A foray into vintage vogue.

after careful consideration, (I put my hand in the draw and picked it up) my next project is vintage vogue 1043 something relatively easy as it has facings. I'm really excited to start sewing vintage, as I love showing off my small waist.

I wanted taffeta in royal blue or navy, I couldn't find it when I went looking, so I settled on something similar weight wise from Frank Stuart in Glenferrie Rd. ( i think thats where it is) its a dark blue with a slight stretch to it. it also has a nice russle when it moves, like taffeta sounds like.

I'm on to the cutting side of things, lately my sewing time has been dramatically reduced, with house hunting and other things. So it may take longer than I expected.

Other news I recently bought 4 Colette Patterns. I was showing the girls from my sewing class and they suggested a sew-a-long! We are making chantilly as of next week so I'll have two projects on the go. I'm very excited as i have just the fabric for it. It will be quite interesting how the other 3 girls dresses turn out. I'll keep you posted.

Butterick dress

Happy news...I finally won a dressmaker's dummy on ebay for $55. I am so happy! I pick it up on friday, woot woo. If it doesn't work out I wont be too upset as my sewing teacher has offered my hers (the dummy's name is gertrude) for $50. She used to do wedding dresses, apparently its in perfect condition so maybe I'll end up with two!

Have you named your dummy? I've noticed people doing that a lot lately.



Without petticoat

 I recently finished my floral dress, (side note to date I have always made something out of a floral fabric, that has to change, just to mix it up a bit.) It came up a dream, very easy to sew, except that i made a mistake when cutting the gathering i cut too close to the stiching which made hand sewing very difficult, it also wasnt helped but the fact, Ive never hand sewed anything before. Most likely after this dress I never will again. My poor fingers. :)

With a petticoat, unhemmed.

The photo looks squashed but i don't know how to fix it, sorry.

As you most likely can tell its unhemmed, and i have pins sticking it in so it looks slightly odd in the waist, but its fine in real life, i took the pins out. I'm only taking the dress up about 2 cm not 3.2cm like it calls for.

This is not my dress makers model this is just a mannequin that holds my wedding dress, although the dress is big as this manny is only size 6! Tiny. All in all I would make this dress again. Its so nice to wear & will be great for the up coming hot weather. I can't wait!

Thanks for reading,
Kat ;p

Photo update

Here it is, New Look 6723....

Do you like my shoes?

Do you see how the neckline buckles?

The Back

All in all, I do like my dress, yet i think I spent too long on it and don't love it like I did in the early stages. The fabric is a cotton sateen from spotlight. I have also made a skirt out of it too. I cut a size 14, and it is big, i took alot in at least 3cm out of the chest area & under arms but its still quite big in the waist as well. Next time I'll cut a 12 in the bodice.

I think I'll get a lot of use out of the dress in the coming warmer months. Also I added 5 cm to the hem but i may take it up 2 or so cm as i want it just below the knee.

What do you think of it? Any comments would be appreciative.

Kat :)

Bargin Farbrics

So last week I headed over to spotlight to pick up half a metre of satin silk lining for one of my in progress dresses.  it was on special for $8 per metre. I lied promised myself & my husband that wouldn't buy anymore fabric until i made a dent in my ever growing stash.

Everything was going well until I went to the clearance fabric section and found some fabric, Michael Miller "midnight mumms" that i have been after since I saw it on Rachel's Blog. I saw it for $22 per metre a while back and passed it up. I bought it for $4 per metre! I bought whatever was left on the short bolt as I think its a quilting fabric but it is 100% cotton, there was over 4 metres. Total was $18! I was and am still genuinely excited over my steal and at this stage have no plans for the fabric as i want to make something special from it. Any ideas would be lovely.

I also bought some more floral cotton sateen $12 per metre (surprise, surprise) and two metres each of a very soft blue and white fabric total $6, & a pink combination total $4. Both are floral.

All up I got over 9+ metres for $44. What a bargain!

Here is a photo.
Kat

Patterns, Patterns and more patterns...

In my interests in sewing started about early February as i was wandering around spotlight as my mum bought some fabric to line a skirt. I saw some fabric that caught my eye and thought to myself 'i like that'. Spotlight were having a buy the bolt for 30%  off or something like that, so i bought it thinking i wonder if such and such can make me something. One month later and i had enrolled in a sewing course, I had two patterns (one dress & a skirt) and 5.5 metres of blue floral cotton sateen.

Now 7 months later I have a stash that actually embarrasses me, which is not something that can easily be done ( if you see how many clothes i have, you would be shocked, & I'm not embarrassed by that.) I have over 35 patterns!!!! All except 5 were bought on special. I am shocked. To date i have only made 3 things with the 4th being in progress. That means I have 31 things to make. I feel slightly daunted now. I also have *cough cough* 4 Colette patterns on the way as well.

Does anyone want to help share my sewing? Ha ha.

I will say in my defense that I have a few or 10 projects that I am just not ready for just yet, I don't have the experience or the need to do something so complicated for example Vogue 1174.

In other news, I have finished both the vogue 8472 & New look 6723. I was happier with how 8472 turned out as i think I spent too long on 6723, photos to come soon.

I have started Butterick 5486 view A (the middle one)

Its coming along nicely and should be finished I'd say in 2 more lessons or in about a week if i cracked down, but it looks like this week will be a busy one.

Bye for now.
Kat