Voila: Summery Kim Dress

Hi! Welcome to my fabulously printed Kim Dress blog post! It’s full of brightness and clever camera angles thanks to my clever clogs Husband and his new camera attachment on his iPhone! I’ll tell you about that at the end, but sewing this dress was fun! Pity I didn’t get the fit right!

I bought lots of light fabric this summer as I visited the markets here in Shanghai. It’s been very hot and I wanted to be prepared but I actually couldn’t sew much. I got too hot even inside with the AC on. Of course I did sew up a few things, but it’s only these last few weeks that I’ve felt like sewing again. Luckily, in Shanghai it’s mid 20s for a while and it doesn’t seem to get cold at nighttime till November (I remember really balmy November nights) so I might be ok with making these lighter dresses … as I have a purple one on the go this week.

But ALSO, we’ll be visiting Australia for a bit, so I’m hoping it’s not freezing cold there when we’ll be there!

So, this is the Kim Dress of the By Hand London pattern collection… I have no idea when it came out, maybe this time last year? Anyways, it officially is a party dress… and perhaps (now I’m 37 years old) a younger person’s party dress as I just don’t feel comfortable wearing it.

Size wise I went for 8/12 but shortened the shoulders by 1cm and shortened the bodice by 1cm.. the other BHL patterns are larger for me in both places and I’d seen Heather say she’d shortened the shoulder seams (I mean shoulder to bust measurement when I say that… is that right?)… and sometimes I feel her changes are similar to mine there.

So I traced it out, and decided to do the gathered skirt (AKA large rectangle with gathers how you like it) to save some tracing time and so felt the pieces looked ok after the small shortening. For patterns like this, I definitely want to avoid large flowers on the boobs, so I tried a few options for the front pieces (it’s the princess seamed) and was happy with how it looked together. I absolutely love the fabric and the painted look of the flowers in the pattern, but as it was around 6 bucks Australian per metre I also didn’t mind using it as a wearable muslin. Might be someone else's dress though... I have to have a think if I'll wear it again.

The lining is completely unknown grey cotton, probably a lawn but as I’m in the markets going on feel - who knows… it feels light but I don’t think I cut the bodice pieces on the grain (or maybe something else explains the pulling of the back pieces). Gah. I’ve been going too quickly at sewing lately… rushing to get it done rather than paying full attention.

The invisible zipper is good, I can do better... I just read about Jenny sewing the zipper and the facing together at once, which sounds do-able but I'm not sure my invisible zipper would be so invisible after that... will have to try that one time! So this little dress was lovely and quick to make up, but I can see that I DO need a small FBA for it and should probably just do the Size 6/10 (like I always do for BHL previously) with that adjustment. The bodice sits too high now because I took off the length and I actually think it feels too WIDE. The straps slip off even though they're shorter and while the fabric is lovely and light on, it's just not right for a fitted bodice like this one.

But I feel like a little girl or extremely matronly (what a contrast) in this style. I also look a bit pregnant - which I'm not - in some shots because the dress hangs from a higher than the waist waistline. I’m trying to find a fit and flare dress that I can make oodles and oodles of versions, and this isn’t it. I’m also wanting to be really quick and not have to fiddle with a FBA, so perhaps I’m dreaming there. But the other thing is that depending on the time of the month, my body measurements are fluctuating! What a woman hey?! Plus I ate a bunch of chocolate and drank all the wine when my Australian friends came to visit! Tim Tams, Mint Slices! All the Australian treats!

My sewing classes with Couture Nomad come back next month so I could ask for help in blocking one up for my size… as I’ll just be adding different skirts, I just need a bodice front & back. Unless you know of a great pattern for larger busts & curvy petites bodice pattern for me!?!

Did you have luck with the Kim Dress? Should I try it again or just keep searching!?

Now, about the photos! Husbie met a guy here in Shanghai who is developing a new attachment for your iPhone… it helps you take photos just like a Digital SLR and while these photos have amazing contrast with the shadows and the dappled light of the trees on this gorgeous Shanghai Former French Concession Street… the ordinary iPhone camera wouldn’t be getting the images as sharp. (He is actually telling me now that the 'latitude in the exposure allows you to have a really large contrast ratio without you losing information' and the lens is really sharp compared to the iphone camera... it's 20 megapixels so that helps too. Here ends the photography chat! Latitude, haha!

He’s testing it out for another week, so we might get some more photos to show you, but we’re pretty impressed with it so far! I’ll have to sew like the wind to get a few more street photos with it!

21/31 Holiday Dress for a Happy 2014

Happy 2014 sewing and blogging friends! How futurist of us to be here now, in this year! WOW.

I pulled together this dress to wear on New Year's Eve last night, which was a very low key occasion at our place with my parents. Baby Darling had a great last day of 2013, as he'd napped for a massive 3 hours and was feeling very good about staying up for dinner with us, and 'cheers-ing' the new year ahead. We had some sparklers for him and they made him stay very still with his hands behind his back in wonderment. So sweet.

But, this week we also got a new car. A Smart Car. Our business has been going well, and needs expenses so Husbie sold the scooter, and leased this little bubble rollerskater thing, and we are officially in the future with our red rocket raygun of a car! Um, hilarious!

The dress fabric is thrifted (and a little see through - above! - when backlit!) and maybe from the 1970s, but I honestly can't remember if it's new or old to the stash... but that's where it's from, my gorgeous and falling down all over the sewing room floor fabric stash. It's a polyester light fabric, and with a slight stretch, I thought a maxi dress (were they always called maxi's? I think not but it's not really a muu muu like my Dad thinks?) would be good for our holiday (we leave on Friday!) as it'll be HOT.

I once again drafted up this pattern, by lying a dress that does fit well, on the fabric pieces... I measured the fabric into two long rectangles (front & back), and then cut a front bodice piece & a back bodice piece but kept the underarm side/seam bits very wide... so that I could try it on and see whether the fabric suited a snug fit or a baggy fit. With strips of binding I did the neckline and the armholes like the Built By Wendy instructions say... the way I always make stretch clothing, really!

Then I overlocked the side seams, leaving them very wide across, but after a few fittings for the length, I decided it would be more flattering as a closer fit... but not too close, as the fabric doesn't have that much stretch... so loose and kinda fitting it is!

I don't usually wear long dresses because of my frame & size (petite 4 foot eleven, but with larger bust size, means most fabrics hang like a bag off the boobs) but since this is a comfy beachy holiday, I thought something soft and different would be great. That's why I made it a little snug fitting around the waist, so you can still see a bit of my hourglass (I'm sewing with 36/27/36 measurements at the moment!) figure here. Or I hope you can!

Hope you're enjoying the new year so far, and I wish that all your dreams come true in 2014... if you are a dreamer... but if you're practical like me, just go do stuff and I bet if you keep your positive frame of mind, stuff will always be amazing.

xoxo

Mama Lyf: Return to Work Time

Well, I'm returning to work on Friday.

It's astonishing how fast the time goes, especially when you're counting some other little human's age by months. But I'm going to put a stop to that, and now he's 1. He'll just be a one year old for the whole year. I'm sorry 15 months, 18 months and 22 months, I'll not be remembering my boy by months any longer.

I'm really very practical about mothering right now, so returning to work feels more or less the same. It's just what can happen right now. I don't feel any different, I don't feel sad that's for sure. But seriously in April, May and even June this year, I didn't really feel it was time. Back then, I would have had my heart broken if I had to leave my Baby Darling, but this week because I work at the best place in the world (and I love my job & colleagues) my heart is still pumping with all the love and healthy amount of positiveness for my baby, my family & my career. What luck. Or maybe just what joy.

My plan is to work 2 days a week, while Husbie becomes the primary carer those days, but as he's a full time freelancer (with ad hoc hours, but he can sometimes choose/please himself) there are jobs in the future coming up for him on my work days... so we have a casual nanny on board. I'm extremely pleased with this situation and maybe that's why I'm not really feeling very emotional about it. I felt the same way about BD starting solids at 6 months, it's just something that happens... you give the child soft food to grab, he grabs it, he may gag as he has a very over exaggerated gag reflex, but he generally eats no problems. Practical stuff, human & science stuff. I could go on, I have loads of Practical Mama Philosophies for you, anytime.

What to WEAR?! I'm so wearing a dress! These photos are from my work at Splendour in the Grass two years ago. The one Kanye was at. I've got lots to catch up on when I get back to the radiosss!

xoxo

Wedding Flowers

Taking photos at other people's weddings makes Husbie and I want to get married again, it's a very loved up day of course... and it always makes us get a bit gushy over each other.

I love my camera, as I've said many times, and love taking photos of flowers at the weddings we attend. Some of these are 'official' flowers and others are just from around the venues the bridal party stopped off at during the day. Usually the rundown of the day is (for us) take photos of the bride & groom getting ready (separately), take photos of the wedding ceremony and then official family photos and then bridal party photos before the reception... these guys wanted to have the bridal party photos before the actual ceremony, which made it the smoothest day ever (no stress of time between the ceremony and the reception), and they were such a lovely group of people!

It is hard work though, so any chance for a sit down, you take it! (I tried to take out most of the red in my face, but it must have been beetroot red all day!)...

Hope you're enjoying a good week! I'm on holidays for a bit on Saturday, so can't wait to finish up work with a big bang on Friday!

Talk soon, xoxo

Meet Doris Day!

We have a new friend in the Darling Household! She's Doris Day the Dog! So much alliteration!

Doris is a Staffy cross, was found wandering without a microchip, tags or collar in a country town and was probably in the pound and the shelter for close to two months, where no one claimed her, called for her and it just breaks my heart because she was obviously well loved at some point... she has a really sweet temperament!

The dog shelter peeps and their vet pinned her at around 2 years old, and she does have a puppy floppiness to her at times... however they reckon she's fully grown and she's a small dog now! She's not as stocky as most Staffies and I reckon she's got Jack Russell heritage as well.

So far she's settled into our new home ok, and we'll just have to see what funny things she gets up to! Let's hope the puppy 'chewing my shoes' stage has passed! I've set up some house rules, and the bedroom (and the shoe closet) is off limits... our last dog was tooooo cute and slept in our bed... but new dog, new rules and luckily she's taken to the Charlie Brown Dog Bed and loves it!

Oh! And her name? She was named Doris by the lovely dog shelter peeps (because they didn't know her first name), and we thought about it... and couldn't change it. She's probably got an identity crisis as it is, so we just made her Doris Day as what a lovely animal loving woman she is!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

P.S. I'm going to start replying to your comments in the blog thread - I noticed Blogger finally set this up, that's why I changed back to the old template... so I'll tweak my blog settings a bit... but do you know if I reply to you in the comments, if you get a notification about it? Or do you have to come back here to see if I've written back! Wish I had a bit more time to update to my own domain name, I've just been so busy!

xoxo

Introducing: My Husbie's New Website

Hey cuties, happy Monday!

Today I'm very excited to let you know about my Husbie's new adventure! As you know, we've gone through a lot of changes in the past few months. Our dear Doggie Darling passed away, we bought a house in Melbourne, I holiday-ed in Cambodia. We renovated parts of the new house, and then finally moved in. And all on a very tight budget, because... my Husbie was unfortunately on the bad side of a restructure at his work. There have been a few nail-biting moments for us, but (as always) we're Positina Turners in my family and have turned this into a career opportunity for him...

And so, I'd love to introduce you to my Husbie & his brand new website! Vincent (AKA Husbie) Taylor is a film colourist, cinematographer and stills photographer, and will be freelancing his mad skills from January next year!

The site has it's own domain: vincenttaylor.com.au but directs to a blogspot for now (using the new template 'Snapshot' which suits the photo heavy nature of his work, I reckon) and I learnt how to compress video (thanks to my animation friend!) for Vimeo, so there are lots of his showreels and short films up there. He's very keen on twitter, but not so keen on blogging (maybe I'm bad inspiration!) so the blog template above makes it look more like a website.

Husbie has worked in the Australian & New Zealand film industry for 15 years or so, firstly as a cinematographer and then as a film colourist. A colourist does a bunch of post film production detail that you probably don't even notice while watching tv or a film, and if you don't notice it, the better job the colourist has done! You already know Husbie can take great photos, as most of my photos this year (the good ones!) are his, but he also has another website devoted to his photography.

My role, as I hinted at earlier, in Husbie's new career move is to balance the books and generally be awesome & supportive - easy! I've decided that since I'm a producer at work in my radio job, I can totally adapt and be a producer in the new freelance business as well! Husbie's already got 2 weddings booked for next year, and I'll also lend a hand with my trusty little stills camera to be his assistant! If you're on the look out for wedding photography, or any photography, get in touch!

It's going to be a busy 2012 for us, and it hasn't even begun!

Thanks for all your lovely notes over the past crazy few months... I really appreciate your support and love and gush! If you wanna get in touch, (maybe you find the blogger comment form annoying & sometimes not working?) always feel free to send me an email veronicadarling@gmail.com or tweet me @veronicadarling .

xoxo