Progressed to round 3!!!

Pretty excited to have progressed to the third round of the PR sewing bee!  I am feeling exhausted after the last round so what does this round bring?  A lined jacket in 10 days.... my last lined jacket was a year in the making...  ok, may need to apply myself more this time.  

I have only made 3 lined jackets before (blogged here, here and here),  The two more fitted, tailored jackets I use still and the chanel style jacket I have gifted to a friend it suited better (the style and the colour were never great for me).  So what do I make this time?

I really wanted to make a denim jacket as I love top stitching and I thought it might give it the difficulty/extra factor that a contest entry needs.  However I don't have a big enough piece of denim fabric.  I really need to use what I have as I don't want to rely on the local shops as I only have Spotties and Lincraft.  *sigh*  

Back to the drawing board.  After trawling through burdastyle I have come up with this pattern.  

Burdastyle 11-2012-117

Casual enough to fill a hole in my wardrobe, enough difficulty to give me a good entry and I love the retro trench styling.  Plus I have a piece of wool flannel in the stash and it has been one of those pedestal fabrics that I have not been game to set a project to.  I think it will be perfect for this. 

And in other news I attended the local ASG "sewing Skills" day on Saturday and really enjoyed the presentations.  I may have bought a few things too *cough*

black/cream jersey / liberty to die for / knits for real people plus steam a seam, pincushion for sewing machine needles and foe... plus a bottle of wine as a raffle prize (not pictured... not sure what happened to it?)

Ciao kittens, expect quiet for a while as I am making a lined jacket folks... in 10 days!!! seriously...

Sewing Bee round 2 - pics

Finished and I am exhausted.  This round was a tough one and I have put a lot of hours into this dress.  So I am not going into details here, but will put up a few photos.  If you want more info on this dress, you can find them here in my entry review.

The theme... "A day at the races"

The fabric I started with  - green linen from a swap table at the Brisbane Spoolettes high tea 2014.

The embellishment process... lots of careful marking, pressing and lots of thread!

The pattern - Ottobre 02/2015-04 - modified to remove the waist seam.

The front panel being cut out - had to be cut full, not on the fold.

The dress lining - not part of the pattern... needed to do a  little research on that before starting...

the dress finished....

and the back...

and in amongst all that I made a muslin and plenty of embellishment samples.  Enough sewing for now... now to wait on tenterhooks to see if I get into round 3 ... and what it will be!!

Ciao kittens... 

Cruise frock - finally a photo.

My life is being controlled by sewing my entry for the PR Sewing Bee Round 2 but I thought I should do a very quick post as I have finally got a modeled photo of a dress I made in October last year to take on my cruise.

It is Ottobre 02/2013-19 Twist Knot Dress previously blogged here.  I am pretty sure I made this pattern with no alterations.  It has a nice neckline that sits snug and is at the right height.

This photo was taken at a High Tea in the Boyce Gardens.  Lovely Spring afternoon!

Ciao kittens... back to the work house sewing room.....

Woo hoo! made it to round two!

I am pretty excited to be among the 50 people who made it through round one of the Pattern Review Sewing Bee.  I was very happy with the quality of my entry so it is nice to have it validated by being one of the ones to get through. 

The weather is just getting warm enough to wear it soon!

The challenge for the second round is a hard one.  Embellishing fabric to make it your own  and then sewing a garment.  So there is really a number of challenges - the embellishment, choosing and fitting a pattern and then making it all work.  My other challenge is to make an item I will use again.  We shall see how that all goes.

I am making a muslin of  a frock From Ottobre 02/2015.  Half done so far....

... and I have been playing with embellishment styles on my green linen fabric.

Stenciling

Rubbings

Fabric manipulation

The last picture is closest to the true colour of my linen.  I got this fabric from a swap table and have been looking for a chance to use it.

Ciao kittens best keep working... wish me luck, I think there is a pretty big cull again at the end of this round.

More holiday snaps ... Papercut Anima pants

I love both the Tessuti pants I have made recently but the pants I wore the most on holidays (and since coming home) are the Papercut Anima pants I made before I left.  Previous to this I have made them as sweatpants blogged here and as shorts.  I wore all 3 pair while I away depending on the temperatures.  Nights can get cold in a tent (particularly inland).

Cape Hillsborough

The pair I made for the trip were made in a navy stretch crepe bought from Spotlight.  It is a lovely weight for this style and they are soooo comfortable.  This fabric would be too warm for really warm days but living in Toowoomba in a cold wooden house I know I will be wearing them for awhile yet.  I like them as they are comfortable (have I said that already?), I can do whatever activities I like in them (cleaning, gardening,camping, travelling, etc) and still look tidy enough to go to the supermarket.  Brilliant!

My only dislike is the fabric is pilling a bit and has a few pulled threads (courtesy of a certain brown cat).  However that is probably testimony to how much I wear them as well.  Anyway I just plan to keep my eye out for fabric suitable for these pants and pick it up when I see it as I definitely need more of these in the wardrobe.

Ciao kittens... review is here.

More holiday snaps.... Tessuti Suzy pants

Another round of holiday snaps.  This time another pair of Tessuti Suzy pants.  The last pair I blogged about here.  Not a lot to say... great, comfy pants that are so easy to wear.

Cape Tribulation National Park

The top is also new.  It was made for the holiday too.  It is from Ottobre 02/2015 #17. 

I made it from a remnant piece of black bamboo knit fabric.  Divine to wear.  Black is not my best colour but I thought it was a good way to use the last little piece of this luxe fabric.  It is a very straight forward pattern.

I followed the instructions provided on a separate page for doing the bindings.  It has a formula to calculate the length of bindings, so I have noted them down for future reference as I do believe I will make more of this nice simple top.

These pants will always remind of this lovely holiday and are now dubbed my cape trib pants.  Ciao kittens one more round of holiday pics and waiting on tenterhooks to see if I make it through to round two of the PR sewing bee. 

Holiday snaps .... Jalie 2682 again

I have recently returned from a holiday where we traveled up to North Queensland and camped and kayaked and ate and ... you get the picture. :)

To this end I made a few pieces to take with me (as you do!)  I needed a rashie to wear while kayaking to stop my fair skin from turning bright red and painful and it is also useful as it keeps the salt water splash off your skin.  

I made a rashie for my DH a while back using a fehrtrade pattern (blogged here) and it is a good pattern but being a tightwad thrifty I thought I should use a pattern I already own.  Plus we don't really need to look like Bill and Ben in matching rashies don't you think?

I used Jalie 2682 a very versatile pattern which I last used to make a warm top for the gym. 

Cape Hillsborough near Mackay

This time I made it to my true size.  I made it exactly to the pattern.  I would normally shorten the sleeve length a little but left them as they were so I could get more protection.  It worked beautifully.

Cape Hillsborough  - Wedge Island.  You can walk to this spot at low tide.

The zipper is great as I can zip it right up to my neck for more sun protection.  

We saw a pod of dolphins that day - very exciting!

I made the main body of the top a dark brown and used a brown/red print for the lining pieces of the top bodice and collar.  I love that effect!

I also made a zipper pull in the patterned fabric.  I had a few questions about how I made it last time so tried to take some pictures this time to explain my process.

One more pic with the kayak... this time Cape Tribulation.

Cape Tribulation - above the Daintree ... don't kayak in the estuaries here! (crocodiles)

...and one of the reasons we visited Cape Hillsborough is that it is one of the few places you will see kangaroos and wallabies on the beach. 

Pretty Face Wallaby at sunrise - Cape Hillsborough

Ciao kittens... more holiday snaps soon...

I'm back... let the sewing and blogging commence!

I have been away for a terrific holiday but wasn't able to blog while away as we rarely had Internet (it is the sort-of the good thing about camping!)  However I did get some fine photos taken of outfits I made for the trip so will be posting them soon.

In the meantime I came home and wasn't sure what direction to take with my sewing, so decided to let the challenge of entering the Great PR Sewing Bee help dictate what to make next.  Ta da...

I have my entry in for round one and really enjoyed the challenge of making this blouse as well as the challenge of deciding how to embellish it to move it away from being a plain Jane.

Photos here, but no details as I have detailed the making of this top in my review - here if you are interested.

Ciao kittens, more posts soon...