It's finished! This suit will be my partner in crime for stylish social gatherings and assorted civilised mingling. If you follow me on insta, you will recall some tense moments recorded in my stories. The most emotional of these moments was The Collar Issue. It was dire there for a moment, but nothing 6 hours of painstaking unpicking, thread marking and hand sewing couldn't save. Now, you couldn't even tell that I butchered the collar. Sure, the skirt insides are a bit... post modern. There is the champagne coloured lining, buttery yellow petersham ribbon facing, and then Kelly green rayon hem tape. A post-modern party only I get to witness...and viewers of this blog. But still, this is the 1950s suit of my dreams. Simplicity 8747 has a lot of flare in the back. I'm talking needs-to-be-wrestled-into-submission sort of flare. The CB seam has ample swoosh which could cope with having half the amount (if you take your reference from the CB seam line). There is also space to remove some flare from the back princess seams. It feels like a circle skirt back there. Dramatic, absolutely. But perhaps a little impractical. I'm struggling to get it to sit nicely. All in all, this took about 5 weeks to complete. That included having a week off while I was waiting for petersham ribbon to arrive. There is a lot of hand sewing in this project, but living in Sydney lockdown means I had plenty of couch time for that! This suit makes me so happy. I was thinking the other day - what's the point in sewing clothes if you don't make things you absolutely love? Mods / notes
Suit: Simplicity 8747 jacket and By Hand London Charlotte Pencil Skirt Fabric: Wool Cashmere in the colour Kiwi by SuperCheapFabrics Hat: Vintage Bag: Vintage Out of frame shoes: Kitten D'Amour
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It's finished. It's worn. It's lovely! This project was finished a while ago, but this is only the second time it has seen daylight. My mum had to figure out the sleeves as I couldn't get them to be nice and puffy. She is a wizard. On a shoulder / sleeve cap related note, I am employing my own shoulders here again. The stitch of this jumper is squishy and cozy. It was really easy to memorise and knit mindlessly. The sleeves increase dramatically out of nothing and I found them an odd looking shape. It worked out in the end! It's a comfortable long length for my torso as I added an extra inch. Good decision. Much love. The yarn is a baby yarn I purchased from Lincraft. It was gorgeous and smooth to work with. No splitting. No weirdness. Only a few balls had knots in the yarn. Not too bad. There are a list of my mods on my Ravelry page. This is a great knit. If you're thinking about casting it on, go ahead! Jumper: Joan Crawford Jumper from Hollywood Knits
Shirt: Uni Qlo Pants: Hell Bunny Shoes: Windsor Smith circa 2010 Hat: Vintage I made a hat. Well, I chopped a hat apart and then re-made it! It is the hat of my vintage dreams. Emileigh Rogers has a great blog with this tutorial to create a gorgeous vintage style hat. It was really easy to do and took perhaps 15-20 minutes to complete. First, I had to remove the black ribbon band so I could use it later on. Then I hacked the top from the brim, and then the very top part off as well. I went for about an inch of height at the crown of the hat. The top was a bit smaller than the hole at the brim so I hot glued the inside hat ribbon to the top. It's a bit terrible, but got the job done! The photo below show the new shorter height of the hat. I have to pin it to my head. I might experiment with combs, or even a cute ribbon to tie under my chin... something removable maybe. The flowers were lying around and I jammed them into the ribbon. Having the flowers underneath are a winner! They are only in my hair, not attached to the hat at all. So cute. Bring on summer! Flowers: Kmart years ago
Hat: from Big W here It's the second Tuesday of November which is Melbourne Cup day here in Australia. As far as I know, a bunch of horses are forced to race for the enjoyment and financial loss of the nation. I do not condone casual horse torture - there's plenty of info and stats out there about the treatment of race horses. I don't participate in sweeps or gambling, I don't often watch the race. But I will take any excuse to wear a hat. Melbourne Cup has turned into a hat wearing day, and a chance to over dress. Where anyone can wear a hat and no one looks twice. This is the first year that I've been able to frock up and hat up. As a dancer teacher, it's hard to wear a hat while working. No fancy hats go with dance pants and a sweaty work top. But now with my office job... I can frock up all the time! My Melbourne Cup outfit this year is 60s inspired. My saucer hat is from Etsy, New Look 6000 dress made from a ponte knit which has never let me down. The vintage 60s glo-mesh handbag is from a gorgeous vintage store in the Dandenong Ranges. It's in brand new condition. Very happy M! Seriously, look at this hat! It's pretty gorgeous. We were told to wear a crazy hat. This hat is crazy to me. Sticking a saucer on your head is fairly mad. But it's still pretty! It's a beige/crème colour. It's got a couple of marks, but that builds character. Hat: Ehranjadevintage on Etsy here
Dress: Made by me, New Look 6000 (my tried and true pattern) Seams and underthings: What Katie Did Shoes: Sheriton Shoes (Inniu) Bag: Vintage Can I make a dress in 3 days, only sewing in the evenings? Yes I can. It was stressful, tense, and so much swearing...but I did it! It was cut out on Tuesday night and I constructed most of the bodice. Wednesday morning before work I finished the armhole facings. Wednesday night was the pockets, sewing the skirt together, gathering the skirt and attaching it to the bodice, inserting the zip incorrectly, and then just MacGyvering the back of the bodice to work with the incorrect zip. That last step was where all the swearing was. I tried it on. And got stuck in it. More swearing. It was tense. But it was finished! I've previously made Vogue 8789 in a lovely yellow cotton duck type fabric. This time it was from a 'spots and stripes' cotton range at Spotlight. Cheap and cheerful. I did my usual construction of this pattern which is to change the side zip to a back zip.
This is the bodice completed. It's not the best job, but I was rushing! One day I will make this in a stripe and it will be glorious. Beautifully matched stripes running to the front of that bodice.... gorgeous. The little armhole facing is hiding in there. These armholes facings are not interfaced at all which makes this dress such a quick make. No interfacing, no messing around with stuff. Just get on with it. Perhaps my cutting out was inaccurate, but I can never get the facing seam to line up with the bodice seam. It's fine. I'll just do a little bit of invisible hand sewing to hold the facing in place. The skirt is attached and the zipper is going in! At this point in time, I didn't know the zip was being stitched in the wrong place.... That was for future M to discover. The Birthday Partay!You wouldn't believe it. I didn't actually get any full length pictures in my outfit at the party! There are some almost full length like the picture below. The cardigan and beret were also made by me from a while ago. Have a look at the general shenanigans. All names of people read from left to right. I didn't get photos with everyone. I was too busy having a lovely day! Me and my lovely. He did the sound set up for the day. He rocks. :D Happy M.
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AuthorKnitter. Home seamstress. Dance Teacher. Archives
April 2023
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