Number 32 - Zooming Through the Outfits

Here's Outfit Number 32 in my 100 Outfit Challenge, which I started in January or Feb this year... considering we've spent most weekends looking for houses, and then moving once we bought our house and together with working new hours... I'm pretty happy that I've made over 30 Outfits by October.

Here's the latest pics & deets:



It's a Sixties pattern, my friend Friday's Child found for me after visiting her Aunty who was moving out and used to sew a lot when she was younger. It didn't have a back bodice piece, so I improvised a pattern piece from two separate patterns (as I've never made patterns from scratch) and it looks great! But my fave bit is the collar:



It's made from three semi circled pieces, which makes six all up around the neckline, and it's soooooo sweet! My husbie chose the fabric, and it's *slightly* see-through, as it you can't wear black knickers. And it's INCREDIBLY short! I actually think my upperlegs are my best feature, so love wearing short skirts and dresses, but deary deary me. Perhaps I shouldn't have worn it to work last week without tights. EEP!

See the back:


It's a light cotton material from my mum's stash I reckon. I think it's some of the oldest material in my collection, as in I've had it for about 5 or 6 years, but not sure when Mummy got it. She did a lot of mad sewing in in the 80s, so could have been then.

Overlocker success with Outfit Number 31

Gosh, I'm so happy with my overlocker, I could cry. Seriously!!!

*

Here's a sixties pattern, that I've altered to suit the stretch fabric. It's vintage material, sourced at an op shop and I may have even had it for about 4 years, that's because all my sewinglife I've never known how to sew stretch fabric, and now thanks my Over Locky, it's a dream come true! This usually calls for a zipper, but stretchy stretch, and save on a zipper.

I'm just neatening up the hems now, and then I'll start on a checked skirt to wear in Melbs, where I'm headed on Saturday for work again. But I'll be able to find time to see all my pals as well.

Funny thing though, I said to a friend at work, "I'm going to make a red gingham skirt by the weekend" and she said, "Gingham?" so I said "Checks" and then she new what I was talking about. I wonder if gingham is a 80s world thing and no longer goes by that name???

Thoughts? Write them down now! Perhaps Gingham isn't the pattern but the material ???








* Doesn't Diana look like she's got no boobs? Sadly the dress is a little big for her, I'd estimate 10 - 12 xoxo

Slouchy Skirt for Outfit #30

Yep, I just had to steal away one of my practice preppy skirts for myself. But I always keep the 'Not Quite Right' ones for myself... ie. the stuff ups! This one is perfectly cute (to the untrained eye)... but has some gathering issues and is a bit big for me... so I think it's a smallish size 10. The tiers were easy to do, but I did the first tier with the overlocker, and without gathering and 'baste-ing' first. My patterns always say baste and then stitch, and this is why.



I know this is not the forum, but I'm feeling incredibly winter fattyboombah at the moment, and I blame it ALL on turning 30. Ever since my birthday I've gotten fatter and fatter, and whilst it's prob. all in my head, making tiny skirts that bring out the rotund pot belly isn't doing much to my fatty complex I've now got too!

Anyways! I've started dance class on Mondays and will get into $5 yoga on Friday. So at least I'll feel a bit better and then the winter fatty will fly away (in my mind at least, where it's the most important, I actually don't care if I'm a fatty on the outside, cause usually I think I'm size 6 and as tall as Heidi Klum) - yay.

100 Posts and Outfit 27, 28, 29

I've had a lot of blogs in my time, dear you, the reader. I've been on blogger for most of my adult life actually. But I'd never thought it would be my sewing career that would warrant 100 Posts! I'll have to check, but my uni blogs, my nerdy blogs and my travel blogs have never really been high in the postings. So here you go, something I've totally stuck to!

Good thing too, as I love sewing and crafting, and love blogging, when I can of course. I've set up my sewing room (see last week's post) and now have the lappy in here too, so whilst I've created this weekend, I've updated the itunes as well!

Saturday's efforts was a bit of organising and a bit of making this skirt:



It's thick upholstery type material, and has some massive 'tucks' around the waistband, so you can see it's massive flair-ing in the skirt. It was supposed to be a size 10, but my excitement in the tucking has turned it into a total size 6, maybe a 10 year old child's waist even. Whoops! It's totally one for the etsy page.

And Sunday I made these matching skirts, I got the idea from an early 80s vogue pattern, but altered slightly here and there. Think summer collegial with boat shoes. Perhaps a vest. Very preppy.





So I was all ready to get my review published on the Etsy Dust Blog when I sold another obi sash, which left my etsy store rather empty (with 2 things in it) and so Nerys has held over my review until I restock it! I'll ask the husbie to get the good camera out to take some ultra nice pics of my skirts, and get sewing over the next few weeks.

The tricky thing is that I'm hanging to make summer stuff, but America (where I'm guessing the bulk of buyers are - since I've had 5 sales and all have been Northern Hemisphere apart from 1) is heading into winter! I do have quite a lot of winter material though, so maybe I should do some preppy skirts in plaid or pinstripe wool?!

On the lappy: Jenny Wilson, Regina Spektor & Vampire Weekend

New Sewing Room & Back with a Skirt! Outfit 26!

What a wonderful weekend of organising and getting excited about creating again!

I had Friday off work, and good thing too - for it rained and rained and rained and didn't stop til last night (Saturday) so thus a new sewing room is ready today! I did have a look at my *new* overlocker but unfort. I'm missing one little piece called a "spreader" (wtf?) so will call the Janome shop tomozza and check if they've got one for me!



And what about the new ironing board!? Wow!



Check out my lovely model Diana... she's wearing a skirt I made today as well. Gosh what a nice room to sew in, I was wheeling all over the place on my chair, back and forth to the ironing board, so I love the set up so far!

The skirt is a 80s-ish era McCalls pattern (I think) and the material is hot from the op shop, in Brisbane (from a working holiday in August - the St Vinnies in the Valley), and rather textured cotton, that almost feels like a raw silk. It fits high on my waist, and I'll wear it with black tights and black skivvy cause 'She's a MOD - yeah!' and even a black belt to swish it all together.

And I started knitting last night for my preggers friend; a scarf. She lives in the UK and is going to be carrying babies galore coming into their winter, so a nice neat bright purple scarf (with tricky tucky things to be discussed later once I know what I'm talking about!) for her!

Yep, what a great weekend!