50s mail order dress

You might recall this pattern from my last post which I purchased on Ebay for a ridiculously small price. I found some lovely green floral fabric at Spotlight for $3.20/m and decided to have a crack at it. Without making a toile (muslin) first. Big mistake!

 

It came together very easily. The dress is constructed in a really cool way, with two side skirt panels that join to the bodice, and the back and front skirts cut in one piece with the back and front bodices. The fiddliest, most time consuming part was the facings. I hate facings and always avoid them by lining my bodices, but that would not have been possible here- I'd have to line the whole dress and that would have used 6 metres of fabric.

I couldn't really get an idea of the fit until it was about 95% complete, and it was a total disaster. It could not have fit any worse. I didn't take any before pics, but here it is on Jane. It doesn't look so bad from the front (bitch has more in the boob department than I do) but you can see how much it's gaping at the back.

 

It was obvious that the entire bodice needed almost two inches of length removed from just under the bust, but there was no way of doing that so I did the best I could, which involved taking 1/2 an inch from the shoulder seams, 1/4 inch from each side seam, and making the bust darts slightly deeper. The fit is far from ideal but it looks great from the waist down. You can't really see the waist tie due to the busy-ness of the print, but it's super cute.

 

I usually steer clear of wrap dresses because I have a very small bust but this one appeals to me due to it wrapping up from the back. 

I will definitely make another one of these, and I'm confident that I can get the fit pretty close to perfect  next time!

More purchases and a gift!

I recently bought a bulk lot of old patterns on Ebay. There were 37 patterns in all and 3 sewing/ craft books. These are the patterns that I'm keeping:

 

And I 'won' this uncut 50s wrap dress pattern for $1.20. I can't wait to sew it up!

 

And heeeeere is a lovely crocheted cardi that one of my lovely flute students made for me. She's 60 years old and is so much fun to teach. A few weeks ago she wore a cute cardi to her lesson and I told her how nice it was, and last weekend she surprised me with this. Isn't that so sweet!? And it goes really well with the dress I was wearing that day! Bonus!

Selfless sewing

So one of my new year's re-sew-lutions (sorry, couldn't resist) was to stop being a selfish old cow and to make more stuff for other people. I've done pretty well so far!

My boy Jimmy started school this week. Here he is, looking adorable and excited on his first day.

I made him a couple of things that he needed for school- a swimming bag (on left) which is lined with waterproof fabric, and a padded library bag. He is super chuffed with his handmade stuff.

Also, I made my first curtains! I bought this fabric about 6 months ago and put off making them because I was scared of ruining them. Then we had a rainy weekend (a bit more than rainy- the whole of South East Queensland was flooded) and my mother in law came over and told me what to do. So I whipped them up the next day in about two and a half hours. I was soooo surprised it took such a short time! I'd envisaged days and days of toiling away at the ironing board and sewing machine. I can't wait to make some more!

Dartless, sleeved New Look 3668

The title says it all, really!

When I cut out my teal 3668, I decided I may as well cut one out of some lawn that I bought specifically to make another 3668. 

Due to the drapiness of the lawn, I decided to omit the back and waist darts to give it a more 'blousey' look. I kept the bust darts and added the adorable little sleeves from New Look 6000.

Derpy derp face. "I can't move my arms".

I'm very happy with the result. This one is going to get a lot of wear!

The Japanese lawn was $8/m and the buttons were $1.50.

This is the third one I've made so it came together very easily.

Recent purchases

I have made a few sewing related purchases lately and thought I'd share them.

First up is this lovely vintage re-issue pattern. How gorgeous is it? I'll be making one in winter.

 

I also purchased two books from The Book Depository. This one, which is so full of solutions to fit problems that I really got confused:

 

And I decided to buy Gertie's book. I must confess to feeling slightly underwhelmed by it. There were only a couple of things that I would make- nothing screamed out 'MAKE ME!!!' I do like these two though.

I was a bit disappointed by some of the projects in the book. Most of all, this one. The fit is terrible (hey, I know I probably can't do better, but I didn't write a sewing book) and the darts don't match up! 

 

Having said that, there are a lot of useful tips and techniques in the book and I do like it.

What have you bought lately?

A quick one

I haven't blogged in a while but I have been sewing!

My band had a gig on what was probably the hottest day of the year (many of you have probably heard of the hot weather we've been having Down Under this summer) and it was OUTDOORS! I knew that our regular uniform of long black pants, black shirt and orange tie would be unbearable for a 3-hour gig, so a week before the gig we all had a chat and decided to wear black pants/ skirts with a solid-coloured top.

Of course, I have many a solid-colour top in my wardrobe, but I wanted to make something sleeveless so I didn't end up with massive, unattractive sweat stains on the sleeves.

So I used some lovely teal gorgette from my stash and whipped up another KwikSew 3668.

I haven't taken any proper photos of it yet, but here is an action shot from the gig- which was super fun, despite the heat. We gained a bunch of new fans.

I've also been maintaining my resolution of sewing for other people. My daughter Elizabeth turns 3 in a few weeks and I'm making her a softie. I let her look through this book and choose whichever softie she wanted.


 

She chose this unicorn/ pegasus. Unigus? Pegacorn? 


 

So far, mine is looking underwhelming. I've never made a proper sofite before. Did I mention that I HATE hand sewing? Gah, sewing on the horn and ear was a nightmare! I say 'ear', singular, because I made two ears then promptly lost one! 

 

I just need to make and put on the other ear, wings, mane and tail. I think she'll like it, no matter how demented it looks.

Oh, and you may notice that the one in the book has hand-embroidered eyes. I think I may have mentioned that I hate hand sewing, so I bought some sew-on googly eyes.

 

Before and After

We went to a local attraction today - Natural Bridge, a really cool rock formation in the rainforest up in the Gold Coast hinterland. The last time we went there was two years ago. I went looking for the pictures we took the last time we went and had to have a laugh. Here's a couple of shots from the last time:

 

And here's one from today.

 

No wonder none of my clothes fit me any more! I feel so much stronger, healthier and more confident with some meat on my bones .