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? 

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pattern: Vintage Simplicity 7454

On Instagram there is a wonderful hashtag set up by Lisa from Tessuti Fabrics. It is #vintagepatternsearch. Basically you post a picture of the pattern you're trying to source, in the hope that someone out there in Internet-land will have the pattern and lend it/sell it/give it to you.

I desperately wanted to make this beauty, Simplicity 7454.

I could find the medium on Etsy, but I needed the size small. So I hashtagged away. Luckily, Colette from Tessuti had a copy she was willing to lend me. Even more luckily, Colette traced the pattern for me and sent it to me. Thank you Colette! I was so stoked to receive it.

This pattern has a bit more of a story since I received it. Since I got my mitts on Colette's pattern, I managed to get hold of another copy for Christy, who is now sending it to Jillian. Who knows where this pattern will go next!

For now though, my copy is staying with meeeeeee. Hehehe.

For this version, I made the midi-length, in a heavy-ish black linen from my stash.

Well, I love it!

Changes I made:

• Took it in at the sides by 1cm on each side. 
• Tucked the facing to the inside - the pattern calls for it to be on the outside.
• Omitted the buttons/ties. I can get it on over my head without any closure. 

Those ties were nearly the death of me though. I could not get them to sit flat. It took three goes of unpicking and repositioning. Lucky I like the dress so much.

Can you tell I'm pleased with it? I wore it for the first time in Melbourne two weekends ago, and it was a dream to wear. Very comfy and cool. I am definitely making more!

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!

Ruby in Manning

Tomorrow Michael and I have been married for 7 years (we've been together for 12 years). Happy anniversary babe!

To celebrate, I booked in my sister to babysit lunch time next Sunday (she's pretty busy at the moment so no night-time hot dates for us). Then my lovely friend Therese (chooktopia on Instagram), who is also mum to Little M's BFF, asked if Little M could come for a playdate today at her place, and told me and Mike to go out for lunch. As if we would refuse!

In anticipation of next Sunday, I had made myself the new Tessuti pattern, the Ruby Top/Dress to wear on our date. Any excuse for a new frock, I say. I made it in a Liberty Lawn called 'Manning' that I have had in my stash for some time.

 

Tessuti list suitable fabrics as "light to medium weight linens or linen blends, rayons, viscose and silks". I think I am just scraping in using a lawn. I tried on the sample in Tessuti, made of silk crepe de chine and it flowed over my body better. It also sat at the neckline a tad more nicely.

Don't get me wrong - this lawn version is super comfy and I really like the way it looks, but that crepe de chine sample was all sorts of divine.

See how the lawn billows a little? The silk didn't do that.

I made the size 8, grading to a size 10 at the arm-holes (I know there is a more correct term than that, but I'm too tired to google it and find out) only. I do have quite broad shoulders. I also lengthened the dress length by 8cm and used the teeniest baby hem. I have cut out a viscose crepe version to sew at Sewjourn soon and lengthened by 10cm.

I really like the cut-away arms and the key hole back. I do wish there had been information in the instructions on how to make a thread loop though. I had to search around for a tutorial - the one I found was on the Oliver and S website. 

I didn't stitch-in-the-ditch for the binding on the neck and arms. I don't possess that level of finesse in ditch-stitching and love hand-stitching anyway, so I hand-stitched that binding down. Worked a treat and it meant I could control the tension on the binding to. Take note if you make this - you really do need to stretch the binding a little to get it to sit nicely. 

So, there you have it! A Ruby in Manning. I think I'll wear this a lot. It was very cool to wear on this 37 degree day here today. I have cut out a linen version and the viscose crepe I mentioned before - both to sew at Sewjourn. I also think I'll buy some silk crepe de chine in the fabric sales post-Christmas and make another Ruby dress to wear to my sister's hen's night in February. Are you going to make this? I think it is a great basic with an edge. I see many of the tops in my future too.

Vogue 1395: The Meat Dinner Dress

Every year, Michael's family has two fancy-pants dinners together where we all go to a nice restaurant and eat (way too much), drink and be merry. They are generally scheduled around birthdays - one in April, one in October. The one this October was last night at San Telmo, an Argentinian restaurant here in Melbourne. It was a meat-fest and I woke up craving some crisp greens and tomatoes. Michael suggested we have lamb chops for dinner tonight and is still laughing at the filthy look I gave him. I like meat (love a good quality rare steak), but not to that extent - I have reduced my intake of red meat drastically in the last year and feel much healthier for it.

Anyway, I decided to make a dress to wear - I'm a bit sick of the good old sack at the moment, and feel like some waist definition. I decided I would sew a new pattern - one of the Rebecca Taylor for Vogue ones - V1395.

This is a fairly basic dress made less basic by the addition of a back overlay that extends into the ties at the waist. I was intrigued after seeing Morgan's Bee Version. Morgan is one of my favourite bloggers. I decided to use my rather precious length of rayon from Darn Cheap Fabrics that I bought after Jenny made this top out of it. The fabric is lush, but was horrible to sew for this dress. Narrow hems and slinky rayon were not made for each other and I had to unpick a lot. Luckily I made this when Little M was out, as she would now have a lot of very choice swear words in her vocabulary too. This is what I ended up with:

I made some adjustments after a muslin. I had to take 3.5cm out of each shoulder seam, beginning at the neck edge. I then added 3cm to the length of the bodice, and 5cm to the skirt length.

In these photos, the neckline looks way too high, and I admit for the first two hours I wore it, it annoyed the living daylights out of me. Magically though, after those 2 hours, it somehow settled in place and sits about 2cm lower - which is where I wanted it. I wonder what happened? So weird.

My wings. That is the back overlay being extended out, which you then tie in front (obviously). I found I had to cinch it in pretty firmly, otherwise I looked a little pregnant (which I'm not).

That's a pretty awesome tan line happening there!! I accidentally got burnt at Phillip Island last weekend. I am usually so anal about being sunsmart. 

While I didn't completely enjoy making this dress, I really enjoyed sewing something different and something that wasn't a sack. I'm not ruling out future sacks, but I don't reach for them as I used to. Maybe when summer properly hits I will.

I'm currently making a dress to wear to my sister's professional ball in two weeks. I have barely started - I have no sewjo!!! What are you sewing?

Red Moneta

Like everyone else in blogland, I decided to jump on the Moneta bandwagon. I almost didn't as last year I made the Dixie DIY Ballet Dress twice. To be truthful however, I have never been super happy with either of those makes, primarily due to the skirt almost hugging my tummy. There is nowhere to hide in those dresses, especially when you've eaten. I don't like feeling like I have to suck my tummy in. So I thought I've give Moneta a shot, given it has a gathered skirt.

I REALLY should have edited this photo before uploading it. Untidy bedroom in the background ahoy!

I used a very soft cotton knit from Clegs. The pattern asks for too much fabric -  I made this out of about 1.6m of fabric.

I made a size Small, and lengthened it 2cm at the waist, and 2cm in the skirt. I did this as the cotton knit is not at all weighty, and other sewists had noted heavier knits pulled the bodice down, eliminating any need for lengthening. Obviously, I had the opposite problem. When I made my Jaywalk Moneta/V1027 mash-up, I didn't lengthen the bodice as the viscose Jaywalk fabric is quite weighty.

I also used the extra-large width at the shoulders only - using a larger shoulder width is a standard adjustment for me now.

I am pretty happy with this dress. There is one area I'm not happy with - the excess fabric in the upper-side-bust:

I've noticed this issue on almost every Moneta made up. Anyone know why this is happening? It's not enough for me to really worry about it in terms of wearability, but I am fascinated regarding why this is happening.

I've got two more of these planned. They are just so easy to wear and are a pretty cute silhouette. Are you going to get your Moneta on?

Chambray Obsession: A Spotty Camber

Readers, I dream in chambray at the moment. I see it everywhere. It haunts me, making me believe that every garment should be in chambray. And yet, I cannot find dark denim chambray anywhere. Tessuti had lovely pale stuff, but the colour was much too pale for me. Over summer I did find some dark coloured spotty chambray at Tessuti Surrey Hills. I bought the last of the roll - about 1.6m of it. I   had thought I would make a bomber jacket out of it, but then realised it was too fine.

So I decided to make another Camber Dress by Merchant and Mills. I wear my linen version so much I knew this would be a wardrobe staple, and it only takes about 1.5m of fabric.

Guess who loves her Santa hat so much it is being worn as a trans-seasonal, every day hat? Hint: it's not me or Bessie.  

I made it the same as my last one. Size 14 at the shoulders and a size 10 through the body. I accidentally cut it too short however, so I bound the hem to preserve as much length as possible.

Look at my spot matching down the back through the yoke and dress! Almost perfect.

I love this dress. The chambray is really soft. It is perhaps a smidge too short. I wore it to Little M's birthday party yesterday (a blog post on that to come!), and had to be a little careful with how I sat/bent etc., especially as it was a fine day (phew!) and I wasn't wearing tights.

So, my question is -- where do I find lovely dark plain chambray? Please, if you know, I need all the details!

Let's Par-tay: Simplicity 1873

I mentioned in my second-last post that a little while ago I asked my Instagram friends to weigh in on whether I should sew Simplicity 1688 or Simplicity 1873 for my sister's first engagement party (a dinner at Seamstress Restaurant - how befitting!):

Overwhelmingly (apart from two people!) the answer was 1873. Well, you already know that I mashed up the two patterns to make a sheath, but I also did as I was told, and made 1873 for the engagement dinner!

This one is made from an amazing mid-weight Italian cotton with some stretch from Tessuti. I lined the bodice only in blue anti-static lining, also from Tessuti. 

Here are the changes I made :

• I took 10cm out of the neckline - a standard adjustment for me, but I do wonder what is going on drafting wise. 
• For the under arm seams only, I used a 2.5cm seam allowance tapering to the standard 1.5cm at the waist.
• I took a 2cm horizontal dart out of the skirt the entire way around as I had some very odd pouching just above my hips. 
• I extended the back darts by about 1.5cm as I had excess fabric there. 
• I lengthened the skirt by 10cm so that I could keep it short with a 10cm hem. I like a really deep hem (5cm turned up twice) in a full skirt. 

This is actually really comfortable. The bodice has some ease in it so it is excellent for eating a huge meal in. Ruth's 30th Birthday dinner was last night - we went to Meat & Wine Co. in Hawthorn. I've been to the one at Southbank a couple of times for business lunches, but the one in Hawthorn is a bit nicer in my opinion. The decor is a bit fancier. I had a very good steak. And a creme brûlée. Then we went back to Ruth's house and played cards for a while. Little M was at a sleepover at her mate's house - although she's had a few sleepovers before, I still feel weird coming back to the house without her there. And my stupid body clock woke me at 7am. Grrr. 

So this is my par-tay dress! I haven't really been sewing for myself of late. I have had lots of birthday presents for kids, and Little M's birthday dress and leggings. I have toiled the Sigma Dress by Papercut Patterns and am really hoping to start that this weekend. Wish me luck!

Pia in Linen

It will be no surprise to you that I've sewn up Tessuti's latest pattern, the Pia Dress. I have well-documented my love for their designs, in particular the dresses. I'm planning a Tokyo jacket soon, and a Zoe top. When I saw the Pia Dress released, I knew I'd sew it quickly. And I did!

I sewed it in a lovely medium weight enzyme washed black linen from Tessuti. The weight of this linen is amazing, and it is soft and drapes beautifully. I had an issue washing it though - weird slightly raised lines have appeared on the fabric - has anyone had this issue? I pre washed without detergent and the lines appeared then washed with detergent and they remain. Weird.

This is the size small, sewn with larger seam allowances than the pattern provides. I sewed a size small in some linen Anna gifted me, and it was huge and quite unflattering. So I made this black one with approximately 1.7cm seam allowances instead of the 1.25cm the pattern directs you to use. I now have a much more flattering fit.

When they released the pattern, Tessuti showed Lisa wearing hers belted. I decided to give that look a go last night to go out for dinner with my mothers' group. I can't decide which look I prefer. What do you think?

I don't have much to say, review wise. Apart from using larger seam allowances, I shortened the dress by 3cm. Yes, I shortened it!! Amazing.

It was a comfy dress to wear to dinner. We went to Pizza Farro and I had an extremely delicious Margherita with buffalo mozzarella. Yum. I ate the whole pizza - that is pretty unusual for me! Then I had a scoop of homemade chocolate gelato for dessert. It was intensely rich but so good.

I'll leave you with this last picture. I was so tired when I went out. I can't remember if I've told you but my sister Ruth is getting married! Woohoo! We have been wedding dress shopping, and yesterday was an all-day affair. I'm finding my energy levels after working 4 days are fairly abysmal, so after a full day of wedding dress shopping I was bordering on too tired to go out for dinner. I had a small cat nap while posing for pictures….

I'm hoping I get used to this 4th day soon - I need some energy to sew!!