Two piece Liberty silk twill setacular

Last weekend I attended the superfun Sydney Frocktails hosted by the wonderful Caz (Useful Box).  It was a great night and I met loads of lovely ladies and saw again many sewing friends. Honestly though weeks out from the event I was really struggling for an outfit and was close to not going. I didn't want to wear anything I already owned and I didn't have any fabric in the stash to sew up.  In almost desperation I decided to bring out a skirt I'd made back in August but had never worn as I didn't have the right top to go with it (well of course it goes with stripes but not perfectly with any stripes I already own - as hard as that is to believe) so I, at the last minute, bought some extra fabric over the phone from the Fabric Store to make a two piece setacular.

Warning - these photos were taken the day after the event, I am tired and my outfit had become quite crinkled and I didn't put nearly enough effort into ironing it..but it's been so long since I posted I thought I'd better get something on the blog!

The fabric is a Liberty of London silk twill which is a bit tricky to sew but the twill gives it some stability, only of course to be offset by the stripe matching required.

The skirt is a simple pleated wrap skirt which I made up as I went.  I had no interest in putting in a zipper to this fabric so the waistband is just a long piece that wraps around and through a button hole. I haven't quite worked out where the wrap should sit but the tie is long enough to wrap around either to the front or to the back.  

The top is from 'We love Tops' a Japanese book. I've made this top up a few times but it has never really worked for me with pleats, but this fabric just calls out to be pleated and I needed it to be cropped to work with the skirt.  I really love the top and  will wear it seperately with my navy culottes. 

 Do I love it?  Mmm..  I think I did a great job at matching the fabric with a pattern. It's super fun to wear and I did enjoy the feeling of silk.  But I also felt a bit dowdy in it which might have somthing to do with the skirt length and the shoes I chose to wear with it (despite the fact that I do love these shoes) I think they needed to be higher.   Sewing can be a bit like that can't it?

A bit of a roller coaster of liking it, loving it, hating it.... loving it again.

I managed to pick up a bit of fabric last weekend, so excited to get sewing again following the Christmas present rush and the sewing laziness that followed!

FINISHED! Aime Comme (salmon) Macaroni

Frills, ruffles, stripes. It's all what you expect to see here isn't it. Same same today, although I'm mixing it up by sewing jersey. Most unlike me to sew up a jersey but I have loved this pattern, the Macaroni from Aime Comme Marie for some time and had purchased a blue and white stripe remnant from Tessuti a while ago to make it up in.

Recently however, I snuck up to Sydney to see friends play at Cult Club. Best 24 hours in forever! Was like being in a 90's time machine. Anyway, I organised my bus so that I had a little bit of time to spend at the Fabric Store in Surry Hills (thank you Sunday trading hours!!) before I came home and managed to pick up some lovely items including this thick salmon (and navy/black) thick cotton jersey on. I bought enough to also make up a pair of shorts - so look out two piece set-acular to come! So my first Macroni is also known as the Salmon run.

Last weekend, armed with my Salmon, I headed to Bundanoon, with some lovely sewing friends to spend some time sewing. They all went on Friday, but I could only make it for the Saturday/ Saturday night. Halfway there I realised I had forgotten my stash of needles that I had bought during the week but decided not to turn around but keep going... I don't usually break needles so thought I'd be right. Oh dear .. On this project I broke 4 needles (one in my overlocker) - thank you Michelle for lending me some!

I completely ignored the instructions thinking I knew how this would go together. It's not an awful mistake but the frill shouldn't be attached at the shoulder seam and should be let free to frill over the shoulder. Knowing how much I love 'a frill to be able to frill' I'm annoyed I got this wrong but it's not exactly a big problem.  Definitely the extra thickness of the fabric at the shoulder had something to do with broken needles.

The other cause was probably my constant unpicking and resewing to try and line up the stripes. They almost got the better of me but I got there in the end. Next Macaroni will NOT be in stripes, so my Tessuti remnant may need to age a bit longer! 

Also, I took quite a few inches off the length so I had to tuck the frill under into the hem rather than if finishing in the front seam - this I quite like and doesn't bother me so I might not even change it for next time.  

This is classified as an easy make but it did take some time to come together (due to copious unpicking) and I only finished this and the start of another top over the day.  Regardless of expectations of output, it was an excellent 24 hours of sewing, singing and bubbles. I look forward to another one. These very short bursts of being away have really done me wonders and have left me feeling really buoyed. I should do it more often!

So the Salmon Run Macaroni defnitely fits into my 'uniform' and I can see it being a weekend favourite as the seasons start to turn from winter to early spring.

I love (peplum) tops

Hi! It's been a while!  I've been a bit sporadic with my making over the last few months.  I have two pairs of corduroy culottes and another blouse to post.. sometime.. but today, it's a blouse with an all too familiar shape! 

The story starts with 1.2m of Liberty Saville Poplin (Strike pewter green) from the Fabric Store. It is, as you would expect a heavier weight than the Tana Lawn which I was looking forward to using for perhaps a thicker drape.  I have quite a lot of Japanese pattern books (which I'm thinking of destashing) and haven't made anything from quite a few of them, so thought it was time to mix up my peplum game and make the pattern 2nd from the left in the photo:  The cropped top with pleated peplum (aka N: half sleeve short blouse).   It has a pleated peplum at the front only.

Warnings from Jillian that the top is very cropped came a little late as I had already cut out the 'peplum', but thought that my extra inch or so would be enough. It wasn't. I'm only 5'2" (or perhaps a bit less) but the top looked - urrrgh. Just not right.  It wasn't just the length, it was also the pleats that just weren't working for me. I tried it with my higher waisted culottes but nothing jelled.

Amazingly, this top uses the most miniscule of fabric so I was able to remove the pleated peplum and add a winning gathered peplum from the remaining fabric.

Yes, this is the third such gathered peplum top in my wardrobe, the first was my wildflowers (which has a lower peplum) and the second was my Marthe (with a much wider neck).  And you would be right... but there a minor differences in each and lets face it when you like a style, you like a style. 

What I'm loving about this is the higher waist and longer peplum.. and... always a fan of the closer neck, I like the shape better there as well.  The wide neck always bothered me on the Marthe.

The neck is finished with a facing (which I didn't interface) and a button closure. It was definitely nice to do a facing for a change rather than binding, although I wonder would I just bind it next time.

 

All in all, this was defnitely on it's way to being a make that I was never going to wear to something that I now love!  Hooray for peplums!  

FINISHED! Caramel Sydney

I have become quite fixated with vest jackets and short sleeve jackets of late, so when the Sydney Jacket was released by Tessuti, I immediately snapped it up. I dreamed of making it up in leather, a deep blue leather, but when I rang the Fabric Store, it was suggested that I might need 4 hides, so in the interest of money and perhaps checking out the pattern first, I asked instead for a range of wool swatches to choose from. 

The caramel won out over a camel as I have always loved this colour and lately Chloe have been tempting me on instagram with clothes in rich colours from this palette which I find hard to resist. This wool is a really lovely soft wool with great drape and warmth that I ordered from the Fabric Store in Melbourne when they were having a 30% sale day.

I received the wool on Monday, cut it out on Tuesday, and sewed Wednesday and Thursday night for a short time each night. The pattern is not hemmed, so cutting, which has never been my strong suit is important. I recommend, and this is probably obvious, cutting a single layer at a time. I also neatened up some seams with my ruler and rotary cutter.

The pattern was fun to put together and I surprised myself by enjoying the method of construction which is to layer the fabric over each other to create the seams. It was in some ways like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. There were only a couple of spots in the instructions where I had to really think about how to attach pieces. I found marking the 3/8 seam and then laying the fabric on the marked line absolutely essential.

The instructions call for sewing in the middle of the 3/8 inch seam, but instead I sewed closer to 1/8 inch which leaves a slightly bigger seam of fabric on the inside, but the 1/8 suits my preference on the outside of the coat.  The smaller seam makes it less obvious that the fabric is overlapped, which some people might like as a feature.  I made up a petite, the smallest size with no alterations. 

I am so happy with this coat. I thought that at first that it might not look modern and smart, but I think it looks really great with both these outfits photographed and I wore it on Friday night with my jumpsuit and felt truly a million dollars.

This is already a very popular pattern popping up regularly on instagram. Every version seems to be great. Great work Tessuti and yes, I'm still keen on that leather version!

FINISHED! Girl Friday Anna and Boy Silk Culottes

Second only to my love of drop waists dresses is my love of culottes. Debbie must be sick of me saying that I'm a culottes fan and how I'm going to make a pair, but never do. Well, finally, here is my first attempt.  The pattern is the recently released Girl Friday culottes by Liesl & Co. The pattern provides for a pair of culottes with a reasonable amount of volume.

The pattern itself was well put together with good instructions, but I was punching above my weight the whole way with this make. It was foolish to think that I could try a new pattern, with a check silk.  I bought the fabric from the The Fabric Store in Surry Hills when I was there with Emma, Amy and Maria in January this year.  It is an Anna and Boy silk, which I noticed was still there in September. Uurgh, silk. I always want to buy it but in reality I don't really enjoy sewing with it.

I hate to have things too tight around my waist and the pattern didn't provide for finished measurements so to be on the safe side I went up rather down where my waist measurement fell between sizes (though to be honest it was closer to the lower size). The result was that the waist was enormous.  I ended up altering both the front and back darts by an additional (whopping!) 7cms each.  I could have taken more in except that I was worried about how the silk was hanging at the darts and I didn't want it to pull. I still have significant ease in the waist and as a result they slip around a bit.

 

The other issue I had was the pockets which are supposed to be nicely hidden in the sides aren't quite perfect on the left hand side where the zipper is. I put this down to slippery silk and sewing or probably a cutting error.  I will have to put my hands in my pockets when I'm wearing them so it's not so noticeable.  I managed to get most of the stripes lined up so thank goodness for small mercies. 

I interfaced the waistband with a lightweight interfacing but in hindsight wonder if it couldn't have used a slightly heavier one.  The waistband is supposed to close with a trouser clasp but I really hate those and find that no matter how I put it on the fabric flaps a bit. I ended removing the clasp and putting a button on. The waistband and hems are hand stitched.

 

I kind of like these but I found most of the making of them a bit of a chore (silk not pattern issue). I think they are more flattering in real life (maybe?) but regardless, they will definitely go on the work wear rotation as they will be breezy and I hope fun to wear as we move into the warmer months. For my next pair, I definitely need a different fit in the waist and for a heavier fabric - a little less volume. 

FINISHED! A Lurex mini challenge

Back in January, when I was at the Fabric Store, Emma from Ernest Flagg and I both bought 1.2m of this fun lurex. It is quite sheer and has a very subtle sparkle to it which I failed to capture well in these photos. It was an impulse buy and not particularly well thought through as I don't often wear grey. I love it on other people it is just not a colour that I love to wear (sequins aside).  But caught up in a moment of lurex, at the time I envisioned a little top to wear with jeans, but later decided that it might be fun to make into a dress.

Following on from my success with the Saiph Tunic and knowing that this pattern (sans sleeves) requires, with a good width of fabric, only 1.2 metres I decided to make the Saiph up again. To my own detriment, it's not often that I make up a pattern more than once and certainly not in such quick succession, so it did feel weird to return so quickly to this one.  Last time I made up the XS but this time I made up a straight XXS.  It fixes the armscye problems of the last one without sacrificing the lovely trapeze look.The dress still slips around the shoulders a bit but no big deal.

Those big dots on the back of the fabric are in fact large raindrops that started to fall as I was taking these photos not imperfections with the fabric although there was a few on the fabric which I needed to be wary of as I cut.  I lined it in a cheap dark navy slippery fabric which works a treat.  Despite being able to slip it straight over my head I kept the back seam and added a self covered button at the top.

I wonder whether I should have made up the other version of this pattern with the straight bottom, but there is no point regretting my choice now.  This is such a cute tunic that it might get a wear for a date night although I need to settle on the accessories. Not sure if these tights and shoes work 100%.

I wonder what Emma made with her fabric? Go over and check out her make.  I can't wait to see what she made! I've really liked doing this challenge.  As for the Saiph tunic, I'm done with it for now but it has definitely been fun! 

Sydney stash additions

I have just returned from a week in Sydney with somewhat more fabric for the stash than was entirely necessary, but that's what happens when you go fabric shopping at Tessuti and The Fabric Store and it is really only when I visit these stores that I stash add like this. I was joined by the very lovely Amy, Emma and Maria and my sister. This was my first 'in real life' official meeting with fellow bloggers and gosh I was nervous!  Luckily the girls were even lovelier than I had imagined them to be and I can't wait to do it again!

My workable* stash of fashion fabric is now at an all time high of 12 pieces.. not counting the boxes and boxes of scrap fabrics that I have.  A list of all the fabrics in the stash is on my current project details page.

The top piece is a checked lurex (!) which Emma and I both bought 1.2m of from the Fabric Store.  We have a mini challenge going on with this fabric and we have decided that the big reveal of our respective makes will be Valentines Day.  If it works I might wear it to a wedding in March. 

There is a stretch lace in the pile which I also noticed on Little Betty Sews blog post last night. Also some striped denim for maybe a Ninot Jacket and this cord (sadly only in the Autumn colour way) for another attempt of the Rigel Bomber.  

Those of you who follow me on instagram, may remember this fabric. It is baby blue faux fur and I just love the idea of it made up into a Rigel Bomber, but alas I left it on the shelf frightened by the construction.

For now, I have another week off to potter around the house with the kids before they go back to school and I go back to work next week, to tidy up the sewing cupboard so I can fit my new fabric in and to finish the Sigma Dress which arrived in the mail while I was away.  

*In the interests of disclosure, I also have 2 other pieces that I will probably never use that are sitting on the very top shelf of the cupboard - which I can't reach so forget about them.