Poppy Zip Front Top for Sofie's 21st.

My baby turned 21 back in September and I din't make a dress for her.  I would have truly but she decided she didn't need the stress and bought herself an outfit.  Me, I needed the stress obviously as I tried my first Stylearc and planned to refashion a leather skirt to go with it. The top Poppy was a  hit but the skirt is still in disgrace.

I bought the fabric in Shenzhen in China.  A floral and a matching navy solid in silk.  As it turned out it wasn't silk (am I surprised?) but pretty non the less.  I used some of the baby soft leather from my disgraced skirt as accents.  Luckily I had an old skirt in the wardrobe that matched the teal in the top pretty closely which saved me some late minute sewing for a bottom.

This was my first Stylearc pattern and I had a bit of trouble following the instructions.  Very sparse and not clear at all with the pleats.  In fact parts of the instructions were wrong and a non matching notch added to the confusion.  Its a cute top though so perhaps I will forgive them.  I purchased the top based on my bust measurement but ended up taking in the  princess seams from bust  point to the shoulder about 8cms.  I did do a muslin first without any alterations and found that I didn't have to do my usual short waist adjustment nor the forward shoulder one.  The neckline also is not quite so high or fitted as shown on the illustration.

Overall I am pretty happy with the top.  It could have been sewed a bit better but as usual I was in a hurry!  New Year resolution - don't wait till the last moment to actually get started!

The birthday girl with her non mother made outfit.  And a selfie of the three of us -

Sofie's Valedictory Dress

My baby Sofie graduated from high school recently and I made her a new dress for her Valedictory dinner.  I anticipated this event a while back and bought some silk chiffon from China on my last Hong Kong visit.  The fabric is an ombra that is black on both selvages and grading to white/cream in the middle.  Luckily she was happy with the fabric.

I used a mix of patterns - a bias cut night dress 12-2008-128B for the skirt and Butterick 5029 for the front bodice.  I then cut long ties - very long rectangles and attached them just under the bust.  To keep things simple I used elastic across the back to keep the dress close to the body as per the nightgown pattern - so no zip or other fastener needed!  I later went back and added elastic under the bust too to keep that area also closer to the body

You can see the bodice here and the rectangles hanging down. I also stitched the beads to the shoulders to keep them in place as Sofie wore the dress.

The ties wrap up over the bust, tie up at the back and hang down the back.  It was a bit of trial and error to see what looked good.  We ended up twisting around the bodice neck and tucking in around the bodice.

Of course the occasion required fake tan, hairdo, heavy makeup and false eyelashes!  The photos (except the dress form ones) were taken on a fancy smancy camera owned by Ellen's (dd1) boyfriend.  More can be seen here

Another dress for Sofie

I am a very lazy blogger.  And a lazy sewer!  But not to worry. I have recently made another formal dress for Sofie.   We used the following dress from Net-A-Porter as inspiration:

 Notte by Marchesa.  Looking closely at the dress on Net-A-Porter it appears the dress is a white strapless dress with a thick black ribbon tied around and joined to the dress in strategic places.

That is how we approached making the dress.  We started with a muslin for a Burda mag sheath dress (can't recall what number and it doesn't really matter as we changed it) and shaped the top to be sleeveless.  We shortened it too! 

Muslin looked good so we proceeded.  I used a silk remnant I purchased in Hong Kong on one of my early trips.  The black duponi was from Spotlight.  We also used up a black crystal zipper purchased way back in Hong Kong too.   I am sure they did not cost more than $10 all up.  The black silk cost as much! 

We won't discuss here all the trouble I had with that zipper!  we won't mention that I shortened it and more than once managed to get the tab off of it.  I thought we were a goner!  Sofie to the rescue with her young eyes.  By the third time she wasn't so happy with me however....

As this dress would no doubt be like others and worn only once, I took some shortcuts.  I didn't do any boning.  We put on a strap and I hoped that would hold up the dress well enough.  Sofie's breasts had other ideas.  If she leaned forward all was showing and even standing up her left breast was escaping.  What to do!?  Here is our quick fix - see the black patch on her left side above the white?  We found a scrap and just sewed it in!  Works well to cover her up and tighten the dress a bit.  Not so pretty from the inside.

The right side was just a matter of arranging the "ribbon" into a pleasing shape and hand stitching in place.  This was harder than I thought it would be.  The proportions were hard to get right as I had made the black "ribbon" smaller as Sofie is much smaller than the model but I didn't take into account that her bust however is much larger than the model.

And the troublesome zipper -

We stitched the zip exposed on the outside.  The dress is also lined.

Overall it is not my best effort but I think she looked gorgeous and the dress lasted out the night.  It is still at the drycleaners as she managed to get a drink splilled on it and plenty of body makeup too.  And did you see those killer shoes I bought her?

Sofie's bed head

Quite awhile ago, Sofie and I bought some quilting cottons in green and pink to decorate her room. First project was to make an upholstered headboard. After much research (thank God for the Internet) we decided to have a go.

First, Sofie decided on a design. Then we traced a curve on some Burda tracing paper. From there we traced onto the board. We recycled an old desk we had in our previous house but have no use for in the new one.

Next job was to cut out the shape with the jigsaw.

We took the paper template to Clarke Rubber and have them cut out some low density foam (about 4cm thick) to fit the bed head. They also sold wadding which saved us a trip to the fabric store.

The foam was glued to the board and the wadding wrapped around and stapled down. The fabric was then stapled being careful to make sure it was nice and lined up.

We used "hooks and eyes" to attached the head to the wall. More scary power tools! We put the eye pieces on the wall and put the hooks into the back of the head. Here you can see the back is not so pretty, but hopefully this side will never be seen.

Et voila!

All styled up. Next project will be a duvet cover and some matching pillow slips I think. We also plan to recover a stool and make a runner for her chest of drawers.

Unfortunately the fabric was not wide enough and I had to seam pieces on the sides. This was the most time consuming part of the whole project. To make sure that the pattern matched up I used Summerset's way of basting from the front before machine stitching from the back. Works like a charm - can't see the seam can you?

From this angle you can see the width of the head board. Also you can see that the messy back can't be seen.

Not bad, if I do say so myself!

Sofie's VCE Studio Arts

2010 has been a quiet year for me sewing wise but it was a big year for Sofie. A few posts back I talked about Sofie's year 12 VCE Studio Arts pieces. As part of her assessment she was required to produce two art pieces that were related. She also had to produce two folios discussing the preparation of samples and the actual completion of the art pieces. She chose to represent Odette and Odile of Swan Lake. She used similar materials and techniques - tulle, feathers, glitter, quilting, embroidery etc.

I was reluctant to post much about it as she was working on them as they were externally assessed and become part of her VCE score. I didn't want to do anything to effect that in any way.

So now that results are out;

.She won first place with Odette at her schools Creative Arts Week.

.Won peoples choice at Creative Arts Week

.Won the school's VCE prize on the Night of Excellence for Studio Art

.And received a 43 study score on her external assessment. This is out of 50. Anything over 40 is considered very good.

Needless to say we are all very proud of Sofie. I have uploaded quite a few photos on Flickr(please click over and have a look to see close up) and have a few here to show.

Excuse me if my spelling or grammar is off - it has just turned midnight here - Happy New Year - and many champagnes have been had..hic!

Sofie's formal dress

Sofie asked me to make her year 11 school Formal dress. She wanted something unique and as she said something "made with love". How could I refuse?

We chose Burda 12-2006-113. Fabrics were purchased from Cleggs in Lygon Street, Brunswick - a shop that specialises in evening fabrics. The lady who served us was so helpful. She helped us decide upon a sequin fabric for the bodice, poly satin for the trim and skirt and a soft pink silk Georgette for the over skirt.

After shopping for the fabric, Sof and I make a trip to Bridge Road to the perfect shoes - nude, shiny and very high!
Sofie trimmed an old bag of mine (from 1982) with a scrap of fabric and some trim
The zip was handpicked. I wish I could say the dress was a dream to sew, but my recent lack of sewing made it quite an adventure. Burda has it as a 2 dot pattern, but with our choice of fabrics it made it more a 5 star. I started on the Sunday for a Thursday night deadline. By Tuesday I was tearing out my hair and wondering why on earth I was putting myself through the torture. In fact I was telling myself that I was never going to sew again! However, after a few fitting tweaks, some hand sewing and few more hours of work, we were ready to celebrate with Champagne! And it was finished a day early!
And a couple of more photos to finish off. Sofie and her friend and a family shot.

Q&A and Sofie's project

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments and the compliments on the new hair “do”. My usual hairdresser wasn’t working on the night of my last appointment and I had someone new. I was a bit scared as his hands were shaking but I shut my eyes and hoped for the best. Luckily it turned out pretty good!

From the last few posts there were a few questions to answer:

Birgitte asked: Is Sofie sewing a triple layer in the last pix, and if so, would it be easier with a walking foot? It caught my attention cause I'm using mine right now. Yes she is, and thanks for mentioning the walking foot – I hadn’t given it a thought. And obviously her teacher hadn’t either!

Karen (kbenco) asked: Where did you get the print? Mmm, not sure but I think it was good old Spotlight. It was a while ago.

Carol commented: This pattern is so versatile. Have you seen the Stitches magazine article that shows you how to draft a cowl collar and add a pleat front to this pattern? I use it all the time. No, I haven’t seen it (or just don’t remember seeing it). Do you have the issue handy – so I can see if I have that copy?

Isabelle suggested: It's probably time Sofie asked for a sewing machine of her own - as an early birthday present perhaps? :) I don’t think that would work. I have an older machine but she wants the better one. Everything belongs to Sofie! Lucky I love her and she brings me coffee in bed in the morning.

And a lot of you want to see more of what Sofie is sewing too. She will be making two dresses/tutus. One in white and one in black. These need to be artworks and not something you would wear. She must manipulate the fabric and incorporate different textures, embellishments etc. Before she starts on the art pieces she has to fill a portfolio on different techniques – including unsuccessful ones and annotate them.

She has lots of ideas but no firm decisions have been made. There will be – feathers, tulle, satin, quilting, sparkles. Already the sewing area is covered with “stuff”. She seems to be enjoying the subject but it does also include studying other artists’ work – which involves articulating what you are actually seeing.

This is a page from her portfolio showing the initial design thoughts.

This page shows some samples for the black dress.

Sorry about the photo being sideways - Uploaded 3 times (even as a small image) but blogger insists it be sideways!

Here is a close up view of one of her samples. She has screen printed onto silk, quilted and stitched around the design. Excuse me if I don't get the terms correct..

She has to continue to try new techniques until her book is full of samples.

In the future, I am not sure how much I will be able to show of her work as she is being examined on it. I will check with her teacher in case there are any "rules" about what I can show.

SMOT no 3

I managed to get one more top in for the challenge. Cut out in April but sewn up in May - that counts doesn't it?


I used good old Kwik Sew 3338 - basic T top. I made some changes to look like that very popular Jalie tie neck top.



I lowered the front neckline slightly and added a length of brown mesh to the neckline. I also added the mesh to the sleeves to balance the look. The body of the top is a very soft viscose lycra. It was almost entirely made on the overlocker....and here is why...

Sofie has taken over the sewing area and MY machine. She is studying studio arts - textiles (VCE). At the moment she is filling a portfolio of samples. She needs to make two major works and she has decided on Odette and Odile of Swan Lake. She is up to her neck in feathers, glitter, satin and tulle.

Sofie's wardrobe refashion

Sofie is in year 9 at school and they run a special course (in addition to the usual subjects) for the year called the Ayin Program which is a multi-disciplinary program. One of their tasks this semester was to "go green" and included in that was an option to rework a piece of clothing that was past it's use by.

Sofie chose to rework an old evening dress. Here is the glamorous frock modelled by her sister Ellen:

Sofie prepared sketches of what she wanted to do to the dress. Unfortunately she had already handed the them in to the teacher so I can't show you those. They were really good, most impressed with her fashion drawing ability. We found some poly in the stash for her to use and this is what she came up with:

The dress is a bit big (well not the length!) on Ellen as it was made for another student to model at school. Next semester Sofie will be studying textile arts as well. It is good to see sewing is still alive in some schools here in Melbourne!