Shirred Sundresses

It has somewhat amazed me since we moved back to Queensland two weeks ago just how humid it is here. I had forgotten how brutal it can be when it is really hot and really humid. As I said in my last post, my Melbourne wardrobe is not really that suitable for this weather. I need really airy clothes that don't touch my skin much. I'm particularly bothered with too much fabric on my chest. M is also really sweaty and feeling the heat with her cast on -- it must be disgusting to have that little oven encasing her whole arm.

Queue the shirred sundress.

To help us both feel a bit cooler, I made a shirred sundress for us each. M's is out of a delicious Liberty gifted to me by Blogless Anna. Mine is made from seersucker from Spotlight. I wanted to test this style first before committing to one of my nicer fabrics, so this $10/m seersucker fit the bill.

For both dresses, I used Jorth's Tutorial. It is super simple. The only two things I did differently were:

1. I didn't wind the shirring elastic tight around the bobbin. I keep an even and firm-ish tension as I hand-wind it on, but not tight. To tighten the shirring up at the end, I steam the living daylights out of it with my iron. 
2. I subtracted 10cm off the width of the rectangles - I found them to be too loose. 

I winged the placement of the straps - pinned them on and tested them before sewing them on, on both dresses.

As you can see, I have a ruffle. This is not intentional! I cut my dress length too short. But now it is on, I totally love it. Ruffle-Tactic!

My last picture is to show my insides - I have a small stash of coloured shirring elastic - check out my green insides!

So there you have it. Two shirred sundresses for this crazy heat. I have two pieces of fabric cut for another for me and another for M. We're both sweating our little hearts out!

Simplicity 2444

Two posts in one week! Today I have the day at home by myself! Amazing. This is because next week I am going to a conference on tuesday, a day I don't usually work. So I got today off in lieu of tuesday. Yay! A whole day of uninterrupted sewing and catching up on episodes of my favourite TV series. I'm also going for a long run this arvo before picking up Little M - I've got Run For The Kids on sunday and need to fit a long one in before doing the 15km circuit on sunday.

Anyway, onto to the sewing! I made Simplicity 2444 a couple of weeks ago.

It is made in a cotton sateen from Spotlight that Leith picked up for me when my local Spotlight didn't have it. Thanks Leith!

See that sneaky little baby getting in on the fun!

This dress is not a difficult make, but as per usual, I had to adjust the pattern to get it to fit. I made a size 12, but it was gaping very badly at the neckline. So I followed Leith's suggestion and slashed up the centre of all the darts (4 in the front bodice and 2 in the back bodice) and folded out the excess at the neckline. I folded out approximately 10cm in total! Weird pattern drafting I have to say. I'm pretty broad shouldered so I'm not sure who they're drafting for.

That is the only alteration I made, apart from lining the dress (the pattern doesn't call for lining - again something I find odd). I also changed to a handpicked zip at the CB instead of an invisible zip as I've had two invisible zips break on me lately. I'm just not in the mood for the trouble they cause so I used a regular zip. I think I prefer the way the invisible zips look though - what are your preferences?

This cotton sateen is very stiff, so it makes me think this dress probably needs a fabric with a fair amount of structure to make it sit nicely.

Cheeky little baby. She was dancing all over the place.

I made this as a work dress and have had so many nice compliments. A few of the women at work have bought sewing machines as they like my handmade garments! It is great when people get interested in sewing... then there are more people for me to talk endlessly to!  

Ginger and Sorbetto - perfect summer wear

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on my last post - I'm feeling very loved. If I was more organised, I'd have loved to take part in Debi's Sew Grateful week, but darling Little M is teething like nothing else, so I've been busy holding what is usually a very active and non-cuddly baby this week. Kinda blissful for me given she's usually not so cuddly (just a pity it's cos she's in pain!). I do have a giveaway planned for very soon though, so listen out.

Prior to this week however, Little M has been very obligingly having huge lunch time naps. Which means sewing time for me! I bought this lovely orange cotton sateen from Spotlight a while ago for $5/m, and thought it would look wonderful as an A-Line. So I made up the Colette Patterns Ginger skirt.

I like this skirt. It came together easily, though I found I had to go up a size -- did anyone else find it runs a smidge small? Usually I'm uniformly the one size in Colette Patterns.

I love the way the facing is attached in this skirt, and after reading the instructions some time ago, have been using it on all my skirts. You sew the facing down next to the invisible zip using a regular zipper foot. Am I dumb that I didn't think to do this before? I'd been hand-stitching the facing down. Ah well.

Do you like my personalised clothing tags? Michael got them for me for Christmas! Aren't they awesome? And extremely useful for telling which is the back of a skirt! Thank you my love - I'd been hankering for some for quite a while.

I also made this black cotton voile Sorbetto. I made the bias binding in the same fabric, and used french seams everywhere. It is very light and breezy. I got the voile from Rathdowne Fabrics and Remnants - I think it has some bargains, but feel it has gotten more expensive now that it has exposure via Project Runway.

In other news, I am thoroughly sick of my hair. I am thinking about cutting it very short - a la Jean Seberg - what do you think? My reservations are that the last time I had my hair that short I weighed a good 6 kilos less and my face looked quite different. Will it suit me?

Isn't she gorgeous? Pity about the cigarette - though I guess it was the done thing at the time.