Monday, January 18, 2010

A Joint Effort

Inspired by the recent sewing efforts of Colette's daughters, I decided to get my daughter into a little project .... it ended up a joint effort - we made a sweet little drawstring dress to wear over swimmers up to the beach .... I drafted the pattern - front and back the same - and just traced a similar style dress she already had .....
I really like this Bernina clear foot - #34 - it's great for beginners to see exactly where they are sewing and they can use the middle red line to line up where to stitch - in this case I wanted her to sew along the top part of the overlocking ...
I attached some Satin Bias Binding around the armhole edges ....
We used some Cotton Herringbone Ribbon / Tape to thread through the casing at the top which then becomes the ties at the shoulders.
Fabric from the stash - Spotlight I think. Cool and happy - she was really impressed with how quickly this came together - about an hour all up - yes, a joint effort! Thanks Colette for the inspiration!
Now, recently my own motivation was definitely waning. I don't know why .... I'm on holidays .... nowhere to be .... nothing awaiting a deadline .... all the time in the world and a thousand projects just waiting to get off the ground. Yet I slumped into a pathetic and miserable nothingness - I was even watching Dr Phil and Judge Judy ...... eek!

Anyway, hopefully I've turned the corner and having done some sewing with Sweet Pea, I whipped up a little dress for moi! Firstly, as I was using a knit fabric, I wound some woolly nylon onto my bobbin. I learnt about this doing a workshop with Pam Kerr as part of the Australian Sewing Guild - are you a member? It's really worth looking into - the Guild is a treasure trove of knowledge and skills .... Anyway, the woolly nylon needs a little help to ensure that you don't wind it too tightly - you simply hold it in between the tension guides - you just manually adjust the tension - not really loose just not super tight ....
This is woolly nylon ....
Another thing I recently learnt about at the Palmer Pletsch Workshop I did was an overlocking thread by Mettler called Metrolene - it's super fine - just lovely - not bulky - you can hardly see it on your seam edges - but is still easy enough to thread and handle.

So, back to the dress. I made up another BWOF 04/08 116 Dress - this time I decreased the length of the front V neckline, as shown below - the red asterisk is where the new point is for end of the CF gathering, you can see the old asterisk in pencil. I also took out a small dart since I was gathering up a much larger piece.
I used this lovely fabric from Marting & Savage 94% Poly 6% Spandex.
And here it is, pictured at Bondi Beach (well, at the front car park). We went to Sydney to see Circus Oz - it was excellent - highly recommend it! As well, did you know CityRail has a Sunday special for families? Each member can travel all day for $2.50 each - bus, train and ferry - I think the area allowed is from Wollongong to the Hunter Valley - bargain!

I'm happy with the neckline alteration - this is a great dress. The last time I made this dress I forgot about the armhole binding piece and simply attached the sleeve and then did the underarm seam and side seam as one ... this time I made a point of putting in the sleeve as instructed - but no way! The sleeve was too large - a mystery to me - so I did the same as before and it's fine.
Psst .... have you entered my giveaway? Entries close this SUNDAY 24th January.

5 comments:

  1. I was so imprssed with the dress you & your daughter made that I wasn't prepared for the gorgeous dress you made for yourself! I would love to be able to make more of my own clothing but am not very confident. I have an overlocker but still don't know how to use it. I should book myself into some classes, I'm sure it would open up a whole new world. Loved reading your blog tonight, thanks! x ps off to Sydney (from Daylesford, Vic) for a night with my eldest on Friday. Can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How fantastic , both dresses are gorgeous !

    ReplyDelete
  3. Both dresses are terrific! I really love the fabric you've chosen for your dress and it is very flattering. I might need to check out that pattern!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great dresses, I wish i can wear this kind of dresses here but I ahve to wait for a long time...the fabrics are again so nice!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for the shout out. Your daughters dress is lovely... isn't it perfect for throwing over the togs in summer? I'll have to get myself one of those clear feet for the girls to use...my Bernina doesn't have one!

    Well done on your dress too :)

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a comment .... thankyou!

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.