The “Strawberry Sundae” Shirt

This may be the last thing I make intentionally as part of the Sew Weekly sew alongs. (Or it might not – I’m debating whether or not I feel like making a ‘happy holidays’ dress this weekend. The jury is still out on that one, but I’m not feeling the inspiration for it if I’m honest with ya. Anyone want to hit me with some inspiring ideas for it? All ideas welcome!)

Anyway, this was made for the ‘favourites’ challenge – to remake a pattern that was our favourite this year. Admittedly, this isn’t my favourite (that would be the 1940′s dress pattern I used in my All Buttoned Up dress) but it made my top 5 list for this year and is a bit of a winner as far as the whole easy-access-for-small-baby thing goes. So, Home Journal 11553 got made once again!

Just like last time, this pattern came together quite well. (And unlike last time, I already knew that the seam allowance isn’t included, so I didn’t have to spend 10 minutes reading all the different areas of instructions multiple times to try and figure out if it is or isn’t included. Clarity is somewhat missing from this pattern in that regard.) And it turns out that one really good thing about re-making a pattern very soon after your last make of it is that you remember all the things that you weren’t as happy with, and can change them! (Such as having the collar finishing a good 1-2cm in from the front of the shirt – last time, I thought it was meant to be eased onto the entire neckline so I didn’t end up with that little pointed bit from the front facing. This time, I knew to not ease it as much – something the pattern doesn’t tell you and you have to figure out purely from the envelope illustration.)

I’m happy with how this one came out – I made it in a lightweight cotton, getting a chance to satisfy my curiousity as to how those pleats at the neckline would work out in a crisper fabric. Quite well, as it turns out! (Although my gosh those pleats make my bust look bigger than it really is in this photo! Eek!! I assure you it doesn’t look quite like that “in real life”.)

Isn’t this fabric adorable? It’s got little strawberries and a check pattern made of little dots all over it! I got it at Fabric-a-brac a while ago, on the Hospice fundraiser stall. I had just enough to squeeze out this pattern (don’t look too closely – I had to cut the underside of the collar as two pieces and the front facing is cut on the semi-bias so I could get it all cut out! There was very little of this fabric left when I was done with it!)

It’s nice and lightweight, and with those little cap sleeves to keep the sun off my (pale-as-pale) shoulders, I think it’ll be on regular rotation in my wardrobe this summer.

Also, I completed my first Pieces of Us Project toy-made-using-scraps-of-latest-project! I had enough leftover strawberry fabric to make the body of this cute little bug. I named her Strawberry Sundae as well. We went for a walk in the evening on Christmas Day and “released” her into a nearby playground. Hopefully some child has found her and given her a loving new home!

The “Carrera” Dress

The Facts

Fabric: about 1.5 metres of black-and-white tshirting knit from my stash, approx $4 per metre
Pattern: self-drafted, based on a similar dress I own
Year: modern
Notions: none
Time to complete: 2 hours (including accidently cutting half the skirt wrong and having to re-do it)
First worn: for these photos, taken on our regular evening stroll, trying to get an overtired little baby to sleep (*sigh*)
Wear again? yep, probably tomorrow
Total cost: $6

I started this dress a few weeks back, for the black and white challenge over at the Sew Weekly. I got as far as cutting it out, started to sew it up, and then…. my overlocker died.

So much for that.

To be fair, it didn’t fully die. Just the knit fabric 4-thread stitch wasn’t working right – the right-hand needle kept catching on the lower looper, which made me fear for the safety of my eyes. (Anyone else do that? Have moments where they imagine parts of a sewing machine needle breaking off mid-stitch and flying at their eyes? That’s the main reason I don’t sew jeans these days – it scares me. Gah.) Anyway, since my overlocker was fine with 3-thread stitches, I carried on using it, never quite getting it to the overlocker hospital, because, well, I struggle to be without it for several days in a row so I kept putting it off.

But finally, it got there, and it got all fixed and stuff, and it’s back home and working well, and so this dress got finished!

I based this one off a RTW dress I got in a clothes swap party a while back – I’ve found it’s perfect for breast feeding, as the crossover bodice easily pulls down to one side or the other, and since the dress itself isn’t a wrap-around, there’s no risk of accidently pulling the rest of it out of whack when you pull one part of the bodice. Perfect.

Approaching it in my rather common haphazard way, I took a basic knit fabric top pattern I drafted a good decade or so ago, and blithely took scissors to fabric, inventing the dress pattern as I went along. (I must admit here, I made a boo-boo when cutting out the front of the skirt to start with and didn’t flare it out enough over my hips. Oops. Spotted it as soon as I’d cut it, thankfully there was plenty of fabric left for a re-cut, and the rejected piece is going to be used to make some trousers for the little man so all’s well.) Since it’s summer here now, I went with a sleeveless style. The fabric is a 4-way tshirting, so I played around with the stripes a bit as well. (Odd fabric this – the black stripes are printed on the white tshirting, rather than being woven in. Gives it a bit of a texture, but also means the printing can look a bit “cracked” when stretched lots, which isn’t quite as good.)

The whole thing was stitched together on my overlocker. Gosh, I do love that thing! The stitching probably only took around an hour, the rest of the time was spent mucking around with inventing the pattern as I cut it out. So all up, a pretty fast make, and it’ll do it’s required job nicely (i.e. no ironing needed, easy and comfy to wear, and fast access to certain parts when needed).

As for the name? We took these photos on our current usual evening walk (an attempt to get the little one to sleep for at least 15 minutes during Baby Witching Hour. Good times.) We wandered through Carrera Park, thankfully he’d finally fallen asleep by then so we took the opportunity to grab some pics. More graffiti ones – something about graffiti, I like it. Probably the colours? Anyway…. I also tested this dress out on the swings. It works well on them, too.

The “Flip Side” Dress

The Facts

Fabric: a couple of meters of pink-and-blue floral craft cotton, $2/meter on sale at Spotlight
Pattern: Butterick 6619
Year: early 1970′s
Notions: bit of interfacing for the collar, and an invisible zip (~$6 on sale at Arthur Toye a while back)
Time to complete: 3.5 hours
First worn: for these photos, on a lovely summer evening walk
Wear again? yep
Total cost: about $10

Last week’s challenge on the Sew Weekly was ‘winter’. Lets face it – we’ve just started on summer down here, and winter gear is about the last thing I want to be making right now!

So, I decided to interpret it as ‘start of new season’, and make a summer dress instead. (Hence the name – the flip side of winter is summer.)

Drake helped me choose a pattern (aka sat on my lap while I showed him a few options and talked aloud while deciding which one I wanted to make). I found a dress in an op shop (thrift store) a while back, and it’s turned out to be perfect for breastfeeding as it does up down the centre front with a zip. Quick and easy access, just the way the little lad likes it (any slower than 2 seconds and he gets rather grumpy, so quick-and-easy access is a lot easier for me, and my eardrums, as well!). Hence why I decided to branch out of my 1940′s/50′s zone and tackle this pattern from the early 1970′s – it also has a centre-front zip.

It also has pockets. I love pockets on dresses. Every time I make a dress that doesn’t have pockets, I plan to put them in. (Most of the time I then get all excited about getting the skirt sewn up and forget to add in-seam pockets to it. Oops. But the plan is always there! Maybe I need to write myself a sign and stick it to the wall above my sewing machine, to remind myself….)

I must admit, it felt rather odd wearing this out and about. It’s so much shorter than what I usually wear, and when coupled with high heels I felt rather ‘dressed up’! (Strange how that works – if the dress was just a bit longer, or more of a 50′s siholuette rather than the more A-line 70′s style, I wouldn’t have felt ‘dressed up’ at all. *shrug*) I do like this dress though – it’s nice and lightweight, so it’ll be good to wear on warm days. And it’s sleeveless – I love having bare arms in summer. (I can also attest that the zip-front made Drake a rather happy lad. Or at least far less grumpy than button-up fronts do!)

The pattern itself was nice and easy to whip up – these 1970′s styles usually are, gotta love that. Steve is encouraging me to make more of these (only in different fabrics – the pink-and-blue floral got a big thumbs-down from anti-floral-boy), and I may just do that. It’ll be an easy style to adjust the side seams on as (if?) I lose the baby-weight, so it seems pretty much perfect as far as my wardrobe needs go right now.

We went wandering after dinner to take these photos, and ended up outside the zoo, so I got to pretend to interact with a tiger painting while people drove past….

Speaking of wardrobe needs, do you like my new shoes? I just “needed” to have them. I’m calling them my Christmas present to myself.

The “Martha” Dress

The Facts

Fabric: about 2.5 metres or so of cotton drill, mint green with cupcakes and polka dots on it, gift from my mother
Pattern: Weigel’s 2106
Year: 1962
Notions: 7 purple buttons from my stash
Time to complete: about 5 hours
First worn: to the Wellington bloggers meet up
Wear again? yep
Total cost: free!
Make this pattern again? yep, I think so
Changes I’d make next time: lower the waist about an inch; add pockets (coz pockets are awesome. And useful.)

It was 1960′s week over on The Sew Weekly this week. And it was also the first (but definitely not the last!) Wellington sewing bloggers meet up on Saturday. So the wonderful Juliet and Nikki and I decided we’d make 1960′s dresses to wear to the meet up. (Our meet up started at Martha’s Pantry, so I’ve named this dress in it’s honour.)

I was a bit surprised to find I don’t own nearly as many 1960′s dress patterns as I thought I did. Hmmm. Separates, yes. Dresses, no. (And for some odd reason, a blouse that buttons up the back just doesn’t seem all the useful at the moment….!)

But lo and behold, I unearthed Weigel’s 2106 from my stash. Dress? Check. 1960′s? Check. Easy-front-access? Check.

And then, for some reason, I decided to make it up in this cupcake print drill. I admit it, even I was unsure how this would work out – it’s not really my colour and an entire dress (complete with sleeves) in this could very easily be a bit too much. But still, I went ahead and rolled with it. Much to Steve’s horror.

(Please ‘scuse the wrinkles, I’d been carting a baby around.)

And much to his surprise, it actually worked out ok! (His reaction when seeing it: “hey, it’s not as hideous as I thought it would be!” Not to say he likes it, however. But no surprises there.)

The Weigel’s pattern is a little bit odd – some of those instructions were a bit hard to decipher, but I muddled my way through it (the pleat under the bottom button took me by surprise) and we got there. The waistline is oddly high, and higher at the back than the front, but that’ll be easy enough to change next time I make it up. (And the sheath dress version looks rather cute, don’t you think? May have to try that one….)

I like this dress – it’s nice to be able to wear something in a quirky fabric again (just like old times!), it’s reasonably practical when out and about with the little lad, and it’s got cupcakes on it. (And really, what’s not to love about cupcakes?!?) (Also, if it looks a little too tight, that’s because it is. I made it for the size I’ll be in about a month, rather than the size I am now. Foresight, yeah!)

The weather was a bit blah when it was time for photos, so just boring inside ones this week I’m afraid, in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Since I was there and all, I thought I’d better hold up the roof. Don’t want that thing to come crashing down now, do we? It might damage the sewing machine, and that would be an absolute disaster as I already have plans for the next creation…..

The “Gingham-To-Go” Shirt

I’ve been having a bit of a wardrobe crisis the last couple of months. And a sewing crisis. The wardrobe crisis part is kinda obvious I guess, although for some reason it didn’t occur to me until I was nearly right at the end of my pregnancy – most of my wardrobe just isn’t really suitable for breastfeeding. (Except for the cardigans, and luckily I have heaps of those!) Which means I have very little to wear, and as for those 1940′s and 1950′s style dresses, with their fitted waists? Yeah, well, guess I won’t be wearing those for a while yet. But hey, I can always make myself some more things to wear, right?

And that’s where the sewing crisis comes in. I’m finding it hard to get my head around the idea of making things to wear that may only be the right size for a month or two. (Or longer – heck knows how quickly my shape is going to change at the moment.) I’ve decided skirts and trousers are out due to waists being the least forgiving of fits. Dresses I can always cinch in with a belt. And shirts – I’ve recently discovered the joy of shirts.

Which is rather convenient for this weeks Sew Weekly challenge theme – shirts!

The Facts:

Fabric: somewhere between 0.5 and 1 metre of green and cream gingham that I got from Fabric-a-brac a while ago for $1
Pattern: Home Journal 11553
Year: 1950s
Notions: 5 green buttons from my stash
Time to complete: 2.5 hours
First worn: just a general day – around the house, visit with friends, then a nice walk after dinner up to the water tower where these photos were taken
Wear again?: yep
Total cost: about $1

(Why is it the “Gingham-To-Go” shirt? Well, it’s gingham. (Duh.) And I kinda feel a bit like a snack bar on legs these days, hence the “to go” part.)

This pattern was rather interesting to make up. The instructions were, to put it mildly, confusing as all heck. They’re in multiple locations – on the separate instruction sheet, on the front of the pattern envelope, and on the back of the pattern envelope. Oh, and on one of the pattern pieces, too. You have to read all of them to find out whether or not seam allowance is included. Twice. And even then I felt a bit nervous cutting out the pieces, in case they did actually include seam allowance and I was interpreting the instructions wrong. And that was before I started trying to refer to them for the sewing part….. (Yes, it just got worse.) So even though this shirt is actually nice and easy to put together, I’d put it in the “not for novices” pile just because you have to interpret/ignore/invent the instructions yourself.

I’ve been wanting to make this pattern for a little while now – it’s got four little pleats at each side of the neckline, and inverted tucks at front and back for shaping. And cap sleeves! How cute are cap sleeves?!?

(Although it took me wearing the shirt all day to decide I liked the cap sleeves on me. I liked them when sewing it up, then when I first tried on the shirt I worried they made me look like an American Football player. Now, I like them again. So that’s all good.)

It feels nice to have made something for myself – it’s been nearly two months! And I’m pleased to say that my sewing dilemma is now over and I’m about to go and launch into my next project. Yippie!

And with that, I’ll leave you with my favourite photo from this shoot. Cat graffiti is awesome, no?

The “Bye Bye Bump” Top

The Facts

Fabric: about 1 metre of lightweight blue knit, gift from TJ as part of the One+/One* swap
Pattern: Jalie 2787, also from TJ
Year: current
Notions: about 20cm of elastic from my stash
Time to complete: 1.5 hours
First worn: for these photos
Wear again? yep
Total cost: free!

So it turns out that even though I’m no longer wearing maternity clothes (and can I just say how nice it is to be able to wear skirts again? Much as I love dresses, being able to wear only dresses for several months is a bit limiting. Sadly my ‘bump’ didn’t like skirts or trousers during the whole pregnancy.), I still have quite a few wardrobe limitations going on that never really occurred to me until quite recently. Yep, that’s right – I no longer need to accommodate one big bump, but instead I need easy access to two slightly smaller ones for breast feeding!

And it turns out the vast majority of my wardrobe isn’t really suitable for that. Hmmmm.

Thankfully, the lovely TJ (from The Perfect Nose) sent me a wonderful parcel as part of the One Cool Thing/One Strange Thing swap that she ran. (And that I’ve been meaning to post about for ages. Can I plead ‘baby brain’ for this one? Sorry, TJ!)

Anyway, check this out. She sent me:

A cute vintage pattern (Simplicity 7724).

A copy of Patrones magazine (my first one!), filled with adorable patterns for kids clothing. (I can’t wait until Drake is a bit older so I can make some of the boys garments for him! Cute little pairs of trousers and jackets, so adorable!)

And Jalie 2787 – a knit fabric top with crossover detail on the front.

The super brilliant thing about this Jalie top though? It’s got a version for nursing mums! Yay!! As soon as I opened TJ’s parcel and saw this, I was all ‘OMG how perfect!’ and excited. (So much so that I had to show it off to one of my pregnant friends.) I’ve been hanging out to make this top up, and now I have!

TJ also sent me a length of super soft knit blue fabric. Since it’s blue week over at Sew Weekly this week, it seemed right to make the Jalie top up in the blue fabric. And there’s still plenty left over – my next plan is to make something for Drake out of it. Just as soon as I figure out what….

Anyway, this was my first experience in sewing with a Jalie pattern. (In fact, I’d only just heard of them a couple of weeks before I got this one from TJ, so it was all part of the learning process.) I’m impressed with how many sizes they managed to cram into one pattern – everything from 2 years old up to far bigger than I am. There are a few different variations as well – different sleeve lengths, and the adjustment for easy access for breast feeding.

This top came together nice and easily. The only issue I had was the elastic length (it gets sewn into the top of the front panel that sits under the cross over sections) – the pattern called for the same length for all sizes, which is just plainly wrong. So I improvised and cut out a length slightly shorter than the fabric panel it was being sewn onto. It seems to work. *shrug*

And on that note, I’m off to cut out another one (or two, or three) of these. (Only with a slight alteration for the next one so the crossover part doesn’t cut right across the middle of my boob!)

The “40s Meets 80s” Bolero

The Facts

Fabric: random sweatshirting that’s been hanging out in my stash for years. Origination unknown
Pattern: McCall 804
Year: 1940
Notions: none
Time to complete: about 1.5 hours
First worn: out for coffee with friends
Wear again? yep
Total cost: free!
Bump on the day of the photo: 40 weeks (and two days – officially ‘overdue’)

After a couple of week’s of maternity leave, aka hanging out on the couch with books and cats, my sewing mojo is finally starting to reappear. Yay! So, for the first time in over a month, here’s a Sew Weekly challenge creation.

This week’s theme is ‘polka dots’. I love polka dots – I just find them super cute, don’t you?

I’m not sure where this fabric came from originally – it’s been lurking in my stash for years. I suspect it may have been part of my mother’s stash ages ago? My guess is that it hails from the 1980′s, that decade of crazy printed sweat shirting fabrics. (Hence the name for this garment.) There was roughly a metre left, in an odd shape due to whatever had been cut out of it previously. Which meant there was the perfect amount to make up another version of McCall 804. (This is the third time I’ve made up this pattern – previous incarnations were the 40′s Tartan bolero and the Bookclub bolero. I never would have guessed a bolero pattern from 1940 would become one of my go-to patterns, but hey, turns out it has! I’ll be using it again in the future as well – one day I’m going to make up the collared variant.)

Since it’s made out of sweat shirting fabric, I didn’t bother to line the bolero this time, or even use facings. I just did a basic overlock then stitch under around all the edges – anything else seemed like it would be overkill for this bolero. Which meant it was super fast to put together – about 1.5 hours all up from start to wearing.

It had it’s first outing to Rata Cafe on Sunday, for coffee with friends. Rata Cafe is up near Zealandia (a native bush and wildlife reserve), so we grabbed some photos with pretty native bush in the background. (And me squinting into the sun a bit, as it turns out. Not sure how I managed to not notice that while we were taking the photos…. Gah.)

The “Sunshine” Slip

The Facts

Fabric: 2 metres of a fine silk/cotton blend, $3/metre
Pattern: Vogue 9350
Year: 1957
Notions: approx 1 metre of ribbon from my stash, ~$20c
Time to complete: 2 hours 15 mins
First worn: for these photos
Wear again? probably

Total price: ~$6.20

Ok, I admit it. This slip was actually the first maternity garment I started making for myself, back in February (or was it March?) for the Sew Weekly Pantone challenge. I never got around to finishing it then, and it’s been hanging on the back of my wardrobe door, waiting for the bias to settle so it could be hemmed, ever since. This week’s Sew Weekly challenge was all about the colour yellow. Clearly, it was time to finish off this slip!

(Somewhat ironically, in between starting and finishing this slip, I actually made the pattern a second time, and have worn that pink slip quite a lot. It’s also being worn under this yellow slip in these photos, for the sake of modesty and all that.)

In case you’re wondering, these photos were taken in our kitchen. What, you mean you can’t tell it’s a kitchen?!? Where’s your imagination!?! I’ve been assured it will start looking like a somewhat more serviceable kitchen from tomorrow, when the cabinets start getting installed. We shall see.

I’d been doing really well this year with my resolution to buy no new fabric (and yes, second-hand is fine). And then The Curious Kiwi posted about a pop-up sale store just down the road from where I work, for one of my favourite fabric shops. I was managing to avoid the temptation, until right near the bottom of her post she mentioned silk. For only $5 a metre!! Ok, I was sooo there!!! (While trying to fool myself that the only reason I was going was in case there was the right sort of fabric for a dress for my mother, since I oddly don’t have anything suitable in my stash.)

*Ahem* Yes, well, that resolution has now completely bitten the dust. I resolve to begin it again starting from now.

There were a lot of gorgeous fabrics there. There was fine pure wool suiting for only $5 a metre. Lining for only $1 per metre, or $2 per metre for fancy stuff. And lots of lovely, lovely things for $3 per metre. I now have a fabric pile in my room that I have no space for. (But oh my, it’s going to make so many gorgeous garments!)

One of the things I spotted there was some lovely fine, lightweight silk-cotton blend, with a little bit of a sheen and a textured pattern woven through it. Remembering I’ve been wanting to make some slips for under vintage dresses for ages, I picked up some in both lemon yellow and salmon pink. Clearly it was meant to be, since I’d just acquired Vogue 9350, a vintage slip and panties pattern from 1957.

The pattern itself was nice and easy to make up. Simple lines, simple instructions. Cutting the bottom parts of the slip out on the bias was a bit of a pain, as the fabric has a fair amount of stretch along the bias. But I persevered, and it worked in the end! (And really, that’s the fault of the fabric, not the pattern.) (Just don’t look too closely at how even the hem is along the bottom. I may have sworn under my breath quite a bit while struggling with that bias stretch. Grrr.)

I did cheat in a couple of places. Rather than using bias trim for around the top of the slip, I simply folded a narrow hem and stitched it down. Why? I didn’t have any bias binding lightweight enough for this fabric, and the idea of sitting there making a whole lot just didn’t appeal to me at that point in time. Next time I make this pattern up (likely in that aforementioned salmon pink silk/cotton blend) I’ll give making my own bias binding a go, and see how it turns out. I also left the lace off the hem. I may or may not change my mind about that – lace does have a tendency to cling to tights when walking. (Sadly, I suspect this silk/cotton blend will do the exact same thing!)

Overall, I’m reasonably happy with how it turned out. I’ll take a bit more care next time (making my own bias binding, etc), but it’s a perfectly serviceable slip so it can stay and be worn. It’s a good maternity style as well, with the bias-cut fabric, and the wrap-around back allowing lots of space for a growing bump.

The “Backing Black” Cardigan

The Facts

Fabric: about 1 metre of some wool blend, a gift a few years ago (free!)
Pattern: self-drafted raglan sleeve top
Year: drafted back in 2001
Notions: scraps of woven interfacing for the button placket; ric-rac from my stash (no idea where it came from), 7 buttons from my Great Aunt Chris’ button box
Time to complete: about 2.5 hours (due to my buttonhole foot not playing nicely)
First worn: running errands, and going to high tea with friends
Wear again? yep
Total cost: free!
Bump: 34 weeks

This week’s Sew Weekly challenge was to make something inspired by the Olympics. I’m not feeling overly sporty at the moment (for some strange reason, haha), so instead of making sports gear, I took my inspiration from the New Zealand 2012 Olympics uniform:

Aren’t we lucky? Black, white and silver – it’s kind of hard to not have a decent-looking Olympics uniform with that colour palette. The designs this year were inspired by the 1948 team uniform (which, if I remember correctly, was the first year we sent people to the Olympics. 7 athletes, by boat. That’s quite a commitment, considering how long it would have taken to get there and back!)

My first plan was to make a boxy jacket in black with white trim. But due to lots of stash-busting over the past couple of years, and a dearth of black fabric in my stash to begin with (all the bright and patterned fabrics attract my attention rather than black. I’m like a magpie that way), it turns out I couldn’t find any black fabric in my stash suitable for a jacket. Or a cardigan, for that matter. So, please squint your eyes, put the tip of your tongue in the corner of your mouth, and work hard to imagine that this cardigan is, indeed, a black blazer. Can you see the inspiration? Good.

Instead of straight white trim, I unearthed some white ric-rac from my ribbons drawer. I have no idea where this came from – if you gave it to me, thank you! I think it really makes this cardigan work. I hardly ever experiment with trim on cardigans for some reason. I really like how the ric-rac makes this one look though – I foresee more experimentation with trim in the future.

The buttons came from my Great-Aunt Chris’ button box. That box is full of all sorts of intriguing things – most of the buttons look like they’ve been cut off garments in the past. Some look really old. I wish my Great-Aunt was still around, so I could ask her the story behind a lot of the buttons….. I love looking at old things and wondering what their history is, don’t you? Anyway, there were quite a few of these white buttons, so seven of them made their way onto the cardigan.

Not that I can do it up past the third button at the moment – the bump is 34 weeks now, and not overly conducive to things like jackets and cardigans being fully buttoned. Maybe in a few months I’ll be able to see what this cardigan looks like when it’s done up properly….

This cardigan really should have only taken me about 1.5 – 2 hours at most. My buttonhole foot and I got into a few arguments along the way. It wanted to only sew one side of each buttonhole, for reasons known only to itself. Funnily enough, I disagreed with it’s decision. (Have you ever tried unpicking a buttonhole from a knit fabric? It’s not-so-fun.) I gave up disagreeing after a while, and just used a tiny zig-zag stitch to finish off the other side of each button hole. Which means they’re not as neat as I’d like them to be, but at least they work. *sigh* I added some iron-on woven lightweight interfacing to each side for stability, and just turned the front of the cardigan over the interfacing and overlocked it down, so it’s all nicely hidden inside.

It was a reasonably nice day in Wellington today, so Steve and I went for a drive and a short walk. (Only a short walk though – it involved lots of stairs and a muddy path, which made for rather slow going for rather-pregnant me. We’ll go back in summer and do the full walk to the top of the hill.) We got treated to some lovely views over part of the Wellington harbour area.

Can you spot the two snorkellers (sp?) in this photo? Our car was parked just out of sight down on the road there.

And here’s a photo of the bay in the top photo, from right next to it when we climbed back down to the car. ‘Scuse the squinting – I ended up looking straight into the sun. Whoops.

The “Duchess” Coat

The Facts

Fabric: some blend (wool? acrylic?) and matching lining, $12 from Fabric-a-brac, pink brushed cotton for interlining ~$3, and some burgundy lining from my stash for the sleeve linings (since I didn’t have enough of the pink lining that I got with the shell fabric)
Pattern: Butterick B5145 only modified beyond all recognition
Year: 2007 only modified a lot as inspired by the early 1960s
Notions: iron-on interfacing for the collar and front facings; 6 vintage buttons from the amazing Meg
Time to complete: 14 hours
First worn: out grocery shopping
Wear again? yep
Total cost: about $15
Bump: 31 weeks

So here’s a little something I’ve been working on for a few weeks now. Originally it was going to be for the ‘Royal Family’ inspired weekly challenge over at The Sew Weekly but, well, it didn’t quite get finished for that. Too bad – I’m naming it as though it did get finished in time for that challenge, since it was inspired by all the lovely coloured coats the Queen wore back in the 1950′s and 60′s.

I picked up this fabric last month at Fabric-a-brac, with the intention of turning it into a coat. Since none of my regular coats do up over The Bump at the moment, I was going to make a 1950′s style swing coat that would do up and keep Bump warm in winter weather. Only guess what? I don’t have any patterns for one! Argh!!! (And yes, this took me by surprise. How on earth do I not have a 1950′s coat pattern in my pattern stash?!? Eek!) My long-suffering partner drove me to Spotlight and waited (in the car because he refuses to set foot inside the store) while I went hunting through the vintage re-released patterns to see if I could find an appropriate coat pattern. Finally, I found a Vogue 1950′s re-released pattern that would do. Only guess what? They didn’t have it in stock in my size. Sure, I could have bought it and graded it down two sizes, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to send $30 on a Vogue pattern that was going to need that much work. Nuh-uh.

Instead, I went hunting through my stash, and pulled out this Butterick pattern. Sure, it’s not at all like a swing style coat, but hey, that can always be changed, right?!?

I made quite a few changes to this pattern. I got rid of the darts in the bodice – instead, I butted the bodice and lower coat sections together, cut them as one, and flared them out from under the bust to add more volume around the waist (has to fit over the Bump, after all!). I did much the same for the back – butted the bodice and lower coat sections together, added a bit of A-line flare, and cut them as one. I also got rid of the centre back seam – it seemed (hah, seam, seemed! *cough* Well, it amused me when I wrote it. Anyway….) unnecessary so away it went. I kept the seam lines going down the back from the shoulders, and added a bit of width to both the centre and side back pieces to get that A-line happening. I top-stitched down the back seams, to add a touch of interest and because I like the look of flat seams.

I also added a couple of inches to the sleeves, just for the novelty of having a coat where my wrists don’t stick out and get cold. Sure, I probably could have made them an inch shorter than I did, but hey – I have a bit of a habit of making slightly-longer-than-necessary sleeves to make up for all the times my wrists stuck out and got cold in ready-made clothing.

For some reason, there was a heck of a lot of ease in the shoulder caps of this coat. Rather than mess around with it for ages trying to get rid of it when sewing up, I simply gathered it up at the sleeve cap – I think it adds a cute touch. (Steve disagrees, but he hates this coat anyway. *shrug*)

I used the pocket pattern pieces, and added in-seam pockets below the waistline. (Below the waist as I intend to make a matching belt for this coat for next winter, when I’ll be wearing it sans-bump.) The pocket openings are a bit too small, even though I made them bigger than the pattern instructions called for. Or maybe I just have big hands. Oh well, either way, they’re functional, and that’s what counts.

Meg sent me these buttons last year, as part of the Travelling Lace and Notions swap a group of us did via the Sew Weekly community site. Aren’t they fabulous?!? I’ve been wanting to use them on a coat ever since I got them, and I think the pink of this one sets them off well. Thanks, Meg! You’re awesome!

Since the buttons were far too big for my buttonhole foot, I made bound button holes. Just do me a favour and don’t look at them too closely – some of them aren’t quite as straight as I would have liked, despite lots of very careful pinning in place. Next time I do bound button holes, I’m just going to give in and slip-stitch the ‘lips’ in place before machine stitching them down. So much extra time, but looks like I can’t get away without doing that. *sigh*

Not that you can see in the photos, but I fully lined this coat. I machine-stitched the lining on nearly entirely, with the exception of a 10cm long gap in the bottom hem which I used to turn the coat and then hand-stitched closed. It slips on nicely over wintery clothes. Lined coats really are awesome, don’t you think?

Please ‘scuse the photos. I had grand plans of a photo shoot up in the town belt, amongst trees, with handbag and heels and red lippy. And then it rained. All weekend. Since I spent so many weeks working on this, I didn’t want to have to wait until next weekend to get photos, so Steve snapped a few in the underground supermarket carpark when we were out grocery shopping. Not quite as glamorous as the queen, but hey, a bit of juxtaposition never hurt anyone, right? (You’ll also have to excuse the wrinkly hem – despite being pressed no less than three times, sitting in a car didn’t do it any good. I was a lot better before I left the house, I promise! I’m actually quite embarrassed by how wrinkled it looks after being sat on for a while, but not quite embarrassed enough to wait another week to take more photos. Sorry.)

Anyway, even though Steve hates this coat, I think I like it. (As with any new garment, the jury is still out on whether I do like it or not. Does anyone else have that? Kind of like a trial period with something you make, where you’re not sure if you like it or not, but make yourself wear it a few times to find out, and then sometimes you do like it, and other times you don’t? I seem to get that need for a trial period with most things I make. Heck knows why. Perhaps I just get too close to them emotionally while making them, so I don’t trust my own judgement on whether they look any good or not? Hmmmm…..) The main thing is – this coat does up over my bump! Yay!! (Sure, there’s not a lot of wiggle room, but still.) We’ll ignore for now the fact that it is slightly too tight around the bust – I forgot to allow for an expanding rib cage when cutting it out, so it’ll fit fine there when things go back to normal I guess.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot to say. Since winter is cold and all (funny, that), I added a bit of extra warmth to this coat by sandwiching a layer of brushed cotton between the shell and liner fabrics. See? Bright pink brushed cotton on the inside! (Not that you can see it now the coats made up, but it makes me smile to realise there’s bright pink fabric in there, hidden away like a little secret.)