Photo A Day

Running a bit behind posting the Photo A Day photos, but here’s the last week from the March Photo A Day Challenge:

25 March – In your drawer

Contents of my ribbon drawer.

26 March – Something you did

Lunchtime white-chocolate-and-vanilla gelato with my friend Natalie, enjoying the sun on the waterfront and watching ducks go past.

27 March – Pair

Pair of footprints, stuck to our fridge. (The Little Man’s from a couple of days ago, aged 6 months and 1 week.)

Missed a day here…

29 March – Goodnight

Just after putting the Little Man to bed for the night. Milk coma, yes indeed.

30 March – Relax

Cup o’ tea, mini Easter egg, and my current sewing project. Bliss.

And then I missed the last day of March. Oops…

Covert tea cozy

A while back, I spotted a new swap thingy happening via the sewing interwebs. The Covert Robin swap. It sounded like fun, so I went and signed up.

After a fair bit of cyber-stalking my swap buddies blog, I finished off my gift and sent it off to them this week.

Wanna see what I made?

Yep, it’s orange and yellow and white. Can you guess what it is?

A tea pot cozy!

I used this tutorial over here. Lots of fun to make up, I’m thinking I may have to make myself one. (Except I have a couple of fabulous knitted ones my mother-in-law made for me, so I don’t really need another. Maybe I need to make a few more as gifts….)

Since my swap buddy likes vintage linens and doilies, I figured she’s probably be a tea drinker. (I don’t know about you, but vintage linen and tea kinda of go together in my brain.) I carried through the vintage inspiration by using a vintage cotton for the outside, and some vintage braid for the loop on the top. (The inside is a craft cotton leftover from a dress I made a couple of years back.) There’s batting sandwiched between the two layers, and bias binding finishing it off around the bottom.

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. It fits snugly over a teapot, and the colours make me happy. Hopefully the girl I made it for will like it…..!

The “Melissa” Dress

Check it out – I made another 1940′s garment for Sew For Victory!

(And yes, I did actually finish it in time. Just. But then I didn’t get a chance to post about it. Oh well.)

Anyway, I now have another 1940′s dress in my wardrobe, which makes me happy. I do love me some 1940′s style.

This one is Hollywood 805, from 1942. I love Hollywood patterns – the images of movie stars, the styling. Something about it appeals to me a lot. I’m slowing building up a collection of Hollywood patterns, although this is the first one I’ve gotten around to making. (Of the grand total of four that I own so far…. I did say I was building up a collection s l o w l y…!)

So, one thing about Hollywood patterns. Or at least this one. The instructions are really rather sparse. Looking for guidance on which way to press darts or tucks? You won’t find it here.

The details, on the other hand, are lovely, in that 1940s way. The shoulders are interesting – the back extends over to the front, and joins as though it’s a yoke, so there is no shoulder seam. The neckline in particular is interesting, with it’s points. The sleeves are dart-fitted at the sleeve head. The bodice is gathered into the waistline at front and back so it’s fitted around the waist, yet gives a blousey effect. The pockets have notched details at the top and are sewn so they jut out at the top. (And the inset belt is lovely, although I omitted it so I could ‘future proof’ the dress with the side seams.)

There are a couple of things I’d change next time. I forgot to lengthen the bodice as part of the grading up in sizes, so the waist sits a bit high at the back. A belt disguises it, but I’d rather it was about another inch lower at the back. (The front, however, is fine.) The sleeves are a bit tight as well – I didn’t bother grading them, but next time I will. They’re not too tight to be uncomfortable at all, but a little bit more ease wouldn’t go amiss. Oh, and I’d lengthen the shoulders by about 3/4″ as they’re a little bit narrow, which results in the neckline pulling a bit.

But none of those are stopping me from wearing this dress, and enjoying it!

(According to Steve, I look “like a cross between a punk and a granny”. I have no issues whatsoever with this description.)

The Facts

Pattern: Hollywood 805
Year: 1942
Fabric: blue Ikea cotton, acquired from Mel at a Wellington bloggers meet-up swap (thanks Mel!)
Notions: 8 vintage white buttons from my great-aunt’s stash
Alterations made:

• Graded up to my current size
• Future-proofed by attaching the skirt to the bodice on the flat, and sewing the side seams last
• Removed the inset belt (in order for it to be future-proof-able) and added 1 inch at the top of the skirt and bottom of bodice at the back so back waist seam matched front waist seam
• Added interfacing to the button placket and the inner necklineK
• Rounded the corners of the inner neckline (because the pattern had already been altered that way. Next time I’ll re-alter it back to pointy corners)
• Drafted a new back neck facing as that pattern piece is missing
• Moved the top corners of the pockets out by 1 inch on each side so they don’t stick as far out from the dress

First worn: for a walk around the zoo on Monday 1 April
Wear again? Already have. It got worn to work this week, and got a couple of compliments from people who didn’t know I’d made it. Yay!!
Make again? Yep, I likes this pattern.

The photos were taken on a walk around the zoo. This gorgeous lady came up to say ‘hello’:

Photo A Day

Part of March, captured in the March Photo A Day challenge…

12 March – In the distance

Distant clouds at dawn.

And then I missed a few days… Oops….

16 March – 9 o’clock

9am – making breakfast while juggling the Little Man.

17 March – Green

Yum Cha with the Wellington sewing bloggers. Chinese greens – yum!

18 March – Shoes

My first day back at work after maternity leave. Which means, I get to wear my high heel collection once more! Today’s choice – Minx light blue heels.

19 March – A sign

Logo on the sign at the Little Man’s daycare.

Another missed day…. Figuring out the whole work-life balance thing, haha!

21 March – Working

Road works building the new Buckle Street underpass.

And more missed days… *sigh*

24 March – Up

First time in a swing!

The “Johanna” Shirt

My poor little blog, it’s been suffering a bit from neglect lately. Why is that? Well, I started back at work two weeks ago, full time. Turns out that juggling a six-month baby and a full-time job doesn’t leave much time for, well, anything else, really!

I have been managing to eek out a little bit of sewing time here and there though, although finding time to blog about things is proving harder! But hey, it’s only week two – I’m sure we’ll get this whole finding-time-for-life thing sorted out sooner or later.

In the meantime, here, finally, is a shirt I made a couple of weeks ago! I finished it off just in time for the last Wellington sewing bloggers meet-up on 17 March. (And yes, I do mean “just in time” – it got finished the morning of the meet-up. This seems to be becoming a habit of mine. Must try and break that for the next meet-up….) (If you want to read more about our latest meet-up, here’s a lovely post that Nikki wrote about it. As per usual, I forgot to take photos, so go look at her lovely ones instead.

Every bloggers meet-up I go to, I seem to walk away with a new sewing goodie or two. And then I resolve to make something using one of them for the next meet-up! This month, it was the turn of this lovely black floral cotton/(something?) fabric, which I got from Jo back in January. My original plan for this was to turn it into a shirt. And since there’s a 1940′s Sew For Victory sew-along happening, a 1940′s blouse it ended up becoming!

Since I’m still working on losing weight around my waist, I did some rough on-the-fly alterations and added a bit to the waist on both side seams. (Hoping that one day, preferably not too far in the future, I can take those seams in once again. Hopefully….. Must stop drinking so much hot chocolate, then that day may come around a bit earlier….. Oh who am I kidding – hot chocolate is just far too tasty to give up!)

Anyway…

This pattern was interesting to make up. The instructions left quite a bit to be desired – no call for interfacing, no indication of overlap on the front, general randomness. But I got there in the end eventually, with only a couple of seams needing unpicked due to a misinterpretation of the vague directions. And I do like this pattern once it’s made up – there are a couple of lovely small folds either side of the button placket, released tucks for shaping at front and back, gathers at the front yoke, and top-stitching detail on the collar. (Sadly though, most of these details are hidden in the busy-ness of the fabric. But hey, they make me smile, even if no one else can see them.)

(Something about released tucks for waist shaping really appeals to me….. I’m not sure why, but it makes me happier than standard darts. Hmmm….)

Just for the fun of it (and because I was running of out time to get this finished <- shameful confession, folks), I used snap fasteners as closures instead of buttons. Nice, shiny black ones. Which means I feel like Superman whenever I take this shirt off. Oh yeah! Let's face it – snap fasteners are fun! (Even if they are completely not 1940s in style.)

(Plus, you get to sew with a hammer, which is always a good time.)

The Facts

Pattern: Academy 2842
Year: unknown, circa 1940s
Fabric: unknown blend, from Johanna in the first Wellington bloggers meet-up swap (thanks, Johanna! And look – I named a shirt after you in appreciation! )
Notions: completely period-inaccurate hammer-on snap fasteners in black
First worn: to the latest Wellington sewing bloggers meet-up on 17 March
Wear again? Already have!
Make again? Yep, next time in a plainer fabric so the details stand out more

Photo A Day

the March Photo-A-Day Challenge continues….

5 March – Under

I seem to spend a lot of time fishing toys out from under our couches these days….

6 March – Chair

Technically a bench, but I figure that’s a form of chair, right? This one sits at Quirk’s Corner, just down the road from us. Chances are you’ve seen it in a photo here before – today I walked past it while out wandering with the Little Man.

7 March – Fear

Random unexpected thing to be afraid of – telephone poles spontaneously falling over. At 4.45pm, right at the start of rush hour, on a road that a large number of bus routes go down. Yep, traffic was utter chaos. We had buses getting diverted down our street since they couldn’t go their normal route.

8 March – Favourite

One of my (current) favourite drinks from one of my favourite cafes – a peanut butter and chocolate milkshake from the Southern Cross, while hanging out with a group of local mothers and their little ones.

9 March – Faceless self-portrait

Part of one shoulder. Because that’s the best I could reach behind myself with a camera on the day. :-p

10 March – I want…

… more hours in every day.

11 March – Important

Remember folks, it’s important to eat your veges! (Roast vege salad with rosemary and feta for lunch.)

The “Lovebirds” Dress

The Facts

Pattern: McCalls 4185
Year: 1953
Fabric: craft cotton, gift from my mother
Notions: 8 buttons and a snap fastener, all from my stash
First worn: to my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary celebration
Wear again: yes, after I make a couple of adjustments
Verdict on the pattern: Reasonably easy and fast to put together. Pleats at the skirt waistline do tend to make one look a bit bigger around the hips, sadly.
Adjustments made: Extended the front button placket and removed the side zipper.
Anything I’d do differently next time? Probably convert those waistline pleats into darts to reduce some of the volume.

Back in early February, we had a pretty fabulous excuse to travel down South for a big family get-together. It was my grandparents 60th wedding anniversaary! Seriously, how gorgeous is that?!?

Last year, my grandfather told me about when he met my grandmother. They both attended a community dance – my grandmother was on holiday with her friends, and my grandfather had traveled there with his friends, so neither of them were from the town where the dance was held. My grandfather spotted my grandmother from across the room, wearing “a pretty lemon dress” and the rest, as they say, was history! (I love that my grandfather has such fond memories of a yellow dress, over 60 years after seeing it.)

Naturally, I had to indulge myself and make a dress to wear to their Diamond anniversary dinner

And since my grandmother was wearing a yellow dress when they met, I made a yellow dress to wear. My lovely mother bought this fabric for me as a surprise, especially to use to make a dress for the anniversary dinner. (Thanks, mum!)

They got married in 1953, so I went hunting through my pattern stash for a dress pattern from 1953. (And can I just say how incredibly useful it was at this point, having a lot of my patterns recorded? All I had to do was search for ’1953′ and I immediately discovered which patterns I had and could choose which one to use. Brilliant!)

My original plan was to make the full skirted style, but there wasn’t enough fabric, so I deviated from my usual style (eek!) and went with the straight skirt version. It’s odd, but I feel so much more ‘formal’ in a straight skirt! (Who would have thought a bright-yellow-dress-with-pink-birds would be considered ‘formal’?!?) As a result, I’m struggling a bit with trying to figure out where to wear this one – I love it, but it doesn’t seem casual enough for a weekend dress, and I’m worried this may even be a little bit too OTT for the office…. (Not that that’s stopped me before, but hey.) Anyone got any suggestions for how to style it/wear it??

Please ‘scuse the slightly damp-looking top of the button placket. It got chewed on by the Little Man during the speeches. Hey, whatever keeps him quiet, right?!

The pattern itself was reasonably easy to put together. I graded it while cutting to my current measurements and just went for it. I was, however, very short on time (I may have sewn this up the morning of the anniversary dinner. In fact, it’s entirely possible that those buttons got sewn on after I was meant to be out there with the rest of the family. Oops.), and as a result I didn’t get a chance to make a couple of alterations before wearing it. The main issue? There’s just too much volume at the hips. The skirt is tuck-fitted rather than dart-fitted, so it poofs out a bit around that area (heck knows why you’d do that intentionally as part of the design?!), plus I added a bit more ease than I think I needed. But that’s easy enough to fix, and it’s now in my ‘to adjust’ pile. (I also need to finish them hem. Due to time constraints, I managed to overlock it and that was it. Yep, I wore an unfinished dress to a Diamond anniversary dinner. *sigh*)

Even though it’s not my usual colour or style, straight skirt and all, I rather like this dress. It’s bright and cheerful, and the little pink birds make me smile.

(Now I just need to figure out if I can get away with it for work…. Hmmm…. Maybe I’m just out of practice at wearing bright dresses since I haven’t been able to fit into mine for ages…?!?!)