Blood Sweat and Tears!

How come I’ve already made Simplicity 2209 yet this version was a right pain in the a**e?  I thought things were supposed to get easier!  The original version gave me a major headache on the neckline due to the changes I made so I made a new bodice muslin, sewed it up and it all looked ok so I cut out the fabric, sewed it up and it looked bloody awful!  The darts, which on 2209 are a bit unusual, just wouldn’t work, I had to take it apart about 10 times, I tweaked, snipped, unpicked and eventually I got there.  I also took out the pleats from the front skirt but left the back ones.   This meant I had to take the width in slightly to take up the slack.  And here it the finished article……

Instead of the facings on the neckline (I HATE facings, don’t get them, yuk yuk yuk!) I used a gingham bias binding. 

(Cheesy grin!)

(Still a little excess in the back but by now I’m past caring!!!!)

I originally wanted to make a pink linen version of this but couldn’t find the right shade of pink but when I saw this poly/cotton I thought I would give it a try.  Given the stress I had with this dress I’m glad I didn’t use a linen as I put it away for a couple of weeks just so I didn’t have to look at it, if it was linen I would have felt guilty about it!  I’m glad I used the bias binding as I think it breaks up the impact of the dress a bit I was a little afraid it would be a bit too Barbara Cartland!

So that was Mays dress onto June, after pondering if I was too old for gingham I decided to go for it, so next up is Simplicity 2588 in navy gingham.

I’ve been making a muslin today and I’ve never sewn a princess bodice before so its very interesting.  So far after a number of tweaks I’m liking it!  Next onto the skirt………

Time vs. enthusiasm

I am a SAHM with school aged children so in theory I have more time on my hands than some sewers although sometimes it doesn’t work that way. 

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ATM I’m not too challenged in the time department but I’m really challenged in the enthusiasm department. 

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I’ve got half finished things on my table, I’ve got plans in my head, I’ve got requests from the kids but I just can’t get my bum in gear.  What do you do when you’ve lost your sewing mojo?  Do you just wait for it to return or do you force it?

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Sewaholic Cambie Dress

Ok so its May already and you might have noticed that I didn’t show you a dress for April.  Well I was actually doing a top-secret, can’t-tell-anyone pattern test for Tasia at Sewaholic.  That's right when Tasia put out the call that she needed pattern testers I jumped at the chance and pinged back an email straight away.  Then I panicked, what if I wasn’t able to do it, what if I ran out of time, what if the dress wasn’t something I would like or normally buy?  Well I needn’t have worried on that score, this is Tasia we’re talking about.  When I got the pictures of the dress I literally swooned, I was so happy because it was perfect, I am of course talking about the Cambie Dress. 

After consultation with the family I decided to make version B, the full skirted dress.  I made a muslin of the bodice which was pretty much perfect straight away, the only change I’ve made is to shorten the sleeve caps, which is easy enough to do on the fly.  Let me warn you, this is a very full skirted dress with a full lining so there was a LOT of fabric to wrangle.  I went to Ditto fabrics and found a lovely red cotton/silk mixture.

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I lined it with cotton, in hindsight it might have been better to line the skirt with a silkier fabric as I think there’s too much friction between the layers. 

So ta da!

 

what a dreadful picture!

Its such a lovely dress and I love the shoulder detail, as Tasia said not quite a sleeve but not quite sleeveless.  The pockets have been loved forwards slightly which I was a little bemused by but they actually end up being perfectly placed for your hands!  With Sewaholic patterns there are lots of little details that you don’t find in ‘Big 4’ patterns and they just make the whole thing perfect! 

Now I need your advice, after the last request for advice I went out and bought navy gingham fabric and now I’m pondering making an a-line skirt version of Cambie.  What do you think?  I’m also in the middle of another Simplicity 2209 but for some reason having problems which are slowing me down, the original plan was to make a gingham version as well but now having these issues and thinking about Cambie again I’m considering my options.  So please blogosphere tell me what to do…..

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