Category: sewing

blog, life, news, sewing, wedding

Past events! Wedding photos! Upcoming projects!

christinahopgood
So things have been fairly quiet around here recently on the ol’ blog.  But I have plans to come back in a big way in the next few weeks!  Here’s what’s been happening with me:

1.  I got married!  Charles and I finally married on the 18th of August.  We had one attendant each, and had a church wedding, and a beautiful reception at University House.  It was all perfect and I was really happy.  Our photographer is a good friend of both of us, and he also happens to be an amazing photographer.  We were so comfortable taking pictures with him since he’s our friend.

We had a photoshoot in a little pine tree glade behind the church.

This is at the University House library. 

Here we are looking serious.

After all the festivities, we took a couple of photos under these picturesque lights.

Our photographer’s website can be found here!

2.  We moved house!  Because Charles lived overseas until 6 weeks before the wedding, we just never moved in together until we were married.  We now are essentially house-sitting for our friend’s dad, whose house used to be full of kids until they all moved away, and he’s always overseas or interstate for work.  So we’re alone in the house most of the time.  We have one big bedroom that’s OURS, and we share a kitchen and bathroom.  Luckily it’s really close to our workplaces.  But we can’t fit all of our stuff there, so our poor parents’ houses are still full of our stuff!

Now for the upcoming projects!!
Not all of these are confirmed or particularly well planned, but…

We are going to start a YouTube channel!
That is us, as in Charles and I.  We hope to make some V-logs about interesting things we do, funny things that happen, music stuff, and projects.  We got a new video recorder so we have no excuse!

Frocktober!
Frocktober is a month-long event which usually fundraises for Ovarian Cancer research.  But I’m not sure if they’re running it this year.  Either way, I thought I’d challenge myself to wear a dress every single day during October.   Now you may think “That’s easy, she wears dresses all the time!”.  This is true.  The challenge will lie in me actually photographing and blogging about what I wear every day.  For a start, I’ll be overseas and on a plane for the first three days of October.  I don’t know how that will work.  Plus, being photographed every day will challenge me to be interesting with my outfits.

Clothing Production!
I’ve decided to go to the local tech and become trained in clothing production.  The course is one semester full time, but I’m going to try to do the part time option for a year.  This will help me be able to become a seamstress and hopefully start my own business.  I’m looking forward to sharing projects on my blog, meeting new people, and getting away from ANU for a while.

Other than that, I’ve got some travel lined up for a wedding, lots of teaching to do, and my house to make into a home.  Thanks for reading, will blog soon!

sewing

Jacket work in progress!

christinahopgood
The other week, Vogue patterns were 40% off at Spotlight for VIP members, so mum and I hurried off to have a look!
I intended to buy some of the vintage Vogue patterns but they were all a bit ho-hum.  I ended up getting this pattern for a jacket, dress, pants, and skirt.  Find it online here!
I got it for the jacket, but I also really like the dress!  The pants and skirt are super boring.
I also bought some of the lovely blue tartan fabric you see in the background.  My intention is to make a jacket similar to this Vivienne Westwood one!  In blue, obviously!
It is pretty similar to the pattern!
This is pinning pattern pieces.  I have to be super careful to line up the pattern on the fabric or I’ll end up with a weird looking jacket.  A lot of thinking was involved in placement of pattern pieces!
It was long.
I’m terrified to start sewing!  This will be the most complicated project I’ve ever started.  I have lining, facing, interfacing… gosh!  But I’m looking forward to having a rad jacket!
blouse, sewing

Blouse making!

christinahopgood
I am making a blouse.  The pattern is from Deco Alice a la Mode Summer 2009.  It’s an Innocent World pattern.  Super cute with pintucks at the front and a nice small collar.

I have been running into a few problems.

This is the first blouse I’ve ever made, so I’m not familiar with how the pattern pieces look.  The blouse has 10 panels.  10!  Other blouse patterns I’ve looked have either 2 (back and front) or four (back, back side, front side, and front).  The front panels of this blouse have 3 pintucks each.  I’ve chosen some really cute cream coloured cotton with tiny purple flowers.

Problems: I can’t read Japanese (although I can speak a little).  This means that both the instructions in the book and on the pattern pieces are unreadable.  I have to work out how to do it from common sense, indicative lines on the pattern, and looking at other blouse patterns (I have a few).  Why did I choose to make my first blouse essentially without instructions?

So I ironed and sewed the pintucks but it’s so close to the edge I assume I must have done it the wrong way.  Mega confusing.  I also don’t know how they do the sleeve cuff or inside collar or placket.  I DON’T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A BLOUSE.

I keep trying, but it’s so depressing realising for the umpteenth time that I have to unpick something.  

bodyline, bolero, mod, sewing

Bodyline Bolero Modification!

christinahopgood
So a few weeks ago I took my old Bodyline bolero and altered it.  I bought the blouse on my first trip to Japan.  It was in my first lot of Lolita purchases!  I bought a whole outfit that day – skirt, blouse and bolero.  I’ve already altered the blouse, which is now much more wearable!  I wanted to alter the bolero because I actually haven’t worn it ever.  According to my mum, it looks like a bedjacket!
Here’s the stock photo from the website.  She looks so cute in it!
This is a slightly embarrassing photo of me in my purchases the day I bought them.  In our hotel in Japan.  Drinking tea and reading GLB!  So not cute.
So as you can see, it’s really frilly!  It has faux detachable sleeves, a bow at the front, bows on the sleeves, and lace down the front.  So frilly!
I took the faux sleeves off so now the sleeves are little cap sleeves.  I also removed the bow from the sleeves, and the lace from down the front.  After:
Now I have these bits left over.  What should I make with them?  I think I’ll make little hairclips from the bows but the rest… any suggestions?