another dress for summer!

Hi.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with lots of yummy food & good company?
Boxing Day here in Australia, so I thought I'd make up McCalls 6113 in readiness for the stinking hot days to come (if it ever stops raining that is!!).

This dress caught my eye with the uneven hemline & halter style, how summery does this look? I made the longer length dress.

I used a lovely lightweight cotton lawn (or batiste) that I found at Spotlight a few yrs ago. I love the butterfly print, very summery.
This particular dress looks beachy to me, because of the cotton fabric, so will be great for bbq's & trips to the beach.

I made it to the pattern except for shortening the elastic in the back, however if I made it again I would add some extra depth to the bodice front.
As I am a C cup this didn't cover my boobs as well as I would have liked (probably an extra 1" vertical width so it sat all the way under my boobs would be better, the horizontal width was fine).
& I would probably also extend the elastic to go under the boobs too, for a better fit (on the pattern only the lower back piece is elasticated)

I'm not 100% sure of this dress on me now that its made up.
I mean I like it & all, but I'm more used to wearing waist defining styles, so this feels a bit maternity on me (I have a fat tum so I'm a bit self concious about looking pregnant!).
It actually would make a great maternity dress as there's plenty of room in the front, & with the uneven hemline I don't think you'd have to alter the length at all (which means its wearable after the fact as well).
It will certainly be comfortable to wear in stinking hot weather, & could look fairly glam (or at least I think so) with the right fabric choice.

I think this style would also look fantastic in something like chiffon or georgette, or even a slinky silk charmeuse.
So perhaps if I was to make it again I would use something like that, as the cotton is a bit billowy.

Anyway, here are a few photos.

I should have a glass of wine in hand for this photo, what do you think?

PS. BF absolutely loved his Xmas shirt, & it fitted him perfectly ;-)
(abit of luck seeing as he lives a very long way away & I had to guess what size to make!)

yet another pair of Jalie jeans!

Hi there.
Well after the success of the denim shorts, it was time for another pair of jeans using Jalie 2908.
This is the 3rd pair of jeans made from this pattern, it is a real TNT.

I used the same denim as for the shorts, & kept to the white top-stitching again.
For the pockets I used a lace embroidery design, unfortunately I don't remember where I found it now though, but I think it turned out really nicely.

As this denim didn't feel as stretchy as the previous denim used, I cut the waistband as per the pattern (on the fold though & cross grain rather than bias, as I had done for the other 2 pair).

However, I ended up with a gaping waistband (which is not something I normally have a problem with as my bum is fairly flat) so I ended up removing the back section of the waistband , taking it in 2cm at the CB seam & stretching it to fit.
This pulled the back section in nicely & gave a perfect fit.

anyway here are the photos, tell me what you think!

sewing my first Patrones design - 290/12

HI there.
Yes, its been a few weeks since I've sewn anything worth blogging about.
Not that I haven't been sewing mind you, but have just been making 'boring' stuff!
(well there's also the new BF issue, but that's another subject entitrely!)
BUT today I finally got my act together to have a crack at my first Patrones design.

This one is from issue 290,  a Joven special (is that 'youth' designs??), style number 12.

The top is cute too!

These are a long pair of shorts with an interesting bound pocket design & a split waistband.
It also had an extra button on tab trim on the waist but I decided not to bother with that, as I wanted to make these in a fairly heavy stretch denim.
I also added some jeans pockets from Jalie 2908, with some embroidery from http://www.urbanthreads.com/ (design UT1976) using heavy white matt embroidery thread (which I also used for top-stitching).

Overall they turned out pretty well, & I'm happy with the sizing.
Being stretch denim they're super comfy too.

Design wise in the photo, they looked like they sat a bit low waisted, but on me they were on the waist line.
No biggie, but if I were to make them again I would only use the bottom part of the waist band as its rather wide.
As the denim was so heavy, & because I wanted a bit less bulk in the waist line (my problem area) I decided to use the contrast fabric for the inside waistband, cut on the bias.
It gives it a really nice finish.
The contrast fabric is a printed poplin, which was used to line the pockets, waist band, fly trim etc., & it was what inspired the final choice of embroidery design on the pocket.

Anyway, here are a few photos showing construction of the pocket binding & 2 piece waist band, & of course the obligatory finished shots.

I'm totally hooked on Patrones magazines, what gorgeous styles they have!

And now that I know they fit without too much drama, will be using them more & more.

I think a subscription may be in order - what do you think?

PS. here's what I made for my new BF for Xmas.

Hard to know what to give someone when you've just met them, but he's so lovely I wanted something really special & personal.... so hopefully he'll appreciate this.

Again more machine embroidery from Urban Threads, love their stuff! (UT1291)

The fabric is a lovely soft cotton with a woven check, & was just beautiful to sew.

Coconut buttons to co-ordinate with the coffee brown machine embroidery, I really hope he likes it.