Vogue 1170 in progress (just about)

A huge thank you for the encouraging words on the dress in my last post. I promise it will not become a UFO and I will try not to stress about the inside too much. A little break from it is what I need.

So instead of being sensible and whipping up, say, a knit top I decided to start on one of the most time consuming blouses on the planet - Vogue 1170 by Rachel Comey.

It's in the very early stages as there is a lot of narrow hemming to be done on slippery fabric. The instructions are clear enough on how to do this, but you really need pixie fingers to be able to narrow hem shapes like this.

The sleeve ties, which are cut onto the front and upper back pieces.

My somewhat pointier sleeve ties ready for machining.

I would love to see how this is made in the factory, I'm sure they don't sew a line of straight stitches, burn their fingers pressing it, trim it, fold again and handstitch in place before machining the hem. If they do, then this is will be one expensive blouse to buy!

The fabric I am using is an olive coloured silk with purple flower print that I bought in Shanghai about 7 years ago. I cut the front out in a single layer to try and avoid any unfortunate bullseye pattern placement, but it was hard to see how it's all going to turn out at this stage as the front pieces are unusually shaped.

Unfortunately just as my sewing mojo is returning, last night while washing up I managed to cut my finger on my right hand so sewing (actually almost anything) is a bit painful right now. This was caused by a brand new knife, clearly all my life I have been using blunt ones!

Vogue 1123 - So near and yet so far

I'm back but I think I left my sewing mojo in Australia.

Have you ever had a gut feeling that something was not going to work, but you blundered on anyway because it seemed like too much work to stop and go back. This dress I am working on is a classic case in point.

It is a sleeveless lined sheath dress and I know that there is a better way to assemble this type of dress than in Vogue's instructions. However I couldn't remember the details and I knew if I switched on the computer 2 hours would disappear and no sewing would happen so I ploughed on with the stupid instructions. Argh I am so annoyed with myself. Now I am spending far more time handstitching the lining to the armscye, unpicking it, redoing it ad nauseum and it still looks hand made on the inside and not in a couture way.

A mess at the inside shoulder seam

I know it has been said many times before but why do the big 4 pattern companies stick with these old methods when the RTW method looks better and must be easier.

Note to self; don't do this again, here are some great tutorials on a far better finish for this type of dress. If anyone has any other favourites please post them in the comments.

Online Threads article

Nancywins PR sewing tip

Carolyn's alternative method

Anyway I am nearly there so going for the blundering on approach. I need a break from the dress but here is where I am right now, still one side of lining to attach to armscye and a hem - not much at all I know but I am sick of the sight of it!

Not sure what I am smiling about.

Happy Chinese New Year

Or Kung Hei Fat Choy as they say!

I am off to Perth and Margaret River for a weeks holiday over Chinese New Year, leaving in about 30 minutes in fact if I can possibly get my husband to leave the office.

I was hoping to finish the Anne Klein dress before I went but it's not going to happen. It's about 95% done, but the last 5% is fiddly and annoying, hopefully I will feel rejuvenated in a week and have the motivation to just do it.

As you can imagine Chinese New Year is a big deal here in Hong Kong and there are decorations everywhere celebrating the coming year of the tiger - these pictures are from a mall in Central;

A closer view


Closer still - they are made of flowers!

Whether you are celebrating Chinese New Year or Valentines Day (yes it's a bumper weekend for retailers here!), enjoy!

It's all Burda's fault

Burda, BWOF, BurdaStyle - whatever we are calling it these days just isn't grabbing my interest lately. Less than a year ago I could barely wait to get the next magazine and even if I didn't get around to making all the things I liked at least they were there waiting for me. Now it just seems a lot less exciting than it used to be, there are still good basics, but I've got those already, I want funky details that I am not clever enough to come up with myself.

For me this void has been filled by Vogue patterns who have been coming up with some interesting designer patterns which have already been discussed on blogs galore. My latest order just arrived today, here's what I got;

This one is a bit wacky, but intrigues me.

I got this for the blouse details.

I love the sleeve detail on this one.

So many great details on this dress.

Jersey crossover dress from Donna Karan, will have to look out for suitable fabric.

I need another dress pattern like a hole in the head but am powerless to resist.

Work in Progress - Vogue 1123 Dress

Since finishing my jacket we are of course having a mini heatwave so I'm back on dresses. If anyone can remember back far enough, I decided back in September last year to use up 7 unused dress patterns. This will be number 4;

You need to see the line drawing to appreciate the design, I just love the seamlines on this dress.

I'm making it in a purple lightweight wool fabric that actually looks quite similar to the colour of the jacket in the above photo. It's quite bright, I hope I don't look like that girl from Willy Wonka that turned into a blueberry!

The pattern is rated as advanced but I think that must be for the jacket because the dress is really quite simple and coming together fast (famous last words...).