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

My best friend is getting married in March next year, myself and her sister are the bridesmaids. We'd planned on getting a custom made dress from a website overseas but the good/bad news is her sister has just found out she's pregnant (that's good), which means with a changing shape the chance of the dress fitting properly is not likely as she'll be just over 8mths at the wedding (that's bad, lol). So, I offered to make the dresses, which I'm actually excited about but have a big learning curve since I've very rarely sewn with lace or chiffon and have never fitted a pregnant belly before. The current dress plan is a princess line bodice with a lace overlay and sleeves. The skirt will be a chiffon pleated one. I figure I'll make a couple of mock-ups, not only to check the fit but to play with the technique. I've got 2 of Claire Shaeffer's books (Couture sewing and Bridal Couture), so I'll be reading up on sewing with lace. Pattern wise, I ...

Spotlight had a really good sale on patterns this week so I ducked in yesterday and got a few. I've been eyeing this top off for awhile so grabbed it (along with a pile of Vogues and another Simplicity jacket pattern). It was a very quick sew, I didn't bother with a muslin but did double check the flat pattern measurements and did a 1"FBA that I eased into the side seam. It has a lot of ease, I should have made a XL or a XXl according to my measurements but this is a SzL with no other fit adjustments other than the FBA. I did change a couple of design things - I did a scoop neck instead of the V-neck and I cut the hem off rounder. The fabric is a rayon knit from the Alannah Hill outlet in Melbourne and the lace was a remnant out of my scrap drawer. I'm happy with it, the rayon is drapy enough that the top hangs nicely, I've normally struggle making tops and I think I've just been using the wrong type of knit fabric. I'm not quite su...

This poor pattern doesn't really resemble the original Ava dress anymore! I needed a dress with a zipper for the morning of my friends wedding and wanted a comfy knit one so that's how this dress idea was born. I wanted it different enough from my last version too which is why I changed the back and added sleeves. Fabric: Blue spandex knit from Spotlight and a mixture of bias binding on the waistband and some black knit for the neckline and sleeve binding. The lace is a remnant from Clear It. Adjustments; Same as last time; Size 14 Added 1" FBA Changed darts into princess seams Added the waistband. Dropped the neckline by 1" Sewed the side seams last and took it in by 1/2" each side. Made the length somewhere in between the short and long length. Added pockets from the Burda dress I last made. Plus - morphed the back pattern pieces into one then added the lace cut-out. Added sleeves The sleeves were a bit of a fiddle - I forgot ...

I seem to be going back through my old patterns lately and sewing them up! I made this as the blouse a couple of years ago. I always wore it with a wide belt though as it had a tendency to poof out on my stomach so I got rid of it in the big wardrobe cull of 2015. This time I wanted to correct the things that bothered me with the first version - added a waistband to eliminate the poofyness, used smaller bias binding to make the binding sit smoother, got rid of the darts and added princess seams. Otherwise its a fairly similar colour palette - purple ponte and a basic black lace! Pattern details; Size 14 Added 1" FBA Changed darts into princess seams Added the waistband. Dropped the neckline by 1" Left out the zipper (hooray for ponte!) Sewed the side seams last and took it in by 1/2" each side. Took 1.5cm out of the bodice length (once the skirt was added the weight dropped it all too low) Made the length somewhere in between the short and long leng...

The wedding was about a month ago and I've finally recovered enough to talk about it! This is going to be a photo heavy post - there were too many nice photos of the day just to pick a couple. This is the final post about bridesmaid dress sewing - part 1 , part 2 , part 3 . My boy has grown so much lately, I'm still taller than him in heels though! BTW, its apple juice! (Photo credits to: John Davies Photography) Pattern Details; Simplicity 4070 for the bodice Simple gathered skirt C was 38 weeks pregnant at the wedding, I did the final fitting the weekend before with her and took a couple of tucks out of the lace to get the bodice sitting smooth. I had a great comment from Sarah on my first post; "1) empire waist dress 2) yes - you need the pregnancy / beer belly equivalent of FBA to cope with the 8 month bump. Add extra length in an arc from side seam to seam, and extra width to the front skirt. I'd leave hemming and finalisi...

I feel like a fraud writing couture sewing - do real couture seamstress consider using the serger instead of binding seams? Or think that silk organza is a scratchy itchy seam binding? Or use plastic boning stitched into seams?! Anyway, I started fitting and sewing the first practise run of the bridesmaid dresses. I'm using Simplicity 4070, its the only pattern I have with a lace overlay which means I don't need to draft anything. I'm pretty much following the instructions out of the Bridal Couture book so cut everything with big wide seam allowances and marked the stitching lines with wax tracing paper. I underlined the georgette with muslin which gave it a bit of body and let me catch stitch down the seam allowances. I wanted to add in boning and had a big roll of rigeline in my shelf - I used two strips on either side of each seam except for the very front seams where I only used one. Its smoothed out the bodice nicely. I left it too late to add channels so just stitched...