Last of the summer sewing

Thank you for the encouraging comments on the loud dress, I've worn it a couple of times and people haven't run away screaming so I feel braver about it now. The photos are taken on my roof - my vertical yard if you like, it's scorching hot at the moment so I dash up there and take the photos as quick as I can, I'm sure my neighbours think I am crazy.

So I am back from a great trip to California and somewhat embarrassed to report here that I did not even step into a fabric store! But I did get 6 rolls of tracing paper so that should keep me going for a bit.

I did manage to knock out a couple of quick items before I went on holiday - both are duplicates of items I have made recently so were fast and easy.

Patrones Shirt Issue 269 #1 from a taupe/cream embroidered voile (click to enlarge)

BWOF Skirt 09/08-120 from a black cotton with an embroidered border (no hemming required!).

I thought HK would have cooled down a bit by the time I returned but it's still really hot and I am ready to move on from summer clothes onto a new project that I can really get my teeth into. I thought about the PR wardrobe contest, but having bought lots of dress patterns recently I have decided to attempt to use every single one of them (6 in total). More on the Mad Dress Project in the next post.

Finally a huge thank you to Trudy for giving me a Kreative Blogger award. If you haven't already, check out her blog and see if any of the other award winners are new blogs to you as I discovered a couple of new ones there.

Oh dear, the postman just came...make that 7 dresses in the Mad Dress Project!

McCall's 5752 Knit Dress - The Sequel

Thank you all for the tips and good wishes for my vacation. I had totally forgotten that there was a PR weekend to LA so lots of good info on there. Does anyone else like to make new things to take on holiday? I have been trying to knock out a couple of simple things and to make things easy on myself I have remade a couple of patterns, starting with this McCall's that I only posted about last time.

Dim your monitors and grab your sunglasses folks, this is a loud dress!

This is one of the fabrics I bought when I went fabric shopping with Trena when she visited Hong Kong. It's a very large print and at the time we thought it would be perfect for a maxi dress, but the reality is I will not have many occasions to wear one so instead it became a shorter knit dress.

Since some of you are thinking of making this pattern here is a little more information before I get around to doing a full review on PR (I am way behind!);

- Take note of the seam allowances, they are 2.5cm on the side seams, this is to allow you to fit as you go.

- I changed the order of construction so I sewed the side seams last. The instructions have you make the bodice and skirt and attach at the lower bodice seam. Either way works, I just prefer to fit my side seams in one go.

- I eliminated the midriff lining. The pattern for the midriff has the ruched outer part, a stay and a self lining piece (cut from the stay). I decided this was more layers than I needed so my stay also functions as lining.

- I fiddled about with the crossover and gathering on the front bodice to make sure there was no gaping, this is easy to do, just baste them to the front midriff section until you are happy with the positioning. Otherwise this was a straight size 12 from the envelope.

OK got your sunnies? Here goes....

McCall's 5752 Knit Dress

Here is my finished version of the so called "perfect knit dress". I made view B, the short sleeve version without a tie belt. While it's probably not absolutely perfect, I am pretty happy with it and in fact have another one in progress. This is a Palmer/Pletsch pattern and the instructions are more like a sewing lesson than the usual ones with a whole section on fitting and tips scattered throughout. The pattern pieces also come with adjustment lines printed on them for common fitting adjustments. Not that I really used the instructions, this is a very simple dress to sew.  

In other news my husband has a business trip to LA so we are making a trip out of it and will spend a few days in LA, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, we leave on Friday and I'm really looking forward to it. If anyone has any must do travel tips please share! Also I know it sounds insane but does anyone know where I might be able to buy a roll of tracing paper while I am there? I can only get it in sheets here and it's sometimes more expensive than my fabric!

Anyone for camping?

Yes my friends I have made a tent!

A Burda 07/09 - 108 tent to be precise.  I know this is a pretty wacky pattern, but I had envisaged a nice tunic with floaty see through sleeves.  I don't know how this ended up so big everywhere, I am swimming in it and I wonder if I managed to cut the wrong size.

Is this what I planned?  No.

Did I have to spend ages working on it to get it to a trying-on state? Yes

Am I happy?  No.

Is it salvageable?  I doubt it.

Here is the sorry mess, I can't face taking a photo of me in it, you wouldn't see much of me under there anyway!

Oh well, moving right along I am now working on McCall's 5752, the Palmer/Pletsch perfect knit dress.  A bold claim if ever there was one but I am pleased to say it is looking pretty good so far and should be finished soon so fingers crossed for a happier post next time!

Back to blogging

Sorry for the long summer break, unfortunately not due to any fabulous, or even unfabulous vacations, but an unplanned trip back home to the UK for my grandmother's funeral. She was 93 so although it was of course a sad occasion there is no doubt that she had a full life and it was nice to catch up with my family again.

So I have finally got over my jetlag and finished washing and ironing some things to show you.

Just before I left I met up with the lovely Trena from Slapdash Sewist, who unlike me, seems to be immune to jetlag! We spent an evening at dinner and then pretty much an entire day shopping and sightseeing, I had such a good time. Since I foolishly didn't take any photos you can read about the trip on Trena's blog here.

You can see that my bag of fabric from the textile market in Sham Shui Po is about twice the size of Trena's, I don't know how that happened - I'm sure she must have sneaked some of her stuff in there. Here's what I got;

Mega size jersey print, bit crazy but I loved the colours.

Cobalt blue knit, dusky pink embellished sheer.

Close up of the sheer, this will be a very simple unstructured top I think.

I also bought a black wool blend to make a dress for the funeral and made yet another version of my Burda 02/09-124 dress but with a more modest neckline. I plan to embellish the neckline with some crystals to turn it from a funeral dress to an LBD. I think my nan would approve.

On the sewing front, I made 2 more separates. Another black shirt from the leftovers of the cutaway shoulder shirt in my last post. This one is Patrones issue 269, #1, although I left off the collar and belt. I'm a bit of a novice at Patrones and I'm only brave enough to attempt patterns I think I can figure out without instructions, but this turned out well so I am encouraged to try more.

The skirt is a very loud print and as such I wanted a simple pattern.

I used Burda 09/08 - 120, a basic pencil skirt. I liked that the cut was such that it is quite narrow, but has no back slit or any other details other than waist darts. There is still enough walking ease, but I must remember not to wear this skirt if I want to climb onto the bus! 

The fabric is a lightweight cotton so I lined it with china silk. I found it to be a little shorter than I wanted so I added a hem facing from a strip of fabric so I could take a minimum depth of hem but still get the benefit of a little bit of extra fabric weight there, it definitely helps it to hang better.