.  If you could send me an email at the email addy on my sidebar with your address details I will be happy to send the patterns off asap! 

And so to include a few pictures ... I have started my decorating for Xmas.  I am going very simple this year...

And my latest sewing WIP...

I have to finish the other side seam and hem this but have got horrible wrinkles in the silk yoru chiffon in the side seam.

I think it may be to do with the fact that I have used a textured fabric with a bias cut pattern.  I am going to have a go to see if further persuasive pressing helps or whether I need to rip the seam out and try again (last option).  If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.... Ciao!

Odds & sods... including more on pattern Pyramid

I have not done much in my sewing studio lately but have sewn two more little Nicole Mallaileu zippered purses.  The patterns are now available as downloads and I would recommend them as they give great detail on the sewing of these purses.

I have threaded a ribbon onto the zip pull of one and I like that idea as it makes it easier to find the zip pull.  One of these is going to be a gift and I think I will keep one for myself as they are very useful little bags.  All the fabric has come from stash and the zips have been purchased at op shops or the bargain bin at a local fabric store... so not much cost involved.

In my last post about the pattern pyramid I said I would add a pattern to the parcel and this is the pattern I have chosen as I have two of them and it is multi-sized so great for anyone who would like to use it. 

So if you would like to be part of the pattern pyramid fun you have until the end of the 30th November to leave a comment on this post.   I am happy to send this to anywhere so don't be shy!

Back soon (hopefully) with my Big 0 Birthday dress.... Ciao! 

Pattern Pyramid Giveaway!

I have been lucky enough to be part of the Pattern Pyramid that is going around sewing blogland.  I won my parcel from Funnygrrl at Falling Through Your Clothes.  The parcel finally turned up - it must have been on the really slow boat, but it is finally here, so now I can host my own giveaway!

This is the parcel that turned up, including a beautiful card from Funnygrrl.

And these are the individual patterns in the parcel...

A Simplicity jumper or top - cute 1970's styling that still does have the embroidery transfer in the pattern.

Very Easy Vogue - I think a '90's pattern (could be wrong) - cute tucks at the sleeve heads.

Vogue doll pattern, which looks like it contains some cut out pieces in skin-tone fabric - ready to go...

and finally Sew News top - set of dolman sleeved blouses.

The rules of the giveaway are:

Anyone, anywhere can enter by leaving a comment on this post by the end of November 30th but you must have an active blog.

I will randomly select one winner, and post them the collection of patterns along with hand woven labels  to be sewn into anything made from one of these patterns (these didn't arrive with the parcel so won't be part of this giveaway).The winner will then pick one pattern to keep for themselves, then host their own giveaway. They will randomly select a winner, post the remaining patterns to Person A.Person A will pick a pattern for themselves, host their own giveaway and post the remaining patterns to the winner, Person B. Person B will do the same and so on until there is a last pattern winner.For more information, including details of the charity supported by the very generous donor of the patterns, please see Karen’s post and the code for the Pattern Pyramid button.

I am not letting on at this stage as to which pattern I will keep.  Do you know me well enough to hazard a guess in your comment? Plus I am thinking I may add one extra pattern (yet to be chosen).

OK - best of luck everyone, I hope we can keep the fun moving around the sewing world!

Tangerine Chic

I have finished some crochet to show you - the pattern is City Chic designed by Jenny King.  For those who are on Ravelry.com, you can find the project details here.

As usual, with JK Designs, I found that my item is much smaller than the ones pictured in the pattern.  Jenny King crochets very, very loosely so please take this into account if you are making her patterns up.  However, saying all that, I am not disappointed and still love my little poncho.  It was perfect to wear on a cool, showery day and kept me comfortable.

I like the buttons that hold it together on one shoulder - they add a nice touch.

You may be wondering what is the purple haze in the background of these shots.  The pictures are taken on my back deck overlooking the Jacaranda tree in the back yard.  I think I fell in love with this house as I wanted the tree! 

After the rain, purple flowers blanket everything below the tree...

My blogging is slow at the moment as I am not making heaps of clothes at the moment.  I have got into a scrap quilt project and it is consuming my sewing time at the moment.  

Ciao...

Another bag... Vogue 8527

I have got into this bag making thing lately and wanted to show you my latest bag. It is from Vogue 8527.  This pattern has had great reviews and I think it is now OOP but if you have this one in your stash, you must make it up!

I made View D (the yellow one on the pattern cover).  I was making this bag to wear to an industry awards night and wanted it to go with my chocolate brown dress.  I bought some silk dupion (I think?) in a stone colour.  After reading some reviews and seeing how others had made their versions, I decided to use some left-over Nappa leather (from my obi belt) as the looped handle and the decorative strips on the front of the bag.  

I used quilted calico as the sew-in interfacing for the main body of the bag and silk organza as the interfacing for the facings, so it wouldn't be too bulky.  For the inside lining I used some left-over silk charmeuse from the lining of this jacket.  The lining is a bit too slippery and light weight and I would interface with a light weight fusible interfacing it if I was to use it again as a lining in a bag.  I also managed to put the lining in the wrong way so the pockets are on the front 'wall' of the bag instead of the back one.  Lucky I was making it for me, I can live with it (more than I could live with the thought of unpicking it).

This is how the outfit looked on the night (excuse the blurry i-phone photo).

I was really happy with this bag and felt very comfortable with it on the night.  I love this pattern and would recommend it highly.  I can see more bags in my future! ...Ciao for now!

Yellow skirt Burdastyle 10/2011 #102

Easily swayed!  Ages ago I had a comment on one of my posts about making a yellow skirt to go with a top I made... (I blame you Shannon! :)  So that comment has stuck with me until I was convinced I needed a yellow skirt.  CraftyMama's got in some lovely bright yellow denim and I was on my way!  I love me a good denim skirt too and wanted a fairly classic denim-styled skirt.  When the weather started warming up, the denim was pulled out and this pattern - Burdastyle 10-2011 #102 was the one I settled on.  However, looking at the pattern you will see a difference to my skirt... I added some length, then added some more... and a bit more for good measure... 

The fabric has some stretch so I got away with adding to the length - I can still walk!

Some closer shots to show you the jeans skirt styling...

The pockets are lined with a quilting cotton - the print is a subtle yellow rose print but does not show up well in the photos so you will have to use your imagination.  You can see the pocket outlines and the skirt could nearly have done with a lining as the denim is quite light-weight and the colour contributes to this affect I think.  I had never considerable lining this kind of skirt though, and it will do!

The back pocket details...

I top-stitched with an upholstery thread.

I like this skirt styled with a looser top over it...

I think it will be a good addition to my summer wardrobe.   Ciao! 

More sweet dreams... Ottobre 05-2011-2

Thank you for your kind comments on my last post on the "fail" pants.  Amazingly I found my receipt for the fabric for these pants and on it was the threads and zip as well.  I got a full refund on these items from Spotlight (thank you Spotties) but of course I cannot be compensated for my time or the lovely piece of quilting cotton from my stash.  The lady serving me did say she would note that the fabric is defective in the hopes it would be taken off the shelves.  Not sure I have an expectation that will happen.

I have had a week's break this last week but in some quiet moments at home I have made another pair of the Ottobre Sweet Dreams boxers - previously made in this post.

I used a stretch satin again (from Lincraft).  These are a bit smaller than the last pair as I didn't seem to have enough fabric so did the best I did with the piece I had.  However the pattern I had traced is a size larger than I need so it still worked fine.  This time I followed the instructions and used picot elastic on the hemline.  Mainly because I had a length of yellow picot elastic in the stash (why??)

I made the waistband similarly to last time, in that I sewed the boxer elastic to the fabric in multiple rows of stitching and did not use the waistband facing.  The only difference was that I sewed a piece of the picot elastic onto the edge of the boxer elastic so that the picot shows at the waistband.

Next up I plan to make another bag.  I think I have been bitten by the bag bug!  Ciao! 

Fail....

I have just finished a version I considered my trial version of the Hot Patterns Metropolitan Slouchy Trouser Jean. 

I think these pants worked great for a first try.  I decided against a muslin as I know the HP Marrakesh Pants fit me pretty well and these are meant to be similar.  I purchased a cotton-linen blend from Spotlight and was happy at how it washed and ironed.  The making of the pants took me quite a while - fly front, coin pockets, jeans yoke and styling.  I did quite a bit of top-stitching too... photos to show the results...  

Side pockets, coin pockets and belt loops...

Pretty quilting fabric for inside the pockets...

and inside the waistband and fly...

and the back with jeans pockets and jeans-style yoke...

I think the fit is pretty good.  The side seam lies perfectly straight and I seem to need a wider leg pant to achieve this without a large amount of alterations.  I actually took quite a bit of time to sew these pants.  In fact I think I spent more time sewing them, than their wearing life...  

Huge fabric FAIL!  Every seam has done this after one day of wear.  I do believe these pants were sized fine and had no great additional strain on the seams... so I am putting this down to buying fabric that was not designed to be sewn or worn.  

Please tell me if there is something I am missing in this, as I am seriously thinking of sending a complaint to the chain I purchased this fabric from....huruumph!  

Oh and if you have got this far into the post, can you let me know if you think it is worth making another pair - if I can find fabric worthy of the trouble! ... Ciao!