A Dress I Will Wear

I recently discovered Victory Patterns and in particular, their "Lola" dress pattern.

Check it out, it looks warm, funky, comfortable and stylish all in one.

After I bought the pdf pattern and printed it off I discovered it was one of the easiest pdf's to put together.  In fact hands down, it had the most clever way of adjoining all the pages (these things matter!).  It even had little pictures of scissors on the edges that you needed to cut.

I couldn't wait to sew it up and I didn't let the small matter of not enough knit fabric in my stash put me off.

I chose 3 different knit remnants that I hoped would work together to make up all the elements of this dress.

I measured myself and chose the largest measurement and made the dress in that size. Well, aside from the colour combinations of green, aqua and brown not really working together, it was way too big.  Kinda looked like a big sack.  Not good.

So after a trip to my fabric store for enough knit to make the dress, I was ready to try again.  I chose a textured fleecy knit in a rusty brown colour.  I really wanted to buy the cream knit, but that colour just didn't seem practical with four children in the household!  This time I made it two sizes smaller than the first one.

It fit perfectly and it was really quick to sew up, I did it in an afternoon.  Which meant I was finished in time to wear it to my Girl's Day out on the weekend.  It survived a day travelling in a bus for a couple of hours, sitting in a restaurant eating and drinking and wandering around a cute 9 room antique shop.  It was comfy and I felt great in it.

The best part is that this is a dress I will wear.  I've sewn a few dresses up over the years and I'm sad to report that I have never worn them.  I've already bought a bright orange fleecy knit to make my next one!

Slippers For My Gal

I've made these slippers before, for myself.  I love them and wear them whenever it starts to get cool inside (when it gets very cold I go straight to my ugg boots). 
The pattern is Simplicity 2278 and I chose View A.

The instructions are great and I follow them right up to inserting the inner sole.  The pattern asks for a separate piece that slips into the shoe, but I prefer it attached, so I sew it on inside out and leave a gap for turning and then slip stitch the gap on the inside.  (Hard to explain, but if you've ever made hats, you may know what I mean).

These ones are the Small size and they were perfect for my daughter's foot (she's in a kids size 2).  The final sole of the shoe measures 23cm.

I lined them with a warm, soft fleece and the outer fabric is a sweet beige cherry blossom cotton.

On the first test run, it was apparent the strap was way too long and wasn't going to serve any purpose.

 To solve this, I ran two rows of gathering elastic and "shirred" the strap. 

 It worked perfectly!  I remember when I made mine last time, I shortened the strap to fit my foot, but I think I like the shirring effect better.

 

I put Jiffy Grip at the bottom to ensure no slipping around on the kitchen floor.


And lastly, and most importantly, my little gal of 8yrs just loves them!

A Very Cool Cardigan

Recently I was lucky enough to win a competition from the great blog Alida Makes.

One of the prizes was being able to have my choice of three gorgeous patterns from Blank Slate Patterns.

I love visiting pattern shops online, especially those that offer pdf (instant gratification!) downloads, so my visit to Blank Slate Patterns was lots of fun!  I had such a hard time choosing, I really loved the girl's dresses, especially the Pristine Swing Dress:

 But this time round, I decided it was time I bought more patterns for my boys, especially when such cute ones were on offer!  I got a nice selection of Winter clothing.  First up,the Basic Blazer.

The Cool Cardigan...oh how cool is this!

And lastly, The Prepster Pullover

I couldn't wait to get started on these and I chose the Cool Cardigan as my first victim!  My 9 year old often misses out on handmade items, due to most patterns cutting off at size 6 or 8.  He is between an 8 and a 10.  So I made the 8 in this pattern and hoped for the best.

Luckily the best occurred and we had a perfect fit.

I used a stretch terry towelling in a gorgeous rust speckled with black flecks that I picked up whilst op shopping recently.  The contrast fabric is a stretchy wool blend that I also scored second hand.

The pattern came together nice and easy, with very clear instructions.  No hard bits, except for trying to get perfectly neat buttonholes, I'll keep working on that.

Thanks again Alida Makes and Blank Slate Patterns!