The dress that Grunge built

Sometimes it's nice to have a soundtrack to your sewing projects.  I was, not surprising for me, in a 90's mood and after hearing of the death of Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots I was in the mood for giving the Purple and No. 4 albums a whirl on the turntable (or rather cd player). Matched nicely with a bit of Hole's Life Through This, I was having a very enjoyable sewing day indeed. And yes, I do still have a cd player and I still love record players especially listening to my old albums whenever house/kitty sit for my parents.

As it turns out, my current version of the Washi dress kind of has a 90's vibe in this lovely soft denim. 
 

 

This is the third time I've made the Washi and I still haven't bothered to use the feature in the neckline. I'm just afraid if the material isn't stiff enough it will flop forward. 

Oh how I love shirring. I've got that skill nailed now. Not bad considering in my long sewing history I hadn't managed to attempt this before.

So vale Scott Weiland "going blind out of reach somewhere in the Vasoline......"

 

Kitty embelishments

Just a quick post to include my latest kitty inspired craft work.  Now that I have a niece I predict a whole lot of kitty themed clothing items in her future. I bought a cheap little t-shirt the other day which was screaming out for some feline features, so I obliged.

Using material from my one of my kitty frocks (New Look 6223 I simply cut out the face shape and used some interfacing to make the fabric sturdy and hopefully not fray around the edges. The eyes and nose are simply some felt which I hand stitched and I just used basic black cotton for the whiskers also hand stitched. I then just machine stitched around the edges to attach the face and then did a zigzag stich. 

 

So nothing fancy, but I think it's pretty cute. And a girl can't have too many cat themed clothes, or bags, or purses, or homewares..........

Vintage Simplicity 7097

This is an interesting 60's pattern which includes a dress, bathing-suit and "beach coat". What the fudge is a beach coat? This was also the era of the brunch coat so it probably made complete sense.  I remember someone mentioning brunch coats at a dinner a few years ago and it was hard to explain exactly what they were. I think it was pretty much a short sleeved dressing gown. They were cute little things you wore over your summer jammies as far as I could see. I'm pretty sure you didn't wear it out of the house to brunch with the girls.

Again, my camera was playing silly buggers and giving me that nice blurry effect.  These photos were the only ones to make the cut.  So I chose the dress pattern and used a craft material I had in my cache-o-plenty of material.  I was very chuffed with the pockets which were very easy to make and I just put some rickerack about 1 inch from the top border of the pocket. There is a front zip which is not even noticeable in the photographs.

I also added a black border with some bias tape to the hem. Otherwise the dress would have been a little too short for me.  I think it's a lovely little cotton frock but will probably crush like the buggery given that it's 100% cotton.  It also looks fine to me with or without the belt.

 

Southport Dress

I saw this pattern making the rounds on a few of blogs and decided it was a good simple dress for an impending Queensland heatwave extravaganza. I recently discovered the Remnant Warehouse, an on-line fabric store with very a good range of fabrics and a reasonable delivery cost here in Aus.  This fabric is a cheesecloth though with a bit more stiffness.  Most of the fabrics I did buy were of the cheesecloth variety.  I'm all about trying to get more non-crush, cool to wear fabrics for my summer wardrobe. 

I saw on one blog where someone had used elastic for the waist instead of the drawstring. I decided on this option.  Now ever caution about sizing I felt pretty good about the bodice, especially making sure there wasn't much gape in the underarm department.  I also decided against doing button holes since the dress pulls over your head anyway.  I simply attached the buttons, sewing the thread through all the layers so the front right and left bodice are attached to each other. 

Not overly happy with my end product.  I should have lengthened the bodice. It is almost sitting high enough to be an empire line.  Also there is a bit too much room (as always) in the mammary department.  I might need to take the bodice in about an inch.  I also added some lining, but only to the skirt section. I thought given the pattern of the fabric the top wouldn't be too shear, but didn't want to risk the skirt section.  Given the shape of the skirt section, I think I might use it to make myself a cotton half slip to wear with all my potentially see through frocks.

I found the dress easy to make and the instructions seemed to be accurate.  I may give it another crack making the necessary adjustments.  For now this is a nice dress to wear if I have to head out to the shops or visit my folks.  The pattern is perfect for hiding cat hair and that's always a bonus. Especially when my parents have a very beautiful and cuddly brown cat. 

I also recommend for any Australians out there to check out the Remnant Warehouse. It's reasonably priced fabrics and they will even send you a sample in the mail for a nominal sum.


You can't really see clearly all the detail of the fabric or the buttons in my photos. My camera has started playing up recently and I end up with slightly out of focus photos.  Very annoying when I try to photograph a number of frocks at once, only discover when I download them to the laptop that they are out of focus. 

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike......

This is my second time making the Simplicity 1419 pattern.  My first version was kitty themed, so why not go with a fun bike pattern for version 2.  This another fabric from the furnishing fabric section at Spotlight. I bought it with a Washi in mind but there wasn’t enough material and because of the pattern you couldn’t turn any pattern pieces upside down.  I decided to go sans collar for this version and sleeveless. 

It’s a lovely simple pattern to make up and I like the pleating in the front.  It’s a less gathered full skirt than most patterns like this.  Because of the stiffness of the material I’m not sure I will need to do a button for the top. I guess after a few washes it might flop forward and when that happens I will finish off the top section as per the pattern. 

Very happy with my fun summer frock.  Because I really needed some more dresses.  Christmas break did yield quite a few new makes. Never sure if I’ll be in the mood to be sitting at the sewing machine or using a hot iron in the summer heat but I did get quite a few things done.  That was, however, in between binge watching episodes of The Killing and eating way too much festive fair.  

Funny how the back version looks like a bike pile up.

It's Alice Again

There's not much to say about this top as I've already made 2 versions.  The fabric I've used is one of those cotton synthetic blends in a lovely shade of dusky orange. I really didn't know what colour to call it, but dusky sounds good to me. I've used this type of fabric in several things before and I really like it. I still give it a little bit of an iron on a low setting, but it doesn't need much. It's a nice cool top for work in the hot months.

 
I've pared it with an olive green skirt which has been sitting in my wardrobe for about 3 years now. I wore it for a friend's wedding and wasn't too sure about the fabric (a cotton sateen) because it can look quite crushed after about 5 minutes of wearing. The plain sateens hide absolutely nothing unfortunately.  The pattern is my usual go to A-line skirt pattern New Look 6053. 

Festive Cambie

Golly it's here again, the season of festivus.  During a recent sale at Lincraft I was picking up some bargains and waiting in line for my purchase when  it occurred to me it would be a good time to look at fabric for a Christmas party frock. Plus with 40% off it was a perfect time to buy. There was really no competition when I saw this funky gold and silver check fabric.  For some reason it put me in mind to try making another Cambie.  I had a vision for the contrasting fabric and it all came together. 

Initially I thought about the full skirt version of the Cambie.  The Cambie is quite an easy dress to make, just a number of different stages to get through, what with a waistband, fan sleeves and lining.  My first Cambie was a festival of suck.  The sizing was way too big and you could see the lining in the fan sleeve/straps. I had to re-do the lining and that was annoying. Couldn't do much about the sizing. It's wearable but disappointing. 

I left a little shaping in the top of the bodice, but overall it's quite straight.  As you can see I finished up the A-line skirt in the end. I did the full skirt and it look a tad ridiculous with the stiff fabric. Plus  when I attached the skirt to the waistband I accidentally caught in some extra fabric so had to unpick anyways.   

Quite happy with the end result.  The photos don't really show the colours at their best. And I really need to straighten my camera on the tripod next time. 

And finally my little helpers. Polly-Jean in the background obviously just straightening up my fabric before I put the pattern pieces down. And the lovely Salem who is our foster kitty.  He is a very well behaved cat. I hate to think the bad habits he is learning from my angel.