FINISHED! A dress for race day

This was supposed to be a fun post about the dress I made and wore for Melbourne Cup day. Australians all know the Cup, but for those of you not in Australia, this horse race really does 'stop the nation'! Almost everyone watches the race.  Workplaces (that still work on this day -Victorians get the day off) usually have some form of lunch and then all crowd around a tv (or mobile phone!) to watch the race at 3pm.  I love the day. I always make a special effort for work, wear something fun, don a fascinator, have a glass of champagne and always buy too many entries in a sweep thinking that I'm going to win and never do. Unfortunately yesterday was marred after two of the horses died after this years race, so I have been torn as to whether or not to share this dress, but I have decided to share it. I'm sorry if it offends anyone.

I found this fabric for $5/m, clearly polyester, at Spotlight and immediately had in mind a Melbourne Cup dress. Seriously, it has every type of horse event on it so it was an obvious decision. I have had a bit of 'post make' regret that I didn't just make a skirt that I would be able to then don a stripey top with (my usual neutral), but that wouldn't be 'Melbourne Cup'. A dress it had to be and a pussy bow seemed appropriately costumey for the Cup.

I have been extremely busy lately and I knew the time leading up to Cup Day would be limited so I decided to go with a tried and true pattern: W from 'Les Coleurs Francaise' by Tsukiori Yoshiko.
I have used this pattern many times, here, here, here, here and here, Phew That's a lot of times! It is originally a top pattern, but this is the second time that I have lengthened it into a short dress.

I didn't quite have enough fabric to match the rows of horses up exactly so I matched up the stripes but just not the exact horse pattern. I don't mind it in fact - it provides a little bit of interest on the sides. And I love the orange collar!

The colour probably doesn't do my hair and complexion any favours but a dress for the races, should be a bit over the top and the colours I think are perfectly flashy for the races. I did wear a fascinator but it was a bit boring and rushed so I don't have any photos of me wearing it.  Next year I'll start earlier and raise the standard of my fascinator. On the day, this was a very fun dress to wear and I got a lot of comments about it .. and my orange shoes!

31 May 2012 - the final day

The last day of MMM12! The community of MMM12ers decided that as a thank you gesture to Zoe, we would have photo with "thank you" and also if possible, wear something a bit Zoe-esque.  I'm wearing my dancing ladies shirt from 7 May so it isn't really Zoe-esque.  I did have plans though as I too love 'the nautical' and a long time ago I purchased some pretty poor quality stretch that had anchors on it and did a few things with it for the boys.  I remembered it the other day and thought it might be good to see if I could make something out of it for today. There hasn't been much time for sewing this week but on Tuesday night (late, very late) I got out the material and drafted up a super quick pattern and sewed away.  It was pretty good although the side seams were making holes in the fabric -from a blunt needle maybe or poorly aligned fabric -but I  reinforced those seams and they were fine.  Unfortunately, the bigger problem that I noticed as the clock ticked past midnight, was the extremely uneven hem.  At first I thought I wouldn't worry and leave it uneven, but I remembered that I had a tiny bit of fabric that I might be able to put around the bottom to 'fix it'.  Anyway, I started attempting to fix the hem at 10.30 last night and needless to say the top is in no state to wear today - in fact it is in the bin.  I was happy with how the pattern worked out though so will try it again at some other time.  But not with panic sewing.

So no Zoe-esque homage, rather dancing ladies shirt returns but with my shorts.

Another thing we have to do is write a thank you to Zoe, so here's mine:

THANK YOU ZOE for organising and to all the other MMMers who made this such a fun challenge. I'm glad I challenged myself to not repeat an outfit, it was hard passing up my favourite items, but it was nice to get out some of the 'back of the cupboard' clothes. Starting up the blog also meant that I have now documented just about all my handmade clothes.  I've also stopped lurking so much on blogs and started commenting (as I realised just how fun it was to receive feedback).. and MMM12 introduced me to a number of new blogs that I now follow, inspired me to make a number of new things during the month (granted I'd classify them as 'panic sewing') and added more and more to a big list of patterns I want to try from others!  Phew, what a month!

30 May 2012 revisit day 1

It's cold and foggy outside, so again I'm sitting in my little corner.  I'm revisiting the Liberty shirt from Day 1 of MMM12, but with jeans and boots rather than dressed up for work.  One more day of MMM12...

28 May 2012 - wiltshire again

As the end of May draws ever closer and I have run out of me made items, I find myself desperately looking for a super easy project that will see me finish the Month on a high.  Such a project is eluding me however and so for now, I am relegated to looking for different outfits made up of items already seen during the month.  Today, for a day pacing the hospital while Ben has his operation I have chosen to wear the Liberty of London Wiltshire again, pattern W from Les Couleurs Francaises.  (We dropped him off to the hospital early, so I'm updating this post while the boys are getting ready for school - or at least should be!) You may remember that I last wore this on the 16 May with a skirt and heels, eagerly anticipating (there is a bit of sarcasm here) a computer workshop:  http://kbfield.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/16-may-2012-wiltshire.html.
Today it is teamed with my skinny jeans, marc by marc jacobs boots and my blue cardi-vest. These shoes will provide the perfect clippity clopping in hospital corridors... so I think I am onto a winner.

19 May 2012 - fish dress

Today I am wearing a cute little dress I made in September 2010.  The material is Liberty of London Akinobu from Tessuti and the pattern is loosely based on Y from Les Couleurs Francaise, but I added a double peter pan collar after falling in love with a See by Chloe dress that had an enormous double collar like this.  At the time I had Polly help me with this and we didn't exactly match up the collar properly so it doubles over at the back - which I think is actually a nice design feature! I am extremely happy with how we matched the pattern up on the collar! Other changes I made was a tie at the back so it comes in a little and also some very useful pockets!  Hooray for pockets.  The first time I wore this dress was for a beautiful friend's birthday - though with different shoes and tights.

Today I have an afternoon at the theatre - well I'm off to Sesame Street presents Elmo's World Tour!  so thought I might dress up a bit rather than wearing jeans!! 

marc for marc jacobs 

Photo taken back in 2010

2 May 2012

Made July 11

Today I'm wearing another version of W from Les Couleurs Francaise.  This time with open sleeves.  This top is ok - it probably looks better not tucked in with jeans and a little vest, which I'll probably wear later in the month.  The other problem is that the material creases easily.  I promise you I did iron this blouse before  putting on!

1 May 2012

First day of Me Made Me!!  And I've jumped out of bed early to get dressed and do this post before getting the boys ready and flying off to work!!!  So, today I'm wearing this Liberty top. The material was bought from Addicted to Fabric in December 2011 and I used pattern W as the base from Les couleurs francaises.  I love this pattern - you will see it more than a few times this month!  It is a lovely pattern and lends itself to lots of changes and a variety of outfits.  This particular version I popped a peter pan type collar on, which I drafted using pattern X in the book.  This was my first time making up a collar so I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing when I drafted it so it sits up a bit - but I like it.  It's a mistake which actually worked.  Added a self covered button (first time for this as well!!).. Oh and I am very proud of my matching of the pattern.  The other change was I used elastic in the sleeves.Ok, off to put my sneakers on!