Out of Alberta - Part Deux

I have to say that I love long weekends - and I managed to make this Easter weekend a five day sewfest.  And where to begin?  To start with, I picked up some lovely linen/viscose blend (Azalia Natural Prints and Solids) from my local fabric shop (Fabricland).

You can just about tell from the photos that the fabric has a lovely linen texture, but doesn't crease quite so much.  It also is a great weight and drapes beautifully.  I wanted to add some more colour to my Tina Givens Collection, and thought that these would go well with the mostly neutral pallette that I have so far.

And this is what I made:

Let me talk you through these goodies.  From the left is a white Zelda dress, the Peplone jacket from before - but now with buttons (!), two pairs of Jaqueline trousers, one pair floral and the other from the same fabric as the Peplone, a green Kika top (minus the frills) and a fushia Jacqueline slip.

Here are all the garments so far:

The very first white slip that I made, from rayon, is not included here - I plan on making a better fitting slip out of white cotton - the same fabric as I used for the longer skirt on the pink and white dress.

Now some photos and details!

White Kika dress made from the linen/viscose fabric.  The top is based on my 'Sorbetto' top and and I added the pleat and some pretty buttons.  I am wearing it here with another pair of Jacqueline trousers made from the same fabric as the Peplone jacket.

Green Zelda slip - without a frill!  Again with the same traousers as above.

Pink Jaqueline slip.

Peplone jacket from my last post worn with some floral Jaqueline trousers.

And with the fushia slip . . . .

And the green Kika.

I then thought that the Peplone and matching trousers would make a great TG suit, so I paired them with a green Sorbetto that I made a couple of years ago - looks pretty good I think/  And then my camera battery ran out!!

I have loads more to write about - close ups, comments on the patterns as well as playing around with 'looks' using these garments, but it is getting late and I need to go to work tomorrow (something to do with earning the money to pay for the fabric . . . . !)

More Cross Pollination!

Phew - what a busy weekend! I dropped my father off at the airport as he is spending the next two weeks visiting his siblings in the UK, got a bit of fabric shopping in on the way back from the airport, then cranked out 2 cardis and three Sorbetto's.  So, let me tell you more!

Last Sunday, I had a huge cutting out session, and cut out the fabric for the above garments.  I find that I am a slow 'cutter outerer' and prefer to cut quite a few garments at one time.  Following on from my previous thread, I cut out two more cardigans and as I work my current Sorbettos really hard, especially the plain colored linen ones, I thought I would cut out some more of them in white cotton and linen.

So here we go!  New lilac cardigan, new white linen Sorbetto and black linen trousers (I'm not sure if I have blogged about these already).

I love lilac, such a pretty Spring colour.  This cardi is the same as the one in my previous post - McPlicity 68!  The fabric is a lovely cotton jersey with a touch of lycra.  A nice light/medium weight, very soft!  You can also see the plain white linen Sorbetto.

It is a little sheer (for my liking) to be worn on it's own, but will be a great workhorse under cardi's and jackets.

Next up is one in blue.  I narrowed the collar on this one to make it more of a band . . .

My serger thread was not as perfect a match as I would have like, so I added the lace again,  The chances are that unless there is a gust of wind in the office, no-one will see this, but it makes me feel good!  The fabric for this Sorbetto is the leftover from one of Sharon's dresses, and is even more sheer.  Sigh!  I love this colour blue as well - a kind of Wedgewood blue.  Another super-soft cotton with a touch of lycra.  I really like how you can see the curved front hem that transitions into the collar band.

For my final Sorbetto I used some more of the white linen and added a 'flounce'.  I finished off the edges of the flounce with a rolled hem on my serger - I am really please with that finish.

I am not sure how much I like this - I love the idea of a flounce and should have had sewn into a princess seam at the front . . . . but my pattern did not have a princess seam!  Oh, and I wore different underpinnings, and it looks as though they hoist the ladies right up as the darts are rather low.  Ho hum!!!

Next up is McCalls 6844 - I know that pretty much everyone else has made it up so it is time for me to see what it is all about!!.  I will be making a couple of changes, but have that planned for next weekend.

What did you get up to this weekend?  Any new goodies for your wardrobe?

Box Bags

I love bags - handbags, shopping bags, wash bags - they all hold some inexplicable excitement for me, so I thought that I would make up a couple for my travels.  I find them so useful - they hold my knitting (I am a sockoholic), wash kit, electronics etc., etc.,!

First up I thought that I would use one of the fat 1/4's that I received from the lovely Phillipa of Gloria & Me as part of the Spring Swap this year.  I couldn't resist this gorgeous seaside fabric:

And this is what it became!  

A lovely little 'box bag' with iron-on batting for structure, 

And fully lined in a great, co-ordinating Amy Bulter fabric.

As you can see I bound the inside seams - I have seen (and made) some of these bags with overlocked/serged seams, and that seems such a shame - if you are going to line the bag - let's make it look good inside too!

And then I made another one.  From some more Amy Butler fabric

Love it!

I showed these to Mr. SDSC and he laughed.  Somewhat perturbed, I asked him what the problem was, and he said that he found it funny (and endearing) that I never make just one item - I make multiple versions of the same items.  Now then, let's think . . . . Sorbettos, 4-gore skirts, Singer Shapely Blouses.  OK, he may have a point!!  Oh, and I have since made another 4 of these cute bags - two I have given away, and two more are tucked away in my suitcase . . . . .

How about you - are you a 'multiple maker'?