Turbulent Sea DVF Wrap Dress

You know when you purchase your ticket for Frocktails and then it dawns on you, "what am I going to wear".

Of course I left it to the last minute but with a sewing weekend coming up I decided to make another DVF Wrap Dress with this dry knit that was in the stash.

Thank you James Broadway

Just before all this happened the ladies over at Artisan Square had a Pre-2019 SWAP Dress Challenge that had to include a new fabric or new technique.

As this knit is heavier than my previous DVF dress, I decided to add a waist-stay which is a technique I have never used and I found this very detailed post over at Stitch N Smile.

The next thing I did was to do a gaposis adjustment in the front neckline of 1cm, this has made the front neckline sit much better.

So armed with all my sewing goodies I headed off for a weekend of sewing.

To make the waist-stay I used some navy petersham ribbon I had purchased from Torb and Reiner and a trouser hook and bar.

Then I realised I had to add a buttonhole to the waist-stay as one of the ties for dress has to pass through the side seam,

where I attached the waist-stay to the dress and I had positioned the hook and bar to be offset to be on the other side away from the tie on the outside. 

By the end of the 2nd day of sewing the dress just needed hemming and thankfully Mark was on hand that evening to level off the hem so I could use my coverstich to finish the hems that night.

This dress is getting a lot of wear besides Frocktails and I can see it getting a lot more with summer finally arriving.

This will also be  my first garment for SWAP 2019 as "One garment may be completed by today (28 October 2018) US Time Zone.  

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2018 Stash Out: 6.3 m
2018 Stash In: 5.0 m

Copilot cowl

Last year I went to the Bendigo Wool and Sheep Festival and purchased a skein of Dyed By Hand Yarns wool in a colour called  Gorgon's Head Coral and then found a pattern in Ravelry by Dominique Trad called Copilot.

I started this soon after and not long after I realised I had twisted the stitches when I joined it in the round.  I decided to leave it this way and so far it hasn't bothered me at all.

It was a good travelling project.

I enjoy wearing it and it is a great pop of colour in this dull winter weather,

and I find it quite comfortable worn doubled-up for extra warmth, particularly when I have my coat on.

One of the things I was hoping to improve with this pattern was my speed with YO, K2TOG in Continental Knitting (there is quite a lot of it) but so far I am still not quite there so will keep working on it.

The best thing about this pattern is that you can keep knitting until you no longer want to play "yarn chicken", and this is the small amount of yarn I had left, very happy.

V8648 - The Finished Couture Dress

At last the couture dress is finished, well I should say it was pretty much finished when I last posted during MMMay 2017 as it was worn to Government House on the 5th of May for an Investiture Ceremony as my husband was part of a group reciving a Group Bravery Citation for a resuce they assisted with in Japan in 2007. 

I realised that my in my haste to finalise the dress to wear to Government House, the zip was not as nice as I would have liked it and when your husband says he can see the zip you know it must be obvious.

So unpicking of the pick stitching of the zip happened as well as the lining being undone so it felt like it was going a long way back to get the zip back in,

and the lining, which is sewn in sections e.g. skirt, bodice and midriff.

The final step was to do a rolled hem for the silk lining,

adding some lace to finish it off.

With the wide neckline I also decided to add some thread bars to attach the dress to my bra to stop any chance of it slipping off my shoulders.

I found it interesting that once the dress was finished I wasn't keen to wear it, it didn't feel right.  So I took it along to one of my ASG Groups and asked my sewing friends what was wrong, the length, the sleeves or what?  The unamious decision was that the sleeves were too long so they were shortened by 2.5" (nearly 6cm).

Since then the dress has been worn a number of times and I love the new coral/red accessories I now have to wear with it.

So here are some more photos of the dress after being worn all day at the office.

Unfortunately the jacket hasn't progessed much further as my sewing time at present is on curtains for the house now that we have a new colour scheme and is also why there is a lot more knitting appearing.

Coral Orange tube necklace

I just couldn't help myself, I needed a new necklace for another semi formal dinner I was attending.

The same day that I made the Coral Red necklace set, I also made the above Coral Orange 5 strand necklace and earrings.

Julie was very helpful again in working out the colours for me and this class was a stringing workshop held by Bead Them Up.

For this necklace we chose:

• 9mm Coral Orange tubes
• 1.8mm black Spineless faceted round
• Jewellery wire 19 strand 0.35mm

It was then a matter of choosing the length and making 5 separate strands, 

and then they are captured in a cone that is attached to the clasp.

and of course there had to be earrings.

Here we are at the formal dinner.

I am also thrilled thgat this necklace goes so well with this top.

Coral red necklace

I've got a new necklace set.

Back in June at the Craft & Quilt Fair I got chatting to Julie from Bead Them Up about how I found it difficult to work out the bead colours for my jewellery.  Also my Couture dress needed some new jewellery as I had worked out that I was going to wear it to the Gala Dinner at the Australian Sewing Guild Convention in Melbourne in August.

Julie suggested I bring my dress and shoes to the shop and do a workshop which I was very happy to do.

I had fallen in love with these Supersoft Marnee Red Patent Leather shoes so they winged their way to me from style tread and we used these as the colour base for my beading class.

Julie and I wandered around the shop looking for a design and Julie showed me one that I really liked which was with pearls so Julie went about and found the coral/red beads for my necklace and earrings.

We used:

• Coral red coin nugget 17mm
• Coral red S/drill cube 9mm
• 14kGold filled 1.7 x 2mm chain cable
• 14k gold filled bead Rondel corrugated 6mm
• 14k gold filled bead round corrugated 5mm
• Wire wrapping with 14k gold filled wire 0.6mm

This is a closer look at the two different beads and gold chain

and the earrings

This is how it all came together with the Couture dress for the Gala Dinner.

I am thrilled with my new necklace and earring set.

Industry Shawl

I can't remember how I found Libby from Truly Myrtle but I am so glad I did.

Libby is from New Zealand and I really do like the way she encompasses knitting, sewing and jewellery making in her life and the fact that she designs knitting patterns is a plus.

There is an active Truly Myrtle group on Raverly and I have just finished listening to all her podcasts, up to the last few in the car whilst driving to and from work.  Back in March Libby went back to video podcasts and I found that watching/listening to the video podcast make the filing at work quite enjoyable for a change and as I am in the office alone a lot of the time, this is not a problem.

Libby held a Knit Along! Spring Shawl, Wrap up KAL and I had this gorgeous SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock Yarn purchased from Skein Sisters back in October 2017.

Part of the Knit Along was to use one of Libby's patterns and as I only had 1 Skein of yarn and I wanted an easy public travel knitting project I chose the Industry Shawl and carried it around in my knitting bag I made back in April 2016.

Libby uses a very catchy song on her podcast by Mr Roberelli "Casting On"  and one of the lines is "Cause you can do it standing and you can do it sitting" so I've been having some fun knitting standing when waiting for my bus to arrive.

The weekend before the knitalong finished I managed to block the shawl, and it was one of the rare weekends of rain, I set it up in the office with the heater blowing gently across it.

Tomba wants to know why I am up a ladder!

I'm not sure if I will wear the shawl as a shawl

as the front is a bit more difficult to get looking right

so I prefer to wear it more bandana like

which I can then position to fill the gap in the front of my cardigans, as my back is already covered,

the wrap around at the back keeps my neck warm.

I am thoroughly enjoying wearing this shawl and the pop of colour is perfect for the grey days.

#2018MakeNine and Olive Linen Skirt - Vogue 1247

Back in January I found Lucky Lucille and her great idea of 2018 Make Nine .

I've tried Make A Garment a month but that just doesn't seem to work for me with with all the other commitments I have.

So this year I've decided to have a go at #2018MakeNine and have chosen a variety of sewn and knitted garments,

and they are:

1. Vogue 1247 skirt
2. Amy Herzog Verglass Jumper (knitted)
3. Kwik.Sew 3740 top
4. Amy Herzog scoop neck top (knitted)
5. Jalie Jeans
6. Tessuti Kate Top
7. Susan Khalje Couture Skirt (yes I did the class this year, more to follow)
8. Jalie 2566 Cardigan
9. This will be a top/blouse I'm still working out which pattern

It has taken a few months but at last Vogue 1247 skirt has been finished and my first #2018Makenine garment is completed.

This skirt was started back in January and has been ready for the hem to be done for many months except life has got in the way (Susan Khalje courses and curtain making).

Back in April I attended a sewing weekend organised by the Bernina Chatswood Sewing Centre and by my very good friend Rhona at St Joseph's Spiruality and Education Centre, Kincumber South.

So I took this opportunity to get this skirt and also a top which only needed hemming finally completed.

The linen for this skirt was purchased from Pitt Trading back in 2016 during their January Sale and I must admit 4 metres of it followed me home.  It is a funny colour as I originally thought it was taupe but it does have an olive tone to it.

I've ended up using the same quilting cotton for the pockets as I did for my Navy Linen skirt

One of the hardest things I found with this fabric was finding a lining to match.  Finally I gave up and used this pale coloured Sun Silky and added some cotton lace to the hem.

I wore it today to a knitting workshop to learn more about the KnitCompanion app that I use for my knitting on my iPhone and iPad and here is Tomba very happy to see me home determined to get my attention with "fox" his stuffed toy.

I still really like this pattern and can see more appearing in my wardrobe but first I need to get some other garments finished.

So my first garment for #2018MakeNine is completed.

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2018 Stash Out: 3.1 m
2018 Stash In: 0 m

Taupe knit top - V8572

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen this back in October 2017, it had just been finished but as it was a winter top, it went straight into the wardrobe to wait for the weather to get cool enough to wear.

Fast forward to last weekend, the weather had turned nice and chilly and my top had it's first outing at the Annual Australian Sewing Guild Rhodes Fashion Sewers Sewing Retreat at The Tops Conference Centre at Stanwell Tops.

This fabric was purchased in the USA in 2011 from the same shop the fabric for my Skewed Cowl Collared Top but this one was a very stable knit.


Working with my V8572 my TNT Woven top I:

*  Bound the neckline with the A Binder on my Coverstitch

* split the side seam 12cm above the pattern hem, also offsetting the front and back hems by 1.5cm.

* used my Coverstitch again to do the hems, and when I came to the corners I raised the needles, keeping the longer needle just in the fabric, pulling some thread forward, turning the fabric and started sewing again, this kept it all very even.

Now to work out what other garments this top goes with in my wardrobe.

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2018 Stash Out: 1.5m
2018 Stash In: 0m