BurdaStyle Magazine Challenge

I've just made a commitment to join in the Burda Magazine sew-a-long with Curious Kiwi and followers for the month of May. I get all the Burda Mags out of the local library and love them but like a lot of people have never actually made anything from them. That's the whole fab purpose of this challenge. I will choose carefully since the more ambitious I am the more unpicking and swearing and cursing that can go on.  This is particularly true of fabric choice and I am finding stretch fabric to be a puckering challenge.  I changed the settings on the overlocker, yep I read the instructions for knits and the change has helped.  Shall I make a jacket, a coat, a dress or a skirt, shall I play it safe or shall I step up the challeng?.  Shall I choose somethiing from my stash or buy something new?  It's winter here so a jacket or coat is appealing. I saw some nice chocolate brown soft wool....

Yesterday I went to Sakaguchi's fabric sale. He's a fabulous designer and is located right here in my own city.  At the end of each season he has a sell out of left over fabrics for more than reasonable prices and so I brought home a great stash - a bit much black but as Sakaguchi himself told me at the till, you can never go wrong with black! One great purchase was an embroidered silk!  What do you think I should make with this gorgeous piece.  I have 0.9 metres and it's wide.

I never used to have a stash - didn't appreciate there was a concept and didn't realise the pleasure and the treasure. As a teenager and a student and even as a young married person, I only ever had enough money to make one garment at a time so I only bought purposeful pieces with a pattern.  But sewing bloggers out there you have made me realise that it's perfectly normal to be completely obsessive with buying fabrics - and now I buy guilt free especially at sale time. Besides, I learnt the hard way that the roll does not contain an infinite amount and once it's gone, it's gone.  don't you hate going to the counter to get 2 metres when there is only 1.2 left on the roll. Check out this piece of blogging which had me in hysterics How to buy fabric. What a fantastic attitude this blogger has!

Roll on May and the great Burdastyle Magazine Challenge! I might even try and do a step by step blog for this challenge. Very excited.

LBD

LBD

That toile just keeps giving and giving.

I decided to go to an Awards dinner so the LBD was the obvious choice and since I had my trusty fitting toile I used that as the basis.  I chose black stretch satin and chose a high neckline.  i also bought some wide lace and then cut out the sleeve pattern.  Then to dress it up I made a sash.  I was going to wear my mothers marcisite broach on the knot but in the end I bought some flowers.  One for the bow and one for the top of the zipper where it gaped.  Embellishments are marvelous for covering up slight imperfections in the sewing. And of course of got some lovely new shoes!

A nice piece of lace and a sleeve pattern borrowed from a blouse pattern. 

Have a look at this invisible zip!!  I looked up the internet and found a site that told me open up the zip and iron the zip to UNCURL it.  This enabled me to get the stitching closer to the zip and I was thrilled.  Invisitble!
Thanks sewserendipity

Initially I hemmed this traditionally with slip stitches and got that horrible dimpled looks so in the end I decided to "make the problem a feature" and I used the rolled hem on my overlocker which gave it a stylish wavy look.

Another Easy Comfy Summer Dress

February was a glorious month weatherwise, (not too good for the farmers though).  Anyway I made another dress in the same style but fitted the back with two long darts.  Again I used Cotton Sateen bought from Fabric Vision and again it was easy peasy to sew. And congratulate me, I didn't use black!  Love this dress and since I already had the fitted toile, it was quick to make.  I put in a V-neck this time and edged the neck with satin bias binding.

It's so comfy.  I think its the slight stretch in the material that makes it so.  I've been wearing it with a short sleeved red cardie to barbeques and out shopping.

I would have to admit to being a bit of an impatient  sewer, simply because I want it finished so I can wear it.  But when I get like that I have now trained myself to put it down and come back to it another day.  Forcing myself  to make a toile was soooo worthwhile, I recommend it.

Party Dress

I do appreciate the sewing.patternreview.com  fraternity with their support and helpful comments!  I also joined the Sewing Down Under which as they pointed out is for Aussies and Kiwis not knicker construction.

I have finally had time to make my Christmas dress - just in time for my mother's birthday last week (February). Congratulate me because it is not black nor even dark.  But floral - my hubby was very impressed and went so far as to say I looked sexy in bright colours. lol

I used the Burda 2943 as a foundation but I used my brand new dressmaker's dummy to make it fitted, rather than loose.  I set up my dummy to my measurements and then realised that my nipples are closer together than my dummy so I changed the dials to narrow the chest and expand the sides and back.  The one measurement I overlooked was shoulder to nipple which at my age is lower than my perky 'Flora'. 

The material had a bit of a stretch in one direction but sewed like cotton and seemed like no trouble. I think it was cotton sateen. However, the front gapped once I put in the facing around the neck so perhaps I stretched it a little when I sewed it even though I staystitched it.  To fix this I did a gather by using a stretched piece of elastic at the centre front and it shaped it nicely.

It feels really lovely to wear.

 What do you think?

Dress Makers Dummy

I should mention that my fabulous mother gave me a dressmaker's dummy for Christmas.  My next project is to be a floral dress and I will fit it on my dummy.  I'm going to give Simon Henry's LBD book method a bit of a go but I will use my dummy instead of a t-shirt.  Wish me luck because it is a non-stretch fabric.

Kimono Dressing Gown for Summer- Simplicity 9319

I've been sweltering in my winter velour dressing gown so I decided I needed a new summer one.  I also like to water the garden in the morning before I get dressed so I needed something for that, just in case the neighbours look over:).

Choosing the material was the hardest bit.  I spent hours going through the American Craft Cottons - I love them so much and chose an expensive one with gold cotton in it and sort of Japanese looking only to find when I got to the counter that there wasn't enough left on the bolt.  Just my luck. In the end I went for a cheaper Voile from Sportlight which was only NZ$9 per metre.  I did french seams to make it look tidy.   I love the lemon ribbon sash for a belt and only put it on by chance when one of my Xmas present came wrapped with it.  Next time I would make the gown a little longer.  (I didn't show you my knees!) The pattern is one I bought on TradeMe (a whole box of 60 patterns for $5 and $18 for postage. lol). But worth it since patterns here can be between $10 and $20 each. Voila with my Voile! A garden gown for the garden!

Superman Boxer shorts for Bed

I have to admit that my 12 year old son got this lovely comic superman material for Christmas with a note "To be continued into a pair of cool boxer shorts for bed!"  I managed to get them made on 13th January.  The fabric is from ThumpaCat in Arrowtown. (They sell on Trademe)  R loves them! (especially since I made a crouch adjustment so they don't hang down too low!)