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....