Pattern Haul

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I am still alive lol. I've just been so busy with work and other things I've been a bit time poor.

I haven't really done a lot of sewing either except for some wallets and a bag.

In all honesty I've been avoiding sewing clothing because I made a big decision this year. I decided to have weight loss surgery. Specifically the omega loop mini bypass. My weight got out of control and I ended up over 200 kilos. Not sure if I've mentioned it before but I also suffer from chronic leg ulcers and with the extra weight they became much worse. So I bit the bullet and booked in with the surgeon and had my surgery on the 1st of May this year (2017). So far things are going well. I did 4 weeks of optifast prior to my surgery and the day I started that I had already got down to 198.8kg which I am using as my official starting point. Since then I have lost 45.3kg so far. It hasn't been easy and I still have a long way to go so I won't be doing any sewing until my weight stabilises because I don't want to waste any of my pretty fabric 😜 lol.

So in the meantime I will be collecting "skinny" patterns and fabric and just stick to making bags and wallets and other goodies.

Anyhow onto more important things I wanted to share my pattern haul from spotlight yesterday 😊

Please excuse the cat bum in the second photo lol. That's but baby ranga Fred 😻

So excited to make all these pretties

It’s been a while

Hi everyone.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. Life just got a bit hectic as I am sure you will all understand. I have been flat out at work and what little time I’ve had to myself I have tried to get some sewing in. I’ve made quite a few items and I have also done a bunch of pattern testing which I am excited to share with you all soon. I seriously need a bigger wardrobe though lol. And my already enormous fabric stash is still growing at a steady pace 😜 what can I say? I am a sucker for a ditzy floral. We are also thinking it might be time to move soon. A new start. A bit more space. And fingers crossed a place to call our own. Stay tuned 😘

Because I really needed an excuse to make another dress 😜

Hello lovelies ❤️

As the heading suggests, I am about to share with you my latest creation.

My beautiful cousin Leia was married on the 1st of November. In true form I used this as an excuse to make another frock 😊. And so came the trouble of choosing a style, pattern and fabric. The problem was that I have sooooooo much fabric and sooooooo many patterns but not so much time…..eek.

I ended up going through my iPad (I am a serial screen shooter) inspiration photos and narrowed it down to 4 styles which were the following.

Then I chose 4 fabrics that would suit those styles…..

But I was at a loss. I simply couldn’t decide. So I uploaded both photos to my personal page plus a couple of sewing groups on facebook and took a vote over 24 hours. And the majority voted C3….. So that’s what I made.

I didn’t have a pattern so I had to make my own….which for a first timer was a little daunting. And after a few failed attempts I decided to just simplify it. It is basically a rectangle that i increased one end on the fold and rounded it off. And gathered under each breast (Forgot to take photos of the process after the first couple of failures). Added a waistband and a lovely long circle skirt.

And added a few buttons for effect.

To me it seemed to be missing something though. You guessed it! It wasn’t full enough. So I made a petti skirt 😊

I used the 50’s petti skirt tutorial on the Burda Style website as a guideline.

And here is the finished product. I love it.

Super Hero Day at work

Hi guys 🙂 sorry it’s been a while. I haven’t had a lot of time to write on here since being back at work. You know how it is? You eat, sleep, work, clean then repeat. Story of my life. I have managed to get a little bit of sewing in though (when I should have been cleaning lol). In particular yesterday. And it was actually very lucky I had an RDO otherwise I may have been left wearing a pair of knickers on the outside of my leggings lol. Wouldn’t that have been a sight.

Anyhow, I was lucky enough to finish early the day before so after work I drove on up to Bathurst to my nearest Spotlight store with this pic in hand for inspiration.

In fine form as per usual it turns out that this pattern isn’t in Aussie stores till next season.

Plan B

So I decided how hard could it be to come up with something myself similar. Not very it turns out.

For the bodice I used the Sis boom Angie pattern which I’ve used on previous projects. I used this lovely blue satin and bound the neck and arm holes with blue bias tape folded under then stitched. I then cut a 3 inch thick piece of gold stretch denim (I never realised his hard it would be to find suitable gold fabric) by the width of the bodice x 2. Sewed the ends together and with the seam at the centre back attached it to my bodice.

I then cut a standard circle skirt from this lovely red rayon and attached that to the band, stretching the band slightly where needed to fit. I then overlocked the bottom hem with my 4 thread overlocker and folded it over twice and sewed for a clean finish.

For the cape I used the width of the rayon x my shoulder to ankle length. I simply cut a curved edge at the bottom and hemmed the same as I did the dress. I didn’t bother doing the sides because they were both salvages anyway and I figured they with be safe from fraying. Plus I didn’t want it to be too bulky.

At the top of the cape it was too wide so I put about 5 one inch pleats overlapping one another on each side and ran a basting stitch thought the pleats. I then overlocked the raw edge the whole way along.

To attached the cape I used my KAM snap press. I used two on each shoulder and two on each side of the cape but I wanted the fold over effect so on the cape I put the snaps with the cap on the wrong side if that makes sense.

For the emblem I cut the shape in heavy weight fusible interfacing and ironed it onto a piece of scrap yellow cotton. I folded over the edges and stitched close to the edge. I then cut pieces of thin red bias tape and pinned it around the edge, wrapping the ends under so there was no raw edges and stitched. Then I used thick bias tape to form the S and stitched around its edges. Then I found my centre of my bodice and followed the stitching on the red edging and attached it to the bodice.

Overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

As you can see I also got a bit creative with my scraps and made forearm cuffs and stockings to match 🙂

The dress isn’t actually crooked I was just standing funny…., as usual lol.

Well I hope you all enjoyed that. If you did please click follow for email updates when I write new posts. Feel free to comment with any questions. I should have another post up soon.

Bye for now lovelies xox

It had to end sometime

Hi everyone 🙂
Well my holidays are now over 😦 I started back at work yesterday *sigh*. I really wish I had have taken an extra week or won the lotto so I didn’t have to go back at all…..a girl can dream can’t she?

Lucky for me it just happened to be my rostered day off today so I had time to finish another dress which I started making on Sunday. I ended up making another Angie by Sisboom but this time I followed the pattern for the skirt too…..well sort of 😉 lol.

Anyway I am kind of in two minds about it. Not sure if I like it better this way or the way I made it the other day with the circle skirt…what do you think? Feel free to comment below.

Oh and if you’d like to follow my blog and get emailed when I post something new just scroll to the bottom and enter your email where it says follow, or if your on an IPad a little +follow will pop up in the bottom right corner as you scroll, or you can also find me on Bloglovin 🙂 I appreciate you input and support xox

Now back to the dress…..

Thanks for reading everyone and I will catch you all next time xox

Sewcation – Part 4

On Thursday I was ready for my next project and I had been inspired by a thread I was reading on Facebook about the Sisboom Angie dress. I bought the pattern ages ago but hadn’t even looked at it yet.

Since I hadn’t used the pattern before I decided to do a muslin of the bodice as my bust and waist measurement is larger than the biggest size on the pattern.

Since I’d run out of calico to do my muslin I had a look in my stash and I had just enough of that black and white fabric that I made the circle skirt with the other week left to use instead.

I made the bodice with the bias tape on the inside. As I was saying before about my measurements being larger by just over an inch, to give that extra ease I just didn’t do the darts in the back of the bodice which gave a couple of inches. The bodice fit so well that I decided to make use of it instead of letting it go to waste. And being the lover I am of 50’s styling I chose to add a circle skirt instead of what the Angie pattern recommends. I used some black fabric which you would normally use for business pants as it has a slight stretch but I liked the weight and had heaps of it so figured why not.

So I got the measurement by laying the bodice flat and measuring across the bottom.

I used the website www.cirleskirtcalculator.com to work out my cutting measurements. Folded my fabric twice and I marked the measurements with my trusty Chaco liner and joined the dots.

I pinned near the chalk marking to avoid the fabric slipping and cut it out.

I marked the centres with pins and attached the skirt starting by pinning from the centre front to the back. There was excess at the back so I gathered the fabric and attached to the bodice. As the pattern call for I still attached a 6mm elastic to the seam. Then I overlocked (serger) the edge and folded up 1/2 an inch for the hem.

All in all I am really happy with it. Definitely going to wear it with legging as it’s pretty short but I still love it 🙂

Hope your all having a great weekend 🙂 bye for now xox

Sewcation – Part 3

Hi everyone 🙂 I meant to write this up a couple days ago but hubby and I went to Sydney for the night because we had tickets to the WWE wrestling. And no I’m not kidding lol. Hubby is a fan but I like paying out on them 😉

Anyhow my next project I completed during my holidays was a Simplicity pattern for a change. It was pattern 4556 in view D in size 32. I used a polyester fabric which I picked up from an Op Shop (thrift store). I only paid about $3.00 for about 4 metres……bargain!!!!

Now I have to say that I HATE this pattern for a few reasons.

1. The shoulders didn’t line up so I had to put a small pleat in each so it would work. But I didn’t realise this till I had gone too dear so had to unpick a heap of it.

2. The front yoke I found very difficult and said many choice words in the process of completing it.

3. And finally after all the swearing and carrying to get it done I put it on and it looks fantastic and fits great…..so now I’ll have to endure all that pain again because I want another one lol. But at least I know what to do differently next time I guess.

Here is the finished product.

Bye for now xox

Sewcation Part 2

Hi everyone 🙂
Following on from my post the other day……
I ended having a couple of metres of fabric left over from the racer back dress I made. So I went through some of my many patterns and chose to do this one….

McCalls M6960

At the time I decided which view I was making (View C) it didn’t actually occur to me that it was backless so I apologise in advance for the bra showing in my pictures lol ;).

I made this pattern in the XXL and made no adjustments this time as this was actually my practice run. But luckily for me it’s a totally wearable muslin 🙂 yay.

I think I need to work on my modelling skills too if I’m going to be plastering photos all over the internet because I always seem to be making silly faces….either that or my hubby needs to work on his Photography skills 😉 let’s go with that shall we hehe 😛

So it turned out pretty well. If I was to make it again I would shorten that back yoke a touch though.

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed that and I will see you so with the next instalment 🙂 bye for now xox

Sewcation Part 1

Hi everyone 🙂 well I am currently on day 9 of my holidays and I am so super relaxed even though it’s been a busy little break. On Monday I finished a sewing job for a workmate and did some errands. Tuesday sadly I had a funeral for a dear lady from my craft group 😦 on Wednesday I travelled down to Sydney and went pattern and fabric shopping to cheer myself up. On Thursday I finally began some selfish sewing (my favourite).

Now my aim ultimately is to have at least 50-60% of my wardrobe handmade by the end of next year. So I am try to knock as much as I can while I am off work because I don’t get a lot of time to sew usually. So expect a few posts in the next week :).

Ok now back to what I was talking about…..

On Thursday I began working on McCalls M6954 view C.

I don’t know about you but I get super excited about finding patterns I don’t need to alter. And thus ladies and gentlemen was one of them 🙂 woohoo. Being a large pear shape it’s rare that I don’t have to alter dramatically for my hips and butt to fit. To give you an idea my measurements are bust 53″, waist 49″, hips 62″.

It did turn out slightly snug in the bust but I am currently on a health kick and have lost just over 12kg already so I figure it’s going to be loose soon anyway lol.

Ok so the pattern itself was pretty good. It used a fair bit of fabric as it is cut on the bias. I was lucky enough to have a roll of fabric sitting there that I picked up for like $10 ages ago that had about 7 metres left on it (I used the left over on a top that I’ll show in my next post). The fabric is a slightly heavier poly cotton. It only had 4 paper pattern pieces which once cut you had two front, two back and your neck and armhole facings. The only problem I had with it was the facings. I’m not sure if that step in the pattern was explained badly or if I was just having a brain fart, but I attached the facing kind of like you would bias tape. Anyway after consulting the fabulous sew sisters from a tailoring group I am on on Facebook I had an epiphany and I got out the ole trusty seam ripper and fixed it.

And here is the end result……(sorry for the crappy photo’s)

It is super comfy and I will definitely make it again though I think next time it will do it in jersey 🙂

Well I hope you all enjoyed that and I’ll see you again with the next instalment……bye for now xox

Guess who has two weeks off work!!!!

Hello lovelies 🙂 as you would have guessed from the title I have two weeks off work starting today YAY!!!! It’s been so long since I have had a little me time. This break has been far overdue. And I bet you can guess what I’m going to be doing with it…….yep that’s right I’m going to sew sew sew 🙂

So this morning I finished of the bits and pieces I have been promising I would do for a work colleague and dropped them off, had lunch with hubby and am now home. I have a pile of patterns in front of me that I want to make and am trying to narrow it down which one is going to make it to the cutting table first.

Anyways I thought before I get started that I would share a couple of the first items of clothing I ever made with you all. Keep in mind that I am self taught other than a short course I did at a community centre 3 hours per week over a 6 week period which is where I first learnt how to adjust patterns to fit.

These first few photos are of the dress I made during that course and the first proper garment I ever made myself. I used McCalls pattern 5659.

The next one is the second dress I made myself which was for a work Xmas party shortly after. I used Simplicity patter 2947.

This next one is a PDF patter by Sis Boom or the Scientific Seamstress. It was the first time I’d used a PDF and found it to be a great pattern with well written instructions.

Lastly here is a few photos of other items I have made either without a pattern or not totally related to plus size sewing.

I really wish I had have taken photos of everything else I had made over the years to show you. But you live and learn. Oh how I love my smart phone lol.

Bye for now peeps xox