PR Wardrobe Contest 2020 - Piece 1 0f 10 - The StyleArc Richie Knit Tunic Dress

I decided to start with a relatively simple sew to get some momentum going.  Nothing like a finished item to make you feel you are going to make it to the end! 

 

The StyleArc Richie dress in a jersey purchased from Spotties recently.  I had planned to use a pretty aqua rib knit picked up from a bargain table, but the fabric was narrow so the pieces would not fit no matter how much I tried.  The fabric I ended using is this one.

It was on a 30% sale and I would call it denim coloured rather than navy.  It feels like it will be quite hard wearing but has a soft cottony feel on the inside.  The pattern only called for 1.25m but I bought 1.4m so had enough wriggle room even with lengthening the dress a little.  It curls like the dickens so a lot of pinning and then sewing on the sewing machine before overlocking.  

Their is an option for a chest pocket and I decided to add it as the fabric/ dress combo could be very plain otherwise and decided to add a further bit of bling by cutting some heat transfer vinyl on my Cricut machine into a heart shape with the words be kind, a good thought to use on this dress made during Covid times.

Neckline...

For the moment it will be only shots on Diana but as the contest gets toward the end I hope to do a modelled photo shoot of all the pieces.

Frock...

Ciao for now!...

PR 2020 Wardrobe Contest - Part 1 - The plan!

I had started planning a new wardrobe to sew for Spring / Summer when I saw that Pattern Review are hosting a 10 piece wardrobe contest.  I took the plan I was putting together and used it as a basis to fit in with the Contest rules.

The official rules are:

1 -Sew 10 unique garments during the contest period. The garments must be as follows:
Make 1 Topper
Make 2 Bottoms
Make 2 Tops
Make 1 sewn accessory 
Make 4 Free choice (top, bottoms, topper, maximum of 2 dresses or 2 jumpsuits or 1 of each, maximum of one additional accessory)

2 – All of the items must form a cohesive wardrobe.

It took a bit of thought and planning but over a few days this is the plan that came out.

Some of these patterns I have sewn before and others are new to me.

The fabrics are mostly from stash.  I did buy some fabric to make the bag (that's the blob in the top row!)  Some are remnant pieces so I may have to sub other fabrics in if there is not enough.

The photo below shows on the top the knit fabric for the cardigan. The next row are the fabrics for my three tops  (Liberty print, blue rayon crepe and a floral print rayon) 

and the last row are the bottoms (denim-look bengaline, light beige ponte and dark brown bengaline).

In this photo is the topper fabric again with the two dress fabrics.

I know things are going to change as I go along.  I have just noticed the aqua fabric for the Style Arc Richie tunic is quite a narrow cut so it may be the first one subbed out.  At the moment I am preparing the pdf patterns (cutting and sticking).  The contest starts on the 17th so more mad sewing to happen soon...

Anyone else considering joining in or sewing along?

2015.. the good and the bad

2015 has been a pretty good year all up.  I started the year participating in the Wardrobe contest on Pattern Review, but didn't keep the momentum up so didn't complete it.  

After that, a real highlight of the year was attending a PRDU get together in Tamworth. I enjoyed that week-end very much and caught up with on-line friends again and met some others for the first time.

What I have sewed has varied greatly and the posts that seemed to generate the most interest highlighted that.  The highest hits were for my ball gown and for a Jalie top made as gym wear.  From one extreme to the other.

I think this might have been the year of the pant as I made a pile of casual pants and a lot of them were for another major highlight of the year - our road trip/ camping / kayaking holiday in North Queensland.

I felt refreshed from the holiday and it fired me up to join the Pattern Review Great Sewing Bee.  I was chuffed to make it through 3 of the 4 rounds.  I really enjoyed this challenge.  It made me do more research and planning than I have for ages.  I also made some items at a higher difficulty rating than I usually would.  

The blouse has been worn quite a few times, but not the dress (need an occasion) or the jacket (need the cold weather), but I am happy that the pieces I produced will get some use.

Nothing bad happened this year but something sad.  My little dog unexpectedly had to be put down at the end of October.  It was a complete surprise as even though he was 15 years old his health had been really good to that point.  However he passed peacefully and had his family all around him.

Cosmo the wonder dog

Now to 2016.  I have my first make under my belt (finished today) and plan to join in the active wear contest on Pattern Review which starts in a few weeks.  I plan to make some more bags this year (got the bug!) and hope to keep the momentum going from the PR Sewing Bee to keep improving my fitting skills and pushing myself to try new techniques.  I do plan a denim jacket and will see what else hits the radar.

Happy new year kittens, Ciao for now.

Big day out

Friday week ago (the 25th of March) I travelled to Brisbane to visit the Craft Expo with some great sewing buddies. We had a brilliant day out!

The expo itself was OK (not great) with only one real display which was the Qld Quilters Challenge Quilts. Other than that it was mainly stalls but at least some of the good ones you want to see were there.

This is part of my bounty. A kit to crochet a rug from the most gorgeous alpaca wool and some pretty roses trim.


This is the rug pattern by Prudence Mapstone for those crocheters reading this:


A point of interest was that there was not much parking available as a lot of the carparks are still out of action since the Brisbane River flooded. The Exhibition centre is located at Southbank a precinct just next to the river. This must have impacted on the number of visitors to the Expo.

After the morning at the Expo we had lunch at West End at a great Greek Restaraunt and really enjoyed the dips, pita bread and meze plate... yum!

These are my companions for the day... Anna, Lynn and Ros. Sadly Lynn has left to return to the USA and then onto new adventures. I hope we get the chance to get together again sometime.



On our way home we stopped at the Fabric Collection at Sumner Park, where we got a very warm welcome and some great buys!

L to R. denim (for another little skirt - I wear my denim skirt all the time), top-weight linen in green and tangerine (already washed, but not ironed yet), Cotton sateen (with some stretch for pants probably the Jalie classic trouser) and a beautiful olive jersey which I am going to make into the No 1 pattern as voted in the top 10 on pattern Review for 2010...


I have made 5 out of the top 10 patterns and own 3 more of the patterns. I am considering purchasing the other two patterns and setting myself the challenge of having an item out of all top 10 patterns in my wardrobe!

Plenty of sewing has been happening, if not much blogging! When I get photos I will start a round of posts to catch up with the things I have made (including swimmers!)

Happy sewing...

One last post about the HP shirt

You probably thought I had finished showing you the Hot Patterns shirt....wrong.. your comments have encouraged me to show you more...lol!

I thank everyone who left comments either here or on my review (or the Great White Shirt sewalong board on Pattern Review). it was lovely to have your feedback... got to love this on-line sewing community.

As it did generate quite a few comments, I thought I might show you some close-up shots - particularly for those who are interested in trying this shirt themselves. I couldn't get these photos with my little point & shoot camera as the fabric is so difficult to photograph, but this week-end I enlisted the help of my camera-club hubby.

First detail - this is the cut-in shoulder and inverted box pleat in the sleeve top. Hopefully you can also see that I have flat-felled the armhole seam.

This is a photo of the placket and cuff finished. The pattern advocates a bias band to finish the placket area - however as I had recently learnt how to do this on a course, I chose to do a 'proper' placket. I have folded back the cuff and just put one button to hold it under the fold. I have a RTW shirt that has a cuff like this. It is supposed to be a french cuff but I don't think that would work with this style of placket.

This is the front button band. I didn't put any buttons above where I would button this shirt (mainly because I didn't have enough!) I don't think it matters too much on this shirt. What do you think? Notice the gathers are not at the bust line but under it.


Here is a close-up of the button to try and show you the colours.

And lastly, the back yoke with pleat and back seaming detail.

OK, I promise to get onto other things next time. I have started another shirt Burda wof 04-2009-105 in a chambray. I am attempting pin-tucking on that one to jazz it up a bit... not sure how that is going to go. I am having trouble marking and visualising the pintuck details so I have dived in and ordered a Diana dressmaker's dummy so that I can put the shirt on that while I work it out. So that shirt may stall for a bit until that arrives.

I also did my first lesson to make a Chanel -style jacket - had heaps of fun!. So I should get off this computer now to do my 'homework' for that class!

The shirt continues & shopping...

Well - I was hoping to post photos of my skirt and perhaps a finished shirt - not yet *sigh*.

The skirt is obviously finished but it was cold this week-end so nothing happened on the photo front.

The shirt - well it is continuing & continuing ....& continuing... It is the case of everything that can go wrong will go wrong! I have put the sleeves in - one lot of unpicking as I put one sleeve in backwards, then the flat fell seam - sewn three times unpicked twice! Once I worked out I needed to baste the flat fell seam (as it is a curved seam) then it worked. Now I am up to unpicking the collar - oih!

In amongst all that - I tried it on once the side seams were done & ... I don't love it! I think the gathered fronts are overwhelming. Anyway I have decided to finish it and try to reserve judgement as I thought the muslin was OK.

I had a really big week last week - last week-end shopping with Caity - bought the following fabrics at our Gardams on sale...

The first on the left - a lovely jersey print in autumnal tones for a dress, next a beautiful shirting cotton (Italian I think) - it has a self weave in it which does not show up in the photo (I am really on a shirt kick) and then two more shirting fabrics - a striped chambray and a blue chambray - much cheaper than the white shirting fabric

A big week at work, so I could get Friday off to attend a day with the Pattern Review girls down in Brisbane. It was fabulous to catch up with them. We chat a lot on the message boards (did I say we chat a lot...) and we had a lovely addition to the group Lynn from Portland Oregon who is living in Australia for the short-term.

Caity & I left Toowoomba just after 8 am and drove to the faaarrrr.. side of Brisbane to East Coast Fabrics and met up with the girls. Lots of chat as we got to know everyone but we did still manage to buy some fabrics. The two I bought - on the far left of the photo, a lovely white shirting fabric with a grid pattern woven into the fabric ($7.95/m)and at the far right, the poly chiffon (with a crinkle - can't remember what you call that) but at $5.95 /m a bargain for a nice tunic top. It has a really cute floral small scale print I love on a black background.

After we drove off and lost the others even though I promised I would lead the way... we made our way to Indooroopilly (or the shiny shops as the programmed GPS lady informed us - my husband's handy work..lol!) and stopped for much needed refreshments- coffee & lunch.

Then off to Sckaff's where amazingly, I purchased nothing. I was looking for a piece of jersey in a particular colour and they didn't have it. We left the others then, after showing Lynn the bus stop (hope you found your way OK Lynn!)

Caity & I decided to stop at The Indooroopilly Gardams to look for the elusive jersey - which I found - yay! It is the dusky purple that is in the middle of the above photo. That will be another version of the Vogue DVF wrap dress.

After that the drive home where it took us an hour to get from Indooroopilly to Wacol (30 mins longer than it should)... we broke out the nasty 80's CD and sang our way out of it....

After a brief stop at home to freshen up, Caity & I went out for drinks, drinks, more drinks and dinner with some of the girls from gym - a great night with much laughter. Next day - very tired...