Notions Of Fabric

Hello again lovely people! Today I come bearing a pretty dress, a tale of happiness and wild despair and then returning happiness. This dress has been... a saga, to say the least. And just as a heads up, this is a picture heavy post. And... it's long. Very long. You've been warned! Let's get the particulars out of the way first though, shall we? This is McCalls 6696 , a gorgeous button down shirtdress everyone and their cat has already made. Yeah, yeah, once again I'm late to the party. But I am glad I waited this time. This is View B, with sleeves and gathered skirt, in a size 14. It fits perfectly. And I adore it. It started off so well. I had 4 yards of this lovely Kaufman Essex Linen Blend fabric in a lovely light blue (they call it Water) from fabric.com which I had originally intended to make a Victorian style dress from Black Sails. However, after not finding a pattern that already worked, and fully realising that I wouldn't wear the dress, or have ...

Hello lovelies! I am back - and this time, I'm not even going to bother trying to explain myself. It's been a while, but now I'm back, and I've had a big kick up the sewjo this last weekend! Having had a really busy week writing reports for work, I finally snuck them in early on Friday, knocked off work as soon as possible, and drove north. Coincidentally, I was also driving towards one of the worst storms eastern NSW has seen in recent times, but I only had to spend a very short time outside in it, luckily. I drove from Sydney up to the (normally) lovely town of Port Macquarie, where I simply found my accommodation and settled in for the night. My accommodation was awesome, and extremely central for the restaurants and the Glasshouse, our sewing venue. (Arriving, sewing machines in tow) (Our sewing tables - in the front was a huge cutting table as well!) What followed was 2 days of disgusting weather, but fantastic food, awesome sewing, and great ...

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 ...

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...

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 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 ...