Birthday fun

Well, I went to London for a week in the middle of February to see friends for my 30th birthday celebrations (eek! where have my 20s gone?). There were a few fashion and sewing related things to report here.

I wore *two* dresses I made (not at the same time, silly) - my leopard and green Budapest dress, as featured on these pages previously, and a new green silk/cotton BWOF dress (review coming up).

I had been intending to wear the one I wore on my actual birthday to meet my parents, rather than the leopardy one, but when I put it on, there was something just not right about it. I don't know if maybe it had shrunk in the wash (the fabric had been pre-washed before sewing it) or if all the birthday drinks had gone to my subcutaneous lipid cells, but it really wasn't comfortable any more. I needed to make alterations anyway, so that is going in my reworking pile.

The next day, my lovely husband (get a room!) organised a party for me at a surprise venue, and my glamorous dress turned out to be very appropriate, as we went to the Tassel Club, a burlesque and cabaret club!

It was a tremendous amount of fun, especially as I hadn't seen some the friends that came for many many months. Burlesque has had a lot of press in the last few years and has become quite a fashionable activity to both do and watch - in fact I went to a burlesque dancing lesson last summer as part of a hen party. I'm not entirely convinced by the argument that it's empowering, as it's still defining women by their sexuality, but at least it is a much more democratic sexuality than what is overwhelmingly seen nowadays, in that it celebrates a more natural body (well, discounting the makeup, hairspray and depilation), and a variety of body shapes.

On a shallower note, OH MY GOODNESS THE HAIR! THE MAKEUP! THE CLOTHES! One of the (immaculately coiffed, immaculately made up and immaculately dressed) ladies who worked there complimented me on my dress, and I was enormously pleased to be able to say "I made this!" We were standing next to where all the performers walked through, so I was able to have a good look at their beautiful costumes (and plenty of boobies too). And as for the clientele, well, that it one place I'm never going to feel overdressed...

Oh, and I've got my first commission! No less than a bolero tail jacket for one of my best friends to wear at her wedding - oh my!

PS Apologies for the appalling quality of the photos in this post, I have resolved to take more pictures of the dresses on Wilma, and train my husband in better photo-taking!

Happy New Year, lists galore (yeah, a bit late...)

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope you all had a lovely break over the Christmas period and had time to do plenty of sewing? And, yeah, this post has been sitting in my "drafts" folder for over a month now - where the hell does the time go?

It seems to be pretty popular in the blogosphere to review the previous year and make resolutions for the next, so I'm (sort of) going to do that too! I love following the crowd...

Well, 2010 was a pretty big year for me, mainly because of my move from London to Geneva. Ten months later and I'm still "settling in". When will that feeling go away? So many things about London I didn't realise I would miss so much until they weren't there any more - not least the fabric and haberdashery shops. Haberdashery's not so difficult to get hold of here, but the fabric appears to be INSANELY expensive. Like "44 CHF per metre for plain silk charmeuse" expensive (compared to £6 per metre equivalent on lovely lovely Goldhawk Road). JEEZ. On the positive side, however, I have gained a (almost) dedicated sewing room, plus the time to actually get down and sew. Delicious.

In terms of sewing, my output was depressingly low, but I think that was mainly due to getting stuff packed and unpacked and then getting settled here:

1. Leopard and green Budapest dress
2. Yellow knitted circle scarf (unfinished)
3. Alphabet quilt for my nephew (unfinished)

Is that really all I made???? Well I guess that's motivation to have a slightly more impressive list next year!

I did also do a little Christmas sewing, I will post pictures in a separate post once the items have actually gone to their owners (what? I'm stretching out the excitement of the yuletide period for them).

As for resolutions, well I have some personal ones, which I'm not going to share with the, ooh, positively millions of people who are reading this (ahem), but the relevant ones for here are:

1. Sew at least one item once a fortnight
2. Set myself sewing projects each month
3. Blog at least once a week

And progress so far? Mixed:

1. I'm doing pretty well on this one actually! I'll post some of the stuff shortly that I've been producing.
2. Only informally done so far. January was a bit vague, it was sort of sewing some basic jersey tops (boring, but needed), and sort of sewing a dress for my birthday. February is slightly more solid: sewing a dress for my birthday party (distinct from the birthday this year!). Again, posts to follow, honest. Which brings me onto...
3. Er, yeah, well, this hasn't gone soooooo well! Room for improvement.

A bit more generally on number 2 (snigger), my wardrobe has been a bit in limbo since I stopped work when I moved over here and I want to get it sorted. I much prefer wearing a slightly dressier, "put together" look, which perfectly suited an office job, but isn't always the most appropriate thing to wear for my current life. I also often want to wear more comfy/casual clothes, but I also want to feel and look good, and the clothes I have that are comfy and casual generally don't really fit the bill for looking good...

Items planned:

• Jersey T-shirt tops
• Some sort of pretty tops that fit me (specific there, eh?)
• Big cowl neck jumper (inspired by *ahem* Project Runway)
• Warmer/sturdier revised version of green vintage jacket
• Sweatshirt jacket
• Winter coat (hmm, maybe a bit late for this season)
• Wool skirt
• Sweater dress
• Jersey house dresses
• Shirtdress
• Birthday dress (1 of 2 done and worn)
• - Wide(ish) leg trouser-jeans

Well, watch this space to see how I get on with this...

Quilt progress

All the machine sewing is now done on the quilt for my sister and nephew. Now there's *a lot* of hand sewing. I'm quickly building back up my hardened fingertips as I can't find my thimble and haven't had time to pop out and buy one.

The back of the quilt is effectively finished, as all the hand sewing now is appliqué on the front:

I'm currently sewing on the letters on the front of the quilt. There will also be two red hearts, and (possibly) two rectangles at the top and bottom to frame it. I think I should have bought some embroidery thread to do the appliquéing (is that a word?), but I just wanted to start it so used regular polyester sewing thread. And I'm not entirely pleased with the result, as it's not very smooth, and doesn't cover the edge particularly well so I'm worried the edges will shred. Hmm. I'm going to see how it looks when they're all done, and then I might go over the edge with maybe chainstitch in embroidery floss. Didn't really save myself much time there did I?!

I shall mull on it over the next week, as I'm off to the UK so won't be able to work on it...

Leopard dress finished and worn

I have to say, I really like this pattern - it's super fast to cut and sew, and pretty flattering and easy to wear too. And with a change in fabric, it's easy to make it dressy or casual. I think I forgot to mention in the previous post that this is made out of the fabric we used to decorate the hall where we had our wedding party, so it was actually quite appropriate for a weekend being whisked away on a surprise trip by my husband! The yoke is made from the same linen-look fabric that was used for the swing jacket a couple of posts ago - so I actually have a matching jacket if I feel like being extra refined. I interlined the sash with silk organza to help stop it crumpling and narrowing when it's being worn, and that works quite well.

So here's some pictures of the finished dress, being admirably modelled by Wilma on the balcony:

I took it on holiday, and actually wore it both evenings (we flew EasyJet so only had hand luggage, so I had to pack light). I was very pleased with it "in action" so to speak - It doesn't crease, isn't hot despite it being synthetic, and is super comfortable (apologies for the appalling photos, I need to train my husband in taking clearer and more flattering ones...):

And the mystery trip? We went to Budapest! It was beautiful and I had a wonderful time (I compartmentalised the horrifying issues surrounding Agnes Gereb...) - we found everyone very friendly, the food was delicious, and everything was very good value (although that might be a reflection of living in Geneva). And I can now say yes, no, hello, goodbye, please and thank you in Hungarian!

Sewing clothes again at long last!

I decided to take a break from the quilt and make some clothes! Not least because it's suddenly got cold and I need to sort out some more appropriate clothing. So I decided to make a floaty going out dress. Sensible.

I did have some reasoning behind this - I'd planned to make it on Saturday and wear it that evening to a party, so I wanted something quick and well, party-ish. The pattern is Simplicity 3539, View B, which I've made before, so I knew it would fit me and what alterations I needed to make to improve on the first iteration: add a back seam and a swayback alteration, lower the bottom of the armscye a little, and take in a small tuck between the yoke and front to eliminate gapping at the front of the armhole (should ideally do an FBA, but the fit is very loose so I just fudged it...).

Unfortunately I was a bit ambitious to try and make it in a day (mainly because I didn't get up until midday...), so I'm now making it to wear this weekend (my husband is taking me away for a long weekend to a surprise location!). I cut everything out on Saturday, so today was sewing day (in between long Skype calls to my family in the UK).

The dress is now pretty much constructed, I just need to sew down the facings and hem it. The armholes are also currently unfinished, as I'm deciding whether to add some sleeves or sleevey frills. I also will be making a self belt/sash so it will be a bit less muumuu-ish on me.

Oh, I also need to unpick the bottom of the centre back seam and re-sew it in a rather less ripply manner...

Here's a close-up of the front yoke:

And I got to use my serger at long last! Not entirely sure this is the right stitch to be using for this purpose, and not entirely sure that the tensions are quite right, but hey, it's FUN.

And one final picture - the clouds cleared over the last couple of days, and there's snow on the mountains again! (and yes, I do need a camera with a better zoom (it's my hint for a Christmas pressie...)

Green swing jacket

This is something I made about two years ago, and is one of the things I wear most frequently, despite it not being perfect! It's made from a vintage mail order pattern, probably early 60s - sorry, I don't have the pattern number and am not going to look it out at the moment as my new sewing room is still a bit of a mess...

The fabric is a green linen blend, somewhere between olive and bottle green, nice and drapey, but I think there's a bit of synthetic in it too as it's surprisingly warm. The hot pink lining doesn't actually show through, it's just the camera flash picking it up! The sleeves are cut on kimono style and bracelet length. The shawl collar extends into small pockets at the front.

The jacket languished as a UFO for about a year before I finished it. I'm not entirely sure why. Possibly I'd just got frustrated with working with quite a slippery fabric, and I couldn't face doing the lining. It was interesting coming back to it as it was one of the first few things I made, and in that year it surprised me how much my sewing skills improved! I was very proud of how I'd sewn it when I first made it, but realised when I came back to it how I could sew it better. That was pretty satisfying proof that I was getting better!

The lining is sewn in by hand, and the jacket includes shoulder pads. I wasn't going to put them in originally as I have quite square shoulders, but they are actually really necessary to give some shape to the cut on sleeves. I plan to make a more polished version of this again at some point, and when I do I'll make it about an inch to two inches shorter so it hits at a slightly more flattering place. However, I still love this version, it's one of those items of clothing that always makes me feel happy when I wear it.

Alphabet quilt

I'm progressing on the quilt for my nephew. Fortunately for my quilting, but not so fortunately for her, my sister's due date was revised by the hospital to a week later that originally thought, so I now have until the end of this week to finish it before I fly to the UK on Monday. Not entirely sure I'll get it done in time, but nothing like a deadline to motivate yourself!

My inspiration for this quilt was this rug:

I should have completed all the machine sewing by the end of today so more photos then, but for now, here's the back of the quilt, which is pieced. The fabric is subtly striped, and the piecing makes use of this to provide some extra interest.