Not much to report

So much for getting my patterns altered and a new muslin sewed up before the Sales conference. That was *quite* optimistic of me! I have done some work, since I last wrote, but not as much as I'd like. I got home from the sales conference with a bad cold and spent most of the last few days asleep on the sofa, though I did manage to buy the fabric for my Hazel dress and Beignet skirt.

I've made my changes to the front bodice piece of Hazel, and hopefully I'll finish the other bodice pieces tonight - though I think I have someone over for dinner, so maybe it'll be Wednesday if not today. I head to Adelaide for four days on Sunday morning, and I'm really hoping to have had time to sew something up by then. It's been a few weeks since I made anything new and I'm getting itchy fingers!

I did cut out the pieces to replace the yoke on my Little Spot skirt, so the week wasn't a complete waste.

Also, my Colette Sewing Handbook arrived today! It's been torture having it there looking at me and not being able to flick through it. I just want to READ it all, right now!!

So much to do and so little time to sit down and do it. I really wish I had a dedicated space for sewing - that's half the problem at the moment. Our flat has two bedrooms, but we've got a friend staying with us so all my sewing stuff is in the lounge at the moment, and as my stash and supplies are growing, it's getting harder to contain it. Also, I try to tidy up at the end of the night so as not to annoy the others, which means that it is hard to pull it all back out again. We're thinking of moving at the end of our lease - the Chef has a new job in Collingwood, and with his new hours the easier it is to get to and from work for him, the better. I just hope that it's a little less dingy than our current place and has more room for me to sew!

Little Olive

I had quite a bit of the material left over from making my Crepe dress last weekend, so I made another Simplicity 2152 skirt.

I'm really happy with it! I did french seams on all the seams, except the centre back seam, which has the zip...so I did a mock french seam on that one! The zip went in perfectly, first time around, for the first time ever, though the seam on the back is deeper than the zip (I did this after I put the zip in, a mistake, clearly!) leaving a weird pocket or gape at the base of the zip, and I didn't sew the yoke on back to front for once! I'm really happy with the finish on this skirt, generally speaking. It's the first one of my projects that I'm really happy with how the inside looks as well as the outside. It's not perfect - I wish I had stay stitched the yoke pieces, as they stretched out of shape a little. I've been debating taking the yoke off and starting again, but I can't bear the thought of it. I think it should be ok - what do you think? Is it too noticeable?

This is probably my favourite of the three that I mocked up - mostly because I'm so proud of the finish that I did on it.

I also made another of Tilly's bow belts, too. This time in red. I really like it!

I've been wearing me-made most days, which is good. I'm pretty proud of that.

After sitting with the skirt for a week, I've decided to remove the yoke, unpick the zip and hem it again by hand. This skirt is SO close to being something that I'm completely happy with, and I want to have one project that I can look at and know that it's perfect. Good enough just won't do.

So consider this a teaser of the final product. Sorry that the photo is a crappy iPhone selfie, but it's the best that I've got for now. Will do a proper reveal when I fix the things that are bothering me.

Muslin all the way

It's been a slow week of sewing. The first weekend in a month where I haven't made a new project! I blame all the cleaning that we did and Game of Thrones which has been engrossing the Chef and I.

I did do some work on my alterations to Hazel, though. I've taken my measurements and worked out the changes that I need to make.

My bust size is size 6 exactly, as is my waist, but I have a small ribcage and large breasts, so the fabric is strained at the front with excess fabric at the side.

I'm taking the side seams in by 5/8ths of an inch on both sides and transferring most of this to the bust via a FBA. The FBA has been puzzling me, with such an unusually shaped bodice. I attempted it last night, but I realised that I made a mistake with it, and then I couldn't sleep for hours trying to figure out how I'd go about doing it. Finally, I found this thread on Coletterie's forum, which has helped me work out what to do.

I plan on testing this out tonight, and hopefully I'll get a mock-up of the bodice made before I head off to my work Sales Conference tomorrow morning.

I'm enjoying just how mentally challenging sewing is. There's so much maths involved, and I love that.
I'm wearing my Little Red skirt today and hope to get photos to share, finally, tonight. The more I'm learning about sewing, the less satisfied I am with my initial efforts, though. I mean, I still love this skirt, but I'm so aware of all it's flaws and I'm so impatient to be really good at sewing. I want to run before I can walk and have barely learnt to crawl.

I've still got a list a mile long of projects to do, and I'm getting much better at the finishing on them all while I do them, but I'm so aware of how much improving I have to do!

I'll try to post a photo of Little Olive tonight, too, because I've decided to unpick some of the pieces and fix them. The longer I think about it, the more sure I am that I'm not prepared to leave her flawed when with a little fixing she could be just about perfect.

So keep your eyes peeled: project posts coming up!

Fabric stash!

The chef is back! and he came bearing the most beautiful gifts! I've been well and truly spoilt.

The purple is a truly stunning jacquard. I plan to turn it into a sheath dress, potentially this one:

The red / orange is a brocade that I'm planning to make into a pencil skirt, I'm thinking this one:

 I've got two meters of each fabric and am in no rush to use them. The fabric is so incredibly beautiful that I want to do it justice!

Making my muslin

I've traced all the pattern pieces and made my first muslin! It was pretty easy to put together, and I'm pretty happy with how flattering it is on. I need to make a few changes though - I'd like to try the bodice in a smaller size. This will mean having to do a full bust adjustment, but I do need to take the side seams in a bit. The skirt is perfect as is, so that's good. There also seems to be a bit of strain in the middle bodice piece, so I'm thinking of taking the side seams in and inserting about an inch into the front bodice piece. I'd also like to add a little length to the bodice, so that would get it back to the triangular piece that was originally intended.

This sewing business is fun!

Rhinestones and Telephones: Introducing Sew Colette 2.0

Rhinestones and Telephones: Introducing Sew Colette 2.0 I'm so excited about this project. The Beignet skirt was going to be my next project but I think these guys have convinced me to change to Hazel instead! I'm going to be following this sew-along.

I traced all the pattern pieces tonight, and tomorrow to begin the first muslin!

  

Link Roundup

I am sitting here at work in my new Crepe dress from Colette Patterns...I shall dub her Olive Grove. I am pretty happy with the dress overall, but there are a few fit issues that I'm not happy with. I actually did make a toile or two of the bodice, but I'm such a novice at fitting that I didn't know how to take in any corrections or what corrections I needed.

So I've gathered a list of some tutorials that I've found so far that will help me when I come to do my next project. I cut myself some slack, this time, since I'm still such a novice, but I don't plan on being one forever.

Rooibos Sewalong: Making a muslin via Coletterie
Sew Colette: Pastille small and full bust adjustment via Rhinestones and Telephones
Crepe sew-a-long #5: Pattern Alterations via Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing
A full bust adjustment on the Minoru jacket courtesy of Alana via Sewaholic
The Colette pants fitting cheat sheet via Coletterie

So much to blog, so few photos to share

I've been quiet on here the last week... mostly because I have a post written and ready to show, but haven't got the final few photos to add. I really want to do the Little Red skirt, as she has affectionately been named, justice. I've worn her several times already, but each time with ratty hair and nails, no make-up, and creases in the beautiful fabric and I can't bear to share her with you the first time looking like that.

So I think I'll save up until The Chef gets home and do a big reveal post then when I can force persuade him to take some photos of me.

I've been quiet, but not lazy. Since I last posted, I made a bow belt, following Tilly's tutorial. I love it! Although I used some stretchy fabric, so I need to move the eyes on the belt so it fits better. Oh well, better too big than too small. I'm going to make another one using some of that left over red lining too.

I also made my Crepe dress on the weekend! It's *just* about finished. All I need to do is hem it. I love it, on the whole! There are a few things that I'll change when I make it next - the fabric that I chose is a bit heavy for the dress and the shoulders are a bit stiff, and I think I need to take the side seams in a bit, but otherwise it's pretty damn good. Also: I did FRENCH SEAMS and they weren't scary. I also did in-seam pockets and darts and sewed curves! I'm TRES impressed with myself. So impressed that I'm butchering the French language.

The dress said that it used 4.5 metres of fabric. I bought four and have well over a meter left. That means I'll probably make another Simplicity 2152 out of it - I really like the shape of that skirt and it doesn't use much fabric at all.

The plan for this week is to hem my crepe, make the skirt and do some of the smocked purses.

Oh and I think I've found the fabric for my Beignet, which will be my next big project. It's a teal corduroy. I found it online, which will be scary, since I've never bought fabric online before and I'm a bit nervous about it turning up not looking like the picture.

I'm pretty pleased with my progress. I'm making massive improvements with each project and I'm getting happier and happier with each of my projects that I've done so far. I'm also wearing them, too, and quite a bit, so I think that they can be called successes from that measure alone.