Simplicity 1606 Summer Polkadot Dress

Another finished dress! This time it's from Simplicity 1606 Amazing Fit Pattern.
I bought this pattern because I wanted a basic princess seamed bodice, and also because I love the look of lace overlayed bodices. I know this pattern is going to get a lot of use.

I cut a straight 12 with the B cup and the fit was mostly good, but next time I make this dress I'm going to do a proper fit of the bodice. The keyhole opening in the back gaped a fair bit, so I took a quick tuck in the shoulders once it was finished.

The fabric I used is a thick white cotton with a tiny navy blue polka dot. I knew it would work perfectly for this dress. I lined the bodice with a very soft white cotton, so it's perfect for summer. This was my first go lining a bodice, and i was pleased with how easy it turned out to be. In fact, I sewed up the entire dress, save the zip and hem in a few hours.

It was also my first go putting a zip in a lining. I just attached it to the dress and then slip stitched down the lining. I'm very happy with how it turned out. The hem was done by machine.

I finished this dress in time for my very social Sunday. Firstly I wore it to my best friend's moving out of home party (she is only moving closer to uni, so I'll still be able to see her a lot) she was telling anyone who would listen that I'd made my dress!

Then that afternoon and evening my boyfriend had got us free tickets to Laneway Music Festival. It was at the Sydney College of the Arts which is an absolutely stunning sandstone complex. It was a fantastically relaxed afternoon and evening, and I'd never seen so many hipsters in one place in my life.

I decided I wanted to complete my outfit with some red! My search for red shoes has not been forthcoming. I did Blue Ginger Doll's Pinup Headscarf in red top stitched in navy, it was the perfect finish to the outfit, and I did notice that a lot of girls were wearing similar scarves in their hair.

1606 will certainly be going with 2444 as a go to dress pattern.

Liebster Award!

I have just been nominated for a Liebster award by Deby of Mid Century Love.

It's a token of recognition that bloggers award to fellow bloggers who they think deserve more recognition. The terminology "Liebster" roughly translates to "Dearest" from German, and the guidelines of this award are as follows:

1. You must answer the 11 questions set by the blogger who nominated you.
2. You yourself then pick 11 blogs who in turn have under 200 followers.
3. You must then think of 11 questions for the blogs you have picked and also tell them.
4. You must link back to the blog that nominated you.
5. Write 11 facts about yourself

1. What have you learned from blogging?

I haven't been blogging for particularly long, but one practical thing I have noticed is it takes ages for my photos to upload! It isn't easy to write up something quickly when you know that's going to slow you down. On a more serious note I really enjoy the wider blogger community and how useful they have been to me in terms of information and ideas, and I really want to give back to that.
2. How much time do you spend working on your blog?

Not often, but I hope to get into a more regular posting schedule. 

3. What is your guilty pleasure?

Big Bang Theory, and reading the bad articles in the lifestyle section of online newspapers
4. Are you punctual or tardy?

Punctual

5. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

The UK. I have been an Anglophile for as long as I can remember, and it now seems I will finally get to go there at the end of the year! I can visit all the places I've read about and longed over for so long
6. What's your favourite book?

Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights

7. If you could throw a dinner party and invite anyone in the world, living or not, who would you invite and why?

Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine; I find their story fascinating and would love to see them in the flesh

Richard III; to finally lay to rest whether or not he was a villain

Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde; for their wit

8. Do you have a particular style icon or guru?

Not really. I am more inspired by the general idea of 1940s-1950s fashion

9. What do you draw inspiration from, magazines, films, blogs or something else?

ost of my sewing inspiration comes from blogs; but I have just started watching Miss Fisher's Murder 
10. If you had to live in any other time period besides now, which one would you pick?

Oh my. I am a medieval historian so one answer has to be the entire medieval period. However my interest there lies in the areas of political and intellectual history, whilst my social history interests span from the Regency-1950s. I truly think I would fit in very easily to the 1950's, but then again, if I get to time travel I should pick something exotic. Florence in the fifteenth century would be amazing. Oh this question has way too many possibilities for a historian.....

11. What is your proudest moment thus far? 

Getting into university. I worked incredibly hard during my last two years of high school, and did extremely well which then allowed me to gain entry to the University of Sydney to study medieval history.I am about to start my third year and am loving every minute of it.

11 Facts About Me

1. I cannot remember not being able to sew; I was taught by my grandma

2. I physically cannot wear ballet flats

3. I was on my learners license for over three years

4. I am writing a novel

5. My room contains four bookshelves which are predominately full

6. I wore a back brace for scoliosis for a year

7. My nicknames include "grandma" "old lady" and "crazy sewing lady" Even though I am twenty I am an old soul

8. My aim is to move to Scotland

9. I hate the heat 

10. I love my train commute, eve if it is over an hour one way

11. I have lived in the same house my entire life

Nominated Blogs

The Dressmaking Diaries

My Oh Sew Vintage Life

Making It Well

Bernie and I

Authentic Alice

Bobbin and Baste

Pendle Stitches

The Pinhouse Playmate

Scared Stitchless

Betsy's Baby

Adventures of a Young Seamstress

My 11 Questions

1. Why did you start blogging?

2. What is your favourite piece of music?

3. Do you thrift shop? If so, what's the purchase you are most proud of?

4. Tea or coffee?

5. What colour are the walls in your bedroom?

6. What is the best piece of advice your parents ever gave you?

7. What would your dream house be?

8. What creative pursuits do you follow?

9. Are you a morning person?

10. What is your ideal fashion item?

11. Do you collect anything?

Thanks Deby for nominating me, this was a lot of fun,

Kaitlyn

Sewing a Me Made Wardrobe

Looking around the sewing blogs at the moment, it seems a major theme is organizing ones sewing to ensure a coordinated and workable wardrobe. I think it's really exciting that this is something I can be thinking about as I start off sewing, and have the conception of a me made wardrobe before me so I don't veer off and make too many unwearable pieces.

The first thing I need to be thinking of is where I currently am in life. I turned 20 last month, which felt for me like a very big milestone in my transition to adulthood. I believe this is a good time in life to articulate how I want my life to be, as it's easier to form habits now. Of course life is unpredictable, but making a conscience decision now to live simply in a vintage style is something that will set me up in good steed for years to come. I am also about to embark on third year uni, so I can wear floral vintage dresses to uni everyday if I so wish. It helps when uni's right next door to the most hipster suburb of Sydney.

What is it I mean by living simply and in a vintage style? Not hoarding is a big factor.  I have never moved house in my life, and considering the thought of moving out of home one day makes me want to throw out everything superfluous. I have been doing a lot of major room clean outs over the last months. This also translates into being frugal with what I buy.

But the biggest area I am working on in my life at the moment is my own personal style.  Before i get to the idea of a wardrobe in this post, I'll touch on the few other areas I want to work on. Firstly is my hair. I love my hair, it's a beautiful color, and extremely thick, I've just never been able to style it well. My aim in the next months is to recruit my friends to teach me how to do things to my hair. I also want to take more are in my shoes. I've always just had a black and brown pair for each season and worn them till they wore out, but I want a little more variety. I also want more variety with my handbags. Lastly, I want to pay more attention to makeup, but this is definitely not something I will wear all the time.

Now, onto the wardrobe! Tasha from By Gum, By Golly had a fantastic piece the other week on what she called the  'Land of Wardrobe Enchantment'. I found this a very interesting concept, and it made me think a lot about how I want my wardrobe to be this year. With this in mind I embarked on a wardrobe clean out, and got rid of a very large pile of clothing, an that was just from the summer clothes, the winter ones are still neatly packed away. As I was sorting through clothes I thought very hard about the idea of my personal style, and predominately only kept pieces that fit with that theme.

So, what is my personal style. It is certainly vintage, specifically 1940s and 1950s. And it's very feminine. I love dresses, skirts and blouses, especially in florals. I don't like pants (though I did keep a few pairs) nor do I like things that are excessively bold or seem too modern. I even got rid of a skirt that i still wore, but that I had also worn to my Yr 6 farewell when I was 11. Some things just needed to go.

With my wardrobe now depleted to a good and workable size, I feel I am able to dress more in a vintage style, and am more able to see the gaps that exist. I am very glad I did this before completing more sewing, as it ensures what I make will fit the wardrobe. I need some more long straight skirts. And more blouses, and a few dresses won't go astray. Some of what I've kept will be going out one it can be replaced by a me made piece.

So, my next sewing plan is to go through the suitcases of dressmaking fabric, and decide what I'm going to make to fill in the gaps. I am not going to start with rigid rules about each blouse must go with three skirts, and all those things. Whilst they are good guidelines, I do feel that as I am starting out on this sewing journey I can give myself a good bit of leeway.

How are you going to ensure your wardrobe works better for you this year? What are your sewing plans? How have you successfully incorporated a vintage look into your everyday wear?

Bags

One thing that I am trying to do is to  branch out in the bag department. For the last two years I've only stuck to my black handbag, which whilst extremely useful is on it's way out. I decided I should make myself some bags, and then I could have a wider variety to coordinate with what I am wearing.

First up is "Kate's Bag", a kit from Post Office Patchwork. My grandma bought it for me several years ago, and I only made it up in December. I love the beautiful pastel tones, and have gotten a heap of use from it already.




I also have a large stash of fabric that's old sheeting samples; perfect for totes. I made this one for myself, and one in a cream floral as a Christmas present for my best friend. They are so quick to make, and I finished them off with French seams, and sew across the bottom corners to create a flat bottom. I can see myself making many more of these in the future.

The Two Tone Collar Dress

It's been a long absence! Feels lovely to be back. After my last post, I was without a laptop for three weeks, and then Christmas kicked in, and life became too busy to try and get into a regular blogging pattern. However, I have been getting a lot of sewing done, and over the next days I will have a lot of blog posts detailing all of my progress.

First up though, is my first completed dress! I was getting tired of having these unfinished dresses, so I decided to plunge in and sew the invisible zip by hand. It was easier than it sounded, and I made a very neat and lovely sample which i was extremely proud of. I decided to finish off the purple two tone dress, as it was the one I was least concerned with if the zip did not work out. It took a good few hours to sew in the zip, and I am mostly happy with it. I think it was quite hard as it was black thread on black fabric, and the thread kept on tangling. The waistline didn't line up either, but I decided it wasn't worth trying to fix it, as it was't going to be glaringly obvious, and it would take a lot to fix it. It's more of an everyday wear dress anyway. As you can see the zip pulls a bit at the waist. I'll need to keep an eye on that on the next dresses, as well as work off a lot of Christmas treats!

The collar was a lot of fun to make! I modified the pattern slightly, and lined the collar, as I thought it would look a lot neater than trying to hem the curved edges. I'm so glad I did it like this.

I finished the hem on New Years Eve, to wear the dress that night! I went out with my boyfriend to Sydney, and we had a great time watching the fireworks. Highlight of the night was just before the 9pm fireworks we were walking along the foreshore at Glebe, and passing a family with two little girls draped in tinsel. The youngest, probably about three, turned to me with wide eyes, exclaiming 'I like your dress!'

It's a great dress, so comfortable, and I've worn it once sine then as well.  Only thing I need to do is put in a hook and eye so the collar sits properly at the back. I'm so glad I made the collar. I didn't like it much on the pattern, nor on the few renditions I've been able to find on the internet, and only went with it, because the purple fabric was a remnant and didn't have enough for the bodice. It's a feature that looks best in a contrasting fabric, otherwise it just blends in too much.

So, I now have a completed garment made from scratch. Here's to many more of these before the return of university in March.

Musings on my grandmother

I am officially on university holidays until the beginning of March! Bliss! Second year is done. I study medieval history, which I love, but it will be nice not to have divide my brain between medieval politics and crafty stuff for a while. It also means I'll be able to finish a lot more projects, as well as blog about them.

 To start, I thought I'd talk a bit about one of my main holiday goals; to get my sewing area fixed up. I currently have to play nimble footed hopscotch to get through, the reason being earlier this year, I inherited my grandmother's sewing room. Basically, I owe all of my sewing I have done over the years to my grandma.

She grew up during the Depression, and after finishing school early, she worked for fifteen years at David Jones (Australia's biggest department store) as a sample machinist, where she learnt dressmaking. When she had her own family she sewed to support them; often wedding dresses. She would sew for the entire bridal party, including the mother of the bride. The last wedding dress, which she made for my Mum, was exquisite. She also made dresses for her four grand daughters when we were younger, perfectly hand smocked, which I now have packed away for my future children.

Seventeen years ago she moved from her property into a retirement village, and it was here she took up patchwork, which she excelled at, Her output was prolific. She taught me to sew around this time. I cannot remember how it all started; I cannot remember not being able to sew. When I was around nine, she paid for me to go to patchwork classes at our local patchwork shop, which I went to every week for ten years. I can  never thank her enough for doing that for me; what I learnt there, and was able to make was so valuable. I continued to sew with her as well though, and she taught me English paper piecing, a great love of mine, as well as letting me raid her sewing room as much as I wanted to. She loves the fact that I sew, as I'm the only one in the family that's taken it up after her. She praises and compliments me all the time, but woe betide if I've left my threads uncut, or my points don't exactly match..... She is the most insane perfectionist I have ever met, and in many ways I am very grateful I am teaching myself dressmaking, and not her.

She hasn't sewn for a number of years now, perhaps five. At the time we thought it was because her arthritis was really bad, and she couldn't bear to not be able to carry out the extremely intricate work she used to be able of, but now we are wondering if a lot o it was to do with her Alzheimers when it would have been in its early stages. It's so sad that she stopped, and she hates being idle, never watches TV, and read one book in her entire life.

Earlier this year we had to move her into a hostel, and she was delighted that I'd be taking all her sewing supplies. There It's an incredible stash, one dating back decades, and full of half made projects (many which I am planning to complete) notions, sample tucks from blouses she made for my mum thirty years ago, insertion, baby dress patterns etc. When we were moving she was so concerned about how messy her drawers were, to which I had to reply "your buttons are in colour coordinated jars"

When I see her, I take my sewing, and we fuss over it together, and it's this lovely bond that we both share. She still bugs me about my points, and loves to hear what I'm up to, and my sewing plans but she has hardly any recollection that she ever sewed, and I'm constantly attempting to jog her memeory, that she taught he all this, and she was much better than I will ever hope to be.

These holidays I want to get everything ordered, merge her stash with what my Mum and I already had, and start sewing my way through it. What she's left me is this great sewing legacy, and I want to be able to share it with her.

Three Dresses from Simplicity 2444

It's been a while from my last post! I have been busy finishing university for the semester, and now classes are over, I have a bit more sewing time, and some pictures of my progress to show!

When I began trawling the internet for inspiration to launch myself into dressmaking,I kept on coming across Simplicity 2444. I loved the pattern for it's versatility, and its very 1950's silhouette; dresses with defined waists very much suit me.

I currently have three renditions of this dress on the go, all in varying stages of completion. The plan is to finish them ll within the next few weeks, and I am having some sewing time soon with a good friend, who is going to show me how to put in the zips.

Dress One: The Red Retro Dress
This dress is very retro shaped with the boat neck and sleeves, that once hemmed will be about halfway down to my elbow. It's my first dress, and my first time putting in sleeves, and although it took a few attempts, they ended up sitting really well, and they fit beautifully.
I chose to put in the long sleeves, as I want this dress to be one that could be worn year round. In winter I'm going to pair it with a pair of red stockings and my red wool coat. All it needs to finish it off is the zip, neck facings, and the hems.
















Dress Two: The Two Tone Collar Dress
i wouldn't exactly call this dress vintage or retro, but I'm really excited for how it's going to turn out. I found the fabric at a fabric market sale for $4 and was drawn to how unusual it was. Knowing it would be a squeeze to get a whole dress out of it, and wanting to try something a little new I am making the cape collar option from Simplicity 2444. The skirt and collar are going to be in the purple fabric, whilst the bodice will be in a plain black cotton. The picture is only of one half of the skirt back; I made up the skirt pieces over the weekend, but only bought the bodice fabric today, and then washed it, so it hasn't been cut or made up yet.





Dress Three: The Feminine Vintage Dress

I feel happy every time I see this fabric. I found it cheap at a fabric stall and instantly bought about 3.5m. And I now have enough left over to make a bag. I'm using the same style as my red dress, but using the cap sleeves option. As it's such a light coloured print, I can't really see myself wearing it in winter. It's half constructed, but for cutting it out yesteray afternoon, it's been rather quick progress. Th intetnion is to find some lovely wide lace to go around the armholes, and the bottom hem.
 Again, a bit of a close up, so you can see the fabric. I really love how I got the middle two pleats to cross over

And I have taught myself how to French seam! I think I am in love... I even managed to French seam the sides, including the pockets.


That's what I have on the go! I promise to post pictures of the dresses being worn once they are finished, with a little more detail.

What is everyone else making?