Ellen's Valedictory dress - the bodice

Burda 8-2008-126. Last week I made a muslin of just the bodice of the dress. The pattern starts as size 36 and Ellen's bust measures 78cm. I penciled in on the pattern sheet a size 34 and then traced that. This is the first time that I drafted the smaller size before tracing and I found it much easier to work around. You can see the pencil line on the blue piece.

I made the muslin in the size 34 even though she is smaller still. We pin fitted the muslin and found we needed to reduce the curve of the bust (not quite filling that out) and taking the side seams in a bit. I used the instructions in Palmer Pletsch Fit for Real People to do the small bust adjustment.

I reduced the curve in the side piece and also reduced the length in the centre front piece. This worked beautifully and the cups fit her just right.

Now that was the good bit. The not so good bit was with the overlay. It is in one piece that goes from centre back across the front and back to centre back. As there were are side seams I needed to take circumference length out.

Also note all those pleat markings? Just imagine trying to mark, pin, baste all those and then they don't fit the bodice? Hmmm. I unpicked all that and made my own pleats to fit ensuring they looked pleasing enough. Much easier option!

All was going well until the next fitting. Oh, no...it does not meet at centre back! I am sure I added the seam allowances when cutting, but something went wrong. So onto plan B or is that C or D by now? I added the extra width by adding some panels at the back (remember there are o side . I then sewed on the buttons, inserted the zip and attached the skirt. Time for the next fitting.

The skirt has issues but I will talk about that tomorrow! Back to the bodice - it is TOO BIG! The poor girl is exposing herself each time she moves. Now, I would like to blame Burda but it has to be operator error - just not sure what error(s) they were. Anyway, back to ripping and resewing. I managed to not have to take the zip out by just gathering the extra back width into the bodice. Now I am just too scared to get her to try it on again!

This morning before work I was back at it trying to get the V to sit nicely at centre front where the skirt meets the bodice. It is not co operating! Perhaps tonight it will be a bit nicer to me.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post and for welcoming me back! I have a few questions to answer but will attend to that in my next post. Wish me luck!

Posting again

Yes I have posted!!!

What can I say? I have been lazy. No sewing, my sewing room is in a mess and my mojo has well and truly departed.

I have decided that I just need to make a new mojo and the only way to do that is to get back to it and SEW SOMETHING. And what shall I make ? Ellen’s Valedictory dress of course! She is currently sitting her final ever maths exam and her final ever high school exam will be next Monday for media. She has been so busy studying that we haven’t bought any fabric yet. What we have decided upon is BWOF 08-2008-126.


The plan is to do the bodice in cream satin and the skirt in navy satin. We will make the skirt fuller to have a more flowing effect. And in true Alannah Hill style we will attempt to make flowers for her hair and her shoes. Alannah Hill ankle socks have been purchased (at the new Doncaster Shoppingtown – don’t you love that place?).

The pattern starts at size 36 and we will need to downsize considerably to fit my petite poppet. So the plan of action this week is to fit a muslin of the bodice and decide if we will insert bra cups or leave it as is. Then we will go fabric shopping – going to Spotlight as our first (and hopefully final) port of call. Then next weekend it will be made. The dinner is Thursday 20th so I need to get to it, mojo or not!

Now some thank yous. First to all of you who have been posting. Even though I have not been posting I have been around and enjoyed all your efforts and posts.

Next special thank yous to the following lovely ladies who have been kind enough to nominate me for awards:

Belinda who gave me a Premio blog award (way back on 13/9/08)
Birgitte who gave me Premio blog awards and Excellent blog award (on 15/9/08)
Robin who also gave me the Premio blog awards and Excellent blog award (on 25/9/09).

I am very honoured (but feeling guilty) in receiving these from you. You are on my list of favourite blogs that I go to first whenever I open up my Google Reader. Your projects always inspire me!

What I bought - suit 2

The second suit I bought from Cour Carre (at 70 - 80% off) was a Gay Giano suit:

This one reminds me of Burda WOF for all its unusual lines.

In this close up you can see the unusual seaming. The curved seam goes across the back as well, which you may be able to see in the back shot above. Not easy as the matching of plaid is perfect.

The skirt has unusual seaming too and a button fly front opening.

I found the Gay Giano website and it says its customers are "trendy customers, celebrities and artists." !! The Cour Carre customer is the modern professional and business executive.

Birgitte asked on my last post "I'm also SO intrigued by the three piece sleeve, and think the stars have aligned: I"m just starting on a Chanel-inspired jacket. Do you think this is the 'famous' sleeve and vent referred to in the Threads article? If so, could you be super duper kind and show the underside of the sleeve, pretty pretty please!!! " And yes I think it is! I just had a look at a Claire Shaefer pattern with the three piece sleeve and it looks the same. The seam up the middle matches the shoulder and there are two seams under the arm. Here is a picture of the sleeve up:

What I bought - suit 1

I thought I would share with you the suits I purchased while in Hong Kong as I have not been sewing. Somehow with new clothes to wear I don't have the urge to sew anything.


I bought two suits from Cour Carre. They were marked down by 70 - 80% which made them very attractive. The green wool/silk/nylon/elastine I will show first I bought as a two piece - jacket and skirt. The skirt was the last one left and is a couple of sizes too big. I have started to unpick the sides but that is as far as I have got. But I have worn the jacket several times already to work with the 2 June capsule skirts.

I really love the details in the jacket. The side fronts and the back have a series of darts that are released as pleats - four on each - a total of 16. The sleeves have 3 parts. There is a seam down the centre, lining up with the shoulder seam. The vents at the bottom actually are real and you can undo the buttons.

In the all green outfit I am wearing one of the two new pairs of shoes I bought. Nice brand name - huh!?

This weekend I WILL take that skirt in and report back next week!

BTW, is anyone having trouble with their feeds via Internet Explorer? For some reason most of my feeds are not working. Some are coming in but the majority are not.........

I'm Back

Actually I have been back a week but can't seem to get back into the groove. Cheryl and I had a fantastic time in Honkers (is that just an Australian nickname or is it global?) but we sure wore ourselves out. It was hot, wet, steamy, crowded and with all the walking I lost 1 1/2 kilos!

One of the best parts was meeting up with Allison. We managed to have lunch, get in a bit of shopping and later in the week some drinks out.

It is amazing how you can meet up with an internet friend and talk away like you have know each other for ages! We could talk about you all as though we both had the same circle of friends :) And how funny that HK now has Spotlight - Allison blogged about that here. Cheryl and I didn't venture out to see it (but I was tempted to see if it looked the same).

Shopping was a bit hit and miss. Fabric wise I only bought a few pieces.
Two green pieces from the Western Market - one is a nice cotton shirting and the other an unknown blend (the vendor did say viscose something or other but I have my doubts). The grey is a linen blend purchased from the Yen Chow Street Market in Sham Shui Po.

Yes, that is the market under the trees!

While out in Sham Shui Po, I stocked up on zips!

I also bought some trims, buttons etc.

We also dropped into Angus International for some silks. That was an adventure in itself. Finding the place, going up the ancient lift and into a private residence. They were renovating their store and the stock wasn't there but the remnants were! So here we were rummaging through neatly packed silks in someones kitchen, without aircon. It was hot!!! They did not have a lot, just basics. This is what I got:
As to other shopping, I bought three RTW suits, 2 pairs of shoes, 3 handbags, 2 pairs of jeans, a Chanel trench (nice find in an outlet shop), makeup, perfume and some things for the girls.

I have uploaded all my photos here. Enjoy!

Purple skirt, podcasts and Hong Kong

One more photo of the JCC to show you a close up of the topstitching and the lining of the purple skirt

I used rayon embroidery thread to "topstitch" the seams of this skirt. The lining is Sunsilky from Lincraft - a polyester lining. The colour matched the wool so well and I didn't have anything in the stash that would compliment the skirt. The pattern is the same as my black skirt with the brown topstitching - Burda 01-2008-127.

While I have been busy sewing the May mini wardrobe and the JCC I have been listening to Lori's podcasts. I have really enjoyed them!! I only recently got my Ipod and so I have been catching up on all of Lori's posts. So THANKYOU Lori!!! Unfortunately I am all caught up and now will have to wait for each new podcast. So if you have not listened to Lori's podcasts, I recommend you do! I am currently downloading Toya's Inspirational Wednesday podcasts for my listening pleasure. If you have any other podcast recommendations I am happy to hear about them :)

Finally I am off to Hong Kong on Friday! So excited. This will be my sister and my 3rd trip together there. And it was only last week that we decided to actually go. We had wanted to go again but the time just wasn't right with our parents. Mum is settled at the moment so we have decided to go while the going is good!

Fold over top - Burda 10-2007-115

For a detailed review click here. For a short review.....I was looking for a very quick top to finish off the June capsule. I wasn't feeling the love for another Ottobre T so decided to have a go at this Burda fold over top. As the smallest size is 38 (and I need a 34) I decided to just morph the fold details onto the Ottobre. Easy! And quicker than tracing the whole thing out. I also took out 1.5 cms in the armhole area. Lucky I did as it still is a bit low. Will raise it some more for next version.


I had great trouble working out the fold - Burda instructions are double dutch in relation to this! So if you want to make this top, refer to Christina's fabulous photo tutorial on Pattern review. I wish I had done that before I started. Would have saved quite a bit of ripping out and head scratching.

I am wearing this top to work today. But I have gone all conservative with a grey skirt, black books and a green necklace.