oh marie

I haven't visited BurdaStyle in a few months, so was most delighted when SpidersKnit sent me a link to one of their new designs. While that dress was a wee bit fancy for l'il ol' me to wear while knitting anoraks or growing mushrooms (did I mention my portobello kit in the laundrey?), this looks far more suitable for everyday. Yes, you can snicker. I'm imagining it in a terrible 70s metallic brocade. It's a bit of a pity design-wise that it doesn't have an invisible zipper, but a plus Lupinbunny-wise, as I don't know how to put an invisible zipper in. It's also unlined, which I'm a bit disappointed about. I'm torn between trying to put a lining in myself, and just being glad that I won't have to pay for lining too. Maybe I could spend the money I save on lining on some collagen injections so I can pout like the model. I'd like that.

I'm going to buy the fabric on Monday afternoon. Monday through Friday is my Super-Special Holiday - not even going to work on my dissertation. I'm going to sew Built By Wendy top, the Lotta Jansdotter reversible apron, a cushion cover and some placemats. And that Marie skirt. Busy me!

The Other Wendydress: Space Invaders

same pattern, but i changed the neck facing. It's a 30" x 5" rectangle, to make a kind of draped funnel-neck. are we loving badly coloured boy and his playing with every portable light source in our house, plus the halogen worklamp he insisted on purchasing just for this purpose? it's a little hard, when he's got the tech skills, and i have the compositional skills and know what about the dress i want to show off. lots of jumping back and forth. also (don't tell him) he doesn't quite have the focus under control yet.


here's the Space Invader dress in full. it's made of grey cotton drill - what schoolboys' shorts are made of. it was the only grey cotton in spotlight. there was a table of scrungy khaki and browns with a sign saying 'winter's hottest shades!' sorry spotlight, but... nup. maybe your buyers want to flick through a fashion magazine every now and then. it'd do a world of good.

one of the best things about this dress is how you can start to take it off, but still look like you're wearing it. that's raglan for ya.

pay no attention to the girl behind the curtain!

i was going to go all high-class model on y'all, but since i wore the dress out for easter breakfast i figured i'd just snap a photo then. bear in mind that i'm feeling a bit queasy from pancakes here, and i am a little worried about how well i'm matching our very late 70s decor.


badly coloured boy an i agreed the dress is alot less Curtain with the red tights. the inevitable contrast lining is here:


the only fabric in the whole of spotlight in that nice plum purple was a poly-cotton pre-crushed number *shudder* so i bought some, and steam-ironed it for a good fifteen minutes. what do you know, pre-crushing ain't so permanent as you might think! the floral was also the nicest thing i've seen in spotlight for a long time.

a tip for anyone else making this dress with the little sleeve ties: when sewing the band (floral) to the band facing (purple), sew it band side up. not the most intuitive way to feed it through the machine (for me, anyway), but much, much easier to get a neat finish next to where the band ends and the sleeve cuts up a bit.

the dress length is squarely between the length of View A and View B on the packet envelope. a length i really like. when you see my grey Space Invader dress you'll get an idea of where View B falls on me.
I also ran the side seams in a little extra on this dress. it seemed a little loose for whatever reason. i mean, i know it's A-line, but it seemed looser than my other dresses.

i've been a busy 'un

another needle roll, for mah mum (shh! it's a birthday surprise!) check out the awesome water-print (is there a better word for that?) grosgrain ribbon that i found. also, the needle roll tutorial is now illustrated.

i've also made two dresses, but i'm going to let badly coloured boy bring home lots of lights and camera and action to photograph me. also, i'm a little unsure of said dresses. i REALLY liked the grey one, till BCB said it was 'nice, but it does make you look a little stocky'. and the floral one has this awesome graphic print... sadly, i underestimated my ability to look like i'm wearing a curtain. also the neck facing is a bit of a mess, and i don't really care because of said curtainality. i'll let you all judge me when i have photos.

i've also completely finished one endpaper mitt, complete with fancy-pants tubular bind off. i'm a wee bit disappointed. it looks nice, but i'm really not finding it as elastic as everyone seems to think it is. i had to redo both the hand and thumb cast off to make them looser, so the cast off would stretch out enough.

the Sewn Thing: Built By Wendy/ Simplicity 3835

here it is. unironed hem and all. i was a little worried when making this dress that it was less quirky, and more raggedy-ann, but i've decided i like it. a lot. this was me wearing it out on a 32C/ 100F night (ah, summer). it was much cuter with black tights and ballet slippers, which is how i wore it on sunday night. there's no real tricks or quirks with the pattern, save that i'd recommend gathering the neckline most over the shoulders and in the centre front, and less around the raglan seams. just to make it sit super-nice.


scared of the lapped zipper instructions in the pattern, i tried the tutorial on how to put in zippers that's in Sew U. it recommends taping the zip in place with stickytape. Worst. Idea. Ever. well, not quite. but not as great as it initially seemed. the stickytape moves, then sticks to something else, so the zip goes out of place. also the tape stuck to my machine arm as i sewed the fabric. this meant it either a) got all bunched up and sticky so the fabric wouldn't feed any further or b) got sucked into the feed dogs, causing a sticky mess than prevented the fabric from feeding any further. i'll stick to pins in future.

i've managed to get badly coloured boy to stop snapping incredibly utilitarian photos of me. see how this one is kind of composed? my entreaties to 'take a nice photo' never produced results. turns out the magic words were 'Honey, pretend you're filming me and compose the shot properly'. magically he learns the rule of thirds. it also prompts him to suddenly volunteer to bring home the big, expensive still cameras with manual focus from university for when i need to take blog photos. i think i will try chatting to his film-self more often.

but back to my dress: my favourite bit is the contrast lining on the elbow ties.


the elbow ties are insanely, ridiculously fiddly, but worth it, i think.

i'm going to make another of these dresses. maybe in a dark checked cotton.

baby got shirt!

all finished. i brought the side seams in... oh, a few inches. look, i have a waist, and i like other people to know it's there also, okay? that little rumple up near my right shoulder is not poor stitching, i just didn't pull the shirt on properly. it actually doesn't sit like that normally. apparently my sewing skills actually surpass my ability to dress myself. given how long i've been sewing, and given how long i've dressed myself this is cause for some concern.

best bit? the fabulous use of the embroidery stitches on my machine. normally hidden by the pocket flap, so only i know they're there:


worst bit? i was hammering the cool copper-coloured studs in (yup! no wussy buttons here. studs come with these angry looking spiky prongs and you need to hammer them in), and i was telling Badly Coloured Boy a terribly interesting story about the IRA. I looked up at him to emphasise the climax, and slammed the hammer down onto my thumb.
bruises are notoriously difficult to photograph (trust me - my hypochondriac self has tried. So. Many. Times), but you can make out the ugly blacky-purple smush on the edge of my thumbnail, i hope.

my howls of anguish rather detracted from the end of the IRA story, by the way.

reasons why i rule

i have pretty much sewn a shirt that pretty much fits. still have to do the cuffs and the side and arm seams. and the buttons. but, y'know. i made collar! there is no need for you to see the World's Ugliest Collar Stand Facing Job. some scissors and some yanking and noone need be any the wiser...

sew u think you can make a shirt, huh?

i'm thinking i should have signed up for the wardrobe refashion challenge, given that i keep making tops and dresses and my poor student status means i probably won't buy any pants (which i don't intend to make myself yet) this year. or at least for the first half of the year.

i've been trying the shirt out of Sew U. Frustratingly, while her patterns are 'for sizes 2 - 18' there are actually only 4 sizes to cut - extra-small, small, medium and large. And she doesn't state what measurements any of those are exactly. apparently a medium is somewhere between a 34.5" and 35.5" bust (also note the non-standard measurements she uses?). so i'm stuck making a mystery-sized shirt for my 34" bust. which is a pity, because it's a very flattering pattern so far (that or i made the darts a wee bit big, resulting in a more fitted than intended shirt).
anyway, i'm stuck right now because i sewed a pocket on a bit crooked, and the facing isn't as straight as i'd like, but i don't actually own an unpicker... so no sewing till i can beg/ borrow/ steal (tried to buy - spotlight didn't have any left) one.

because i'm making the cowboy shirt i need to cut the little pointy yokes. and because i'm using plaid, i need to make sure all the stripes are doing the same thing. and because geometric mathsy stuff was never my strong point, and i have a bit of a cold which contributes to Stuffiness of Brain i actually had to cut seven yokes, instead of two, to get them pointing the right way. it's not helped by the fact the plaid is different on the vertical to the horizontal. it's helped greatly by the fact my fabric is completely reversible.