Frocktails Sydney: Dark Floral Vogue 1228

Frocktails always feels to me like an opportunity - and close to an obligation even - to make a new dress. So although I'd made a formal dress (not blogged, barely worn) late last year for Melbourne Frocktails, Sydney Frocktails called for something new.

Plan A was another formal dress in a divine duchesse satin layered with tulle and boning and organza and lining (hmm sounding a bit like my Melbourne frocktails dress...), but the pattern I had lined up for all these materials was the wrong size. Cold feet and procrastination ensued - I will make this dress another time though. 

Plan B was to make something quick, with fabric from the stash, and using a pattern I'd used before - learning from Blogless Anna, who always rocks up to the Melbourne Frocktails in simple, elegant garments made impeccably from beautiful fabrics. 

Here it is then: Vogue 1228 (previously blogged here, in what I admit was NOT a particularly useful review), sewn from a small length of gorgeous fabric from The Fabric Store that I'd previously earmarked for a mildly flared midi skirt:

Apologies for blending into the background in so many of these pictures (but that's introverts for you, right?) - I don't know when I'm going to have the free time to re-take them, so I hope they're good enough for you to see where the dress starts and ends.

Pattern:

This Vena Cava pattern is rated easy in the Vogue rating system, and is definitely rated correctly. Mind you, Vogue's "easy" is not the same as Simplicity's "easy" - there are still some interesting techniques going on! This pattern is described as follows on the envelope:

"Close-fitting (through bustline), above mid-knee length dress has front and back stitched pleats, kimono sleeves with sleeve band and narrow tabs, stitched facing at neckline, invisible side zipper, very narrow hem at lower edge."

Between making the dress way back when and now I misplaced a crucial page of instructions (yes, the page that tells you how to make the front and back stitched pleats and how to then finish the front neckline without showing the pleat), but luckily for me another blogger had documented these exact steps in her review. 

I found the fit to be consistent with other Vogue patterns I've made before, but if you do sew this up, as usual, I'd recommend measuring the pattern pieces. On me the dress is a little close fitting through the hips because I just assumed I could still wear the size I'd cut out last time :(.

Sadly the pattern is way, way OOP, but there look to be lots available on eBay and etsy. 

Fabric:

This heavenly fabric is from The Fabric Store, though they don't have it in stock anymore. It has a lot of body, which I love in the sleeves of this dress. Although the right side of the fabric is very dark with a lovely sheen, the underside is a pale grey and matte. I don't recall the fabric composition but perhaps it's a viscose-silk blend?  It's beautiful up close but the right side is quite fragile; I ended up snagging the dress on the sequins of my handbag while we were out.

The handbag - which I didn't make, though it'd be an easy sew - is another story.  Those big sequins show different colours when you flip them, which made for lots of fun with certain cheeky people writing messages on my bag while I wasn't looking :). Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if Christy made a bag just like this one day...

Modifications:

Having made the dress before I knew I could skip the side zipper (one benefit of being slightly pear shaped!). 

I also knew the neckline was a problem - as drafted, the neckline is quite low. This is a problem on me because the square shape is also quite wide, and the corners of the neckline end up showing a triangle of bra cup on each side. Obviously this is not going to be an issue for people with a lower set bust, but I needed to either raise or change the shape of the neckline to remedy this issue. If I'd raised the neckline, this would have raised the point where the bust pleats release, and I felt those pleats need to be quite high to do their job. So my solution was to narrow the neckline by a centimetre all the way around (back and front) and then also to taper the sides of the square inwards from the shoulder line to the lowest point on the bust, changing the shape from square to isosceles trapezoidal (I love a bit of geometry in sewing!).

Fabric limitations brought the hemline up several inches, but I was then able to make up some of this length with a hem band sewn from fabric cut on the cross grain (and it doesn't hang quite right, but since this dress is generally worn in the evenings I don't think this is very noticeable). 

And instead of making tabs to hold the sleeve bands folded over I used small, invisible hand stitching to hold the bands in a permanent fold.

Yay or Nay?

This dress is definitely a "yay" dress!

Give the fancy fabric I thought this dress would end up languishing in my wardrobe with all the other fancy dresses, but it's had heaps of wear - I don't go out much, but this dress has still managed about half a dozen outings over the last couple of months!  I'll have to remember this for future dresses: a simple design makes for a more adaptable dress than a complex one.

This particular dress shape is also perfect for running down the street, catching the train, playing with the pup... it's not voluminous, but there's enough width in the skirt for lots of motion. Alternatively you can pretend you're running for a train while your pup lies around in the grass:

And the frocktails event itself? Well, it was every bit as fabulous as you might imagine :).  The venue was cool, the cocktails and snacks were delicious, there was a surfeit of frock inspiration, and too TOO many people to chat with - locals, Queenslanders, Canberrans, Melbournites - these events always go too quickly!  You can see lots of portraits from the night on Caroline's Instagram feed (thank you Mr Usefulbox for this lovely photo of me!), and you can read Caz's wrap-up blog post here.

I'm already looking forward to the next frocktails, and if you're even slightly tempted, I'd encourage you to come along too! see you soon

- Gabrielle xx

MMMay14 Days 26 - 31 (and that's a wrap)

The last of my weekly me made May posts - is that a cheer out there? Was it me???

I have to admit that by the end of the month I was tired...

Day 26

On Monday 26th May I met up with the lovely Kristy of Lower Your Presser Foot fame to help out with some blog photos, though I don't think I managed to do her very attractive jacket justice. We met in a lovely old part of town - wide streets and grand sandstone buildings - and once the embarrassment of public snaps was over, had a good catch up as fellow working mums and sewists. Kristy was kind enough to take lots of photos for me, but my camera then did its trick of not storing the bulk of the photos that she took. There are enough for evidence of me madeness - and you can see what a dork I am in real life; I did my jacket up wrong :)

Just to confound the camera to the max, I was wearing 3 unphotogenic me mades: this V8718 jacket in a stretch designer linen (and let's not talk about the pretentious photos in that original post), this V2465 Chloe for Vogue top in Liberty cotton, and this V1282 Donna Karan for Vogue skirt (you can't see this but it's vertically panelled, with horizontal pleats. And it's a stretch cotton). 

Photos taken by Kristy with camera on continuous burst mode.
 

Day 27

Day 27 was another beautiful day.  I was absolutely busting to wear my floral RTW skirt but I wasn't sure I had any me mades that went with it... dig deep enough though and you'll find OIL! On this occasion the "oil" was a couple of not too ancient makes from rather ancient patterns (though to clarify, we're talking 80s retro 'ancient' as opposed to proper vintage 'ancient'): a cropped jacket made from an 80s Donna Karan for Vogue pattern, and a polka dot silk twill kimono-sleeve top made from an 80s Butterick classics pattern.  I do have a weakness for an 80s silhouette, even though I'm old enough to have enjoyed the 80s first time around :).

I didn't have time to roam too far for photos, so these are taken in the CBD proper, very close to Wynyard station and some of the popular food courts.  Even though I was on a late lunch break, there were loads of passersby - turns out you need to synchronise your photos with the 'don't walk' signals of all the nearby traffic lights. Crazy.

Photos taken by me with camera attached to gorillapod on a step, on 2 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.
 

Day 28

And Wednesday 28th May was another gorgeous, Spring-like day with wonderful big blue skies. It was the perfect day for some cheerful tourism, so I took myself speed walking down to the Opera House and Bennelong Point at lunch time.  Places like this are perfect for selfies, because you just blend in with all the other selfie-snappers!

 

My summer heatwave dress (V1360, Kay Unger for Vogue) has become loose (yes, everything from 2013 is a bit loose now, and the fabric I used for this dress also wasn't the best quality) so I tried adding a belt.  It kind of works, but ultimately I need to take in the princess seam line from under the bust through the length of the skirt.

Photos taken by me with camera attached to the brass railing, via my gorillapod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.
 

Day 29

Day 29 - the fact that I wore a black me made dress (V1025) tells you I was getting tired by this point! There were still choices in my wardrobe without repeats, but my creative brain could only get as far as 'black dress'.  Hmm. There must have been a few connections still firing though, as out of the wardrobe I managed to pluck a new coordinate, this thrifted linen jacket whose pocket bows match the mock bow belt on the dress. Well!  I've had both garments for years and I hadn't noticed they were a couple till now - maybe there's something to be said for tired brains?

 

These photos were taken in the high ground of the city that's above the Rocks and just below a busy road coming off the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There were people around, but I was too tired to worry what they thought of my playing with figs (the vine on the wall behind me is figs) and mucking about with dead palm leaves.  Yes, yes, move on...

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

Day 30

Friday! Today the weather started to turn. We had overcast skies, and they matched my sombre mood.  More black clothes... this time my recent Splat! top (the top from V8916, consciously made over-sized) worn with RTW black pants and loafers and red RTW mini trench coat.

 

 

I was in such a rush with an errand that had to be completed that day that I took these photos en route in Westfield shopping centre, near some windows and the glow of Miu Miu's signage. So fash.  

Oh camera, you do a great job but I think it's going to have to end soon - it's just not fun anymore the way it used to be, is it... 


Photos taken by me with camera attached to a railing, via my gorillapod, on 10 second timer, and on continuous burst mode.
 

Day 31

Saturday, and the last day of May! My imagination spent, I wore my Grainline Moss Mini again with a RTW t-shirt and jumper. In the photos below I was out with my daughter looking for a special plant which we needed to deliver by 10.30am, in time to drive to netball, before coming home to have guests over for a late lunch / afternoon tea, before going out for drinks and dinner with friends. Phew!

I wasn't going to wear me made that evening - too tired! but then I did. I just didn't take any photos. Can I use an old photo instead? One in which I don't look as tired as I felt? Yes? OK, well the cosy dress is V1338,  and we had a terrific evening.

Photos taken by me with camera on a bench via my gorillapod, on 10 second timer, with camera on continuous burst mode.
 

-----------------------------------

This year was my fourth me made year, and I'd expected it to be pretty similar to previous years - an overwhelming amount of inspiration in the Flickr pool, a few meet-ups with other sewists, and a slightly less vague idea of what I like to wear / what suits me.

It was different this year though.  Because I was Instagramming during the day and trying not to allow the internet to take over my evenings, I didn't spend as much time in the Flickr pool as I've done in previous years.  But the instancy of Instagram and my smaller group of contacts there made the experience feel more personal and more educational - a quick, rough as guts photo shared immediately does tell you quite a lot!


Phew! At the end of the month I resolved to catch up on sleep, but what do you know, it's past 1am and I'm still blogging.

So goodnight ;)

and see you soon


Gabrielle xx

PIA and PSA

source

Firstly for the PIA - let's get the bad news out of the way.

As you may have guessed from the photo above, this was supposed to be a post about the Sydney Sewists High Tea on Sunday.  I took heaps of photos: sewists at the table, Gail and Maria and I posing in our new frocks, tiers of food, several combinations of darling little cakes, a macaron and lemonade scones on a plate, Gail's first cup of tea whose only ingredient was hot water, Lizzie strutting her stuff at the second High Tea venue, my new DKNY dress and coat) - you can imagine it, right???

Thank you to the chief organiser, Kristy, and also to Christy, whose blog post alerted me to the get together in the first place (and it only took me about 4 weeks to RSVP, sorry Kristy). We had so much fun - cakes, champagne, great company, inspirational sewing in all directions, a pattern / fabric swap, then a second venue when the first kicked us out - that I wish I could show you some of it here.

After so much photo taking my hardworking little camera's battery needed to recharge, so I took the equally hardworking smartcard out, popped it into its reader, plugged them into the computer and started transferring photos. And... drum roll....  disaster struck. Card, reader, USB port - I don't know which is to blame. But ALL of those photos have been corrupted.  All those high tea photos, plus a couple of special birthday girl photos that I hadn't yet moved to the computer.

I'm so sorry Maria, Gail and Lizzie too that I can't email you the photos I took of you.

I've now spent hours testing demo versions of different photo recovery tools (RescuePRO, Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery, and PhotoRescue PC) and while I seem to have been able to "recover" some files using RescuePRO, they're so badly corrupted I can't see the images, which feels kind of pointless. I've messed around with file repair software too, but the results are looking hopeless - mixed up strips of photos combined with large expanses of grey - and I still can't see any of the photos I wanted to share.

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And now the PSA.  If you still subscribe to this blog through Google Reader, you might want to quickly look into some other options before Google Reader disappears in a few days time! If you search on Blog Readers you'll see there are a lot of options, but I've chosen to follow the herd and have signed up with BlogLovin'.  My blog subscriptions were all automatically copied over and it's been completely smooth: everything is just there :).  Bloglovin' is quite different to Google Reader in the way it shows your unread items, but it turns out I really like seeing a preview photo for each new unread post - it helps me prioritise what to read next!  

Sydney Sewing Social ...

On Saturday I went to my first Sewing Social... oh, the anticipation; I was so excited!

Here are a group of us in Tessuti's (and I forget our photographer's name, but thank you for the photos and sorry I'm so useless with names!) - quite a few people to meet, and this is not even everyone there:

Do you recognise everyone? Names and links are listed on Christy's post. And Renee I have to apologise to you too as I thought your name was Annie - sorry for calling you the wrong name. I'm really terrible with names!


I was initially kind of overwhelmed to meet all these interesting sewing voices in the flesh, so I didn't buy much at Tessuti's: just an irrestistible Liberty Tana Lawn remnant and some gorgeous embroidered blue cotton that happened to be lingering on the counter while I was being served.

I was originally thinking to make a Sorbetto with the Liberty cotton, but there's 0.85 metres of decent width which means I have the option of something more frivolous.  So I'm thinking instead of the top part of V1308, lengthened, with the front ruffle only. That's the tech drawing to the right, and I am unlikely to be able to wear a jumpsuit to work in the near future.


The blue cotton may end up becoing a pleated summery skirt :-). There's 1.5 metres - what do you think? I don't have a specific pattern in mind.


We then walked down to the Fabric Shop, where I went slightly nuts lugging heavy bolts around the shop (but it was the last day of their 50% off sale, so it wasn't an expensive kind of nuts). I bought some DKNY denim, stripey stretch cotton,silk for a dress, and some t-shirt fabric. I also bought upholstery fabric for an overdue chair fix and black jersey for an equally overdue Ninja mask. Everything except the Ninja fabric has been photographed:



That's a t-shirt and jeans, right? Probably a simple kimono sleeve t-shirt and trousers rather than jeans as it's a thin denim with no stretch. I'd like to try some interesting pockets but I don't have a pattern in mind - might have to spend some time going through my BurdaStyle magazine "collection".

These colours have come up looking more muted than they really are. The upper fabric is silk - dark blue with a gold-brown brocade-like pattern on it - for which I'm thinking along the lines of either V1122 (tech drawing on the right) or something from the 60s.


The lower fabric is a charcoal / blackcotton upholstery fabric, intended for a small chair repair job at home. Maria thought it looked good for a jacket and I agree (wish I'd bought more than 1 metre!).

And finally a nice sturdy stretch cotton, intended for some mid-length shorts. Jillian also has some of this fabric for shorts; I think she had a pattern in mind so I expect she'll get to it before I do!


When everyone had what they wanted - and had gone back for anything they'd forgotten - we ambled up to The Clock Hotel for drinks, sewing goss and wedges. Yum!

 Christy got us all wedges!

I had a smile plastered on my face all the way home :-).

Thank you Christy, I'm so looking forward to the next meetup!