Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

We had a very quick day trip to Melbourne recently and I managed to duck into a couple of fabric shops. The kids each picked out some fabric in Rathdowne , the daughter picked out this Avengers one which was meant to be boxer shorts until she realised she could have it in a dress instead! I'd only bought 1m (and its only 112cm wide) but she was determined to have a circle skirt so this is a 1/2 circle skirt squeezed onto the fabric (good thing she likes shorter skirts!). The bodice is a blue sateen I had leftover and the lining is a stretch poplin inside the bodice and a poly lining in the skirt. Size wise, I made a muslin in a sz 14 and it was pretty good. I had to petite the back and take a wedge out of the side bodice and also take it in at the top of the front princess seam. Really I think I should have cut a size smaller and done a small FBA, I think it would have fit better and its what I'll be doing next time. She badly wanted zipper pockets, I wa

I didn't mean to be gone for so long!  Sadly, no sewing here since early May--which is really a record.  First there was packing at the old place, then there was moving, and then I was in a dilemma with my sewing room:  I can't set it up because the roof hatch is in there, and we need some work done in the crawlspace on our roof beam and to insulate the crawlspace.  So I don't want to unpack my sewing room until that's done because everything will get all dusty (and I don't know how much floorspace they need as a staging area).  I did finally get more shelves and moved all the boxes around for the millionth time--I can at least walk in there now! I have a couple old projects I haven't blogged but there's a reason for that--you're definitely getting the B-Roll here, folks. Here's a dress from Burda 7519 .  I made this before  (the top in the thumbnail) and I think I'm done.  It's more interesting than flattering, especially for the a

... pattern as my last dress, but with a different twist to it.  Now excuse the wrinkles and 'end-of-the-first-day-back-at-school' look! But the dress survived the day better than I did ~ first day back after a two week holiday is always the worst. Luckily I had such a comfy dress to wear. The dress is 2/3's charcoal grey bengaline (for the stretch/comfort factor), and 1/3 grey Aboriginal cotton print ~ I picked this up from Spotlight last week. They have a new little range of Aboriginal inspired fabric that is just beautiful to sew with. To separate the grey from the print I use the same black binding from the previous dress. I also had a bit of fun with the lining ~ no model shots I'm afraid, just the hanger shot. But I split the lining into black/white to match the outside garment fabric ... just because I could.  So let me just do a virtual swivel for you ... front, side, side, back ... Everything else is the same as before ... invisible zipper,

Burda 11-2011-114 has been on my list  ever since the magazine was published!  I got this fabric at Golden D'Or in Dallas in December 2011 and way overpaid for it at $8.50/yd, but I love the color and the subtle "space dyed" gradation.  It is extremely lightweight with little recovery and I don't expect to get more than a dozen wears out of this top before the fabric stretches out beyond redemption. Alas.   The biggest negative for this pattern is that the front piece is a giant fabric hog and I couldn't find an efficient cutting layout that didn't waste a lot of fabric. The center back is drafted on the fold, which doesn't work for my swayback.  I used my TNT tee to shape the side seams and add a center back seam. This is the "easy" sewing pattern with illustrated instructions for the November 2011 issue.  I am sure I would have figured it out eventually from Burda's written instructions, but it was really nice to have the illustra

Cidell and I had a little tug-of-war over this fabric on our Pilgrimage to Fabric Mart in November 2012 .  I won.  :-P  I figured I should sew up the fabric so that I wasn't being selfish for no reason.  It's ok to be selfish if there's a reason, right?  I perhaps should not have been so cruel as to force her to do the fashion photos, but a blogger's gotta do what she can to get good photos and she is my best photographer. My first instinct with a border print is to go wrap dress, but I felt like that was too predictable so I dove into the pattern stash.  I made the Knip Mode version of this top in December 2008  and it is still in my closet but I don't *quite* love it as it is a little shapeless through the waist area.  From the PR reviews, the Butterick looked a little less bulky and more fitted.  After much consideration, I decided I would take a chance on  Butterick 5495 . I like the idea of the pattern with its belly-disguising front gathers, but my fi

Simplicity 1798  is a Project Runway pattern, so it has all kinds of crazy options, but one of the illustrations shows the surplice bodice with a collar only on the outer half of the bodice.  Pleasing asymmetry is ridiculously difficult for me to envision, but since they had done the work for me it caught my eye. I used a wool from The Carol Collection and accented it with one of the Vera Wang silk/rayon blends from Fabric.com's $1.99/yd blowout in January 2010 .  Coupled with my $1.99/yd Fabric Mart lining , this dress is a lot of bang for very little buck. I started the alterations by shortening the skirt 2 inches, and still had a very generous two inch hem allowance.  I've shortened it another 3/4" for the next time. The side front bodice is *very* shaped.  I shaved off a bit of the curve for my small bust before sewing and it fit fine around the curve of the bust.  However, it was quite puffy above the bust.  I mean, I'm not saying they're where th

When Pattern Review announced its " Inspired by the Movies " contest I was kind of stumped.  I have made a zillion costumes based on movie characters, but the requirement for this contest is that the final result *not* be a costume.  Which is a clever twist but was not inspiring me so much.  I was trying to think of contemporary movies whose style I liked and was really coming up blank.  TV shows, yes.  But movies?  Nothin'. Then I was thinking about the yellow skirt I had planned and what I would wear with it and suddenly a little tickle in my brain reminded me of one of my favorite movies of all time:  The Parent Trap.  I prefer the 1961 version, but I will tell you that I also own the Lindsay Lohan remake and like it almost as much as the original.  I am not a purist.  Though it makes me sad to see her being cute and undrugged. At any rate, I have watched this movie dozens if not hundreds of times, can recite every line along with the characters, still laugh whe