Negroni pattern and fabric for Male Pattern Boldness sew-along!

The fabric is absolutely gorgeous. It feels so nice that I wish I was making the shirt for myself!

The print is larger than I was expecting, but this is good because it does make it more masculine. I thought it was a fairly gender-neutral print when I ordered it, so this is a good thing. I'm fairly sure the fiance will like it as he has bought himself a floral print button up shirt.

I bought it from Tessuti and it arrived so quickly! I quite often lust after fabric on this website but have never bought anything before. When I last made a shirt for the fiance-man I had so much trouble finding anything decent. I ended up buying quilting weight fabric as there just wasn't anything with a decent print that was cotton. As a result, it is quite a heavy weight shirt so he only tends to wear it in winter. So keeping in mind my previous fabric difficulties I decided to join the party and pony up the cash for this project. I knew I wouldn't be disappointed with the quality of fabric even if it was kinda more than I was wanting to spend. I will just have to do an extremely good job sewing it. Pressure much?

Anyway, why is it that I won't spend the money on fabric for myself? Probably because I will get petrified of ruining it and it will sit in my stash for years and years is why...

The way that the pattern is packaged and presented is just lovely and bodes well for construction and fit of the pattern I think.

Dramas of a Peach Coloured Skirt.

Don't you hate it when you have to renovate someone else's sewing?

Last summer (2009-2010) I bought a skirt off Etsy.

The colour was pretty, the skirt looked great in the photos. So I ordered it and paid for it.

I should have had my suspicions when the guy questioned my measurements that I had sent...I'd ordered the size that I thought would best fit me - and apparently he thought that I'd measured myself wrong...so we conversed back and forth and the skirt was on it's way. Apparently it was being made to fit my measurements.

Well, the skirt came. The colour was great, the silhouette was good, the fabric was comfortable.

The way the skirt did up was just weird. It put too much strain on the button/s and guess what? It felt like it was too big...

Now I'm all about different ways to do things, but man, this skirt just didn't work. I perservered however, because I just loved everything else about it.

So the summer season came and went. The skirt got worn enough times to get "christened" the kiraph way - this means having food spilt on it - and then summer went away and the skirt went into my cupboard.

Now came the summer of 2010-2011. I decided about a month ago that I wanted to wear the skirt. I was well and truely over the honeymoon period of this garment so when I got dressed, I put up with the ill-fitting, strangely constructed waistband for all of half an hour. The skirt came off, shorts went on and I spent the next hour or so unpicking the waistband off the skirt.

Then it sat in my mending/alteration pile (yes I know you all have a huge one as well!) until the other day.

I was on a mission. Now, in some respects the skirt was well made - the seams were overlocked, the waistband had been sewn on very well, the top of the pockets (the part you could see) were finished well and the hem was sewn well.

But the lining? And the inside of the pockets? What a mess! The lining was just a length of nylon chiffon that was poorly finished off - and the inside of the pockets, well here is a picture of that...

How can you not finish the edge of a pocket when the fabric is woven?

Anyway, in the end I zig-zagged over the pocket edges and cut off the rest of the seam allowance (which was huge in some places) with pinking shears. I removed the 'lining.' I took in the skirt with a couple of pleats (there was already one big one at the centre front) and sewed an exposed zipper onto the centre back. Then I took some length and width off the waistband.

After sewing it on, the waist was still too big, so I just put 2 pleats in the back. Then added 2 button holes and buttons.

In the end it fits a lot better, and isn't uncomfortable to wear. But jeez.... what an effort!!!

So, what would you have done?

Got rid of the garment?

Pulled the whole thing apart and made something else of it?

Left it in the cupboard, never to be worn again only to remind you of the time you briefly enjoyed wearing it?

Or as I did, renovate?

I'm Joining in!!!

Peter over at Male Pattern Boldness is having a men's shirt sew-along.

As you can see from the side bar, I'm joining in on this one. I bought my pattern - the same one Peter is using - this morning from Colette Patterns.

It is pattern No. 1014 from Negroni. I have previously made the Burdastyle.com Jakob for my fiance, but I found it a bit too boxy. So, while I could have just made a different version of that same pattern, I decided against it and went with a new one. Hopefully it will arrive in time for our February start date!

It seems to be the time of year for sew-alongs. Sunny over at The Cupcake Goddess is having a pant sew-along. I was nearly going to participate in this one, but one thing that I wanted to do for myself was draft a pant pattern that is based off my own measurements. I have gotten tired of

a) Not buying pants becuase the fit is so bad

and

b)Not making pants from pre-maid pattern due to the amount of fiddling I would have to do to the pattern.

So yes, drafting a pattern is on my list of things to do - here's to not getting intimidated!

A cinematic start to 2011

Yesterday, New Years Day, a friend and I went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) I have to say that they did a pretty good job of following the book and I am so very glad that they made the decision to do this final book in 2 parts.

Today, 2nd January, I watched a movie that I wasn't too sure I was going to like. I bought it on iTunes becuase it was fairly cheap and was a 'girl movie'. Every now and then I do get the mad urge to watch something girly and I think this movie will probably get added to my go to list. The Jane Austen Book Club was a lot better and more entertaining than I expected it to be. I found myself have a good chuckle quite frequently throughout. It was just a really lovely movie that I really enjoyed watching.

Burdastyle Handmade Contest

I'm pretty excited!

My crochet headband was selected as a 'finalist' in this competition over at Burdastyle. I know that it won't win, but it is still nice to have the editors from Modcloth choose my design part of their top 25.

Happy New Year everyone, don't get too silly!

Dance concert 2010.

I have had a flat out year sewing costumes for work and haven't really had time - or the inclination - to blog. Now to end the drought are some pics from our end of year concert.

Lemonade!

I made these for the junior half of our concert. We presented "Babes in Toyland" and these girls did a cute little number to the lemonade song - if anyone knows the movie.

10 half tutus

10 leotards with arm frills

10 caps

Lots and lots of yellow!

Swan Lake, Act II

Our senior vocational ballet students presented Act II of Swan Lake, as this year we were lucky enough to have a very talented boy studying with us. It was a big challenge for them, and I think they learnt a lot.

I did the design for 31 lovely swans. Which included designing the tutu overlays and the bodice pieces as well. I was lucky enough not the have to make 31 sets of tutu plates though. And I only had to sew half of the bodice pieces which then had to be attached to the tutus. As we used both full tutus and leotards with half tutus more leotards had to be made as well. 

The tutu overlays were made of a layer of opalescent organza sewn onto a layer of tulle with silver ribbon around the edge. A layer of white lycra was sewn onto the organza layer and was painted with feather details and embellished with sequins. 

The bodices consisted of 2 lycra oval shapes with 4 painted turkey feathers sewn onto each. These were sewn onto the fronts of the leotards and tutus after a length of opalescent braid had been attached to the flesh insert. A feather was then sewn down the centre front of the tutus and leotards. 

The gorgeous headpieces were designed and made by another lady so I can't take credit for them. They are basically hackle pads glued onto headbands with some beading in the centre. Odette has a small tiara as well.

Our lovely Odette, Ayesha.

Crazy Crochet Wednesday

Since my last post things in the land of chrochet have gone a little, well insane.

My long standing crochet project has progressed significantly and I have now run out of wool. Which has of course stalled my enthusiasm somewhat. Not to worry, I have another side project going and I have plenty of wool for that one - no pictures of that yet though.

I have finally taken a picture of a scarf that I crocheted about 6 months ago (very oddly during my summer holiday period) It is the first thing that I have crochet that isn't some form of granny square. Not sure if I got the tension 100% spot on, but I like it. I wore it the other day and got multiple compliments for it. Props for me! Yay! 

I used used 3 balls of wool (but you can make it whatever length you like) and the pattern came from Ravelry. It was a free pattern and really easy to crochet. It is called Queen Anne's Lace. If you are wanting something easy to make that isn't a granny square give this one a go. 

There are just so many lovely projects on Ravelry. These are a couple that are on my list for next time I catch the 'crochet-bug'

This gorgeously delicious clutch. Very similar to a Chanel one that I saw in April 2010 of Australian Vogue... knock-off anyone?

Here is Chanel's.

It really is quite sweet.

This sweet little cuff. 

Even these rings are quite darling, but I'm not sure if my skills are up to them yet...

And a sweet headband.

All of the patterns that I have featured and linked to are free from the Ravelry website. You just need to join up! Ravelry also has alot of knitting patterns and resources as well. I am just more interested in crochet - it is easier to fix if you stuff it up!

So, sorry for all the pictures. Well, I'm not actually. They are all pretty, with the possible exception of my home photography attempts ;)

I hope you enjoyed my Crazy Crochet Wednesday!