Notions Of Fabric

It's another New Look 6048! As you can probably tell by now, I love this pattern and feel very comfortable wearing it. The fabric for this dress was another Village Haberdashery purchase. This was my first Rifle Paper Co. fabric purchase, and it is the 'Wonderland Alice Tea Party' in black. I have always loved the story of Alice in Wonderland and when I saw this tea party themed print, knew I had to have it. The colour palette is very me and it's fun but not too excessive. Choosing this pattern for this print was easy, as the fabric is a cotton, but more of a quilting cotton in terms of weight and drape. I find NL 6048 good for this kind of fabric as I like when the skirt has some shape to it. I remember being in the store and messaging the husband with a question: 'Would a whole dress in this print be too much?' The answer was a resounding yes, so I bought enough for the skirt and picked up some plain black cotton sateen and a complementary sky blue zipper...

This dress we actually took photos of once before, last year. We were in the gorgeous town of Zell am See in Austria for the Husband to do his first half ironman race, and we stopped one evening under the picturesque town church for photos. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late in the evening and the photos turned out unsalvageable due to the dimming light, so you get photos in my sewing room against the blank wall again. Sorry? This pattern is one of my favourites - New Look 6048. One of the reasons I like this pattern is that it is a great canvas for making a dress when you only have a small piece. The bodice fabric I used for this dress I picked up at my favourite fabric store in Sydney - Achieve Australia. I had just enough for the bodice (and remnants which will make lovely pockets in something else!) and used a matching light cotton for the straps and the skirt. It is quite a light cotton so the dress is fully lined using the matching lawn for the bodice and a sligh...

Now that we've covered what happened in 2019, let's look forward to 2020! Last year, I didn't reach my #makenine goals, but I think it's still good to have something to aim for. This year, a lot of these patterns are ones I would have like to make in 2019 but didn't get a chance to! In the end, what I really want to do in 2020 is to sew from my stash, using both existing patterns and fabrics. So what I have done is created two linked lists, one of patterns, and one of fabrics I want to use. Because I have a lot of plans already in my head, of the two lists 6 patterns are already linked to fabrics on the corresponding list. So, let's discuss, shall we? 2020 MAKE NINE - PATTERNS 1: Cottesloe swimsuit (Megan Nielsen Patterns) Having made a bikini already, and having bought swimsuit fabric I haven't used yet (see fabric #4) I decided to add to my me-made swimsuit collection soon by making the one piece Cottesloe with the tie. I think I have everyt...

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...

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 ...

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...

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!!! ...

And finally, I'm back! Hi there. Now, I know it's been ages - but I have excuses. They're even good ones. We moved house, I had to find a new job, and when I finally had some things ready to photograph, the boyfriend lost his camera (he's my photographer) and he had to buy a new one. So yeah, there's that. And now, we're all settled in the new apartment. We've moved from Canberra to Sydney (3 hrs by car), so it's kind of an upgrade. And now I have work too, and the boyfriend has a new camera... So we're all ready to go! I have 4 FO's to show you, but they'll be spread out, I won't post them all at once. This first dress was actually the last thing I finished before we moved. I saw the fabric in my (old) local Lincraft during the half price sale back in June (so, ages ago). I actually didn't buy it when I saw it originally, I walked away, thinking that it wouldn't work properly. But the more I thought about it, the more ...

This fabric I have had for a long time - there was a sale, I saw it there... I had to have it. I can't remember what it is called or where I bought it, but it is a poly cotton with a nice drape to it.  A perfect pairing to the harder version of New Look 6208, View C, with V back and straps and bows! This was the reason I bought the pattern in the first place, for the bow back! (Excuse the black - that would be my bra strap!) As the last time I found the neckline a bit wide, I graded the pattern to a 14 at the neck. The waist still needed reducing at the waist 2" (more than las time to account for the ease of the fabric). After I completed this dress and left it to hang, it stretched more than I'd anticipated. I had to restitch the zipper, side seam and bottom hem. I also lifted the shoulder seams 1cm to realign the back straps with my bra back (and as you can see in one photo, you can still see the black of my bra there - sorry about that)   (See? B...

Way back when I first started sewing again, this was my first creation. It has a few flaws, but I still love wearing it. I am still working on developing my skills (practised and used my first french seam on my latest dress, and my zipper skills are much better than before!) and love learning new things. The fabric is Spotmania, a line from Lincraft (one of the 2 major sewing stores here in Australia). They have some available online, but not the colourway which I used. It's not expensive and perfect for someone like me, getting back into the groove and practising almost-forgotten skills!  The pattern is New Look 6208, a lovely high fitted bodice with a pleated skirt. It has 4 variations (this is View A). I used the measurements on the envelope back and hesitantly cut a size 16. It was almost a perfect fit (I only took 1" off the waist afterwards), and hemmed it 5" to hit just above my knee. New skills: pinking, inserting a zipper.