Malvarosa

Jeepers.  I decided to do a little photo shoot recently for 3 items.  My camera decided, however, to play silly buggers and the first 2 outfits came up a nice shade of blur.  Now I don't mind keeping a little mystery about me but this just looked like some bad photography.  I'm fostering a young black kitty at the moment, perhaps it was just a bit of bad luck.  He was in the vicinity.
 

So, take dos. I really liked the version of the Malvarosa I saw on the Clever Tinker blog. I'm not sure that just seeing the pattern cover would have inspired me.  So let's just step back in time to say 1984 and the much worn drop waist dress.  Very simple pattern to make up.  So of course I chose a fabric with a specific pattern through it. Fortunately this rayon/cotton blend from Lincraft was fairly easy to match with the various panels.  I liked the sleeve detail build into the bodice pieces.  Though the rayon does stretch a bit so I'll have to watch the top of the sleeve doesn't getting all poochy.  I had thought about doing bias around the sleeves but given the shape the bias wasn't going to work. Also given the softness of the fabric I didn't see the point in bias around the neck either. Softer fabrics can certainly looked puckered when finished.  

The only extra adjustment I had to do was the underarms. I always find there is too much gape under the arms on a lot of loose fitting garments. Plus I took in the width a little around the top.  So after a few adjustments I also added some fusible webbing to hold the facing in place. I'm a keen user of this item for hems where the fabric is too soft or silky. It just give it all a smooth finish. 

Would love to try this pattern again in a plain coloured fabric. But, oh where to find the illusive good quality plain coloured fabric. 

 

 

Sway Dress

Like most people, I saw this on the Ginger Makes blog and decided it would be a perfect summer frock.  I was also so glad to not be printing out yet another PDF pattern. And what lovely packaging Papercut do with their patterns.  Absolutely easy little dress to make up.  As per usual I added an extra few inches to the "long" version of the dress but it still ended up pretty short for me.  I would have preferred a bit of below the knee action.  I bought a lightweight denim fabric from Lincraft last Friday and started making it on the Saturday.  It was also good having a wide fabric as you didn't have to cut out the 2 front and 2 back pieces separately. 

The instructions were quite good, though I have to say I failed to comprehend the instruction regarding applying the facing. You were to join your back and front sections together at the shoulder, attach the facing section at the neck, and then this technique I've never heard of to join up the armhole seams. Anyways I couldn't get my head around it, and the day before I watched Inherent Vice which also confused me lots. It's a good movie, but I really was waiting almost 3 hours for it all to make sense and didn't.  But I digress. 

So as far as the facing went I simply added the facing sections separately to both front and back before I did the shoulder seams. Leaving 1cm open at the top, sewed the outer shoulder seems of the dress keeping the facing free and then just fold under the facing on the inside and hand stitched the front facing sections to the back facing sections. And this explanation probably makes no sense to some sewers. I've done this before with other dresses, more recently vintage patterns.  I'm sure Papercut's instructions would make sense if I actually saw this technique done. 

Unfortunately my belt ended up too short also. Again, I should always add a bit extra when I'm not sure. It didn't look like a lot of material when I was cutting it out. Oh to listen to those inner voices. 

Mmmm, the comfy post-lunch version

All in all a great and fast dress to make up. Would definitely recommend it.

Alice, The Sequel

Being very happy with my first try at the Alice in dress form,  I bought this cute sewing themed fabric from the craft section at Lincraft. This pattern really is the perfect summer top. Light, airy and most importantly comfy. 

As usual could have done a better job with pattern matching. Also my camera is playing up and for some reason my photos are bit blurry.  I photographed 2 other outfits before this and the photos aren't usable gosh darn it.  

Not much else I can add to this post.  Really like the Alice top and would recommend it to anyone. Though my mum thought it looked like a maternity blouse. I prefer to think of it as a big lunch blouse. Able to hide a post-lunch paunch.