Archive for December 2012
December 30, 2012 | 
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Wowsers! Here we are, my year in sewing A Garment A Week For A Year. This is a major accomplishment for me, a personal challenge I seriously didn’t know I could achieve. I started sewing along to The Sew Weekly themes midway through 2011 and fell in love with the idea of creating a garment from a theme; like a mini weekly Project Runway if you like. At the end of 2011- spurred on by The Sew Weekly community to sign-up as a contributor for 2012 I thought why the hell not. I had to pass this by my hubby first because he is a major contributor to what I do on a weekly basis-photography wise and, putting up with me and my being a silly perfectionists with my sewing. He waved the green flag, he is amazing, I love him no end for his never-ending support and constant cheerleading. Thanks babes. I also want to thank my supportive readers and commentors that take the time to stop in and write lovely things about what I have sewn both here and on The Sew Weekly, it blows me away. Those random emails that turn up in my inbox thanking me for inspiring them to be creative and to just be yourself—in my opinion the best person to be THANK YOU!!!! a huge thank you to Mena and the remanding SW contributors for an amazing year of sewing, much love and respect to you all.
I have spent a little time putting this one-stop post together of my Year in Sewing, each picture links to the original post if you want to read and see more photos it has it’s own category for future reference too. I would love to hear if you had any favourites in the comments so grab a cuppa and turn up your speakers. Hope you enjoy this post as much as I did sewing this year.
See you next year. Happy Sewing.
….and here she is my final garment for 2012. Yay!! I did it, I’ve sewn A Garment A Week For A Year, this is a massive personal achievement for me and I am super proud of myself but, enough of that for just now I would love to walk you through this weeks final sewing challenge. The theme is Happy Holidays so in my book that means anything right? This photo set has a tropical feel about it so we can cross out Holiday and Happy? well that just goes without saying really. This get-up is inspired by the one and only Grace Jones. Back in the 80′s she wore a lot of draped hooded ensembles which became a trademark of hers and I’m just a huge fan so why not do my best Grace Jones out here on this tropical island (not really it’s my local park) in this wicked hooded jumpsuit.
This silky satin when laid out looks like the pattern of a butterfly enlarged, this picture and the pants she’s wearing was what drew me to this fabric! I just love that outfit and found it to be a fluke to stumble across something similar on sale in my local Spotlight. There are no palm leaves on my fabric so to compensate we chose this location and added some colourful tropical photoshoppery to set the mood.
For the basis of this outfit I used a Vogue Designer original by Bellville Sassoon 2930. Every piece of this pattern are separates, top, pants jacket and skirt not the most appealing pattern but perfect for what I wanted to achieve. I used the pants replacing the daggy 80′s pleats with darts and used the top—which crisscrosses over at the front. I made up the pants basting them together first, when I was happy with the cut I serged the seams using red, orange, pink and black spools of cotton on my overlocker. Pretty details on the inside. I made up the top omitting the frill—not really a frilly kinda girl. I popped the top on and the pants and did a quick fitting pinning the top to the pants, did a careful squat to make sure I didn’t get a wedgie, no wedgie no riding up a really nice -not too loose not too tight fit. I placed an invisible zipper on the side and decided on leaving the pockets out because of the zip placement. I cut a draped hood and placed this along the neckline. She came together really well, I thought I’d struggle a bit with the silky satin I guess taking my time at the cutting stage paid off? Passing on facing the armholes I thought cutting a few bias strips and sewing these on around the edges would look and sit a lot better. I have carriers for the belt to sit through too.
So there we have it, my very own hooded killer Grace inspired jumpsuit to finish off this big ol year of sewing. Here is my Sewing Year in Review for 2012. I hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed sewing it all. I’m off to dance the dance of joy and have me a celebratory drink a little later. *Ching Ching*
Let’s play Where’s Wally.
Hi readers hope you had a wonderful and very festive Christmas, we took time out to road-trip it to my Mum and Dad’s to spend Christmas with them, Mum always puts on the best spread, she makes the best Christmas cake too, it was really lovely to spend time with them and see them looking so happy. So, this weeks dress was inspired by one of my favourite Australian labels Romance Was Born, I instantly fell in love with their tank dresses from their Summer 2012 collection. Simple to make with a CMYK graphic explosion to the face. Look at this gem. I needed to find a project that I could whip up because we were right in the midst of Christmas mayhem and this was my safe-way out. I’ve just completed may last garment of the year and have put together my Year in Review which I’m hoping to post tomorrow along with my final garment. What a year, let’s take a look at my simple Tank Dress for now.
I found this smashing graphic print from Australian textile designers Wenzel which I thought would fit the brief perfectly. This is a Spotlight purchase, they have really lifted their game lately, their range of fabrics are getting better and better, they must have a new buyer or something it’s always exciting for a fabricholic like me to walk in and see the shiny new stuff laying there for me to stroke and buy it’s even more exciting when your awesome boss gives you a voucher to go wild with, he know’s where my passion lies. Thanks Boss.
The construction was fairly easy as all you fancy seamstresses can see, I just cut to my measurements flaring the shoulders a little to look like this Hero Dress. I would love to get into digital fabric printing, what you could summon up in print is endless. I’m going to look into it, yes I am. I can imagine it being very pricey though. Do you guys have any recommendations?
A lovely royal blue low-sheen chemise for the back piece adds a bit of contrast, it breaks the graphic up a little don’t you think? I think vertical black and white stripes would look good too, ah the possibilities are endless The neckline I cut a bias strip from the blue and sewed this on from the inside turning over and pressing under then sewing down. All seams are serged and the sleeves and hem turned under. Very very simple.
I have worn this a lot already it’s really, really comfortable, another perfect addition to my Summer wardrobe. I’m on the look-out for other fabrics that can be sewn up into tank dresses. My next dress I’ll do actual sleeves, these are okay, they tend to make me look even broader in the shoulders than I already am, maybe a rounded hem would look good too. I’ll wear it with my black army boots on those casual, cooler days.
I’m off to edit my photos for my final garment of the year, yippee! be sure to pop in for that post and for my Year in Review both released tomorrow.
Sewn to the soundtrack of Desmond Dekker – Israelites
Happy Days indeed.
