Colette Patterns Spring Palette Challenge: #1

So, as promised, the first piece of my spring palette challenge was Simplicity 2250, a really cute and flouncy little number.

Simplicity 2250

Originally I was leaning towards view C (with the contrast) with the straps of A, but I ended up not doing the contrast so I guess it counts as view B with view A's straps. Either way, I'm quite pleased. I'm a little bit excited because I've decided to do my first ever pattern review in the way I've figured is somewhat standard in sewing blogs. Okay...

The finished dress; you can see how difficult it is to discern the darts and such

Pattern description: from envelope: "Misses' dress in two lengths, jacket and tie belt." I just did the dress, not particularly keen on the jacket (based on the drawing alone).

Sizing: 14-22, I made the 22 out of the habit of making the largest possible size since I cannot ever take accurate measurements of myself, and then altering later.

Fabric used: This lovely cotton I found at Joann's while I was in the States, which I bought 3 yards of in case I could find a project for it. 

I completely fell in love with this; after my first Simplicity dress (which I'll post about after it's done washing), which is brown with a similar blue polka dot print, this print made me want to work in a particular palette

Notions: a 30cm zipper (the pattern calls for 12'', so that's the closest I could get. It's light blue and, in theory, should be invisible).

Did it look like the photo or drawing when you were through?: Yeah, it totally does.

How were the instructions?: The bodice darts and pleats are a bit complicated, which is part of its charm, and I've only ever done very simple darts and tucks under the bust, so I was a bit nervous. The instructions were fairly clear; I didn't even try to understand what was happening with the invisible zipper instructions, but that could've been because I was nearing the end of the project and was ready to stop. There were a couple of steps where I had to sit, smoke a cigarette, and figure out what the hell was going on, but I always triumphed, and after I figured a step out the instructions and pictures made sense. I put this more to my lower level of experience than anything else.

isn't that lining pretty? I got it at Sezon ages ago (I can't remember what for) and it looks just great with this print

Construction notes: I'm still not sure how I would've tackled an FBA on this beast of a bodice; I'm lucky it ended up working out all right. The lining has princess seams, so that would've been easier, but I wasn't too bothered about getting that right. The pleat markings were a bit confusing (maybe because I briefly forgot what a pleat would look like) so I think I messed up the bodice pleats, but the skirt pleats came out fantastically. Also, I switched the two back panels by accident. Again, my fault.

I was so pleased with myself at this stage

Any changes? Yeah, as mentioned above since I didn't do an FBA the bodice hits below the bust lower than it normally would, so I only lined the front of the bodice and not the back (the pattern calls for an underlining as well as a lining proper, but I skipped that bit). I also just gathered where I wanted to, instead of how the pattern dictated, because I got all cocky.

Close-up of the bodice detailing, which, again, is a bit hard to work out because of the print

Likes/dislikes: I really liked the pattern; I think it would look better with a horizontal stripe (to show the darts and pleats better) but I love it with this fabric. Plus it was fairly easy to follow and I didn't have to change really anything.

Would you do it again? Would you recommend it? Yes and yes.

Conclusion: Anything that makes me feel nice while I'm wearing it is great, plus it's got a little bit of a Betty Draper vibe, and that's never bad. It came together easily and logically (after I used some logic, of course) and gave me confidence to work with other patterns. So I'm quite pleased!

Check out that rack. No joke (also I just realized it kind of matches that wallpaper, which is ridiculous)

Project Runway Season 8 Episode 1 - Refashioning Challenge

So the first challenge of this season's PR was to take something that another contestant had packed and refashion it into something new. Ideal! I'm obsessed with refashioning. At first I wasn't sure how to get something from someone else, but then I remembered that Tasha had brought over loads of old things for me to use, so I put the 3 remaining pieces in a bag, shook it up, and randomly drew one of them. I picked this red dress from Warehouse:

I almost never wear or work with red, so I was at a loss for a little while. Luckily, though, I've been obsessing about peplums lately and so I decided to use the fabric to make a peplum for a cardigan I already have.

I love this purple cardigan; I bought it in H&M in Paris and it's been a go-to of mine since then. I was very excited about the dark purple + red combination as well. I also decided to add a little red bow near the collar to try to bring the red in more.

I cut the bottom of the dress off in one long strip, then eye-balled (I hate measuring) how much I'd want to have gathered for the peplum. I didn't want too much volume, just enough for a slight flounce, so I cut off some of the excess to use as the collar bow:

Then I did what I'm best at: gathering. I gathered the long strip til it matched up with the bottom of the cardigan and then stitched it on as though it were a ruffle. Then I made a small, boxy bow and stitched it on near the collar and voila! New cardigan made from someone's clothing.

I'm very very happy with it. Here are some pictures of me in it:

It's unfortunately way too hot for me to wear it, but I'm superexcited about the future. Also, I think I might make a pencil skirt to go with it out of a similar red fabric. Sassy!

The Passport Cover and The Pencil Dress

It's been an inordinately long amount of time since I last posted; I've been a bit busy. Not so busy as to not be able to sew, but, you know.

A couple of weeks ago I whipped together a couple of things; my goal right now is to play along with Project Runway so I've made two things so far (going to make the third today). I'll just quickly update you on the two I finished before PR started.

First, I made a cover for my passport. I started with this dress I bought a few years ago from M&S which (1) is too short and (2) doesn't provide enough cover over the bust. I love the fabric, though, and thought it would make an adorable passport cover.

I cut it up and used some of the ribbon I had left over from the ribbon rosette to make the flaps and a bow-tie closure; here's the final result!

It's a bit uneven because my cutting skills are still subpar but, whatever. I love it.

I also made an elasticated tube dress from some hilarious coloured pencil fabric I found at Season.

It ended up a bit short and the fabric has no stretch whatsoever, but I like it. It's all wrinkly because I took this picture after wearing it (foolish). I think it's superfun.

sencha complete!

So I went to Season again yesterday and got some fabric to make the final version of the Sencha blouse; I got this lovely purple satin. Here are my problems with the lovely purple satin:

• it is very slippery, which equals difficult to cut
• it's very hot here right now and I kept leaving little sweat trails on the fabric
• I can't wear it any time soon

Other than that I adore it! Once it cools down I think that it'll be fine; I"m not such a sweaty beast when it's not constantly edging towards 40 Celsius. 

Here's the final result:

I usually wear that skirt cinched up higher but I think with the darts of the blouse it actually works quite well. I added the bow too. I think this blouse will look absolutely super with a cardigan as well, but there is no way in hell I'm trying it out right now. Too damned hot. Oh well! 

At Season yesterday I also bought notions for the physics skirt (finally!) and matching ribbon to make bows and flowers; very exciting! I also got an easy pattern from BurdaStyle so I think I might have a new style of skirt in my repertoire. I want to get as much done as possible before the interns arrive; I also want to make this dress; I think I can harvest the elastic from other sources in my wardrobe, and I might use an old sheet or something too. Plus, again, this is a dress that could be paired with a cardigan, assuming it ever cools down here.

Here's another shot of the Sencha!

Weekend Projects

Even though I had to train on Saturday and I had to examine and help out with the open house on Sunday, I still managed to make three (count 'em: three) new things this weekend.

First I took this H&M dress I bought in Stockholm, which I adore. 

The problem is the shirring on the bodice: it slips right between bits of flesh that do not need to be highlighted in hot pink with white polka dots. So I cut the top off:

Then I pinned down a casing for belting...

...which I stitched closed...

...then fed a black belt-like thing from another skirt through. Ta-da! Cute new skirt with none of the roll-enhancing qualities of the dress!

The next thing I made was a sandwich wrap, which I took from Sewing Green.  I used the two raincoat fabrics I'd bought last week at Season.

This is the bread I usually make my sandwiches out of, which I needed to use as a template.

I had forgotten to bring in the book into the office to photocopy the pattern, so I winged it a little while cutting the pieces out.

I hemmed up the bits...

...and connected them all, creating a maxi-pad looking thing.

Then I stitched on two bits of velcro...

...and wrapped up a sandwich! Supercute, right?

Of course it matches my lunch tote to a T. The last thing I made this weekend was another project from Sewing Green; a little girls' dress from an old pillowcase. I still had the pillowcase which matches the duvet cover I used to make the flamingo skirt so I thought I'd make a little dress for my darling niece Lorelei. Here are my materials:

First I cut off the top of the pillowcase and cut out the armholes...

...then I found my old stash of leftovers from the flamingo skirt to use as bias tape to bind said armholes...

...which I did.

Next came making the casing for the ribbon ties at the shoulders...

...and then threading the ribbon through. I think working with ribbon is my favourite thing in the world.

Then I sewed the rickrack along the bottom, to keep the flap used to cover the pillow flush against the dress and, voila, a little girl's dress! I love it.

May Day Long Weekend - Days 2+3

So on Sunday and Monday of the previous long weekend I only made one new thing, but I also finished the convertible/infinity dress (finally!). That took me all day Sunday (making the bias tape was very time-consuming). Here's what the new bottom of the dress looks like:

I'm very pleased with it. It looks so much more finished, which is fantastic.

On to the new piece I made. I didn't take loads of pictures of the process because I misplaced my camera in the middle of it. So all I've got are the before and after pictures of the fabric. I had Google searched for how to turn a sheet into a dress and came up with this little beauty, which I desperately wanted to make. I had this old duvet cover from Ikea:

which is light pink on one side and dark pink on the other. Initially my plan was to make it reversible but I realized my seams were all wrong for that so I ended up using the light pink on the outside since it's a more muted colour. Also, using two pieces of fabric, especially quite thick fabric like this, was not the smartest move for this dress. When it came time to gather the sleeve bits there was just way too much fabric to deal with, so I gathered as much as I could and then made little ties to cinch the ends up. This actually worked out way in my favour because it ended up creating a semi-sweetheart neckline and cute little cap-esque sleeves. Here's how it looks finally:

I'm super happy with it. I'll try to get a better picture, though, of the detailing on the sleeves and the ties but I think you get the picture.

Next up is to try to make one of these satin rosettes (I seem to have forgotten lately that I adore fake flowers) and, also, on Monday (my birthday) I'm going to Ikea to get some fabric to make some more spring dresses. I'm currently in love with the idea of a dress from this print. But of course I'm also looking forward to just looking at their fabrics and feeling like I'm in a real country. Yay! Plus soon I'll be headed to America for a few weeks where I'll insist on sewing with my sister, and I already have two patterns waiting there for me, so, we'll see how that goes. Oh, and I have some fabric from Mood waiting for me there as well to make a crinoline. How exciting!