Dress Surgery

Before - Frilly and Unnecessary cap sleeves

After - Sleeveless and infinitely more Wearable!

I found this pretty cotton summer dress in a local department store yesterday and while I liked the fabric and the style I didn't like the sleeves - even on the rack. I thought that I would try it on anyway just to have a look at the fit.
While I was in the fitting room I tucked one of the sleeves underneath the shoulder strap and it looked so much better. I then commenced to have a look at how the dress was constructed and whether or not I could do some surgery to make it better for me. All it needed was a bit of bias tape around the outer sleeve hole - there was enough fabric in the sleeve to do this - so it came home with me.
It was relatively easy and I am really happy with the result.

 I went to Spotlight today (just to get a zipper!! I promise) and had a bit of a look but came away with absolutely zero inspiration. I have so much trouble with fabric selection - I have trouble translating the drape of the fabric over to how the dress will look when it is finished. I am grateful for the internet in this respect because I can go searching for how others have approached the pattern and get some ideas.

I know that the patterns have suggestions on the back for fabric selection, however sometimes an unexpected fabric can work surprisingly well. The Sorbetto top is a good example of this - the first one I used a drapey light voile and it looked good - but it also looked good in the heavier cotton. I think perhaps that some of my problem is confidence. I don't want to spend money on the more expensive fabrics tat I know love because I don't want to risk messing it up - I know that this will improve in time - that is partly what this blog's purpose is I guess.

The "Masquerade" Apron

I have wanted to make some aprons for a while now but the thing is i'm not really a fan of the more traditional style aprons - I wanted something that had the feel of a dress with the practicality of an apron.

Initially I went looking for a smock pattern but couldn't really find anything that I liked immensely - so with that in ming I set about resigning my own dress apron.

What I have here is really just a muslin - the fabric is a old sheet - but I think that the pattern itself  works. I didn't quite manage to get the halter neckline exactly right but I put a small gathering stitch in the front bust midline which adds a quaint design feature.

You can't really see in the pics but there is a sash that wraps around the waist that forms from the waist ties.

I wanted something that I can wear around the house over my clothes for small children to wipe messy hands on and baby food to get smeared on and yet still be able to look like I was wearing clothes rather than an apron.

It is like an Apron that Masquerades as a dress - thus the "Masquerade" Apron.

To Do List

So many thing to sew - So little time...

Sorbetto 2.0

I picked up this fabric at the recent St Vincent De Paul Warehouse sale for a mere 50c. I didn't know that beneath the rolled up bundle was a mess of hacked up cut outs within the fabric. I made do anyway. There was enough good fabric remaining to  make another Sorbetto. This time I gathered the neckline rather than making a centre pleat. I think I prefer this finish. I also cut a size 8 rather than a 12 and it fits me much better. I did still take in the side seams a little though.

I think I made the mistake in the first Sorbetto  of using a fabric that was difficult to work with. Funnily enough the first Sorbetto is still in the to be finished rack - I need to make some more bias tape for the arm holes.

365pix/6 Pyjamas

Pyjamas

I'll double up on the 365 post today because it also involved sewing. I love, love, love these cute PJ's that I made for my big boy. With the weather warming up, he was in dire need of some summer PJ's and these have turned out just great.

I made him 4 pairs yesterday and also made another pair for his cousin as a Christmas gift. One pair to go for his girl cousin, however I am going to look through my pattern books and see if I have anything a little more girly that might suit her.

I have the biggest stash of small lengths of fabric - not enough to really make anything for me but enough to make things for small people. Miss 8 the cousin is the only small girl in our family - all the rest are bigger or boys. Many many boys.

There is going to be some serious mischief in their future I think.

Sewing has happened - Sorbetto

I began a Sorbetto blouse last weekend - and then amidst the housework and all of the errands I had to do this past week I didn't really pick it up again until Friday night.

Sorbetto top

It is still not quite finished because I am deciding what to do about the sleeves. I am tempted to add sleeves as I'm not a huge fan of sleeveless.

I made a few little alterations to improve the fit for me. I cut the 12 but next time I think I may cut the 10 - I know it is meant to be blousy but it was quite blousy. I took it in at the side seams about 1cm and I cut a little bit off the shoulders on the outside.

I also didn't take the front pleat all the way to the bottom. I may still do this before I hem though.

The fabric I used is a cotton batiste/voile of some sort with a weave pattern through it. I had it in my stash.

I have moved on to sewing for my big boy - some new summer pyjamas - today. I realised yesterday that I have SO much sewing to do before Christmas as I am making most of our family Christmas presents. First up on the list is an advent calendar. I saw this one last year and loved it so I am going to have a go at recreating it.

Yes - I CAN Sew

Forgive me sewing gods for I have sinned - it has been 6 months since I have even so much as looked at the sewing machine.

I have piles and piles of stashed fabric that somehow only ever seems to grow and doesn't appear to ever get used

I was a prolific and confident sewist and now it seems to have evaporated.

A 2andahalf year old and Mr6months - will do that I guess.

All of my brain space is gone; all of my spare time is gone; all of my creativity  is well....gone...somewhere.

I NEED to find it.

I just need to prove it to myself and well...kind of... relearn.

Pattern Review - Sew Liberated Dapper Day Bag

I am prolific at the moment aren't I? I actually really want to do two particular reviews of Maternity appropriate patterns before I get this baby out so perhaps I should make that my goal for next week. But for now - another bag!

This week I made something that has been on the to make list for a long time - the Dapper Day Bag pattern from the Sew Liberated Book by Meg McElwee

After my bag making attempt from last week I was surprised that I was making another bag - but this one had no interfacing in the pattern so I figured it couldn't be that bad.

I have had the fabric picked out and put aside for this one for a while - a gray wool blend of some description for the outer shell and a pretty quilting cotton for the lining.

 

The pattern came together easily enough, I didn't make my own piping like it says in the instructions as that seemed to just add a layer of complexity that I didn't need right now, so I just bought some piping. I have never sewn anything with piping before and I was surprised at how easy it was - and it does create a lovely look on the finished product. The instructions for sewing the piping in were excellent.

In hindsight and via my fabric choices, this bag would have been better off with at least a light interfacing for the shell It is just that little bit too unstructured without it.

I also feel like the shoulder strap is a little bit too short and the width too wide for my shoulder as it doesn't sit comfortably on my shoulder. I would like to be able to sling the bag across my body messenger style but the strap is too short for that.

It is a good size day bag though!

I also made this:

A little set for bubs. I bought a few packets of plain onesies a while back and I have been slowly adding things to jazz them up. I decided to make a pair of soft jersey pants and a little hat to go with this one - babies always look nice in matching sets! I'm a bit addicted though now and I went out and bought some more jersey yesterday to make a couple more sets!

Unfortunately it will be starting to get cold here (the 'rules' in Canberra say you aren't allowed to break out a jacket or the heating before Anzac Day) right around when bubs is due - and I don't really have any jackets for him. I am waiting to see what size he is before I rush out to get some though as you just never can tell!

I think I'll just be applying the layering aspect of fashion to this little one - as we already have quite a large amount of boys size 000 clothing!

Amy Butler Birdie Sling - Pattern Review

Lately however I have been now really feeling like sewing all that much. Sewing requires attention and I have been feeling just too tired to concentrate. Plus my sewing machine set up is a little cramped and as I have gotten bigger, the space just seems to get more and more cramped.

It's a little disappointing because I have heaps of projects that I want to get finished before the little one comes along - but I just don't feel like sewing.

I have, however, wanted to make a Amy Butler "Birdie Sling" for sometime now and I decided on Monday to get on with it.

So I got on with cutting it out (with 'help' from little hands) on Tuesday and spent yesterday fighting with my iron and fusible interfacing and pleats. I'm not sure if it is just my iron but the fusible interfacing just didn't want to fuse and the resulting wrinkles were driving me and my pregnant back crazy.
At about 10pm last night I left it to finish today.

No fancy fabric - just something I had in the stash from Spotlight. I had it pinned for a different bag but given that particular bag has more interfacing than this one - I don't think I"ll bother.

This bag is nice and roomy - plenty of room for all of the baby kit!

I'm not sure I'd recommend it for an absolute beginning sewer - but definitely a challenging project for an advanced beginner!

I used a medium weight fusible interfacing which I think the handle and yoke parts of the bag needs, however the main part of the bag could be done with lightweight fusible for a softer feel.

I'd better go pack it because this is destined to be the bag that Hubby is instructed to grab when I go into Labour!

How about you - What project have you been working on this week? I'd love to hear about it (It doesn't have to be sewing/craft related).

The reason for the lack of sewing...

What I hear you asking? How could a sewing machine be a reason for a lack of Sewing?

Well because until last week this was not my sewing machine you see!

I have been feeling for a while now that I had out grown my hard working but small and frustrating Brother BC-2500. A great beginners machine for sure but there were many things about it that were getting on my nerves. When the tension went haywire for no apparent reason a few weeks ago I must have complained about it to my husband at just the right moment - as he offered to buy me a new machine - with limits on how much it was going to cost.

I basically wanted a higher quality machine that was going to see me through the next 10 years or so at a minimum.

For the amount of money he gave me to spend - the Singer Curvy 8780 is what I came up with.

So far I really like it - but I am still very much learning it's in's and outs. I made a quilt top on Sunday for a quilt for the new baby and I was very impressed with the speed and ease of sewing. I am a little frustrated at the instruction manual and the Singer website - but the machine itself is great!

My Creative Space

I am finding that it has been increasingly difficult to post this past week - mainly because I am too tired from working and running around after a toddler to think of things to post about - or to take photos!

I have been sewing - a little - more on that in tomorrow's post. In truth I have been saving sewing projects so that I have little things to do while I am on Maternity leave. I have a little bit of sewing left to do that I absolutely have to do - and then of course some more fun things as well.

But I thought I would share with you my Sewing Space this week - the one that sometime over the next few months I need to condense so that the room it presently resides in can become the baby's room exclusively.

Until that time, the baby's clothes will inhabit the closet and the change table will move into the room - but the baby won't have a room of it's own until he absolutely has to!

I have a Singer Curvy 8780 Sewing machine and an Elna 745 Serger that share the little sewing table. There isn't quite enough space for the both of them so I often move  the  serger to the ground if I need the extra space with the sewing machine and I am not using the serger at the same time. My sewing table was a side of the road find that I believe was once a computer desk. I covered the top with some oilcloth to make it prettier. The shelves hold the majority of my stash - I also have a few thrifted sheets and that kind of thing in the closet in a storage box. The top shelf are fabrics that I either have plans for or am looking to get inspiration from. The second shelf is just general fabric that I have bought along the way for one project or another and I still have a decent amount left over. The third shelf are large lengths of fabric for garment sewing and fabric that is destined for a specific project and the fourth shelf is specialty fabrics, chiffon, lining, felt etc.

As you can see below, it basically takes up a corner of the spare bedroom.

I use these shelves for everything else. Patterns and scrap boxes on the top two shelves. Bits and bobs, notions and ironing things on the second shelf. Craft and sewing books on the third shelf. Below are boxes of 'other' craft items like scrapbooking and painting and general craft things.

My plans for when I need to move all of this involve some purchases of storage devices that will allow me to keep everything out of sight (and little fingers) - as it will be in a family area of the house until our extension is finished.
I plan on buying one of these Billy bookcase cabinets from Ikea:

It is slightly larger that my current shelves and should fit all of my fabric, books and notions all in the one cabinet. Hopefully the craft supplies as well!

As for the sewing machine - I think that I will be forced to save up for one of these Horn Kimberly cabinets. That way everything can be stored away from little fingers safely but I can still access it all easily. As a bonus - it also locks!

I could make that!

There seems to be a lot of chambray shirt dresses in the stores at the moment - and with good reason! A 3/4 sleeve shirt dress is a fantastic Trans-seasonal item. Here a just a couple available in the Australian stores right now.

@ Sussan

@ Colorado

I especially love the styling of the Sussan version - even though when you look closely at the picture it is  more of a tunic dress rather than a shirt dress. Some ballet flats, leggings and a lovely scarf.

It is amazing what you find when you go looking - as I have had it in my mind that I would like a nice casual shirt dress pattern in my collection for a while now - but had not come across anything I really liked. But when I was looking for something completely different - I found this:

Simplicity 2246

And Spotlight just happens to have Chambray cotton on sale right now for $7.95 per meter.

Swaddled Baby Love

So - as promised - here is apic of my first finished quilting based project.

 

Despite the amount of swearing that went into getting it to the finished point I am quite pleased with how it turned out. 

The reason for so much swearing? I sewed the pieces together the wrong way no less than 5 times! I can barely believe it myself! I was having a serious case of baby brain that afternoon!

Then having never sewn on quilt binding before, I followed the instructions in the pattern book for sewing binding. It wasn't as hard as I had in my head that it was and I am a bit annoyed that I have never tried before. It has truly inspired me to go on a finish my other quilt project that has been sitting in the unfinished objects box for almost two years. 

So what is it you may ask? It is the "Swaddled Baby Love" project from the Anna Maria Horner book -  Handmade beginnings.

The idea is that it is a swaddling wrap for the sewn baby doll for an older sibling to be able to have their own 'baby' when the new baby comes along. This is a gift for H boy for when the new baby is born. 

The part that I can't get over is how satisfying is was to sew on that quilt binding!

Watch this space for the next UFO project!

Crazy Pregnancy Sewing

What on earth possesses us to become slightly insane and take on crazy projects when we are pregnant?

Last time I decided to make a quilt for the baby and hand quilt it - when I had never done anything like that before in my life.

That project is still sitting in the box of unfinished objects... I bought the wrong perle cotton for the hand quilting it seems and it turned into the most difficult thing in the world so I ditched it. The resurrection plan is undo all of the quilting done thus far and start over. That is in the pile for when I start maternity leave in 5 weeks and want to do not very much at all except sit on the couch.

There are a number of other things on the list of things to do in that time as well - as you might imagine! They include:

-Practice meditation and calm birthing affirmations
-Sew the remainder of my nursing nightgowns and hospital lounge PJ's
-Finish sewing the two pairs of baby pants that I started when my last baby was very small and by the time I had finished the first pair he had grown out of them.
- Work on some other UFO hand sewing projects
- Go and get my Serger lessons
- Swim
- make thank you notecards
-organise bag for hospital
- Oranise a 'present from the baby' for my big boy.

This last one is what I threw myself into last night. It looked simple enough - a toy 'Baby' with nappies (diapers) and a string quilted wrap for the 'baby'.

I dove into my scraps bin and found everything I would need, I made the baby doll last night, thinking I would finish the rest in H's sleep time today. Well it is now 11pm and I just finished pinning the binding to the quilted wrap.

I have decided that I am not a quilter - do I like the finished product - definitely - but I do not like the getting to the end part. I am going to blame the short freearm on my Sewing Machine and say that it has nothing at all to do with my lack of precision and my need for a finished product to admire. In my defense - my sewing machine does have an exceptionally short freearm and it can be difficult, even to sew  garments with.

But - apart from the hand sewing of the binding edge - it is done and it does look quite nice.

Binding is one thing that I have been scared of for some time now and while it could have been really bad  - it isn't it is just not perfect.

I will share pictures of the finished product tomorrow in the daylight.

In the meantime I think I will still go out and buy the H Boy a Zuzu pet as a present from  the baby. He is a boy after all - although I still think that the baby doll wrap will get some use.

The Heartly Tutorial

Valentines day is not that huge in Australia but there is nothing wring with spreading a little love! Inspired by the amount of Valentines day love floating around the blogosphere at the moment I came up with this cute framed wall hanging that is super easy!

So here you have it the:

The Heartly Tutorial! 

All you will need is your bucket of scrap fabrics, a rotary cutter and mat, a larger scrap of white fabric (I used some white on white patterned quilting cotton), a piece of pellon (a bit bigger than the mat of your frame), some vliesofix, about and hour and a half and a frame to put it in! 

Oh and if you want it to be the same size as mine - you will need the Heartly Template which you can find here.

1. First Grab your bucket of scrap fabrics and choose six  scraps that blend well together.

2.  Cut strips that measure approximately 2.5" x 8" from your 6 fabric scraps. I cut three strips from each fabric. Cut each of these strips in half lengthways so that they measure 2.5" x 4".

3. Sew your strips together - right sides facing - at the short ends.

4. Cut your sewn strips in half along the length of these strips. (In the direction of the arrows). you should end up with at least 12 skinny strips of pieced fabric.

5.  Arrange your strips so that they are staggered - see picture below - and are in an aesthetically pleasing arrangement. Sew together along the long side using a 1/8 " seam allowance. Pressing in between each strip. Don't worry about being too neat.

6.  Take your heart template (you can use the same one I did here - or make up your own size.) and lay it on your pieced fabric.

7. Pin and cut out around this template. Then cut a heart shape of the Vliesofix from the same template. Iron your Vliesofix heart to the back of your pieced heart.

8.  Then Iron your heart shape to the middle of your piece of while (or plain colored) fabric.

9. Machine applique around the outside of your heart shape. My favorite is blanket stitch. Give it all a good press with the iron.

10.  Take the Mat Board from your frame and lay out your appliqued heart fabric like in the picture below. Once you have it nicely centered, use some sticky tape to secure the edges. You may need to trim your white fabric to get a good fit.

11. Take your Pellon and lay it down over the back of your heart fabric. Again - stick the edges down to secure. Place the Mat Board into your frame and secure the back of the frame with the fasteners.

12.  Hang your framed Heartly somewhere that reminds you that there is love in your house everyday!

Back to the sewing machine

I know it has been a week or so since I posted but I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount of things going on at the moment and sewing was the last thing on my  mind.

However, as is very characteristic of me I have now gone to the other extreme and am on a bit of a sewing binge.

I started obsessively thinking this week about what I am going to wear when I am still in hospital after having the baby. Last time I was hopelessly under prepared in the way of pretty PJ's and nursing friendly access clothes - but hey H boy was my first and I really had no idea!

The jusry is quite split on weather or not to wear comfy street clothes, lounge clothes or PJ's in hospital. I was toying with the idea of yoga pants and nursing friendly tops - and I will probably still throw in a few of these. However, I ended up deciding on pretty PJ's - as I know that I'll get a lot of use out of them throughout winter.

So I began scouring the internet and this is what I came up with:

Megan Nielsen

Make it Perfect

I will combine the PJ pants with some purchased white nursing tops from Kmart (they are only $10 - I couldn't buy fabric for that price!). The pants don't really bother me - I have made many Make it Perfect patterns before and they always turn out well.

However after having a bit of a pattern drafting/cutting out session yesterday - 

I found some white cotton Lycra in the stash to have a play with the sleep bra pattern before I commit my pretty fabric. All I can say is it was a dismal fail and I think I need ALOT of work and practice sewing stretch before I get on with the night dress. Nothing like a challenge though hey!

I am also keeping track of what I spend on this little venture because I had contemplated just buying some pretty PJ's from Peter Alexander - but for what I have bought in material supplies and patterns ( A$85) I would have only been able to get 2 pairs of pants - pretty as they are, and they wouldn't have been made just for me.

For my A$85 I will get Four pairs of PJ pants and one nightdress. (Edit: Make that 5 pairs of PJ pants - I just found a cute old sheet in the cupboard that I am going to  have a play around with ...more info to come.)