In Season Silk Competition - or the dress of swishy swishyness

When Tessuti announced the In Season Silk Competition, I got really excited. You see, I love the pinky-purple coloured silk. The other colour-way is not for me, but the other one was definitely my cup of tea.

Happily, I had the Brisbane Spoolettes High Tea to prepare for, meaning I had the perfect occasion to sew a silk frock for.

I am also going through a stage of wanting to wear things that have more waist definition. So, I sewed a vintage Style pattern - 2667.

I sewed Version 1, with the shoulder ties. 

I love it. I can't say how much I adore this dress! I wore it to my Mum's 60th Birthday lunch too and had many compliments. 

So swishy. 

I lined the whole dress in silk-cotton. The dress actually calls for a bodice facing, but there is no way that silk crepe de chine would hold up to a fitted dress well without lining. 

I hung the skirt for 72 hours. It dropped badly - but with some muttering under my breath, I evened that baby out and hand stitched the hem. It drapes beautifully now, particularly with the full lining underneath.  

I love the v-neck and v-back. I'm slightly obsessed with them at the moment (stay tuned for another v-neck dress). I stay-stitched the living daylights out of that neckline and the ties. Previous experience has taught me that they can stretch badly. 

To the Spoolettes High Tea, I wore it with these amazing Red Phoenix Emporium earrings. They are so light and so cool. 

So that's my entry to the competition. I am so chuffed with it - it is a dress I will wear to death and I feel really good in it! 

It was also good to challenge myself by sewing with a trickier fabric and sewing something fitted - I'm having a break from my beloved sacks. 

Are you entering the competition? 

Kate Top Sewing Competition

After a little hiatus from sewing for me, I decided to enter the Kate Sewing Competition run by Tessuti. Kate is their new top pattern and is a shell top with a cropped length and side splits. I chose to make it in an awesome printed stretch cotton also from Tessuti (now sold out).

My Kate came together beautifully. I cut the size small and ended up taking it in. I'm currently making another and am making the extra-small.

I love these cut-away sleeves on my broad shoulders. It shows them off beautifully.

The pattern on this fabric was not printed straight, but I think I made it work. I used the option for concealed binding on the neck edge and armholes. I used some linen in my stash for the binding.

The instructions for the split are great and easy to follow. You end up with a beautifully finished garment.

So now I have a new top that I totally love! I initially wasn't sure about the colours on me as they are quite different from my usual choices, but I really like how they look on me.

How about you? Are you entering the Kate Competition?

Tessuti Gridlock Sewing Competition Entry

Have everyone been watching the entries for the Tessuti Gridlock Sewing Competition pop up all over the place? There are some mighty fine creations out there. I have thrown my hat in the ring too - there is $1000 at stake! Think of all the fabric you could buy with $1000!

For this competition you have to use the fabric 'Gridlock' from Tessuti. It is a jacquard, and I must admit I wasn't sure what to make. In the end, I chose the Merchant and Mills Panel Dress Pattern. I thought something simple with pattern pieces that might allow me to use both sides of the fabric might do the trick. 

I hadn't used a Merchant and Mills pattern before so I muslined it. I think this was necessary as the Merchant and Mills patterns are not multi-sized. You pick your size and hold your breath and hope for the best. I chose the size 12 and it didn't require too many alterations.  

The pattern is pretty amazing. It comes printed on card with all the holes punched out already (i.e., for your darts and all the notches). It comes rolled in the cylinder and also has a hook to hang the pattern pieces from (they now live hanging on my wall in my sewing room.). Pretty cool huh? 

Here are the alterations I made:

• I added a back vent. 
• I lowered the neckline by 1.5cm.
• I took in the CF by 3cm in total.
• I took in the CB at the top by 2cm. 

I had a lot of fun deciding which side of the fabric to do each panel - here is what I came up with:

I decided to underline the entire dress in blue silk/cotton lining from Tessuti. I hand basted it all together (it took me FOREVER):

And here is the dress!

I'm not going to lie - I'm not sure this colour is for me. Blogless Anna was over at my house a few weekends ago for a ladies' sewing arvo and she tried it on - I think I will be gifting this dress to her. Her colouring really really suited the lovely jacaranda blue of this dress.

Colour aside, I had so much fun making this dress. It really made me pay a lot of attention to finishing the dress, and I had to really think about what to make as jacquard is not a fabric I naturally gravitate to (I'm really a cotton and linen girl).

So that is my competition entry - what do you think? Make sure you check out the Pinterest page Tessuti are putting all the entries onto (look on the Tessuti blog for the link) - there are some really amazing garments popping up!