Stockpiling for Easter Sewathon

Roll on tomorrow afternoon!  Anyone else having a sewing Easter?  I'm being left to my own devices for the 5 day break (can't wait) and am having a sewathon.   I've been stockpiling patterns, fabrics and thread for it.  Although when have I ever needed an excuse to acquire more fabrics and patterns?  

I also had a cutting out binge at the weekend.   That is 3 tops,  2 pairs of trousers and a skirt - phew.

A package of patterns has also arrived.  I do feel mildly guilty about not buying patterns in fabric shops in Perth but they don't seem to have many sales and are expensive in comparison with buying from the US Vogue site.   I ordered a pile from the Vogue site when they had recently had a $3.88 sale of their new patterns.  I must have gone a bit mad as a couple I looked at upon arrival and thought - what was I thinking?

I particularly like the Ralph Rucci white dress - which I was actually intending on making as a coat.  It looks more like a coat than a dress.

The grey Issey Miyake dress I'm not too sure about.  I'm intrigued by it but the original in the pattern looks too long to me and the grey shiny fabric is horrible.  Anyone else think it is a bit of an odd but fascinating one?

And I paid a fruitful visit to my favourite fabric shop, Potters.  From the remnant table came this lovely red and black silk/cotton voile and black cotton spandex.  

Plus a camel coloured wool/modal knit, a lightweight brown pinstripe trouser fabric, dark brown cotton/spandex satin  and some more silk/cotton.   I guess browns are going to be featuring in the winter wardrobe.

Patrones #303 also arrived yesterday (I'm having a good week!) which I'll be having a good flick through for inspiration.   A baggy trousers special, some nice summer fancy dresses and casual cotton tops and skirts.

On a totally unrelated matter, anyone who is in the Royal Wedding mood and is a fast knitter can now whip up a couple of corgis for the day- is this not cute?  The pattern is on the Guardian newspaper site and is from a book entitled 'Knit Your Own Royal Wedding', also available on the site.  Fun!

 

Burda maxi dress Mark II

We're having a super long hot spell in Perth and the hotter it is, the less sewing is happening.   You can see everyone getting more tired and grumpy and at least another week more to go.  Bring on that cooler weather! 

I've managed to drag myself off the sofa for long enough make my sister another Burda 6/2010 maxi dress.   If you've done all the tracing and made your first effort I figure you may as well go the whole hog and make a second and it usually turns out better.

If anyone sees a dress like this in Hawaii in the next couple of weeks please say hello to the wearer - it may well be she.  

The fabric is from Textile Traders in Balcatta in Perth- they have a lot of not so nice stuff but unexpectedly they often have terrific silks.  This is a paint spatter print silk charmeuse.

Not sure if they have Textile Traders in other States or if they are just in Western Australia, but they have a number of shops and are very like Spotlight and Lincraft.  Lots of curtaining and unappealing tshirt material but Textile Traders often has really nice silks. And it frequently has a 3rd free offer for everything - free 3rd metre of fabric, 3rd thread, 3rd zip etc etc, so is good value.  I stocked up on threads.

This is a much quicker and easier to make dress when it is unlined. The Burda instructions are quite understandable and there are no surprises.

For anyone thinking of making this - the recommended fabrics are fairly fragile - voile or a thin silk, but the bodice is fitted around the upper back; so make sure there is enough ease so that there is no stress on the seams. I was a bit scared they could rip.

I had problems with the invisible zip in the first version.   This time I tried an excellent method I read about on Things Be.  Ironing the invisible zip works like a dream (make sure you have a cover over the iron though).

And for the next project I've been making a dress for a wedding I'm going to in a couple of weeks.  This is a  danger pattern for me - nothing to do with the pattern itself but my earlier efforts were rather disastrous.  I'm crossing my fingers.  Third time lucky?