A grey weekend

I have started my winter basics. These fabrics arrived from Tessuti on Wednesday. I washed them Wednesday night, cut them Thursday and sewed them Friday and Saturday.

1. I copied this shirt from a Country Road t-shirt that I bought a few years ago. I like the raglan sleeve cut. It is a swing-style tee, but there is more an illusion of fullness rather than actual fullness, with gathers only at the centre front and sleeves. I also like that the yoke width varies...narrow at the sides, moderate at the front and deep at the back. The sleeves and bottom are not hemmed. Instead, a coverstitch is sewn around the circumference, about an inch from the bottom. I can't tell you what the fabric is, because the one I wanted wasn't in stock, and Catherine just selected one for me. It is very light, which is perfect for this style, but it isn't super-soft.

2. The organic smoky cotton / elastane used for this t-shirt is super-soft and stretchy. I used my own t-shirt draft.

3. I made this tank dress from leftovers from the leggings fabric, which was 160 cm wide. I wish I knew that I was going to take the leggings in a tad, because I could have done with a smidge more around the hips.

4. I ended up modifying my leggings pattern to use the crotch seam from my Marfy jeans. They fit just about perfectly, maybe I could take them in a little above the knee and let them out a little around the calf. I put little zippers in the ankles. If I wanted to make treggings or jeggings, I now have a pattern...but ironically, if I had legs that would look good in treggings, then I wouldn't need to make my own pattern. I should be able to tell you what the fabric is, but yet again, I have misplaced the samples in the shamozzle that is my bedroom. It is a medium weight, stable knit with spandex. I have just worn them out for a few hours and they are warm and comfy with no sagging or bagging at the crotch or knee.

Now sadly, grey is not a colour that looks very good on me. I knew that before I started, but grey is so much more sophisticated then brown. To overcome this, I plan on wearing them with coloured accessories, coats and jackets. This is how I wore them today.

Preparing for winter

I've had a few comments lately about how warm it must be here in winter and Gail guessed correctly that I was holidaying in Far North Queensland. I live in Townsville, which is classified as the "Dry Tropics". This means that the biggest difference between summer and winter is the humidity. Well, last summer, it didn't stop raining and now, the weather is skin-itchin' dry. We still have a winter, but it is shorter and milder than many of you would have. However, I do need some clothes for those few weeks, and every winter I come up short.

Last year, I tried to pull together an olive and burgundy combo. The fabrics looked great piled up, but I forgot to plan clothes than actually worked together. This year, I have been inspired by an article on Gwyneth Paltrow's blog (check it out, it's worth a look), which starts by layering a few, basic neutrals. I don't tend to sew "basics" or "neutrals" . This winter, that is all going to change and I plan to sew a few easy knits to work in with other garments that I already own.

I have ordered in a few grey and charcoal knits, but I thought I would test out my patterns on some fabric from my stash.



For the leggings, I used a pattern drafted at Stuart's patternschool. I did think about drafting my own from Keith Richardson's "Designing and patternmaking for stretch fabrics", but when I compared the methods, I liked Stuart's better. Keith starts with a catsuit block which uses 10% negative ease in both the horizontal and vertical. I don't think that vertical ease is necessary in leggings, unless they have stirrups. Stuart's method has no vertical ease, 12% negative horizontal ease at the waist, 0 - 6% negative horizontal ease through hips and thigh and 6% negative horizontal ease from the knees down. That all sounds very good, but my measurements weren't accurate and I ended up with leggings that were way too loose. I have taken them in some, and will take them in more for the next pair.

So onto the sweater dress. I have had Vogue 8319 for a long time, which is a sheath dress with raglan seams and extended shoulders and princess seams. I love the style lines and have been waiting to find the right project. This is not the right project. Actually, there probably is no right project. I think that deep down I have known that sheath dresses are not for me. I'm over it now. I will put this pattern at the back of the drawer.

The fabric was some sort of very soft blend. I thought it was very snuggly fabric, but my son thought it looked like I had rolled in a lot of dog hair. The seam lines just sort of melted into nothing-ness when they were pressed, which made the dress more boring than it need be, so I added zippers at the raglan seams. Now it looks like I am wearing some sort of tennis dress, albeit in sweater fabric.

My favourite bit of this outfit is the scarf, and I didn't even make that.

Now I need to choose a different pattern for my sweater dress. Here are the current options, tell me what you think.Vogue 8530, with the long sleeves.

Vogue 1091. It looks pretty simple, but I like the wide neckline. Might end up looking like a sack.

Vogue 1046, the view on the left. The line drawing looks odd, but it looks great on the model. Am I being fooled by a gorgeous model and fabulous print? Does she have a bull-dog clip at the back? It does come with pockets.

There are also a few patterns that look alright at Onion Patterns, but I am always hesitant to try a new brand of patterns. Has anyone had success with these?

One vest, many ways

I have been wanting to sew a vest since I saw this image in Burda WOF 04/2008. Sadly, it was one of the purchased garments and not one of the featured patterns.

I used Wild Ginger PMB4 to generate a pattern. I am not really a fan of the Wild Ginger patterns, but I thought it should be able to cope with a vest. Their vest pattern is a waist-up garment, so even though I lengthened it, I had to modify the darts and side seam myself, to take into account hip width.

I made it out of scraps from this jacket, which meant darts and not princess seams. This was one of those projects that hung about on my sewing room floor for weeks...scraps take up so much more room than folded lengths and PMB4 patterns don't come with an envelope (poor excuses, I know)...so that by the time I came to sew it, I was already sick of it, and didn't bother with welt pockets.

Construction was a nightmare. I used a sew-in interfacing, which I found does not work well with darts, so I later ripped it out. I must have cut the lining off-grain (I was using lining scraps as well), so it skewed when I sewed the darts. Somehow, the back lining ended up shorter than the vest. I did follow Josie's method of attaching the lining to the vest, which worked well.

In spite of the shoddy construction, I love this vest. It matches so many garments I already own. Indulge me whilst I show you....

First, I am wearing it as a top with my silk/linen pants.

Next up, over a cami, with jeans. In my take on the picture of Marilyn Monroe reading "Ulysses" up-side-down, I turned the book upside down. Well, I remember seeing a photo of her reading upside-down, but when I went scouting for a reference, I could only find photos with it the right way up. So instead, it is just me holding a book upside-down, and not even my book, but one belonging to my brother-in-law. Ironically, I will wear this outfit to bookclub tonight.

Here, I am wearing it over a white tee. I have never managed to pull off the iconic blue jeans / white tee look, but I think I could swap the shorts for jeans, add the vest over the top and get away with it.

Lastly, it is warm enough that I can use it to extend the season of some summer dresses. I think this dress really needs a shorter vest though.

I love this one so much, I am planning some variations. Maybe a slimmer, shorter version, maybe a summer weight version with extra detailing.

Stealing Kelly's Style

I loved Kelly's dress so much that I had to have one myself...and now I do. That is the beauty of sewing.

The fabric is Kokeshi from Tessuti. I have had it a little while because I could not decide what pattern to use. I did like a DVF-inspired HotPatterns dress, but when I read the reviews at patternreview, I learnt that the pieces were largely rectangular. Being pear-shaped, I was a little dubious about how rectangles would go. Eventually, I decided to modify a dress pattern that I drafted myself. I changed the neckline, extended the shoulders and added a little cap sleeve.


My sister tells me that it is time to get rid of the hazy mirror photos from my blog, so this weekend, when we met up camping, I took my new clothes along and she took some photos. We were camping, so no irons and no make-up, but we did have a beautiful setting.

I wasn't brave enough to ask the Life-guards to pose with me.

Slouchy pants v2

These luxurious pants were made using silk fabric I purchased with my gift voucher from the Tessuti awards. They certainly are beautiful to wear....thank-you Colette :).

Here, I present you with the un-ironed version. I have lots to get done today and plenty of not-quite-finished projects, so I asked Peter to take a quick photo on his way to work. The sun was just popping over the hill, which accounts for all the shadows. I did pull the basting threads out of the back welt pockets just before the photo, but you can't see that level of detail anyway.

The pattern is Vogue 2981, which I have made previously in denim. In this version I left off the belt loops and folded the front pleats inwards rather than outwards. Previously I made Sz 14, took in the side seams and used a Sz 12 waistband. This version I cut a Sz 12 with wider side seams, just in case. Turns out I needed that extra width and a Sz 14 waistband. This pair feel a smidge short in the crotch, so if I make them again I will go back to the Sz 14.

I made the top years ago using silk georgette from Grasshopper Silks, which is a lovely store to visit if ever you are in Adelaide. They do mail order if you require. It is cut on the bias, which allows me to cut a single size through the torso rather than grading up sizes and getting funny curves.