Spice of life

A while back, before my steely determine to focus on only essential wardrobe sewing, I signed up for a bag sewing workshop with my sewing guild.  A group of us got together today with Monica Poole working from a single pattern Spice of Life Moon Shine bag.  It was amazing to see the variety of styles that we came up with - from traditional cotton quilted bags to leopard print faux fur to my own woven upholstery carpet bag.

I'm really quite proud of my foray into bag making, although confess to leaving off the inner pockets in order to complete the magnetic closure by the end of the workshop.  The fabric and even stiff wadding made for hard going and I broke four needles in the making.  Not sure how many bags I will make into the future, but this is definitely not my last.

Meanwhile back at real sewing ranch, my faux leather skirt is nearly finished and looks great with the gold blouse and these funky vintage 80s three toned brown suede court shoes I found in a bag of junk in my garage.  My Beignet has just been unpicked and re-pinned as it was way too big.  Frankly I am worried about the Beignet as the high waist may not be the easiest look for me to pull off.  We shall see.

Happy sewing ladies!

From boho to the boardroom

From boho to the boardroom just about sums up my wardrobe requirements.  2012 sewing wise will be a year of practical sewing, not making garments for 'fantasy me' - who by the way is terribly glamorous,  slim and wears lots of slinky knit frocks - and not following every trend in blogland.  Nope.  In 2012 I intend make at least 30 separates that coordinate with existing garments or with other pieces I'm making.  A SWAP of sorts, but not a published list to check off.

Had a bit of the slow start to the year due to a horrible bronchial infection courtesy of Singapore Airlines, but I'm very happy with my productivity to date. 

First up my second 'this is me' kaftan, made from silk voile purchased on the Goldhawk Road in London.  Sometimes you know exactly what a piece of fabric will become right away. I had actually finished my purchases at the store when I saw this fabric out of the corner of my eye.  One touch and I was handing over the plastic fantastic again.  It is not as see through as the flash photography suggests.  I'm wearing it to a friend's 50th birthday party.

My gold silk blouse McCalls 6436 was almost still born.  My original version included pockets that were so droopy they had to be removed and the slippery, stretchiness of this fabric frustrated me.  Then I ran out of matching cotton, so left it to work on the more satisfying kaftan project.  I do love the finished product.  I am planning to use buttoned down soft drapey blouses with more rigid structured skirts a key part of my 'boardroom' wardrobe.

Next up, I have two skirts cut. A brown faux leather and a black ponte Beignet.

Happy sewing!

European odyssey

Hard to know where to start with this post. I've just returned from 20 days in Paris, London and various parts of Spain with my 16 year old daughter who had just finished 6 weeks at school in Paris.
I had planned a travel wardrobe, but in the end I ran out of time and inclination. The only completed item is my striped t-shirt from Simplicity 3688 which I wore on the plane. Highly recommend this pattern and will definitely make again in a silk.  I also added a fur collar and made some length alterations to a second-hand overcoat.  I would love to have seen the original owner, maxi length legs and very short arms!
The main focus of the trip was art and culture. But would it been any fun without meeting up with blogging friends and fabric purchases? Of course not!  I was delighted to meet with Marie Noelle in Paris.  Marie Noelle lives in Normandy and we spent a lovely day together visiting fabric stores in Montematre and sharing lunch.  In Paris I bought two lovely pieces of silk (one habitae, one sheer chiffon) and 3 metres of very fine Italian linen.  I also bought some buttons, sans photograph.  I love that "Je suis la!" look I have in this photo.

London was also exciting from a sewing point of view.  First up I met with Jane at Goldhawk Road who bought along her pals, Alana and Suzy. Goldhawk Road is fantastic with many small fabric shops, including one Alladin's cave of last season Libery silks, voiles and cottons and some top quality, low price wool.
My loot included a fabulous piece of wool boucle, grey cashmere for trousers, some liberty silk, voile and cotton pieces.

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 I was also excited to meet Eugenia a blogger who I have amired for a long time.  We met up outsite Libertys looking at the current lines, then went to a few of her favourite stores nearby. I bought just one more piece of very fine cotton spotted blousing and some trim for a planned kaftan.

Last up I met with Paco in Barcelona. Paco is a very talented designer who has recently branched into pattern making.  While Paco's English isn't great, we spoke a common language of fabric. He took me to Roger de Luria Street, which has three large caverns of fabric at great prices. I had to be fairly judicious about my purchases as my suitcase was already bulging with cloth.  In the end I choose a really interesting piece of patterned ponte to make up Paco's 'unique' jacket and two pieces of black wool with a flower pattern in the weave.

Off to unpack, and plan some sewing. Happy 2012!



Summer is where?

If I look a little tense it may be due to the weather.  The spell of early summer has been broken by chill westerly winds and heavy rains.  I wore my new dress to a Christmas lunch with my real life sewing friends from the Australian Sewing Guild and asked Sharon from Petite and Sewing to take a blog photo.  Much better than asking a reluctant DD or grumpy husbie.  The backdrop is the Parramatta River, just near the Sydney Olympic site.

The first thing I need to say is McCalls 6163 - a faux-wrap dress with raglan sleeves and rouching into the side seam - is a great pattern.  The pattern calls for a zip into the side seam - don't bother as it is not needed for the majority of stretch fabrics.  Next time I make this dress I will pinch in the pattern slightly at the neckline to bring the collar lower and allow it to sit better.  Otherwise I am happy with the fit and feel that it flatters my increasingly lumpy figure.

Next?  I really really do want to make up the Donna Karan jacket, but I'm headed for Paris, London and Spain in early January so should focus on a travel wardrobe - black ponte pants, black dress, two infinity scarves, overcoat (?) and finish a nearly done animal print, faux suede trench jacket. 

Happy sewing!

There is nothing like a wet weekend

There is nothing like a wet weekend to boost sewing productivity!  Saturday in Sydney was torrential rain, followed by a steamy Sunday. Saturday was also Sewing Guild meet so I managed to finish four projects.

I'm a recent convert to New Look patterns.  My new polka dot cotton blouse New Look 6808 is way out my comfort zone but I'm very happy with it.  The pattern has four collar variations and four sleeve variations, so I expect that I'll make another version before too long.  The closure is zipper on the side seam.  While the pattern uses a fully opening zip, I inserted an invisible zipper and closed the seam at the hip.  This works very weel.  I also added red piping around the collar for a retro feel.

Remember the Donna Karan jacket that I cut a muslin for last summer?  Well I took advantage of our fitting workshop to piece it together and resolve a few difficulties.  I'm now really looking forward to making this up - it's another tricky jigsaw puzzle but the results are very pleasing. 

I also finished my maxi dress Simplicity 3503.  I'm also quite pleased with this, although I have some advice from the fitting expert on how to raise the sides.  I need to find a skimpier bra to wear with it.

Also finished another basic tshirt from lovely butter soft pinstriped jersey.  The sleeves are hand hemmed and there is a twin-needle hem at the base.  I've probably made this pattern six times now.  Time to try something new.

Princess Gail

There's nothing like a ball to stir up the inner princess in every girl.  Last night I finally had the chance to show off my ball outfit and think I scrubbed up pretty well.  Excluding earrings and hairdo, the total cost of my princessery was $85!  Danced the night away and it felt wonderful!!

The skirt is based on Burda 12/2008 125 with adjustments to change the design from double fronted to centre fold.  I used horsehair stiffening in the hemline to emphasise the fishtail hem line.

I changed my mind a dozen times about the blouse as I wanted something practical that I would wear again.  The Japanese fabric origami patterns intrigued me but they are very fabric hungry and I wasn't sure that silk would hold the structures well enough.  Husbie and DD  also convinced me that the design should be quite simple to highlight the skirt. 

In the end I opted for an olive green silk wrap blouse which I created from a Vintage Vogue dress pattern from the 1980s.  I created the cap sleeve by cutting a half circle on the centre fold.

I've also completed a version of Simplicity 3503 which I'll show you in my next post.

Frocked up

Ok it's not a frock, but it IS frocked up.  This is a sneak peak at the bottom half of my ball outfit.  It is made from beautiful embroidered taffeta silk that I bought on-line for $15 a metre. I bought it on a whim with no particular expectation or project in mind. I remember the elation I felt on opening the package - it was so much more beautiful than the e-shop picture.

When I started thinking about my ball outfit my thoughts went immediately to Allesandra Rich and her beautiful, structured lace and silk dresses. But looking on net-a-porter, I saw a beautiful $1000 + fishtail skirt and I knew immediately that this was a practical solution.  I haven't been to a ball since I was 25 and I'm not likely to go to many more, so investing in good lace was not very sensible.

I used Burda 12/2008 125 as my base pattern.  This is a double fronted evening skirt with a fishtail hem.  To redraft as a plain skirt, all I needed to do was to make the centre-front line a centre-fold on both the skirt and the waist band and voila!  You'll have to wait until after November 12 for wearing photos, but it is a very good fit.  The next photo shows the embroidery in more detail and the degree of pattern matching I was able to achieve. No mean feat with only 2 metres of fabric.  I'm yet to complete the hem - still deciding if I need horsehair stiffening or just stiff interfacing to accentuate the fishtail.

The last photo shows you where I'm going with the top half.