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.  

Vintage 50's

It's a crazy rainy/cyclonic day here in Brisbane, so we've been sent home from work. Guess that's a good time to catch up on the blog. 

I've been unable to locate this lovely vintage pattern in the vortex that is my spare room. So can't show you how my dress is supposed to look. I remember buying the pattern from a company in the US, instead of my usual ebay purchase.  It was definitely a much better quality pattern I have to say. 

The cotton drill fabric is from Spotlight. I'd had my eye on it for awhile and managed to get it on sale. Hooray!!  I didn't really consider the material pattern and how it would work with this style of the bodice.  The material would have been better with a single piece bodice.  Ah well, too late to think about that now.  

It was a pretty straightforward make, but I had to fiddle with the bodice after I finished making the entire thing.  I was really happy with the finished product except the bodice was baggy around the armhole section and bit into the middle.  I did some adjustments to the darts and did a new seam for the sleeve to take some of the bulk out.  It was better, but now the bodice is a little tight getting over my head.  Hopefully it won't cause me to have an anxiety attack if I get stuck putting it on.  

The back definitely has more continuity with the pattern of the fabric.  It's a nice fabric to wear and quite comfy which is always a bonus. Even though I'm still not 100% happy with the bodice, I am happy with how it looks.  

To Shirr and Shirr Alot

I was off to an afternoon swim one stinky poo, hot Saturday recently, when I realised I didn't have any cool little casual dresses.  I guess when I do go the coast I generally wear a denim skirt and a little shirt.  It has been on my to do list is a beach dress for about 5 years.

I got on line to see what projects people had done with a basic shirred dress.  I found one and set out using this cotton material I bought at a Spotlight sale.  Even though it's very simple to make, it does take awhile doing 12 rows of shirring on both front and back.  The only thing that didn't work out so well was  the fabric above the shirring. I left about 1.5cm and it kept flapping forward.  In the end I just added some elastic to the top. I just eased it directly onto the fabric with a zig zag stitch.  And ticketyboo it did the trick. 

So all in all nothing fancy, just a good cool dress for very casual wear.  Unfortunately not exactly good for the beach with the exposed shoulders, it is good for going to a friend's place for a swim. 

Vintage Simplicity 7332

My love of all things 70's strikes again.  Another little ebay purchase from 2016. I really liked the look of the V neck strap. I was even considering trying the stripe version with the material I was using but didn't want to risk mucking around and maybe making a complete hash of it. 

I bought this lovely light cotton linen blend from Spotlight. I think it was part of their clearance fabrics.  I'm not sure why because the fabric is just perfect.  It's that right summer blend for fabric and the combo of linen and cotton actually means a very low crush factor.  Why oh why can't there be more of these fabrics around.  I even tried to buy some more of this fabric recently on a trip to Spotlight but darn it, they only had about 1m left. 

Soooo back to the pattern.  This was a very easy pattern to work with.  I decided however, not to use the nice bias cut skirt section because it just used up too much material.  Even though these 70's style of dress are great you do need quite a lot more fabric when cutting on the bias.  Anyoldhow, I used the skirt section from one of my other 70's patterns and, in fact, I'll probably get better use out of  my other 70's patterns if I do that. 

This is also another of those smart patterns that has you attach the back bodice and back skirt together, then put in zip before attaching the front to the back. This makes inserting a zip so much easier as you don't have all that extra material to be worrying about, which might get caught up underneath when you are sewing in the zip. I absolutely love this dress. It's so comfortable and cool.  I think the pattern of the material looks fabulous.  So very happy with the end result. A perfect storm of fabric and pattern.  Hooray.  

MTM RIP

Mary Tyler Moore, what can I say.  She was an icon, an inspiration, a role model.  I can safely say, Mary Richards is one of my favourite television characters of all time.  Even though I was a little girl when the Mary Tyler Moore Show was was first on tv, I always knew it was something very special that I was watching. Undoubtedly it was an well written, entertaining sitcom, but overall it was a groundbreaking television program. I was completely in love with the time period, of course the wonderful 70's fashions.  However, when you re-watch the episodes as a woman you realise what a brilliant inspiring character Mary Richards was.  Here was a woman in her 30's, unmarried, living alone, trying to have a career in a male dominated field.  The episodes didn't concentrate on her romantic life and a desire to get married, and her job was just something she did until she met Mr Right.  No, she was more concerned about being taken seriously at work and fighting for equal rights with regard to pay and promotion within her job.  When you think about it, the way Mary looked, she should have been a character in front of the camera, but instead she was a woman who was working behind the scenes in a less glamour field, a news room.  

I only mention my love of Mary Tyler Moore in my blog because she is without a doubt my all time favourite fashion icon.  Maybe when I was in my early 20's I could pull off some of her wonderful fashions. But alas I'd have to work very hard to achieve that super svelte physique. I remember how much I loved re-watching this show, particularly for the fashion.  I now own the complete series so I shall be spending many a weekend catching up on the series and enjoying it all over again.  I started watching season 3 this weekend and no matter how many episodes I watch in a row, I never can skip the opening theme song. Again, that theme song is most possibly the best theme song any television show has had (though Rockford Files comes a close second).  And one of my favourite bands, Husker Du, did a wonderful version of Love is All Around . Who can turn your world on with a smile, Mary Tyler Moore that's who!!!

  

The most interesting thing about her passing is how many women have been inspired by her.  It didn't matter if they weren't an attractive, skinny, middle class white girl, she was an inspiration to all women and what they could achieve. I'm sure many a young girl or woman watched this show and realised that  women finally had a place in the workforce.  As a person, and as her character she broke a glass ceiling which all women should be grateful for. 

As the Mary Tyler Moore Show came to it's conclusion in 1977, another icon was being born. It was a princess from a galaxy far far away who was going to be a role model for another generation of women for decades to come. 

So sad you are gone, so glad you left us with some brilliant television.