Category: sewing

dress, life, sewing

I have a (sewing) problem – Luck Be A Lady Dresses

christinahopgood
I admit that I have a problem. So far I have bought two versions of the beautiful Luck Be A Lady dress from Modcloth. I love them both to bits – they fit well, look great with or without tights and cardigans, are work appropriate, come with a cute belt, and have pockets. Pockets, you guys. I wear them ALL THE TIME. They are quite pricey, so I thought I was done.

The dress in ‘dots’, which I wear a lot to teach and work.  I love that it looks like an aboriginal dot painting.

The dress in ‘Blue Dots’, which is now totally sold out and gone.  This is more of a party dress, but super comfy and rad.

Then, recently, I went through my dresses to assess and downsize. I realised why a lot of my dresses don’t get much wear: they’re all made of patterned fabric, which makes it hard to pair with other patterned things. I need some solids! Enter the Luck Be A Lady Dresses in the original green colour and in Violet. Two beautiful jewel-toned dresses perfect for upcoming autumn and perfect for my wardrobe. I can just see myself bustling around in that gorgeous purple one with mustard tights and a ponytail…

Gorgeous, amirite?


And forest green!  Beautiful!

I decided to wait until I’d earned some money this year, since they didn’t look like they’d sell out and ANYHOW, Modcloth usually sends me an email before things on my wishlist sell out. I did a few hours work and earned $100, then sold a dress online, so I figured I could buy them.  I went online to do so!

VIOLET IS SOLD OUT.

Whaaaaat.  Modcloth, y u no email me? I don’t want to buy just one, because it’s expensive shipping and also, violet was the one I wanted MORE. Which brings me to!

CAN I SEW MY OWN?

I have looked on the McCall website (which has the patterns from McCall’s, Vogue, Butterick, and Kwik Sew) and couldn’t find anything like it with those lovely neck-pleats. The skirt part is easy enough without a pattern.  I’m going to keep looking. Imagine how great it would be to be able to make my own Luck be a lady dress in whatever colour I like! More like Christina be a lady. Dress.

So please fellow sewers, keep an eye out! I’m even considering unpicking one of my own to copy, and we don’t want that to happen!

Has this ever happened to you? What would you do in this situation?  Would you just buy the one in Autumn Plaid?

sewing

The Anna Skirt progress!

christinahopgood
Well, things are slowly settling down at my new place.  We now have two desks to work at, and both our instruments are in!  I’ve resumed work on some sewing projects.

Currently I’m making a skirt for my friend Anna (she lives in Melbourne so if it doesn’t fit when I sent it to her… bah, it WILL fit).  It’s a McCall’s pattern M5591 view A.

The fabric is some I bought from Spoonflower, which was an absolute pleasure to use!  For those of you who don’t know, on Spoonflower people can upload their own designs which can be printed on fabric.  There are thousands of designs to choose from, and if you don’t like any, just do one of your own!  This is the fabric we chose, it’s called Seedpods, but we thought it looked so much more like marimba mallets (she’s a percussionist like me)!

n.b. The fabric came in the mail beautifully wrapped and their business card is printed on a piece of fabric, you guys. So cute.


It turned out that the print was a bunch larger than I expected… These guys are the size of bass drum beaters, not marimba mallets!

Here’s my progress! Skirt part done, pleats and pockets all went very well.

Today I went out and bought some more thread and a matching zipper to finish.  I need to attach the waistband and hem it yet.  The hem is going to be huge.  I made a boo boo with the length! Like that bottom-most seed pod will most likely be folded over entirely. This is because in the pattern the bottom section is a contrasting fabric, with a giant hem.  I didn’t realise the hem was going to be giant when I cut T_T

The hold up has been my sewing machine situation.  I picked up an unwanted sewing machine that was by the side of the road.  At the time I had NO sewing machine, and thought “Something’s better than nothing!” and to be fair, it does work.  But.  It’s a Pfaff 1196, which I estimate is more than 30 years old.  It’s clunky.  So I’ve been avoiding sewing which is lame.  Also, I just got my desk.  So hopefully I’ll be able to finish this in the next few days!  Fingers crossed that the machine doesn’t clunk off its mortal coil.

In other news, damn it’s been hot. Anyone who doesn’t believe in climate change ought to come to Australia right now and tell it to our faces.  I can hardly remember a time when it’s been so hot for so many days.  We don’t have an air conditioner (only just cracked and bought an evaporative cooler) so it’s pretty uncomfortable here right now.  Not exactly weather for sitting at a sewing machine.  My day goes like this:
Get up -> Put on nice dress -> change into cooler daggy dress -> Try to do something useful -> too hot -> watch tennis with a cool drink.  I’ve also been getting into kids TV since it’s been on.  I’m a big fan of Horrible Histories and Good Game.  And the Aquabats Super Show, obvs.

Ok no more blogs for now bye!

diy, OOTD, outfit, sewing, skirt

Black elastic-waisted half-circle skirt

christinahopgood
So the past few weeks Ive done a couple of performances where I needed a black bottom.  I realised this the day before concert 1, Voices In The Forest. It was a lovely opera concert up at the Arboretum, with pretty easy orchestral percussion parts.  The thing was, it was going to be very hot.  I only had black trousers, so I decided to make the easiest skirt posssible.

I used the paper pattern I made in THIS TUTORIAL to quickly cut out my fabric.  I didnt even use pins.
Then I cut the waist a bunch bigger so it would fit over my hips, not my waist.
To make it fit, I attached a piece of elastic to the opening and sewed up the side!  The elastic cinches in the waist so I can pull it on without having to deal with zippers.

Done.  Bam.  Took me like 1.5 hours.

My outufit for Voices in the Forest.

At the Arboretum! It was like 30 degrees.  There were 4500 people there!

We played until after sunset, it was pretty rad.

The next week I wore it in the DRUMatiX concert I wrote about.  Professional photos to come!

And here’s me wearing it today!

This skirt looks nicest with a slightly boofy petticoat underneath.  I’m wearing the one I made way back here.

blouse, buttons, chiffon, diy, OOTD, outfit, sewing

Chiffon Blouse!

christinahopgood
So those of you who follow me on Instagram (my username is cutiefulchristina) or Twitter (@cutiefulchrissy) may know I’ve been working on a certain chiffon *cough* masterpiece *cough*.  In this post I’ve included my Instagram progress pictures and some outfit and worn photos.  I’m really happy with this project!

I have been making New Look pattern 6107, blouse view B with neck ties. So a mixture between view A and view B.  The skirt in this pattern is also super cute.

 Sewing chiffon is difficult.  Last time I sewed a chiffon blouse, I didn’t do proper seams and the whole thing frayed and came apart.  It was very embarrassing.  It was a cute blouse the one day I wore it, and then I saw my elbow poking through the sleeve and had a look, and found that it was beyond saving.
So I used french seams this time, which was kind of difficult since I’ve never done it before.  But I’m confident that it won’t fall apart this time!

Progress shot of it without sleeves, hems, or buttons.

The cute birdies on the fabric.  From far away it just looks like a spotty pattern!

 I completed it last night after MUCH cutting of threads.

Outfits!

 I find that this blouse goes well with my American Apparel trousers.  I couldn’t find much else that goes, in my currently small wardrobe (the rest of my stuff is at my parents’ house).

Looks good tucked in.

The back is acceptable.

It’s hard to see because of the pattern, but there are 6 pearly shank buttons and a neck tie.

Shaped nicely – good darts ‘n’ stuff.  Works untucked too!

Looks good standing on one leg.

I am super proud of myself for this blouse.  It’s going to be a blouse I actually wear!  Can’t wait to wear it with a light coloured skirt, shorts, jeans, a cardigan!  I thought it’d be see through so I bought a camisole, but it turns out it’s fine without!  The pattern is too busy to see through it.  I’m thrilled!  This means it’ll be a lovely cool summer top.  Winner!  I might use this pattern again with a different fabric in future!
OOTD, outfit, sewing, skirt

Outfit post – OOTD – Grey handmade skirt

christinahopgood
Today’s post is just an outfit!  I went to work at the library all day today, so I was going for cute librarian! Did I win?
Skirt: Handmade
Cardigan: Alice and the Pirates
Shoes: Big W
Blouse: Target

This skirt is one I made back in 2009 (?) from one big old rectangle and a different waistband pattern.
The skirt is made of four box-pleats.  So the skirt is made of a rectangle of length 3*hip measurement, and then folded into box pleats.  There’s a zipper at the side and it’s all attached to a simple wide waistband that goes from my hips to my waist.

I got this fabric from a bizarre church sale where they were only selling fabric and patterns for super cheap.  It’s pinstripe suiting.  I lined it with spots!

Here’s a picture of me wearing it when I first made it!

 It’s also featured in my 3rd year recital poster.  Enjoy!


In other news, my blouse that I’m making is progressing slowly.  I’m using chiffon and it’s a pain to sew!