Making my second Elegant Escape

When I saw that Pattern Review were having a contest called 'Inspired by the Movies', I immediately thought of this dress pattern. The pattern is the sheath dress worn by Romy Scneider in the movie 'La Piscine'. It is called the 'Elegant Escape' dress and is available to download in size M from Savage Coco Patterns for only 99c. What are you waiting for?!

Here is my inspiration picture:

Source

I have made this dress once before and I always get compliments when I wear it. This time I wanted a different look so I made a few small changes.

I accentuated the lovely topstitching detail by doing it all by hand in thick thread. This took a while and I did redo several areas to get it as straight as possible. I actually like the slightly imperfect hand-sewn look. I also made the front pockets into proper welt pockets instead of faux pockets and I added two long darts to the back of the dress, either side of the centre back seam.

The fabric is a fairly lightweight stretch woven in navy from Textile Traders. I chose it so it would look classic but also be practical for my lifestyle with two energetic boys!

The dress is not difficult to make and I enjoyed taking the time with the topstitching.

It was very difficult to emulate Romy Schneider's pose for the photo, but I did my best!

I'm outta here - elegantly of course!

Colette Laurel

As previously mentioned, I recently won three Colette patterns - yay! I've already made the Iris shorts and now, the Laurel dress.

This pattern is just my cup of tea: cute; comfortable; flattering; and versatile. It's also easy to sew.

 I made some minor alterations, which were to lower the neckline, open up the lower armhole, omit the zip and lengthen the dress with a hem band and piping to match the bias binding on the neckline and armholes.

Next time I make this I will also lower the bust darts.

The fabric looks like denim, but is actually a medium-weight upholstery fabric. It doesn't crease, which is great, but you can see that the lower edge of the hem band is stubbornly not holding its crisp fold.

I made white bias binding and folded it evenly over the front and back of the neckline and armholes to give a bit of contrast.

The 'piping' is the same bias binding just folded lengthwise and stitched in place with the hem band.

I tried to convince my BFF that she also needed a Laurel, but she prefers her bikini. However, she did put some laurel leaves in her hair as a show of support.

I love this pattern and I plan to make it in many incarnations.

These photos are taken in the historic (for Australia) port town of Fremantle, Western Australia and feature a convict jail, the Roundhouse, in the background of the second picture.

Beyonce shorts and Penis shorts - Colette Iris

I was recently the lucky winner of three Colette patterns from Sewing Patterns Review's '12 days of Giving Thanks'. This was a lovely idea where we got to thank fellow pattern reviewers for things we had found helpful. The winners were chosen at random. This was my comment: 'I am in awe of JNE4SL who selflessly took a huge number of beautiful, clear photos that cleared up all the confusion I had making my Jamie jeans. She is a star!' If you would like to see these photos, they can be found here.

For my prize I chose Colette's Iris shorts, the Laurel dress and the Negroni shirt. I have already made Iris and Laurel (and love both) and hope to make Mr M. a Negroni shirt sometime soon.

So, the Iris shorts. I made three pairs, but the first was a muslin that did need some adjustments. My wearable pairs are the Beyonce shorts (above left) - see Beyonce, with arms raised, twice at the centre front (at least I think it's her) - and the penis shorts (above right), named due to a rather unfortunate pattern placement. I wear both often and with pride!

The alterations required were to grade the pattern out at the waist and increase the size of the waistband. I also took in a small wedge from the lower inside leg seam down to the hem, made the pocket opening wider and cut the pockets slightly larger.

I love this Beyonce fabric. I found it at Textile Traders before Christmas for around $10/m and it sold out very quickly. It is a stretch woven with a satiny finish. I like to think I am hip and young in these shorts.

 The top is self drafted.

 The penis shorts are made from this lovely swirly stretch woven fabric from Fabulous Fabrics. It was $16.50/m but I got these out of only half a metre as it was quite wide. Obvs if you have a large print, learn from my mistake and take care with the pattern placement.

In all my masculine glory.

You can just see the white pocket lining in this photo. In the future I will make the pocket linings dark, as in the Beyonce pair or coloured to match the fabric. The white is ok but I think it would look much better in pink or dark green. Just a thought if you are pondering lining colours! My pink top is self-drafted and uses the same pattern as the white one above.

I am so pleased with both of these pairs of shorts and reach for them in preference to all my shop-bought pairs. I'm so happy to have a good shorts pattern. It's very straightforward to sew and I'm sure I'll make it many more times.

Thanks Pattern Review and Colette Patterns.
 

Twinkle Sews 'White Magic' with shibori dyed fabric

A few months ago I attended a class on natural dyeing at the Fremantle Arts Centre. I met the lovely Lucy of Maud Made there and we learned about, and experimented with, several different natural dyes, mordants and dyeing techniques. We tried such things as tumeric, eucalyptus leaves, indigo and onion skins and used various twisting and tying methods as well as clipping objects to fabric to get different patterns and designs. That process is known as Shibori and was so much fun. I had brought along several pieces of fabric and merrily dyed them and draped them all over the workroom.

This dress is the first thing I've made from my dyed fabric. The fabric is a lightweight cotton which I folded into a concertina shape lengthways and then again widthways to get a square. I then clamped wooden sticks over the fabric square using bulldog clips and immersed it in the indigo dye for around 30 seconds. The dye penetrated differently due to the folding of the fabric, so I ended up with almost a border print (the fabric that absorbed the most dye was used at the hem of the dress).

After 'making' the fabric myself, I wanted to sew it into something a bit special and I pondered at length on what that would be. I eventually chose the 'White Magic' dress from the book 'Twinkle Sews' by Wenlan Chia.

I made the following changes to the pattern: lengthened the tunic into a dress; left off the pockets; and attached the back tie lower down.

I was very careful to place the pattern so that the design on the fabric was centred and symmetrical and, as mentioned, used the darkest dyed part for the hem.

I made the dress in size 8 which corresponded most closely to my measurements on the size chart in the book.

The dress went together fairly easily although the instructions would have benefitted from some explanatory diagrams. The main area I had difficulty with was attaching the tiny sleeves. I initially did them the wrong way round, which looked ok but restricted arm movement. I think in the end I attached the shortest side of the sleeve to the dress using a normal seam, not leaving a raw edge as suggested.

I am very happy with this dress. The pin tucks on the front and neckline and the shirring on the back add subtle interest and were fun to sew. I am a little bit proud that I dyed the fabric and made the dress myself. I highly recommend this pattern and the dyeing course.

My tutor for the course was Bernadette Aitkin. The course I attended was her last at Fremantle Arts Centre (FAC) before she moved to Melbourne to start teaching there. If you are in Perth, FAC does still offer dyeing courses. If you're in Melbourne maybe you can find a course by Bernadette. I really enjoyed the course and Bernadette allowed us to go a bit wild experimenting and dyeing our own fabric. Great fun! I still have several pieces of dyed fabric to use on other creations.

My handmade Christmas Prezzies 2013

I was very busy sewing this Christmas, mostly for my youngest niece who is 18 months old.

I made her a runway collection!

This consisted of:
Blue tank top, flowered and green pants/shorts and flowered cross-over top (flower fabric from Spotlight) - Butterick 3846, size L;
Pink dress - The Warhol dress, free pattern from MADE with an added ruffle at the hemline;
Flower print sun jacket - Kwik Sew 2596, View C, with added sleeves, no peplum and altered at the front so it is open and cool;
Ruched leggings - also Kwik Sew 2596 with a piece of elastic stretched and sewn at the lower outside seam to create the ruching.

Here she is in some of the pieces:

Kwik Sew 2596 (altered)

Kwik Sew 2596 (altered)

Butterick 3846

Butterick 3846

The Warhol dress- MADE

I also made owl cushions for both nieces. I looked at Google images and came up with my own design. I can't find the photo I took of the finished cushions, but here is Miss 18 months unwrapping hers (yes, she is always the centre of attention!):

and again later at home

For my older niece, I made this dress from light and airy, blue patterned cotton. I used Patrones magazine 30 (a recent edition full of children's patterns), dress No. 2. I had purchased the fabric for me, but thought it would be perfect for Miss 8, which it was. I raced back to Textile Traders for some more at the first opportunity!

The neckline and armholes are bound with a strip of lycra, folded in half, stitched to the inside of the dress first and then folded over the edge and stitched again, a variation on this method. The same turquoise lycra is used for the ruching.

I also made a skirt for my sister (not photographed) and these shoe bags for my (hard to buy for) brother-in-law.

Everyone seemed very happy with their meggipeg prezzies and the hard work was all made worthwhile (actually it made my year) when I received this letter from my niece with a picture of her wearing the blue dress and hi-top sneakers I also got for her.

Spot the blogger (Burdastyle 05/2013 #117a)

Yes, I'm in there somewhere, camouflaged in my green, zebra-print pants. Writing that sentence has left me a bit amazed at myself for making something from green zebra print. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but I found this fabric in the remnant bin and somehow it came home with me. Sick of seeing it lying around on my sewing table, I decided to make it into some casual pants. So there we are.

Burdastyle 05/2013 Tie up pants.

I flipped through some Burdastyle magazines and found the very easy 'tie-up pants' pattern in the May 2013 issue. Not letting the fabric requirements constrain my enthusiasm, I traced off the pattern and found some matching green fabric in my (massive) stash. I cut the pants back pieces and what I could of the fronts from the zebra print and used strips of solid green to make up the difference. I also used green for the waistband, inner pockets and and waist tie.

I'm hoping the green accents make these pants look less like night attire and lend a casual, yet debonair edge to the ensemble.

No? Well I care not. These are so blinking comfortable I'm wearing them anyway! I made these in size 38 according to the pattern, but at the last minute whizzed off a chunk of the lower leg inside seam with the overlocker to taper them in a bit. Unfortunately I was a bit gung ho and took a bit too much off one leg, but I can still get them on and off (just) so not to worry.

Look at that - topstitched and everything!

I think it's fairly obvious that these were made quickly and with less than my usual care! However, they turned out pretty well and I've already worn them several times. Not bad for a $2 remnant and a bit of stashbusting to boot.

I'm wearing these with my 'kakurenbo' top from Pattern Magic. Again, don't look too closely!