Lady in Red - My second Vintage attempt

Well there is one thing that is for certain about me and my sewing. I don't aim low!!!

It was Ange who started the vintage sewing craze (though me that started the sewing craze in general). As previously mentioned she downloaded a dress from a free internet pattern and got going on it. She was done by the time I started vintage sewing. This is to my memory the dress I chose to make 2nd. My first was the girl dress.

Vogue Vintage 2903 looks phenomanal on the cover of the pattern and to be honest I really can't fault the finished look (though in my opinion the box pleating could be a little more exaggerated on the final product).

I used a red micro crepe that I belive I picked up for about $5/m in a spotlight sale. In any case it was good ot work with.

The pattern though I do recommend with caution. Getting those sleeves in (half attached to dress half to the yoke) was a nightmare and you can stills ee how it didn't quite work.

I hand sewed the yoke in as I could not for the life of me work out how one would do that with a machine. You can see this close up but at a range it is fine. The sleeves are also a little bit tight but I think this was a fabric choice.

Technically I am half way through remaking this for a friend in an awesome teal plaid. Will let you know if I learnt anything second time round.

Christmas Dress

Well Christmas down under is generally a very very very hot occasion with tempratures reaching 40 degrees Celsius and higher (though sometimes the world decides to kick you in the teeth and we get wet cold and windy). With that in mind during stash bust last year I made a dress that although usable throughout all summer it does indeed bring to mind the wonder of christmas - in that it is indeed red and white. I give you my version of Vintage Vogues 2961.

I absolutely love this dress!!! It was made fairly quickly - I believe it took an afternoon of non stop sewing fun and required finishing before 12am to count in out stash bust.

Originally it was meant to be my Elvis dress (see post last year to see fabric). Unfortunately V2961 is not very friendly to stripes and I did not have enough material to be able to line things up (nor did I care enough). The change to the red was simply the first thing on cloth mountain to take my fancy. To be honest I think it was left over from making very fast tabards for a role playing game. A dark blood red colour poplin. The white that I used to line and accent was part of the 75m collection of white cotton we got to make togas for another game. I am slowly working my way through that stuff but I think it is going to take a while.

I think that the white and red complement each other well and the style is very flattering. (I do apologise for all the Mavis modelling photos but I put on a bit of weight this year and thus don't fit to many of my outfits anymore. But I am on my way back down so don't fret). It is technically a 1950's style but it looked great with my 1970s style white sandels for my Christmas party. Maybe I can dig out a photo from then at some point.

One of the benefits of this style is that it can be worn two ways - strapless as shown above or halter as shown here. The halter style however sits much better on a person than it does on Mavis.

So the bodice is boned which I used a real featherweight boning on, so bras is still required for wearing. I will say that the picture on the pattern is not too honest, the skirt does not seem for me to have that real 50's fullness.

In anycase as I said before I do love this dress.

September Stash Bash

The decision has been made that in order to re-ignite our sewing mojo it is high time for a stash bash. And because we are fans of aliteration we decided it shall be a september stash bash.

Rules remain simple - use up as much of your stash of patterns and material as possible. For this though I think I may instill a small amount of competition.

1. using material out of your own stash is 1 point per garment
2. using a pattern from your own stash that you have not yet made is worth 2 points
3. using a pattern from someone elses stash that has not been used before is worth 1 point
4. using a pattern from someone elses stash that you have not yet used is worth 1 point
5. using a pattern you have used from your or someone else stash is not worth any points.
6. Blogging about the item you have made BEFORE the end of the first week of October earns 3 points per item.


May the best man win

UFO Sightings

Well it has been a very long time since I got on here and did well anything. Long story but basically life got in the way and then there is the complete lack of sewing mojo. I mean sure I have made a few things since I last posted but all in all not much.

The first I call the army dress. Whilst it is technically a trial and petticoat at that I think it turned out not to bad - I photographed it here with the belt of another dress as I have not yet decided how best to "decorate" it.

I think this has been laying around unfinished for over a year. The final touches were to seal the inside lining of the bodice and to sew in a strap, that was it.

I started this because I had to resize simplicity pattern 3766 which i have in a 30 inch bust (size 12) to fit my then size 16 (36 bust) figure - (by the way these pics are on Mavis my dummy for two reasons, the first is that I had no photographer and the second is that I am now to chunky to fit these UFO's but the did require finishing non the less)

funnily enough I wore this to the engagement party (mostly finished) for a friend who will be getting married next Friday.

In any case the army dress was the trial for the petticoat to the "pretty dress". The pattern to this dress I seem to have misplaced but I am sure I will locate it at some stage. I remember buying it because it was sooooo pretty. I imagined it in a soft white with a lemon petticoat and lemon binding - and so that is what I made.

Ange also made a pretty dress - it didn't go so well in either case. The issues I have with it are as follows.

1. I am an idiot - that waist band - doesn't it look odd - well that would be because the bastard is upside down .... this dress never fit because of that - I will it seems have to turn it around but right now I don't have the patience

2. The petty coat despite being cut from the same pattern as the above army dress has a waist that wouldn't fit a 5 year old. I have no idea how I did it only that IT will need to be entirely redone.

Anyway dinner is ready so I best go eat

Happy sewing I should have more up tomorrow.