A Pink Peony

 Presenting my latest adventure in Couture Pour Moi ... Colette Patterns' Peony.  This is my wearable muslin.  Despite being between a few sizes ... I ran it up in the Size 8 ... I am really happy with the fit ... Next dress (oh I've already got the fabric out, ready to be cut!) I think I will add a little in the length - I feel I am feeling a little bit breezy when I bend to pick up smalls, if you know what I mean ...

 The fabric is a linen look fabric I picked up from the op shop last week.  I dare say it has some poly in there - hell it might all be poly - but it was perfect for my first go.  I don't own anything pink.  But I am actually pretty happy with how it looks.

 The bateau neck is so lovely and just a little bit classy, methinks.  It's important to be a little bit classy.  Rise above your station, I say.  Like having a cheeky vino with your chips and gravy.  I may have made the darts a little pert (if you know what I mean) but I only think you would notice if you where staring at my chest ... and really I don't think there is any danger there.

I omitted the pockets this time - only because I was impatient to get the dress finished so I could see if it had worked. The only change I made was that I put in a conventional zip in lieu of an invisible - I haven't been able to get my hands on an invisible zipper foot for my machine - although it has turned out OK - an invisible zip would definately be a much nicer finish.

Oh and I didn't make the belt ... I'm not good with belts!

This is an awesome dress.  I have a feeling I'm going to be whipping up a few of these as my go to dress!  Colette Patterns are available at Milkbar if you live on the Apple Isle x

Sewing Inferno

It's a flurry of sewing activity around these parts. I've commandeered the kitchen table. My brain has become a hive of haberdashery activity. I am in a constant state of couture planning and implementing. This one calles me the 'House of Burns' (for couture, please press one). As explanantion, I blatently relocated her copy of this fine book... and well it seems me likey alot in there. So I thought I'd test out the wrap skirt with a jolly old sheet I'd picked up at the local oppie. Here is me in my pensive pose, honed from my days as a swimsuit model for Sports Illustrated (you can see me here)* I wasn't kidding about taking over the kitchen table. And the skirt ... I love it ... because 'House of Burns' says this season is the 'Summer of the jolly frock and skirt' ... oh, and yellow shoes (where do I get me some yellow shoes?) And here is the hat for the wee girl. I pulled out all the heavy weight fabric and asked her to choose. Whilst I wasn't backing this pink number (I'm not a real pink person)... the girl's eye clearly is a good one ... she choose to line the vintage pink extravaganza with a lilac drill. Ripper, no?

The hat itself, it's very snug. She is nonetheless thrilled with it. It doesn't blow off in the wind, tick! Shall see how we go with the adult size hat - but this size is perfecto for the wee lads. As for Sew La Tea Do ... I'm getting me a copy. One shouldn't push good friendships. Plus, she can crochet hexagons ... and I'm still on the granny square...

*Tell me you didn't really click on that link?

If I had a sewing bucket list .. this was on it

Yesterday marked a monumental day in the vast sewing world. A tiny drop in the ocean for some seamstresses, but for moi, monumentale. I sewed a pair of pants. I know, remember to b-r-e-a-t-h-e. I found a vintage pyjama pattern, adapted it from a size 2/3 down to something resembling a size one and ticked 'pants' off the list that contains things that I think may be hard and have thus not tried. They worked. So today I tried another pair. I know, outrageous. But one pair of pants won't cut it in our house. Someone ends up going nude. They worked too. Chasing two wee boys around to get some photos on the other hand proved more difficult. The red checked pair were my 'test pair'. They were from fabric given to me way back here. When they were a success I went with the 'batik'. (Mum had picked up the fabric in Sarawak, Malaysia, when my Dad worked there). I enjoyed getting lost in 'the details'. I made a couple of 'faux' pockets at the front. Don't think I'll repeat them. I figured, at this stage, they didn't really need anywhere to put their keys. That back pocket was going to be a circle ... but after sewing two bits together and turning it in, I was struggling to make the circle look all neat, so I cut it off. Then I ricracked it up.As mentioned, photography was based on speed, rather than accuracy ... but the next shots at least showcase my new skirt ... whipped up in vintage curtain fabric, found way back here, it's my new favourite. The pattern is awesome. My sister even whipped up two. She has hips. They don't show in this skirt. It is tres flattering. You get the picture? It's A line....

...because sometimes you need a good place to hide ...

For Myself

Today I completed a project. Completing anything in particular is always a bit of a 'Hurrah' moment round these parts but this project was a veritable 'You little Beauty' moment. I sewed. I sewed MYSELF something. And it WORKED. Tight Ass Table Spotlight fabric + Simplicity pattern 2209 = A little 50s inspired frock action. I finished just as I heard the boys stirring from their midday nap ... so here is the ' just quickly pop it on over my current outfit' photo shoot. So over the jeans it went. The pose, that wasn't my blue steel ... the sun was in my eyes and the chickens in my bloody spring bulbs.Clearly I am on some kind of roll or is it mission? because last week I made something else. I conjured up this skirt from this pattern and then hung it on my newly blossoming quince tree in some sort of effort to look all arty, photography-like. Let's call it a fail - please go lurk on a photography blog if you are artisitcally offended, but by this time I had one of the boys on my hip, so another outfit change was a serious NO GO SISTA! Before I started, I took all my measurenments and it said I was a size 18 ... but by the amount I had to run it in the back ... I'd say I was a 12-14.A little jaunty? Nothing like a wardrobe that contains nothing it seems bar black and a budget that is far from being in the black, to act as a little motivation. As I got sewing I also got thinking. I realised that the last time I sewed myself something I was 24. I was working overseas. I sewed on a borrowed machine on the tiled floor of the condo I lived in in Singapore (we didn't have much furniture). I didn't use a pattern I just cut around a dress I liked at the time and sewed up some side seams and made it up. It was very, um, grungy... and I thought I looked HOT. Only took me a little under a decade and a half to have another go at it. AT this rate I'll have an entire wardobe by the time my one year olds graduate from high school. Ace!