Waiting for the mail...

I ordered the Macaron dress pattern from Colette Patterns via Pink Chalk Fabrics a few days ago. I don't actually have time in the next few weeks to make it up but I'm still impatiently twiddling my thumbs awaiting its arrival.


It wasn't the cheapest pattern to buy but I fell in love with it and can't wait to see the pretty pattern book that people have been raving on about - you can see an example of one of the books here.

I'm loving all the different colour combinations people have used for this - I suspect I might spend my Xmas break making at least one of them *rubs hands in anticipation*

Flower girl dress complete (I hope)

After spending a day or so sewing away in the sweltering heat (Melbourne's hottest November in 100 years), the dress is complete!

Well complete as far as I am concerned - the only thing is I hope Cheeky Miss C can fit into it! She currently wears 18-24 month old clothing, and I unfortunately was armed with a pattern for 4-6 year olds so I decided to be logical about it and just size down the pattern proportionally. Then I realised that little kiddies tend to have different proportions to older ones. Hmm. Let's just say my fingers are crossed that there are no alterations required.

Here are pictures of the finished product - it required a metre of Ivory satin-polyester from Cleg's, a lot of thread, a 10-inch cream coloured zip and a heck of a lot of sweat. Like I said, it was hot!

Front

Back
I took creative liberties by adding a black ribbon sash to the dress - I don't actually know what colour ribbon the bride has in mind for it. I'm quite pleased with the result though - I hope the bride and groom are as well!

PS I forgot to add - this took such a long time to do because I am ridiculously slow at this and there was a fair bit (for me anyway) of hand-stitching involved... and boy do I hate hand-stitching...

Why are there no nice dresses around??

There probably are, but not within the price range I am willing to fork out for :(

In less than 3 weeks I have a wedding and a ball to go to, all on the same weekend. I suspect I could probably re-use an older dress for the ball, but seeing as I am going to be an MC for the wedding, I kinda wanna look good. Obviously, it would be ideal to always look good but since I figure there is more of a chance of people looking in my direction (whether they like it or not MUAAAHAHAHA) I would prefer not to blind them.

Being post-Melbourne Cup period, most of the available dresses are flippy, summery, race-worthy and in lots of cases short - and dare I say even tarty..?

Anyhoo, it occured to me yesterday while I was slaving over the flower girl dress (almost done - just need to buy and put in the zip at the back and hope to goodness that it fits) that maybe I could make myself a dress! After all, I do have my newly purchased and not-yet-assembled dressmaker's dummy to assist it hemming and fitting and darting and all other sewing related type activities!

I don't know though - less than 3 weeks to go, never having made a formal dress before and quite a few social events lined up - am I asking for trouble..?

I'm going to spend 30 minutes looking for an easy, attractive dress pattern online. I figure if I can't find one, it'll be a sign that I might just need fork out for a dress. Bah.

Flower Girl

Yesterday, I got a phone call from a friend who is getting married in 3 weeks. I figured she was calling to discuss the agenda for the wedding reception, as I've been given the honour of being one of the MCs for the night. I was wrong.

Instead, she's had trouble finding a dress for her very cute little flower girl and asked if I could sew up a simple dress for her. She had seen the peach dress that I had made for Princess S awhile back (I actually doubt Princess S has ever worn that dress come to think of it!) and thought that that would make a great flower girl dress if done up in a different material, so I think I'll be receiving 2 metres of the specially chosen material tonight...


I'm quite excited about doing this but also a little worried that there will be a lot of disappointment if the dress turns out horribly! I'm just hoping the material isn't too slippery since I haven't been very successful with non-cotton material so far.

Wish me luck!

Slack

That's me. Still not much sewing going on but when it does, I am too lazy/busy (pick one) to take photos and blog.

So in an effort to keep up to speed with blogging since there is no way I am going to be back tracking and blogging like some other persistent people have done (Hai Frannie!) here's a quick run down of my bits and pieces:

- I went to Sri Lanka. It rocked. I came back with 4m of cotton in blue and turquoise, 5m in coral, and an orange silk sari. The plan is to cut the latter up but we'll see how we go with that one. I have included a random Sri Lankan pic since I don't have any pics of the fabric... elephants!!


- Borders had 30% off up to 3 books recently - so I purchased Cath Kidson's Sew and Make, and also a sewing reference book for a birthday present for someone. I now think that I may return Make - not a huge amount in there that interests me and it also seems like the reviewers on Amazon agree. I am yet to decide about Sew but I do like the fact that you get the materials in there to make the bag on the cover!

- Lincraft is having 30% off everything for 3 days - as usual just after I had forked out for some materials for the baby bootie making fest that I will be undertaking soon - but I managed to use the discount on some tracksuit material and a Singer dressmaker dummy *hurrah* I had had my eye on one for ages - so I managed to save a whopping $75 :D

- I think it is pretty obvious that I didn't make a Chanel jacket. I really was all set to do it but work got crazy, I had a week and a half overseas and I was rushing a present for Princess S, so yeah... no jacket...

I think that is it for me with regards to sewing-related items of note for now... all I can say is I will *try* to get better...?

hehe

xx

Canton Village Giveaway

No no, it's not a little town in China... Ma emailed me to tell me about a giveaway at Canton Village Quilt Works - I thought I'd try my luck but I have to say that there are over 1000 comments so far... still, you gotta be in it to win it! :)