French Noir Deux Libby Skirt

What came first - the pattern or the fabric? For me, the fabric - French Noir Deux - a stretch cotton from Tessuti came first. I went into Tessuti and nearly bought it for pants. Then I thought it had too much give for pants and that they would bag out. I went back about 2 weeks later and bought it to make the new free Tessuti pattern, the Libby A-Line Skirt.

I wore it out last weekend to a Japanese bath house and then to a Japanese restaurant for dinner with friends. So... no makeup (can't wear makeup when you're going for a cleansing soak!) - I feel odd looking at blog photos of me with no makeup!

Anyway, back to the fabric for a second. It is a heavy-ish weight stretch cotton. Almost like a denim with a lot of stretch. It has the pattern kind of embossed on it - this is a hand-wash only garment for fear of wearing off the pattern. I absolutely adore this fabric. I was thinking about getting some for a jacket...

The Libby A-Line Skirt is very simple to make. It has waist facings - no waistband. This to me, is much better than an A-Line skirt with a waistband. I could never figure out why I don't like the Colette Patterns Ginger Skirt, and now I know why. The waistband made my tummy pooch out below it. It wasn't comfy or flattering. This is much better. I also like how this looks with a shirt tucked out - I never wear my shirt tucked in anymore.

I made the size 8. I tried on the size 10 in the Tessuti store and it fit perfectly, but this fabric has a lot of stretch so I sized down. I made it in the mid-length - it is probably more in line with the mini length, but I am tall. I am finding that as I get older my skirt lengths get waaaay shorter. Wonder what that is about??!!

The skirt came together in a few hours, including hand-stitching the hem. It is very simple. Has a side invisible zip. I'll be making more. Definitely be making more. How about you? Are you going to give it a go?

Tessuti's Eva Dress

When Tessuti released their Eva Dress Pattern, I wasn't sure I would make it. I don't know what it was, but I didn't feel immediately drawn to it. And then something happened. It started to call to me… 'make me Rachel, please, you'll love me'. My dreams were full of Evas, I kept seeing them out of the corner of my eye. Instead of seeing words about sexual violence and online communication technologies on the pages of journal articles I started seeing 'Eva, Eva, Eva'.

I can't ignore the call of a good pattern, so I bought this fabric to make one. I made it up at Sewjourn (pictures on that one to come), but before going to Sewjourn, Mum took me on my fabric shopping spree, and I saw an amazing textured cotton-nylon mix at Tessuti that had Eva written all over it. I had to have it. I made this up just before Christmas one morning when Michael took Little M to see his best mate.

This fabric is so hard to photograph! I made the size small, and used larger seam allowances (1.5cm instead of 1.25cm), so it is somewhere between the small and extra-small.

It sewed up beautifully. I must admit that I didn't use the instructions at all. Leith had made this up at Sewjourn before I did, so I learnt from the process by which she made hers. I love the bound hem - this gives an incredibly neat finish, but gosh you need a lot of bias binding!

Here is a close-up shot of the texture of the fabric.

I wore this yesterday to go on a movie date with Michael. We both love a bit of slapstick-potty humour so we saw Anchorman 2. Not as good as the first one, but still quite hilarious. This Eva was a perfect movie date dress - comfy yet stylish. I'm saving my Aquamarine Ripple version to wear to a very special day-trip to Adelaide with Anna next thursday - lots of fun photos for that to come!

P.S. - thank you to everyone who gave suggestions regarding Little M's sunscreen allergy. We have ordered some special cream from David Hosking's Pharmacy - he makes his own creams, of which we used his nappy rash cream (a pure miracle). I am going to try and get the Hamilton's sunscreen as yesterday she had some Banana Boat on and her poor little face flared. She has started scratching at it and I am worried it will become infected so hopefully the David Hosking cream will arrive quickly. xx

Saltspring

I am a total sucker for a maxi dress. I think it is because I love summer. I love the heat, I love to sweat a little, I love being outdoors and not feeling cooped up inside. This winter, Melbourne is my arch nemesis. I feel as though we are having the worst winter I've yet to experience. It probably isn't helped by the fact I had a sinus operation and then have caught a cold that won't go away, but this Melbourne winter sucks. Windy, rainy, cold..... blah. Bring on summer!

Luckily next week Little M and I are heading to Brisbane, my home town. Michael is off to Germany for a conference and us girls are going to see my family and take advantage of the beautiful 28 degree days Brissie is having.

In preparation for this, I've sewed a few summery things for us both. First off the rank to show you is Sewaholic's Saltspring Dress.

I really need a pedicure. My feet have been enclosed in shoes for too long!

Look at that little pup in the background!

I sewed this in a size 8 with the only alteration being adding 3cm to the length of the skirt. I omitted the zip, and that was that. Hello Saltspring.

This dress comes together very easily. As other reviews have noted, the genius element of this dress is that the bodice lining pieces are shorter than the outer, so the blousing effect happens naturally. I love it. I only wore it to take the pics this morning, but I sat and had morning tea in it (albeit with a fleece jacket over the top!) with Little M and it was extremely comfortable. I think it gives a nice silhouette - what do you think? Maybe a little pregnancy-suspcious from the side? I'm not in case you're wondering!

The other thing I love about this dress is the pockets. That, to me, is genius. Pockets in a maxi dress.

The fabric is a light to medium weight cotton from the Alannah Hill warehouse that I got on a whim with no specific purpose in mind a while back. It was $6/m and was a joy to sew. I wish I'd gotten more.

I can see this dress getting a lot of wear come the warmer months here. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to sew a Liberty version as my Christmas dress. I've gotten the Tiny Dancer print from the current collection for Little M's Christmas dress - she is going to look insanely gorgeous!!!!

Pattern: Sewaholic's Saltspring Dress
Fabric: 3m cotton from the Alannah Hill Warehouse
Notions: none
Size: 8
Alterations: lengthened skirt by 3cm, omitted zip.

My Most Favourite Skirt in the World

Do you make yourselves a special garment for Christmas day? I do. I've gotten into the habit since I started sewing, and as of next Christmas, I'm going to sew something special for Little M too. I'm also going to sew her birthday dresses every year - I've got the cutest pattern picked out for this year - more on that to come soon.

This year I had a sew myself something that would allow me to breastfeed, and something heat-friendly - Melbourne's weather on Christmas day was tropical - reminded me of my Queensland home! When we were in Italy, Tessuti posted this skirt made by Georgia on their blog. I immediately fell into lust, and wanted to make my own using some of my Singapore cotton. Here is what I came up with:

I used a yoked waistband off a simple skirt pattern, and the tiers are just rectangles of the fabric - the full width and 25cm long. I didn't have enough fabric to make 3 tiers - I stupidly didn't check my fabric width, made the skirt using 3 tiers (1st tier is one piece of fabric, 2nd tier is two, 3rd tier is three), slipped it on to test the fit and looked like I was wearing a bandage on the top half. My fabric was 110cm wide, Georgia's lovely version was 145cm wide. Woops. So I unpicked and started again. Dedication I say.

I fully lined it using a viscose lining from my stash as the fabric is very sheer - the lining makes the skirt more full and very swishy, which I love. Who doesn't love a good twirl?

The best part of the skirt to me though is the pom-pom trim along the hem (completely copied from Georgia). It is from Tessuti, and is extremely cute (Little M thinks so too - she tried to rip it off - I think she's brilliant for using her pincer grip, but would prefer her not to practice on my skirt :-). I used just under 4m.

I feel very feminine in this skirt, and hope to wear it more this summer - I might wear it to lunch with a dear friend of mine today. I don't know what to start on next - got the Colette Patterns Handbook for Christmas from Michael - should I make the Meringue skirt? Any other suggestions?

Lisette Portfolio Tunic and More Clovers

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a lovely holiday period here, did you? It was great to have Michael at home, and Little M loved Christmas and all the wonderful gifts she received from everybody. And she gave us a wonderful Christmas present - she started to crawl on Boxing Day! Prior to that she had been commando-crawling, but on Boxing Day she really took off. I'm run off my feet keeping up now though!


With Michael being at home I had some time to sew. As I mentioned in my last post, I was hankering for a black pair of the Clover trousers. So they got made - the only change I made was to decrease the front crotch length by 1cm - I think I'm happier with the new crotch length, but haven't worn the pants for any length of time yet to tell.

I also really need a few more 'nice' shirts - I wear t-shirts most of the time, and am sick of them. I don't really have too many shirt patterns in my collection, so at the Clegs Boxing Day Sale, when all patterns are $5, I picked up Simplicity 2245, the Lisette Portfolio tunic.

I made view C, the shirt. It is a very easy make - the only quandary I faced was that my bust size is a size 14 (!!) and the rest of my body equates to a 10. So I went the middle ground and cut a 12, and took in the side seams from the bust point down. Probably not the 'proper' way to do it, but I wanted something that was easy to make. 

I made this out of my lovely Singapore cotton, with some scraps of linen from Tessuti in my stash. I love this blouse - love the collar, and the cute button detail at the back.

I really recommend this pattern - it is a simple project with enough cute details to play around with. I think I'm going to make the longer dress-length tunic - but have so many projects on my mind at the moment!

Clover Pants and Jasmine Blouse

Ah, home sweet home. We've been back about two weeks now, and while I really didn't want to come home, now that I'm here it is lovely. I'm reunited with my pup, have been to Brisbane to see my old friends (had a great engagement party to go to) and see my family, and have caught up with my Melbourne friends. And it's Christmas time! I love Christmas, and this year will be especially exciting with Little M.

Since we got back I have repaired the zip on my Clover pants. What a mission! So.. here is my review.

These pants are easy to put together, but challenging to fit. I ended up making 3 muslins before sewing the 'good' version. In the end I gave up trying to get a completely smooth look. I think I'd still be going if I did. 

See the wrinkling around the crotch? And around the knees? I tried like the devil to fix that, but no dice. I made a size 6 for my first muslin, out of material that had stretch. I didn't like the fit, so I cut another muslin out of different stretch fabric to see if it made a difference. The size 6 were huge. So I cut a size 4, and made the following adjustments:

• Lengthened both the front and back crotch by 3.5cm each. 
• Graded between a 2 and a 4 for the waistband.
• Added a smidgeon (probably about 0.5cm) to the inner thighs, tapering to nothing at about the bottom of the knee. 

The fabric I used is a grey stretch (2%) denim from Tessuti, with a bit of a stripe in it. I love the fabric. These pants do stretch out quite a bit after a day of wear, but I think they still look fine.

I desperately want to make a black pair (got a lovely remnant from Tessuti that will be perfect) -- but am thinking of reducing the crotch length by about 0.5cm to only 3cm. What do you think? At the moment they sit on my belly button - I think they're meant to sit below?

I also made the Jasmine blouse to go with these pants. It is a lovely blouse and easy to construct. I made it from a very sweet and very sheer swiss dot cotton (also from Tessuti). I made a size 6 -- I love breastfeeding, but I do not love the increase in my bust size. I'm hoping when I wean Little M that they will go back to my normal size and this blouse will be a bit looser across the bust.

I'd love your advice regarding the pants - I've never had to fit to such an extent before.. and while the Colette Patterns' sew-a-long for the Clovers was wonderful, I found it hard to 'diagnose' my fit issues. I think I need someone there with me to say 'oh yes, those knee wrinkles are due to (insert fit issue)'. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Black Bow Beignet

I've made the lovely Beignet pattern before in red linen. But I need some wardrobe basics, and a black skirt was on my list. So I got Beignet out again and made it in the same heavy black linen from Tessuti as my 40's wide-leg trousers are made.

I used a green cotton poplin from my stash to line it, and some buttons from good old Spotlight. I made it in a size 6 with no alterations - a bit of a surprise as I usually have to add length.

I don't really have anything new to add regarding this pattern. The most difficult thing about it is sewing the lining and the skirt together at the front facing - there are two opposing curves that require careful pinning and a lot of patience. Apart from that, there are many pieces to put together, but they are not difficult.

I did two things differently - instead of sewing in the cotton tape around the waistband the pattern calls for I sewed a wide piece of grosgrain ribbon. I did this as the waist of my red linen Beignet stretches out quite significantly. The wide grosgrain ribbon seems to really hold it in place.

The second thing I did differently was sew one of Tilly's bow belts using her excellent tutorial. I think the bow belt makes the skirt all the more cute!

This skirt will get a lot of wear - a black skirt is so versatile. I am really loving all of my Colette patterns at the moment - do you have patterns in your collection you faithfully return to?