Ambling along, smelling the roses…

Oh, I love, love, love this dress!

It’s my second Butterick 5748 and easily my favourite self-made item.  Ever.

I didn’t have any real plan for this dress – I knew I wanted to make another one, but was pretty open as far as fabric went.  Then I saw this dress by Dolly Clackett and kind of fell in love with the fabric.  Conveniently, she’d posted a link and then it was MINE!  I mean, look at those birdies!

As a side note, it was my first foray into Fabric.com.  It’s awesome!  So, so cheap and pretty good stuff too.  The postage was about $20 to Australia, but it still worked out cheaper than what I’d expected to pay all up for the fabric.  So I’m happy!  Also, getting fabric in the mail is really enjoyable.

Anyway, the dress.  I fiddled around with the bust darts a bit and made the seam allowance a fraction bigger.  My last version was a teeny bit loose and I prefer my dresses quite fitted.

I spent ages making sure I wouldn’t chop any of the birds in half on the skirt, but ended up chopping up a total of 4 in the bodice – mainly where it attaches to the skirt.  So that was a little bit of a fail.  Live and learn!

I probably won’t make anymore for now – it eats up 4m of fabric – unless I manage to attach a gathered skirt successfully.  4m makes for a fairly pricey dress!  

So here we are – and my goodness are there some shockers!

I think I’m going to have to present the pictures and then the lessons learned…  Oh dear.

2 May

I love this picture – I’ll have to take more outside when the weather is nice.  :)

Miette Skirt; Thrifted red light jumper.

4 May

I love this dress so much!  Yet to blog it though and this is the most terrible picture my boyfriend has yet taken.  Sadly, I was a bit embarrassed, so did the old “One’s enough, I’m sure it’s fine”.  No, it is most definitely not fine.  Love the dress, the jumper doesn’t match.  At all.  But I was really cold.

5 May

My blue Mad Men dress and the jumper.

6 May

This dress is a bit “meh”.  It was the first thing I made that I was really happy with – but it still isn’t really my style.

9 May

Key difference – better weather makes shapeless black jumper unnecessary.

I forgot to include refashioned items in my Me Made pledge, so I guess this doesn’t really count.  But I love it anyway.

This dress had a repulsive neck frill when I  bought it and also some danglies that hung down from the neck.  But now they have been vanquished, I really love it.  The leather boots are an op shop find – my size, real leather, completely lovely, $25.  Happiness!

May 11

This is one of my favourites for the 11 days – I like how the blouse looks with the skirt.  Sadly, I spend most of the day wearing the same big black jumper – I took it off for the picture and froze.

The lessons

One: The main thing I’ve learnt with Me Made May this month is that I have no jumpers that look any good with any of my me-made clothes.  I don’t think me-made will change this – I just need to go op-shopping, I reckon.  I’d love to be one of those people that just knits up a jumper in a fortnight, but really, 2 years is closer to the mark.

I think if it were Me Made February/March, I’d be faring a lot better.

It’s a problem with living somewhere so warm – it never seems worth buying winter clothes, because I don’t wear them enough.  And then winter comes and it’s cold and it becomes a choice between looking good and being cold and being warm and looking stupid.

Two:  Part of my challenge here was the photography side – and while there are a couple of pictures in here I’m happy with, the majority suck.  So, need to work on that!

Introducing my Kelly Skirt from Megan Nielsen!

I think it’s love – this skirt is fantastic.

I mean look at it.

For the first time ever, I decided I wanted the insides of this to be perfect – usually they end up a bit slap happy.

Anyway, this turned out just how I wanted.

Birdies!  Left over from my Bird version of my Mad Men dress.

I’m not sure why, but the idea of a tag in the back really appealed to me.  Megan Nielsen sells them for a dollar each, so in it went.

The only thing I don’t like about this skirt is it’s a fraction too tight.  When (not if) I make it again, I might go up a size, just to make it something that I can breathe and eat in.  :P  It’s not quite enough of a problem in this one to unpick the waistband, decrease the size of the pleats, make a new, larger waistband, redo the buttonholes (they were a NIGHTMARE) etc, etc.

It’s still a fab skirt and I’ve worn it a few times since I finished it – but next time it will be a comfort skirt!

Oh, also I found it gaped a lot where the waistband meets the skirt, where there’s quite a large gap between buttons (and no, it wasn’t my belly – even sucking in majorly it just wouldn’t sit nicely).  It looked AWFUL, so  I sewed in a large snap, and now it sits perfectly.  :)

The Maths

Denim fabric: 1.5 yards at $7.68/y = $11.52

Metal buttons: $3.76

Pocket facing: stash

Bias tape: $3

Kelly Skirt pattern: $18

Label: $1

Total: $37.28

Yup, and this is why I use patterns more than once.  :)  It cost almost half the project!

Just signed up for Me Made May!

I wear my handmade clothes quite a lot, considering how few I actually have, but I think Me Made May could be a good opportunity to mix things up a little bit.

So…

 ’I, Laura of Sew, Laura, Sew!, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavour to wear and photograph three outfits (that include at least 1 MM item) per week for the duration of May 2013′.

This month, I’m also planning on sewing a white tank top and a black cardigan – I should probably get onto that, as they are fairly gaping holes in my wardrobe.

One day a year or two ago, I found Dangerfield, a brand of clothes (mainly dresses) in Myer that I absolutely loved.  It had a bit of a retro feel and the skirts were knee length!  No butt cheek flashes!  I immediately wanted to fill my wardrobe with these dresses, but sadly at $100+ a pop that wasn’t going to happen.

Anyway, I remember standing in the change room trying these dresses on and thinking about how basic the lines seemed to be.  ”I could make that”, I thought.  At the time, I couldn’t.  Not in a million years.  But I went home and asked my mum to teach me to sew clothes.

And now, a year or two later, I have done it!

This is the pattern for Butterick 5748.  The bodice has darts rather than princess seams and the skirt is a circle rather than pleated, but it’s still pretty close to that first dress.

I was sort of planning this for Julia Bobbin’s Mad Men Dress Challenge.  My inspiration came from this photo (the dress on the far right).

This dress was a little bit of a process.  I usually sew in large blocks of time, but with uni in full swing that wasn’t going to happen.  I tried out the 15 minutes a day thing and was pleasantly surprised by how much I could achieve.

I made up a size 14 toile.  Way too big.  I made up a size 12 toile.  With the help of “The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting”, I played around with the dart placement.

And then I made it up.

I used this blue quilting cotton.  I know what they say about quilting cotton, but it was only $4/m and considering I needed 4 metres…  Also, it was a first attempt and I have no faith in my abilities, so didn’t want to spend to much.

I love it though!  The bust darts don’t sit very well – I need to lower the top ones, but for a first ever attempt at making fitting adjustments, I’m pretty happy.  The original store bought dress has similar issues, so at least I know I can live with them.

As for the Mad Men Challenge part of the dress –  It was a nice idea and all, but I don’t think I quite captured the look.

I’d need a petticoat for one, to get the boof-factor happening.  But also, it lacks the shiny, party look.  Also, it was technically a 60s repoduction pattern, not 50s.  So, yeah.  Mad Men fail.  

But I can’t quite feel disappointed.  This is a definite Laura dress win.  I made something I absolutely adore and will make again.  I pretty much made the dress I’ve always wanted.

I’ll wear this way more than if I’d gone for something fancier, just to fulfill a challenge.

The plan is to play around with my muslin some more and then make it again – this time in a lovely Michael Miller cotton I got from Fabric.com.  It doesn’t seem to be on their website, but I bought it after seeing this gorgeous Elisalex dress from Dolly Clackett.  I don’t usually completely stalk other peoples makes, but really, this wasn’t a choice.  It had to be done.

(On a side note, I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable Fabric.com was – the fabric per metre, plus $15 postage still worked out to about what I’d expected to pay before postage.  So very happy!  I probably didn’t need to add all that extra fabric to get my money’s worth on the postage.  Somewhere in my head there’s a little voice that thinks buying more makes the postage better value.  Oops…)

CIRCLE SKIRT!!!

The Maths:

Thread – stash

Fabric – $4/m x 4m = $16

1 pack black bias tape (because who lines a practice run?) – $2.50

Pattern – Probably about $10.  I only buy Spotlight patterns on sale.

Not bad for $28.50

Tilly released her second pattern, the Miette Skirt, on Monday.  I bought my fabric Tuesday.  I started sewing this Wednesday night and finished it Thursday morning.  This is really unlike me.  I usually procrastinate a project for a while.  I tend to get distracted somewhere between the fabric and the sewing.  But not this time!  Well, not much.

You can’t really see the pockets or the tie because of the polka dots. They’re there…

I have a week off uni for Easter and one of my big plans is always to spend a day just sewing.  So I did.  It was glorious. I sewed up a Colette Sorbetto in the morning.  Then I transferred my toile adjustments to the pattern and made up my Butterick 5748.  And it was only 7pm.  I’d been sewing since 9am.  What better time to start a new project!

Yeah, I know.  I’m lucky I ended up with a skirt.  And didn’t cut out a finger instead of the pattern.  Anyway.

When I first saw this pattern, I had an OMG THAT’S AWESOME moment and clicked “Buy”.  Immediately after I’d printed it off, I started having doubts.  ”Is this really my style?”  etc. etc.

But I’d paid for it, so I HAD to make it.

For some reason, I had it in my head that it would look fabulous in black with big white polkadots.  And for the first time ever, the Spotlight Gods were listening.

I found this beauty – rayon (I never knew rayon felt so lovely and silky!  I love it) and exactly what I’d had in mind.  This never happens to me.

Oh, and it was 40% off all fabric.  So it was only $9.00 a metre.  Yep, they were definitely listening.

I made it up.  The instructions were great.  Tilly is a genius.  I had a little trouble with constructing the pockets, but this was really a result of it being 10pm by this stage + preconceived ideas about how they would be done.  Clearly, I was wrong.  And needed to go to bed.

Even while I was making it up, I wasn’t sold on it.  Still wasn’t sure if it was my kind of thing.  And then I tried it on.

The sun shone down and the birds started singing.  I became very, very glad I impulse purchased this pattern before my brain logicked me out of it.

This skirt is fantastic.  This skirt is more “me” than anything else I own.  This skirt is the best thing I have ever sewn.

I mean, LOOK at it.

And I was clearly right.  It does look fabulous in black with big white polkadots.

Awkward wave to my boyfriend’s sister when I got caught making my brother take my picture on the front lawn…

I will be making another immediately, of course.  I’m thinking in a bright, block colour.  Maybe red.  Maybe without the pockets.

Although I do now also need to make myself a couple of plain tops so I actually have something to wear it with.

Also, my mum arrived home from Japan this morning and she’d bought me these from my favourite shoe shop in Harajuku:

Love!  (The shoes and my mum.)

For my own amusement:

Polkadot rayon fabric: 2.5m x $8.99/m = $22.48

Miette Skirt Pattern: $10.21

So $32.48

I’m not quite sure why, but I decided I wanted to make some undies.

The first pattern I tried was Madalynne’s Amerson undies.  They’re so cute.

It wasn’t quite as successful as I’d hoped.  I couldn’t figure out which were the centre front/back seams, so I did it wrong the first time.  In french seams, no less.

It also turned out my elastic was complete rubbish.  Oh, and I folded in the crotch area too far, so they’re completely unwearable.  I feel uncomfortable just looking at them.

Ouch.  Really.

Not to say the rubbish-ness of my attempt extends to the pattern.  I still think it’s great and I’m still definitely going to make another pair at least, but I’ll get decent elastic and go easy on the folding into the crotch.  They’re so cute, and I have heaps of woven fabric scraps that would be perfect.

So then I tried So Zo’s undies pattern.

I chopped up my work Christmas t-shirt.

I found it super easy to put together.  The instructions were only for an overlocker (well, there’s a link to regular machine instructions, but I didn’t bother), so I just made up the construction process as I went a lot.  The Amerson pants had pretty much been my practice run, so it was easy to put them together.  Also, they’re only knickers.  It’s pretty easy to figure out.

Anyway, I’d never sewn with stretch fabric before, so I did a few test runs on a scrap.  The triple stitch and three-step zigzag both worked perfectly (are these actually stretch stitches?  I have no idea), so I used the triple stitch for the seams and the three-step zigzag for attaching the elastic.

I’ve heard rumours that this sort of fabric doesn’t fray, so I didn’t finish my seams.  I’m curious to see how it goes after a few washes and if it frays and self-destructs, well, lesson learned.

And they fit great too!  I was somewhere between an 8 and 10 on the sizing chart, but went up to a 12, as recommended for t-shirt fabric.

I bought some better elastic for this pair and they’re really wearable!  Win!

If they hold up okay in the wash, I’m going to production line a whole stack of them.

Okay, the insides aren’t as neat as they could have been. But I don’t care.

Now to have another crack at the Amerson’s, because, let’s be honest, they’re more fun than the regular kind!

It’s a new year (well, it was when I first wrote this…), so some new year’s resolutions/plans are in order I think.

I love my pink desk so much, I have convinced myself everyone is insanely jealous of it.
They’re not.

1.  I’m going to start blogging about my sewing.  Whether I actually work up the guts to press “Publish” rather than “Save Draft”, we shall see.

2. Specific sewing goals:

• I want to sew a little black dress. A little bit fancy, certainly not everyday wear.
• Knit a cardigan/jumper – I found a good looking one on ravelry.
• Sew a basic blazer. It is well beyond my ability level, but I figure if it bombs I’ll still probably learn a lot.
• Learn to install a zipper properly. Maybe just get an invisible zipper and some spare fabric and practice.
• Start figuring out how much each me-made item costs me. Doesn’t matter too much, but would be interesting.

3. Garments to sew

• Blazer

• Charlotte skirt (with sew-a-long) from By Hand London

• Liberty sundress

• Black taffeta Colette Truffle dress

• Colette Pastille dress

• A plain white blouse

• One pair knickers – probably the Amerson pattern from Madalynne.  Or So Zo’s undie pattern.  Actually probably both.

• Silky nightie

• Half slip

• Crinoline

• Passport dress

• Colette Sencha blouse

• Knit two cardigans

4. Sewing techniques to learn

• Buttonholes

• Lapped zippers

• Finishing bias tape

• Invisible zippers

• Facings

• Sew taffeta

• Make adjustments to a muslin so it actually fits

• Insert hook and eye

• Quilting on sewing machine.

Let the sewing commence!

I was knitting on the bus tonight on my way home and the resident crazy looked at me like I was the crazy one.

I don’t mind so much when people my age stare at me like a nutter (I mean I am knitting on the bus when they’re heading to the night clubs) but it’s a bit more sad when the middle aged look at me like that.

Oh well.  At least I don’t carry cats around with me or talk to myself.

And I also almost have a really cute new headband.