$5 Vogue 1250

I am a little embarrassed by how long this dress has taken me to finish. It sat waiting to be hemmed for a very long time. I’ve mentioned it a few times on the blog but most recently I found a post from October 2013 – Yes, TWO THOUSAND AND THIRTEEN! Which is JUST silly.

 

What colour thread?! I eventually went for the purple.

This fabric was from The Fabric Warehouse $5 Remnant Bin of Endless Inspiration! It was just shy of a meter but quite wide (150cm?) and I decided it must be Vogue 1250.

It’s been so long since I’ve worked with a Big 4 pattern. I have a big collection of them and I keep meaning to sew a few more from that pile but ohh look, a new sparkly indie pattern…lately everything from that corner been a bit too simple and…dare I say it? Yes, ok, boring! I suppose that’s good for my wallet and now have an excuse to dig through my pattern stash instead 😉

I really love patterns that use clever shapes to transform flat fabric so I’ve always thought this pattern was really interesting. It’s only 2 pieces, 3 if you count the tiny neck facing.

The main pattern piece is basically an inverted T. The bottom “wings” of the T wrap around to make the back of the skirt with a CB seam below a curving horizontal waist seam.

 I’ve included images of the pieces below:

#1 Front/back – The long right hand edge is cut on the fold and the lower piece extends to the left to create the back of the skirt. The most left hand edge is the skirt CB and above that you can see the curved back waist seam.

#2 Neck Facing – The front cowl neck is left unfinished.

#3 Upper Back – Cut on the fold (left straight edge).

It took me quite a bit of time to work out how to cut it out while pattern matching the striped colours. I wanted to place the front piece in such a way that I could also place the back piece and keep the same colours lining up across the side seams. I was close to giving up when I cracked it.

The yardage calls for 1.2m and the trick that helped me squeeze the pieces out of this length of fabric was adding a CB seam to the back bodice. You can hardly see this, the fabric print hides it perfectly.

It’s currently a little bit tight and far too slinky for work-wear. I feel a bit self conscious but hubby likes it (of course he likes it!) so I’ll drop some extra date night hints.

That’s about all I have to say about this particular dress. It was an easy make and actually quite fast to whip up (if you don’t put it down for 2 years waiting to hem). The instructions are completely illustrated, the front cowl inside edge is left raw but the back neck edge is nicely finished.

Pointing out the vertical seams to the photographer…I think 😉

I love supporting Indie pattern brands and I know the “Big 4” often get a bit of flack online. This is mostly due to confusion about ease. Some brands add more than others and often different amounts to different garment types. We all also have our own preferences for how much ease we like and this also differs between styles so it’s no wonder we often blame the pattern when a garment ends up too big (or too small). My trick to avoid all the crazy inconsistent ease is to ignore the size chart completely and check the finished measurements instead. I do this even with indie patterns. If there aren’t any finished measurements you can flat measure the pieces and work it out. Once you know the finished measurements compare them with your own and pick your size based on how much ease you want.

THE DEETS:

Pattern – Vogue 1250, size 14.

Added a seam in the back of the bodice to fit on the fabric.

Fabrics – $5 mystery knit from The Fabric Warehouse $5 Remnant Bin of Endless Inspiration! 

I wasn’t the only person getting new dress photos…

Work it Kat!

A quick catch-up

I’m a bit shocked that it’s been a month since I last posted, that’s how quickly time has been flying by for me lately!

Work and life occasionally just become ridiculous and something has to give. I won’t bore you with details, this is a sewing blog after all but the good news is that last week I had a holiday and I am feeling super refreshed and now I feel like I am finally on top of all things so watch out world! 🙂

So, in brief, here is what I got up to these last few weeks:

I bought this sewing machine:

Barbie! And it’s wind up, it really “sews”!

I also bought this one:

Baby Singer – will post more about her soon

My newest cross stitch project is becoming recognisable:

Come to the dark side…

I worked on a vintage blouse as a combined WSBN Teal Deal/TMS Vintage Pattern project and sort of failed – Time was not on my side and also I think it will be too big but I have promised to salvage it for a second group photo shoot in November with the two other girls that missed out:

Completed night classes in NZSL 1a and enrolled in 1b – starting Oct 16th:

Yeah!

Got serious with planning our kitchen renovation:

Realised I had too many unfinished projects lying around so finally finished Lady Grey and then pulled out my finished Lolita Patterns Sugarplum. I made the Sugar Plum for Indie Patterns Month as a pattern tester but have only just now gotten the go ahead to show photos on my blog…so now I need to take some photos!

Evil sewing machine is evil

I flew up to Auckland for a work conference:

Look how cute my tiny room was!

Then I went on a holiday:

Ohh volcano!

I walked up a volcano!:

Mt Tongariro – Ketetahi trail. You can just see the one of the Te Maari crater vents smoking away in the background. Last year it got grumpy and spat some big rocks out, destroying the Ketetahi hut.

Finished Vogue 1250 – need to take some photos.

Worked hard to try to finish Rainbow Swallows Shirt Dress – it just needs hemming – and again, photos – the story of my sewing-life right now!

Bought some patterns – these are not all for me!:

By Hand London goodies thanks to Penny at dressesandme.com

Then I bought some fabric – this is ALL for me!:

L to R: Black and grey geometric printed silk, some sort of lining with embossed flowers, ribbed knit, 3 meters of each, total $33.00, yeah!

Hunted through my patterns for pretty dresses for Frock-tober – Harri “helped”:

“Make this one!”

Paired some fabric with patterns and then pre washed the fabric, this caused it to rain, but I got it all dry eventually:

Pretty, pretty, pretty!

Then I traced all these patterns, I want to make ALL OF THEM!:

Camouflage Harri supervised the tracing process – it was hard work, many naps were taken:

ZzzzZZzzz…

Then she decided that my paper bin needed emptying…otherwise how else would she fit inside?:

Caught!

Harri and I agreed that as a reward for all my hard work I should cut out a dress – I chose Papercut’s La Sylphide in tiny super cute owls:

Thn I remembered that I also have this dress still waiting to be sewn up – all cut out in a beautiful silk/linen blend, oops:

And finally, last weekend, because I was not in the mood for photos and daylight savings has got me dreaming about summer, I began to plan Vege Garden v2.0:

Current Vege Garden v1.0 – I have marked out the new garden space in blue twine but then I changed my mind and drew some pictures instead.

A grand plan

Getting into the details

Then I helped hack down some trees that were too close to our retaining walls. We will re-pave the lower area, a garden shed and glass house will appear sometime in the future:

Before…

…after!

I think after my new vege beds are in I will begin to investigate the possibility of having some chickens, I think I’d quite like some chickens 🙂

And that’s about it! 🙂 Phew, regular service should resume shortly, happy sewing!

WIPs: Easter Sewing

I hope you all had a great Easter and got lots of sewing done. I was a busy little bee taking in several items of Nerdy Husband clothing, replacing buttons etc, but I did also manage some me-sewing.

Since I am in the mood for photo sharing here are a few progress pics.

First up a quick selfie of Vogue 1250 which is much more curve-a-licious in real life…I am not sure if it is as work appropriate as I wanted it to be. NH was quite impressed and I have to admit, I like it more that I thought I would, I feel very curvy in all the right ways.

I took two photos but I’ve spared you all the photo of me pulling my ‘eep’ face 😉

There are so many great versions online but I wasn’t really sure how I would feel wearing this style so I used a $5 remnant from The Fabric Warehouse as a potential sacrifice.

I am glad it’s worked out since I do quite like my $5 fabric. It is a lycra knit something-or-other, pretty blue and brown tones. I had to add in a seam to the back of the upper bodice to squeeze it on the 1.3m length but that is mostly lost in the pattern.

I just need to tidy up the side seam (the transition to the fold is a bit weird), hem the sleeves and hem the bottom, then proper photos will be taken. I may demand a date-night for said photos.

I also got quite a lot of work done on my next dress, it’s working title is: Rainbow Swallow Shirt Dress, including cutting it all out (after adding 6cm in length) and 50% of the sewing assembly.

Nerdy Husband spent quite a lot of time in my sewing room on Sunday, trying on the shirts I was taking in and patiently getting measured. He even swapped over the thread colours on the overlocker, proudly announcing, “I threaded it black for you”…except that threading involves a little bit more than just laying the threads over the antennae. The machine is fancy, but not thread-itself-fancy.

He tried though, it’s the thought that counts 😉

 Anyway, I had the swallows laid out so I showed him my progress and the pattern pictures. I wasn’t expecting him to like this but he nodded genuine approval.

This dress will be work appropriate, in a cute “she’s wearing a dress covered in rainbow birdies” kind of way, hey that’s me! 🙂