The Best Laid Plans...

I finished the bikini top, think I have figured out how to put the bottoms together and decided that was enough to reward myself with some fabric shopping, so off I went to the Sham Shui Po fabric market. You never know what is going to catch your eye when you're there and suffice to say the pipeline of my previous post now has some additions!

Fake fur

I bought two lots of this, one for winter cushions to cosy up my living room and some gorgeous black fur to make a simple winter coat. It's short pile and textured - like Persian lamb. I think this may have to jump near the front of the queue as our winters are so short. My cats love the beige/blue cushion fur so it may well turn into a blanket as the only time I can access it is when the black cat gets too hot in the sun!

Black faux textured fur

Blue faux fur with beige tips

Big pile of fur!

Boucle

This wasn't on my shopping list either but I adore the colours and it will work really well with the grey pencil skirt and HP razor pants.

Hey that's two jackets right there, maybe I should join the 12 jackets in a year club?!

Sensible wool purchases

This is what I actually went to buy, I got 3 pieces, grey, black and a brown pinstripe for some combination of pencil skirt, pants and the Vogue dress with the big collar.

Other stuff

This is a bone coloured poly but it feels really nice, like washed silk or microfibre. It may turn into this Rachel Comey dress, without the peplum, or perhaps one of the new Vogues - I have my eye on the Donna Karan shirtdress.

I also found this adorable semi sheer cotton to save for warmer months, I'm thinking I will line it in a nude colour and make a dress. Plenty of time to think about that one.

I'm all fired up to sew this weekend now!

In the Pipeline

Happy New Year everyone!

My machines are currently threaded up for a project I am working on for a friend (copying a bikini - stupid, stupid me for opening my big mouth and saying I could do a better job than the copy she had done in China!). To get me through it I have been planning what I am going to make next for me, so coming up in posts in the hopefully not too distant future are:-

1) Versace pencil skirt from Patrones 272, pattern # 48. I made a muslin (I know - new year, new me??) and loved the fit, this could be a TNT skirt, not that I look anything like the model below. This has been cut out in grey wool ready to sew.

2) Co-ordinating (also somewhat unusual for me) top - McCall's 5977, the green view below, but without the neck ruffles, partly sewn before I started feeling guilty about the bikini project. This is in the print bit left over from the Vogue 1120 border print dress I made here. (Incidentally this dress made it onto Vogue's Facebook page back in December - its worth a look as there are lots of great examples of Vogue's patterns there, someone must be very busy trawling through the internet, what a fun job to have!).


3) Hot Patterns razor sharp pants. This has been in my stash ever since people raved about the right angle back crotch curve and I have only just got around to trying a muslin (yes, that's two in a week, a record). No kidding, I whizzed up a size 12 and it fit perfectly - that never, ever happens with pants. I was hoping to make these in the same grey wool as the skirt above but I'm a bit short on fabric so I will have to find another use for the leftover yardage and go shopping for a new piece for these, can't wait to make them up!

4) Vogue 1207 by Cynthia Steffe in this spotted, butterfly print chiffon, haven't got any further than choosing fabric so far. The sneak preview of the fabulous new Vogue patterns that Adrienne recently posted make me want to try and use up some of my last lot of Vogue patterns before I buy more, as I inevitably will come the next sale.

5) A wool winter dress from Vogue 8408, love the dramatic collar on this one. I need to go fabric shopping for this too, I may do that tomorrow if I make some good bikini progress tonight, it will be a good incentive!

The Christmas Vogue 1191

Here it is, pre turkey, pre eyelash application but post Christmas cocktail - which with hindsight was possibly the wrong order of doing things.

We had to get the bus to my friend's apartment for lunch and I felt so silly in the drag queen eyelashes I wore sunglasses, which looked almost as crazy. Ok maybe not....

Hope you all had a lovely time, we are winding down now but enjoying seeing England thrashing the Aussies at cricket!

It's a Cosmopolitan Christmas!

I have made not one, but two knit dresses since my last post. This is one of them, the Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan dress. I'm not sure why it has taken so long for me to make this, I love it and will definitely be adding another version or two to my wardrobe soon.

I made the mock wrap shorter version with scarf sleeves (although I stitched them up) and since I was using a knit, omitted the back zipper and cut the back pieces on the fold. Based on the measurements on the pattern I traced a size 12 which turned out to be far too big in the bodice, but I was able to alter it by wrapping the fronts tighter and taking out about 4 inches in the side seams and removing a lot of ease from the sleeve cap. Next time I will trace an 8 and see how that compares to my finished dress.

The fabric is a purple and white knit print I got at Elliott Berman when I was in New York. I always had a wrap style dress in mind for the fabric - or I may have stolen that idea from Elizabeth who also bought some of the same fabric.

My other dress is the red Vogue 1191 I've been planning which I will wear to a christmas day lunch with friends so I will get some photos before I stuff myself with turkey. I'm wearing it with these tasteful accessories.....

Happy holidays everyone!

Festive bits and pieces

I thought by now I would have a holiday version of the V1191 dress by now, but this is how far I have got with that....

Thanks all for the comments on the black and white version. I wore it (for the second time) last week and found a stray, bright purple tailor tack still in it so if you do go old school with your marking do remember to take them all out afterwards! To follow up on a couple of comments;

From JoanneM

Is the fabric poly/lycra or rayon lycra?
I would like to make it, but I only have rayon lycra and that stuff can cling and is thin, whereas poly lycra seems to have more substance.

Erm, I don't know to be honest but it is a fairly substantial knit, it can definitely be made in a thinner knit, it depends how comfortable you are wearing a clingy knit - the bodice is completely self lined and it would be easy to attach a skirt lining to the waistband piece too which may help (Inkstain, that should answer your question too!). Recommended fabrics per the pattern envelope are rayon, wool or cotton spandex which all sound pretty thin to me!

And from Lin3arossa

It looks great with the busy fabric! Which do you like the fit of most? This of Vogue 1951's?

Good question - I assume you mean the Donna Karan dress 1159? Although they are similar I think there is room for both in my wardrobe. I'd say that 1159 was dressier, more formal whereas this one can be either an everyday dress or a formal dress depending on the fabric and styling choices. 1159 is a bit more close fitting too I'd say.

In semi related dress news, by weird coincidence, Jacquie who made this dress a while ago and helpfully blogged about it extensively was in Hong Kong on a short holiday so we got to meet up. I love meeting fellow sewing bloggers, you feel like you are already friends, and that was the case with Jacquie, we didn't have much time and it whizzed by way too fast but hopefully we will meet up again in the not too distant future. You can read about her trip here.

I have been doing some holiday sewing though, just not for me. For my two nieces who are into dressing up and all things girly I made them each a little evening bag from stash remnants and stuffed them with hairslides, chocolate coins, stickers and other bits of nonsense. The pattern is Vogue 7221, long out of print I imagine. The great thing about these bags is that they don't require any fancy notions.

The inside has a sort of drawstring lid to stop anything falling out.

I've also made a pair of silk pyjamas for my mother in law and I have to get these posted very soon or I will be tempted to keep them for myself! The floral fabric is actually a stretch silk and was a total bear to sew (no offence to bears). I was a bit short on fabric so had a rummage through my stash and finding nothing that matched, decided to get a bit creative, hence the blue contrast and gold piping, but I like how it is a bit unexpected. The patterns are from Burda 11/2009 - 130 and 131.

Both of these gifts are silly things to make in Hong Kong really as they can be bought cheaply just about anywhere, but never mind, I enjoyed making them. Now to get to that red dress before the holidays are over....