16/31 A Sewing Fail of a Tshirt

URGH, I wanted a quickie tshirt for the warmer weather the other day here in Melbs... so I found some red stretch fabric, but I didn't really check its stretch... (you'd think I'd be aware of checking after the leggings mishap)... so cut, sewed the shoulder seams, added the bias neckline, sewed up the side seams and chucked it on.

UM, the fabric is RIBBED and therefore super wide now, everywhere:

 

Oh well, it's not bad for a stay at home mum look. A little Flashdance on the shoulders perhaps?!

It was a stay at home day for me anyways because of my rollers... hotter days helps set them quicker!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend! xoxo

14/31 Stuffed Up Leggings

So here's another Spotlight piece of fabric that was the last bit off the bolt, that I thought was super stretchy! BUT!

It's stretchy, but not enough for my little legs! So again, like my rocketships, it must be just one way stretch instead of up and down and across...

So they are SUPER tight. They look like second skin over the thighs... but look what else? A total fabric blemish, or missprint on the fabric:

Weird.

Oh well, I'll refashion them into Baby Trousers and make them a lot looser for next time... if I can! Pity as they look cute enough, the pattern reminds me of space and maps...

I didn't even hem or waistband them, just tried them on for the photos....

Oh well, when you sew quickly sometimes there are mistakes... luckily this was cheapie fabric so not an expensive mistake!

xoxo

Goodbye to My First Jacket

Hey there! Before I had a blog, I made stuff. I made lots of stuff and mostly it was rubbish, but I often wore everything I made, not knowing it was rubbish! Sewing gave me oodles of self confidence, and my own unique wardrobe, and I did not care what trouble I created on the sewing machine, I finished as many things as I could and wore with pride.

But, there comes a time to say adios to old sewing wearable friends, and here's the first proper jacket I made and wore a LOT in the early 2000s. BEFORE I BLOGGED THIS BLOG! I was still blogging about hypertext and uni shizz back then, and didn't even realise I could write about my life and my love of sewing!? WTF!

This jacket was my first 'real' fabric purchase from a normal shop... and I used a 1970s pattern that I think I still have somewhere.

Some positives:

I made button holes with an old Janome machine that didn't make button holes automatically (and hated making them)

It's a very flattering cut for a short bad ass like me, so I'll have to make a princess seamed flippy outy hem again for myself.

I made lining throughout (but topstitched lots of it, because I didn't know how to hand sew - I KNOW) AND lining in the pockets

Some negatives:

It was always too big, but I didn't know how to resize the pattern

The collar:

Both lapels are just hilarious, but I used to fold them up and pin them shut with a badge or scarf and you couldn't really tell how fucked out they were... HILARIOUS and goofy looking!

So, we're having a big clear out (spring cleaning maybe) as we have new wardrobes coming and frankly, I love this coat just because I made it a while back and it's just not good enough to keep. I have other things I made 'back in the day' as special momentos, but really... if they're not well made I'm not going to hang on to them. I'm not as nostalgic about my clothes as I used to be. I've got another bit of clothing to show you soon too... coming soon.

Even though I was so proud of myself to make this back then, I'm even prouder to show you because look how far I've come in my sewing? I've made 100 Outfits, Sewn Weekly for a year and really stepped up. There's heaps more challenges ahead for me, but I'm blogging this coat to remember where I've come from in my sewing.

What do you do with handmade things that aren't that well made to hold on to? Do you keep them all? I'm shipping this off to charity with a load of other stuff!

xoxo

Tiny Armed Tshirt

Another day of holiday in Gippsland; another crafty adventure! This one is tres cute, but I wouldn't even try popping it on Baby Darling because I misjudged the armhole size! Tres tiny!

It's fun being on holidays while Baby Darling naps and entertains himself! He's getting older and giving us so much fun and laughter with his giggles, energy and learning! While I sewed this up, he slept and then looked out the window at the trees for a while! So cute!

I'll try this baby tshirt again, with wider sleeves (I've drawn up a pattern after I made this to get better proportions!) and with another old singlet! This mauve one might have to become a baby singlet instead!

SSS Day 20: Yesterday

I'm a rushing this week, so here's my bits and pieces for my handmade day yesterday! It's the dress I made earlier in the year, as part of the Unfinished Objects theme of Sew Weekly and again I'm wearing my handmade cowl... the purple one! I love it!

It was a bit of a weird outfit, because once I left the house I realised my umbrella (and I needed it) was leopard print, I had massive fruit prints in my skirt and my bag was red (I'd changed over when bike riding, because my blue one didn't fit in my panier bags. If that's indeed how you spell panier bags?) ... purple, pinks, greens, fruit and leopard print AND a red handbag?

Not my cuppa tea, but somehow that's what I wore yesterday. Oh well!

Thanks for all your lovely comments this week! I'm in the middle of deciding if I should wear pants/leggings (lants) to the Parklife Festival. You know those leggings that are so tight and you're like, "Why are you not wearing a skirt with those tights?". If you don't know Parklife, it's an EXTREMELY young festival with heaps of flesh showing... I'm SO not going to be fleshy this time of year, plus I'm working. I've started a pair of electric blue lants, so will see how they turn out. I'll just wear them walking and to the gym normally, but for a music festival, it might be fun to wear lants ironically, right? If I like the electric blue ones I might make a crazy floral print dress as well. Or even lants with floral print. Double floral? Oh the kids today!

xoxo

Sew Weekly: Appreciate the Apron

Hey, what's this blog thing? What's this internetz thing? Everything looks so weird to me... Oh that's right, I've not been logging on to computer land because I've been hanging IRL with comics and LOLing all over the place in Melbourne!

I've been planning all week to send you little youtube clips of who I love at the Melbourne Comedy Fest, but I've actually not sat down at my home computer all week. I've been working, seeing comedy, working, seeing comedy and not blogging, tweeting nor eating it seems!

I plan to have a proper dins tonight, and am now limiting myself to 2 shows a night. Or maybe 3.

But what's this? A snazzy apron!

This week was an apron theme for the Sew Weekly group, and I believe this was a theme suggested by all the peeps at the Sewing Circle... If you are a seamstress, but can't get into the whole 'blog' thing, then I'd suggest having a look... it's kinda like Facebook but for peeps who love seeing... and there's a lot of really lovely people over there, and I've actually spent heaps of time reading the forums if I've been stuck on a hem or a seam problem!

My post details my thoughts on the apron and the making of this Burda dress... it didn't really work out for me because my printer printed the sizing out big, and when I went to resize it I didn't realise it needed seam allowances too, and then the shoulders were just way too big and I was left with a massively low cut dress that could be potentially NSFW.

Notice how Husbie's photos are straight on, and not up above me? There was deadly cleavage in some of those higher up shots!

I gotta fly: seeing UK's New Art Club and Paul Foot tonight!

xoxo

Misadventure in the Sewing Room

Here's a little tale I started to write you, at the START of my sewing day, with photos from my sewing room:

"Yep, it's another sewing adventure for me! I'm sewing with a ribbed knit fabric! Woo!

The last time I used some knit fabric, I chose the wrong type for the pattern, and had to really WIGGLE myself in and out of the dress! LOLZ

This time, I've gone to find some black material for a dress, but all that's kinda suitable in my stash is this ribbed knit material (maybe for a sports tshirt or something) that's in a gigantic tube! Easy for cutting on the fold, I guess! It's from the op shop and I have NO idea where I got it, but it seemed like a good idea to use it. Also, considering I'm trying a pattern that should be for normal cottons, why not be adventurous and try a knit rib.

As I'm quick to use the old google, here's my learning curve (or Sewing Curve, form the photo above!) for today (I've moved the computer into the sewing room, can you tell?):

1. Google up, "sewing darts in knit fabric", find these helpful ladies chatting about zig zag stitch. No overlocker required. Bodice is looking A-OK with darts in front and back, but looks a LITTLE BIG."

And that's it! No step 2, nothing more to add. My *darling* draft of a pattern (top photo) was from a printed off the internet kinda one, and I did notice that it had printed out 1cm too big, so I resized: TWICE. Because of the petite factor I have, I was also using a pattern that was supposed to be a size 31 bust, so I *did* kinda think all the resizing issues were under control.

Nup. I don't even think it was the knit rib's fault! I feel the numbers didn't add up somewhere, and where that was, I'm not sure. Because of the cut, I can't fix the bodice now.

At least I know how to make a dart in knit fabric now!

Oh well, now I'm onto the red wine (in an effort to feel better) and making pasta full on Italian style. Well, I'll try!

Hope you've had a great weekend! xoxo

Sew Weekly Theme: Colette Patterns!

This week, I've been working on my Sew Weekly creation, and if you look at Mena's blog, you'd have seen it's a Colette Pattern: Spring Palette themed week. Because I'm a nerd, I love that Colette and Palette have equal letters, sharing the 'lette' in the final bit and it looks really nice and balanced written out. Also, because I'm also in the Southern Hemisphere, my chosen 'colour' palette will be more autumnal and about a fading summer.

Here's my collection of initial ideas of a fading summer, early autumnal in some of my stash fabrics. And it's my first 'disclosure' alert on my blog: as I'm a contributor to the Sew Weekly, and this week Colette Patterns is the first official sponsor of a theme, I was SENT this pattern for free to make up! OMG! It's probably also my first 'modern' pattern as well (for a long time at least, I did print up a Burda Style one a few years back), so it's very exciting.

If you're super keen on Colette Patterns, they've also offered Sew Weekly lovers a discount code, so you can sew along with us this week too!

I did want a red dress with some print features in the pockets and collar (I'm making the Rooibos pattern btw!) but I just couldn't shake this tablecloth with the big flowers! The tan/brown seemed a great base for the colour palette (not to mention those awesome flowers!), and then with this grey lawn (that I'd use for the pockets and collar instead) matched nicely.

Of course, after I 'locked in' my fabric choices, I discovered some challenges with the pattern placement. Cause the flowers are so large, and the skirt of the dress is gored (which means a lot of sections perhaps?) I wanted to make sure not all the red flowers were on one side, and the flowers looked the right way up etc. You know these old tableclothes, they have the best flowers in the corners and spaced evenly around the borders, and none in the middle of the fabric.

But guess what other 'bonus' challenges appeared on this second hand tablecloth:

Foodstains! 40 year old grease stains all over! So it was like a HUGE puzzle to make sure I got the best pieces of the fabric (the darling flowers) but avoided all these little stains. The saddest part was I when I realised the middle of the tablecloth (the bit I was saving for the waistband) had a terror of a coffee stain with some other yuk marks, that was faint, but still noticable. ICK. I'll show you soon how it all panned out and how I put it together!

Wonky overlocking!

Oh gosh, I need help fast! My darling overlocker has started moving around all over the place!

I've returned to the darling pink stripey off the shoulder pattern of 'Rochelle Rochelle' AKA Butterick 7181, and found a wonky overlocker can't do the hems. I'm loving how this dress is turning out, but hate those wonky bits. Does anyone know what causes that? Tension? It's kinda wavey wonky bits, so could be. I'm not a real techy person when it comes to my machines, it's always trial and error...

It's too hot today to do anything, I'm going to take a nap now and rest up a bit. It's going to be cooler later, so hopefully will go back and finish the hem and show you something later! Exciting!

xoxo

Dress Eighteen: Accidently Pink

You know when you think you're a very careful fabric washer, and when you think you're becoming the WORLD's best seamstress/fashion designer, and then it all goes horribly wrong? Here's a happy feel good story that was once disaster. Oh the Horror!

So firstly I got this really weird, stretchy material from the op shop one day. It was kinda granny but kinda retro, so could be kinda good somehow. It was WHITE with pink and blue random 'bits' on it.

I also got some burgandy tights from another op shop on another day, and was very pleased with myself because they were brand new in the packet straight from 1981 (or thereabouts, the packet was OLD, but the stockings were new).

And then I assisted my Husbie one day in doing the washing, and lo and behold we'd put both these said op shop finds in together ACCIDENTLY...

And thus the white material with bits of weird colour had miraculously turned a total GRANNY SHADE of PINK. Disaster. Or was it?

See the results of this frock in tres Granny Chic:


So it didn't turn out too bad! There's surely more terrible disasters in the wash to be had, but let me tell you how GRUMPY I was yesterday after a sewing catastrophe!


So whilst I'm actually really proud now of my fashion designing/mad skillz at sewing etc, yesterday it had all gone to the dogs. I have a gorgeous dress from Lush (on Brunswick Street in Melbs) that I've had for 12 years. THAT'S 12 YEARS. I actually had another one in black, but it started to come apart a while back, so I've just got this sweetie little blue-ish floral dress that has a lovely tie at the front etc but it's prolly going to get a bit threadbare eventually, so I really wanted to make up some dresses in that style. I followed a few patterns from the pattern stash to get the right shape, and then started on the edging (the ties and the neckline bits) and it just started going YUK!

So cause it's stretchy I overlocked the hell outta all the edges. Then I was going to turn it under and top stitch, but I tried normal top stitch and it went all bubbly and wonky and then I tried ol' zig zag (I'd read that it was ol' reliable on stretch materials) and that looked SHITHOUSE and my machine just couldn't cope. . . . MAYBE I had the wrong sized needle in (thinking about it now) or maybe I was going to fast on the machine. But after it looking so bad, I gave up and became a Masterchef at tea time (see below) instead... but today I was in a much better mood and....

Voila:


It's come together really lovely thanks to the ever so thin cowl neckline or OLD FASHION BIAS BINDING. SAVED THE DAY. So instead of looking like Holly Hobbie in a terribly bad mood, this dress is almost tres chic, even if the pink still looks a bit granny! (Can you tell I don't wear pink that much?)

And here's how I became Masterchef for dinner last night, by following this recipe and making the BEST Tom Kha I've ever tried:


I've been obsessed with Tom Kha (vegetarian not the chickie version) for a while now, it's the coconut, galagal, lime flavoured soup that's perhaps found in Thai places and it a taste sensation. It has sweet, creamy, sour and salty all together and I can't believe I can make it myself JUST AS GOOD AS THE SHOPS!

What a rollercoaster of emotions, disasters, fails and wins in the past 24 hours. Phew Phew Phew, glad it's over and glad I'm back to being fantastic again!

Another reason why sewing has stalled...

MESS!





And thought I'd spare you all the gory wideshot details, and only show you this:



I have absolutely no room to sew, cut or to do anything! That's what happens I guess when you get gungho over something. But my goal here this afternoon, is to make this all lovely and clear AND I HAVE MY NEW APRON ON TO LOOK THE PART OF GOOD HOUSEWIFEY!

So hopefully there will be big TICKS after this list is done:

- Divide up the projects: repairs, garments to sew, garments to finish, garments to give away at the clothes swap, garments to sell on etsy or the markets in Sept.

- Put all the haberdash away in its place (ie buttons, ribbons, patterns etc)

- Refold all the materials too

- Wash all recent op shopped material and The Fabric Store Knits (load of washing on now - yippee!)

- Um... have glass of wine now pls?

24/7 - Day Twenty Five - AKA Outfit #91

So as I hastly put yesterday, I made up 2 dresses, but didn't have the right elastic to finish off the sleeves. Today I still don't have the elastic, but will perhaps fit some time in for an opshop trip to Dulwich Hill, cause they've got haberdash stuff sometimes... you all know I like to be thrifty and ethical (in my own mind) about my sewing.

Anyways, this one will be totally cute, once it's finished:

And the nice tie at the back:


So this is Outfit #91, today I'll post #Outfit 92 (the baby's top - yay - my new friend is a girl, so I'll send her the baby top and this lovely red summer dress) and make up another outfit... not sure what yet.

But here's a bit of my (kinda) neater sewing room, and as we have two computers the old one can sit here on the desk with me (and when I'm using the cutting board, it can sit on the shelf to the right).


I honestly had a medium sized spruce up over the weekend too, but it's a bit of a mess again! We don't have visitors until this weekend, so I'll get organised for another big spruce up then.

YAY

24/7 - Day Twenty Four - AKA Outfit #90

Well, I got really excited about our highspeed internetz that I forgot to blog and got lazy on my outfit a day challenge! I did walk past my old hangout (aka the pub) today, and thought, jeepers I better hop to it!

So, the funniest thing about these next couple of outfits; it's the first time I've had to stop sewing because I didn't have WHITE ELASTIC in my stash!

This dress you'll have seen before, but here is a more modestly lengthed version! And I decided to do two at once, both white-ish based floral bedsheets means you can do both at the same time (front piece, zipper, facings) all at the same time, with the same thread. A great way to make things faster, cause you're not changing thread or zipper foots all the time, Yay for Lazy Sewing.

Anyways, I got to the sleeves, the last part, and made the gorgeously matched casings, and then went to find some elastic... I only had stacks of black (typical) and no thin white stuff anywhere. BUT I did have some shirring elastic, thought that would work, but after spending a good hour threading it through (doubled) once I overlocked it, it all came apart inside the casing. A disaster!





And here are the sleeves!


I'll have to post the pink dress (Outfit 91) and the baby tee tomorrow (Outfit 92), as I've totally run out of time! It's good having the internerdz on, but I keep getting distracted by doggie, Trueblood and my darling Husbie! What a great weekend. xoxo

Workspace melt down!

So on the weekend I started this cute little dress (anything that goes with tights is my theme at the moment for my 100 outfits!) and was getting into the white collared, white cuffs of the black dress, quite 'maid' like but thought it would be cute as I love black dresses and it's a different kind of look.

I sat down with a cup of tea at the machine, and got a bit into sewing, but my workspace has gotten extremely messy and a little dusty in places and so there was little space to put my cuppatea, and after a little shuffling around I SPILT half a cup of tea over the desk, and it went under the machine (luckily not IN IT) and also luckily, not on any of my half finished garment. PHEW I said and cleaned up and dusted etc etc. Then went shopping, came back and started on the white collars, they were looking sweet, then I put the zip in, but somehow the dress got caught under my desk lamp WHERE THERE WAS STILL A LITTLE BIT OF TEA!

It soaked the white collar a bit, and I thought, "oh well, a little bit of preen spary and into the wash with you!"

BUT THE BLACK MATERIAL hadn't lost the DYE (even though it had been washed) so instead of a crispy white tea free colour... I was left with a grey daggy black stained collar:




Oh well, it would have happened anyway even if I didn't spill tea on it. My lesson: NO TEA, WASH NEW BLACK MATERIAL TWICE and perhaps re-consider two tone garments in the future!

EEK! I think I can fix it by taking off the white collar and cuffs and making them black, as I haven't added the sleeves yet, so the white cuffs would become grey as well. It just looks too daggy. But all black will be fine!

It's my first fashion disaster! Good thing I didn't give it to anyone before washing!!!!

xoxo