Girly dress no. 2

My lovely piece of Nani Iro japanese fabric has been sitting around in stash waiting for "the perfect dress pattern" to appear. So I got realistic and decided that it wasn't going to happen soon, and I'd rather wear and enjoy it in an OK form than not at all. So... I just used the trusty Simplicity 3835 AGAIN. Yes, I can't say I haven't had my money's worth with this pattern!



And as with the 1st "girly dress", I made a few modifications til it was right for me. It's easy to wear and great on a hot day. Looking at the photos taken last week though, it makes me shiver a little as our temperatures have plummetted and we have non-stop rain. Which makes for interesting child care conditions, as I'm sure you can appreciate. Still, at least we're not flooding as other areas are.



Please excuse the headless shots - the hair and makeup people hadn't been in that day ;-)

More creative goodness to see over here.

My Creative Space - girly dress

It's nice to see Our Creative Spaces back up and running for the year - it's like welcoming an old friend back :-)

Do you remember this fabric that I found late last year? I decided to make another version of Simplicity 3835, not because I really loved the style but because I knew it was a quick sew and just wanted a summer dress!



The style tends to look a bit shapeless on me so I considered putting front waist darts in but then thought I'd probably have to put a zip in, which might make it a bit restrictive to move in and look a bit strange with the elasticated bits so.... I put in a few short rows of shirring (any excuse for a bit of shirring ;-) to give it some shape. There's a bit of a weird pulling going on around the bum area which if I knew properly about sewing I'd probably work out how to fix, but it doesn't bother me too much.



I also added in-seam pockets as we all know how useful pockets are in a dress. They do add to the weird pull of the dress drape though. I think maybe the fabric is too fine to hold them. Ah well, at least they're useful.

Overall the dress is a tad too girly for me (hopefully not 'little girl' looking though - that would be tragic) but if I try to 'rough it up' a bit with accessories etc it's not too bad (any suggestions welcome). I think it might also work layered when the weather turns cooler, if I'm still keen on it then. Ah, I'm so fickle.

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By the way, is anyone else having problems commenting with Blogger recently? I've had several problems lately, it's driving me nuts. Let me know if you have any problems too and I'll find someone at Blogger to have a whinge to.

Rare find

I begrudgingly popped in to Spotlight recently to look for some plain linen for making teatowels & pot holders to screenprint (linens at my favourite stores being too expensive/too thin/too just not right). The linen was still not quite what I wanted (why is it so hard to find?!), but looking around the dress fabrics, I suddenly felt like I'd stepped into an aladin's cave of great fabrics rather than a boring chain store.



Was it that I hadn't been fabric shopping for a while, or that I was on a caffeine high from the strong coffee I'd just had? Was I in the wrong store?? When I go to this chain store (the equivalent in the US seems to be Joann's?) it's normally just for some basics, some thread, a bit of stuffing for soft toys, that sort of thing. But I seriously could have bought home about 7 different great prints this visit. But I told myself I could just choose one * and narrowed it down to this beauty...



The docket says it's 'Japanese tana lawn, hydrangea'. And the colours - pale grey background with splashes of vivid purple, deep blue and yellow - perfect! The sales assistants (or 'ladybugs' as my boy calls them ;-) couldn't tell me the difference between lawn and voile - does anyone know?



Anyway, I adore it, even though I had a moment of "is it nanna or gorgeous?", not that it can't be both! I put that down to the hydrangea print. My paternal grandmother grew beautiful blue ones near her door.

I plan to make a version of my boring dress for those hideous days like last Monday when the temperature reaches the high 30's c and it feels like we're living in a furnace. Fingers crossed that the image in my mind comes out the same way.



* Lets just forget all about this post, shall we (ahem)? Ah well, 3 steps forward, 2 steps back ;-)

Hooray for Etsy!

You may remember that I recently became aware of the 'Built by Wendy' pattern Simplicity 3835. Yes, in sewing terms, I must have been living under a rock to have not seen it before - it seems to have been incredibly popular with sewing bloggers particularly - I think it may have become popular before my blog viewing days. There are some lovely versions here, and as usual, I would probably not have looked twice at the pattern from the images on the front - it's what people have done with it that's impressive.

Anyway... it's out of print, and trying not to spend a small fortune by buying in from the Simplicity site for $35, I finally tracked down a copy on the wonderful Etsy for much much less. Hooray! And thank you, Kristi from Eau de bean, for your helpful, friendly service.

It arrived yesterday and I excitedly looked through my stash for some suitable fabric to try the top out. I'm trying hard not to buy anything new until I reduce it a bit (ha haa!). Here are a few possibilities:


A leftover piece of the fabric I used for my dress late last year - I'd probably have to add a band onto the bottom as there's not quite enough.



This floral, earlier rejected by my big girl as 'not pretty'.


Or this crazy 70's (?) print. Hmm, not sure if I could carry that one off!