{ CAROLYN PJS } with a shot of neon…

Dear Readers, its been a frikkin lifetime since I last posted anything here….

Gosh, life has been crazy. My little boy is 18 months { WHAAAAT } & since around November has been going 3 mornings a week to a day mother just to give this mommy a little me-time. I needed it so bad! I dont have grandparents or friends etc to help out with taking him a few hours to give us time so Ive kinda just used the few hours on the weekends that hubby would give me but it just wasn’t enough. Putting him a few mornings with a day mommy has allowed me to clean my house, prepare meals & SEW.

I hit those machines with a force let me tell ya. Those of you that follow me on Instagram will know this but Ive been sewing like such a crazy woman that Ive forgotten to blog any of these makes & share. That ends now!

So I decided to jump onto the Carolyn Pj’s bandwagon. This is my first Closet Case Files pattern & let me say, Im a fan!

At first I couldn’t find appropriate fabric. Then IKEA happened. Yes friends, I found fabric for my Carolyn Pjs at IKEA. This black & white cotton just screamed pj’s & at first, I was all revved to do black piping (which I still think woulda looked pretty hot) but then I had a brain wave which involved neon & the rest is history.

I purchased my neon piping via Etsy, from On Trend Fabrics. Their service was great & the piping is good quality. I went ahead & purchased neon pink & orange as well because you know…

After measuring myself, I settled on my size & then decided to cut & sew a size bigger. I hate hate hate tight pjs more than alot of things. Also, it was my full intention to make the long pants but once I set that pattern out for cutting, I changed my mind & made the shorts. Im really glad I did. I think I’ll get more use out of the shorts.

I made no major alterations but I did add in some piping on the edge of the short pockets & used neon yellow snaps instead of buttons. First time installing these kinds of snaps & they went in really really easy. I purchased the snaps via Etsy as well. There are quite a few sellers so take your pick. 

Line matching was interestingly annoying! I tried as much as I could, in the places that I thought it would matter the most & then didn’t give a shit where it didn’t work coz quite honestly, they’re pj’s for goodness sake. I did however take the time to utilize the cinched part of the pattern right in the centre of my back & front so it gives a good visual pear shape which I think worked kinda nice, no?

Such a lovely pattern & such a fun sew. There were some tricky parts to the pattern, namely the front facings & where they attach at the collar. Whew. Fuck. I might have popped a sweat at this stage but it worked out in the end! 

There are more Carolyn Pjs in my future, of this I am sure. Id like Kelly green next… x

 

{ VOGUE 8827 } Ready for Autumn…

She’s done. Finally.  Autumn can now begin. 

Many of you have probably already seen my previous posts on the journey thus far with the Vogue 8827 and while Ive had my fair share of hurdles from the “ready steady”, I have quite enjoyed the process.

After sewing multiple no-brainers all summer, like the McCalls 6751 (eerhm twice) to the DKNY LBD and the New Look 6150 (again twice), I decided it was time to dig into something a little more advanced. 

So without further ado, here are the deets on the pattern :

{ DESCRIPTION } Very loose-fitting, wrap dress. Has front extending into collar with various draped fronts. Self-lined yoke back, inside ties & belt. I sewed up a mash-up of all three versions. I sewed View C with only one draped collar front, 3/4 sleeves & knee-ish length.

{ FABRIC USED } A beautiful berry coloured viscose jersey for €6/m. The colour is perfect for Autumn but the fabric did have me cursing a little.

{ SIZING } After ready a few of the previous reviews on PR I decided to cut my dress 2 sizes smaller.The fabric I used was super stretchy so I knew Id have room. The lovely ladies from A Challenging Sew and The Slapdash Sewist  have extremely helpful reviews on this dress so taking all the measurements into account, I knew I wouldnt bugger up.

{ INSTRUCTIONS } The instructions are not bad overall however the complicated collar area could have been a little better explained IMO.

{ CHANGES / ALTERATIONS } The instructions call for slip stitching of the yoke facing inside. I was able to pin & sew my yoke on the inside which I was happy about….less handstitching makes me a happy camper. I did however have to slipstitch the shoulder yoke facings down but this took no time at all.

I made quite a big change to the way the belt ties work. I sewed one tie to the left side which passes under the right side so you dont see the stitch line. I then made a small-ish hole in the right side seam for the tie to pass through & wrap right around my waist & meet in the front. For the right side, I opened a small gap in the seam & sewed in the tie (which is another reason I left this side faced). In other words, I made the wrap dress a proper wrap dress with ties that wrap around the entire body. I feel its a little more secure this way & I feel like I have more control over how loose or how tight I want it to be.  

When I first sewed the collar (which is self-faced), I didnt like the drape of the extended front piece & I was debating on whether to remove the facing. Some of you lovelies urged me to leave it the way it was which I decided to do & Im glad I did. Thanks for the advice. I think if I had changed the collar to a single, unfaced piece, it just wouldnt have felt or looked right. While the second layer of fabric adds bulk, its not terribly heavy & gives the much needed body around the neck. Here is a pic of the collar extended…. 

For the hemming of the dress & the sleeves, I zigzagged my edges & turned them over once & stitched really close to the edge. Its not the best finish in the world but it works.

{ LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY }  Vogue call this pattern Easy…I beg to differ. I wouldnt call it easy but I wouldnt call this pattern intermediate either. Its more a combination of the two. The dress is easy if you didnt have that complicated collar. I would not recommend this pattern to a beginner unless I knew they had someone who could guide them through the collar. The rest of the dress however is pretty straight forward.

{ TIME } I didnt keep my usual time card on this dress unfortunately but I would say from layout to finishing took around 6 or 7 hours in total. I stole moments here & there to get this dress finished & made a few stupid errors along the way ie. the one yoke is a little off grain. Not sure HTF that happened!

{ SUM IT UP } I recommend this dress & I would even recommend it in a crepe or something drapey but not necessarily a jersey/knit. Ive seen a few made in cotton which work well too so dont feel obliged to make this in a stretch.  Super comfortable & incredibly flattering which reminds me of a DVF classic wrap dress, without the price tag of course. Even if I counted all my beans & decided I could afford an original DVF, I wouldnt need to because I have this gorgeous piece of berrylicious loveliness. I will get plenty of wear out of this over Autumn but I know nearing Winter I will need to layer it with some other things to make it wearable over the colder days. In hindsight, I could have gone with a much thicker jersey which might also have been easier to work with.

Would I sew this again ? Maybe, but with there being so many other superbly drafted wrap dresses I doubt it. I also have that queue to get through…

Am I happy with the overall result? Yeah, mostly. This isnt my best sewing due to the fact that the fabric is fairly troublesome but overall its a great finish.  Im super chuffed with my new dress & I cant wait to make tons of use of it over the coming cooler seasons.

Thanks for popping by x

{ VOGUE 8827 } Progress…

Even though the weekend hasn’t quite panned out the way I had planned in my mind, Ive still managed to spend some time in the sewing room today scratching my head over V8827.  The collar has been a real biatch my dears. Its had me cursing in every language I know. First I pinned the back to the collar section on incorrectly { FUCK }, then once I had re-pinned & sewed I realised I had put the collar on back to front. { SHEIßE }. Pulled everything out, start again. Then came the puckers. { FOK }.  Never.ending.nightmare.

Alas, Ive taken a breather to pin the berryliciousness to Poppy & admire her thus far.  What is it about a garment that gives you trouble every step of the way but as soon as it starts going well all is forgiven….I mean completely forgiven. { AMAZING }.

Im not entirely satisfied with the way the  extended collar is draping due to the collar being self-faced. Hmmm…what to do?! Leave it the way it is or change it now before I sew in the back yoke facing …. perhaps with some steaming the fabric will drape better! { DECISIONS DECISIONS }

Also, I have not stitched the side seams as yet but I have a sneaky sneaky suspicion I have some serious adjustments to make to the side seams. The dress just seems far too big at the moment but then again, Im yet to try it on my own body. There is a good chance my ass & bewbs might fill it more satisfactorily.

Ok lovelies, trust you’ve had a good weekend. More soon…x

 

{ BURDASTYLE } August is out…

After taking a break from BurdaStyle in feb & march, much was my irritation when I realised march probably had the nicest offerings in a long time…the open back dress & a few other things – uuuurrrgh. If anyone has a copy of march they dont want, please feel free to send it my way ok.

August is out & as much as I am bummed to see Fall/Autumn already in the mag, I feel kinda excited about it because there are a few pieces that make me oooh & aaaah….3 of my favourites being :

The peplum top which I love because its a combination of frills & pleats…pleats being my absolute favourite thing { EVAH }. The blouse on the top right Im digging because it looks so over-the-top feminine. Problem with this collar is if you use the wrong fabric, your’e on the super highway to Bobo the clown & we dont want that. Now my favourite is that black leather jacket/blazer….dear me, look at those poofed sleeves, with pleats { BLOW MY WHISTLE } – that is soo cool Im already thinking of what colour I should make that in…

There are some other cute pieces in the August magazine as well, but for now, these 3 have me plotting & planning. Off to the leather shop I go….

{12.12.2012 – a good place to start…}

Seems like a good day to get the consolidation of blog & pattern reviews started.

All the hype surrounding the 12.12.12 is mind boggling. One would swear we’ve NEVER.EVER had a repetition of date like this before. I for one remember quite clearly 8.8.88 and 9.9.99 and 10.10.10 and even 11.11.11 – the world lived through all of those so why in the hell would the world start to fall apart now. anyway, before i digress to much, let me get started on the first pattern review post…

Vogue V8438 (A)

This is the link directly to my original review : http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/52370

I used a neutral & natural coloured wool tweed for the outer fabric & a cream satin for the inner lining of the coat. I loved the OTT clown-like collar however this was indeed the most difficult part to sew, not because it was complicated but because of the many many layers of tweed to sew through. I dotted machine stitches around where i could and where my machine was unable to stitch, I resorted to hand stitching. I finally got to put the metal thumb protector to good use.  At first I did not make the belt but after wearing the coat a few times, I realised the belt was an integral component helping to structure the silhouette and keep everything looking ready-to-wear-ish!

I really loved the process of putting this coat together, from start to finish. It was a simple pattern which, IMO, does not require OTT tailoring techniques or anything fussy. I think some real fun could be had with experimenting with colour combinations and different fabric weights. I would highly recommend this pattern & would make Version C (possibly without the ‘bell’ sleeves) in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t recommend this pattern to complete novice sewers however experienced beginners could complete this easily.  Good luck all.