Stripes!

I think I have a serious addiction to Pinterest! It is a never-ending source of ideas and inspiration for me. I see an item of clothing and think, 'Ooh I like that, I wonder if I could make it?' And then I give it a go.  That's what happened with this dress. I have had the fabric for a long time and stumbled across this pic on Pinterest, originally from HERE

And this is what I came up with. The little black bodice part is lined using the method I described HERE. It works every time! Then I added the stripey part and kept adjusting it until I was happy with the fit.

I have also been loving playing around with PicMonkey to edit my photos. It's a great online photo editing/ collage creating program and it's free! I would highly recommend giving this a go.

Hours of fun to be had with PicMonkey!

Have a great weekend everyone!

My practice dress

Some friends are coming over tomorrow so I can try to show them how to make a simple dress. Eeeek! Apparently, I know what I'm doing! See, the thing is, I have taught myself to make things just by fiddling- trial and error (lots of error!) So I'm a little nervous.

Of course I blinked in the best photo of the dress so I cropped my head off. Ha!

Last night I sat down and tried to think through the process a little more clearly instead of just guessing and cutting and hoping for the best. I came up with this little number which is based on the sheath dress pattern that I made a few weeks ago. Tutorial was from HERE. I am happier with the neckline of this one and I managed to work out the sleeves. I'm loving this nude colour at the moment. This fabric was a little bit slippery and my machine didn't love it. I'm happy with how it turned out in the end though.

I'm hoping to be able to show you what we come up with tomorrow. Wish us luck and stay tuned!

Easy sheath dress

What a perfect weekend for sewing! On Friday, my boys were at school and my husband had a day off work so he took our daughter for the day so I could have some 'me time'. YAY! I made 3 items of clothing throughout the day. Here's the first one:

I saw this picture of a 30 minute jersey sheath on Pinterest the other day using this textured jersey fabric. The tutorial can be found HERE. I had seen some similar fabric in Spotlight so went and nabbed some for the bargain price of $10 per metre (usually $34!)This dress took me less than an hour to make. I originally made it with sleeves, but I made the armholes too small so I just cut them off. I cut the neckline just a little bit too low- a good lesson- always cut less to begin with!

The rolly, rough type fabric was easy to sew with and very forgiving with cutting and sewing seams- great project for a beginner! There is also no need to hem the neckline, sleeves and bottom of the dress, but I did just to neaten it up a bit.

The fabric is also more flattering to wear than normal jersey. Those crinkles hide lumps and bumps really well! I think it will be good for Autumn with a little cardi and boots.

This dress only used 1 metre of fabric so it cost me $10 all up. Bargain! I still have another metre of fabric left so I might try another one with sleeves and higher neckline.

So there is my first little number completed on my super sewing spree day. Stay tuned over the next week or so for more easy clothing! I'd love to see what creative things you are working on at the moment. Feel free to leave a link below.

Thanks for stopping by.

A birthday dress for Gabriella Rose

My girl turned 4 yesterday.

This is the dress I made for her to wear at her party.

So the obsession with jersey fabric continues. This fabric is from a shop called 'Oh Sew Crafty' based in the U.K. The shipping was really fast and reasonably priced. I love this fabric! So, so pretty and girly.

Once again, I traced around one of Gabby's favourite dresses to make the pattern. She asked for it to be 'really long'.

Love this girl.

Chevron Jersey dress

At my sister-in-law's amazing workplace in the city @ Blueprint Studios

It's official! I love sewing with stretchy fabric! I whipped up this dress in just a couple of hours the other night. That's my kind of project- start when the kids go to bed, finish before midnight- perfect! To make the bodice, I just traced around the top of a dress I already own and that I know fits me perfectly. Now I have a pattern cut out in Christmas wrapping paper that I can use over and over again. The top is fully lined which gives it a neat look- no fussy hemming the neckline or armholes. It took me a while to remember how to sew the bodice and lining together so that the seams were all on the inside. Here are the steps if you're interested or just for my future reference!

1. Put front and back outer right sides together and sew side seams only

2. Do the same with the lining front and back

3. Put lining and outer fabric right sides together and sew around arm holes and neckline but leave 2 inches at the top of each strap for the shoulder seams to be sewn later

4. TURN RIGHT WAY OUT ( I didn't do this and ended up with a completely inside out bodice)

5. Join outer shoulder seams right sides together

6. Join lining shoulder seams right sides together

7. Topstitch right around bodice ensuring you close the 2 inch hole you left at the top of the straps.

VOILA! You have a neat bodice- no seams showing, ready to add a skirt.

I decided to add a waist band in the same fabric but cut in the opposite direction- glad I did as it seems to accentuate the waistline. Then I just traced a skirt in an A-line shape and sewed it on to the bodice. 

You don't need an overlocker to sew this dress. Just use a zigzag stitch on your normal machine for all seams to allow the fabric to stretch. If you use a straight stitch, it will probably break when the fabric stretches.

Just for fun- on the kids tyre swing out the back. (It was scarier than it looked!)

I bet, if you're a sew-er, you're wondering where I got this cool fabric from! Well it's from an online fabric store based in USA called Girl Charlee. It has a super range of cool knit fabrics and excellent customer service. I'm so disappointed with our choice of knit fabrics here in Australia- all the cool stuff is so expensive it's cheaper to have it shipped from overseas- crazy i know! This fabric is excellent quality- not too thin and a perfect amount of stretch. So get over to Girl Charlee and check out their range.

That's all for today. I'm off to buy school supplies for my boys. Fun, fun, fun!

Have a great day everyone.