new fabric = new dress

I bought this fabric yesterday in The Fabric Store.  It is crinkle cotton and made in India.  This is the stuff I saw before Christmas and thought it would be ideal for copying a dress I have as it's the same type of fabric.  It was on sale at 30% off so I got it for $12 per metre.  I got two and a half metres and some matching thread so all up, the dress should cost me $34 to make. That's not counting the man hours it will take me to make it, which will no doubt turn it into a thousand-dollar dress....oh, well.

Here's a picture of the new fabric:

And the existing dress I want to copy.

This is a French Connection dress I got in the sale and after the first couple of wears it was starting to look very fragile at the seams. The new fabric is the same stuff and quite delicate - I'll just have to be gentle with washing...

So I made a pattern yesterday - a piece for the sleeves, a piece for the body and another piece for the flouncy skirt trim at the bottom.  I'm sure there's another word for that but I've no idea what it is. This looks reasonably simple to recreate but it has been difficult to get exact measurements from the original without taking it all apart.  I've made my pattern based on the assumption that the body is a plain rectangle with cut outs to make the armholes.  The sleeves and shoulders are rectangles with cut outs for the armholes and the skirt trim is another rectangle gathered at the join with the body part.  It then takes its shape by adding elastic at the neckline and a belt at the waist. Sounds too easy. Let's see shall we.....

It worked!  The finished dress:

Pear Pincushion

When OH's mum gave us the Rennie Mac wall hanging for Christmas she was lamenting that she never takes photographs of her work.  So I've decided to take pics of everything!

I made these when I was first starting out with the sewing machine.  The pear pincushion comes from a pattern posted in this blog and it looks as though it is based on Heather Bailey's pear pattern from her collection of very cute things.  I made mine from some leftover red felt I was using for Christmas decorations and the white waffle fabric is an old pillow case.  The leaf and the stem are also leftover white felt from Christmas deccies.

The cupcake came from an idea on a YouTube video, which I think came from a TV show in the US.  I'm sure if you search for cupcake pincushion on YouTube, it'll pop up somewhere. The base is made from the lid of a plastic water bottle wrapped in felt and the iced cake is just white cotton stuffed with poly-fill.  Too cute.

 

Fabric Supplies in Brisbane

I'm very excited to have found Monsoon Weave - online fabric shop specialising in block printed fabrics from India.  Where's my credit card.

I've also visited this place a couple of times: The Fabric Store in New Farm.  Recently opened I think and lots of choice.  They've got a lovely Indian cotton that I want to get to copy a dress I got in the sales.

I can't forget Funky Fabrix either.  My starting point for all of this madness but I didn't actually buy any fabric when I went there - too much choice.  I did buy a pattern for a skirt though - from the Joel Dewberry collection. One of these days I'll get around to making it when I'm not quite so scared of patterns...

No photos today because I'm not sure that I'm allowed to re-use pics from the above websites and I don't want to get into copyright trouble.

Just need to edit this post so that I can bookmark The Sewing Box somewhere. Lots of charm packs, layer cakes and jelly rolls for patchwork.

And a mention for The Patchwork Tree in Alderley.  One of the few places in Brisbane to stock Moda lines.

Summer PJs

I bought this fabric months ago to make PJs:

The PJ project went on the back burner while I got to grips with my machine and had some fun with the Christmas decorations. Yesterday while reading a borrowed copy of Stitches, I had another surge of enthusiasm and got the sewing machine out again. It had been boxed away for the silly season as our kitchen table had started to look like a disaster zone.

The book I borrowed from the library (Sewing for Dummies) had a PJ tutorial in it but I had to return the book before I got to that part...boo...so it was back to the internet for inspiration. I found this website:  CraftAndFabricLinks.com offering free sewing and craft lessons, free sewing and craft patterns and discount fabrics.  The Pyjama pattern is listed under the free sewing patterns.

Note that PJs are commonly referred to as lounge pants - it has something to do with mandatory fire hazard labelling that must be displayed on pyjamas.  So let's call them lounge pants then...

I immediately had trouble with the pattern because I didn't know how to draw it. I know that sounds idiotic. I'm not an idiot - honest- I just didn't know how to line it up or how much curvature to put on the curvy parts etc. So I got a pair of my knackered old PJs and unpicked them. Seriously. It took ages.The unpicked legs became my template.  So I cut out two front panels and two back panels and stitched them together following the tutorial.

The tutorial doesn't say anything about overlocking the seams once they have been stitched together and that step needs to be added to stop the raw edges of the seams from fraying (says she - the expert!). It does say that the raw top edge at the waist and the raw edges of the legs should be overlocked but I think the seams should be first as they end up being flattened by overlocking the raw hem edges of the waist and legs. Awkward. Unfortunately I didn't think of this until after I'd overlocked the raw hem edges...I should point out that I don't have an overlocker or serger - I used an overlock stitch and foot that came with the machine but I understand that a zig-zag stitch would work just as well.   Otherwise the tutorial was excellent, very suitable for beginners and here is the finished article:

I'm having a day off today and it's raining.  I think that's what they call a Pyjama Day or is that now a Lounge Pant Day?  Doesn't quite have the same ring to it. Tee Hee.

Rennie Mackintosh inspired quilted wall hanging.

So, I haven't posted for a while because Christmas turned out to be a bit mad. The Christmas stockings did not come to fruition but that's ok - we can save those for next year.

Other Half's mum made a beautiful quilted wall hanging as a Christmas gift.  It was based on this window design by Glasgow designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh:

This is the completed wall hanging:

In this photo it's actually hung on top of the advent calendar I made in December so the red ribbon you can see at the top isn't part of the hanging.  Don't ask me how she put this together...what a talent.  We love it as we're big fans of Mackintosh's work.  More on him here: Charles Rennie Mackintosh