New Years Eve Dress

My husband gave me the most gorgeous Michael Miller cotton called 'Midnight Mums' for christmas, and the minute I unwrapped it I knew it would make the most gorgeous 50s party frock. Lucky he has intuition with these things and had given me 5 meters!

I made Vogue 2960 with the fabric. I absolutely love this dress and think it is the best thing I have made yet. The back is so gorgeous:

The pattern calls for bound buttonholes, but I am quite scared of them, so I opted for machine buttonholes instead. I think they look quite nice though:

This dress was so nice to wear. It was quite a windy night, and when the wind picked up the skirt you could see the fullness so well! I did have to make sure it didn't blow it up too much though - it was way too hot to wear a petticoat, and I certainly didn't want to be showing off my underwear!

We had lots of fun, and my frock was a hit!

This was my first post to Sew Retro too.

Next Skull Fabric Dress: Butterick 5032 - Retro '52

I made this dress to wear to dinner for my 2nd wedding anniversary. It was a hit! I got many compliments - the most important ones from my husband!

We went to the restaurant Seamstress (soooo apt) in Melbourne CBD. It serves kind of modern/asian flavour food and was fantastic!! The highlight for me was a modernised beef and black bean. Nothing like the dodgy type sold out of a bainmarie. This was so succulent and tender.

The waitresses loved my dress, which made me feel even more special. We had a lovely time.. lots of yummy food and yummy drinks.

I've posted a review of this at pattern review -  http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=46572

One fantastic fellow pattern reviewer left a comment that my dress was mildly subversive - love it!!

This final picture is the most important one - you can see a little sneak preview of the infamous Boo-Dogg! She is lying in her 'waiting for the ball to be thrown spot'. Anyone who is lucky enough to have a border collie may know they are intensely ball focussed and tend to crouch and wait in the same spot(s) waiting for someone to happen along, see the ball, and throw it to her.

Bessie is hilarious with this. She lies in this spot and one behind a shrub. You actually can't see her behind the shrub, so if it is dusk you have to really look carefully for her. She crouches down really low, but with her back legs kind of poised ready to go. It never fails to make me laugh.

Anyway, many more photos of Boo Dogg to come!

My Xmas Dress - Vogue 8380

Over the next few days/weeks I am going to post my newest sewing projects, as a bit of a catch up.

First is the dress I wore on Christmas day - Vogue 8380 made up in Alexander Henry fabric called 'No Guts No Glory'.

I've posted a review of this on pattern review. It probably wasn't the most 'christmassy' dress, but I've been dying to sew this fabric, and couldn't bear not to wear it on the day. Usually I'm not a 'skull' fabric kinda gal, but when I saw this, and another Alexander Henry fabric called 'Regency Skulls' in pink (I'll post the dress I made out of that soon), I was in such a state of fabric lust I got them both.

This dress was very easy to make. No complaints whatsoever.

Christmas was an odd weather day here in Melbourne. It was cold when I woke up (hence the boots and stockings), but when I got to lunch at my brother-in-law's house, it was so hot we all had sunscreen on!! I had to ditch the stockings and boots and go barefoot.

First Ever Post

Hello sewing community!! My name is Rachel and live in Melbourne Australia. I am married and have a gorgeous 'fur child', our Border Collie, Bessie (or 'The Boo Dogg') who accompanies me on my sewing journey.

I started sewing about 18 months ago and have become quickly obsessed. I love everything about it - sewing is a wonderful creative outlet for me. I started sewing towards the end of completing my doctorate, and had some wonderful help from a lovely colleague who is an accomplished seamstress.

Since completing my doctorate I have moved to Melbourne and have taken full advantage of the wonderful sewing community here. Such excellent classes, fabric shops and people who sew. I'm like a pig in mud!