Freaky Tiki

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I received Gertie's new book (Gertie's Book for Better Sewing) in the mail a while ago now  but wanted to wait until I'd had the chance to properly read it and make something before I followed up again.

There are tons of great projects in this book, some of my favourite are the the Portrait Blouse, Wiggle Dress (below left), Shirtdress and, the one I made recently, the Tiki dress (below right).


Picture source. 

Here's my finished version of the Tiki Dress. I decided to go with two straps rather than the halter neck because there's no way I'd ever really actually wear a halter neck. I just love bras too much.

Overall I really like this book. It's definitely not a beginner book, the instructions can be a bit vague and you need to know the basic construction of how things fit together. There are lots of useful techniques in here but to be honest the only one I used on this dress was the lapped zipper, and even with that I had to do a bit of googling.

 I think the range of patterns are the main drawcard. If you like vintage style and shapes then these patterns are for you!

With the Tiki dress, I did make a rough muslin but I probably should have spent a bit more time fitting it. The bust was gaping a bit and particularly at the sides is a bit loose.

Gappy bust

I think this may be due to the shirred back bodice moving apart slightly at the top. I had some difficulty with the shirring at first, it just would not come out tight enough but then I did some more google research and discovered this great post on how to fix it. After tightening up this bolt it worked like a dream!

Sides not quite sitting flat. On me they stick out a bit more.

The shirred back. My first time shirring!

Finally, instead of sewing the straps in, I left them off until last so I could place them in the right place to hoik up my boobs. I attached them with two buttons at each join. It worked pretty well, although I wore it out last night for the first time and I did have to put some safety stitches through the straps to my bra to make sure it held up! Especially when dancing was expected!

the inside of shirred back and the button-joined straps.

I discovered you can embed songs from Spotify (btw, do you have spotify? Do you like it?) which I'm going to try do with each post. I listen to so much music when sewing it's a good chance to spread the music love! First up, a song that's good for ze dancing:

Birthday Shenanigans

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Goodbye sore back, aching arms and twisted neck, hello pattern cutting table of my dreams!

My birthday pressie

This week I celebrated my 25th birthday (hello quarter century!) and the lovely Benj made me a gorgeous new sewing table out of recycled wood they were throwing out at school. It's lovely and high (950mm says B) and is perfect for laying out patterns and cutting. We're lucky we have a spare room it fits in, although I hear it was a bit of a nightmare to get it in the door!

I need to go down to my folks and collect a giant swivel chair now to use with it.

Yes, that is cream. a LOT of cream.

Mr B and I have been talking about getting a dog for a bit now but have a few other things to sort out first. So instead of a dog for my birthday Benj got me a cake shaped like a dog. Mmmm delicious. We ate him bum up.

Above are some new features on my sewing table, presents from friend. So lovely!

Yesterday we had a picnic in the park and bbq'ed our way to deliciousness. Unfortunately I was too busy eating to take any pictures but we did re-discover my old Polaroid to take this pic of Benj, manning the bbq. 

What a lovely week! I have actually finished a few dresses lately too so updates on those to come. Plus a patterns and postcards update!

The Green Hornet dress

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Photo time!
Excuse my recent absence, I recently finished up a TAFE course so I've spent all my free time knitting, sewing and sitting on the couch. Ah to be free again!

Today we went to the dog park (read about the awesome dog park over here) with Megan and Ben x 2. They have a small dog called Poppy. I'm not quite sure what breed she is, I think a mixture, but I do know she's fluffy and very very cute!

I owe you about 3 posts on various dresses (count 'em, 3!) and finally got around to taking some happy snaps today.

First up, the Green Hornet dress. I've had a recent attraction towards colour and love the colour of this fabric. It's this grassy green and a kind of stretch jersey, originally meant to be made into something else for my winter sewing plans.

Ok, this dress turned out nothing like the pattern.  It was meant to be Vogue V1257, faux wrap type dress. Now there was only about 1.3m of this fabric, I bought it on a sale roll at the Remnant Warehouse. 

I just managed to squeeze out enough pieces to make this dress and was all 'hurrah, what a success!' until I started the tricky skirt part and realised I had cut the one skirt piece on the fabric on the wrong side instead of right, meaning the wrap bit at the bottom linked to a non-wrap bit at the top. You with me? 

Anywho, I scrapped that plan and decided to just add some pleats on the other side so that it would all match up. This was working fine till I stuck in on my mannequin (still yet to be name, any ideas?) pinned it and place and sewed top to skirt. Uh oh. Now I don't have a tiny bust but I have a pretty flat one. So it was all 'hello ladies' when I tried it on. That really wouldn't work. Not even with a singlet underneath. So I painstakingly unpicked it (how much of a pain is unpicking zigzag stitch?!) and then re-adjusted. To make it work I had to not only pull the wrap over bits across but also down a bit. Basically I winged it. 

The improv-wrap.

 Despite all the difficulties and a bit of frustration (I may have flung it onto the floor at one stage), I actually really like this dress. It's comfy, a great colour and a nice style. I'd like to make another but perhaps in a slightly more organised fashion.

It covers the boobs! Success!

 

An obligatory  photo with Alexander the beetle for @Perfect Nose.

Here's some cute photos of Poppy, isn't she just a gorgeous fluffball?

Snuggle snuggle!

cutie wootie wootie, She really was loving these cuddles. Maybe not so much....

The big wet

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Last weekend was a lovely loooong weekend, with three whole days to lie around and relax. Ben and I had planned to go camping down near Jervis Bay with friends and despite the rain through the week Ben swore it wouldn't rain during the weekend.

Boy oh boy was he wrong. It poured!

We had a nice fine Saturday where we set up our tent and lounged around, then drove from beach to beach where Ben and Murray would stand and stare at the waves to see if they were good enough to surf.

The Sunday morning was quite fine too but come Sunday afternoon it started to bucket down. Not to let that get in the way of a good camping trip though, we had a giant tarp which we could huddle under and play cards (Blackjack is confusing when no-one remembers the rules).

While we were away looking for surf breaks, a giant, chubby wallaby came and ate our bread. Cheeky little thing. We was pretty tubby, I think he just went from campsite to campsite eating bread.

On the way home on Monday we decided to take a short cut past some of the traffic. Lesson learned- never trust google maps when it says a road is a road -it may be just a fire trail. With all the rain, the fire trail was pretty slippery and there were a few 'jump out and push moments'. The best part comes when we dropped into Ben's folks place and I was telling his dad how we almost got bogged. Ben came in and said 'I've bogged the car in the backyard.' His folks live with a block of land that gets pretty soggy when it's wet. So then we had to do another rescue mission!

From top left: Bogged car, Ben and Murray checking out the surf, Ben and Murray looking at a surf break, a dead fish, Benj cooking, more surf watching, a tubby wallaby.

Bundles of goodies

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Guess what arrived in the mail last night?

That's right! Three wonderful collette patterns. I'm so lookin forward to starting on these. I've discovered all the second hand patterns I've been buying recently require some major drafting around the waist and I'm not quite at that stage yet so excited to have patterns in the right sizing.

Speaking of Collette patterns, I recently whipped up a Sorbet with sleeves after being inspired by Mena on SewWeekly. Was so easy and quick!

Am very much in love with my new machine.

Marmalade jam

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Upon returning from my grandparents a few weekends ago I was given a giant box of oranges. Now I love oranges and all but I'm not quite sure what to do with a giant box full.

So I decides to try my hand at making marmalade.

I found a basic recipe on the ABC site here to follow roughly.

Orange Marmalade
500g Oranges
1 Lemon
4 Cups water
2 Cups orange juice
4 ish cups sugar
2 tsp jamsetta

Chop the orange and lemon finely and add water and orange juice. Cook until orange is soft. This took about 40 minutes for me. Then add the sugar and jamsetta and boil for 35 min.
Sanitise your jars in boiling water.
Then let the marmalade sit for 10 minutes and pour into your jars.