House Blouse

Here's a much belated post of a blouse I made back in August last year.  I used McCall's 6794. 

I bought this material at Spotlight in Adelaide when I was on a holiday there over 18 months ago.  So impressed that Adelaide have a Spotlight in the city and a K-mart. Lucky ducks.

  

As this material is 100% cotton it doesn't have a nice flowy effect like my previous version.  

It really is an easy pattern to make.  You could definitely take a bit of the width out to avoid so much gathering.  And it certainly would be easy to adjust the pattern to make a dress. But I still have soooo many dress patterns awaiting my attention.  

The "Miracles Do Happen" Frock

Five years ago if you'd asked my parents if they'd ever be grandparents or one of their kids would get married, they would probably have laughed  Or hopefully have said, "well we've got a grandkitten". Then a crazy thing happened in 2015, my parents became grandparents for the first time. At the time people asked if I thought my brother and his partner would get married, to which I replied naaah.  But 2 weeks ago they tied the knot.  I've been to quite a few weddings over the years, but given I'm now well into my 40's you don't go to too many and quite a different thing to be at a family wedding. So hard to decide on a pattern to make. I  originally started with a Vogue pattern, which did not turn out to be wedding worthy.  I also had in mind one of 50's patterns, however McCall's 5137 is probably my most favourite make. Ironically my original creation was for a friend's wedding about 8 years ago.  

Soooo, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I finished this frock and turned out perfectly.  I bought the fabric on line at Darn Cheap Fabrics and amazingly it was on sale for only $9 a metre. It's a cotton linen blend.  The crush factor isn't too bad. I just loved the palm leaves. And red is definitely my go to flattering colour.  

I really wanted to use some rick-er-rack to emphasise all the panels.  I did try a grey embroidery stitch, but I was unable to get a clear enough picture to show it as it's quite subtle.  

Always a plus, it's such a comfy dress to wear. And no buttons or zips, hoorah.   I also made my necklace and matching earrings.  

There's a actually a bow tied at the back.  But it gets lost camouflage style. This is a great dress to make especially if you use the contrasting panels and it is quite different than other patterns out there.  It's not too complicated, there are just quite a few pieces to put together. And you can wear the tie at the front if you prefer.  I would have only used a little under 3m for this, so all in all the dress cost me $27.  A girl's got to be happy with that.  

Style 1156

Surprise! I made a new 70's pattern.  I would have loved to find an emerald green fabric to replicate the one on the pattern.  Alas, it's hard to find a good fabric in solid colours. However, I did spot a grand little cotton drill pineapple patterned fabric at Spotlight which did the trick.  

Pretty simple little pattern.  I teamed my feature material with a maroon drill.  

As I've done previously I've used a different skirt section for the pattern.  I'd really like to try the bias cut skirt, but it doesn't suit horizontal patterns on the material. Also you need way more fabric

Pretty happy with the result.  It's a nice cool dress to wear on a summer day.  Drill is obviously a little heavier than some other fabrics, but it's loose fitting enough for the eternal/infernal summer heat.

The buttons were from my selection of vintage buttons. There are no button holes as such, just the fabric lapping over and buttons sewn on.  Even though it's nice and loose fitting, it still has a zip in the back.  

I would love to try this pattern again. I bought a nice navy cotton blend from a sidewalk sale in the city recently.  I'm not sure it would be right for a summer dress because it appears to have some synthetic in the blend.  Perhaps I could try the sleeve version for work.