After a flying start my "wiggle" dress had turned into a disaster. And as with all sewing disasters I thought if I hid it in a corner and didn't look at it for a few weeks it might just go away. Wellll... I was wrong. The disaster is still there AND I have only a few hours to fix it. I must get a wiggle on!

 

So far the fixing is going ok. But I have had to unpick A LOT of careful hand stitching, introduce some darts and reshape and draft some facings. Ugh! But if I'm going to make it to the party tomorrow then I have to focus.

 

So, will you be joining us for a night out of dancing and fun? Wiggle dress not required. So far we have op shop finds, retro inspired RTW bargains, and just fun dancing dresses! Please send me a message with your mobile number if you would like to come and I'll make sure we find you. Sewdebeaux@gmail.com

 

 

 

Such an old photo. It's at our old apartment and just after I cut my hair

I made this fun skirt ages ago!! But due to a dodgy zip and a little laziness in fixing it this skirt remained unblogged until now.

The culprit. Yeah it looks cool but a girl needs a little more staying power

I made the skirt using my skirt block established in pattern making class. I drafted the peplum myself and decided to include an exposed zip to show of the cool vintage zip I purchased from a local op shop. The zip looked great but I didn't realise that after just a short time of wearing the skirt the zip was coming undone a few centimetres. Zip fail!

Zip and ironing fail actually

 

Finally the other day I got my act together and installed an invisible zip. It was actually a really quick and easy job and now I have this fabulous skirt ready to go. Probably just in time for the peplum trend to be well and truly over.

 

Can't see a zip anymore. That's because it's invisible ;-)

 

Although I am happy with this skirt I realise there were still some issues with the fit. Luckily these issues are hidden by the peplum. I have since adjusted the basic block and I am much happier with the fit. If I make this skirt again I think there are some improvements to be made to the shape and flare of the peplum.

 

 

The skirt is royal blue cotton with white polka dots. I underlined the skirt with soft white cotton which gives it more body and structure. I also used the underlining and edge-stitched it under the peplum to get a nice finish. This was my first underlined garment and I loved the result. It was also the first time I used special waistband interfacing. It has such a great effect. And I just fused up the hem. Wow so quick and what a great finish. Lots of firsts for this skirt. I guess I better make sure it now gets lots of wear.

 

 

 

A million years ago in the early days of this blog I mentioned that I needed to make curtains for our apartment. I was all organised and I purchased the fabric and the hardware etc etc and then... Nothing.

 

Fast forward two years and in a new (to us) apartment and I have finally made some curtains! They aren't amazing but as we are only here for a short time I'm more concerned with function over fashion. They do a great job. They hide the UGLY cheapskate rental blinds, they keep the room really dark and they keep the cold out and the warm in. If I was investing in these for a longer time I would have added more fabric to the width as they don't drape/cover as nicely as I would like. Maybe in the next apartment...

 

Because the fabric was originally purchased for windows of a different size I had to be a little creative with making it fit and not wasting the fabric. So I ended up with a curtain like this

 

We are now using this curtain in the bedroom and I have made solid colour curtains for the lounge. I am not sure which style I like best. I think the "top deck" curtain is actually really cool and it adds interest in a bland ugh rental with blah beige paint. (Can you tell I HATE renting!)

 

 

 

Sitting in the sunshine, listening to the Triple J Hottest 100 of all time and hand stitching my latest creation for the Wiggle Dress Dance Off. Very relaxing and definitely great to get some Vitamin D. Ahhhh

 

What's everyone else doing today? Enjoying a holiday or back to work?

 

 

Just a few weeks before our wedding my cousin and his wife had a little baby girl. With all the wedding chaos I was way behind with a gift but just last night I managed to finish this cute, cute little outfit. I hope the little lady likes it.

 

 

 

The floral fabric was originally destined for a Lonsdale dress but I had to accept the fact that it really isn't my colour. When I saw the dark hair on my little cousin I knew that this fabric would be perfect for her. I made her a little jacket for use this winter and a slightly larger pair of cotton overalls which should be the perfect size when summer comes around.

 

 

I made a jacket out of my stash of super soft minky dot fleece used on other baby gifts like this jacket made last year. The pattern calls for a button and loop but I went with ribbon ties instead.

 

 

The town my cousin lives in can get really hot in summer (lots of days of 40 degrees C). I think these light and soft cotton overalls will be perfect on a hot day.

 

I love the ruffles, they just take the overalls from boring to fancy. The pattern came together easily and I had fun hammering in the snaps on the inside leg. I'm certainly not a pro on the efficiency of baby clothes but I think that the fact that they open completely at the bottom with snaps and the top with ties will make them easy to get on and off a baby.

 

 

 

I would rate this pattern (Burda 9650) highly. There are some other pieces like a hat and a dress that look like fun to make too. There are certainly lots of babies arriving these days so this pattern will get a work out. I think it can be modified easily for the boys as well.

 

Hopefully I can get a photo of these garments on the little one to see how they fit in real life.

 

It's a long weekend in Melbourne. Perfect for getting underway with my dress for the wiggle dress dance off....

 

Attention Melbourne Sewers!!

Get your wiggle dresses ready or get sewing... We have a party to attend.

Spread the word
July 6 2013, 8pm
Workers Club Fitzroy (Cnr Brunswick and Getrurde St, Fitzroy, Melbourne)
Soul-A-Go-Go (By PBS Radio)
Please RSVP in the comments or email me so we know who to look out for

There are at least three versions of Butterick 6582 in my regular sewing meet up not mention countless other cute and retro party dresses. I think it is time they all got an outing and this event is PERFECT!!

Soul-A-Go-Go is a FUN event hosted by PBS radio on the first Saturday of every month. I have yet to go to it at the new Venue of the Workers Club but I am sure it will still be just as fun! Last time I went there were ALL sorts of people of all sorts of ages and styles. EVERYONE is welcome. Perfect for a night out with sewing friends.

So you officially have a month to choose or sew up your favourite wiggle dress and get ready to wiggle/dance the night away.

It's $15 to enter and it fills up FAST. Doors open at 8 and I suggest getting there by 8.30. Let me know in the comments if you are interested in dinner or drinks before hand and I will organise that too.
I look forward to seeing you all there. I will post more information as we get closer to the date!

Even if you can't make it to the event, you can still join in with the fun and sew up a wiggle dress too!!


Roxy

PS Here is my post about the last time I went to Soul-A-Go-Go, wearing my Butterick dress of course!! http://www.sewdebeaux.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/party-dress-and-sick-and-sad-but-mostly.html

Following the wedding chaos it was time to find my sewing room. It was lost beneath piles of table runners, bunting and stuff! In the weeks leading up to the wedding my sewing room became a dumping ground for stuff! So last week I started digging. Look at all the projects I found.

Lining up my sewing projects. Fabric matched to pattern

I decided to match up my fabrics with patterns. I've tied them up into bundles and lined them up in order. I have WAY more projects than I realised, and many fabrics/patterns that don't go with each other, or with my wardrobe. This has been a big reality check to be more considerate when making pattern and fabric purchase to make sure they form part of an overall wardrobe plan. But first, I am just going to work through my stash before buying anything.

 

First up... Pyjamas. And probably not just for me.

Lots of pyjamas!

I made some pyjamas in the pink bike fabric last year. Haha I'm actually wearing them as I write this post! I was very excited to find some new blue bike fabric. Possibly some PJs for my husband? I also have a PJs pattern from my Mum's stash. It's been well used.

 

My Mum and Dad are actually visiting at the moment. Hopefully today I have time to take my Mum shopping. She is getting into knitting again and maybe we can find some nice wool... Hint, hint. I would love a cosy jumper for winter and my knitting history shows that is unlikely to happen!

 

Not only have I been working on making nice curtains for our apartment (which make a huge difference by-the-way), I am also revamping my blog. Actually I should say I am "vamping" my blog as it was never really "vamped" to begin with. Luckily there are heaps of free templates out there to get me started and I also know enough HTML to get me around the code*. So what has taken me so long... What design to choose?  I just don't know

Do I want clean and simple, or fun and quirky? Should I make some background and header graphics or keep it plain. Oh dilemma! But a fun dilemma. Please excuse this blog over the next few days while I work it out. I am sure it will look like a multiple personality blog while I chop and change templates and elements until I get it right. I will also be stalking a lot of blogs to determine what blog elements I like the most.

If you have a blog I would love to know what you think about templates and design. Or what design elements do you appreciate in a blog. I am assuming that bright yellow backgrounds with red text are not a favoured option?? One thing that gets to me is blog features that do not work on mobile devices.

I promise not to burn your eyes like this

*I won an award in my first year of uni for best website design in an IT multimedia class. HILARIOUS experience. All the lovely nerds in my class wanted to help me (because I'm female means that I shouldn't be good at something like HTML right? Actually I think I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they were just excited to have a girl to talk to). Where they all made black background, green text websites for things like Xbox I made a website for a fashion store... 

Only days after making it home from our honeymoon I chained myself to the couch with my iPad and a cup of tea and caught up on months of blog posts. Unfortunately there were a lot of things I missed out on including the Colette Laurel competition and the international sewing swap on Kestrel Makes. But I was just in time for a wonderful Melbourne sewing bloggers excursion to the Hollywood costumes exhibition at ACMI.

It was great to meet some new Melbourne sewists and see the amazing work at the exhibition. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the group and we weren't allowed to take photos of the exhibition. So I got nuthing to show ya! But I can describe my impression of the exhibition. Firstly, it was busy! In the end I missed a little section because I couldn't handle all the people and the traffic jams in front of the costumes. That section wasn't of that much interest to me anyway as the costumes were from movies like Brokeback Mountain where the items were sourced instead of sewn. Secondly, it was a little creepy. The mannequins had tv screens as heads with very slow moving head shots of the actors who wore them, complete with eye twitches and blinks. Yep - creepy! Thirdly, it was dark and the walls were black. I couldn't see anything of the famous little black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's. sigh

But, the costumes were lovely and they were what we were there to see! I was very surprised by how raunchy and revealing some of the costumes from the 20's were. It turns out things got a little crazy for a while there before some strict codes came in and made movies all conservative again (until recent times). It was also interesting to see the colourful garments that were destined for black and white movies. Overall there was some amazing, intricate and imaginative work, oh to have a Hollywood budget for my sewing projects. The sequins, the beads, the pleats, the complicated patterns and pieces, the head pieces, the period features, the fabrics! Just stunning.

So if you haven't been yet I definitely recommend it. I would also recommend trying to pick a quiet day.
Huge thanks to the lovely and super organised TJ at the Perfect Nose for organising and everyone else who attended (including Jenny & Emily) I look forward to seeing you again soon, especially if it includes another meal at Cookie.

Hello my patient blog following friends. Good news! I'm back. Please forgive my absence, it's been a crazy few months. But rest assured, although I haven't been blogging I have certainly been sewing.
So what kind of things have I been sewing? Lets start with metres and metres and then even more metres of table runners in hessian and lace, I've stitched about 100m of bunting, I made a stylish bow tie and pocket square as well as a pretty blue waist sash. I also made a white dress....

Have you guessed?

Let's see if you were right

A sneaky little picture in the outdoor photobooth

Yep, I've gone and got myself married. Some of you might be thinking well how can this be, there was no mention of an engagement last time this lazy one bothered to post. Well that's because I decided to pop the question to my lovely man in January. And with a magical and slightly stressful mix of circumstances (that do not include pregnancy thank you very much) we ended up pulling together the wedding of our dreams in less than four months just in time to catch the last of the magical April weather in Melbourne.

Once I have the professional photos I will do a wedding post and show of all the sewing and DIY touches we managed to include. I tell you what I was sewing like a demon before the wedding. (And enlisted my Mum and MIL to help me too)
Before I mislead you too far the white dress doesn't actually refer to my wedding dress. In the end I decided to leave that to the amazing Colette Dinnigan haha. But I did sew up a fab little white number for my hens party. More on that soon.

The little white dress for my Hens, and my lovely waiter. (Dress is Simplicity 2053)

So thanks for sticking with me, hopefully I can catch up on some posts and keep you entertained... Until the next crazy adventure.