The City Lights Dress and a little Canberra Frocktail

When a sewer loses her confidence in sewing after more than 24 years of doing it, it takes some serious real-talk and pepping to get her back to her former sparkling self. This is what happened to me a few weeks ago. I made an Astoria top and it was a disaster. All over the internet people were making Astorias that look fantastic, and I couldn't get a simple muslin to be even close to fitting. Seams were taken in, shoulders were raised, but it just didn't work. My body measurements have changed recently, and now the usual shape I expect to sew for just isn't there anymore. And with that one simple, stupid top, all confidence I had went out the window.

Silly isn't it? As a beginner sewer 24 years ago I was self-drafting pinafores and making crazy crushed velvet knit tops. Making boxy Chanel jackets from raw silk. Inserting pockets in everything and pleating like a boss. Anyway thanks to a few friends who talked me down (one even extending her friendship to going through the online Simplicity, Butterick and McCalls catalogues with me via email one morning. Bless you Siobhan) I found a dress I thought could give me my confidence back, and also double as a Canberra Frocktails dress.

It's Simplicity 1466, which on the packet photo has a top and skirt and pants, but over to the side in a teeny drawing, a dress.  A lovely, princess seamed, yoked, tabbed dress with a flared skirt and a certain vintage feel to it. No lining. No bodices. Plenty of seams to take in and take out if needed.

Due to some time pressures at home and work, and being away for a week prior to Frocktails, I knew I wouldn't be able to cut it out until the Saturday before Frocktails. What I wasn't counting on though was injuring my back quite badly (again) the week I was away, and coming down with a chest infection and asthma the moment I hopped on the plane to come home. The spirit to sew was there, but my body let me down big time. I managed to cut the dress out on Saturday afternoon when I was still feeling ok, but sewing was done in five minute blocks eveery few hours in between naps. I didn't expect to finish the dress, but I wasn't stressed about it at all mainly because I was feeling too sick to give a toss.

I finished stitching those buttons on at 10.20 pm on Friday night. It's a dress that could normally be cut and sewn within a few hours. 

Construction wise, this dress was a bit of a doddle. Contrary to instructions, I basted all the seams first and tried it on without the yoke attached. Immediately I knew I would have an issue with the neckline gaping - I seem to be about two sizes smaller in the upper bust than the actual bust, and I have narrow shoulders. There wasn't too much I could do about it as I had no fabric spare to redraft the yoke, so I forged on. It worked out ok on the night but could have been better. I also did away with the zip. It was stretch sateen, so didn't really need the zip, but I also had to be clever about how I spent the time I could at the machine, so the zipper went out the window.

The fabric was a cotton sateen I picked up in Spotlight on Anzac Day when I went shopping with Siobhan and Kirsty. They are fantastic enablers. It reminded me immediately of city lights, kind of like this:



That was my view from my apartment in Sydney last week. 

Unfortunately the fabric was a complete disaster from the get-go. When I pre-washed it, it lost all of the sateen finish of the fabric - and I was left with lumpy, flat, dull, dusty looking fabric. Then when ironing it before cutting it out, noticed a lot of faults - brown streaks going all the way through the fabric. It wasn't in the pattern as it was irregular, and definitely a fault. By this time I lost my temper at the fabric and at Spotlight, especially as I could have found a replacement fabric in Sydney the week before, and also I wasn't in any state (with a bad back and laryngitis) to go back to Spotlight and argue the point with them. So I cut the fabric out and hoped for the best, and ignored the fact I'd ever seen the faults. This self-brainwashing seemed to work, because when doing the final press I couldn't find them anymore.

Overall I'm really happy with this dress and I will make it again but I will also take in the upper chest seams and redraft the yoke in response. The tabs are a visual replacement for a bodice - bodices on me tend to sit mid bust, not below the bust, and these just provide enough of a break in the dress to give it interest. I used vintage buttons from my collection. The top patternin the envelope has a sleeveless version, so I can see this being a summer staple in my work wardrobe.



Photo by Myra.

Now, on to Frocktails. Some friends and I got together and decided to hold a Canberra Frocktails. For the uninitiated, Frocktails is where the online sewers of Australia get together to drink, eat and wear fabulous frocks they have sewn. There have been Frocktails held in Sydney and Melbourne before, but we thought hey, what would be great about holding a Frocktails in Canberra in the middle of winter?

Absoutely everything, we said. And we were right. It was a fantastic evening. We had 27 sewers from Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane join us last night at Hotel Hotel.

With Liz. She was also wearing Simplicity, although vintage. I'm sure she'll blog about it.

So the sewing confidence is back, but I've realised in the last week I have an enormous stash that is scattered across the house and I'm starting to misplace fabric, like the lovely black ponte I was going to make a jacket from. No idea where it is, but this afternoon, as a hangover cure, I'll be sorting the piles and giving everything a bit of a spring clean. And then I will start cutting out things and actually sewing them to wear. Winter here in Canberra is long and cold and I'm desperate for some more warm clothing. Stay tuned!

Merry Kaftanmas

I decided not to travel anywhere this Christmas, because travelling at Christmas is nuts and we always do it. It involves hours in a plane, and then hours in a car or train, or else 8 hours in a car south or 15 hours in a car north, and last Christmas we did BOTH families over 7 days both north and south which was just ridiculous, so this year I stayed home and spent Christmas Day with my Spoolette friend Amanda and her husband.



Amanda recently made a kaftan - and it was fabulous, and not in a hippy, folk singing, creepy, key-swapping way either. When it was decided that I would gatecrash Christmas, she declared Christmas to be Kaftanmas and holy crap what's a girl to do but join in? I mean, in Canberra it's likely to be hot and sunny and we are both originally from Queensland so a kaftan is all shades of perfect for Christmas attire.





I fully embraced the concept of making the kaftan, and then realised that any shapeless kaftan on me could make me resemble Demis Roussos without the beard and the eyebrows, and a lady can't have that for Kaftanmas. Luckily I realised that Simplicity 2929 (and here I go again) View B is perfect for kaftanning it up, so I bought some blood orange tropical voile from Remnant Warehouse and I was off.



Whoo! Kimono sleeves!

I cut the dress out on Tuesday night and I sewed it up on Wednesday afternoon after I'd finished work. It took me exactly 2 repeats and 4 songs of the latest Hilltop Hoods album which would be, I don't know, about 2 hours? Except for the slash at the centre front neckline, this view is a lot less fiddly that my usual version D or E.



Look I'll be honest here and tell you that I don't think this is really my style. Especially not in tropical prints. But on Christmas Day it was perfect to wear - we had a very hot, extremely humid day, and if it hadn't rained so much we'd have been sitting in the park across the road so the cover up on my shoulders and arms was a lot better than my usual sleeveless style. This dress was very cool to wear, extremely comfortable, and we managed a lot of eating, drinking, more eating and even did a jigsaw puzzle before I went home and collapsed in a hot sweaty heap. And then jumped up again and got the tripod out and took photos of my kaftan for Kaftanmas. Hence the wrinkles. But it's held up pretty well I think! I wore it out to dinner with friends on Christmas night and it was still going strong and the elastic around the waist got a good workout throughout the day with all that food.



The centre front slash I did is not perfect, but the print hides a million sins. I also slightly pressed down the neck opening because I can't stand shirts that flap around and can't make up their minds as to whether they are open or closed. Or both. I'm tempted to put a closure on the neck for future sun protection - and it actually looks quite nice closed up.

I think this is the last Simplicity 2929 I will make for a while - time to try some new dress patterns. Although I will always end up going back to this one I think. It's so versatile.



Merry Kaftanmas!

The Princess Mary Hugo Boss Copycat Dress

I made another Simplicity 2929 dress, this time to copy Princess Mary of Denmark.

I know, right? The similarities are frightening. We are so alike *snort*

Anyway, a few years ago, Tessuti Fabrics were selling this gorgeous silk/cotton voile border print that they called "Banana Gate". Hugo Boss made a dress out of it, apparently, and on Tessuti's blog post they even included a photo of Princess Mary wearing her dress to tempt me further.

Between you and me, they had me at "Hugo Boss". The only way I was ever going to fit into their clothes was to make my own from their fabric.

So I did. Might have taken me another three years, but I did it.

And I love it.

I used the same view as all the other S2929s I've made, but for the first time ever, I lined the skirt in cream Bemsilk. It was pretty easy - cut and sew together the same four pieced skirt, baste it to the skirt, then attach to the bodice. It wasn't even that hard to make a casing and insert elastic.

Here's a photo without the belt, just to give you proof on the elastic waist. Yet again, it's another confortable skirt, although I possibly could have take the skirt seams out a little as it's a bit squeezier than my others.

Another fabric loop, and a vintage button from the collection, and I had myself a pretty nice dress. I wore it today to my last day of work before the Christmas break, and it was very floaty and so nice to wear. I loved it! Might be a new favourite. With the bodice not being lined, it does have a tendency to cling to my bra a little bit, but it's not enough to truly annoy me and cause me to fiddle.

I can't emphasis enough what a great pattern Simplicity 2929 is. It's simply, is easy to adjust, doesn't involve bust darts, and probably the trickiest thing is working out the facing. But once that's done you're on the home stretch.

I have one more 2929 in me I think, this time in a different view. Perhaps it's my Christmas dress. Maybe then I'll retire the pattern.

The Blue Japanese Double Gauze Dress

I made a dress using Simplicity 2929, almost 4 years to the day that I made the first version of this pattern.



And this is what's so good about having a blog where you record your makes. I got to see how I made it, how it looked, and what variations I tried. When it came to making this version I decided to do away with my original adjustment of adding a couple of inches of length in the bodice. Looking at these photos, I'm really glad I kept to the original pattern. I still get the blouson look I love, but without all the extra fabric at the waistband.



The fabric is a gorgeous navy blue Japanese double gauze that I purchased at Nomura Tailor in Kyoto. I've sewn with double gauze before, but from Spotlight, and it was pretty horrible as it detached from the punching when I cut it, and washed like a rag. This fabric, on the other hand, sews beautifully, has the most beautiful weight for a dress, and when I wash and dry it on the line, it barely needs ironing. Not bad for 100% cotton, and for a dress I have worn pretty much constantly since I made it.

Lesson learned - avoid Spotlight. Don't get me started on their cotton sateen prints that fade after one wash.



The necklines of all my S2929s have never been as high as the one on the pattern packet - something I am thankful for. I don't like being strangled by my clothes. I didn't make any variations to this pattern except for extending the gathering an inch on each side of the darts, so I get a smoother gather and not so much middle-of-the-boob bunching.



I also couldn't find my embroidery thread box when it was time to sew a thread loop for the back button. So I unpicked the back facing and sewed a fabric loop in. I prefer it - it looks neat. And how perfect is that vintage button?




I'm thinking of making another Simplicity 2929. It's the perfect pattern - quick to put together, comfortable as all heck (I've been to a few Christmas parties wearing this frock, and the elasticated waist e-x-p-a-n-d-s to make things just a little bit easier when seated!

Actually, maybe I should make more than one.



Come back tomorrow or the next day to see if I did.

Me Made May? May I make May mine?

For weeks now I've been agonising over whether to join in on Me Made May 2013. I haven't really sewn too many clothes lately and my wardrobe is actually looking a bit sparse and desperate.



These are some of the thoughts that were going through my tiny little brain the last few weeks:

* Perfect! I have about 2 skirts to wear to work, and I'm about to start a new job in a new building where everyone is young and fabulously dressed and this will be a great excuse to get some skirts and dresses suitable for work sewn up!

* Argh! I don't have time! I'm starting a new job and I also just joined the Canberra Quilters committee and my parents are visiting and I have something on, or am away for every weekend between now and June.

* I can do this! And I will even wear a new skirt on my first day at work on the 1st and my first quilt meeting as president on the 2nd and to a 50th wedding anniversary lunch in Brisbane on the 4th and and and ...

* I'm kidding myself. I can't do this. I don't WANT to do this. I've done it the last few years. And doing it in May in Canberra really sucks. And no one needs to see that many cardigans. Or that many different coloured pairs of tights.



* You have the most enormous dress fabric stash and you need to start sewing and wearing it!

* No way - you have three quilts to sew by the end of July.

* Some days I just want to wear trousers and I've never made a pair for myself. And I don't intend to either.

So you can see where and how I am conflicted. Even 5 minutes before writing this post I was still trying to decide! I love Me Made months and everything they stand for. I love the sharing and the amazing pieces people sew, and I get so inspired and want to sew all the things. But perhaps I need to stop being so tough on myself.

So this year I won't be taking part in Me Made May. I will still check out the Flickr group every day and cheer everyone on.

But yet I still need to make some clothes for winter, especially work clothes, and reduce my stash.



So instead of Me Made May, I think I will instead make the rest of 2013 the year of the dressmaking stash down. It's time.