I barely had enough fabric and Tessuti have sold out of this fabric so I had to settle on Version D which I liked the look of anyway. I had just enough fabric.
It was the worst fabric I have ever had to cut. It was so slippery but I persevered.
I decided I’d better put to use the techniques I had learned in Couture to get accurate positioning of darts, seams etc which I think paid off in the end as the fit is almost perfect.
I decided to fully line it after reading a few of the reviews on Pattern Review. This fabric was far too expensive and gorgeous to not line.

I was going to put an exposed zipper at the back but decided against it after I realised there was way too much fabric at the back and it was making it stick out too much. I had to alter the back neck line by bringing it down a few inches to allow for this extra fabric. An invisible zipper was a much better choice.

I also learned how to sew a vent with lining. That was a bit of a challenge but I found a great tutorial here.
The one thing I hate about this pattern is the zipper at the back. I can barely reach it to do it up or undo it. I had to get my 5 year old to unzip me one day and he decided it was way too hard. Aggh! I felt trapped.
Next time, I will do a side zipper. Much more lady like!

Overall, I’m really really happy with this dress. It feels beautiful to wear and fits like a glove without being too uncomfortable.

This is my entry for the RTW Designer Knockoff Contest.
 Let me tell you, it is no fun having your photo next to a gorgeous model! How can one compare? 
Maybe a wig would help.
 I did a bit of research on the net and magazines to see what trends are current now and starting pinning a few ideas to a board on Pinterest. What kept jumping out at me was lace and neon and peplum dresses.

I know these contests are designed to help you use fabric from your stash but I had seen a neon lace at Darn Cheap Fabrics a few weeks ago and new it would be ideal (and cheap) for this project. It is acrylic and cheap and probably not quite the right choice but I didn’t want to spend too much.  A little brighter than the gorgeous outfit I’m trying to knock off but neon is in right now so why not? I couldn’t decide on pink or yellow but I fell in love with this yellow crochet peplum number from Printing, a Brazilian brand which has obviously been made with a much nicer quality lace than mine.

I decided to use Vogue V8815 for the Peplum Top. I reshaped the neck and armhole area to make it look more like the models although looking at it now I think I could have shaved off a few more centimeters. I also added pleats to the peplum just like the models. I had to cut the bodice on the cross grain to get the scalloped edge on the peplum which I didn’t really give a great result. The bodice is too stretchy lengthwise and doesn’t fit as snug as I had intended.
I used a skirt pattern from Burdastyle Mag 7/2012. 120 skirt. I have to say, I love this pattern. The skirt is high waisted which was perfect to attach to the high waist line of the peplum top. The skirt has two curved darts on the waistline starting from the side seam which gives a really nice shape. I will definitely make this skirt again.

For the back, I decided to funk it up a bit with an exposed zip. I hadn’t seen a back picture of the dress until after I had sewn in the zip. I was really happy to see that the models dress has an exposed zipper too. Great minds think alike!

There is a great tutorial for exposed zippers on the Simplicity Website. I also, lined it with a nice medium weight satin.
I had to have the photos taken quickly because I was getting ready to go out on a girls night so didn’t notice the creases in my dress at the time. I had tried to iron out all of the creases but this fabric doesn’t seem to like the iron.

I’m pretty happy with it. I think it will look great styled up with some grungy boots and a leather jacket thrown over.

Woo hoo! My dress has made it into the final for the Burdastyle Sewing Vintage Modern Contest.
I didn’t intend for this dress to be the “one” for my entry because I didn’t read the fine print where it said you can only enter one dress. I had plans on making another amazing out fit to enter, hee hee.

Anyway, I am really pleased I am a finalist but also a bit deflated as I am not getting any votes.
There are some incredible dresses in the competition and deservedly getting the votes.

If you are a Burdastyle Member I would love it if you could give me a vote here pretty please…

Sewing enthusiasts please check out this music video made with embroidery and sewing implements.

If you are like me and a wee bit on the short side, you will most likely need to hem most of your jeans. Even though I am a sewer, I dread doing it for some reason. Perhaps it’s the mundanenus of it. But hemming jeans to fit is a cinch and you can save bucks on alterations.
You really do only need basic sewing skills.
Denim is thick and a bit tricky but if you use the right needle it’s easy.
Also, buy a top stitching thread to match and they can look just as good as the original jean.

Here is what I do:

Get yourself

A jeans needle
Fabric scissors
Measuring tape
Pins
Iron-Very Important!!
Sewing machine- of course.

How to Hem Jeans

Decide on the length. At this point it’s great to have a friend to mark for you as bending down to measure doesn’t always work out that well as I have discovered many times. Or a full length mirror can help.
Pop pins in all the way around, take them off then press to get the new hem line.

Measuring hem width

Decide what width you want the hem. I usually measure the existing hem (in this case 1.5cm) then double this measurement.

Pop a pin in where you want to cut

cut off at pin Cut off fabric where your pin is.

fold the hem width and press, make sure you press well this will give a neat professional look

fold again , press well and pin in place

This is the important part, test your stitch length and tension. When you are working with a different size needle and thread the tension will vary greatly. I had to do a few tests on this particular fabric. My tension ended up being around 8!

Now on the right side of the fabric top stitch all the way around feeling with your fingers for the edge of the folded hem. Pull the fabric gently whilst stitching. Your stitching needs to be a few millimetres from the edge folded underneath.
For example if your hem is 1.5cm wide your top stitching will be 1.3cm from the hem edge.
Now press again.

There you go, not so bad after all.

This is my spin on the Vintage Modern Jamie Shift Dress for the “BurdaStyle Sewing Vintage Modern Contest 2013”.

I started by ordering the book from Amazon. I was so excited to get started as all the patterns look amazing and not that difficult. There are so many projects I am going to make from this book. I think I can use a lot of my stash for most of them.

I put together a bit of a story board on pinterest to get some inspiration and in doing so I now have a  love for shift dresses and cant wait to get started on the next one. I have a great fabric which is perfect for it that I picked up from  Tessuti Fabrics a few months ago called Stainglass Garden. It has a real sixties vibe to it.

Stainglass Garden Farbic from Tessuti

I decided on adding a yoke and deleting the front darts. I found a lace collar in my stash which suited the style.
This dress was supposed to be the toile but I decided as I was sewing that the fabric was too cute for a toile and hoped that the fit would be ok. It turned out that I just needed to add some darts in the back and alter the armholes as they were very small.

The only real challenge with this dress was finishing the seams which has nothing to do with the pattern just my overlocker which has a mind of it’s own. A beast.
It was working beautifully for months with a perfect tension and then I changed the colour of thread to black to finish this dress. What a stupid idea! I spent at least one hour threading it!! AGGGHH!! Now, I can’t get the tension right. It’s a bit loose on the lower threads. If anybody has ideas or tricks on how to get the perfect tension please share 🙂

Anyway, I decided to enter this one in the competition and if I get time to make up another one in the “real” fabric I will enter that also.

What I love the most about this dress is that’s it’s really comfy to wear and can be worn with or without a belt, although adding the belt makes it a bit short! Nothing a leggin cant fix.

Can’t wait to get started on the next one.

Update as of 19th of February. I have been chosen as a finalist. If you are a Burdastyle member please cast your vote here

Today I had a stall at the Camberwell Markets, a very popular flea market in Melbourne.

Back in September which is the start of spring for us here in Australia, I decided that I would have a clean up and book a stall. Getting a stall is not easy but perseverance pays off.

I had a lot of toys I was ready to clear out and then I decided to get to work and clear out some of my fabric stash.

I left it all to the last minute  but I couldn’t believe how efficient I had become at sewing when I had a deadline.

I made some girls dresses, smock tops and even an Owl cushion made from a chenille bedspread I had purchased on eBay.

A great flea market but not the place for selling hand crafted stuff. People who were shopping weren’t willing to pay more than $5 or $10 and are not really looking for hand crafted things.

I really enjoyed this project as it has got me fired up to get more of my stuff up on my etsy shop.