New summer frock ... Ottobre 02/2013-14

I wanted a nice cool dress to wear to a Christmas party/BBQ next month and I settled on Ottobre 02/2013-14 - the Jewelry dress. 

In the magazine they have used a gorgeous large pattern repeat type print.  I would love to find something like this to make the dress, but decided in the meantime I should use the fabric I have.  I have chosen a black/white viscose twill which was bought at Tessuti awhile back.

However this is such a nice fabric I thought I should muslin the dress first.  I decided to buy some fabric to make a trial dress as I know Ottobre fit me well enough to get a wearable dress. (Seems so much more productive than making a true muslin). So off to Spotties and luckily they still seem to have some nice rayons left.

I made the dress true to the pattern but subbed in a facing for a lining.  This dress is going to be a casual week-end dress for hot days so a lining was not needed.

I am pretty happy with the fit from the pattern, but plan to make a few adjustments to the next one.

• narrow the shoulder width a little so it looks more like the dress modeled in the magazine.  I think my shoulders are a size smaller than the size I used.
• adjust the back for swayback.  It was hard to photograph in this fabric, but I have a little pool of fabric at my middle back.

The dress looks longer on me as I am shorter than Ottobre woman.  I love the idea of having it shorter, but the legs are not really up to it anymore, so I will probably leave the length as is.  As the next one will be more of a party dress I am toying with the idea of making it maybe an inch shorter.  I shall see how I feel once it is made.

I love the darts on this dress.  The bust darts originate at the armhole and so you have a shorter dart and it does not interrupt the pattern so much.  There are also back neckline darts which make the neckline lie smooth against the body.  You see this in vintage patterns but not so often in modern patterns, but it makes so much sense to curve the dress to your back/shoulder curves.

I have marked my changes on my pattern so I am ready to cut my second one soon. I have been wondering how this dress would be if cut on the bias?     

Ciao kittens... hopefully another Jewelry dress next.

How I wore... the Kielo wrap dress

Not strictly a sewing post but a post to show you how I wore my Kielo wrap dress in a different way.  I have blogged about this dress before - shown on Diana in this post  here and as I wore it on the cruise here.

This is how I wore it out to a function last week.

 It is coming up party season so to make a dress more versatile is a good thing.  Basically I didn't wrap but tied the dress ties at the back.

I have seen people suggest tying it this way before but it has been in shorter versions and I thought I should try it out on my long version.

Really happy with this styling.  It was also very comfortable to wear.

Ciao kittens back to regular sewing posts next time.. next an Ottobre frock.

Pattern repeat, repeat, repeat... Tessuti suzy pants

One more pair.  I promise to put the pattern away for a rest now.  Tessuti Suzy pants  are my go to casual woven pants.  Lately our local Spotlight store seems to have had some really nice rayons in stock and I have gone a little crazy making these pants.  However they suit my summer lifestyle.  I only work part time and when I am not working I really like this style as my go-to casual look.  

Nothing much to say.  I think the only alteration I have made is to shorten the leg length slightly.  I have gone up a size since I made my first pair out of khaki green silk, to a medium and if t helps you I am pretty much a size 12 in Aus RTW.

My only other comment to make would be that I prefer the small prints to larger ones as I look a lot more "hippy" in the larger prints.  However I am too vain to show you the direct front-on shot to prove this.

That won't stop me from wearing these pants though... pyjama comfort, cool for a warm day, too many pluses that win over that minus.

My four photographed iterations so far.  I do have one other pair which were my "muslin" that I wear at home but have really the wrong print for me and are the least flattering in that way.  They still get worn though. 

As a follow up, for those interested.  The skort I showed previously (here) had the issue of the shorts leg rolling up and shifting.  I did add the gripper elastic as per Jen L's comment (thanks Jen L!).  I took the measurement of the elastic length from where the pants hit across my thigh and sewed them in a circle, ensured they were comfortable and then unpicked the hem on the shorts, cut the hem allowance off and then sewed the elastic to the hem so that when flipped to the inside the "grippy" was facing in to the leg and sewed a 3 step zig zag on the top of the elastic as my new hem.  This is what they ended up looking like.

...and most importantly they worked.  I have never been a big fan of the gripper elastic but as these are custom sized for me, I found them comfortable to work out in and the shorts didn't shift about so much... total win!  If you are looking for gripper elastic search on that or silicone backed elastic.  

And my first photo above has been taken in my backyard in front of the Jacaranda Tree which is in all it's purple glory at the moment so I leave with a full shot of the tree, taken against a grey stormy sky (which we have a lot of at this time of the year).  Ciao kittens...