Its about learning, right?

Believe it or not, this is Vintage Vogue 1044, which I have used to make two tops. I made this over a year ago and it was my first attempt at the pattern as a full dress, though I made quite a few alterations:

• I used a lovely printed jersey, which really changed the fit and drape of the dress, not necessarily for the better.
• As it was a jersey, I omitted the back zip. The whole thing pulls over the head.
• The full skirt uses an insane amount of fabric, which I didn't have, so I changed it into a much less full skirt and gathered it onto an elastic waistband. Stitching the skirt to the bodice got a bit mucky so a made a matching tie belt to hide the waistline.
• Finally, I made this in my "Interfacing? Bah! I don't need interfacing!" phase, so the lovely split neckline just flopped open. I stitched it together at the points but it's not brilliant.

So, in hindsight, a few too many corners cut on a lovely vintage re-print pattern. I'll try it again in a more appropriate fabric and feel comfortable I could pull off a much better result.

St Patrick's Day top

So two nights before St Patrick's Day this year, I decided to whip up a green top (as I had none) out of a very light emerald crepe I'd picked up on sale. This was my first attempt at drafting a pattern form scratch, following the process for creating a bodice block described in a 50s dress-making book I picked up at an antique shop not long after we arrived in Adelaide. I've since spotted copies in other shops and found at when I saw a set of 4 together at a vintage clothing fair that they were a required textbook for high-school sewing classes. Neat!

Very clear instructions and after about 2 hours measuring, marking up, cutting and basting, I had a perfect muslin, completely my own. The next night, I unpicked the sewn-together muslin and traced off the pattern onto my crepe and in less than an hour, I had myself a nice little cap-sleve blouse.

I'm happy with it as a first attempt, but the facings didn't come off right. I think this was mostly due to not enough notching in the seam allowance before turning and pressing. Basically, the curved scallops look to squared.

But it has given me the confidence to try more drafting rather than having to rely on bought patterns.

First Collette Pattern: Rooibos

Due to me giving an incorrect address TWICE, I had to wait ages to finally get my hands on two lovely patterns from independent pattern company, Colette Patterns (their customer service is fantastic, by the way, even when the fault was completely mine).

Rooibos is a princess-seamed above-knee dress with an underbust band, side zip, a very wee collar and pockets. Pockets! It also gave me a perfect use for the beautiful green floral bias tape I picked up ages ago in London. A very nice accent to the purple slightly stretch georgette.

Rooibos was wonderfully easy to sew, though I had a bit of a muck up with the sizing. I have given up trusting all pattern sizing and always add extra ease through the hips, no matter what the pattern measurements are. This generally works. However, Collette pattern measurements are *gasp* real! So I ended up having to take an extra 1/2" out of all the skirt seams, after I'd sewn it up. Grrr... I also lengthened it to just below knee because me + above-knee-skirt = Badness.

That said, I will cut this a size smaller again next time. By the measurements, I'm a US size 4, but I definitely should go down a size. That means I'm a US size 2?!? Seriously? It only goes down one more size to 0! I think there's some serious vanity sizing going on these days in the US. I was never less than a 6 in Canada, but that 10 years ago (my measurements are still pretty much the same). Anyone else found this with Collette patterns?

Peggy Olson Dress: Take 2

It's a beautifully sunny, not-to-hot start to the long weekend and I've had a very successful morning. After cutting the lovely light-weight tweed and bright blue lining for my second go at Simplicity 8673, I got stuck into sewing up after a bit of a sleep in and lazy breakfast.

It came together much more easily this time, although I still had to eat into the seam allowances over the hips again. Guess I wasn't that great at transferring ALL adjustments to the pattern pieces after last time.

As planned, I changed the underbust gathers to tucks, narrowed the skirt at the hem by 1'1/2" on each side and enlarged the armholes. I'm completely chuffed at how it came out. Despite the cut being very fitted, the tweed has a tiny bit of give to it, which makes it surprisingly comfy.

I love this pattern, now that I have it adjusted to my figure. I think I'll do View C with the flared skirt in a gingham or poplin for spring. But not just yet.