In the meantime....

So far the first (of eight) pieces looks like this:

So in complete contrast to a very very long slow project is this - cut out a week or two ago, but sewn together last night and this afternoon.

Front, collar and sleeves: Jalie 2919. (And my assistant. Can't do much without his input.)

Back: Vogue 1061.
Nothing wrong with either pattern as they stood, but I never wore my Vogue one - turns out I don't like cardigans which can only be worn closed. I gave it to a friend, who looks a lot better in it than I did anyway, so we're both happy!

It came to me in a dream

Almost literally. At craft night last night I got the typical hard time for scarcity of posting, and I cited my typical queue of projects awaiting thread, interfacing or something. One of the projects was this one - awaiting inspiration. My third Alabama Chanin corset top. I found some cotton T shirts on sale in Kmart for $2 each a few weeks ago and got a couple to use as the basis for the top. The thought of white on white has been percolating for a while, and I had a rose stencil chosen, but I wasn't sure how to proceed. I didn't really want to follow the freezer paper and paint route because I didn't want to introduce another colour. One idea I'd had was this - draw on the roses with a water soluble pen which I could subsequently wash out.

And last night I dreamed vividly that this is exactly what I did, and stitched in white. Oh, and in my dream there were some beads too. So of course this morning as soon as I could I got to work. Another eighty hour top. I really like the idea of some beading. I still have some of the beads from my wedding dress left over....

Ok girls - can you guess what'll be coming to the next few craft nights with me? (As long as I get more thread)

Modern Pattern Design PDF

They say it's not what you know, but who you know, and that is so true! Keely sent me a text alerting me to Pam's blog, which had a link to Michou's blog, in which she has made available a downloadable pdf of Harriet Pepin's highly regarded 1942 book "Modern Pattern Design". Since I'd spent a bit of time enjoying it on Vintage Sewing Info before that site sadly vanished, I was delighted, and raced off to acquire my copy. (THANK YOU MICHOU!)

Sadly for me the chapter on childrens wear was not included, but somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered seeing a link on a blog somewhere at some point in the past in which the author had found the Vintage Sewing Info site using a search engine which finds pages as they appeared at some point in the past. (It's called Wayback but that didn't pop back into the memory, as I had never heard of it previously). A minute or two with google popped up Magdamagda Design Studio and her post on the subject. And here is the whole book. Et Voila - I had all the information again!

I am incredibly grateful to all the people who have pointed to these resources, which are fantastic. I love the internet.

And because I prefer posts with photos I'll end with this extremely blurry shot of Nicholas. He had gone into the kitchen and was suspiciously quiet. Upon investigation I found this - he had got the bowl from the cupboard, milk from the fridge, poured it and put the bottle back (lid on and everything) and got a couple of biscuits which he was happily stirring with a spoon. Apparently he was making a pikelet sandwich.

Since June?! Really?

I got an email from the shop where I have my designs on consignment suggesting suppliers might like to think about spring/summer stock because it's about to be cruise ship season. Good idea I thought, and got sewing. After completing a dress and getting out my tally list I discovered that it was the first garment I've made since JUNE! (And there was only one that month). I guess my winter apathy is worse than I thought! Anyway I've been sewing up a storm for a couple of weeks and yesterday delivered all of these to Little Chalmers.

Well, this one was all done but for the buttons for probably about a year. I was terrified of mangling a buttonhole on the satin and ruining the whole thing. Naturally once I got started the Greist (buttonholer) behaved perfectly, as always, and everything is fine. I feel like an idiot for worrying. Nothing new there.

Fairies. I actually designed the fairies myself by manipulating croquis and wings. I really like them, so I hope some little girl sees them and begs her Mum to buy the fairy dress. (I originally made this design for Isabella to try out the back fastening and V front and back. She's been wearing that dress for almost a year and it's been great, so I'll call that trial a success!)

This is New Zealand. Silver ferns are pretty much mandatory.

Butterflies.

I really like the colour combo and spot applique on this dress. The idea for that came to me when I was lying in bed one night and I was terrified that I'd forget it by morning! Obviously, I didn't. The butterflies in the dress above are the same tecnique, but I think it's less successful with the gingham. I'll do it again though!

Now I have all that out of the way I really should get on with one of the seventy squintillion projects in various stages of planning for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Just crafty type stuff.

My real-life friends have been giving me increasingly pointed reminders lately that I haven't updated my blog for a very long time. Basically because I haven't got anything to show - I hate winter and find my motivation to sew always vanishes. I also invariably put on a few kgs over winter and don't want to sew for myself when I'm fat. I always lose the extra in summer, and then want to sew. The fact that I live in the same boring clothes because I'm not motivated to make new ones doesn't really help my enthusiasm for life either. Maybe I should make my winter clothes in summer?

Anyway, what I do like to do in winter is craft sewing. I like to claim that my English heritage is what makes me so enamoured of winter Christmases, but I think it's actually because just about all the movies and tv programmes which feature Christmas are set in the northern hemisphere! I've been meaning to make a new advent calendar for years, and this is the year I start. So far it looks like this:

Based on a design from a Homespun magazine, with houses and sleigh from a variety of Homespun and Handmade magazines. Most of the applique is done, but there will be a lot of embellishment added! I like Christmas to look festive.

I've also started another project in my quest to have as much of a handmade Christmas as possible. I absolutely L.O.V.E.D this project by the inimitable Jodie of Ric Rac. Having a teenage son in a band myself, it just cried out to be made. Following this brilliant tutorial on Dolls and Daydreams (which I linked to before, but didn't credit, for which I apologise. Thank you Sarah!) I printed this photo of Cayden's head onto fabric.

That was the third attempt. I had a lot of problems getting the fabric to feed through the printer due to it rolling at the sides, and after a couple of paper jams which had me fearing each time that I'd stuffed my printer I did get it printed, only to have this happen when I put it into the vinegar to set:

And that happened twice - I thought I hadn't given it long enough to dry before the vinegar soak so left it overnight the second time, but got the same result. Then I wondered if it had printed in colour even though it looks black and white, and when I checked it in photoshop that was indeed the case, so I changed it to greyscale and this time it worked! A small amount of ink did shed when I put it in the vinegar, but it was only a tiny bit and the photo is fine. Can't wait to make a teeny tiny Cayden. Hopefully he thinks it's funny.

This last photo is for J, who set me the homework of sewing the button on this cardigan for Isabella a couple of craft nights ago. Just to prove I DID do it! Isabella loves her cardigan and chooses to wear it at every opportunity.
She really is the happiest child in the world.

Returning to our regularly scheduled programme.

I know I said I was going to make myself a dress, but then I was idly surfing the web (as you do) and found a link to Your Style Rocks latest free pattern. And it jumped up and yelled at me to be downloaded and made NOW PLEASE! (The pattern intrigues me - separate upper and under collar pieces allowing for turn of cloth, separate lining patterns, interfacing extensively indicated, differing seam allowances for different seam types - I hardly knew what I'd struck!)

I checked their measurement chart and decided that a size 10 should fit my bust, but I would probably need some extra room over the hips. And I wanted to add a chunk to the back so that it is a racer back rather than halter, so I needed to toile it. (After spending a very long time taping the 56 pages together section by section because I don't have room for the whole thing in one place, and tracing the pattern). Once again in the bargain red lining, of which I still have a considerable amount.

I used the left front twice rather than the asymmetrically pleated right front since I was only interested in the fit. To my surprise, I don't need to add any extra to the hips. That made me feel good! I'm not 100% sure about the bust princess seam, but I suspect most of the (not very serious) problem I saw on me was due to this being flimsy unsupported lining.

To work out how much to add to the back I just pinned a chunk of fabric to the back panels and the collar,
And cut away what I didn't want. (I've now added half that shape to the centre back panel pattern piece)

I'm now ready to actually make this, if only I could decide which fabric to use.....

People who make cheeky comments about glue...

...get presents like this for their birthday.

My dear friend J is the glue queen. There is no problem she isn't convinced could not be fixed with glue. (I'm sure she feels that World Peace could be achieved if only we all used more glue). Her birthday was a couple of weeks ago and last night we went out to mark the occasion. Several days ago I'd discovered that Urban Threads sells hand embroidery patterns for download (reason #2,847,486,844 to love the internet) and I found this one. It made me laugh, so I bought it to make for J in every shade of pink. I even did a properly mitred quilt binding, which gave M the opportunity to give me a hard time about not squaring it before binding, about which we'd had a knock-down drag-out hair-pulling cat fight, I mean 'spirited debate', at craft night recently.

On a topic other than craft sewing, I think it's well past time I shook off the winter blahs and made myself a new dress. I have fabric in mind for the woven Pattern Magic top I started working on a while back and I think I know how I'm going to put a skirt on it. Now, how long till the kids go back to school?

Evidence that I am also a slow learner

I took the teeny soggy bunny (and this toy to work on) to Monday's craft night, and my so-called friends laughed to my face at the incontrovertible proof of my insanity. Thanks for that girls!

Despite their derision (or probably because of it) I forged ahead anyway. (Only 13 pieces for this toy!) Only to have this toy look like a deer (according to the teenager) when the ears were attached. I generally find that if I stare blankly at a problem for long enough a solution will present itself, and this time it was to undo the ears (which were folded and inserted into slits on the head and stuck pretty much straight up) and sew them on as flaps. I think I'll round off the points a little, but at least this time Nicholas could identify the species when I showed him! I'm not particularly happy with the back of the head, but to redo it means cutting new main body pieces and if I'm going to do that I might as well just make a whole new dog. Well girls, guess what I'm bringing next craft night?

Further proof that I need my head read

Exhibit #435, a teeny copy of Isabella's favourite soft toy, Soggy Bunny. Approximately 6.5cm tall, comprising 14 separate parts.

Nicholas reckoned that he and Isabella need their whole family represented in mouse form for their Christmas present. Fair enough, I can do that. (Currently six down, one to go, plus wardrobe, plus house.....) Then Georgia thought it'd be great if Isabella Mouse had a tiny Soggy Bunny of her own. So I thought - "Yeah, I can do that!" and dug out Bean Bag Buddies, (which is a great book!) and found a suitable rabbit pattern. Traced it for ease of scanning, and used the computer to reduce it to 20% of it's original size and made it out of felt. 14 teeny weeny pieces of felt. And now I'm thinking that Nicholas Mouse might need a soft toy too. Good thing Christmas is months away because this project might not ever get finished.

Pretty dress for someone else

I love making pretty dresses for other people. I like making pretty dresses, but there is very little call for a formal, strapless, ruched chiffon bodiced dress when dealing daily with two three year olds, so I don't make many for myself, funnily enough. (Not that I've ever worn a strapless dress myself anyway). Fortunately every so often I get a call from someone who was given my name by a friend for whom I made something once, and I get to make something pretty.

Note to self: Don't try to photograph flowy skirted dresses outside if there is even a breath of wind. It doesn't look blown about, but the skirt is wonky in this shot compared to the last one, and this was the best one!
I was going to document the construction a bit more thoroughly, but the teenager borrowed the camera batteries, the 11 year old had flattened the batteries first, and I just ran out of oomph on that idea, and much of it was sewn in the evenings when photography is difficult anyway so these two are all I have.

Bodice with ruched overlayer:
With empire band:
The dress has a separate boned corsolette with waist stay, and the dress itself is only joined at the top edge. I love this technique for strapless dresses - they STAY PUT and hang smoothly. This dress is the for teenage daughter of a teacher from Oliver's school (who was given my name by the secretary who was given it by one of the kids' teachers) for her school formal. She brought me a picture and I modified a Burda magazine pattern which is how I create almost all patterns for adults. So much easier than drafting from scratch!

Now back to the mischief of mice. (Apparently the collective nouns "horde" and "nest" are also applicable, but with a son like Nicholas "mischief" seems eminently more appropriate!

Getting a head start

So last year I made Nicholas and Isabella fabric activity books for Christmas. They were a great success, and I absolutely loved making them (and LOVE seeing the twins playing with them), so decided that I really should do more of this sort of thing. I was going to make an adorable mouse family and house for Isabella for her birthday, but, um, didn't get around to it. So right after their birthday I figured that it'd be great to make for Christmas, and if I start now I should get it all done with months to spare to make other presents. Good plan!

Here's prototype #1 for the mice. Cheap black acrylic craft felt, all hand blanket stitched. (Much easier with small fiddly pieces).

He (no idea why he's a he, but I'm certain that he is. Till I make "him" a dress) has his feet on the issue of Homespun from which part one (of two) the pattern is taken. (Issue #89, Vol 11.10, in case anyone wants to know). Designed by Rosalie Quinlan, the project has a family of four mice and their house as a carry case. This mouse, um, isn't one of them. The head comes from a Handmade magazine from at least ten years ago, and the body I think I drafted myself. I did use Rosalie's limbs. I seem to be incapable of using pretty much any pattern as the designer intended.

I expected this guy to be prototype #1 - ie, that more prototypes would follow before I splash out on nice wool felt to make the real ones, but I'm really really pleased with how he turned out, so he may end up being part of the family! I fancy shades of grey. (Georgia wants a purple one. Which I think I'll make her)

As before I'm not making any attempt to hide the making from the twins, and Nicholas has been fascinated by me making a mouse. This may well end up being a shared gift - the bane of twin childhood!

I Demand A Recount!!!

According to the calendar today is the twins' third birthday. It can't be three years since they made their seven-weeks-early entry into the world!

It is incredibly hard to get two three year olds to cooperate for a photo intended to showcase their new clothes.
Isabella's dress is the one I made a couple of months ago and wasn't happy with. Yesterday I suddenly thought that adding godets would provide the needed fullness, and sat up feverishly sewing till after 11.30pm to finish it. It wouldn't have been so late if I hadn't also had to sew a new shirt for Nicholas. He has seen the robot stencil appliques I've put on other things and rather plaintively asked "My ah-but?". So I made him an ah-but shirt of his own. I also made him new trousers. (I only had the hems and elastic to do on those yesterday though). He chose the dragon applique and when shown them yesterday afternoon insisted on putting them on immediately. (The gigantic sweatshirt is the one he wore home from kindy after playing very enthusiastically with the water table).
Just as well I took the pic as soon as he put them on because about 30 minutes later I was reminded that small boys who are not long potty trained shouldn't be put into new trousers which you want them to wear the next day.
I love this stretch corduroy but my overlocker hates it so I had to zig zag the seam allowances. Thank goodness for my walking foot!

What I did In My (Kids') Holidays

Man kids can get underfoot! I happily waved them off this morning, back to school after two weeks and sat down to the computer without anyone whining that it must be their turn!

I'll have to get the girls (there were five for two days) to bring over the voodoo dolls "we" made - two solid days of entertainment - for a photoshoot. (They very quickly dropped the voodoo bit in favour of fashion)

The Teenager has provided much of the fodder for this post. I got up one morning to find this on my desk.
He'd been asking for days, so this was pretty polite, so I fixed his jeans.

Then there was his other request, "Mum, can you make a mask like a balaclava with no eye or mouth holes?" (He was asking if I was able, before asking if I would!) "Um, yes, WHY?!" For a photography project involving a doll which comes to life. The doll has no features so the person playing the doll-come-to-life needs a mask of no features. I haven't made the actual mask, but have worked up a toile - I'll post the details when I've made the mask!

Which led to his next request - could I please make a tiny suit for the doll which was to come to life. He told me his photography teacher had those poseable artists' dolls which he could borrow, and would bring one home for me to dress. I thought I could just alter Barbie clothes patterns and it'd be fiddly but doable. Till he brought home the doll and I realised that it is 12cm tall. Instead of slightly enlarging Barbie patterns I had to scale them to 50% of their original size and then modify them a bit for use. Holy Cow that boy owes me big!!!
I used acrylic craft felt because I figured it'd be easiest to use. It was easy to use, but I still had to sew all those teeny tiny seams by hand. It's not even close to perfect, but it is good enough. And I am NOT doing another one!!!!! The Teenager is perfectly happy with the suit and admits that I'm the Best Mum In The World.

Eagle eyed readers may have noticed my back drop:I chanced upon it on Book Depository for GBP9.75!!!!! (It's now GBP12.88, which is still a great price, especially since they have free shipping worldwide) I ordered it as fast as I could get my credit card out of my wallet. (And then sheepishly phone the bank to activate the card, which I've had for several months, which shows how often I use it) It arrived in under two weeks (Easter was in there, so that was pretty good time!) and to my delight, it's even the English version! Happy happy happy. (The photo on the site doesn't have the "now in English" sticker on the cover, so I was expecting Japanese) I um, also ordered Pattern Magic 2 on Saturday when I noticed the price was no longer GBP19.95 but GBP12.88. Fingers crossed for the English version! I just noticed it's back at GBP19.95 today, so this is presumably something to watch for.

Project #1 (of several I plan to make) toile:

I forgot to set my dummy to my size, so it hangs awkwardly. But you get the idea. When I make it for real I'll model it myself. To my utter astonishment when I made a toile of the basic bodice block from the book (with nothing altered except for adding 3cm to the length) it fit perfectly! I actually said WTF? (not abbreviated) when I tried it on. I did have to make the largest size, but apparently I'm proportioned like a Japanese woman. Sadly the modified version of this block (which was to be manipulated into the design) didn't fit perfectly, but required only minor alterations before I could start the hack-and-slash, I mean pattern manipulation.

I also made a few garments from my own designs, one of which was a simple boys' shirt. I stenciled paw prints up the front, over the shoulder and down the back, but had the iron too hot when I heat set the ink and ruined the front panel. When I was having a go at gently stretching it to see if it was salvageable I did this:
And swore again. And tried to be grateful that at least I could remove and replace the panel, and even salvage the pocket.

Photos of the garments made are going to have to wait for a sunnier day than this. I am so over winter. Which doesn't even START for another month.....

To finish this rather all-over-the-place post, a story about the Teenager. Once a month or so he has three or four friends over for an overnight computer game session. They all bring their computers, network them together and proceed to kill each other all night. They traditionally eat pizza and chips, but last time decided to get chicken nuggets, wrap them in bacon, batter and deep fry them. This was a huge success, and the Teenager has decided that deep-frying is the best. So occasionally I get up in the morning to discover evidence (reasonably well cleaned up) that he's had a deep-fried snack overnight. One morning I got up to find three battered and fried discs on a plate in the fridge. I couldn't work out what they were (and wasn't game to try one!) so waited till the Teenager got up and asked him. The answer? Biscuits (cookies). I asked why he'd battered and fried biscuits and the reply was that he'd had batter left over after he'd made a jam sandwich, spread nutella (chocolate and hazelnut spread) all over it and covered it it batter before deep frying it. I think cinnamon and sugar came into it somewhere as well.

I am speechless.

Coat for Isabella

While I was pretty happy with progress on Isabella's coat the motifs on the front just didn't quite look right. The lightbulb moment (also known as the Attack Of The Blindingly Obvious) was reading Gail's comment - that she'd wear it sans motifs. Um, yes. It immediately brought to mind a picture of the coat without them, and the obvious solution - take some off. I only unpicked the top two and bottom one, which I think improves the balance considerably.

The buttonholes are made with my Greist buttonholer, which I love so much! Keely helped me pick buttons when we actually managed to meet up in person this week! (By "helped" I mean "distracted the twins while I looked at every button in Anne's and Threads")

Hard to photograph without it collapsing and hanging oddly. I need a child sized dress form.

And in other squealy excitement, this is currently drying on my kitchen bench.

Can't make it out? Here's a closer shot.

The logo designed by my clever friend, printed onto fabric with my computer printer! I used this tutorial, and it is so easy it's fantastic. Once it's dry I still have to heat set the ink with the iron, and do a test wash, but apparently they work really well. I can't wait to see how they stand up! I would love to print some vintage dress form images I have and make them into a collage to hang on my wall....

New stuff

I very firmly believe the adage that it aint what you know that counts, but who you know. I ran into M at her work a week or so ago (as opposed to running into her at our fortnightly craft nights, at which she is FORCING us to make a quilt. There you go M, I complained!) She mentioned running into a former colleague who has just opened a shop in Port Chalmers to sell locally made baby/kid stuff! Does that sound like me or what?! She suggested I contact her to see if maybe there'd be room for me. So I did, and yesterday I went to see her with some things. All of which are now in Little Chalmers on my behalf. I love designing, patternmaking and sewing. Don't like promoting myself, so having my things in a shop (on consignment) suits me perfectly!

Here's the latest crop. A bubble dress, modelled by Isabella. So willing. So unable to stand still. (I do love this shot though.)

Shirt.

Trousers. Not sure why the photo of the back is first, but it's too much trouble to shift them around before I post!
Front. I love the robot stencil. I have discovered that freezer paper stencils can be used more than once, which is great!

Here's Isabella in the altered Heidi dress. I re-cut the sleeves to be un-gathered petal sleeves which vastly improved the balance of the dress, and sewed buttons (from the shirts used) to hold the straps. Better.

Progress shot of Isabella's coat. Facial blurring done by Isabella, not me editing.
Back. Really loving this.
I still have to do buttonholes and buttons on a couple of things, but that means hauling out Georgia's sewing machine since it works much better with my buttonholer than mine since it actually sews slowly. Which mine doesn't. So that won't get done till the twins are in bed or at Kindy.