Sew Darn Tired

I didn't get any tips about fitting in the post about the 1st toile so I just dived in and had a go. Good sway back adjustment this was about 2cm. I kept the side seam as before (hanging straight - I'm pleased with that). As the back centre seam isn't straight I added some extra there as well and it makes a nice skirt now. I made a petite adjustment on the bodice (about 5cm) but now it looks bigger width wise. Maybe it's the cotton/linen like fabric doing this? I will take some off the shoulder but I need to work out how to not mess up the collar part which is cut on the front bodice but you pivot and sew it to the back bodice. I need to take some off the back neckline too. I have to work out how to finish it too as my lace isn't a scalloped edge. The shoulder is too wide too and I don't think I will make the sleeve. I have to wear this on Saturday! Arrgh! Well at least the skirt part is ok. Maybe I'll go back to the original bodice. Interestin...

This is the Rosie Top. I love this top. It is drafted so well. The sloping shoulders, the curved princess seams the pleat in the back - everything. Plus it is SO easy to sew - you don't even have to have the button opening on the back (I didn't).  This took me maybe 2 hours to layout, cut fabric and sew. Very easy and really lovely. I got the fabric at the Brisbane meet up recently and it's a great cotton - about the same weave and weight as quilting cotton. It looks like it was a special print. The purple/grey leaves look like it was an earring as it has the hook on the end and the blobs are just blobs I think. I used this as a test garment. I need to do a sway back adjustment but otherwise it fits really well. I have some cotton lace that I will make it up with and hopefully some black straight pants. I have to work on the dress for the wedding next... sewing the Rosie top was probably me procrastinating. I really love the Style Arc patterns. They just go toge...

I have made a toile of the Alisha dress. It's a terrible fabric... actually the fabric looks gorgeous but is so thin and moves around a lot and FRAYS like nobody's business but I used it because the butter yellow is not my colour. Plus there is about 6 metres of it as it is a sari made from synthetic fabric. I got it at the meet up last month and decided it was good to use to see how the borders would work like the lace scallops (but my lace doesn't have nice scallops!). Firstly I have to say how everything went together very smoothly.  This is rated 'Challenging' by Style Arc but other than the pivot (at the neck where the front goes around to the back and joins the  and the zip there isn't too much that is challenging.  The front edge goes around and joins the back neckline to make a kind of mandarin collar. That's the pivot point below and the following photo is  how it looks. It was easy to do and with the industry sized seam allowances made it ...

The strawberry dress  is finally done.  I started in November (I can't believe it took me this long to finish it). I stalled as I firstly needed to put in the casing for the elastic - I made a bias strip, ironed it and sewed it into the inside, threaded the elastic, added another 8cm band on the bottom as I wasn't happy with the length and only had to put the snaps on. Today I sewed the elastic down and put the snaps in. I decided against buttons as the automatic button holer on my machine is temperamental and I didn't want to make 10 button holes with the thought that only some would work out. I had an issue with the fitting around the bust/arm area and I had some tips in the comments and I used these and the fit is much better. (if you check the link at the beginning of the post, you will see the issue and the comments).  Oh I just remembered the reason why I stalled.... I had a problem with getting the collar on well. I used Sherry's tutorial the second ...

 See what I mean? On the morning of the Brisbane meet up I decided I wanted to make a dress. I pulled out Vogue 1250, the Donna Karan knit dress that everybody but me had made. I pulled out some knit fabric I bought at Spotlight a couple of years ago and cut it out. I read a review that morning that said the shorter, squared off cowl kept popping out so I took the Kwik Sew cowl pattern that was conveniently still on the couch and cut a more traditional shaped and longer cowl. I think this was squared off because the cowl is quite deep and making this change put a lot of fabric in the middle there but it does sit well (at least for the 5 minutes I wore it for the photos). Oh and that is the dirty mirror not stains on the dress. I love the fabric although when I was sewing up the back skirt it was obvious that it wasn't printed on grain - I could have matched it up but it would have made the skirt about 2cm short and I didn't think I could sacrifice the length....