2012 in review

I don't think I did a review of 2011 but I have been reading and enjoying everyone else's 2012 recaps so I thought I might join in too. 

First up ... these were a lot of work but so worth it...

 The Burda 12-2008-109 Ball Gown... still love this one...

Burda 7579 Wool jacket with silk lining.  Not worn a lot yet but I am sure I will use it a lot next year.

Dresses that I have worn to death... and need to make more of...

For casual at-home dressing... McCalls 6347

For work and other outings...

the ever popular DKNY Vogue 1250 (I need to make a plain coloured one).

and a big favorite of mine , the snakeskin dress New Look 6097

the tops I have nearly worn out....

Romantic Notes Ottobre 05-2011-11... 

and Burda 02-2009-108 the boat neck top, this one in particular went with everything in my wardrobe..

and this gym top was also used heaps in the cold weather...

Another couple of things I may not have worn so much but do love...

The Style Arc Maggie jacket...

and the Burda 10-2011-126 vest... 

...see the top does coordinate with everything...

I branched out a bit with my sewing this year. 

 I finished a quilt UFO...

and made three bags, this one was my favorite... Vogue 8527...

I also made some cowls, sleep wear, coin purses and a vest for my son.  Burda magazine featured heavily in my pattern choices and I plan to keep this trend up as I like their fit on me.

In 2013, I plan to keep branching out with my sewing in the aim to sew as much of my clothes as possible.  I need to spend time on pants (not a big favorite of mine to sew but I do like to wear them).

I hope you all have a lovely New Year and I look forward to sharing more sewing and crafting adventures with you in 2013!  Ciao!

Burdastyle 03-2008-112 ... the big 5..O dress

It's my birthday... well yesterday actually and I had that big one that starts in 5 and ends in 0!  So I had a party to try and console myself that getting older is not so bad.  Well of course a new dress is needed and I wanted a summery frock for the event.  

The pattern chosen was Burdastyle 03-2008-112 and I bought a lovely silk yoru chiffon and a satin backed crepe (or is that crepe backed satin) to line it.  The silk yoru was a PITA and gave me heaps of trouble, the poly satin back crepe was great to work with.  I learnt a lot about sewing on the bias as I ended up having to resew the side seams in the silk as they had huge ripples in them.  Second time around, after unpicking the side seams. steaming them (in the hopes that any stretched out areas would revert to normal) and then hanging for a day, hand basting, hanging again, then sewing the seams again... I got smaller ripples.  Meh!  I can live with it...

So onto the photos... (I forgot to take photos last night at the party, but got my DH to snap some this morning)

I used the magazines hemming instructions and it is basically a rolled hem sewn on the sewing machine with a zigzag stitch.  Quicker than changing the overlocker to a rolled hem (and buying more thread).  It gave the hem the lettuce leaf effect and was simple to do.  However the silk layer (even though it was cut longer than the lining) had bounced up a bit so actually appears shorter than the lining. 

Apart from the learning curve of sewing a bias seam in the silk yoru chiffon, the pattern itself was quite easy to put together.  The only other difficult part is that the sides of the front bodice are gathered to a certain length and sewn onto the strap.  By the time I fussed about with the fiddly silk, my gather was longer by a few centimetres, but I decided that may not be a bad thing.  I just had to be careful that the other side gathered to the same length so that they matched.

Well I had a great time at my party and the dress was quite comfortable to wear and I would consider making this dress again but in a easy to handle fabric!  

Happy Birthday to anyone else having a December birthday!  

Making it wearable... solutions to problems

Last summer I made McCalls 6078 and loved it but had some issues with how to wear it (without flashing the bra band at the back).  This summer I decided I the needed to make it work.  First up I needed to get the bra out of the way.

I found this at Lincraft and it works.  It clips into the bra clips and the extra band wraps around your body and pulls the back band down.  It is not as comfortable or as secure as wearing a bra by itself but it does the job.

I wore it like that once, but found that the shoulders of the top kept slipping, so decided to add some lingerie keepers which I made myself.  All that is needed is ribbon and snaps....

I know you can buy theses ready-made but there were none in stock when I went to buy them.  I simply sewed a set of snaps to each end of a piece of ribbon and then sewed the ribbon onto the facing at the shoulder seam.

I stitched the ribbon down in the centre of the ribbon and also near one snap.  This is the holder closed...

With the bra strap threaded through the keeper I found the shoulders of the top stayed in place much better ... this is how I wore it when I went out to dinner last night...

and the back...

If you are interested the pants are Kwiksew 3384 made for an Endless Combinations contest.  However since then this beautiful swishy fabric shrunk (did not expect that) and looked all wrong being too short in the leg.  I decided to make them work as well, so took the hem down and re-hemmed them.  I also decided to narrow the leg a little while I had the hem down.  I did like the wide legs but feel I will probably wear them more this way. 

I felt quite comfortable in this outfit (even though I may have been a bit twitchy checking that the bra band was not visible) and am happy with my now wearable top! ... Ciao!  Birthday dress next up!

pattern Pyramid... we have a winner...

... and the winner of the draw is Deadlycraft.  If you could send me an email at the email addy on my sidebar with your address details I will be happy to send the patterns off asap! 

And so to include a few pictures ... I have started my decorating for Xmas.  I am going very simple this year...

And my latest sewing WIP...

I have to finish the other side seam and hem this but have got horrible wrinkles in the silk yoru chiffon in the side seam.

I think it may be to do with the fact that I have used a textured fabric with a bias cut pattern.  I am going to have a go to see if further persuasive pressing helps or whether I need to rip the seam out and try again (last option).  If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.... Ciao!