Staple dress is DONE!

So I finally got around to hemming my Staple dress (April Rhodes patterns) that I started on Sewing Weekend Away:

 There was much swearing and several glasses of wine as my machine seemed hell bent on sucking much of the fabric into the feed plate, but after a good nights sleep - and some reflection- we all got there.... more or less with sanity intact ;)
 I must admit after first assembling this dress - before the shirring - I did think OMG what a SACK! But row by row (16 rows in all) I finally cinched it in enough so that the dress now has some "shape" and shows of what little (post-kids) waist I still have.

Side view showing corset like shirring panel around waist. And yeah I'm thinking that the bra I'm wearing makes my chest look a bit weird too...Also is that a sway back alteration I'm needing???  

I managed to find a belt in my wardrobe that , while not the perfect colour, is a pretty good shape for this style of dress (at least on me). I think future dresses may be planned to tie in with this belt.... 

With belt.

Without belt.

All up I'm pretty happy with this dress pattern. The shirring was a new thing for me to try out but not as scary as I thought it would be. 
The high-low hem is a nice deviation from what I normally make/wear and surprisingly even though the neckline is not low cut I still don't feel like my boobs are the main feature when wearing this! 

The fabric used to make this dress is a vintage John Kaldor fabric that I picked up in a op-shop for a few dollars. I had no idea at the time of buying that John was such a big textile designer both in the Uk and Australia, maybe if I'd know I might have been a bit more careful with the cutting! Who am I kidding? I would have probably NEVER had cut into this had I know, so maybe its just as well...
As far as the fabric goes: make-up is pretty much 210% synthetic (the wrong side sparkles!) plus it has a slight stretch to it, two factors which I think when combined together helped make this murder to hem. The drape however is lovely and the textile design fairly timeless (I've already had a pretty "trendy" friend compliment me on the design). I figured the un-natural fibres would work OK in my wardrobe as long as I didn't the dress in the heat of summer or try to iron it...or near an open flame.
I added my usual 10-15 cm to length and unfortunately did not think about pocket placement post lengthening enough to make them practicable. My pocket got hacked out as they ended up being in the knee region, not a good look on anyone I think!

This dress has already had a short outing in public, while in mummy capacity, and fared well (dare I say) for something I slapped together made myself;)
More pics to follow.

'Til then...

Happy Sewing!

Kate x

New W.I.P - Lulu Block dress (Popolok design )

Recently Alviana from Popolok Design asked for testers for her latest children's pattern "The Lulu dress". 

I was one of the lucky facebook followers who put her hand up in time and now I am currently in the process of sewing up the "block" version of the Lulu dress.

Here's where I'm at right now:

As you can see I haven't strayed far from the original colour design. In fact freakily enough the yellow and aqua cotton drill seems almost a perfect match to the original. I say "freaky" because as far as I know my fabric was brought in Australia and I think Alviana would have gotten hers in Malaysia....

This is a fun pattern to make up, it goes together really easily and the choices for fabrics are endless. I'm really enjoying making this after the rush of Christmas sewing and just look at those colours- how can you not feel happy sewing with that. My scrap basket looks like a bubblegum flavoured icecream hee hee :D

Stay posted for more pics of the end product!

Kate :)

More Simplicity 5537 for Cooper

Here are a few pictures of the other shorts that I made from the Simplicity pattern for Cooper. As I was trying to knock these out pretty quick I decided to use my new Ikea pinking shears to finish the seams, with mixed results. Some fabrics behaved better than others when it came it not fraying after being pinked. All the shorts pictured have been worn and washed once only.

Camouflage print shorts

  

As the fabric was quite tightly woven they didn't fray too badly but I still decided to reinforce and zigzag the seams, as I think I trimmed the crotch seam a bit too heavily.

Skull and crossbone print AKA "Pirate " shorts

Fraying not too bad on side seam, just again had trimmed the crotch a bit too much.

Dino shorts-have now realized fabric is Chambray NOT denim :( 

Quite loosely woven and hence frayed like heck!

Even zigzagged over the side seams as I did not trust this not to fray more.

A cheap iron-on dinosaur decal I added. Has started to ball already so in future will look for FULLY WOVEN/ EMBROIDERED decals, NOT ones that use cheap felt for most of the colouring.

Prima pattern pics

Well as promised here is a view of the very easy Prima sundress. I think it would be ideal for a beginner sewer - or someone like me who just wants instant gratification ;P The weather is heating up here in Melbourne and I'm hoping to whip this one up real soon - though maybe  I would make two shoulder straps rather than the halter neck-tie so I could wear a bra underneath :)

I have included the Prima sizing chart so you can get an idea of what they mean by "size 10-20".

BTW I was looking for a website which had pics of the Prima pattern designs on it to link to - if anyone come across one I would be very grateful if you could drop me a line!