Vogue 1258 Vena Cava Dress - the metallic emerald version

Vogue 1258 - front

This is my second version of this dress, the first was here. I made this before Christmas as my Christmas dress and I was under the gun because I was making it to wear out that night - no time for too much mucking around.

Vogue 1258 back - STILL some swayback wrinkling and a cami needed.

Vogue 1258 - side

This time I didn't bother with the sleeve extensions or the pockets (which both had to be removed last time). I was happy with the shorter length tie I used last time, so went with that again.

I did however alter the back hemline so that it didn't raise up in the middle, I think it might still go up a bit but it isn't as bad as last time.

I also removed the extra from the bottom of the back bodice pattern piece (sway back) - I removed the same amount that I had to last time but somehow I had to do it again (just as much) once the dress was made ............. different knits, different quirks I suppose.

Last time I had to raise the bottom of the bodice part just above the knot to pull the dress up after it was all sewn up, this time, I preempted that caper.

I still had to raise the neckline of course and reinforce where all of the pieces meet in the centre front.

I did consider narrowing the shoulders and adding the sleeve extensions but decided that just couldn't be bothered.

When all of the pieces were all cut out and partially assembled I discovered that this fabric had a flaw, there was a lovely spot of black where the emerald green paint had failed to adhere - about 1cm above my bust point, there was no way that that wouldn't be noticed! I had just enough fabric left to eek out another piece - completely ignoring any grain issues, it seems to have worked out ok.

I didn't use my overlocker at all, all on the sewing machine. Twin needle for the hem, neckline and armholes.

Once it was done there was still a lot of fiddling and tweeking to get those pleats to look better, just like last time. The dress feels as though the waist line is below my waist? I don't know, it just doesn't feel as though it's pulling where it should be. Even though it's a fairly quick make, I think I'm tweeked out on this pattern.

Jungle January dress - self drafted

Over at Pretty Grievances there's a style revolution happening - Jungle January.  Knowing that I had a few animal prints in the stash, I figured it was definately done just for me.

This is just what I came up with in approx. 60 seconds. I know I've also got several snake skin fabrics, assorted birds and who knows what else.

I took a quick look at the stash, yep, even more than I thought. In fact, there's so much animal print that I think I also need a Jungle June and a Jungle July as well. Velosewer would probably make very quick work of it though, including the 12 (yes, TWELVE) metres of blue snakeskin mesh - I think it was 50c a metre for the rest of the roll, ok?

But what about the fabric I've had for ~4 years and finally started to work out (seriously this time) how to make something out of  ....... I didn't want to choke on it again, this time I was ready to bite the bullet and jump in ........................... Oh tiger, stupido, stupido, it'll fit right in.


So here's the fabric.

Jungle January dress fabric

It's a cotton/lycra knit with a very fine rib. The coloured part is just over 150cm wide. One of the reasons I've pulled it out, draped it, pulled it this way and that, then finally returned it to the stash about 100 times is because I just wasn't quite sure how to make something from it. The length of the print is too short for me to get a knee length dress out of and I don't wear dresses shorter than that unless I'm wearing tights which restricts me to colder weather - we don't have a lot of that here in Brisbane. I thought it would look better if the urn was centred on the front and back but then it would really be cutting it fine on the hips where the prints ended. With this print, I didn't want seams messing things up but what about the sway back - how could I deal with that? I didn't want the print finishing across the middle of my bust - that always reminds me of an empire line gone wrong but I also didn't want that tigerlily making me look like Eve in the Garden of Eden using a tigerlily instead of a leaf either. Add to that, the bottom of the urn isn't even perpendicular with the grain, it's at an angle. Well, lots of things that just added up to "too hard basket". Finally I decided that as I had two lengths of it, I'd just do the best I could and still have some left over if I got a better idea at a later date.

I marked out two panels that were perpendicular to the bottom of the urns, sewed straight up the sides and got to work. Due to the angles of the urns and one panel being on the edge of the fabric, one panel had to be wider than the other - it's a design feature. Too hard to work with without shoulders, so I found some black knit that was used years ago to make a few skirts, chopped off some offcut looking bits and sewed them to the top. Unfortunately, the back piece was a bit narrow as you can see below.

At this stage, I had the hem pinned and marked and it was perfect. A lot of time was spent pinning, marking, sewing, cutting (repeat ad infinitum) to get the sides right. More time working out the shoulders (which involved stretching the back up to get rid of the sway back puddle). Now, I could have removed that too narrow back piece and put a wider one on - that would have been the smart thing to do, instead, I added a little panel on each side of the back piece (I'm all about the design features).

My intention was to overlock the whole thing but because I was flying by the seat of my pants the whole time, I started with the sewing machine - with white thread (easier to see and unpick and no loss of fabric). As that seemed to be going ok and my new overlocker which isn't thrilling me was threaded in white, I decided to switch the sewing machine to black thread and carry on winging it. The armholes and hem were twin needled but the necklines have a deep (6 cm) seam allowance that is currently just hanging down inside the neckline - I'll probably tack it down.

Of course, by this stage all but two of the hem pins had fallen out and the chalk marks were long gone. I had to redo the hem marking but things were looking a bit weird, in the end, I decided "it'll do" because I wanted to wear it out that night. I'm sure the hem's not perfect but I don't think there is anything too noticably wonky going on.

I'm glad I finally made something in this fabric, as soon as I saw it in the store I had to have it. My favourite thing is the smoking lion, it appeals to my sense of the absurd and socially not kosher.

Now I'm thinking I might just make a shorter one with sleeves to wear with tights for winter .......... oooh and knee high boots.

And just to prove that I don't mind big cats:

That's me at the Canberra Zoo - 2007

McCalls 5975 - the pink zombie dress

I actually finished something two days ago - one dress hemmed, three to go.

I've got metres and metres of mystery knits from years and years ago - knits that are not colours I particularly like or have the characteristics you actually choose knits for (eg. don't wrinkle) - take that thick cushy pale blue knit I used in the first V1258 Vena Cava and the pink jersey I used for Mum's pj's, a Lekala dress and the first iteration of Simplicity 8728 (I still have loads of both left) - well, here's another one of those endless, odd knits, I call it the zombie knit fabric.

It's basically a nude/pinky mesh with another cut up mesh on top that is attached every now and then by a thin thread - as you can see, it looks truly raggedy. It's also quite sheer (where it's only one layer), luckily I have a very fine cotton vintage slip that is perfect under it.

M5975 - COW neck

After tigerboy's disappointment (or maybe disgust) with the raggedy edges on his pj's, I was sure he'd detest this on sight. Instead - "Pink!?, Honey, it's pink!!!"
"Oh, really? Hadn't noticed."
"You don't wear pink, unless it's with orange and pyjamas." (True)
"Yes, I know, I decided to branch out."
"I really like the style......"
So, there I am thinking - he didn't notice the raggedyness? But lo and behold, then he started peering carefully at the fabric with a confused look.
"This is kind of weird."
"You don't like it?"
silence .................................... "Yeah, I do, it's really unusual isn't it? Yeah, I really like it! I like what you've done with the neck part here."
"It's a cowl neck."
"A cow neck?"
"No, a cowl neck - C   O   W   L, cowl." (Later that night he asked me if I was going to do anything else with a cow neck - it's not worth my time.)

So maybe I've been reading too many postapocalyptic novels with zombies and general decay but it really reminds me of skin peeling off - charming right? I'm not telling him or else that's all he'll see too.

So, onto the sewing part.......

I decided to use the cowl necked bodice from version C, with the cap sleeves from version B. I used my own skirt pattern - the A-line skirt pattern that I made and have used on nearly every dress I make.

My current measurements (just had to redo these for a Lekala order):
Height: 168cm
Upper bust: 89 cm (35")
Bust: 95.5cm
Under bust: 77cm (small rib cage? narrow back?)
Waist: 74cm
Hips: 102cm

I cut a size 12 bodice with the following changes:

• I cut the side seam of the front on the size 14 line from the armscye down to the waist
• I lowered the waist line of the front bodice because I think some of my waist lines have been too short at the front lately - it wasn't necessary which I think is due to the weight of the fabric pulling everything down.
• I cut the back bodice on the fold, instead of two separate pieces with a seam down the back - I reduced the side seams from about an inch under the double notches down to the waist to compensate for the extra on the centre back at the bottom (because the seam was supposed to be curved) and because my waist is a lot smaller at the back. The back waist ended up being approx. 1cm smaller on each side than the size 8.

I didn't bother with the facing (if interfacing was called for, I didn't use that either).
On the back neck, I turned the sa in and stitched with a double needle.

I think the pattern makers wanted you to put a zip in it - nah, I had no intention - directions, schmections, I say.

I shortened the cap sleeves (also size 12) but off the top of my head, I can't remember how much by - wasn't much though.

The cowl was a bit deep for me, so I ended up angling the inside front corners of the neckline (the cowl part) an extra 3cm to pull the cowl up.

I used a ribbon hanger loop from a RTW dress/top as shoulder stabiliser (those ribbons come in handy for lots of things).

Twin needled the hem and the hem of the sleeves.

I had to take at least 4cm off the bottom of the back bodice because of sway back but I think that this is such a stretchy fabric that the weight contributed to quite a bit of that, so in a different fabric, who knows?

I used my overlocker (serger) for all of the seams.

I made my own belt, I think they include a pattern piece but really? It's just a long rectangle (actually, mine is pieced, so it's 3 rectangles - not at all noticeable in this fabric).

M5975 - I'd been running errands all day, hence the 'wreck of the hespress' look I've got going on.

I'll definately be making this again in another version, it was fast and easy. I love easy to wear dresses that can go from work to around the house to running errands and doing the groceries. I might even make the straight skirt, it's just that I love that I can sit/run/walk however I feel like in an a-line, so unless I'm working I can find straight skirts a bit restrictive sometimes.

And this next pic? There in a very messy green pile on our coffee table is the Burda dress that needs the hem to be finished - it was dumped there rather unceremoniously this morning when I realised it was time for me to get going and I haven't picked it back up - shame on me!!!

Burda Style 2011-02 Scoop neck dress 101

  Ever since I saw this dress, I loved it, this dress is the reason I searched high and low for this particular Burda Style edition. Ok, I wasn't sold on the skirt but I really liked the bodice. When I saw Merche's version, I had to give it a go.

Um, that's not me ....... twenty years ago I didn't look like this either but this is the pic they suck you in with to make you think that yes, you too can look gorgeous and carefree if you're wearing a gathered skirt.

Let me just say that I've had a sneaking suspicion for quite a while now that I'm an overfitter. Yep, that's what I've been suspecting myself of. Well, my first foray into the world of Burda Style magazine patterns has gone a long way to confirming it.

I used an old sheet to cut out the bodice in a size 38 but gave it an FBA (quite a big FBA too) and oh boy, were there some problems! Still too firm across the bust, a horizontal fold under my shoulder blades, bust darts way too high, too tight in the armholes (just for starters). Evidence (taken in front of a filthy mirror):

Muslin back

Muslin front

Muslin side

I tried all kinds of things but really, things were going from bad to worse. Fast forward a couple of months after I've had plenty of sleepless nights (Spain and Korea) to ponder just what was going wrong. One day, I had an epiphany - maybe I should just cut out the next size up (still keeping my dodgy fix for the slightly gaping neckline where, instead of putting the pattern on the fold, I angle it so that the top hangs over the fold by ~5mm and the bottom of the pattern is on the fold). Well, what do you know? It fits ......... perfectly .......... except for the fact that my waist is actually slightly higher than Burda's (short waisted?) and my waist is also a bit smaller than the size 40 waist. Never, has a 'fitted' pattern fitted so well straight up. Never, I tell you, NEVER. After wearing it around the house for several hours and checking every mirror, numerous times, I proceeded to sit down in stunned silence for another few hours and studiously avoid the sewing room because I wasn't game to tempt fate. Could it be that I had stumbled upon the holy grail? A pattern that needs minimal adjustments. OMG!!!!

It took several days for me to break out of the blissful haze and decide to 'get on with it' - the making of the actual dress. Remember my little experiment with a gathered skirt when I made Vogue 8728? Well, never say die seems to be my motto. I decided to give it another go (yes, I know, just how much evidence do I need before I admit something isn't working?). This time, I decided I'd go straight to the tucks instead of gathers. Did I really expect it to be good? No - that's why the entire dress is made out of old sheets.

In the course of making this, I had to give myself a few reality checks when it came to precision and perfection - you are making this out of old bed sheets, it's not going to be worn out, don't fuss, get on with it, it just doesn't really matter! So, I still think the bust darts on the outer bodice are a tad high (lining is fine, apparently I got a bit carried away with the outer piece though) even though looking in the magazine, I think they are meant to end there. The waist is also still a bit big.

I could not however, leave the first zipper I put in, in - it was all wavy and ripply and stood out from my back in waves (at some stage, I'd decided to have a centre back zipper). I'd never had a zipper do this, so I was at a bit of a loss as to what had gone wrong. Google to the rescue - as the back seam is curved, the fabric there was on the bias (or nearly) and had stretched out. Could it be rescued? Apparently by steam shrinking and reinforcing the seam line with interfacing.

Oh yes, that back centre seam has stretched all right!

Well, I gave the steam shrinking a go, it helped although I don't think I did it for long enough to completely fix the problem. I used some fusible stay tape in the sewing line - I have oodles of it and have never used it. I moved the seam an eeency bit (to make up for my lack of steaming patience - muslin, remember?). Back zipper? Much, much better but next time I'll do a side zipper and use the stay tape before I start to sew!

Without the belt - unfortunately, the waist has stretched out even further, so it's actually a couple of inches too big now. Tiger, use the zillion metres of stay tape that you have!

I shortened the bodice so that it joined the skirt at my waist, rather than under it. I've wondered if the slightly dropped waist would have made it look less like a toilet doll but it might be time to admit defeat - this type of skirt just isn't for me. You know I'll try it with a belt too, though!

With a red belt - nope, still not feeling it.

With a wider black belt - nope, time to give up.

It actually looks slightly better with the black belt if I push the belt down a bit but not enough that I'll try this type of skirt again. (What am I saying, you just know I'll get sucked in again by how good it looks on others and give it another go.)

So, yes, I'll be making this dress again in 'real' fabric but I'll be adding an A-line skirt (maybe I'll give the half circle skirt a go?) or maybe a straight skirt. I think I'll also raise the neckline just a bit, say 1 or 2cm because at 5'6", there are a lot of people that are taller than me and currently, they can look down and get a fairly good view of my cleavage. I also need to remember to take the waist in.

And you know, I started thinking - maybe if it was a drapier/lighter fabric the skirt would look better. NO, NO, NO, don't go there tiger! It's not for you! As for tigerboy, he looked sort of perplexed (no doubt wondering why I've tried this type of skirt again) and said rather cautiously "Honey, that type of skirt still looks kind of frumpy." "Yeah, I know, I just thought I'd give it one more go." (I'm sure I saw a look of relief flit across his face.)

Vogue 8728 - Knit dress x 2

Way back in January I entered the red dress contest at Sewing Pattern Review with the intention of entering a red version of Vogue 8728. Being uber organised, I actually planned to get the inevitable fit issues out of the way with a muslin made of a couple of metres of a dusty pink, very thin but heavy, very stretchy knit that I have oodles of (another stash mystery, like the pale blue knit that I have 10 000 000 metres of). Oh, and in keeping with my ability to choose knits that wrinkle, this one takes the cake in that department. This dusty pink knit, let's call it the 'nightmare fabric' just never ends, so far I've made three(?) dresses from it and a pair of pyjamas for Mum and I think there's still about 9 000 000 metres left. It's a bad choice for a muslin because nothing is going to look good made out of it and I don't have any other fabric with it's particular irksome properties - so why do I keep doing it to myself?

Anyway, so that I didn't have two identical dresses, I thought I'd put my a-line skirt on the nightmare muslin and the intended skirt on the final red dress. This dress has a lot of positive reviews and they all look great (that should have been my first hint as to just how much I'd have to alter it to fit me). The first version I saw was The Sew Convert's version here. Loved it, straight on to my (very long) wish list.

The wearable muslin (which I do actually wear around the house):

Vogue 8728 - the unironed, wrinkly muslin. (Looks like I haven't even pulled the back bodice down, or put it on straight, ah well)

It's been a (long) while since I made these dresses but I remember that when I glanced through the instructions, I thought that there were a lot of unnecessary steps. As I'm lazy efficient, I did what made sense to me:

• that whole thing about cutting out tear out interfacing and sewing the gathering to the interfacing to get the right length, then tearing it out? No! I just gathered it until it corresponded with length.
• attaching the bodice to the waist  - folding it over and top stitching? Right sides together and zip around with the overlocker for me.
• top stitching around the waist on a knit? Ah, no, I'll skip that thanks.

It's not very obvious from the last pic but I didn't bind the entire neckline - I decided to leave the gathers raw (on purpose) because I liked the look and thought it would be one more thing that set it apart from the red dress. Here's a closer pic:

The 'raw' gathers at the neckline.

To secure the gathers, I just sewed them to a piece of ribbon (more than likely, one of those loops you get inside every top you buy these days to keep it on the hanger).

Sewing the gathers down on to the ribbon.

The fit issues:
I started with a size 12 but the lower bodice was far too big and baggy.
I ended up reducing the lower bodice to less than a size 8.

V8728 - My new lower bodice

You can see in the pic above that I lowered the top centre. It would have been better if I'd just taken more from the upper bodice portion but for the purposes of this dress, that was a change that was made after I had overlocked the upper and bottom together and when I saw the sagging of the upper bodice, I just overlocked it again (and probably again) until the bagginess was gone, so I took from the top and the bottom when it would have been better (say, if I was less lazy and liked unpicking) to just take from the top part.

Of course, then I had to make corresponding changes to the upper bodice:

V8728 Upper bodice adjustments.

The back is where I had to take out a truck load of fabric (I think I might have a narrow back?)

V8728 - Back pattern piece adjustments.

I took the side seams in to just under size 8. Due to gaping at the back neckline, I needed darts there. As the existing darts weren't enough, I had to enlarge them too which resulted in two seams in the back of the dress. (In the red version, I just took approx 2", yes 2 whole inches! out of the centre back by making a new fold line 1" in).

V8728 - Back with two seams (no, those blue dots aren't actually on the fabric - that's just me trying to point out where the seams are) - I could not believe that they actually matched, first time.

No zipper necessary with the nightmare fabric - this would still stretch out to a size 46 if it needed to, it's that stretchy. This version was hemmed with hemming web because my machines do not play nicely with this fabric if there are less than three layers.

On seeing this dress tigerboy's eyes bugged up and two grabby hands came up "Uh, honey? It really show cases your ........!" I assured him that it was only this particular knit, due to it's thinness.



So, on to the red version:

Now that I'd made all of the fitting changes, I was on easy street, right? Cut it out, sew it up and enter the competition. Well, no, that's not what happened.

I made it up, with all of the changes (except I forgot to shorten the upper bodice in the centre more and not lower the lower bodice top centre) and the intended skirt:

V8728 - Frump city

Frumpy, frumpy, frumpy! When I showed tigerboy? Worried look on his face "It's not finished yet is it?"

I hadn't made the belt at that point and thought that maybe a belt would help lower the frump factor. To make the belt, I covered some non-roll elastic in the red jersey and used a hook closure with another piece of red jersey to slide over the hook.

V8728 - Red elastic and jersey belt

So, how about with the belt?

V8728 - With thick belt.

No, tiger, you've just made it worse!

So, maybe the belt needs to be thinner? New belt coming up!

V8728 - with a thin belt - still frumpy

 Well, stuff it, maybe I'm just not used to this silhouette on me - I'll hem it and wear it.  Verdict? I felt frumpy all day. The skirt kept ending up between my legs when I was walking and driving me nuts. The belt kept sliding up because the waist on this dress is actually below my waist. Complete fail! Then, to make matters worse, I threw it in the wash (with disgust) and out it comes with the hem all down - hemming web does not like this fabric (likes it enough to stick to one side of the fabric though). Complete, complete fail!

Skip ahead a few months (well after the competition is over) and I'm sick of seeing this pile of red on my sewing room floor, chair, bench etc. What to do with it? Let's just call it quits, chop off the milk maid skirt (chop, not unpick), cut that down to an A-line, reattach and hem. So, that's what I did:

V8728 - with A-line skirt. I'm sure the torpedos aren't as prominent in real life, I think that was the way the light was falling on the deck that day.

V8728 - doing my "did it take the photo yet?" twist.

Still looks like I should be serving steins at Oktoberfest but at least it no longer looks as though I just came from the milking sheds as well.

The problem here (one of them, anyway) is that I should have made that top bodice piece wider (for more gathers) and deeper, so that I did still end up with gathers over the bust, instead of big blank spaces where I've filled them up - live and learn.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the gathered skirt is not for me. I've read a lot of tips that say to do little tucks instead (and I now remember that I did try that for the red version before I resorted to the A-line - it still looked awful) which is what I'm going to try for the burda dress I'm currently making but so far, it's not thrilling me either.

Who likes the dirndl/gathered skirt look? If you don't, what do you do instead?

Vogue 1258 - Vena Cava Dress

NB: I wrote this entire post in June but never got around to taking the 'after' pic. I finally have the 'after' pic, so I'm just gonna post it holus bolus.


I 'finished' this dress late last year but there were certain things that I knew had to be fixed if I ever intended to wear it. After much stalking research, I finally determined that maybe a size 12 (even though Vogue thinks I should take a much bigger size) would do the job and set about making a muslin from the bazillion yards of this pale blue knit that I have. Why do I have all of this pale blue knit? I don't wear pale colours and don't particularly like them on me - it is yet another of my stash mysteries. Anyway, clearly I wasn't going to throw too much of a tantrum if I managed to stuff it up completely.  The thing with this knit? It's very stretchy, quite soft but thick and heavy at the same time, I also seem to have a knack for choosing knits that wrinkle more than some linens I have - what a handy characteristic to have in a knit (no, really, it isn't!). Ever tried ironing this dress? NOT FUN.

Without further ado, here is what I ended up with.

Vogue 1258 Vena Cava - Before (sad & droopy)

Obviously I didn't add the proposed extension to the tie, I also raised that neckline.

The sheer weight of this dress at the front where all of the gathers come together was an tear/rip waiting to happen, I ended up hand stitching (and stitching and stitching) the hole closed so that it was more secure. It will now be the absolute last thing to give way on this garment - those securing stitches probably added another half a kilo to the weight of the dress.

See those stupid sleeve extensions? I've folded one under because clearly the intended way looks daft. (Didn't bother with all of the top stitching lines - I had a feeling it would be wasted time.) The instructions for that part were convoluted but I went against the grain and followed them for one of the extension - hmmmm, I ended up with a raw edge. Well, Vogue, you're not getting me again, I'll muddle through with the way I think it should be done on the next one.

Nice wrinkling on the back there.

Now, as much as I love the pockets idea, they weren't working, they sagged down and puffed things out just at the right place to emphasise the saddle bags - strangely enough that's not a feature I've been looking for in a garment.

My Mother's take on it? "Well, it certainly brings attention to your rear and we don't really have the type of rear that should have attention brought to it." Mum always likes to point out that we have the same body shape - "Our arms are too fat to wear sleeveless garments." (This, at a time when I went to the gym regularly and had quite defined arms.) "We have short fat necks and can't wear raised necklines or dangly earrings." (I love turtlenecks and wore large hoop earrings for years - without them resting on my shoulders.) The list goes on .............. I learned a long time ago to disregard most of it - this is one of the functions of mothers isn't it, to toughen you up towards criticism and teach you to sort the wheat from the chaff. In this instance though, I can't say that I find this rear view flattering - maybe if it wasn't a light colour? Not sure.

The back skirt looks kind of tight but actually it's not even stretched - odd, I think that effect is caused by the weight of the fabric.

The entire front looks kind of like it's drooping too.

This dress is also a magnet for pinchy fingers on the tush if tigerboy is around - he says it makes my bum look soooo good - I choose to leave him to his delusions. Of course in his mind this solidifies the fact that this dress should remain a house dress only (only when he's not in the house, if I want to have bruise free buttocks!).


Yes, clearly it needed to languish in the sewing room for half a year soaking up more creases before I could determine once and for all whether it would be worth making it out of a fabric that was more 'me' than uber wrinkly, thick, heavy, baby blue cotton knit.

So, here we are six months later and I've added a WIP list to the blog sidebar which is kind of long and I realise that something has to be done about it. Let the fun begin!

Vogue 1258 Vena Cava - After

I got rid of some of the sway back wrinkling by increasing the sa on the top back piece in the centre and graduating down to normal at the sides.

I turned those silly sleeve extensions under and sewed them down. Yes, I should have cut them off etc. but this fabric is so smooshy that the stitches sink in and unpicking was just too difficult. Quick and dirty was the answer (this dress won't be seen in public anyway, it's more of a proof of concept).

Removed the pockets and while I was at it stole some of the front skirt fabric to put more into the sa's and alleviate some of that drooping.

Raised the centre front to try to get rid of yet more drooping.

The hem seems to be going up at the back - that would need to be fixed.

It looks better, but as yet I'm not convinced of it's actual wearability, even in a darker or patterned fabric. Another six months and I might come up with a conclusion.

EDIT: (Current time) Now that I see the after pics, it looks much better, so I'm thinking maybe a bigger size for the back skirt and a smaller size for the front portion? Will it work? Maybe in this fabric?

Hey, I'm mid 40's, I should have some bling going on right?

Static cling remedies

The last dress I posted suffered from static cling of monumental proportions - and that would be why it's only been worn twice. A bit of googling came up with some remedies that may or may not be useful.

Not useful for that dress:

• choose a natural fibre (too late she cried)
• don't put it in the drier (I don't even have one, so I've done that)
• shake it when it comes out of the drier (see above)

What might be useful:

• adding vinegar or borax to the wash/rinse cycle (I have my doubts this'll work on that particular garment)
• the metal hanger trick (is this something I'd have to redo whilst wearing it every so often? If so, it's hardly convenient.) 
• helpful hint from ReadyThreadSew ->  "wash with a bit more fabric conditioner than you might usually use" (In my case that would mean actually buying some because I've never used it but if all else fails I'll give it a go.)
• rub a dryer sheet over it (not having a dryer, I'm not familiar with these but it's more convenient than carrying a metal hanger around with me)

What I will try first:

• wearing a slip (remains to be seen whether I'd then have two layers of cling)
• rubbing body lotion on over your tights (this is the first one I'll be trying because part of me is wondering if the tights are a major player here) UPDATE: THIS WORKS REALLY WELL!

The thing with that dress is that the static cling doesn't build up over the course of wearing it - it's there as soon as the dress goes on! Maybe we could see about hooking it up to some electrical appliances to save on the electricity bill?

I'll update with my findings because, you know, I'm highly scientific.

For more info on these remedies:
End Static Cling Six Ways
How do you deal with static cling?


And, just because it's my blog and I'll post whatever pics grab my fancy:

Actually - this is a bit sewing related. This tunic top was not the best look on me - straight from bust to hips, nothing in the way of waist definition. It's a lovely fine cotton, great for hot, hot weather but a belt in 45 degree plus is just one more layer so the waist got shirred.   See the paisley?

Size 22 Dress Refashion and PAISLEY

Tigerboy and I went back to my home town for Easter. Going back there is something that I avoid at all costs - I couldn't wait to leave and didn't ever plan to return, so going back is only done under extreme duress. In this case, that duress was the stress tigerboy was putting me through over his angst regarding where to go to "get out of the city" because he seems to think it's mandatory if we've got a long weekend. In the end I was so over it I suggested going home to stay with Mum for a few days - I really didn't think he'd go for it - that seed sprouted into a Californian redwood within about 3 seconds and there was no way I could stop that speeding train short of fatal injury which although I did consider it for a bit (his of course), even I thought would be over reacting and possibly messy - I hate housework!

It pains me to admit it but we actually had a good time, not the least of which was due to me going through Mum's stash (which is approaching pitiful thanks to my pilfering campaign) and I even scored from her wardrobe.

As I was reclining on Mum's bed lamenting the fact that she hadn't had a 'thing' for silk over the years, I spied some dark paisley fabric peeking out from between her clothes. This was weird because Mum and I have very different tastes, she favours pastels (primarily mint and baby blue) whereas I like the darker colours, she likes pretty little florals, I like bold prints, solids and my holy grail is paisley. As far as I'm concerned, paisley is like garlic, there can never be too much and honestly? I'd wear paisley in any colour, just because it's paisley.

I've had this love of paisley since the 80's (probably the 70's but I was too young to realise it then) and it's something that Mum has never understood. Some time in late high school I was going through her stash (it's been a long, sustained campaign) and found two pieces of corduroy, paisley fabric, a green and an orange - I was in love. Mum was horrified that anything that ugly had ever made it into her stash and after I'd convinced her that I wasn't joking and really did like it, she said I could use it. Back then, it was really hard to get Mum to let me use any of her fabric because she was still in the (30 year) phase where she thought that at some point she would start sewing like there was no tomorrow, so her eventual capitulation really demonstrated her loathing of those pieces of fabric.

I made some slim fitting capri pants from the green paisley and I remember that they were my favourite pants for years. Of course Mum was not only stunned that I'd made something wearable from it but also slightly horrified that I wore it out in public - a lot! Whenever she saw those pants she'd try to tell me that they "had seen their day" and should be tossed - I wasn't buying it. In the end I think they got ripped and she refused to mend them for me. I wonder what happened to the orange piece? I don't remember ever making anything from it.

Back to the point of the story (yes, there is one), as soon as I spied that paisley in Mum's wardrobe, I was off the bed like a rocket to check it out.
"Why is this in here?"
"Oh, that, I don't know why I bought it."
"You bought it? It's got paisley!"
"I think I thought I'd wear it in winter but it doesn't fit right and it's really just not me."
"No, it's not - it's me!"
There was nothing to do at this point except to throw it on over what I was wearing.
"Do you think you can do something with it? You can have it if you want."
And so, I ended up with some more paisley but as you can see, it was a bit on the big side and a lot on the "why don't you check out my cleavage and bra" side (I've actually got it pinned closed in this pic).

There are a few rows of shirring just under the bodice. It's actually bigger than you can see here but I needed one hand for the camera.

I thought a quick zip up the sides with the overlocker and another quick zip to secure the front neckline would do the job but it turned out to be slightly more challenging.

I did at least realise that the shirring should be secured before I used the overlocker so that when the overlocker cut the elastic thread it didn't all shrink back and not get caught in the seam.

After some confusion, I realised that those squares on the skirt weren't centred at the back of the dress - bummer. There was also something strange going on under the arms that meant lots of finessing rather than just zipping up with the overlocker before it looked decent.You can see that the hem doesn't follow the border of the squares either - I at least fixed that in the final version

Anyway, here's the finished product which although is fine enough for day-to-day, seems to have a major static cling problem - you can see it around the hem where it's sticking to my legs. I wore it as a jumper with a black turtleneck one day but I wasn't sure about that look. Oddly, although it seems as though this was an empire line, the shirred waist is now somewhere between that and above my natural waist which feels a bit odd. I also thought it would be shorter the whole time I was making it - must have been an optical illusion when it was wider.

I took about 10 photos and had a choice between head cut off or feet cut off - something needs to be done about my photography!