A cosy jacket for my mum (Burdastyle 12/2012, #140)

My gorgeous Mum turned 70 last week! I know, neither of us can believe it. She certainly doesn't look her age.

Anyway, as usual I headed to the sewing machine to make the majority of her presents. This jacket, Burdastyle Magazine 12/2012, Jacket #140, was a request Mum made while she was flipping through my magazine. She wanted something warm that she could use as a jacket and a dressing gown when she was on holiday in cooler places than our hometown of Perth.

Burdastyle Transform Jacket

The pattern suggested 'fulled loden' fabric should be used for this jacket. I have been informed by a helpful reader that this is quite readily available in Germany, but is difficult to find here. It's also apparently a bit scratchy to wear. I wanted something cosy and soft, so I chose this grey polar fleece.

The majority of the vertical seams are sewn wrong sides together so the seam allowance is exposed on the outside as a feature. I carefully trimmed the seam allowances after stitching so they would be neat on the outside. The edges of the hood, hem, pockets and cuffs are left raw. I finished these with pale grey grosgrain ribbon, which was a nice detail.

I like the way the cuffs fold right back.

I made the jacket a size smaller than I would usually wear as my Mum is a little squirt. The jacket is quite snug on me, but fits her well.

The hood is very roomy and forms the collar when it's folded down.

This jacket is super warm. I nearly expired taking these photos!

As well as the jacket, I made this tea towel. It has hand prints of all the grandchildren, done in fabric paint. I used free motion sewing to write the names of the children and to applique '2013' on to the bottom corner. I made bias tape to bind the edges.

This basic idea for this came from 'Make it Perfect', but I changed it a bit.

There were a couple of other 'bought' presents. But I think mum appreciated these - and the hand made card and birthday cake :)

Anyone for dinner?

In a bit of a departure from the muted colours I've been choosing of late, I decided to boldly go bold with pattern and colour and see what happened. This is medium-weight chiffon-type fabric from Textile Traders.

I think I like it.

Actually, I love it!

The pattern is the 'Divine Dinner Dress' by Savage Coco Patterns. Designed as a maxi dress, this pattern was inspired by a gorgeous dress worn by Romy Schneider in the movie 'La Piscine'. It has been drafted and made available to us lucky home sewists by the fabulous Coco. You can download it here for only 99c if you agree to write a review of the pattern. It is currently available in a size M for a 36" bust. 

My favourite feature of this pattern is the neckline, which is constructed as one piece with the armhole edgings. I also love the opening in the back. The original pattern has the option of extending this to the lower back, which is heart-stoppingly glamorous, but I decided to make mine in the shorter length in the interests of modesty.

The construction of the neckline piece is a triumph. The instructions have you sewing the inner neckline, then rolling one armhole inside the opposite shoulder to complete each armhole edge. I read this over and over trying to get my head around it. In the end I just did it and, like magic, the piece unrolls to reveal beautifully finished seams. I used a black stretch woven fabric for the neckline.

 The neckline is the most difficult part of this dress, but is really not difficult if you follow Coco's tutorial. I used 'Washable Wonder Tape' to finish the inside edge of the neckline, which really helped keep everything in place. Then I hand stitched the inside in place.

The rest of the dress went together very quickly. I made this dress knee-length, rather than a full-length maxi and I took in the side seams quite a bit for a closer fit. At the last minute, I decided to add a sheer, black band to the hem to balance the black of the neckline.

Here it is with a belt.

 I made a muslin of this dress with lovely blue knit fabric. Here I am wafting about the house in it. This dress works well in knit and woven fabric. It is also lovely as a maxi or knee length dress or even as a top.

 The red, printed version was inspired by the 'Accessories Competition' on Sewing Pattern Review. The challenge was to make something to wear with these shoes:

I thought this dress would be perfect and I chose some of my own red shoes to give an idea of how it would look. Voting in this competition runs from the 18th to the 25th of May, 2013.

This is the fourth dress I have made with Savage Coco patterns and I love them all. There's nothing like wearing a glamorous movie star dress to make one feel rather fabulous! Thank you to Coco for the opportunity to test this pattern.

My other Savage Coco creations are here:

 

Into Autumn with Pantone's Spring colours

 The idea of Pantone colours has slowly seeped into my consciousness over the past couple of years. Pantone is a company who declare themselves to be 'the world-renowned authority on color'. Each year, amongst numerous other things, they hold a two-day secret meeting to choose the 'Colour of the Year' for the following year. In 2013 the chosen colour was emerald green. A colour palette is designed around the main colour. This palette is then used by the fashion and other industries to plan and design their upcoming ranges.

Pantone 2013 Spring Colours (source)

This year, Sewing Pattern Review are holding a competition to sew a two-piece outfit based on the Pantone 2013 Spring colour palette. Any combination of colours can be chosen as long as the 2013 Pantone colours are the prominent colours in the outfit.

 Well, I can't resist a sewing competition, especially with such delicious colours to choose from. I love the muted colours from the palette and when I saw this chiffon incorporating hues of 'grayed jade' (14-6011), 'African violet' (16-3520) and highlights of 'Monaco blue' (19-3964), I knew it would be perfect. I also knew exactly which pattern I wanted to use - the tunic (No. 112) from Burdastyle 11/2012.

Burdastyle magazine 11/2012

For the second part of the outfit I used  lovely, soft, knit fabric with a slight stretch in 'grayed jade' (also used here to make a top). I used Vogue 1247 to make a skirt.

Vogue 1247 (Source)

I made the top as a tunic style, according to the pattern. I decided to leave the pockets off as I knew I wanted to wear it tucked in for this outfit and they would add bulk in the wrong places. I will wear this as a tunic as well though. I decided to make the slit in the neckline less deep than in the pattern and leave it open at the top, omitting the button at the neckline. I prefer a more open neckline on me, especially on a top with sleeves. 

I was careful with the finishing of the chiffon seams and used tissue paper (torn away after sewing) to sew the hem and cuffs so the fabric would hold its shape. I like the way the neckline and collar sit on this top.

The skirt was made exactly to the pattern except that I added 17cm in length as I was cutting it out. This seemed to be just about the right amount for me as my last version of this skirt was a tad short. The slight stretch in the fabric meant that I did need to take in the side seams a bit. It also made more of a challenge to sew the pockets and I kept getting puckers where the front yoke joined the lower skirt piece. Several attempts were needed for that section!

The back view.

Truffle was beside himself being on a real farm....with real cows!

Progress on this outfit was hampered significantly due to the boys being home for school holidays! The skirt was made the day before we went off to a farm-stay in Nannup, south of Perth, for a few days when I should have been packing and preparing for the holiday! I wanted to finish the outfit so I could use the farm scenery as a backdrop for the photos.

 I don't usually get the chance to take bush and farm pictures. The farm was lovely and we had a very relaxing few days bushwalking and helping to feed the cows. We had beautiful, sunny, autumn days in the mid 20Cs.

So nice to get back to nature for a bit, not that I had much use for this outfit down there on the farm!

It's fun to dress up and pretend though :)

Voting in this contest will run from the 3rd to the 9th of May, 2013. There are some fab entries so get on over there! Oh yes, I found both fabrics on sale for $5/m each, so the entire outfit cost me less than $20.

Little sweetie turns 1

My sweet, little niece turned one this week and, of course, I had to indulge in some rare little girl sewing - living, as I am, in a house full of boys :)

The little, soft shoes are from the 'Make it Perfect' book by Toni Coward. I made them as she's just walking and might need something warmer than bare feet as winter approaches. Here in Oz, many children go barefoot most of the time, which I think is just fantastic, although I know some frown on the practice! I have trouble getting my boys to wear shoes at all.

The shoes/slippers are made with faux silver leather with a thicker brown vinyl sole. They are lined with red panne velvet.

I made size 1 and the fit is perfect. I left off the front strap as it didn't seem to fit such a small shoe. The 'leather' would not ease to fit the sole, hence the gathers. I think they look ok actually and the shoes stayed on all through the rigours of a first birthday party so I was impressed with the pattern.

Next was this all-in-one rain suit. As far as I know, these waterproof suits are not available in Australia, but I did see them in the UK when we lived there (at great expense I might add!)...

...and they didn't have ears on the hood or bling on the sleeves!

I used this pattern, Simplicity 7807 for a fleece all-in-one. I made size 18 months so it would last hopefully two winters.I changed the sleeve and ankle cuffs to be elasticated instead of covered over.

It is a tad roomy!

Ahh, that's better :)

This is made with waterproof fabric from Homecraft Textiles. The fabric has a coating on the inside, but is soft enough to use without lining. It never gets that cold in Perth, so I opted not to line it.

I added the silver ribbon to the sleeves and zip pull and self-made gingham bias binding to the inside of the hood.

These little hip hop-style pants were a last minute addition to the present pile as a request from my sister. I copied them from a pair of well-fitting RTW (ready to wear) pants. They are made from panne velvet and are comfy and cosy and practical. 

Here, being modelled with Grandad while playing with the mini kitchen/hairdressing salon we also got for her.

 Aww, the girliness, it just kills me!