It's All About the Fabric

For some of you, this may be the most boring project I've ever posted.

Because…. I made ANOTHER Gabby dress!

But for others among you, this dress may be very exciting, because, well, look at that beautiful fabric!

Isn't it divine? It's a Japanese cotton-linen I got ages ago. It had been in my stash for a long time, waiting patiently for the right project or occasion. Finally the right occasion came around… a 46 degree day in Adelaide fabric shopping at The Drapery with Anna. Readers, I don't think I've ever experienced that type of heat before. I wasn't in Melbourne for Black Saturday and in Queensland it is pretty rare to get to 40, let alone well above it. I didn't enjoy the heat at all, and the next day (Friday of the Melbourne heat wave) it was still 44 degrees. I actually think I had some mild form of heat stroke as I felt soooooo tired and a bit sick in my tummy.

So I knew something very light, loose, and airy was needed. Inspiration struck and I decided to cut into my beloved piece of Japanese fabric. I wasn't sure what to make, and then just decided to make a Gabby as (1) I had very limited time to sew - I was back at work and knew I could knock out a Gabby in about 3 hours, even with hand stitching the sleeve hems and dress hem, (2) I wanted to let the fabric shine through, and (3) I knew I'd wear this dress a lot.

The spot is placed to irregularly to try and pattern match, and I'm okay with that.

Now onto Adelaide. It was so much fun and extravagant to fly somewhere for the day to go fabric shopping at one fabric store. Thank you Anna. What a treat you gave me! The Drapery is an amazing place to shop. Anna has reviewed it beautifully, but basically, if you love linen, Japanese double gauzes and fine wools, this is your place to shop. The linen in particular was amazing - I bought a Japanese teal linen and a Japanese Ikat-type printed linen. And a piece of Nani Iro double gauze. And… a linen scarf kit and some wool felt bead balls. Did I mention that I saved for this trip for months and I'm now banned from fabric shopping until May?!

P.S. - I'm wearing it with my lovely Elk sandals and and Elk necklace.

SEW BOSSY: Salme Patterns Playsuit

A few (many?) months ago I started noticing many of the bloggers I like to read had participated in something called the SEW BOSSY INITIATIVE.

The SEW BOSSY INITIATIVE is the brainchild of Heather from Closet Case Files (of Bombshell Swimsuit Fame) and Oonaballoona from Kalkatroona. Here are the ground rules:

Find a sewist pal whose style you admire and send each other a complete project by mail! This can be a great pattern or stash busting activity and does not have to cost a lot of money. Suggestions to include in the package:

1. A pattern or email link to a PDF pattern
2. Fabric
3. Lining
4. All necessary notions, threads, zippers, etc.
5. Love notes and candy. 

This is the perfect time to pass along a fabric you aren't sure was quite "you", or a pattern you don't feel like grading up.... but more importantly it is a chance to connect and bond with each other while we force ourselves out of our comfort zones and experiment with different colors, styles and ideas. Also, boss someone around their sewing machine. Think of it as the sewing world equivalent of a trust fall.

There are so many bloggers I admire, but if I could be any sewist for a day and be in her brain and steal all of her sewing ideas, it would have to be Kelli from True Bias. She had me at Ikat Blazer. So in October last year, I decided to take the plunge and contact Kelli. She said yes! Phew. It was kinda like asking someone for a date. We agreed to keep it pretty gentle - no hard and fast deadlines. 

I was pretty excited to see what Kelli would send me. When the package arrived, I tore it open extremely quickly. And inside was something I would never have ventured to myself, and I thank Kelli for making me think outside my sartorial boundaries, because I am now the proud owner of an Ikat Salme Patterns Playsuit.. 

Salme Patterns are PDF patterns and don't come with seam allowances, so the pattern required some prep work. Once I'd added the recommended 1cm seam allowances, I muslined the size 38. It needed the following adjustments:

1.  Lengthened the front crotch curve by 3cm.
2. Lengthened the back crotch curve by 2.5cm (to ascertain how much to lengthen by I measured the crotch curve of my Tessuti Chloe Pants - comparing against another pants pattern is my standard way of altering the crotch in pants). 
3. Took in the side seams another 1.5cm in total on each side.
4. Lengthened the shorts by 3cm.
5. Changed the pocket pieces completely. I really didn't like the way they were constructed so I changed the pockets to be constructed as per the Grainline Maritime Shorts - so much easier and neater). 

The Ikat fabric is soooo soft. I want more. A pleasure to sew.

The pattern calls for a purchased belt, and I do have a few nice belts, but I had seen a beautiful wide, colourful trim on Tessuti's Instagram page and knew I wanted to make a belt from it. So I purchased about 90cm, and some 5cm belt spacers from Buttonmania and made a very simple belt. I really like the belt with the playsuit - what do you think?

I admit I was a tad nervous about the logistics of a playsuit. I'm going to come out and say it - would I be able to go to the loo easily enough? I drink a lot of tea, so this is quite a concern for me. I was pleasantly surprised - it is actually quite easy to handle - it is more the belt that is annoying as I have to be a bit gentle with it.

So - Kelli, thank you for bossing me into a playsuit - I now have a playsuit for playing in! Naturally I had to test it's propensity for playing so I climbed our Japanese maple tree in the front yard. In wedges and in front of the neighbour's cool teenage daughter who plays really loud techno music in her car. I can report that the playsuit stood the test of tree climbing.

Make sure you pop over to Kelli's blog to see what I bossed her into making - our time differences mean her post may not be up yet… or maybe it is - I'm hopeless with time differences!

Thanks also to Heather and Oona for hosting the Sew Bossy Initiative - I hope they like what we've made! Are any of you playing along? It is very fun!

Sewjourn

On this Friday past, Leith, Anna, Lara and me headed to Sewjourn. Well, Anna arrived Saturday morning due to a mammoth house move I think you'll read about on her blog soon. Getting a booking at Sewjourn is like pulling hens teeth, so I felt extremely triumphant to be going. Like I was in a secret sewing society or something.

It did not disappoint. The house is a lovely cottage, and because there were only four of us, we each got our own bedroom with lovely handmade quilts. My room had a fireplace - very cute. The sewing studio is separate to the house and is a massive space with a huge table (lots of powerpoints) for all sewing machines and overlockers, several irons, a kitchenette for tea and coffee (and cake!), and a toilet. This is where we spent all our time.

We sewed like there was no tomorrow. I made seven garments - one of which required so much unpicking and alteration that I wanted to send it to the Sewing Naughty Corner never to return. It is made with Liberty though - Leith, Lara, and Anna were never going to let me leave it as a UFO.

I'm going to review each garment separately in the coming weeks, but thought you might like some dodgy iPhone photos as sneak peeks. I'm not going to give pattern info or anything - promise it is all coming soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phew! It might look like I didn't shower in some of these photos, but I promise I ate, showered and slept (a little bit). Lancefield is a lovely town and I even explored a wee bit on Saturday with Lara. There was a shop there with a lot of vintage fabric, but we were both very restrained. Mostly because the prices were a bit too expensive, but I was still very good!

Thank you to Leith, Lara, and Anna for an excellent weekend, and stay tuned for proper reviews on the things I sewed.

P.S. - like my new blog layout/template? Thanks to Michael for all his hard work on it - he's a gem!

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!!

Belladone ... My Belle

Frocktails was last night! What fun it was. Unfortunately I am a slacker and didn't get any photos of the event ..... I'm sure they'll be popping up in blogland pretty soon!

This post is therefore about my dress! I decided to make the Deer and Doe Belladone dress. I have wanted to make this dress since seeing PoppyKettle's Blue Version. How gorgeous!

After much toiling, this is what I came up with!

Isn't that fabric divine? It is a stretch cotton from Tessuti. Pretty heavy weight. I can't find it on the Tessuti website but I bought it about two months ago with this dress specifically in mind.

The binding is silk crepe de chine, also from Tessuti. It was very difficult to find a coordinating binding! Thank you to Anna and Lisa for helping me choose.

So.... the dress. Holy moly did I have to make some adjustments. I started with a size 38, and this is what I did:

1. Lowered the bust dart by 1.5cm (next time I will lower even more). 
2. Took 2cm total out of the front neckline.
3. Overlapped the back pieces by 9.5cm!! Weird as I am broad-shouldered.
4. Took 3cm total out of the lower back neck edge.
5. Added 1.5cm to the hem.

Here are some pictures of the altered pieces:

I also drafted facings instead of finishing them as per the pattern. I don't 'trust' an unlined dress at the best of times, and this dress relies on the bodice sitting beautifully and sturdily, so I decided to face it. This meant there was a lot of bulk in some of the bodice seams, so I catch-stitched the seams down so they lay flat. 

I'm glad I made the effort with the bodice - because look! No gaping! 

I am really happy with this dress! The fabric is divine and it was really nice to sew a fitted frock that is a bit fancy!

 I'm not sure I'll make this pattern again, but I am glad I have sewed it. What a lovely little frock it is. I wore it with my new Camper wedges and some Mimco studs. And a winter coat, because Melbourne weather sucks and it was cold!

I had a lot of fun - my highlights were meeting Renae from the Long and Winding Bobbin, consuming a ginger martini that was the bomb, and chatting to all the wonderful sewists who attended. My goodness the frocks that were worn were TO DIE FOR! Sequins, silks, rayons, laces..... I was in heaven. Thank you Kat for organising such a fantastic night!

EDITED TO ADD: I also forgot to say a massive thank you to Lara for taking my photos, giving me a lift and being a great friend!