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

I read "The End of Fashion" so you don't have to.  If you have it on your to-read you should probably take it off.  I found it mildly interesting as a piece of fashion history, but it was hard to get through.  Agins covers, among other things, Paris as the center of the fashion universe, the story of designer/movie star synergy, and the (temporary) reprieve Marshall Field's bought itself as a strictly high-end merchandiser. I had to google "Hilfiger Vintage" to find this. Writing in 1998 or so (the book was published in 1999), Agins argues that fashion is dead.  Forever.  When you read the book you remember why this would be easy to believe:  this was the height of Tommy Hilfiger Hegemony, as covered in a chapter of the book.  Those hideous oversized color-blocked sweatshirts were all over the damn place.  Less facetiously, there was also the perpetual issue of couture being a huge money-loser, and fashion people making very bad busine...

I got involved in making premmie baby gowns through facebook when a local lady organised a sewing bee to make them. It was definitely an eye opener talking to some of the mum's who've had premmie babies, I was lucky enough to have full term healthy babies so I never realised what it was like to have a baby in the NCIU.  So onto the gowns, they are bright and very practical, they open at the neck and shoulders with a plastic press stud so they don't have to be removed for x-rays (like they would if they were metal studs). Made out of cotton so they can be washed and dried in the industrial hospital dryers. I make them very similar to this tutorial here except that I leave on the seam allowances and cut around the pattern. A couple of tips; I cut them out double layered with the lining and the main fabric right sides together, use a rotary cutter on the straight parts and then trace the curves with either chalk or a pen and cut the curves with scissors.Mak...

Another pair of jeans, I've been wearing my first pair heaps lately. Same as last time; Added 1" to the inner leg seam on the front pattern piece. Adjusted the side seams - I have hyperextended calves and they were dragging the side seam backwards so I added to the back and took from the front to straighten it up. Changed the front pockets to a pocket stay. Shaped the side seams I did a couple of construction changes - I followed my fav zipper tutorial and serged the waistband facing instead of turning under (just helps to reduce bulk with a heavier weight denim). Shaped the waistband to be more curved to stop the gape at the back. Also I added elastic to the waistband to help stabilise/stop stretching out. Took in the side seams as my purple denim was very stretchy Plus I took length out of the legs at the knees from where I had originally added it and I also took some height out of the back rise, again from where I had added it. I used a pu...

Its that time of the year again to make mini jackets - my friends daughter is turning 4 and I wanted a pretty little jacket for her to wear to kindy that could still get thrown through the washing machine. I never realised Spotlight stocked Oliver + S patterns until I spotted (heh) this on a clearance rack with 2 other patterns. I've always wanted to try them out so this one came home with me. The fabric is leftover from this dress and the lining is a thin satin from Clear It in Melbourne, buttons are from clear it too. The pattern itself is well drafted, the sizing is pretty much near identical to Australian kids RTW (I did some snoop shopping at Target with my tape measure!). Some changes: I added more interfacing than required - interfaced the upper front and half of the lower front, using a medium knit weft fusible on the lower and some armoweft on the collar and the upper front for extra stability. I added a lining as this fabric is a poly knit and I...

I've seen Neue Mode patterns before over on sewingpatterns.com and kinda wrote them off as being left over from the 80's. I did get an email recently though that had some new designs in it and fell in love with this coat, took me forever to find it on the website (it was listed as Non-categorized , after I'd been through a few hundred patterns looking for it......) Its a bit sketchy ordering a neue mode pattern - no line drawings on most of the patterns and none of them actually list what pattern you get - so it could potentially be the pants or the top or the coat... This one thankfully had a line drawing, though its not very accurate, it shows the collar being a separate pattern piece but its just one front piece, the hem dips lower at the front plus the pattern has sleeve cuffs which aren't on the drawing, and it also has no pockets... The cutting layout and amount of fabric is printed as part of the pattern and the pattern pieces also have basic fit adjustm...

Another pair of pull-on ginger jeans - Same adjustments as last time, main difference is I found they were hitching up at the back knees a bit which was because I had shaped the outer leg on the back pattern piece and it must have added extra length so the back pattern piece was about 1" longer than the front causing the buckling. Since fixing that they are hanging a lot straighter now. The fabric is a lovely stretchy reversible denim from Rathdowne fabrics, with blue on the top and black underneath. Thread is Guttermann  #392 upholstery thread and the rivets are ones from etsy I saved a blog post from a while ago by meggipeg - I really liked her jeans and the quilting on them so in tribute to them (which sounds so much nicer than saying I completely copied her!!) I quilted a section on my back pockets, using some scraps I had of fleece to beef them up with. I thought about using batting but figured the fleece wouldn't shed or unravel I...

Great pattern - went together really fast, I left the hems raw. I like the shorter back and then the waterfall front. Not much more to say! Fabric: Ponte from Spotlight Adjustments: Size 18 Added 1" to arm width I have a bit of excess at the armholes and upper chest - seems to happen when I don't do a FBA, so next time I'll pin it out and adjust the armhole shape.