A few projects

Wow, it's been over a month since my last post! I thought I'd better get a post in for the month of November!

November has been super busy for me as a teacher. School finishes in November for the private schools here, so I've had reports to write, concerts to organise and attend, and student exams to freak out about. On top of being a mum to three kids, running my band, teaching all day on Saturdays, and practising for a big orchestra concert a few weeks ago. I haven't really had much time to sew, but I've started on some Christmas gifts.

First of all I made two dresses for my 3-year-old. The last Christmas dress I made her was from two years ago and I'm still trying to squeeze her into it, but I thought I'd make her another to last for the next couple of years. It's a super simple dress to make. 

 

The pinafore dress is one I've made many, many times before, but again, she's been wearing the same ones since she was 18 months old. This is a size 4 so she should get a decent amount of wear out of it. It's fully reversible. The fabric for both of these dresses came from my stash.

I've got about 5 more handmade gifts to make, so I should have kept selfish sewing on hold for a while...but the other day as I was cutting fabric for my next lot of gifts, I decided I might as well cut out a skirt for myself while I was at it. I started sewing that afternoon then finished it the following night and have worn it 2 out of the last 3 days because I LOVE IT.

Spotlight had this vintage printed drill on sale for $9/m. I grabbed a metre, hoping (stupidly) it would be enough to make the mid-length skirt, but of course it wasn't so I had to make View A and just managed to scrape it out of the metre of fabric. I'm glad I didn't have enough to make the other one because I think it's super cute!

The skirt was sooo simple to make. I think the pockets are fantastic! And I love that I can wear pretty much any colour on top with this skirt.

I need to get my arse back down to Spotlight and grab the rest of this stuff before it sells out!

 

A cute new outfit!

I've been a busy little bee at my sewing machine for the past two weeks. 

First of all I made this polka dot blouse. The fabric is gorgeous- soft, cool and floaty, and was a bargain from an op shop that I've been waiting to find the perfect project for. 

These were the 3 patterns I intended to use: Kwiksew 3668 for the body, New Look 6808 (view B) for the sleeves, and New Look 6078 for the collar. However, when I made the collar it was too big for the neckline so I just cut the mandarin collar from the Kwiksew.

 

Nothing much to report with this, except to say that I left out the darts (except the bust darts) because I wanted a 'blousey' look. Unfortunately I interfaced the button placket so it sticks out a bit awkwardly if I blouse it out too much. And looking at the above photo, I notice that my button spacing is really shite.

Oh well, it's still a great blouse and I've worn it twice already. Once with my burgundy pleated skirt...

 

...but I felt it needed a pink skirt to look really cute. 

I picked up this pattern from Spotlight last week when they were having an 'all patterns $5' sale.

The fabric (which is a much nicer pink than the photos show...it's pretty much the exact same colour as the one on the pattern envelope) came from a fabric store called East Coast fabrics, which is like a treasure trove of cheaply priced, good quality fabrics. This fabric is amazing quality and was only $4.95/m!

This was so nice to sew! It would have only taken a couple of hours if I followed the instructions but I decided to add a lining, for decency (the fabric is not undie-friendly) and just to make it look more professional. It still only took me about 2.5 hours all up.

I had to reduce the side seams to 1/4 inch. I cut the smallest size and it was too tight across my thighs. I need to accept that I am no longer a size 8 on the bottom half.

And guess what? I HEMMED IT BY HAND.  I have never, ever done that! I think I will do it all the time now!

 

Husband left before I was dressed this morning so I had to take some dodgy photos in the mirror.

 

I think this skirt is the nicest thing I've made! So it's not the most exciting item in my wardrobe, but I'm very proud of it because it doesn't look hand made!

Vogue gored skirt

So I have a kind of sewing plan written up with things I want to make...which gets ignored 50% of the time when I decide on a whim to make something. This is one of those 'on a whim' projects.

I had this ridiculously small piece of sateen in my stash that I thought was far too small to make anything non-child-sized (I had a 22 inch long piece of it). The fabric is gorgeous- the most lightweight sateen I've ever seen. 

After looking through my patterns, I thought I might be able to make this- a pattern I purchased about 15 years ago, long before I know how to sew. I have no idea why I bought it- I guess I thought my mum would make it for me? Anyhoo, by taking 2 inches off View C and using some plain black suiting for the yoke, I managed to squeeze it out! 

It was pretty quick to make. I cut out the pieces on Thursday, did 90 minutes of sewing on Friday night, about an hour last night, then wore it today! All of the seams (except the side seams) are topstitched, and I love topstitching for some insane reason. And I had my (mother-in-law's) overlocker serviced and it sews like a dream now!

Closeup of the piecing and yoke

The most difficult part was attaching the yoke to the skirt. My version's yoke is not as 'pointy' as the one in the picture. I could not get my head around attaching a concave angle to a convex one.

This is a great skirt- very floaty and fun. I like the length even if it's quite a bit shorter than I would normally wear.

 

I wore it today on a family outing to Kingscliff, about a 40 minute drive across the border. It was a gorgeous spring day, with fish & chips and swimming on the beach.

Spring Dress

I said in my last post that I intended to make up for my lack of sewing in August, and I didn't lie! After not having made any nice dresses for months, I couldn't wait to make something really springy. I'm sure you all know the feeling of making pretty warm weather dresses after covering up all winter long!

 

I bought this gorgeous fabric exactly two years ago. It was $3/m and is really good quality quilter's cotton (it was reduced from $15/m). I love quilter's cotton and I don't give a crap what people say about it being no good for clothes. For  most dresses, I think it's perfect!

 

I used New Look 6910, the pattern I used for my Shitted Feet Dress, which I barley wear as I'm not happy with the fit. This time I made the scoop neck because my husband hates boat necks on me. I also cut the whole thing on the smallest size instead of grading up to the waist because this thing has a crazy amount of ease. I still had to increase the back centre seams to a whole inch to get it to fit, but all in all it came together really easily and quickly.

 

Whoops, the zipper pull is sticking up!

I lined the bodice with some white poplin I had in my stash. I was going to make the belt out of the floral fabric, but in a sudden stroke of genius I realised this green polka dotted stuff would look lovely as a belt. As an added bonus, when I tried on the completed dress, I discovered my $5 green heels were a PERFECT match! Win!

 

I love this dress so much. I finished it Friday night and wore it Saturday, Sunday and today (Tuesday).

 

Sewaholic Thurlow

Long time, no sew! I didn't complete a single project in August and I plan to make up for lost time. 

After my last project, my black coduroy pants,  I purchased the Sewaholic Thurlow pants pattern because I wanted to tackle something a bit more fitted, and I basically have NO pants that fit me since I put on 7kg in the past two years. I had about 6 pairs of lovely size 8 work pants that I had to sell on Ebay because my new big booty and thighs were far too big for them.

I really need a pair of basic black pants for band and orchestra gigs, and for a smart look at work during winter when it's too cold for dresses with tights. I decided to try the pattern out for the first time using this lovely pinstriped suiting that I bought last year from Spotlight. It looks black but it's really, really dark navy. So dark that I had to take it outside into the sun and hold a piece of black fabric next to it to discover that it was actually navy.

After perusing the back of the envelope, I decided to cut the smallest size (0), based on my waist measurement. I didn't make any alterations to the pattern, but I will have to next time to get a perfect fit. It took me about eleventy-five hours to trace my pattern pieces and then cut out all 47 pieces I needed to make the pants. I think I'd done 3 nights' work, about an hour each night, before I even sat down to sew.

The pants came together very easily. I was REALLY worried about the welt pockets, as I have heard horror stories about them, and I really am not that good at sewing so I thought I would completely balls them up. I took the bull by the horns and didn't even do a practice one, just made them straight onto my pants backs. Let me tell you, if you haven't done welt pockets before, you MUST follow Lauren's from Lladybird's instructions! It is absolutely impossible to eff them up if you do. In fact, if your pockets aren't perfect after following her little tute, then you have a turnip for a brain!

Here are my welt pockets. They look a lot better when there is no bum in the pants making them gape open. And for some reason, one of them is too close to the back crotch seam. Oh well! I think they are bloody brilliant for my first go.

 

By the time I was 90% finished and was able to try the pants on, I realised I needed at least an inch more in them. The best I could do was to reduce the side seams as much as I could. The fit is just on the small side of perfect.

My major eff-up (there's at least one in every project I make) was that I somehow made the waistband quite a bit wider on the right. And when I sewed my buttonholes, something went awry and the bottom buttonhole is too small for the button, so I just left it undone. If I can be bothered, I'll sew a smaller button on.

It took me just over 3 weeks to finish these pants, for various reasons. One, I had barely any time to sew. Two, the last month of winter was so hot (I'm talking bare legs and arms) that I completely lost all desire to sew pants. Three, I realised that I have basically nothing to wear with navy pinstriped pants.

 

Thankfully I finished them on Saturday and today I was blessed with a cold, rainy day so I grabbed the opportunity to wear them. I found this white blouse in the bottom of the ironing basket, where it lives for 364 days per year. It is really see-through and I didn't think that having my bra on display while teaching at a boys' school was a good idea, so I popped on this cute waistcoat which very nearly ended up being donated the other week. I'm glad I saved it because I think this makes a super cute ensemble! 

 

 
Look what I can do!

Black cords and ponte tunic

 

I haven't posted anything in a while, but I have done a bit of sewing. First up is my first pair of semi-wearable pants. I'm not 100% happy with them, hence the semi. There's just something weird about them that I can't put my finger on.

I used the New Look 6873 pants pattern that I've already used twice. The first pair I made in a very loud fabric for a disco party, in size 10, which was far too big. The second pair was size 8 in a very ugly boring grey fabric with bad drape. My husband was cleaning out the garage and found 7 metres of black corduroy so I decided to give them another go. I was going to make this pair in size 8 but when I tried on the disco pair they fit me, despite being too big 18 months ago. So I cut a 10.

 

I knew from my previous attempts at this pattern that the legs are much wider than I like, so I very dodgily removed a whole 4 inches from the width of each leg at the bottom, tapering up to the top. There's probably a proper way to do this kind of thing, but I did my usual trick of doing it my own way. That's probably why the pants don't look quite right.

They came together very easily. I used bright paisley quilting cotton for the pocket inserts, fly, and waistband facing, as I knew that having multiple layers of corduroy in those areas would make the seams very bulky. I ended up having to take an inch off the waist seam as it was too big.

These are quite high waisted. I'm not sure if I like the high-waistedness or not. Also, I'm unsure which shoes to wear with them. I think flats would look better than heels. They are a bit too short for heels anyway.

I bought myself the Thurlow pants pattern by Sewaholic and am going to give that a shot next. I only have one other pair of pants that fit me, and they are so tight that it would be indecent to wear them to work.


 

A week ago I decided I needed a quick project. I had purchased some delicious red ponte specifically to make another Ottobre tunic.
There are only 3 pattern pieces so it's super quick to cut, and it takes no time to sew if you follow the instructions. However, I decided to finish all the seams and finish the neckline with a band rather than turning and topstitching, so it took a little longer.


 

I had never sewn with ponte before, and I love it! You can just sew it as if it's a woven fabric. No special needle or stitches needed! And the colour is to die for. It's not as bright as the first picture- the ones without the flash show the colour better.

 

The last time I made one of these I left out the pintucks on the neckline, but I'm glad I did them this time as they look so sweet (not sure how well they will show up in my crappy photos though). I love the little raglan sleeves.

 

Ridiculous 60s dress

Check out this silly dress I made. 

 

Aubergine corduroy, huge paisley pockets, a front zip and a removable Peter Pan collar...need I say more?

 

I used this 1969 pattern and removed 6 inches from the length. The dress is pretty hideous so I thought it make it really fun. I'm not sure if it really works, though. It rides up when I wear tights because I didn't line it, and that makes it bag up unattractively around my middle.

 

The collar was an afterthought as I'd made the dress to wear over a skivvy, but I thought in the warmer months I can wear it by itself with the collar on.

 

 What do you think???