L-O-L-A Lola! (As a Dress).

First garment for 2014! Recently I signed on for both Pinterest and Instagram. I felt a bit left out of all the cool behind the scenes crafting conversations that were taking place - and like I needed to build my social networking empire more (cue image of me doing a Dr Evil-pinkie to the mouth-type pose).

Anyway, I kept seeing images of very funky striped t-shirt dresses. I became obsessed. I had to have one.

Luckily for me, Tessuti released their Lola T-Shirt Pattern. I bought it, figuring I would simply extend the shirt into a dress. Readers, it worked. All I did was lay the shirt pattern pieces on some swedish tracing paper and very crudely hand sketch them into dress length. It is THE easiest thing I've ever done to a pattern. Here is what I ended up with:

I made a size small with a medium at the shoulders only. I really did not want the sleeves to creep up.

The fabric is a lovely viscose knit from Joys Fabric Warehouse in Geelong.

The stripes were way too irregular to try and match.

I don't know if you can tell, but I accidentally cut it slightly off grain. Whoops!

This pattern came together well, as do all Tessuti patterns. I am fortunate in that I can generally make the size small with no or only minor adjustments.

I think you'll be seeing some Lola Tees in my future, and possibly another dress a la Anna's adjustments. It is such a great basic pattern, and perfect for knocking about with my kid. I wore this to her doctor's visit this morning - turns out the poor lass has an allergy to sunscreen (not just the sunscreen itself but the volume of sunscreen applied) - this is pure torture for Little M, as putting on sunscreen is one of her favourite things to do. She even pretends all manner of things are sunscreen - a banana, a small glass jar, a face washer, you name it, it becomes sunscreen for her to apply to herself, others, and every doll or stuffed animal she owns. How on earth am I going to break it to her that she has to lay off the stuff?

Vogue 8805 Revisited

I like to get good value out of sewing patterns, and have no issue sewing the same thing more than once. How do you feel about that? My reasoning follows that:

• If I like the style, or if the style looks good on me, I could probably do with more than one in my wardrobe;
• Patterns are expensive and I want to get my money worth; and
• If I take the time to fit and tweak a pattern so it fits me nicely I  will probably want to revisit it. 

The Vogue 8805 dress I have to show you today didn't really require that much tweaking - I just lowered the neckline by 2cm, but I did love my last version, and I've decided that this summer is the Summer of the Shift Dress.

I was also spurned on as I had a small remnant of the grey crinkle linen from Tessuti (sorry, I couldn't find it on their website) that was too small for really anything. I thought about making something for Little M out of it, but didn't think grey was her colour. 

Grey isn't really my colour either, but teamed up with this coral linen bought at Joy's Fabric Store in Geelong, I think I can do it. That coral is divine and this linen is a truly beautiful quality. It is heavy-ish but still really soft.

I wore it to work last week on one of the really hot days with my Elk wedges, Elk necklace and Elk matching earrings. Can you tell I love Elk?

This is the size 12 - the same size I sewed last year. It is looser on me now - Michael thinks I should have graded down a size through the body (the shoulders are perfect at a 12). What do you think? I'm pretty happy with it as it is, but I'm coming to realise I like quite a lot of ease in my clothes.

Back view. I really like the colour combo! I especially like that I have only used two colours on this one. So… there is my V8805.

In other news, me, Leith, Anna, and Lara are going to Sewjourn this weekend! To say I am excited is an understatement. A whole weekend of sewing, sewing-related talking, good food, and excellent friends. I need a bit of a weekend away. Life has been very hectic of late and my health is pretty poor.

Finally, my Mum and Dad visited this past weekend. On Saturday we headed into town to see the Myer Christmas windows and so that Mum could take me fabric shopping as my Christmas gift. We went to Tessuti - pictures to follow soon. We went to lunch in Federation Square where they had a maze of Christmas trees - my little babe was in heaven. The sun was shining and we all chased her round and round the maze. I took a breather on a mat while she kept going - her energy levels amaze me!!!!!!!!

The Camber Dress Goes to Geelong

Well, my alone time has come to an end. I'm actually quite relieved - I missed Little M pretty badly. And Michael. But Little M more.

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Geelong for some fabric shopping and a mini-sewist catch up. I actually sewed a frock for it, but when I got to Anna's house on Saturday we both decided we liked my Merchant and Mills' Camber Dress more.

This is one of the first Merchant and Mills multi-sized patterns, and I have to say I am glad it was multi-sized. I sewed a size 14 at the shoulders, grading to a size 10 everywhere else. Thank goodness for the other size lines - it made it so much easier to meld the sizes together nicely. I also shortened (!) the pattern by 4cm. Yes readers, that is correct. I actually had to shorten a pattern.

The fabric is from Tessuti and is a linen that I couldn't find on their online store webpage. It is pretty lush - very soft but still a nice weight which meant I didn't need to underline or line it. Perfect summer dress.

I sort of see this as Gabby 2.0 for me. It is not as 'sack like' as Gabby but still remains faithful to the the essence of Gabby - light, breezy, perfect. And allows a fabric to shine through.

You may be able to see from the above photo that the Camber dress has a back yoke. I love this detail - it gives a bit of shaping and interest.

I hate my new haircut. Have no idea what my hairdresser was thinking.

I had such a wonderful day. All my photos are taken at Joy's Fabric Warehouse where Renay works. I bought linen - quite a bit of linen. And one piece of jersey. And a length of chambray. It sounds like I bought tonnes, but I actually came in at budget - Michael was quite pleased with me!

After fabric shopping we went to lunch/dinner/a meal at Customs House in Geelong. I had an asian-inspired squid salad that was divine. Another Rachel joined us - she doesn't blog yet, but I'm hoping she will soon! As the sun was starting to go down, Anna and I drove home. I said good night to her cute little girls then went home and collapsed into bed! It was a big day!

What do you think of the Camber dress? I've actually sewn another one in spotty linen this weekend and have cut out the shirt version in white linen (purchased at Joy's). Are you tempted to buy it? And if you're up for a drive to Geelong, I seriously recommend Joy's Fabric Warehouse. Be sure to go on a day Renay is working - she's lurverly!!