Toiles Away!

This is my toile of McCalls 6350. A pretty little Laura Ashley pattern.

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What do I love most about this pattern you ask?

Why it's the cup sizes of course!

I love that this goes up to a D cup. I always want to make up patterns with lovely bust details but just thinking of the full bust alteration on a pattern like this gets me flustered!.

I am an E cup and the D cup of this pattern fits like a DREAM!

I am making it up in this pretty Japanese cotton from Tessuti.

And a contrasting black fabric from the stash :-)

The only thing I had to change was the shape of the darts... they were slightly...

erm.... pointy Madonna style. So I rounded them off.

Finished pictures to come, I'm wearing this out on the weekend! hooray

Sunday, I've got buttons on my mind...

Last week I my lovely man had a day off so of course I wagged work to spend the day with him, strolling around the wintery Melbourne city. Eating, drinking, shopping & exploring.

We had breakfast at one of our favourite little cafes in Central Place and looked around the shops.

All the usual ones... T2, Alannah Hill, Anton's, Lush and the rest.

I wanted to take a look at Buttonmania, as I havn't been there before.

(Every single time I have visited the shop it's been closed! no luck).

But on this day it was open. It was so busy that I didn't really get to have a good look though.

But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, I was hovering around the front of the shop & happened to stumble upon another little shop in the same building.

l'ucello 

What a pretty little shop. I picked up some lovely buttons, thread and a belt buckle...

I also grabbed some vintage threads- Olive green nylon & black cotton. They work on the Pfaff like a dream.... ahhh...

Also... The woman behind the counter was so lovely & helpful. Thank you!

I recommend that everybody nearby check it out. There was way too many buttons to choose from so I just took a lucky dip.  

Does anybody have any ideas of what to make with these beauties?

I need something that will show them off :-)

Hope you all had a great week.
What is everybody sewing?
I've got a few things on the go, and a new Beignet to show you all!
If only it would stop raining...

Tally ho!

Winter Coat, Olive please!

Since it was a long weekend for us here in Australia, I thought I would embark on a project that has been on my mind for a long time. I purchased the book Sew Serendipity a few months ago and have been eyeballing the pretty tailored jacket ever since. It has been so cold on my walks to work that a warm jacket was in order. So it was time to get cracking! 

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To get started, I headed to the sewing shop to get some odds and ends such as buttons, twill tape & interfacing. I think I need to mention that I seem to have a slight obsession with olive green at the moment. (I just finished sewing some olive green buttons on my new Colette Beignet, but wait, thats for my next post.) and out the corner of my eye, I just happened to spot this perfect olive shade... at Spotlight of all places... The label stated that it was 'Melton Wool' 100% wool. I'm no good at fabric classification, has anybody else ever heard of this??? Anywho... it felt lovely so I got 3 metres (And after cutting out the jacket there is still just over a metre to make a sexy pencil skirt with, Hooray.)

Front before lining & facing is added

I cut out all the pieces in the shell fabric, lining fabric & interlining fabric. Oh Boy!

I tried a new technique too! Bound buttonholes. Thanks to Tasia's excellent tutorial, they were a breeze! I think I could improve them next time, the middle one is a tiny bit bigger than the others...shh

The pattern calls for double stitched seams, bodice darts and gathering, and it is simple enough to customize with your own embelleshments! I will be adding button up cuffs to the sleeves and I also drafted a lining as the pattern didn't include this. I love silky lining on a warm winter jacket.

The whole jacket is underlined with some leftover medium weight cotton knit fabric (Thats the crazy orange colour that is poking out.) that I had in the stash and the lining was an ebay grab. It is a silk wool blend and feels divine. 

Lining & Facing

It all went pretty smoothly. When it was time to sew the facing and lining in, sheesh there were so many layers! The jacket is so heavy (Super heavy!) but my machine sewed straight on through it without any problems. I love my Pfaff!

Check out the layer action...

All thats left to do is sew on the cuffs and finish the hem & finally handsew the innards.

Gah, I might even get to wear it before winter is over! Fancy that...

            

Jeans! How cool is this guy...

My lovely gent was looking around on the world wide web and stumbled upon the great video of the lovely Roy from Roy Jeans (I've never heard of them up until now.)
I have watched it over and over again and I am jealous of all his cool gadgets!
I like that it shows just how much effort goes into making a single pair of jeans... Sheesh, no wonder they have a $275 price tag attached...
And is it just me or does anybody else find a man who sews sexy? ok maybe thats just me...
He looks like he has sewn a trillion pairs, so speedy and perfect!
Thats all for today folks. Stay tuned for a 200 follower giveaway coming soon!
Have a nice weekend & long weekend if your here in Australia :-)

Roy's Jeans - Video by Self Edge from Self Edge on Vimeo.

I want...

French Connection Cluch from ASOS