Dress Six: It's all for me again!

Well, a slow day for me sewing... only because of the wonderful inside day yesterday!


Yep, after yoga I stayed in with the thunderstorms and made this dress:


And I wore it to work today with 'uge success. I looked very cute indeed. The material is totally a vintage find (yay!) and took less than an hour to sew. WHAT THE HELL? I'm amazing!

I especially am proud of my cap sleeves here, puffed and gathered up the top, but finishing earlier than the underarm bit. LOVE THIS LOOK.


And what about the label:


I can't help showing you! I freaking LOVE my labels! Thanks Husbie for the best birthday present around! YAYZ.

So instead today I tried to get angry at the workmen (they're making a big 4 storey apartment block behind my darling little house, Not Happy Jan) but they were nice truck workmen today, and suggested I write a letter about my broken backFENCE, and they'll pay for it to get fixed. I think this'll be better than going through our insurance peeps as we have a $500 excess. (I wish I understood insurance a bit better) Anyways, HATE developers, but can't hate nice workmen who are just doing their job. (They could drive better though. But a broken fence is better than just a crap fence that needs to be mended anyways).

Then I played on the computer for ages, tried to make a pair of undies (something's wrong with the zipper stitch and my automatic needle threading device!) and cuddled up with my Doggie Darling when she heard the thunder. CUTE!

See you tomorrow for Dress 7, looking around the sewing room here, I'm not sure what it'll be. I have two more dresses cut out like the above... but I'm getting a bit tired of the factory work. Maybe I'll try a new style if I have time tomorrow!

Bye!

Dress Five: Stripes!

It's a public holiday here in NSW, but I had to work as normal. SADFACE. BUT, I worked really quickly and got outta there as early as possible!

I finished this dress off before yoga! (or Yoges, as I say, and my friend suggested that's how it's spelt. Yogs isn't right. Abbrev Queen!)


It's the same easy stretch knit that I've come to adore making (these past few days) as it really is so EASY! I just love it in stripes!


But the twist (what could it be?! I hear you gasp!) is that this material is actually BRAND NEW! It's from The Fabric Store in Surry Hills! It was prolly $12 a metre or something (pricey for me!) but it was during their sale last month (or was it the month before?). So WOW. Brand new slinky knit material that was a little tricky to sew with (it kept slipping around, plus the added headache of matching the stripes) but over all I think it looks WONDERFUL!

It still feels like holidays around here (and I can't actually remember my last holiday) so I'm going to keep sewing!

Day Four: YES another LBD

It's all a bit sweatshop around here in Veronica Darling world! Or is it a sweet(heart)shop? (bad LOL sozza)

But, I'm on a roll for this style of dress cause, as I mentioned, a lot of my pals are keen for one! I'm using up a lot of my stretch fabric that I've collected over the years, and making each dress unique by tweaking either the collar, the length, the size etc.

This is a normal tshirt material type dress, with gathered puff sleeves:


And a slight gather around the middle, that accentuates the skirt. Also, I'm really proud of this neckline, as it's my best yet:


It lays flat, and instead of serging just one side of the ... the... um... bias bit... (the long skinny bit of material you use to make the neckline of stretch fabric, dur, can't remember if it's called something diff. than bias tape)... anyways, instead of serging one side of the bias tape to the bodice front/back, you serge both sides (right sides together, and then iron it up, and then topstitch the bodice (and tuck the serged bit under as facing, so the topstich includes it)... GOSH I'M BAD AT DESCRIBING SEWING. Sorry! Anyways, I like how neat and flat it looks compared to my other efforts!

Gah!

See my factory sweat shop line:


A nice grey stretch for the next one, and underneath a BLACK AND WHITE striped knit all ready to go!

So, if you hadn't noticed, it's Frocktober 2009 around these parts (ie my blog) and I've noticed a lot of you lovely bloggers are in for Blogtober so we're all posting like crazy! Yay! I'm making a dress day for the month of October and I'll get around to posting a proper linky dink on the side bar soon! I have to work tomorrow though, so it'll be after work and yoga. (and after I sew up the grey dress!)

Night!

Dress Three: Mini Dress for Me!

So I made my bestie's dress and posted it here, and then I thought I'd like one too! Lucky I had more material!


So this is the 3rd dress on the 3rd of October... all up to date! And it's perfect for today's dreary day, as it's got a slight wool blend in the knit. I think I was actually given this material from an old flatmate, so I've had this in my stash long long long before I even tried knit sewing let alone had an overlocker... it may have sat folded up for perhaps 7 years!

While I sewed today, my darling Husbie tidied and vacuumed as our upstairs reno has been dusting up our whole house. It'll be done for realsa soon and then we can get rid of all our stuff from downstairs and finally lead normal lives.

Now I'm about to make dumplings and then we'll watch Milk. Yay for Satdee nights at home!

Dress Two: Black Knit for My Bestie (AKA 100!)

Yay! 100 Outfits completed and blogged right here on Veronica Darling's Crafty Adventures! Yippee! I'm very proud and would like to thank Mr Veronica Darling (aka Husbie) for all his support over these past 18 months! He's a total dearheart, of course, and has often waited an extra hour or two to go out, whilst I was hemming or fixing or swearing, so that my outfit (or my friend's) looked just perfect.

Now for my 100th Outfit! It's a wool blend knit dress for my bestie who lives in London!


She's coming over for our summer, but I thought for her bday (and her son's first bday) I'd send a care package and this dress would suit the UK as it starts to get colder there.


I've pulled out all my stretch and knit materials, because I've got a few orders for this style from friends and thought I'd sew up all my knits so people could choose their faves. (If you've contacted me for a special frock in the past, I'm aiming to have it completed within Frocktober, so thank you for waiting for me to get my sewing shoes on again)

But... the best bit:


I sewed up one of my tags into my bestie's dress, it's the first tag I've used! What a way to celebrate 100 Outfits!

Dress One: Wiggle in Green (aka Outfit 99)

And finally, my first dress for Frocktober, and it's pretty geeky but cute at the same time.



It's a 1959 wiggle dress, and probably looks better on me than Diana (although Diana has a fine figure, let's just say I fill those gaps a little bit more). This was from a vintage pattern, and it took so long because it was a little bit fiddly. With at least 2 darts in each pattern piece there was a bit of preparing to do (I kinda do darts too quickly, and there's a slight measurement stuff up on the front bodice bit that hopefully no one will notice) and THEN I didn't read the packet first on what materials I'd need because there are TWO ZIPPERS!


Yep, a back neck zipper that you chuck in first (only 7 inches) then a side zipper that you put in last and I'd never really done a side zip before!!! SUGAR! But I read the instructions through about 12 times (luckily it was one of those patterns that actually tells you how to sew the zip in) and it turned out ok! Although the flap is a little bit bigger than you'd find on a store bought dress, I'm pretty happy for my first side zip effort (where the flap hides the zipper).

BUT! I did alter the pattern to what I thought would make a better fit on my upper torso (my bod is usually in proportion to normal patterns apart from my shoulder to bust, which means straps have to be altered almost 2 inches) but in my haste I also altered the in built sleeves (vintage patterns often tend to have bodice and sleeves all in one) so the sleeves (perhaps you can tell in the front on pic above) are pretty tight around my arms. Husbie reckons that I should cut them off, and stick another sleeve on...?

Anyways, so it was a bit of a bigger project to start this Frocktober challenge, but oh well! Done now!

If you'd like to donate dosh or sign up for the real Frocktober and Ocsober challenge (for real charities) you can find them here for now, as I'll fiddle with my blog here and put a linkydink on the side bar soon.

And for extreme followers of my blog, this was Outfit 99 in the 100 Outfit Challenge... which means this current dress I'm working on will be Outfit 100. Yikes. Gulp. I'd like to say 100 Outfits went quickly... but it didn't! Phew Phew Phew!

Frocktober Darlings!

As I said yesterday, I'm going to make a dress a day under my own celebration of Frocktober!

The real Frocktober is about Ovarian Cancer (as I mentioned yesterday) and fundraising, and I'm going to be on a bit of a promo kick by sewing a dress for every day of October instead of wearing a frock a day (although I have so many frocks I may as well do both) and I'll sponsor you if you sign up.

Congratulations to Crafty Llama, as she's the first person I know to sign up, and I shall sponsor her accordingly!

But, for Frocktober (here are some guidelines for me, you can make up your own) I shall sew one dress for each day of October. I shall be happy and gushy sewing these dresses for myself, my friends (real life and bloggers) and for my etsy store. I shall post my completed dresses here in the blog and I shall not kick myself if I don't finish each dress within that day; I shall just make sure I make a dress for each day of October. (That last bit is my safety net because I work a full time job too, that gets rather hectic at times)

So for the first day of Frocktober, I'm pleased to report that I have a green wiggle dress (not completed just yet... tomozzla friends) and I have a button:


(I just made it, do you like?)

Yay for challenges, and please leave me a note if you're signed up for either Frocktober or Ocsober (I haven't drunk wine since yday) and I'll send some gush and dosh your way!

xoxo

It is decided... October shall forth be knownth as...

FROCKTOBER AND OCSOBER

Ok, two things, firstly; I didn't invent these fabulous word things, they were invented already and I have stolen them for my own interests. Secondly, I'm going to be making clothes and concentrating on my own health, and not following through on the actual fundraising efforts, but YOU can if have time to fundraise.

Ocsober is about cutting out alcohol for a month for our kids and raising funds for Life Education (that educates Aussie children about drugs and alcohol) and Frocktober is about wearing dresses and raising dosh for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation in Australia.

In my case, I'm good at promoting and talking and sewing, so here is my plug (and I'll donate some dosh to you if you sign up - let me know) for both monthly events. And I'll blog my efforts in sewing a dress a day (this time a REAL dress not just tshirts and skirts) and staying off the booze for the month of October.

(I'm cringing here, as a wine really really really helps you sew better - let's just hope I can still sew without the Sav Blonk!)

But it's part of my bigger picture (by Christmas not be blubby, by Christmas to actually have a clear and gorgeous voice, by Christmas to have loads of garments sewn, and to be in good spirits always) plan and I'm reckoning that I did so well in July for a garment a day then, that I'll be very proud and in uber spirits by the time November comes around.

If you'd like to join in on Frocktober (Veronica Darling style) let me know, I know it's a mean feat for some you darlings (espech if you have kidlets) but if you fancy sewing a dress a day in October I'll make a special button and link to you from my page or whatever.

Ok, gotta dash cause a friend is talking about cool stuff at an art gallery, and gotta get back early so I can work more on this green bombshell wiggle dress.

xoxo