It's the Hot Patterns Sumatra Shopper. I downloaded the pattern free from fabric.com ages ago with a view to making these for christmas presents. This fabric is a gorgeous cherry red canvas from Gorgeous Fabrics. The pattern calls for the pleated bit to be mounted onto canvas or the like, which I did. As my canvas was very sturdy I did not interface it, although I bought a roll of very stiff fusible interfacing for the purpose. The end result is a little softer than I would have liked. The bag is very easy to make, although wrestling the bamboo rings into place was a nightmare. Saturday afternoon I walked away while I was still sane and during the night came up with an alternative method to sew it all together. Today I've had this sucker jammed into both of my sewing machines so there was a lot of cursing, but I got there in the end. The topstitching is embarrassing and tomorrow I will buy some beads to sew around the bit where the handle is stitched on to cover my crappy sewing. My conclusion is this; the bags I make for gifts will be made from pretty quilting cottons. I will use the same canvas mount, but I will interface it for a stiffer bag, but only to the stitching line. I steamed and pressed the life out of these seams and they still won't sit flat, so I hope my new method will solve that. This bag goes into service tomorrow as my new gym bag. Oh, here's a bad shot of the interior which I lined with leftovers from a shirt I made about 7 years ago.
I've made Vogue 9668 several times before and while all versions are wearable, the fit has never been quite right During the week I tried on all the old versions and made some notes about why they didn't look right or felt uncomfortable. I dragged out the original pattern and put my traced version over it and found I had made a major cock up by making the front bodice piece about 3cm wider than it needed to be! No wonder I'd had trouble fitting it all together before! I retraced the bits I needed and altered them accordingly. As I was hoping to make a white version of this dress for SWAP and embellish the waistband, I was keen to get this right. I dragged out some old poly seersuckerish stuff that came from the op shop for 50c (no idea what it is, but its kinda stiff and totally see through as you can see).
The short version is this: I made this dress fit perfectly. Here is it without the lining in the skirt. Since this was taken I have inserted a black charmeuse lining and hemmed it with some wide lace I bought at the op in a mixed bag for $1. The dress is finished perfectly, fits perfectly and looks lovely. Except, of course, when I put it on. I have finally realised that the problem was not with the dress, it was with me. This is simply not my style. The nipped in waist points very blatanly to the fact that my waist is way smaller than my hips. And not in a good way. Even in slimming black this dress makes me look HUGE. I think it's the way the v neck and the shaped waistband all point to a narrow bit and them my hips blossom out from under there. I am very disappointed because I love this dress. I have to let it go and work on something else. I'm thinking it might be Vogue 8594. Or I might just make the tops I had planned.
I've always wanted a floaty tie neck blouse and I made this straight out of the envelope. The pattern says size 12 with a 34" bust, which has worked out perfectly. It's dated 1980, but it's pretty timeless and I'm sure I will use it again. The only thing wrong with this pattern was the instructions. It's a Palmer and Pletsch with instructions for making sewing quicker and easier (apparently). Instead of sewing in the order I normally would sew a blouse, it has you do a bunch of things at the same time so you press them all at once, therefore minimising the amount of time you are up and down to the ironing board. Jumping from one section to another was confusing. When it started talking about sewing the cuff on the sleeve at the same time as sewing the collar, I put the instructions aside and made it up, which resulted in my tie being left off rather than stitched on with the collar. Ah well, a separate scarf/tie might come in useful. I haven't decided buttons for this yet, so the buttonholes aren't done, but it fits well and I like the way this looks on.
I've got a few other tops planned for the rest of the week, so I'm back to the cutting table.
It was from a pattern drafted from this book, which I bought at an op shop for 20c last year. For more information about who Enid Gilchrist is and the range of books she wrote, take a look at Tracy's blog, 
This is another quilting cotton. The print looks a little Japanese to me. Like the last dress I made, I've lined this in cotton poplin, an olive green this time. On a recent episode of Project Runway, one of the judges asked a contestant what point there was in lining a dress in a bright colour because 'no one sees it'. Well, I disagree. I see the inside of my dress and I like seeing the lovely green inside. Of course, I did not think to photograph it. I altered the construction method so that the lining could be completely bagged and there was no handsewing at all. This has to be the neatest dress inside that I have ever made.
It's a quilting cotton, lined with plain brown cotton poplin, because it's way too hot here for any other kind of lining plus I don't like the feel of silk on my skin. I muslined it first and used the tweaked muslin as the lining. It's a 10 going to a 12 at the hips as seems to be my standard for Butterick and Vogue. It fits really well but after wearing it all day today, I have to say that the sleeve caps make it a little restrictive, ie the whole dress lifts up when you raise your arms. Next time I would shorten them but about 1.5cm, maybe even 2cm and that will stop the problem. I'll compare them against a BWOF pattern of a similar style that doesn't cause the same problem. It's an easy sew and a good basic dress. I love the shape of the neckline, too.
I then found some shiny cord at the local store and tried a few combinations. My braiding got worse and worse as I went on, so it's hard to tell.
This sample has swapped the bright purple for a pale lavender, which I really like, but it's still not there.
