Mini Wardrobe completed!!

The last two items were:

Jalie Scarf-Collar top which I told you about in the last post. I made it up in a knit purchased from The Fabric Store at Surry Hills last year. This is a great top and the instructions are so good.

The jeans didn't happen because I didn't think I would have enough time to fit a new pattern as well. So my trusty pants pattern, Vogue 9537 was put into action and were made up in a cotton drill called String from Spotlight.

The Pattern Reivews for both of these items are under "My Reviews" on the sidebar.

My wonderful Easter break

Wow, 2 posts in one week, so here goes.

This year for once we didn't go away and DH had to work for two days as well, so I took advantage of 4 days of sewing, yippee.

Now over on Pattern Review they are currently holding a Mini Wardrobe Competition and one of my goals this year was to complete at least 1 competition, so I am going to give it a go. Needless to say this has been going since 16 March and finishes on 15 April, however after last weekend I am halfway there so fingers crossed.

This contest is to complete a 4-piece wardrobe in 4 weeks.

There are quite a few combinations for this and I first of all started to think along the lines of a dress, jacket, top and skirt.

I started with Simplicity 3775 which I had already traced off a size 4 at the shoulders and graded out to a 6 from the under arms and had done the following adjustments:

• Round shoulder
• Neck Gaposis
• High round back
• Sway back

when I cut the rather wild knit fabric out on Friday morning the pieces looked rather small so I used my Croverpro to Chainstitch the bodice together and I am so glad I did as it was a bit too tight with the 1.5cm seam allowances.

I ended up using 6mm seam allowances on the entire dress and this moved the front bands closer to the centre and the rest worked out perfectly.



Then I was thinking of using the Simplicity Cardi as the Jacket but after discussing this with Alison I decided this wouldn't work with the dress. So back to 2 tops and 2 bottoms.

On Saturday, Alison and I headed off to the ASG group at Alexandria and I cut out BWOF 04-2009-101 Skirt in a salt and pepper mini corduroy fabric that I purchased at an Industry Day at Martin & Savage quite a few years ago. The smallest size for this skirt is a 36 and I am a 34, however I didn't grade it down (still have to learn to do this) but thought with all the seams it should be okay. The only adjustment I did to start with was a swayback adjustment of 1.5cm.

Once I stitched the front yokes using Deb Thompson's great tutorial I basted the remaining seams together then had some great help from Alison in fitting this. Essentially I made the side seams and back panel seams 2cm and left the front ones alone.

Sunday started with adding the side and back yokes to the skirt and getting it ready for DH to level the hem that night.

I then cut out BWOF 02-2009-108 in the cream Mercury Jersey that DM and I purchased from Lincraft back in February.

I had already traced this pattern out and had done the following adjustments:

• Added 1cm to the neck edge
• Round shoulder 1.5cm
• High round back 1cm
• Gaposis on front 1cm
• Reduced the sleeve cap by 2cm and redraw sleeve cap
• Sway back adjustment of 1.5cm

This went together really well finishing it on Monday.

Here are both pieces being worn to work today.



I have now traced off the Jalie Scraf-Collar Top and have started to trace off BWOF 04-2010-120 Jeans. I'm not sure about the Jeans as I haven't made Burda pants/trousers before, so I may end up making a pair of casual pants instead, need to think about this one a bit more as the time frame will be a major consideration if I want to complete this competition.

March Wrap-Up

This is a bit late as last weekend was a major sewing weekend and I will share more about this in my next post.

Now March didn't see any new garments started, but it did see 4 garments finished and here they are.

First up is the brown linen straight skirt that was for the 2009 Swap that still needed hemming in January of this year.



Yes, I am wearing the same top and accessories with it as this one


As you can see, my wardrobe is rather limited.

Second on the list is the brown/coffee/coral linen that I showed you here. I used the same self drafted straight skirt pattern that I did for the brown linen above.

One of the challenges for the 2010 SWAP at Stitcher's Guild was a matched print and I had never done one before. So I decided to challenge myself and match the centre back seam and using Nancy's great tutorial I am really pleased how it has turned out, what do you think?



Now this skirt didn't progress much until I attended one of my ASG groups in February and I only managed to get it hemmed when I visited DM in March.


Back



You will have to wait for another day to find out about the top I am wearing LOL.

The Third garment is the Top to go with the Simplicity Cardi that I made for my DM. I took this to her home the last weekend in March with my Coverpro to finish the hems and here is the final set.



and drum roll please for the Fourth garment....... the LBD is now finished.



Back view



The sleeves didn't work, it appears that the wool that I used is a gabardine weave and has no give in it whatsoever and with the sleeves being very tight I had to change direction and make it sleeveless.

The other thing I noticed when trying it on is that it seemed to be very close at the correct length already. Luckily when DH levelled the hem for me I had a scant 1.5cm hem to turn up so I purchased some 2cm bias tape to add to this and here you can see:

• A strip of fusable interfacing fused from the hem fold with a pinked edged 1.5cm wider than the finished hem width. This make your hem a bit firmer and you can then stitch your hem in the safe knowledge that NONE of your stitches will show on the right side of your garment.
  
• Finished hem


• Mitred corner for the split


• Hong Kong finish on the other side of the split


• Lace attached to the lining


• A Diamond stitched to the top of the split to help stabilise this spot.

I also want to make a belt to go with this, if I can find abelt kit in one of the fabric stores.

Here are the pattern adjustments that I made if you want to check them out.

I'm still working on how to get better colours in my photos as the colour of the final dress IS the correct colour, however the lining and the diamond stitching close up shot is not.

Lucily I have this fabric to make a Chanel Jacket with my ASG group in May.

Sunshine Award

Thank you Gwen for your wonderful comments about my garments and for my first award.




Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Pass on the award to 12 bloggers and provide a link.
3. Let them know they received the award by leaving a comment on their blog.
4. Link to the person who gave you the award.

I started my blog after reading so many other wonderful blogs and to pick just 12 of those who inspire me and bring a smile to my face because they have posted a new project or comment is unfair and too difficult.

You can see them all on the sidebar under "My Sewing Inspiration ......."

Umm more fabric

I receive emails from Gorgeous Fabrics about their sales and there have been a couple of pieces of fabric that I have had my eye on. So when Ann announced her 24% off birthday sale, these two pieces migrated from My Wish List to the Shopping Bag!!



The first piece is "grrr baby! lining" and it will be used for a jacket at some point, just haven't picked the pattern yet.

The second piece is "designer raincoating - chocolate brown". Now I haven't been able to find any sort of raincoating here in Australia and have been wanting to make a new trench coat (my current trench was purchased in Melbourne in 1985, it is a cream colour and still going strong but hey isn't this what sewers do LOL).

I would really like to have this ready for the trip to Puyallup next year where Velosewer, Alison and I are planning to attend the Sewing & Stitchery Expo as reading the attendees comments on PR it can be wet.

I received Threads May 2010 Number 148 the other week and it has a wonderful article titled "Sew Fashionable Rainwear" which I am keeping my fingers crossed will assist me in making a "chic and functional wet-weather" trench coat.