Thursday 29 March 2012

One down, lots to go!

Finished my first item since starting the blog!

It's KitschyCoo's tunic dress and I have adapted the pattern slightly.  I wanted more of a dress than a tunic top, and the largest size of the pattern is mid-thigh on N.  As I mentioned before, I couldn't find the pattern or pattern pieces, so I had to trace from a previous version and lengthen the pieces.  It was also quite wide on my skinny minnie so I took about an inch out of the centre of the front and back and shortened the neckband accordingly.


I made a short sleeved version from a piece of soft indigo denim and did the neckband and a panel around the bottom in Alexander Henry Tutti Frutti fabric and I'm really happy with how it turned out!  I had to trim a bit from the top of the front panel to make the neckband lie flat but I'm not sure if that was my tracing or the fact that the fabric was stiffer than the pattern called for.  It was a hit with N at least - she refused to take it off for the rest of the day!

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Must. Get. Organised.

I have a problem.  In my head, my sewing area looks like this:


with maybe some extra sewing storage like this:


The reality is this:


with my sewing machine on the dining room table and stuff scattered all around (the paint tray and plastic balls would not be a usual part of my sewing kit!).  This means I can never find anything - I went to make another version of KitschyCoo's cute tunic and couldn't find the pattern or pattern pieces i carefully traced the last time.  So I ended up redrafting the pieces from the last version I made.  Grrr.


Every time I am getting to the end of a sewing project, there's always something that I realise i don't have.  On the pattern, all the things I need are clearly marked but I still end up missing a zip, button or some elastic.  If it's not far to late to make New Year's resolutions (and it clearly is in nearly-April) for my next project I will make sure I have absolutely everything I need before I start!