Top 5 of 2016: the Hits

Taking a lead from Gillian, here are my personal top 5 from 2016:


The flying squirrel Rachel Comey dress (V1482) - I don't wear this that much but I LOVE it; it feels really special on and is incredibly comfortable and eye-catching (in a good way, I hope).

My D&G inspired polka dots and carnations dress - a great work dress, and one that gets a lot of compliments too:

My Japanese seersucker checked Gabby top - I wear this soooo often, and I don't care that Mr UpSewLate hates it (too shapeless apparently, but I won't listen to that!):

My Tessuti Chloe pants and Vogue 8877 linen top - love these as a combination but also as separates. The pants go with everything, and the top feels very designer-ish even with basic jeans:

And another Rachel Comey dress, the super summery Vogue 1501:

I'm sensing a colour theme here... I seem to be a bit obsessed with blues! 

Honourable mentions also go to my StyleArc Edith top (worn very frequently), the Vogue 1264 black pants shown in this post (a work staple, and I should really wear the cute vintage top more often), and the Vogue 8993 dress that I would be wearing now if I hadn't put on a bit of weight - these are all favourites too - and in terms of post popularity, I guess I should include my only "how to" (on mitred self-faced vents). 

It may look like 2016 was all beer and skittles, sewing-wise, but that's of course not the case - I made several garments that I'm not at all interested in wearing, and I'll share that list with you soon. 

Till then, happy sewing!

- Gabrielle xx

Japanese Seersucker Check Gabby

Most New Year's Eves, we catch up with cousins, aunts and uncles over a quick glass of champagne before walking to the water's edge to watch the early fireworks across Sydney Harbour.  I know it sounds posh, but it's still a casual sort of get-together, so this year I decided to whip up a quick top for New Year's Eve with some pretty fabric that had attracted me in Tessuti Fabrics.  I gave myself heaps of time - more than two days! - and set to it. 

I had a few pattern options in mind, but the one I ended up sewing was the Gabby dress, cut (obviously) to top length.  It might even be a tad short to tell you the truth, but there's no spare length in that hem, as once again I didn't buy quite enough fabric...

... to the point where I had to make a sneaky join in the back of the top - which you'll be able to see in the close up:

When it was nearly sewn, I knew I liked it, but I wasn't sure I'd like it on - sometimes seersucker looks like a child's fabric - but no, I love it.  I love the wavering blue lines of the check, the slightly vintage vibe of the fabric, and its lightness in our humid weather. I think that by making a top rather than a dress I've steered clear of childishness, and closer to the "hip" end of the style scale. Which is all good. And I was going to wear it for New Year's Eve, hooray!

But then Mr UpSewLate reminded me that our usual hosts were away, and we decided to go to a different spot that provides great views after a bush walk in the dark, and I decided to avoid not catching my new top on a pointy branch in the dark and ripping it by not wearing it straight away.

Anyway, I've been wearing the top LOTS ever since - with these jeans, but not the heels. It doesn't need heels! I can't remember why I was wearing heels for these pictures (taken a few weeks ago at the very start of the year) but it may well have been just the joy of the new silver shoes that I'd been hoping to take for spin on New Year's Eve.

I only wish I'd bought enough fabric for matching 3/4 length pants, but I guess that's still possible... 

I should give you the sewing details, shouldn't I? 

I cut this out in a size S, which is my usual Gabby dress size (I've made it before in a starry blue version, a striped stretch version that's now an awesome top, a paint splat Nani Iro version, and a red and white picnic version). The dress is quite flared, and I left that flare in the top to keep it super airy. Sewn and overlocked with white thread, hemmed with matching blue on the outside. 

There's self fabric bias binding for the neckline, made by just folding and pressing with the iron, and I didn't even miss the Clover contraption that's been put away god knows where.  The checks on the side seams don't match up (they're offset by a 1/2 repeat), but who cares; the shoulders are satisfyingly symmetric! 

It's simple but I love it.

The End.

Happy sewing!  

- Gabrielle x

Nani Iro Paint Spots Gabby

Before I get into this post, I just wanted to apologise for not yet having responded to the lovely comments on my last post. The school year started a couple of weeks ago here in Sydney, and my son started at a new school that's a lot less convenient for us than the school he attended last year. I had 10 days off work to sort out the transport options and a whole lot of other details ("did you say you thought you'd hire a euphonium from us?") and get new routines for both my children in place, but it still feels like we're flying by the seat of our pants (and I'm back at work now).  Being organised just doesn't come naturally to me, even with lots of helpful grandparents around! First world problems strike again, but for the moment this little blog is suffering...

Anyway, speaking of suffering - what do you get when you mix a cute pattern with a cute fabric?  


[Sound of children laughing] 

Well, of course you get a perfectly sweet child's dress - with splotches that look just like charming painting accidents :). Oh, careful with that paintbrush, darling!

[Spooky music] 

Or DO you?

[China teapot drops on tiles, and a young child bursts into tears] 

Oh dear. Oops. I'm sorry, darling, was this YOUR dress? 

 

[Sound Effects Department, deprived of tea, walks out on strike]

***************

There's nothing wrong with the fabric (I LOVE it - it's a glorious sturdy cotton/linen Nani Iro print, with a sparkly background under the paint splodges - and why should kids get all the fun?), and nothing wrong with the pattern (it's one of my faves, the Gabby dress by Tessuti Patterns).

The dress is very raw looking - selvedge colours show on the sleeve edges, and there's contrast overlocking everywhere instead of neat hems - but that's utterly intentional, and it's not what bothers me about this dress.

I think my problem is that the dress looks way too young for me.

Does that sound ageist? Generally I'm all for people wearing what they feel like, to hell with the dictates of "what to wear when you're age X" (for example, I love the wardrobes of Vivienne Westwood and Anna Maria Dell Russo), but the naive look of this fabric paired with the simple A-line shape just jars for me when I look at these photos.

Anyway, I sewed this Gabby dress pattern in a size S if I remember correctly, with about 10cm added to the length, and with the upper "bodice" cut separately as I did with my Boardwalk dress to save  fabric.  I had only about 1.5 metres of this Nani Iro fabric (from Tessuti Fabrics last year, where it now looks to be sold out, though it looks like The Drapery in Adelaide still has some in stock), so I also ended up cutting the dress a lot narrower in the skirt than indicated by the pattern - about 10cm narrower on each bottom hem side piece, so all up about 40cm narrower over the lower skirt circumference. Because the sleeves and neckline aren't hemmed, the sleeves are slightly longer than usual and the neckline slightly smaller than usual with this pattern. 

Oh and here's a photo comparing the Nani Iro Paint Spots and the Picnic Dress Gabby dimensions - lengths and widths differ, as do sleeve lengths and neckline depths: 

So who wants to help me make a cubby house with sheets on the trampoline before I hand this dress back to its proper owner? 

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx

Picnic Dress Gabby

We seem to be experiencing another summer heatwave here in Sydney - and these things seem to be coming more regularly - so yesterday, when I noticed myself pulling out my Starry, Starry Gabby to wear yet again, it felt like the right time for whipping up another Gabby dress.

Ah, but what fabric to use? I'm trying to sew from my stash, so I looked around the sewing area of the study and noticed this fabric I'd bought to make my son a short sleeved shirt using a cool vintage pattern (see? not entirely selfish!).

Hmmm... Maybe not really his style? I asked him what he thought, he thought definitely not. Within about 5 seconds of that rejection, the fabric was on the ground and the Gabby pattern pieces were strewn about :).  I wish I could tell you the fabric was a cool 100% cotton or linen, but sadly it's just a cheap poly-cotton from Lincraft - I simply fell for the oversized checks.

Speaking of oversized checks, there seem to be lots of wonderful gingham garments around but THIS Celestial dress of Rosie's is the one that fired up my imagination most recently.  I absolutely love both Rosie's dress and the bucketload of inspiration pictures she's posted alongside it.

Oh and I should mention that when I posted a picture of this dress to Instagram shortly after finishing it, Carolyn commented that she was just finishing off a very similar dress - so look out for Carolyn's gingham dress on her blog VERY soon (I'm already expecting to prefer hers to mine!)

I'm sure the Gabby is not the perfect summer dress for everyone, but it really works for me, and now I've made it a few times (the Starry one, this one in a stretch, and another recent, unblogged dress in a heavy Nani Iron cotton) it comes together ridiculously fast - so this dress was all done in a day, in between chatting with the kids and feeding them. As I've made and blogged it before and it's such a straightforward dress, I won't review the pattern itself and instead I'll just list the changes I made this time around:

• Lengthened the sleeves about 2cm.
• Added 16cm length all around, then removed 16cm length after the dress was all done bar the hems, then noticed it was a bit short (I'm about 5'8"), so left an overlocked edge instead of a hem.
• Added in-seam pockets, the size based on putting my hand down on the fabric, and position based on trying on the partially sewn dresss and pinning the top and bottom of a space where my hand naturally wanted to slide into a pocket. I didn't have enough fabric to be able to pattern match pockets to the dress, but the pocket pieces match each other and are symmetric too. 
• Added bust darts to assist in matching up the checks on the side seams and because that little bit of excess length in the front edges looked like the right amount for a bust dart.

Spot the bust darts! Oh and btw, the front has moved off centre in this picture. 

Pattern matching and in-seam pockets

That's all, but I'll be back soon with the Nani Iro version and a dress in the fabric of the year (ah, but which year?).



See you soon

- Gabrielle x

MMMay14 Days 11 - 18

Another week of Me Made May documentation, taking me up to Sunday the 18th of May:


Day 11


Day 11 was Mother's Day in this part of the world. My kids spoilt me with handmade treasures, and Mr UpSewLate had repaired a favourite glass ring for me - yay! And we celebrated with my mum over breakfast at a lovely sunny French cafe.



I wore my recent BHL Elisalex/Vogue Pink Panther dress (a SewDollyClackett make) with a big yellow RTW cardi - I got it at a third of the normal price even though it was brand new stock, simply because most people apparently don't want to wear yellow. Crazy!!! But I do wish I could knit so I could make my own big chunky knitwear!
 

Look what the shop was selling - I was so tempted by these French oilcloths till I looked at the price:



Later in the day we headed over for a "bring a plate" dinner at my mother-in-law's house to celebrate a brother-in-law's birthday.  We brought a traditional bouef bourgignon that Mr UpSewLate had spent hours slaving over (we use the Simone Beck / Louisette Bertholle / Julia Child recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking and I'm going to resist a little aside on Julia Child mythology, as it really irritates me... ). We finished off with my MIL's lemon pound cake, then it was time to scarper off home and rush the kids to bed.  It had gotten chilly so I wore an old Vogue patterns black wool jersey dress. I'm not too sure of this dress - it always feels too short and too loose on - but my MIL loved the way it draped... And unfortunately I took very few photos and you can't see much in them. If you do want a better view, you can also see this dress under Day 17 in this blog post from MMM13 and under Day 25 in this blog post from MMM12.
 

Photos taken by me and MrIUpSewLate (backdoor of the cafe), then later with camera on tripod with 10 second timer on, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 12

Back to work - I don't hate Mondays though! It was another gorgeous Autumn day, so I wore my plaid wool jacket-cape, made from a vintage Vogue pattern reissue. Evidently I don't know how to wear scarves, even though I wear them all the time in the cooler months. These pictures were taken in the Royal Botanic Gardens.  I was planning to take pictures with the sea and /or Opera House behind me, but there were too many other people already doing the same thing (tourists? or maybe they were MMMay-ers?). 

Photo taken by me with camera on a bench (tree photo) and attached to a handrail (statue), on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 13

A long meeting at my old office meant one good thing: photos on one of their terraces after the meeting. The doors to this particular terrace are normally locked, but the staff told me I was allowed out there if the doors weren't locked - and they weren't :). So I got the whole area to myself, with the downside that everyone walking past the glass doors on that level would have been able to see my foolishness. Oh well, I'm working on that thick skin... Wearing my self-drafted geometric silk top (this shape reminds me of the Belcarra top!) with my cropped cashmere jacket and The RTW pants that fit (even though they don't fit perfectly).
 
 

Photo taken by me with camera on a low wall, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 14

On day 14 I had another long (all morning) meeting at my old office, so I took my lunch break on the way back, via Darling Harbour. There are plenty of photogenic backdrops here, but there are also always loads of tourists and city office workers down here at lunchtime, so it was hard to find a spot that wouldn't have other people in the pictures. I managed to hide some people behind posts, and then I went up to the pedestrian overpass that takes people across Darling Harbour from Pyrmont into the city - I figured people up here would either be moving too briskly to notice me or taking pictures for themselves!  I was wearing my Converging Lines Brasilia dress - I really should make another of these, and take in CF below the bust!
 

Photo taken by me with camera on a raised ramp, then later attached to a post, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 15

Busy, busy day! I had a substantial piece of work due on Friday, so I put my head down and only dashed out to Martin Place briefly for photos when I was grabbing some lunch. I completely mistimed it though and ran out at the busiest time - people everywhere! Because I was a bit nervous and in a hurry I thought I'd probably stuff my photos up, so I found an attractive backdrop (which I asked permission to photograph) to distract you just in case :]. And the me made clothes? It's two Vogue/Tessuti combinations: a V8486 dress made from a gorgeous Tessuti silk, and my lush cashmere-wool V1098 jacket.  I don't wear either of these garments too often, but that's because I want to keep them nice!

 

Photo taken by me with camera on a bench next to a very confused young man who had to get to walk away from it all, replaced by a solicitous older man, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 16

On Friday we had a team yum cha, and we ate so much and so fast! Our organiser had warned us to wear loose clothes, but I think I was the only one who did so :). After lunch I raced to the top of Martin Place for a photo with the lucky wild boar (Il Porcellino) that sits on Macquarie Street.  I wore my Starry, Starry Gabby dress with a red linen jacket (I know this looks like the Tokyo jacket pattern, but it's an old Vogue Anne Klein pattern, and the sleeves aren't cut on). Not the best pictures, but embarrassing getting them as usual as the boar faces down Martin Place across a pedestrian crossing / set of traffic lights, and there are always office-y people coming and going down Macquarie Street. As well as joggers who are determined to do ALL their stretches by the boar even if your camera is clicking at them lol. As I don't think he was wearing me mades I shan't include those photos.

Photo taken by me with camera attached to railings, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode, then a regular non-timer photo looking down Martin Place from across the road from the wild boar.


Day 17

Saturday was going to be a quiet day with a bit of kids sport thrown in, but we were woken at 7am by the sound of a large concrete mixer truck coming down our driveway to do some work for the neighbours who live behind us. I'm glad my neighbours are finally fixing up their driveway - we'll be able to have a side fence soon! - but I do wish their builders wouldn't use my back garden as their staging area. I talked to the builders about it before I went out, they apologised and said they'd fix it, but when I came back home they'd established even more equipment in my garden! Grrr! I went out again and bought some cheap plastic fencing and bamboo sticks and that was the afternoon's craft activity - making a crappy plastic fence to remind the various builders of the boundary. While I was out getting my fence supplies I took these snaps of what I was wearing - I don't know what the buildings are but the light looked lovely and I didn't think anyone else was around. Wearing my Maria Denmark Kirsten Kimono tee and my denim Grainline Moss Mini.

Photo taken by me with camera on a low bollard, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.


Day 18    

Sunday! I haven't been doing enough sewing lately but on Friday night I read all the reviews I could find of the Papercut Patterns Pleated Pants, on Saturday night I traced the pattern and and on Sunday morning I cut out some nice weighty denim. I won this pattern last year from a giveaway on Juliet's blog and I have been so slow to sew it up! Sorry Juliet! Anyway, for a comfortable day at home I wore another Gabby dress, this one made from a stretch fabric. Unfortunately not only have I shrunk in the last year, but the weight of the fabric has also stretched this dress out - so it's another I really need take in. In the photos below you can see I'm cutting out the instructions for the Papercut pants and celebrating unreasonably once that was done :). Small steps, small steps...

 

Photo taken by me with camera on a tripod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.

Phew!  Another week down. I don't have too many observations to make at the moment, apart from that it's nice to see my sewing has improved over time (there were some dodgy seams back when I started, like in the silk dress on day 15) and that I obviously like blue and red!

I'm aiming to wear 10 me mades each 7 days in May. My tally for this week is 13 me mades in 8 days, including repeats, and to date that's 28 me mades in 18 days.

See you soon


Gabrielle x