Better photos

I had a good day wearing my wearable toile to work today.

front view

The photos I initially published were too dark - my apologies.

The photos on the dummy don't show how well the dress fits me and it was really comfortable to wear. The dress still didn't stick to me, even after a walk in the heat.

side view

You might be able to see the hot pink chiffon lining I used inside the dress. The lining was $2 for 2 metres, bought at Pitt Trading earlier this year.

back view

Did I say that the fabric was bought from a curtain shop in Homebush?

Everyone loved the roll collar and the fit of the dress. I'm hoping that in time, someone at work decides to take up sewing. Then I'll never stop talking about sewing projects. I love it when projects work.

I'm back - Butterick 5277

I put Sunday aside to start working on the dress and would you believe, I finished it. Unbelieveable.

How did I stay focused after 2 months off?
I turned my computer off, turned off the telly and just took it one step at a time.

When I started to think negative thoughts I would say to myself - I'm talented, my sewing buddies are talented, I'm talented. That's when I started to refocus again.

How did I put more quality into my work?
After reading about couture sewing, seeing a few couture fashion exhibitions in Dublin, Paris and London and I watched the Valentino film (The last emperor?) on the flight home, I used my dress maker dummy to do some final touches that I normally hate to do and (shock) steps that I by-pass.
I'm using Roberta's technique of placing lace edging on the hems on lining and sometimes on the inside of the fabric hem itself.

What ignited my sewing bug?
We've got our annual sewing weekend on 14 and 15 November and the thought of taking that unmade boring fabric was killing me. The dress is a toile but it's now part of my wardrobe.

Sharon's done an amazing job of organising this year's sewing weekend. She's covered every aspect with such thought and professionalism. We've both followed Alison's eye for detail. Alison organised the first two sewing weekends. I've organised two and Toni organised last year's at Ferndale. Toni is now the conference organiser for the Sewing Guild. Toni has such drive and energy.

I also had a look at the dresses on sale at JC Penny's, saw my fabric stash and thought, "I can do this next weekend."

Out of 'thread' action

I have a couple of projects that went on hold while I worked with my family to get Mum into decent care. It's taken at least 4 months to work out where her health is at and what care she needed so it's now three weeks since Mum went into care and she's now comfortable. Alzheimers can be tricky but safe to say, she's able to think clearly and you have to accept that the daily stuff just doesn't stick in her mind anymore. She's more relaxed, looks younger than she has for years; can hold a conversation; isn't bored or frustrated; and as a family we can relax for now.

So now that piece of life has been resolved for now, I'm off for six weeks with DH, away from work and my sewing room. I'll be looking at what people are wearing in the Northern hemisphere and getting lots of inspiration to burn through my fabric stash when we get back.

The challenge is going to be to keeping my lugguage weight to 15kg when we fly from Prague to Dublin. After that leg, there will still be London and HK on the way home to keep the luggage weight to 23 kgs. Thankfully there's always Australia post.

FBA and FDA

Here's the dress I'm currently adjusting to fit my body shape. This pattern is fitted and conservative but can be changed to suit the occasion or fabric choice.

After checking my measurements, I found that I needed to do a full bust adjustment or FBA. This was because the difference between my chest measurement and high bust point measurement was more that 5cm difference. This is something that only an expensive minimiser bra could overcome.


I had to keep remembering that I was with a sewing guru, Angie Zimmerman, and my aim was to relearn tailoring basics. As you can see, there is a new side bust dart, but I reckon, it's got to fit well or why bother.


This shows you the full derriere adjustment or FDA I needed to cover my seat. I also needed to increase the back width. More to come...

Completely pink

Here's the jacket. I love how it's worked out.
What I avoided was adding buttons and buttonholes by using 'snaps'.

After trying to use an overlocker, I cut the stitching off the seams and the seams will remain unfinished. Hopefully the princess with wear this outfit to bits.


I know the fashions is to mix it up and not to match clothing, so she should now have a twin set that can have separate identities...

It's "pink"

My niece loves pink. She's a girlie girl and when I found this fabric I knew it would suit her.

It's been a long time since I've sewn for a child so when I spied this fabric at Pitt Trading, I knew that it would be perfect for her.

Lincraft had Burda patterns for half-price and this has pants, skirt, top and cardigan all in one pattern. It's got a range of sizes so it will last her for a couple of years.

It's a match

After scouring a few smaller local sewing stores, I found lace that matches this slip fabric. It's cool to think that there are still a few stores that have old stock.

The zip jacket

Here's the pattern I used to make the zip brown jacket.

I'm not going to review it on patternreview because Lincraft doesn't print this anymore.

McCalls 4596 is a recent zip jacket that I made up in blue last year.

The instructions are good and this is an easier pattern to fit because it has princess lines to the shoulder seam.

Well matured fabric/pattern

Double knits are great to use when you're building up a new wardrobe, or are refreshing an established one. This is a Lincraft pattern from way back, possibly 15 years.

The story behind this trim is this - I bought some cushion covers for the dining table and the cushions were held together with this ribbon. The idea isn't anything new but I thought that I should challenge my skills a bit.

I've kept the details close to my face, so the style is kept simple and clean. The jacket is interfaced with texture weft, to give the jacket more durability.
I wore it last night and it's comfortable and a nice layer to wear in the cold. I did notice the the back needs more shaping so I'll work on that in the coming weeks. For now, this is a nice addition to my winter wardrobe.

Knit or woven?

This fabric came from The Fabric Store. I bought it in November with a view to playing with it for winter. It's a chardonnay/verdehlo fabric.

Because I have a couple of pair of brown boots, they finish this dress off really well.
This fabric is a double knit but looks like corduroy. This seams must be overlocked. I was fooled into thinking that they would be fine, unfinished.



I originally left the sleeve hems unfinished because the selvedge is on the sleeve hem looks like a really short fringe. Since wearing it for a day, I've overlocked and finshed the sleeve hem.

Sewing hints

• foldover elastic was used for the neckline.


• The seams are overlocked.


• seams great was used on the shoulder seam


• I've reinforced the sleeve head.

The brown knit jacket is coming up next, using fabric from Knitwit direct (7 years ago). Definitely a red wine fabric.