Ying Yang Phillippa Phillip: Mixing it up top

A little while ago I joined Helen Funkbunny on an adventure into town. We visited the history filled Phillips Shirtmakers - a working factory, still sewing shirts, hidden upstairs in the middle of Melbourne's CBD. It was fascinating!
I was completely overwhelmed by the bolts of dead stock shirting available - it was their first fabric sale in their 60 years of manufacture - and limited myself to filling a bag (well, ok, 2) with scraps for $5.
Among my treasures are some decent little lengths, some vintage Liberty scraps, and 5 left sleeve plackets...
One of my favourite scraps was a navy floral cotton, so light and soft. I didn't have enough to make a top, so I paired it with two rectangular shaped scraps in a more masculine striped shirting - and made a cute little summer tank top.

It's the simple things in life DD2#4 #3

It's the simple things in life that make me happy - like daisies from the garden picked by a preschooler, a perfectly extracted cup of coffee, dachshund snuggles without shedded fur

... and chevrons on my shoulders.

The fabric is Jaywalk from Tessuti, the pattern is possibly my first TNT,  the asymmetrical (scooped) neck top #4 from Drape Drape 2 by Hikato Sato.

MadMen3 - Jane Sterling she's a mod mod girl

Some days, a project just takes on a life of it's own. My social Anna was born out of picking up the right fabric with the right friends present to facilitate it's construction.

This story is like that, although I'll credit the online community and dreams of Sterling Cooper.

I had SO much fun with channelling 1967! Imagine if you will, that Jane Sterling hooks up with Megan Draper's hip friends after her divorce from Sterling (which was very, very expensive) and hits the town...

Followers of The Monthly Stitches Miss Bossy Patterns may recall that I had as option three a rayon printed with an Art Nouveau/1970's geometric design. I was asking for assistance about which late 60's pattern to sew up, my Mum's straight shift dress, or a raglan sleeved one that I thought was simply darling ;)

Influencing my choices was Julia Bobbin's MadMen Challenge #3 - and the seasons have caught up with the late 1960's, opening the challenge to shift dresses and more free-loving styles.

Dachshunds, Dinosaurs and dabbling in spring sewing

This weekend was the last of the September school holidays here and after some gale force winds earlier in the fortnight, spring decided to make an appearance.

So, we ventured out to a magical place from my childhood and introduced the dinosaurs to the next generation ;)

The dreaming dachshund of this blog has been asleep during the last few photo shoots, but he played happily with his kin while the human puppies attempted an obstacle course...
... and there was coffee requiring roasting, of course..

Spring sewing so far has been two versions of Disparate Discipline's Dandelion dress - with a post of its own to follow - my first review is here, and the grey ponte/ponti version fits and is nearly ready to share.

And another of my comfort sews - a heavy knit maxi skirt with a yoga/maternity waistband in navy & red stripes.
There are maxi skirt tutorials scattered across the internet. This spring I've enjoyed glancing at The pretty chevron one (although the waist seam will be on the outside & the waist measurements are too big for me; it is a pretty tutorial) and elizabeth avenue (which has a fabric layout & dimensions that work for me) for a reminder.

My maxi skirt variations include:

• Sewing the waistband in a >=< bow shape so it doesn't sit out from my waist (one of my standard sway back adaptations)
• Using 1~2 inches less than my waist diameter (depending the stretch of the fabric)
• and pockets, pockets are important ;)

For this one though, I'm (im)patiently waiting for my non-.pdf version of the Cake Red Velvet Collection so I can try Steph's hidden zip pocket (yes, I'm being good and waiting rather than hacking a version!)

And I've been happily drafting my summer woven maxi dress/es ;)
(...... and ignoring the Bombshell fabric & notions glaring accusingly from the corner....)

in fact, I'm ignoring the summer sews so much that I've just added the SewFab e-pattern bundle to my collection ;)

I've finally embraced Instagram and Twitter and caught a glimpse of where all the cool people are hanging out ;)

I can be found @Maci_Nic if you'd like to lurk with me ....

Everyone needs an LBD!

Meet my LBD - my Little Black Dress that is also my Lace Block Dream ;)

I was delighted to be invited along to a Melbourne Sewists' function of fabulousness on Saturday night - Frocktails was a gathering of several dozen incredibly talented women who all wore an amazing dress of their own making - everyone was wonderfully warm and welcoming and I admit there may have been some squealing as I met bloggers who inspire me with their makes, for the first time ;)

Thank you SO much Kat for organising the night - amazing food as well as the fabulous company.
There will be photos from the night appearing on some of the other girls blogs - The fabulous Mel Poppykettle has added us to her flickr steam, so you can find us all here.

So, what to make for an evening with such talented women.... Kat gave us plenty of notice, I RSVP'ed at the start of May!
I was very tempted by a piece of awesome emerald digitally printed chiffon silk in my stash, but couldn't bring myself to cut it - does that happen with anyone else?

The essentials for a fabulous frock IMHO involve fabulous fabric, design & fit. I decided to start with the fabulous fit and booked a session with Tessuti's SewInn.

In preparation for my class, I reread "Successful Dressmaking" from my stash of sewing texts and with new measurements, drafted a bodice block and made a muslin in some duckcloth cotton.

The lovely Vanessa was my class facilitator and she fitted my block with pins & texta markings, then supervised my transferring of these changes to my paper pattern.



I must say, I do like drawing patterns and manipulating darts is such fun - yes, I'm kind of weird like that ;)

Vanessa also walked me through how I planned to construct the dress, from placing the pattern pieces on the lace, through the order of sewing, choosing a zipper and finishing the seams.


Did I mention that the class was a mere week before Frocktails?


I'd fallen for my black lace at the Alannah Hill Clearance outlet earlier this year and wanted to make a sheath dress that I could subtly adapt with different slips underneath.

My inspiration dresses are from Dolce & Gabbana's spring 2012 collection - they have some amazing jewelled tones - and being 'old collections' can be picked up for a song - $839 rather than $2095 at Barneys New York if you're interested ;)

This is my best Scarlett pose - Peneloping and Erin of IHeartFabric are hosting a CopyCat Challenge2 until 30th Sept and this is my entry ;)

Armed with my freshly drafted block pattern, I laid out my pieces and cut my lace - with newly sharpened scissors for a change - Winter has seen me almost exclusively using rotary cutters for knits and silks.
I had forgotten how lovely sharp scissors and woven fabrics were ;)

The dachshund did his usual pattern weight impersonation and escaped unscathed.

I loaned mum's more modern machine to insert my invisible zip, with a foot that fitted! Yay! Unfortunately, in my excitement of having such modern niceties, I forgot to stabilise the seam... My impersonation of a ridgebacked lizard was salvaged with some unpicking, much steaming and stabilising the seam - lesson learnt.

The next lesson learnt was that black polyester thread on black lace is next to impossible to unpick, even with head lamps and sunlight... Ask me how I know... Go on... ;) - two front skirt darts, somehow they didn't line up with my bodice darts, sigh.. After unpicking both of them and part of the zip, I changed to a very dark green thread in my bobbin - almost undetectable, but enough to spot in the lace, which I do admit, was quite forgiving of being unpicked; if I hadn't cut any actual fabric threads.

I faced the neckline, hem and armholes with bias binding using Grainline studio's pictorial here. I like the design feature of the black banded edges with the lace and dress shape.

The inside seams aren't french, rather they're narrowly overlocked. I did have lovely inch wide seams, but I'm not going to need to adjust them again... right?

I love this dress, it's turned out as I imagined and is versatile enough to get a lot of wear. Best of all, I now have a block pattern that works for me - so bring on some spring sewing!

The Gatsby Dress

The fabric for this dress was bought on a whim while I was meant to be looking for wool suiting - Bees, Horses, Birds of Prey!! All in a distinctly oriental slinkyness that just cried out to be a kimono dressing gown, or a 1920's style frock - obviously ;)

Browsing the awesomeness of online 1920's fashion and the stills from Baz's new film was to wallow in decadent dreaming of the upper class, but surely everyday, women of a certain age, wore clothes in the 1920's as well - Hello Miss Fisher! Dot was a tad sensible for me, Phryne too magnificent, where next?

Why the treasures of Etsy - Thank you Carol and your 1920's draft your own dress pattern re-release! In the end, after detours via the Eucalyptus top, godets were abandoned (fabric too drapey) and the finished dress is remarkably similar to Marion Cotillard's dress in Midnight In Paris.  As I Said...: Fashion In Film: Midnight in Paris (2011)

Yes, an interpretation of the 1924 classic One-Hour-Dress (certificated as true at the 2nd National Merchandise Fair of 1923 no less!). The .pdf booklet "Easy Ways to Pretty Frocks" made for fascinating reading!

The bodice to the dropped waist is lined in silk that I picked up at Rathdowne Remnants sale (yay sales!) and I used the technique blogged about here (and in several other places). This all wouldn't have come together as seamlessly if the girls from Social Sewing hadn't helped with fitting my sloper and advising on my tank - Thank You!

Thanks to Mel for the reminder on ensuring the facing/lining is narrower than the dress fabric! And I clipped the neckline, then decided I didn't like it, so I've actually overlocked /serged the rest of the seams under the lining - with french seams, is it overkill? maybe not ;)

The gathers are reinforced by some Petersham ribbon and the side seams curve to the front as I decided that I did need a higher dropped waist to avoid looking entirely sacklike. I can quote Mr Paul Caret (1925) from the Art of Dress: 
"Do not be deceived as to your own figure. If gowns built on straight lines are not suited or becoming to your type, do not wear them... Watch your waistline. Place it where it is most becoming to you. Do not accept a high waistline if it fails to revel the good points of your figure .. and .. Do not hesitate to wear a wide skirt if it looks better on you than a narrow one. A tight skirt has caused many a woman to sacrifice her beauty for the sake of being fashionable"
Thank you Mr Caret ;)

What I have learnt:
French Seams are annoying to adjust - best not to try until you have the fit right ;)
Just Do It - and stop browsing all the pretty inspiration pictures and helpful tutorials
and that I really must look at the photo uploading glitch that's hindering my progress photos ;)

but I can say, it's incredibly comfortable, floats delightfully, layers well, all seams are French and I have bees on my bodice!