Made for Me - March Dress

Ok, so I realise that it is now June and I still haven't showed you the dress I made for myself back in March. I am finding it challenging (on many levels) to take photos of myself, wearing the things I have made. Never mind, I will get over myself and catch up eventually, I am sure...

Anyway, this dress is made using New Look pattern 6429, view C. As I have a long torso, I attempted to lengthen the top half of the dress. There is a seam across the back that is already above the waistline, that would have looked really funny if I had not. Lengthening the torso was not easy, as there are no shorten/lengthen lines to be able to do so, so there was a bit of fiddling around, and some moving of dots and notches. I am still not sure I really got this right, but it seems to work.


Oh, by the way, this is my mannequin. She has come from my mum's house to stay here. As you can see, she is a bit skinny and it looks like her boobs are in a completely different place to mine, but maybe with some padding, I might be able to sort her out. Or she can just become my clothes horse for modeling my new clothes if I am too shy, or technically challenged to do it myself.


Another modification I made to this dress was that I replaced the neckline facing with some binding that I cut from the same fabric as the dress. I found the concept of a facing in a stretch dress to be a bit strange. Particularly because that facing is to be interfaced, which would make it not stretchy. When I added the binding, I made sure to stretch it a little tighter across the bust area, where the dress "crosses over". This was to help keep everything inside the dress, where it should be. I have a tendency to burst out of cross-over dresses and tops as time goes by, but this dress is safe at least for long enough for me to go out for dinner. I really do wonder about that facing and if there are advantages to having those parts of the dress stabilised in such a way?

Overall, I am fairly pleased with this dress. I may even make it again, out of some better fabric. We shall see...

Nani Iro gets a New Look

I originally purchased this Nani Iro double gauze to make the Oliver + S Jump Rope Dress, but changed my mind. I had ordered 150cm from Ballarat Patchwork (closing down in 4 days, 50% off all stock, get in fast!), but it turned out that there wasn't a full length available. I ended up with one length of about 1m and another length of about 115cm, meaning I had over 2m instead of the 150cm I had ordered. Since I had that much extra, I decided to make something for myself instead.


I have had the New Look 6891 pattern sitting in my stash for awhile, waiting for the right fabric, and decided that the Nani Iro would be perfect. Whilst this top is "growing on me", I kind of wish I had done a toile first. I chose the pattern size to match my bust measurements, but the model on the pattern is obviously wearing a couple of sizes larger than the size recommended; there appears to be more pattern ease than there really is. Had I done a toile, I would have made it a size or two larger.


The neckline is also quite wide. I need to add some little bra clips to this top as it keeps sliding off the shoulder and won't stay on an ordinary coat hanger. I love the bound neckline, but if I were making another one of these with double gauze, I would cut the binding wider and use some starch as it was quite fiddly with fabric that frays so easily. The rest of the top was a cinch to put together though, and I love the sleeve detail, and the little button at the centre front. The gathers around the bustline are also nice.


The pattern had a weird cutting layout, where you cut the whole piece in half and lay one half over the other. This suited me alright as I had those two pieces of fabric. There is a seam down the centre front and down the centre back, so no pieces are cut on the fold. It would make it really difficult to match patterns but I wasn't concerned with this fabric as it had a kind of randomness to the dots anyway. Whilst the pattern recommends woven fabrics, I am tempted to give this one a try with a stretch fabric as well - I love, love LOVE the double gauze, it is beautiful and floaty - perfect for a sunny spring day.


For this pattern, I used eight fat quarters.
SYST13 Running totals: in = 107, out = 103, total = +4

Cross-over Top

This is the top that I made using the same pattern as this skirt, New Look 6470.

I made it ages ago, but I don't wear it much, because the cross-over bit spreads as I am wearing it, exposing my (ahem) bra.



I very much doubt that I will be wearing it this summer, as I kind of made it longer to begin with, and it doesn't really fit me now. But does anyone know how to solve the gaping problem? There is a Jalie pattern that can be made into a maternity top that I have been thinking about, but will I have the same problem with that pattern?

12 Challenges - January (Something for ME!)

Carolyn over at My Favourite is hosting a meme this year. The meme is 2010 - 12 months, 12 challenges.

There is a different challenge every month and for the month of January, we were challenged to make something for ourselves. This is rather appropriate, since we have been rather busy making things for others in the lead up to Christmas.

I made this "two hour dress" (NewLook 6889) for myself. I am fairly long in the torso, but an average-ish height, so I made the shorter of the two lengths and added 7cm to the top half  of the dress but made no modifications to the bottom half. It finished up a nice knee length dress, perfect for wearing around the house on hot days. 

Now, I bet you are wondering, did I do it in two hours? After tracing and adjusting and cutting (which isn't included in the two hours) it took me somewhere from 2.5 - 3 hours. I would imagine it would be quicker doing it again.

Next month the challenge is to sew something from a knit fabric. I have a plan, hopefully I get it under way nice and early in the month.