Category: sewing

dress, fail, sewing

Self-drafted bodice dress

christinahopgood
So I have been really enjoying Dolly Clackett’s blog – her dresses are always made of gorgeous fabric, with a fitted bodice and full skirt.  I wanted one too!
First I made myself and Elisalex bodice to see if it would fit – and – it didn’t.  Not at all!  The shoulders fell off, the bust was baggy, it was AWFUL.  So I drafted a bodice for myself using a book I had.  The book is from the 60s and has errors in it!  Annoying!
I traced the neckline of the Elisalex dress and combined it with my own bodice block.  It still didn’t turn out that well!  I feel as though it’s baggy in some places and tight in others and I’m not sure what to do next.  The skirt is just a box-pleated rectangle, and I edged it with some broderie anglaise.
This dress does look ok with a petticoat, cardigan, and heels.
I also put in a waistband, which may have been my main mistake.  It looks like it made the bodice too long for my body.
It does have one pocket!  Just one.  WHY.
Bias binding armholes – yes this is an armhole not some random body part.
My “invisible” zip – gosh I suck at them.
Ummm thanks for looking?  It’s a weird dress and I’m not sure whether I’ll wear it.  Failure is the first step on the road to success, or something.
I’m going to enter this dress in the Sew Dolly Clackett competition but I have very very low hopes for winning!  But as they say, you’ve got to be in it to win it.
colette, culottes, dress, sewing

Completed – Tania Culottes AND Hawthorn Dress!

christinahopgood
Double whammy coming at ya!

I made another pair of Megan Nielsen’s Tania culottes!  This one I love the best.  The fabric is light and flowy, the length is perfect for me, love love love.
The fabric is a beautiful thin brushed cotton, which I bought at St Vinnie’s in Braidwood on our way home from the coast a couple of months ago.  It sounds nuts but I buy a lot of fabric at op shops, they often have a big yardage and the fabric is usually lovely quality.  You can get some cute retro prints too.
 But!  Observe!  The fabric has stretched on the bias, leaving me with long bits at the sides!
 I’ve never been one to leave a garment hanging to even out the hem, because I always want to wear it out immediately.  In this garment’s case, I needed to wear it to Adelaide the next day.
So I ended up with kind of wonky culottes.  I don’t think you notice much, but I learned my lesson.  Next time I deal with a pattern that’s so circular, I’ll leave it to hang overnight at least!

 Which brings me to my next project out of the same fabric!  I had a bunch left over and made another Colette Hawthorn dress!
 I am pretty amazed I got another entire dress out of this fabric.  I have to admit some of my layout was a bit creative, so I have some upside-down pieces etc, but you don’t notice with this busy print.
It looks like I have a bit of bias stretch on this too.  Flipping heck.
 I made this in a super hurry because I wanted to wear it to teach in last week.  But I think I’m getting quicker and better at this pattern – it all came together well.
 My only alterations were to make it slightly shorter and do a teeny-tiny hem (fabric constraints), and I made the back facing longer.  On my other one it keeps popping up, but just a bit longer and it stays put.
I like it with a belt.  The buttons were kind of expensive at $1.30 each at Lincraft – but I got one extra since there was only 1 left in the tube after she counted them out.  Bargain??  Not really since I didn’t need it.
It’s a bit hard to see but I made belt loops using needle lace.  It’s easy, you just make a few loops where you want it and then blanket stitch around the threads the whole way accross.
I wore it four days in a row teaching.  But that’s okay, because I teach a different schools.  Nobody knew I was recycling my outfit!!
culottes, sewing

Finished! Tania Culottes!

christinahopgood
Can you guess what I’ve been making?  
Aww it looks like a lovely skirt.
…
NOPE PANTS! TRICKED YOU!
These are the Tania Culottes by Megan Nielsen.  This is the first pattern I’ve tried by her and it’s just great.  Such a clear, simple pattern to follow, and the way she uses those pleats to hide the crotch is amazing!  This totally looks like a skirt even in action.
My fabric is some kind of cotton/linen suiting.  The only reason I know what it is, is because it doesn’t melt under a very hot iron.  And it feels like a natural fibre.
This is me not being very good at invisible zips.  I only had a white one, and I thought “it’ll be fine!  It’s an invisible zip”.  I don’t have an invisible zipper foot on my machine so I blame that.  I’m also not too happy with my hem, it went all crinkled.  I can’t get the hang of hemming curved things.
The only alteration I made is that I lengthened the skirt about 10cm.  It was super short before!  Apart from that I made a straight XS.
I’d give this pattern two thumbs up! It’s extremely comfortable and cute, and I’ve been wearing it pretty much nonstop.  Totes happy!

CIT, life, sewing

What happened to me??

christinahopgood
So my last post is from the end of Frocktober!  That’s quite a while ago.  I ended up making $641 for Frocktober, which is pretty good!  So why haven’t I posted for like a month?  

Firstly, Frocktober totally burnt me out.  I haven’t taken any photos of myself in this whole time, no photos of my projects, no instagrams!  I’ve just been going along doing my normal work things and home things.  After sharing so much I just wanted a bit of privacy, you know?

Then Charles went away to America for 2 weeks to go to PASIC – a percussion convention.  During that time, I had one good night’s sleep.  I don’t know what came over me, it was stupid.  Also he’s my photographer, so even if I’d wanted to take photos I couldn’t!

Last Saturday we performed at Voices in the Forest, a huge opera pops concert at the National Arboretum.  Right now it’s more like “Voices in the Saplings” because of course the trees all burnt down 10 years ago and are still little.  It’s a fantastic place though – high above the rest of Canberra, you can see for miles and miles.  It’s spectacular.  The concert was good too!

Then on Sunday I woke up with this terrible pain in my stomach.  It was so bad I couldn’t get out of bed.  On Sunday night Charles took me to emergency at Calvary hospital and I stayed overnight for observation.  It’s pretty traumatic staying in Emergency because everyone’s so terribly sick.  People were much sicker than me.  And gosh!  Hospitals go through a lot of sick bags.  Everyone was so spewy (except me).  Charles left around 1am, I felt so bad for him, he had to get up at 6 for school!


The entire time I was in there I was hooked up to this heartbeat monitor, which beeps annoyingly when your heartrate either stops or goes too high.  Because I was of a slightly nervous disposition (i.e. totally flipping the heck out) my machine was beeping pretty much all the time, the nurse had to set it to a higher tolerance! My heartrate was almost always over 100, and in the day almost always over 110. For musicians, that’s a fairly moderate march tempo.
Mum and dad came to be with me first thing in the morning.  Everyone thought I had appendicitis, but some things didn’t fit.  I wasn’t nauseous or feverish and I didn’t have reboud pain (more pain when you release pressure than when you press on the spot), and I was hungry.  I just had pain.  They put several litres of water in me via a canular so I could have an ultrasound on a full bladder (they press so hard in the ultrasound I’m surprised I didn’t wet my pants, sorry TMI).  
So they were about to operate on Monday afternoon when the radiology report came back from my ultrasound, saying that I have an inflammation in my terminal ileum.  So your terminal ileum is close to your appendix, it’s the last part of your small intestine. And mine was all swollen and tender.  So they said “go home and come back if it gets worse”.  With some assisstance I walked out of there.  They don’t know why it was sore.
I took two days off teaching (which is a total pain in the butt when you’re self-employed) and now I’m mostly back to normal.  I’m pretty tired still from the ordeal, and my tummy hurts a little still.

I have been doing projects – I made another Miette cardigan (this time in black – which attracts every piece of dust in my vicinity), I’ve been working on another jumper, finished my two assessment garments for CIT… and haven’t blogged any of it.  Here are some dodgy phone photos of my projects!

Hope you’ve been having a good month!  Bring on Christmas!

buttons, dress, sewing

Completed: Colette Hawthorn

christinahopgood
Breaking news: Christina has sewn a garment that is not only pretty, but also fits comfortably!
I present the Colette Hawthorn dress, view 3 (sleeveless)!
My fabric is a lightweight seersucker which is a vintage gift from a church friend.  She was getting rid of lots of fabric she hadn’t used in 30 years.  I only had about 2 metres!
I was so careful making this, since my last attempt at making a dress was a total disaster.  I made a toile, pressed after every step, and even made a copy of the pattern so I didn’t cut into the precious tissue.  I laundered my fabric first:
I was so careful doing all the marking.  The only issue I had was that this fabric pattern does have a right way up, and I didn’t have enough fabric to cut it all out the right way.  I had to cut the back skirt pieces upside-down, but you totally can’t notice unless you scrutinise the thing, and you’d have to look at my butt to do that.  So my issue isn’t an issue at all!
My toile worked out pretty well, a shame it was a) covered in paint, and b) completely see-through.  It had a pretty pink floral pattern, very subtle.
 I was so frightened of doing the buttonholes, as I have never done them on my machine before.  They turned out pretty well!  I didn’t get them quite in the same place as on the pattern, but it was pretty darn close!  I spent a long time making sure I was putting the buttons in the right place too.
 Looks cute with a belt.  I’m thinking of making a waist tie with the remaining fabric (which is scraps, I’d have to sew a lot of them together).
 All these photos are with a very small petticoat which has lost most of its poof.
 My only complaint about the pattern is that the armholes are way small.  I made a size 0 with no alterations and I have very slim arms.  Not slim enough!  They’re not uncomfortably tight, but I could use a slightly looser armhole so that I can, you know, reach for stuff.
The collar was kind of difficult – not the collar itself but the facing and all that bulk at the shoulder seams.  I just pressed the heck out of it to make it sit flat, but I can still feel the bulk.
 My bias binding on the armholes is a cute striped one my mother in law gave me.  I love the subtle contrast!
As you can see it hangs pretty well!
So I’m thrilled with this dress.  It’s actually my first dress to work really well.  I’ve made other dresses but they’ve all sucked in one way or another.  I can’t wait to try view B (elbow length sleeves) as well!