Frock 26: Summer's here!

So, I always love a challenge right guys? J-Mac is making 1 pattern but 5 different ways, using different material and I guess doing different things to them... so I've got 3 bits of fabric and 1 pattern (my old trusty fave) and I'm getting into finishing up my Frocktober Challenge and starting a new challenge at the same time! Thanks darling J-Mac for the idea. WOW (am I retardo or what?)

So the three pieces of material are all stash fabric, you've seen the pink flowers before and maybe the green stuff in a totally bad dress I tried a while back... but that grey 80s shizzle is a new (but vintage) find from the oppie a few weeks back. The 80s shizzle will be for me if my hair goes with it!

And number 1 finitos:


It's been a gloomy day here in my town, and this darling colour surely has brightened it up for me!

It's for Kat, a darling reader of this blog, and a very patient one too. I promised I'd make her this a few months back, but it's just in time for summer I guess!


I get excited about making clothes, but I've got to stop wanting to try new things out, and in the end it's Kat, who misses out because I have a short attention span with my garments.

DUR! It's the old 'grass is greener' in my brain, where I think it'll be fun to try new things and sometimes end up stuffing them up, and I should just try new fabrics and use some of my trusty patterns.

Anyways, with this one I tried for bias binding instead of the pesky facing, and it's so neat and easy. I was a little worried because of the square-ness of the neckline, but it turned out fantastic! Tres proud of myself!

Finishing off for Franca...

I wanted to add a grey stripe to the edge of a charcoal dress I made a few weeks back, but started to get anxious about how I'd topstitch it... considering I'd already made it up, and usually you add a ribbon or a lace during your construction (well, I don't add this, cause I've never tried it before, but I'm imagining that one would do this if one were to do this more frequently that me)

LOL

Anyways, I kept putting it off in case I'd stuff it up, but this morning I topstitched it with no problems at all:



CUTE! It's for Franca at Oranges and Apples! Hope she likes it!

One last memory before my sewing date...

Here's another little photo of my brother and I:


Matching woolies! Mum will probably know, but I'm not sure who made them for us, hopefully Mum! I can't believe how funny my brother is! He's so cute and little! He's such a man man now, as he's 29 years old and just got engaged!

I loved flicking through my photos, and especially this one above, shows how many handmade clothes we had. I have a feeling that my kidlets (of the future) will be photographed exactly the same as my brother and I here. I just have to practice more baby clothes, cause my proportions are a little weird for tshirts at the moment, but I've got a bit of time as our babies won't appear for a couple more years!

Yesterday I went to the Remnants Warehouse and got some stuff (fabric in the washing machine now) and have a plan to sew and sew and sew ALL day. I'll take Doggie Darling for a walk now, and then head right into my darling sewing room.

xoxo

Scan STAT!

My darling Husbie's friend has loaned us his scanner, as they're investigating a photography idea etc etc etc... but of course my g'friend and I hijacked it this afternoon for our nostaligic kick and scanned a bunch of 'Sentimental Journey' type pics in!



This is me and my younger brother, we're obviously filling up the water bowl for our darling little duckling to drink from. His/Her name is Puddleduck, according to my mum, and what a dearheart little duckling she/he is!

I love the colours of these photos in the scan, and I adore my brother's hair. You can tell I'm the bossier older sister right?

This weekend my Husbie is away and I'm going to be on sewing control... and I may even go to a real life fabric store in Surry Hills and stock the hell up on knit fabrics!!!

Talk soon, Veronica!

Home is whenever I am with you

Now darlings, I can knit ok, I can knit and purl, and do the cute little stocking stitch thing (especially for my street poles around my town) but whilst I've attempted a few baby shizzle over the past few months, I just haven't completed anything. It's just SO slow, or I'M slow...

Yesterday I visited Tamara at 1/4 of an inch and I gushed over her work and she said to me "Continental Knitting is sooooo much easier"... and I was like 'Er? There are different knitting styles? WTF!' it was like my head exploded... I was thinking please oh please let my way be the slow way so that I can speed knit all my darling baby items before those babies are 5 years old...

And lovely Tamara pointed out that she likes using the Knitting Help website, and OMFG there IS a faster way to knit that what my little hands can do now. And it's really weird!

So firstly I watched all the beginner's vids, the cast on one was the easiest I've ever seen (I have a 1969 book on how to do those tail cast on things and it was messy) and I can do that now... and the knit and purl continental styles look really good too, and I can do them in slow mo, but it's a far more direct way to knit.

I was holding the tail in my right hand and loopy-looping it around for my knit and purl, but cause you hold your tail in your left hand, and kinda tight and scrunched up it's more active and direct (if that makes sense darlings!)... like your right hand and left fingers push and poke things in the right place so it is quicker (or will be when I get my shizz together)!



But I feel really un-co! It's going to talk a while to get it right!

LOLZ

And my post title today? I'm home in bed knitting on my gloomy day and I'm totes in love with this band at the moment! Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros!

Frock 25: Hot Ribs*

Oh hai, just busy old me again.

I was waiting for Husbie to get home from work before the Purple Partay tonight, and finished the last of the small run of tshirt dresses:


I was using this grey/cloud blue ribbed knit as the pattern (ie I cut the fabric using the tissue stuff (making my own alterations of shortening the bodice, cutting my own sleeves and scooping the neckline on both bodice pieces compared to the original Built By Wendy dress pattern) and then use this cut fabric as the pattern pieces for the rest of the other tshirt dresses I've made recently.

I find this way is easier and quicker, but as I've made my own fit adjustments and cut it the way I like, it's more my own design. And tissue can get a bit annoying.

But whilst this dress turned out okay:


Can you see what happens to rib material?

Puckering as well!


Have you every sewn with ribbed material before? I've never tried it, and so just went along as normal. It was at the neckline where I went 'Hang On!'.

At least the hemline looks normal (no hem, just the overlocker):



Anyways, still cute:




Oohh gotta go!



* I was thinking of a really LOL-tastic title for this post with a pun on ribs, as in the meat dish. I don't eat meat, can you tell from how lame my title has turned out?

Frocko Twenty Four: Purps!

Frocktober is still going in my sewing room, and here's Number 24, another simple tshirt dress but in thrifted sweater material:


It's the kinda gym material that you'd imagine they'd be dancing around in during the film Fame (original darlings) and all I need is some off shoulder floppiness with this one BUT of course I do things normal and straightforward on the old machine. I like to follow my own rules and as I've said before these dresses take only half an hour to make (once you've cut them out) so I don't really improvise at all.

(Unlike my daring and rockin' out dancing I'd be doing now if I was in Fame of course.)

I've got a midweek party on tonight, and the partyperson loves purple, so this one should be great.

Don't know about you, but for me it's that time of year where I'm anticipating, planning and focusing on good results for the next few weeks that I'm finding it hard to be in the 'now'. My work is gearing up for a big 'hurrah' which climaxes on Dec 4th (day before Husbie's birthday) so it's 4 and a half weeks of busy city times ahead. What really helps is having sewing as a hobby, but having Doggie Darling too. She's so good to be 'in the moment' with, where we can play a quick game (she's totes into fetch and tuggy now, so that's good!) and just focus on the 'now'.

ANNNNNNNNYYYYYYWAYS, hope you're having a good Wednesday and not planning your life away too quickly. xoxo

Need a new style?

All my blogging BFFs are having giveaways of some sort at the moment!

Franca at Oranges & Apples has a very different sounding giveaway, where you drop your name on her list and tell her a bit about your style and then she'll SHOP FOR YOU! AKA she'll be your stylist. What a GREAT idea! And kinda like a mystery lucky dip prize!

I always love patterns, and fabric, and haberdash stuffs, so as I know Franca op shops a lot, I'll request my style through these things! If you're feeling lucky and in need of a revamp to your wardrobe (in a thrifty and considerately creative way) go talk to Franca for this giveaway!

I'm in bed right now (on my darling portably computer commonly known as a laptop) as we all had horrid sleeps last night cause of the hot weather, cause of the fan, cause of the mosquito. Poor Doggie Darling hadn't ever lived through a hot day like that in her short life, so she didn't quite know what to do... I kept on trying to get her to sleep on the concrete floors, but she just couldn't sit still so kept getting overheated. Little love.

We're going to take a nanna nap, and then maybe do a little light sewing for the afternoon.

Hope you're well!

Dress Twenty Three: Candy Yellow

Another tshirt dress!

I told you I had a few ready to go!



It's a total stash fabric, and only a little bit leftover from a dress I made ages ago, but enough for this darling Frock!

The colours are cute! It was a light airy dress that I cut really short for some reason and I think I sold it on etsy... (I just had a retro look at my blog for this photo/post)... Yay here it is:


I think it was back when I did the 100 Outfit Challenge and it was one of the first 20 outfits I sewed up. I can't believe how much better I am at construction and everything now. I know fabrics a lot better too, thanks to the overlocker and trying out new things!

YAY!

Dress Twenty Two: T Shirt Dress Again!

One of the busy bee things I've been doing is cleaning. If you know me (like Husbie) you'd be laughing to know this is one of the 'things' I've been doing recently, as I never ever ever ever clean. I am a bit of a messy moo.

But in the Great Clean Up of 2009, I seem to have tidied up so much I've misplaced the camera thingie that connects the plug thingie etc and thus, poor old completed Dress 22 for Frocktober is a bit of a dark photo:


My new MacBook has a camera (you know this right, I've taken WAY too many of these Photo Booth pics already!) so luckily saved the day.

I hope to find that plug adapter thing soon!

Onward to the sewing rampage of T Shirt Dresses. They are so easy to cut and so easy to make up, so I've got 3 extras cut out (mauve, grey and yellow in colour) and more on the way.

Yay! Gosh it's hot today in Syds, my darling pup had no idea what to do, and doesn't know where the cool spots are in the house yet. She tried the couch and the bed, and I've been trying to get her to flop on the cool concrete to no avail.

xoxo