Sewing Sunday :: 2

Here is the second version I made of last weeks dress, in stripy fabric from Global Fabrics (btw, Global has their plain knit fabrics reduced to a crazy $6 pm this week!!)

This was actually the third time I'd made the pattern and completed the dress in under 2 hours! The fabric was $18 p/m, from memory, and I used pretty much the whole metre. There's probably enough scraps to make some baby leggings, but not much else. Please pay close attention to the way I matched the stripes at the side seams. This was actually kinda easy, I just made sure they matched when I cut it out, and then stretched the fabric as I sewed. This version is a bit higher in the bust and a bit scoopier, but it could probably still be more so. Maybe next summer!

Tomorrow is the day I'm most excited about happening as an outcome of the Supercity merger, the libraries merge! (I know, I'm a nerd.) So we will be able to borrow books from Auckland City Libraries, up until now we have been limited to Papakura and Pukekohe, this is most exciting, because the central Libraries subscribe to the Burda sewing magazines, yay! I love this pattern, but I think after the 3rd variation in my wardrobe, it'll become pretty obvious I'm just making the same thing over and over. Maybe I can find one with a twist across the bust?!

Sewing Sunday

We've got a friend living with us at the moment while she hunts for a job in Christchurch. She's a new sewer, and on the weekends we've been busting out the sewing machines, and I've been imparting some of my 'wisdom' (and bad sewing habits!). I've really been enjoying the sewing we've been doing, I have sewn anything for so so long.

Anyway I thought I'd share some of the projects I've completed over the next few weeks.

I cut out the pattern for this dress from a Burda sewing magazine from the Library at Easter time in Golden Bay. I have no idea what issue or pattern number this is, but I can send you a lunch-paper-tracing of the size 8 (I wear a Glassons 10 most of the time) if you're a kiwi, just let me know.

I made the dress a bit shorter than the pattern is, and am really really happy with how it turned out. I also made a top version of this dress, but I think it falls better as a dress or tunic top. I've also made some alterations to the bust- for the next top I made it a wincy bit higher, and on the next iteration I plan to curve it and make it more scoop neck.

Actually, that's what I might go and do right now!

Enjoy the rest of your labour day!

The Dress

We're back from getting married, back from the honeymoon, back to a puppy-dog with an infected neck (that Auckland humidity), an overgrown garden and 40 kg of peaches that snapped a branch off the tree. Is it possible that married life is better than just being engaged?

But I thought you might like to see a photo of the dress?

The 400 hours, made a hole in my index finger which still opens up when I handstitch, heirloom (when the thin lizzy comes out of the inside-thanks Mum!) dress.

Here it is after "finishing" it. When I got it home, Mum and Olivia pinned up the hem, and I had a few more hooks and eyes to sew on. I actually ended up stitching on the morning of too, I stitched down the wee hanger ribbons so they wouldn't ride over the top of the dress while I was wearing it.

Did you want to see it on? Well o.k. then!

Glenn Bisdee and his wife Thalassa shot our wedding photos, and I can't recommend them enough! You can check out a few online here, though you can be sure I will put some more up over the next few weeks.

Wedding Dress Update

I really didn't intend to be away from this space so long. No excuses, just life, and I don't like to apologise for that. I guess all I can say is that the blog is first to go!

I do offer up a appeasement though- not in it's final glory, but a few glimpses, a taste, maybe, of the 400 hours stiching......

I'm yet to hem it, when I get my shoes back I will stand and twirl while my sister pins the hem, and then maybe we will sit and chat and stitch with tiny stiches the hem, and then the lining to the hem.

I am back, but away for a week at a conference. When I get back, I hope to make room to be back in this space too.

Wedding Dress

Oh Wedding dress. Last time we met, I was struggling to make you work, and to take photos of you.

Now, you are beautiful. And deconstructed. If you want to see pictures, go here. If not, don't.

I bought fabric, and have unpicked my labour of love. From here on in, more cryptic photos as she starts to take shape, which should happen relatively fast now- I've already done the hard work!

Husqvarna Automatic / Viking 21A Sewing Machine Manual

This is my trusty sewing machine- I've posted about her before.



I get alot of request for the manual (last count 55!!) over on the old blog, and while I enjoy reading the stories behind where everyone is getting their new-old machine from, it's getting kind of hard to keep up, plus I know how much more satisfying it is to hit download and for the manual to appear!

So I've created a Google Site where I've uploaded the manual to. You should be able to easily download it from there. Let me know if you have any problems, and I will do my best to fix them.

Also, if you've recently aquired one of these machines- lucky you! A lovely old machine who will sew beautifully for you if you give her all the love and attention such an old girl deserves. Even if you think she is in good condition I would recommend taking her for a checkup- your local sewing shop should have someone they use. They will just give her a good clean and oil, and fix anything that may have seized up or stopped working. Well worth it!

Happy Stitching!

Edited to add: Facebook groupd created here or search for Husqvarna Automatic / Viking 21A

Thanks to Aleksander for posting up the pattern card.

Wedding Dress Muslin #2

Thankyou all for your kind words on how my dress is coming along- I'm so glad to have people to share it with that can see the potential!

Here's where we left off:



So the next step in the construction of this dress (once I worked out the funk at the back, which took a while, but when I stopped trying so hard it fell into place) was making the mock up of the next layer up.

Prehaps now is also a good time to point out I will be making the dress out of off-white silk, not a white sheet.



The bodice is constructed from two parts, with the bottom layer giving all the structure and support to the dress, and a fashion layer. My fashion layer will have lace and beading and embroidery and ruching and gathers. Phew! The part over the bust which is currently plain fabric will have beaded lace fabric, and the ruching across the hips will have bits of lace and beads sewn into it. And although I thought the ruching across the stomach and back possibly looked a bit weird the other day, it's photographed quite nicely. Because it's all about how it photographs, right?!

It's at this point Michael has asked to stop seeing the dress. So it now takes a few minutes of me bouncing around on my tippy toes, one arm twisted around my back and sucking in furiously in order to get the zip done up those last few centimetres. (Though it's actually quite comfy to wear, and somehow makes me stand up straighter. I suspect it's the boning. And I can breathe in it. Bonus!) It also took a balancing act (those blurs in the foreground are the pins in the pincushion the camera lens is sitting on) and a few trial and errors to get the camera self timer set up to take photos of my back and front for your viewing pleasure.



I haven't got that ruchy part round my hips right yet, I will be enlisting some help while I'm home.

But it's coming together quite nicely, and I'm not so far off buying the real fabric and letting loose. I'm not sure I trust myself!

Full length photo to come when I have someone to operate the camera!

This is not a post about quilts.

So I'm aware I owe you a post on bindings, and a photo shoot with the finished quilt. How about a wedding dress instead?

Mum and I tried on Wedding Dresses last weekend. Or I tried them on and Mum cried (just a little bit). What fun! We found The Dress, took covert photos, and bought patterns.



I started with a toile of the bodice, taken from the stunning peach number. Why is it the pattern says to cut a 12, and I'm smaller than an 8? How is this even possible and why hasn't someone at Vogue done something about it?

With all my seams a flappin'. And slightly too big.

Correct fit, right way out.

The power of boning!

I've put a zip in for ease of getting the toile on and off, but will replace it with a long line of pearl or self-covered buttons in the final dress.

The waist-stay, a magnificent piece of engineering, based on the fact that a woman's body has a narrowest point. It's attached to the boning and ensures the dress will neither ride up, or fall down. In theory.

With the addition of the skirt. (Taken from the pattern on the left.) I would show you the back but the photos are all more indecent that the half naked ones up there.

Because both dresses have lots of asymetrical lines, there was a bit of this going on- adding bits to corners and hems. I also put the two back pieces of the skirt in twice, to the effect of having a train and the illusion of a gathered bit. I think it will bustle nicely. I'll show you soon!

My Mojo came back

I didn't realise it was missing until the last 48 hours when I made two reversible aprons, a singlet top (with pretty pretty lace on it), 6 quilted coasters, a chives embroidery, a baby blanket and hat, a batch of playdough and two loaves of bread. Whew!

Granted, I didn't do much housework, but the dishes were done, I cooked two dinners and the dog wasn't (too) neglected!

Incidently 24 bound corners gave me the opportunity to master miters. Funny that.

Click to enlarge

Now I must go, I need to make a christmas cake, banana loaves and a batch of biscuits.