Otter space dress

Hello in 2018! 

It's good to start the year right so I thought I would blog for a change. 2017 was a bad year for sewing - I lost my sewjo, went on longish holiday and when I got back I had to focus heavily on studying for my exams. I still made some clothes but took no photos and no blogging happened. This year I'm hoping on sewing more and hopefully also blogging regularly. Oh, and keeping better sewing notes so I know exactly what I made and when.

Anyway, back in October I needed something to keep me motivated - I was studying for hours and hours after work and my spirits were low. I decided that a new piece of fabric was what I needed! I visited our local craft store Made Marion and found the most amazing cotton print - otters chilling in space on teal background (fabric designed by Tula Pink). 

I had the perfect pattern for this fabric - the Chai dress by Itch to Stitch has been released few months before and I got it the moment I saw it. I have a weakness for shirt dresses and I really like Itch to Stitch patterns - they fit me very well and they come with different cup sizes which means no FBA required! 

The hardest part of making this dress was actually cutting it - I wanted the print to match across the bodice front which meant making sure that all 6 pattern pieces are cut the right way. Surprisingly this took forever! The front is pretty well matched - not perfectly but I can live with it.

I chose size 16 with a D-cup. I only made one change - I shortened the sleeves. Initially I wanted to make a sleeveless dress but after couple of tries with a bias bind finish I just couldn't get it to sit nicely, hence the sleeves. The pattern is designed well and the fit is pretty good - I could have sized down in the waist and I was contemplating making size 14 with a DD-cup but decided against that - mainly because I can always take the dress in but it's much harder to make  it bigger ;) The instructions were very clear and I followed most of them but I used Four Square Walls method for sewing the collar - I find it less fiddly and gives me nicer finish than the method suggested in the instructions.

I'm very pleased with this dress- I love the shape! The dress gets a lot of comments, especially when people realise the print is space otters :) I'm thinking about making another one, maybe in solid, drapey fabric but I need to search my stash first - I'm going to try to reduce the insane amount of fabric in my house!

 Photos were taken by amazing Emma :) Some photos of details to follow!

Cargo shorts

As mentioned in my previous post I made several Christmas gifts this year including a pair of shorts for my lovely boyfriend. He was very surprised and happy - he keeps telling everyone that I made them and he likes the bright lining I used;)

The pattern came from The Great British Sewing Bee Fashion with Fabric book and it's really good. Everything matched perfectly and I absolutely loved fly-zip instructions. It took couple of minutes to have the zip installed! The only thing I changed in the pattern was cutting one pocket piece from main fabric - the pattern says to cut two out of lining fabric and topstitch a panel made of main fabric at the pocket opening (not sure if it makes sense lol) I also made the cargo pocket smaller but this was an accident. I got the folds wrong and I only realized that when I was about to stitch the pocket flaps. So instead of unpicking and fixing pockets, I just made the flaps smaller. Oh, and I used snap fasteners instead buttons because lazy!

The fabric came from Spotlight - it has unusual greyish purple cotton dill. Unfortunately it is not the best quality and I don't expect the shorts to be very durable. I treat them as a prototype since I couldn't do any fitting during sewing. At Sam's request next versions will have deeper pockets and I'm also considering adding welt pockets on the back. Apparently the shorts have nice cut and are comfortable to wear and that makes me very happy!

Ooops, wonky top-stitching! 

And a proof that the shorts actually fit :)

Cover dress

Ever since I saw the McCall's 7084 I wanted to make the cover dress - stripes, sleeves and a full skirt. Finding the right fabric took a while but I managed to grab 2,5m of cotton/elastane stripes in navy and white, although I could have sweared that they were black when I bought the fabric! Anyway, navy is nice too.

2,5m wasn't quite enough - the pattern cover suggested 4,7m! I guess it's because of placing parts of the pattern on bias. To make it work the only change I had to make was narrowing the skirt inserts. They ended up being almost half the original size. It's actually quite fortunate - I would't want to have it any fuller.

It took me a while to finish this dress as I decided to do some fancy finish. Every seam allowance was folded over and topstitched. I lined the stripes where needed. The waist seam is finished with mint bias binding - it adds a pop of colour that makes me happy every time I wear this dress. There are pockets and sleeve tabs and even a label! I even managed to find navy press snaps to match the colour of the stripes so I could avoid buttons and buttonholes.  I think this might be one of my favourite makes this year!

Halloween dress

I'm not really good at making costumes. I usually have the perfect idea months before so I always think I have sooooooo much time... Yeah, right. I can almost never finish costume in time!

This year I decided to do what I do best and make myself Halloween themed dress. I found this cute fabric at good old Spotlight and the price was reduced to $8 per meter. Such a score! The top part is pattern number 115 from Burda 4/2013. I used that pattern to make my first dress ever and you can see it here. The skirt is Simplicity 1880. The only changes I made was adding the back seam and moving the zip from the side to the back. The neckline is finished with bias tape (and i totally forgot to take photos of it!) and I used my rolled hem foot to finish the bottom.

Another thing I made is barely visible on the photo - a petticoat! I used fluorescent yellow nylon net and matching thread and an elastic from my stash. I never made petticoat before but it was piece of cake especially when using gathering foot. I left the hem untouched - I didn't want to waste time binding it as it's not something I will wear on regular basis. Nylon net is a bit scratchy so if I ever need another one I'll probably just buy a tulle petticoat ;)

I wore this outfit to drinks with WSBN girls and went to a Halloween party after that. Almost every girl in the room came to tell me that my dress was amazing and ask where I got it from. It was really satisfying telling them that I made it myself! It's such a pity this dress can only be worn around Halloween :(

PS. Sorry for the smudged photos - I haven't realized my lens was dirty!!!!

Here is a crappy photo of my petticoat - I found it hilarious that it was standing on its own!

Black and red

Very original title, huh? The top is another New Look 6150 this time made with very thick double sided stable knit. Merino on one side and something foam-like on the other. I wanted merino to be on the outside as the color was much deeper. I made size 16 and this time I didn't have to go down a size - the fabric was much more stable than in my chevron merino one. I should have done an FBA though. It would make the top to fit nicer and I wouldn't have to add armhole darts to deal with gaping. The top is really warm and it's great wardrobe basic.

The skirt is inspired by my sewing and blogging buddy Iwona. The pattern is from Burda 3/2014, model 17A. I used nice and thick cotton that was amazing to sew with but it wrinkles a lot. The skirt was an easy make but I messed it up anyway! For some reason my waistband ended up being exactly the width of the skirt so there was no overlapping needed for the button closure. I reckon I didn't get the zip instructions right or got the pleats the wrong depth. But I made a loop and put the button on the inside so while it doesn't look perfect it still does the job. And I either wear the skirt with longer tops or narrow belts so it's not an issue. I am quite pleased with both items :) 

My first quilt!!!

I made a quilt! And it's not just a quilt but also a wedding gift for my close friend Ola. I've known her for several years now, we met at work and quickly became friends. She and her boyfriend got married in June but unfortunately I couldn't make it to their wedding. Therefore I wanted to make something special for them. A quilt seemed like a good idea.

In search of inspiration I got Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine (Vol 24 No 4). I really liked simple and modern design called Meadow Tracks by Emma Jean Jensen (and I'd recommend you checking her Instagram account out!) Once I decided that was the one I wanted to make I went shopping :)

Then it was whole lot of cutting, sewing, ironing and trimming... It actually went very smoothly! I'm not going to lie - it's not all even and not all the seams line up but I think I did reasonably well. I used nice and soft flannel for the backing and I used wool batting - it should be nice and warm!

I quilted it alongside the seams. It is really really hard to pull and push all that fabric! It also took a while to bind the quilt - half of it was done by the sewing machine but I sewn half of it by hand. I don't really like hand sewing but I wanted the quilt to have a nice finish.

When I was done I wanted to take lovely photos...  That never happened! It rained constantly for days and I was running out of time as it had to be sent. I took photos inside so the light is terrible and I didn't even have enough room to take a photo of the whole quilt!

Ola received her package and she was really happy with its content. Here is the photo that she sent me and I hope that the quilt will keep them nice and warm in winter!

Weekend Granville

Yup, another Granville. This time made in some sort of plaid cotton fabric that was very hard to cut. I only had 2 meters of it and that was not quite enough to do proper pattern matching and the collars are completely off. On the other hand I wanted to make more casual shirt and I think I achieved that look. For the first time I used pearl snaps instead of buttons and that was fun - hammer-sewing is very cool! There will be one more Granville in my future - I have the fabric ready and cut but I've been waiting for inspiration... Not that I stopped sewing but I worked on a big project recently and I need some simple sewing to balance it out;)

I still have some fitting issues - baggy back, slightly restricted movement in my arms and general impression that the shirt is too big. It is still wearable though. Also I realized that taking photos around noon on a sunny day is not the greatest idea... you can't see much! My bad, I will know for the next time!