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Showing posts from 2015

The Mid-Century Modern Dress

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Evening everyone! Hope you've all had a nice week. Mine was super busy again - I'm starting to really look forward to the holidays (only two more weeks), and I'm aching to take a sewing day before then, but I won't. I need to work as much as I can in the lead up to Christmas; working as a casual teacher takes its toll over the summer when you don't work (and therefore don't get paid). I've also put myself on a fabric and yarn spending ban (with the exception of a few things I'm planning to make as gifts for people for Christmas), so I'm trying to work my way through a long list of things I've been planning to make for ages. First are some commissions for friends, I'm copying a ModCloth dress for a few of us - then the long list for me. Maybe I'll have my list finished by the end of next year... (I love this dress, so much! Although it makes me want a crinoline...) In the spirit of things I've made a long time ago, I made

The Best Basic Skirt (with bonus fandom!)

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Hey everyone, hope your Monday night is as awesome as mine! I've been crazy productive today after work, which is always good, I have work booked for the rest of the week, and I will have time to sew after dinner... Win-win-win! Yesterday, the Boyfriend/Photographer and I finally headed out on a small adventure to take some new blog photos of some old makes. Luckily, there are lots of nice places around where we live, inluding Sydney Olympic Park. We headed into Bicentennial Park (which is huge - we got 3 sets of photos in very different settings), to the pretty Lake Belvedere. It even has a little walkway with a small island, and is surrounded by all kinds of birds (and on our sunny Sunday afternoon, two wedding parties). (How cool is that bridge? Well, it was cool until  my shoe went through a gap and I almost fell...) The make I want to share with you today is this skirt. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. A lot of my makes are very bright and colourful, and I love that, but I rea

An Outfit-A-Long (Or, Birds and Bows and Vianne)

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Evening guys - this is a very exciting post, but will be short. It's Thursday night (technically Friday morning), I have work tomorrow, my alarm goes off in 5 hours. I should be going to bed, but I needed to get this post up now before the weekend. So, last year Andi Satterlund of Untangling Knots and Lauren of Lladybird  hosted the first ever Outfit Along, or OAL. I loved the idea, and also the dress (it's still in the queue - soon, soon...), and so I tried, but my knitting skills were not even nearly up to scratch! I failed before the first hurdle, as it were. But when they announced it was going to happen again this year, I was ALL. OVER. THAT. Because now I can actually knit things! (So my hair is a bit crazy in all these shots - it was super windy! Also it bothers me that the bottom of the ribbing doesn't line up properly - I think that was my blocking. What a noob.) I actually didn't follow the OAL exactly, but that's part of the beauty of it - y

Blue Flower Dress

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Hello, my friends! It's been a busy few weeks - the first weeks of term always are. I've still got a huge backlog of projects to share, but also now a bit of a backlog of photos to be edited, which is awesome. Means hopefully I'll be able to have a bit of a queue for posts! Anyway, this is one of my more recent dresses, and was intended to be a wearable muslin. It turned out so nice that I can't wait to wear it (I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a little). The pattern is New Look 6048, a dress which I have wanted to make for a while. I was inspired by several versions, including this one made by Hell Bunny (I love their designs, even if I don't love the price tag!): I also love this and this version - both gorgeous - from Bobbin and Baste, and I adore this one from Sew Busy Lizzie (Aussie sewers represent!). The pattern itself needs a little tweaking to get to the stage of the Hell Bunny dress, so I made it as is for my wearable muslin (plus

Keeping a Good List

Hey lovelies! I have a wordy post for you today, for a few reasons. I'm out of town at the moment, and it's so cold (feels like 2!) so I haven't brought many me-mades for taking photos of. I need to get on making more practical colder weather clothes (read: not all dresses and skirts!). I thought I'd share with you today some of the things on my sewing 'bucket list' at the moment, in case anyone has advice to offer or has similar goals. I currently have these in a list on my phone entitled 'To accomplish'. I do like a good list. PAJAMAS          The first thing on my list, was pajamas. For me, that meant one of those lace edged slip nighties, made up in a slippery fabric with some stretch. I wanted a pattern with separate bust pieces rather than darts, to fit my bustiness a bit better and allow for more modifications if I need to adjust it.           I ended up making  Butterick 6031, Gertie's pattern , in a slippery poly with a gorgeous Japanes

Picnic Blanket Dress... and a new coat!

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Hey everyone, how are we today? I hope you are super awesome, as I was while taking these photos. As soon as I saw this checked fabric in Lincraft, I knew it was perfect for a dress! A nice big check is always good. However, I straight away started to worry about the effect of having the white and black nearest to my face. The easy answer? Black edging! The pattern is New Look 6208 , I made View D. I figured as much as I love the bows, I thought they would be overkill, and I was right. To avoid having to pattern match, I turned the waistband on the bias instead, which worked a treat - I'll definitely do that again. As I mentioned before, I used black edging around the neckline and armholes. To avoid any awkward moments (I was worried the white was a little sheer), I lined the bodice with white cotton lawn, and the skirt with white Bemsilk. Lining dresses is awesome, you guys. I have vowed to do it all the time (well, almost, anyway), because it's so much nicer in all se

Supanova, and an Esploding TARDIS!

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Hey! OMG, what? Two posts in two weeks? Madness!! Anyway, so I had Friday off work (I'm a casual for part of the week this term), and I had an amazing day. I actually took myself off for a massage, which is not related to sewing in any way, but really really helped me feel awesome, so I happily settled myself down for an afternoon of sewing. At the moment, I'm working on a few commissions for a friend (a couple of pairs of jammie pants, and an anchor skirt, of which I will be making one for myself too). But, while mid-skirt-construction, I got a call about a very confused delivery man who apparently couldn't find my apartment. He was bearing another fabric parcel for me! Inside: 5 yards of french blue linen, and 4 yards of this gorgeous beauty. So, given that I went to Supanova this weekend (a convention - it was pretty fun!), I needed to make this into a dress - stat. Cue fabric washing at 5pm, and hemming at 2am the next day. But I got it finished in the end!!!

Starry Night Dress

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Hello everyone! Long time no... post? What a weird turn of phrase. ANYWAY... I won't bore you with many legitimate but not-all-together-adequate reasons. I'll just show you a pretty dress! (All the poses in this post are super awkward and weird, just FYI. Pretty sure these are the most accurate pictures of me so far on this blog!) This gorgeousness was a long time coming. I bought the fabric quite early on, really, in my sewing journey - and for one reason. GLOW IN THE DARK STARS. I couldn't not buy it, right? It's a Michael Miller cotton called Star Magic ( DG0605-NITE-D ) , I'm pretty sure I bought it at Fabric.com (I buy a lot there, lets be honest - I'm waiting on some fabric as we speak!). (I think maybe my face is so awkward because there were people walking past and staring at me... I am an awkward turtle.) The photos of this may not be the best - we were losing the light as we shot, but it's a gorgeous mottling of dark blue to black

Dreaming of Sewing for Winter

Hey. It's been... a while. I have been sewing, don't worry about that! I have probably about 10 projects completed that just need photos. Photographer (also known as boyfriend) has been very busy, then had camera issues, then sent said camera away for repair and it was gone for a month. He's now read this over my shoulder and reminded me that we were going to do it today, but the weather is terribly miserable. We're in Canberra for Easter, and it feels like the most miserable part of the British weather I experienced when I lived there for a year! I bought myself a copy of the newest GBSB book, Fashion With Fabric, as an end-of-term present to myself, and I'm loving it so far (I might do a bit of a review once I've sewn something from it). ONly problem is, it's given me a serious hankering to sew, and I don't have my machine until we go back to Sydney in a week! Oh, my life is so hard. So instead, I am planning and knitting and yes, returning to blog

Sewing for Others

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Happy New Year to all! Hope your resolutions aren't broken (yet), that you're recovering from all the Christmas food and alcohol nicely, and that you've had a restful holiday, for those back at work. Today I wanted to have an experience I've had recently, which was super scary. I have gotten quite a lot of attention from friends (and strangers) in the past for my me-made items. A few months ago, a friend mentioned that she didn't have many appropriate work dresses. Many bought dresses are too short, and the style she (and I) like in an appropriate length can cost upwards of $200. So I offered to make her some. We went together to Spotlight, and after choosing patterns we also chose her fabric. In the end, I made a purple spotty Lilou, an aqua Belladone, and a dark green NL6208. (I love this pattern. Such pretty bows - it reminds me I should make another for myself!) Making for others is interesting. I have her measurement (obviously) and I've changed m