Dressmaking with Stitches- Volume 20

Here is the Index for Volume 20 for Dressmaking with Stitches (formerly Australian Stitches), please take a copy if you want.

I have also sent a copy to Lynn Cook, Editor of Dressmaking with Stitches.

Enjoy

Bra sew-along

I have finally succumbed to the inspirational posts from Carolyn showing us her gorgeous bras and have signed up with Amy from Cloth Habit for the Bra Sew-along.

Back in 2005, I did try and make a bra at the first ASG Convention I went to in Adelaide, and I still have the partly made bra and the adjusted Booby Traps B003 pattern.

I will start with the Booby Traps pattern and with Spotlight having half price patterns at present I have also purchased KS 3300 which is another style I like.

On the way to work last Thursday I called into Metro Fabrics at Tempe to purchase some underwires and check out what other goodies he had, major overload of all sorts of goodies!

So I have taken my measurements and worked out what size I should make and next up is to make a test bra to see how it fits and of course what adjustments I need to do.

I am wondering what I have got myself into!

Tangerine Alma Blouse

When Sewaholic announced her new pattern, the Alma Blouse, I was very tempted as the cute neckline on View A had me intrigued so when the special was on, I jumped at the chance to purchase this pattern.

Due to the fitting issues I had with the Minoru and not being a pear shape, I realised that the Alma Blouse is very similar to my very modified TNT blouse, Vogue 8572 (OOP).  I traced off another copy of my TNT blouse pattern and then added the neckline detail from the Alma Blouse as well as drafting the facing pieces.

Next up was what fabric to use.  I've had this piece in my stash since 2003 so thought it would be a good time to use it as it was one of the 2012 Pantone colours (better late than never).

I'm not sure what the fibre content of this fabric is but polyester seems a very good choice, it takes a lot of pressing to get reasonable looking seams or darts using steam and a clapper and it frays like mad.

However after all of that I am rather pleased with this blouse.

The creases are from wearing this top all day.

This is my 2nd piece completed for SWAP 2013 - Everyday Collection.

It wasn't until I typed up this post that I seem to have a bit of a citrus theme going on, so do I continue it with the lemon blouse or make the brown denim style skirt out of linen?

I wonder which it will be 

Another year has disappeared

and my sewing highlight of the year was to be announced as the winner of the Stitcher's Guild 2012 SWAP Competition, I still get a thrill when I think about this.

Interestingly with all the sewing focus for the first 4 months of the year, I felt that the remainder of the year wasn't as productive, lets see:

1 x Pants
3 x Skirts
8 x Tops
3 x Cardigans
1 x Jeans
2 x Dresses
1 x Jacket
1 x Vest
1 x Hand knitted garment
3 x Jewellery pieces
3 x Craft
5 x Bags

Wow that is a total of 29 items sewn, however the craft items are listed as 3 when each of those had a least 3 pieces to each of them, so not a bad year at all.

I never thought I'd make a bag, now I have made 5 in 1 year, a bit scary!

Patterns used:
Sure Fit Design - 1
BWOF - 2
Simplicity - 1
Vogue - 2
Jalie - 3
Kwik.Sew - 1
Moonshine Bags - 1
Nicole Mallalieu - 1
Hot Patterns - 1
Sewaholic - 1

Favourite Me Made Items

This would have to be the Minoru jacket, I love it, it gets worn every chance I get and the Jalie Jeans are still in high rotation.

The other item is my Leather Handbag, I'm just loving this bag.

2012 Sewing Goals - How did I go?

• Complete 1 garment a month - 20 garments means I have certainly done that.  I think I am going to reword this goal, I manage to do the sewing but not cut out and sew that garment in the same month.
• Complete at least one competition either at Stitcher's Guild or Pattern Review - I definitely achieved this one, SWAP 2012 at Stitcher's Guild, and I entered in the Handbag, Best Pattern and Jeans contests at Pattern Review.
• Play with the binders for my Coverstitch machine and get comfortable using them - Oops this didn't happen.

2013 Sewing Goals

• Complete at least 22 garments (20 in 2012, 24 in 2011).
• Play with those binders!
• Complete at least one competition either at Stitcher's Guild or Pattern Review 

And finally, a collage of the pieces I made in 2012.

Orange Circles

This is another version of my TNT blouse, Vogue 8572 (OOP) in a wonderful orange self patterned linen that I purchased in the USA last year.

For this version I chose to do French Seams and use Hong Kong finishes on the zip seam as well as the armholes so this has taken this blouse up a notch or two.

There is not much else to tell you, so here are the photos:

Note the colour of the zip pull.

The zip itself is very different in colour to the zip pull, but the zip pull is what you see!

This wasn't planned to be in my SWAP, however it will go with my everyday collection and can be counted as the "one garment may be sewn before the official sewing start date" so my first SWAP piece is completed.

******************

Thank you for all the comments on the Hot Patterns Riviera Summer Breeze Tie Front Top, you have convinced me to have another go at this pattern and I will let you know the results, it may still find a new home.

******************

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year and all the very best for a fantastic and sewful 2013.

Christmas sewing

This is what I have been up to since my last post, well sort of, I also have an orange linen top nearly finished that I cut out on 1 December, but more about that one later.

Again this year, I left it to the last minute to produce Christmas gifts, even though I knew very early in the year that this is what I would be making.

First up was the Spice of Life bag for my very good friend with the fabric purchased whilst we were at the ASG Convention in Adelaide.  This is the 3rd time I have made this bag, so it was pretty straight forward.

Then it was time again to sew for the nieces and nephews and late last year I found this great tutorial for Circle Zip Earbud Pouch by Erin Erickson after seeing a whole lot of them on various blogs thinking they would be perfect for this Christmas.  My friends can tell you that at every craft show I attend this year the search was on for themed fat quarters and the effort was very much appreciated by the recipients.

Lastly was a necklace for my Sister as she already knew that she was getting the bag so using some 10mm Black Rutifated Quartz and 8mm black beads I made this for her.

I also found via Pinterest this great tutorial for making a Necklace Display by Bea Graansma.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I plan on being back before the New Year!

Riveria Summer Breeze and Giveaway

I have finally managed to try out one of the HotPatterns patterns that I won earlier this year and as predicted it is HP 1137 Riviera Summer Breeze Sleeveless Tops, the Tie-Front version from this pattern.

Not knowing what type of block Hot Patterns uses, I decided to make this one up with none of my normal adjustments and had it ready to sew at our fitting weekend with Angie.

I traced off a Size 8 as per my measurements on the envelope and found this steely blue wool/cotton blend knit in my stash that I purchased from an unnameable Brunswick distributor when the Aussie Pattern Review girls met up in Melbourne in 2010.

I found the instructions to be minimal, and even though I am Burda magazine sewer, the HotPatterns instructions seemed to be even less, e.g.

• there are two notches for the placement of the long tie, however for the short tie there is only one notch and of course I used the lower notch as the top placement when from what I worked out later it should have been the bottom placement,
  
• when it came to gathering the front piece there is no mention of what notches you match up or  how much it gathers up to, there is a diagram, but it did do my head in getting there.

I basted this together and tried it on and the only change we made was to reduce the short belt end of the oval dart by 3.5cm (1 1/2").

I found this pattern very long and took 12cm (5 7/8") off the length.

On reflection I probably chose the wrong size because I used a knit (which is also a suggested fabric) as the neck is very large and the side seams are too low and I have the bra showing.  It is a very loose style and the tie belt is the only way you can get any shape into it.

This top will be donated as I am not comfortable in it and even if I went down a size this will not change the amount of fabric that is in the front of the top, there is just too much of it for my liking.

Now if any of you would like to have this pattern, please let me know in the comments and I will let you know who the lucky person is.  Please be aware that I have cut off the instructions from the main sheet, but besides this the pattern is still intact as I traced of my pattern.