Birthday fun

It's Sharon's birthday today and we did an early morning photo shoot in town to a few places Gabrielle has featured in the Me-Made May posts. Happy Birthday Sharon and Hi Gabrielle!
 
Jalie jeans on both days. Minoru on Day 17 and me-made tops on both days. The hat was bought in 2009 at Camden Markets, London after a wonderful canal ride. Day 18's top is a stripe top. The construction post is here because it's kinda Anthropologie-like. The corduroy jeans jacket Vogue 7610 was made a long time ago.
 
The city is so quiet on a Saturday morning. We didn't have too many people staring at us but it was fun. The construction workers played up to us too.

I'm wearing a lot more warm layers CarolynS, Jenny and Penny than I did in Perth last week. 

Thank you for the jacket compliments too. Now that I know I can make jackets after so many years of sewing them, taking the time to add detailing is very rewarding.

At work

MMM13 days 14-16 were work days and it's cooler here so the jackets come out to play.

Jeanne and Megan took these photos for me.

Day 14:
Me-made Jacket made a long time ago and was too long so I cut it shorter.
Me-made Shirt: butterick 4985.
Me-made Skirt Aline skirt not blogged. The bias trim was added to hide the overlocking on the hem - doh.

Day 15 the head cold starts:
Me-made Jacket McCalls 4596.
Me-madeTop: Vogue 2980. I adjusted this top for fit last year.
Me-madeTrousers Burda 7746 lined trousers. They make me feel snuggly.

Day 16 persistant head cold:
Me-madeJacket Vogue 7764 This jacket had a lot of detailing.
Me-madeTop: Kwik Sew 2683 in grey not blogged.
Me-madeTrousers McCalls 2874 grey trousers.

Day 16 pic is my way of saying Bonjour to Vero. Vero launched her online bag patterns Sacotin today and I helped her with the English translations. She's based in a small village in France and we had fun liaising online and I learnt a funny lesson to not rely on online translations. I was the one 'Lost in translation'. Vero has a great sense of humour.

One more piece

When I bought this Sarong for $7 at Tie Rack on sale, I dreamed that one day it would become a cover-up top. So this morning after an hour of sewing 4 seams, it is.

This will be ideal to wear on the beach or by the pool with shorts and my cozzies. But for now I thought the best way to show this piece to you was wearing skinny jeans.

Can you see that the top has two layers but the there's only one layer at the hips? I didn't want to waste the fabric so I've folded the fabric over at the top. The shortest layer is on the outside of the top. I only cut the fabric for one of the armholes.

I've almost finished LN's test coat, in preparation for making the faux fur version.
Back to it tonight.

Flowers and flounce

Here are some more details about Fifth Avenue.

When I make up a project with lots of pieces, I use the sewing stand to see how it looks as I go. This keeps me motivated and I get a better idea of the proportions on new patterns and adjustments. The eyelet peplum is on the stand because I'd just made it so the proportions were correct.

The collar, skirt draped pieces and flounce are constructed before the dress is sewn together.

This earlier bodice version above shows the embroidered flower on the bust point. Below the collar hovers over the bust point so I could have left it there but I replaced this piece at the time.

The dress is fully lined the dress and used bias strips to cover the armhole seams. The pattern only suggests lining the bodice but I decided to line the skirt because it sits better.

The collar is understitched so it sits nicely.

And the hem is machine blind hemmed.

Flounce
Without a bit of hand sewing, the flounce sadly flops. A bit of hand sewing makes it more floral and soft. Below I've divided the flounce in 5 places.

Then I've handsewn the flattened flounce edge seams to the skirt

Below you can see the fabric is fairly stiff so the flounce has a bit of life to it.

On the weekend I'll take proper photos showing this dress worn.

70s/80s tracksuit for day 13

In the morning it's a bit cooler in Sydney and I decided to use a really old pattern with a classic tracksuit pattern Simplicity 8887. Not sure if this pattern is a 70s or 80s pattern.

 If you add the braid edging you need 3m of the knitted braid trim for the jacket. I did without the braiding this time.

The green fleece remnant used here was a Spotlight $2 piece but there wasn't enough for the sleeves. I had leftover fabric from a jumper kwik sew 1997 I made a couple of years ago. There's still enough of the stripe fabric to make another hoodie.

I wanted kangaroo pockets so I drafted these up from scratch.

The open-ended zipper was a 3 for $1 zipper bought at The Remnant Warehouse.

Here's how I wore this jacket in the morning to the gym in a pic taken by Bill, a die-hard workout mate who also wears a heart rate monitor. This jacket is going to get a real workout.

After work we went to a bike class. Mr V wore his Me-made Avocado hoodie. A nice Mum going to the gym took this pic for us.

I did manage to take a pic of what I wore to work before going to the gym. Kwik Sew 3378 top and Butterick 3597 skirt.

As soon as the weekend hits, I'll do some decent photos of Fifth Avenue because it's finished - flounce and all. I only had to finish the flounce but so many things have popped up since then.

MMM13 week 2 and a Perth meet up

The week that just flew by had me flying east to west between offices. That rarely happens.

Day 7:
Me-made shirt Butterick 4985, Me-made cardi McCalls 5978 and Me-made skirt McCalls 8972
Day 8 totally excited:
Me-made dress (can't find this post) and Me-made sandwich bolero
Day 9:
Me-made dress Butterick 5638 and Me-made jacket

And I got to meet up with Penny Hooper, Jenny (JenleeC) and CarolynS. We had a lot to talk about and only in one night. We still look as fresh as a daisy eventhough we were last to leave the resturant.
You're all very special ladies and talented sewers! You made me feel more at home while working away from home and with such short notice for our meet up too.
Day 8 BTW: Me-made top and Me-made jeans.

Day 10 tired and heading back home:
Me-Made Jalie 2908 jeans, Me-made floral knit top, Me-made brown jacket.
Day 11:
Me-Made NewLook 6977 top, Me Made Jalie 2908 jeans.
Day 12:
Happy Mothers Day in my sewing room
Me-made pleather jacket McCalls 6292, Me-Made rust bling peplum Vogue 8815, Me-Made Jalie jeans.

Accessory wardrobe challenge pieces

While 'winter is coming' I've made a couple of pieces for the Accessory Wardrobe Challenge on Pattern Review.

These sandals are the inspiration.
You've seen this peplum in a blue Cue version and a purple eyelet version.

The fabric is rust bling georgette and I've used ties on the sleeve to reflect the straps on the sandals and kept the peplum to it's original length using Vogue 8815.

This reddish top has a red gold tinge to it and I will pair this with my Lily skirt or jeans.

That's my sewing room. Happy Mothers Day.
This top is paired with my pleather jacket McCalls 6292 and Jalie jeans 2908.

The next top has lots of colours so I can see myself wearing this top in summer with dark shorts. New Look 6977 now out of print, has a simple knit top with small sleeve that takes a couple of hours to complete.

The print version below is the test top.

The instructions are handy and I've cover locked the hems with red thread.

The centre back seam makes this top easy to shape when you have to do a sway back. I've used leftover fabric and tried to keep the swirls and colours in the right order and balanced.

I've paired this top with Vogue 8774 jeans. This top works great with Jalie jeans 2908.

The last version using New Look 6977 is blinge-full using a remnant $10 of what was $50/m.

The beauty of this fabric is the bling is sewn on mesh backing in swirls. This meant I could cut into the fabric with paper scissors (and not blunting my fabric scissors) and use a simple straight stitch to construct this top. No hand stitching took place.

There were lots of bling bits on the carpet and they were easy to vacuum. The sewing machine needles didn't break and I've cleaned the sewing machine and it's humming along nicely.

This top is a feature piece so I can dress it up or down. No ironing needed and paired with jeans again. Jeans are my go-to staple on weekends.

Either way, these three pieces were inspired by the shoes and didn't break my budget.
Catch up posts:
I owe you:
- another Avocado hoodie post;
- more on the Fifth Avenue dress and
- MMM13 posts to finish.

I'll be sewing LN's white faux fur coat for her birthday while I get these post to you.

Feedback:
I told Mr V how much you all enjoyed his hoodie and he blushed in appreciation. TJ, he is very professor-like with a rugby edge. Your cookie-fest meet up sounds like fun.
The family loved the Easter baking (flaounes) a lot.
Thanks BeaJay for the nomination.
Hope to see some of you on 18th May in Sydney too.

'Allblack' hoodie

This Avocado hoodie in allblack fleece was cut out and made in 3 hours. Yep 3 hours.

I had a deadline to remake this hoodie for Mari of Disparate Disciplines but I also had some baking to do on the same day...

Got all the ingredients for Easter baking and the mint was from the garden.

 ...so I made this allblack version while I waited for the yeast to take effect in the dough.

The dough is now resting and I covered this with a blanket to stay warm. Now to get the hoodie cut and sewn.

 This allblack hoodie uses the just launched pattern.

DH wasn't sure what I was up to that quiet Sunday afternoon so he stayed out of the way not wanting to get in the eye the baking and sewing storm that was brewing around me.

The dough has risen and is ready to use. The hoodie was finished by this stage.

The neckline is sewn a bit too wide (my mistake) so when I make this again, I'll use a 1cm seam and not a 1.5cm seam. The neckline has a facing that I've cut back after finishing it so the facing doesn't stick out when Mr V is dressing in a rush.

The first version below in blue is a closer fit using the test pattern and DH wears the first version a lot. This took 5 hours to make.

The real pattern has lots of instructions and illustrations so you can make this hoodie and know it's been tested and retested. Mari has been very thorough and thoughtful in getting this pattern to work.

The pdf pattern uses stars to help piece the pattern together, which I found really helpful and I could use a table to assemble the pieces and not resort to working on the floor.

The sleeve thumb opening in this pattern is something I've seen in RTW but not sewn before. I like it.

Easter baking is done and the family was happy with this result.

I was curious to see how the next size up would work in a winter fabric with more winter weight underlayers so Mr V has two hoodies with two types of ease and for two seasons. And these fabrics were no more than $4/m at $8 a hoodie, it didn't break the budget.

Now to get the allblack hoodie embroidered with his favourite rugby team's logo.