Alice in OliveLand

A little while back I found myself in the soft furnishing fabric section of Spotlight when I happened upon a couple of terrific cotton fabrics.  One was navy blue with white houses on it and the other was olives.  Obviously perfect for say kitchen curtains or a tablecloth, but honestly I thought it was just fabulous fabric.  I think it would have looked great in a vintage frock but I wanted to try the Tessuti Alice dress/top pattern out.  Plus they were both a bargain at $5 a metre.  You don't get that in the dress fabric section. 

This was a lovely easy pattern to make. Probably the most time consuming part was putting the PDF pattern together, which is always a bit of a bore.  I did read bloggers who said it tended to run to the large sizes and my friend has made a few of the tops which seem a bit low cut at the sides, which I don't really like given what happens to your skin of your underarm area as you age, not pretty. So I made it to a small and it fits perfectly.  

I did one silly thing during the construction and put one of the arm bands on the wrong way around.  I didn't even notice until the next day when I tried it on.  There was the understitching mocking me on the outside.  I had thought about just leaving it and pretending it was a topstitch and then just do a row of stitching on the other side. Then I decided to do the right thing and it didn't take that long to unpick and put around the right way.  Very happy with my kitchen curtain inspired fabric.  

Sit on it Emery

I like this pattern not.  After buying this pattern I realized that essentially I already have similar patterns. I think it's easy to see a really nice looking dress on someone's blog and not realise the main reason it caught my eye was because of the lovely fabric used.  In Brisbane we aren't exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to fabric unlike when I started sewing a few decades ago.  Anyways, so I see some lovely dresses on the blogs and it doesn't occurs to me that maybe I'm buying a similar pattern to ones I already own. 

So to begin at the begin.  One evening I was inspired to cut out the Emery. I had some paisley cotton material I had been intending for a summer frock, but decided in our moderate Qld winter the weight would be perfect with the longer sleeve.  So I cut it out and, at that point realised how familiar the basic pattern pieces looked.  I decided to get going and put the bodice together, darts done - check, side seams and shoulder seams - check.  Then I'm looking at the bodice which looks extra extra large for some reason. I got out my New Look 6223 pattern and placed the back bodice pattern pieces over the Emery piece. 

OMG as the kids say.  I mean seriously. I cut out the pattern according to my sizing on the pattern instructions, and whatdoyaknow it was way out.  Now I've heard girls criticise the "big 4" pattern companies as not being as good as the independent ones.  My experience thus far with the independents is that everything I've made has been too big.  They do appear to suffer the same problem as the old school pattern companies and the sizing, in my experience, is completely off. Since I started sewing, the pattern sizing chart puts me at a size 16 and yet I've sewn to a 12 all my long sewing life.  So when I hear the phrase "fits like a glove" in reference to the Emery I am quite surprised. From which "glove" emporium do you buy your gloves I wonder? And these days people talk about making muslins.  I've been sewing for far too long and am too impatient to be making up a dress once for practice. But I can understand for the novices it is very useful. 

Meanwhile back at my Emery bodice, out came my friend the quick unpick and I set to unpicking my bodice.  Super p o'd.  I then had to recut the bodice pieces and the sleeve.  I then put the darned thing away for a few weeks as it was making me very cross. 

On returning to the pattern afresh I was ready to make it up - take dos.  It is a nice basic pattern to put together especially.  I had thought about lining the bodice, but boy was a glad I didn't.  So I finished the Emery pretty quickly. I was going to put binding around the neck so I thought I'd just try it on before I did that. And flipping heck the bodice still looked way too big.  It was poofing out above the bust line closer to the neck edge.  I was ready to tear it up quite literally.  But no what a waist of material and time.  I ended up adding a dart to the centre front and had to run the 2 vertical darts nearly up to the neckline to make the front bodice more fitted.

I also had to re-do the sleeves take them up a few centimetres and take them in to make then look a tad less boxy.  So here it is finished.  It is just ok and thanks to the fabric pattern you can hardly notice the darts. Was actually glad it only garnered a few nice comments from work people, because it really didn't deserve any praise.  And frankly I couldn't be bothered posing for photos in it. It does look a smidge better on, but only a smidge.

Also the pattern picture isn't really accurate to the dress. I'm being a pedant on this one but the skirt looks more A-line on the pattern cover with a little gather than the full skirt you finish up with. All in all a real disappointment.

So I shall stick to my New Look 6223 and just add a bow if I wish or a collar. 

Not that the Emery is out on its own with my vitriol.  I've also got a very loose fitting Cambi in my cupboard which took a few alterations because of the lining showing in the sleeve. And then there was the annoyance of the Jasmine blouse. So much fiddling around and the finished product still looked huge.  I finally made a black full skirt to wear with that and it makes it passable. Then there is a Ginger skirt that has some serious waistband issues. The best independent pattern I've purchased so far is from Tilly and her Mathilde blouse.  Great pattern, great instructions, terrific fit.  Thanks Tilly. 


I do hope this ends my season of the sewing horribilis. It has been an annoying few months of fails and near fails. 

Last time on Dynasty....

When I tried on the finished frock for the New Look 6145 a little voice in my head started up with the opening credits for the tv show Dynasty.  Oh what a fabulous trashy soap it was too. I spent way too much time in my teen years enjoying that guilty pleasure. 

Now there were a number of different pattern options to choose from with this. I decided since it was winter to just go with the sleeve.  Given the fabric pattern I'm not exactly sure why I chose the pleated sleeve. Perhaps it was something different to do, and why not. I like to try new things.  And I must say they do look fab. However, when I put the dress on they looked kind of bonkers.  The fabric is a cotton drill so it is a little stiff anyways and there they are the bio-dome sleeves. They do have a life of their own.  I shall be removing them when I'm next in the mood to unpick. 

 Alas the dress is also a bit of a bum hugger.  I should have allowed a little extra around the tum and bum, but with a run of oversized patterns recently I thought I was making a sensible decision sticking to a straight size 12. It's wearable just a little snug where you don't want it to be. 

It's a good little pattern with some good options. Easy and straightforward to make.  

Perfect dress if I'm going to one of those Supernova sci-fi conventions I would think. 

Drat, drat and double drat

I recently had a run of not so fab sewing adventures and surprising to me they have involved vintage patterns. The first drat was this vintage Butterick dress pattern. I thought an interesting high waist dress, nothing too complicated. And something different with the side ties.  

The material I used was a really nice silky type rayon blend perfect for a flowy dress. I got started on the bodice and after putting in the darts I then looked at the instructions for the facing I got mightily confused. I’d already cut out 4 pieces of the facing thinking, right the outer facing attached to the bodice and the inner facing.  However, there were supposedly 2 more facing pieces to come. The outer facing was supposed to be a border attached to the outside with facing then attached and folded to the inside.  

My main complaint was the fabric for the facing pieces were too small for the pattern. The length and width were out by at least 2cm or more. I held up the pattern pieces to the main bodice pattern and they didn’t match at all.  So I made a seams in both the front and back bodice sections to take them in the desired width as the bodice was pretty loose. Then I tried to put the facing pieces on the outside as instructed but because my fabric was a bit slippery I knew even as I was pinning it that it was going to look totally poohouse.  So I threw away the outer facing and decided just to face the darn thing like you normally would.  However, the bodice pieces were still a bit too small and some puckers formed around the front. Not so noticeable because of the pattern but still really annoying.  The end result is a nice dress but so not worth the trouble. 

I love the flutter sleeves, they worked out really well I think.  Plus I finally got to try out my tube turner kit when I made the ties. 

And to the double drat.

So I was thinking of making a nice shirt to wear with jeans and thought I’d use a 60’s dress pattern and just make a shorter version. Also wasn’t going to bother with the zip as the fabric I chose had a bit of stretch in it.  Well this was all lickety-split coming together. The pattern pieces include the sleeves already attached to the bodice.  So that’s one extra thing not to think about.  The V bit at the front didn’t really work out too well. You are supposed to break the stitch at the centre and voila when you turn the facing to the inside it should sit smooth, but it didn’t, at all. I re-did the stitches and pressed the buggery out of it and it looked passable.  I did the side seams and started to turn up the hem on the sleeves when I thankfully decided to try the top on.  Firstly it was a little snug and given that I wanted to wear it with jeans, this did not bode well.  Secondly one of the corners of the neckline kept flopping forward, even though it is interfaced.  So that was that. Fair thee well funky 60’s top.  Relegated to cupboard of disappointments. 

Vintage shift dress strikes again

I think I've made myself a challenge to find the perfect style of shift dress. I've thus far tried quite a few different vintage patterns, most with success I'm pleased to say.  This latest one is slightly different.  The first thing I noticed was that the neckline didn't look it was going to be suffocating me like a lot of the 60's patterns seem to do.  Surely neck sizes weren't that different back in the 1960's.  

The main difference with this dress was the sleeves which were in 2 pieces so you actually have seams running under the arm as well as the upper arm.  And see nice wide neckline for a change. 

It's only in recent years, from using vintage patterns, that I discovered the brilliant instruction of inserting the zip in the back first before attaching the front and back sections together.  I think this technique would work in most straight style dresses, but mostly works well with shifts because they only have one back section, not a bodice and skirt section. Anyways I love how quick and easy it is. Though still haven't tried an invisible zip. One day, one day.

I bought this psychedelic cotton sateen from Spotlight with a shift dress in mind.  I even managed to find some lovely lavender tights on line to match the whole ensemble.  But very annoyance I can't for the life of me find a nice lavender coloured lipstick.  In fact most colours from the family purple are hard to find. 

All in all very enjoyable and easy to make.  The neckline doesn't sit as flat as I would like but it doesn't bother me too much.  Just loving winter and getting to wearing tights.

Simplicity 2472

This is my second time around with the Simplicity 2472.  I was having a bit of a bad sewing weekend recently and after getting the grumps with 3 things in a row I decided I wanted to make up something quick and easy, and that I knew would actually work.  It's the best medicine for a sewing horribilous. There is nothing too fancy about this design. Simply 2 pieces front and back with bias for the neckline and sleeve bands.  You can make it up in a few hours. Easy to make comfy to wear, need I say more. 

The fabric is a 100% cotton from Spotlight.  I don't seem to have a lot of grey in my wardrobe so I was happy to branch out with a nice sublte floral style pattern.  Because the style is so plain, I think I need to make up a nice red necklace to wear. I have some large wooden beads which would be perfect. I'll just add that to my craft projects "things to do".  

Frockin Heck

FrankenFrock strikes again.  I wanted to make something with long sleeves, with no fuss zips or buttons.  After success with the Washi dress pattern I thought I'd use the Washi as my basis.  I changed the neckline to make it less scooped and used the sleeves from New Look 6068. The cotton material I bought from Spotlight last year. It's quite a sheer fabric but has a certain stiffness to it.  I just love the olive green colour.

I also decided to gather the front section instead of doing the pleats. Again I just wanted something that was super easy. 

Probably the only disappointing bit to this frock is that the shirring at the back appears a little high. I think it's obvious because of the gathering in the front. Basically if I turn side on it looks like the shirring should be about 2 inches lower. So I shall just avoid being seen side on.

When I look at the finished product it looks like a good basis for a medieval frock. So if I ever do go to a medieval fair I'll be able to whip up a slightly longer version.  

I also just put elastic in the base of sleeves rather than using the facing.

Given the lame Brisbane winter weather I hope I get to wear this before it heats up again.  I planned to wear it last week as I had some birthday celebrations and it was the usual festival of food. This frock would have been perfect to wear if the weather was a tad cooler.