Lemon Sherbet dress for Felicity: BurdaStyle 07/2021 #119

The other wedding guest dress. This one was sewn in a delightful rayon nylon blend from The Fabric Store. This is what The Fabric Store say about it (and it still seems to be available – this is not a sponsored post – I just love the fabric!) A deadstock rayon blend in a lemon

Eucalypt Merino wool knit dress for Felicity: BurdaStyle 11/2021 #115

In March, Felicity and I started planning what she was going to wear to a wedding at the end of April. We ended up with a shortlist of these three Burda dress patterns: After shopping the stash, no appropriate fabrics were found. I know. Amazing… Off we went to The Fabric Store, and found many

Red and olive colour blocked dress: Style Arc Mila

Another experimental dress! How did this happen? Well, I had intended to add olive cuffs to my last red Bella dress but the fit issues dampened my enthusiasm. But you know how it is – I still had the olive fabric out and there was a sizeable remnant of the red fabric left. Plus a

Sizing up Bella

Tessuti’s Bella dress pattern is an old favourite. Search through my blog – you’ll see I’ve made several Bella’s for myself and Felicity. But I am no longer the same size thanks to having so many birthdays that I’ve hit menopause. So it was time to test another size. Version one was in a red

Should’ve made a shirt

I’ve had this small floral woven cotton in my stash for a while. It’s always been earmarked for a shirt. Shirting weight, small floral. Makes sense doesn’t it? Light grey and white. Perfect as corporate wear. But I had an idea in my head that I wanted to use the Closet Core Cielo dress pattern

Patrones: one out of three ain’t bad

Why Patrones? Good question. The answer is a lot to do with feeling dissatisfied with Burda itself and how I could subscribe in Australia. And liking the idea of an online magazine. And liking the concept of a smallish pdf that you then trace off your pattern from. Sounds odd? This is what Doctor T

Sequins

You know those conversations when people find out you sew? Those conversations almost always include the question – where do you get your fabrics from? My answer has been “all sorts of places – local shops, online (at this point their eyes glaze over), gifted from other sewists, a tiny bit from secondhand shops (they

Retro Hope dress

Piping and a large print on a donkey grey background seems to have taken my third Hope dress into retro style. And I like it! This is Style Arc’s Hope woven dress at knee length. With a thin waist tie attached to the side seams. The pattern description says the dress is in two lengths

Liz Haywood’s zero/low waste scrubs

In a surprise to everyone but mostly myself I’ve done some self-less sewing for strangers and I liked it! Belinda of @pinpoint_textiles called out for Adelaide sewists to make scrubs for the staff at the coronary care unit at one of our excellent hospitals, Flinders Medical Centre, for Fun Scrubs Friday. What a great way

Style Arc Hope Woven Dresses: the midi versions

Style Arc’s Hope Woven Dress pattern is hugely popular. Several Instagram sewists (I’m looking at you @rou2an1_made and @johassler) have made more than 10 versions. Yes. More than 10! There’s even a hashtag for multiple sewing of this pattern: #hopedressspringseternal. And it is deservedly popular. This style seems to look great on everyone, every body

Pink Tais turns into a Closet Core Sienna Jacket

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know I love to buy fabrics whilst travelling. You’ve been warned! This is another one of those posts where I talk about what I sewed from fabric I bought a long way from home. A brief but wonderful trip to East Timor in 2019 resulted in

Is a kaftan a cocktail dress?

I think the photo answers that question! I used Cris Wood Sews Envelope Dress zero waste pattern and a floral rayon I purchased on holiday in Glasgow in 2014 to make this ‘cocktail kaftan’. Why was fabric purchased as a souvenir? Is that really a question for a sewist? I’ll answer it anyway. It wasn’t

Christmas dresses

Using Jocelyn Proust Christmas themed Australian animal prints to make Christmas dresses has become a tradition. This year, wombats and waratahs became a Sew Different Tulip dress for me. The whole menagerie of Australian animals was made into another version of B6677 for Felicity. Yes of course there was a matching mask! If you follow

Style Arc Adeline dress #2 and #3

I’m on a red dress roll. Must be Christmas! This fabric was a souvenir from Barcelona. I fell in love with the colours and I love border prints. As a bonus it’s an overprinted jacquard. Almost certainly made from synthetic fibres but interesting and unusual. The base is white (as you can see above) and

Red Papercut Tide dress

I’ve admired the Papercut patterns Tide dress ever since it was released (as the Kobe dress). Such a clever but simple design with the pleating and cut out at the back. In a recent sale I succumbed and purchased it. And then spent several happy hours looking though my fabric stash for suitable fabrics. Of