Honeycomb Dress - Pattern Review

I made a thing!  More shockingly, I blogged a thing!  I have been meaning to make this beautiful Cocowawa Crafts Honeycomb dress for months now so having it finally finished is a wonderful feeling.  

There are so many things to love about this pattern, though the waist ties are particularly special.  I decided to make a sleeveless version for summer, although I know it’s going to work really well layered over long sleeve tees on cooler days.

Making it sleeveless also gave me an opportunity to use some gorgeous Japanese cotton bias binding which gives such a lovely finish. I’m a big fan of using ready made bias binding for projects, rather than the main fabric, just because it saves so much on the fabric requirements and means that I usually have enough left over for a skirt or top for my little one too!  Better still is using other small, irregular pieces of leftover fabric to make your own bias binding, although I was too lazy in this instance. Or rather, more accurately, I saw these pretty bias bindings at Fibresmith (my favourite Melbourne fabric and supplies store!) and couldn’t resist buying them!

I sewed a size 3 and the fit was pretty good for me, although I did reduce the size of the armholes after making a muslin.  The main thing that I changed was to swap the collar for an open style. I’m weirdly unable to stand it when my clothes touch my neck so even though I love the look of the honeycomb collar I knew it wasn’t going to work for me and I didn’t want my dress to end up unworn.  So, I took inspiration from Sew Liberated’s Matcha Top and shortened the collar piece, gathering the front bodice to meet it at each side. This adjustment meant that I only needed 3 buttons on my front placket and I also found that I needed to shift the position of the top button (and consequently the others) down a little to give the neckline the open look that I was after.

I feel like this dress is yet another reminder of how your favourite fabric is SO much nicer when you’re wearing it than when it’s just sitting on your shelf, looking pretty and receiving the occasional pat!

I am utterly obsessed with this Atellier Brunette Stardust Double Gauze.  I’m sure I’ve raved about double gauze before but to my mind it really is the perfect fabric.  Natural fibres, so soft against the skin, drapes beautifully and is a dream to sew with. What more is there?

P.s. don’t you just love those ‘me made’ labels? They’re by Kylie and the Machine and she has so many amazing label designs it’s almost impossible to choose!  I bought these on my latest visit to Fibresmith too but they are now happily stocked in lots of stores and also online! yay!

Millie Dress International Blog Tour

I've had my eyes on this beautiful Millie Dress pattern for a while now. I even went and downloaded the original version but my little beanpole of a girl outgrew the size range before I had a chance to make it.  Happily for me the lovely designer, Nicky of Mix it Make it, has updated the pattern and it now comes in sizes 2-12 - Hurrah!  When she asked whether I would like to be part of the international blog tour to celebrate the release of the English version of the pattern I quite naturally jumped at the chance! 

Summer is in full swing down under so I decided to hack my Millie Dress a little to make a sleeveless version.  It was a really simple alteration - I just turned the seam allowance to the wrong side and stitched it down, exactly the same as the neckline.  Super easy.

I used a beautiful soft See You at Six French terry which I have recently become completely obsessed with.  I blame MaaiDesign for introducing me to it and enabling my addiction!  It's just so lovely to work with and so heavenly to wear.  Each time I make something from it my kids put the clothes on and say 'Oooooh, yes! I love this one!'  I can't get enough of this beautiful pink with gold paint strokes on it.

I think this may well be one of Ella's favourite things that I have ever made for her.  Pretty, Twirly, Comfy. What more could a girl want?  

The pattern is beautifully drafted and the instructions are clear and simple.  I made the mistake of getting a little over excited and accidentally cut the front and back bodice along the ruffle insertion lines before joining them at the shoulders.  I spent about 2 minutes kicking myself and then decided to just try sticking them back together with washi tape before sewing and what do you know - it worked a treat!  Washi tape for the win every time!

There will certainly be more Millie Dresses in our future.   I've already got a long sleeved version planned for autumn in this lovely April Rhodes fabric.  Any dress that makes you want to dance and twirl is a winner in my opinion! (Click through the images above to see more dancing and twirling!)

If you'd like to see more Millie Dresses go and take a look at the beautiful creations by the other lovelies on the Millie Dress Blog Tour:

Kneesocks and Goldilocks | Just Add Fabric | Van Jansen

Groovy Baby and Mama | La Folie Sewing Booth | My Petite Sophie

Vogue Deep V Kimono Dress - V9253

It has taken me so long to get around to photographing and blogging this dress that I can hardly remember any of the making details by now.  So, consider this fair warning if you’re hoping to be informed; this blog post is most likely going to be a combination of pretty pictures and pointless ramblings!

I made this dress for Melbourne Frocktails after seeing lots of gorgeous versions of it crop up in my instagram feed and becoming completely obsessed with it!

I wasn’t brave enough to go for the full deep V, so I just sewed it up to a point where I felt comfortable. I probably should have sewn an extra centimetre or so to stop that pesky bra peeping out, or perhaps I’ll just take it as a sign that I need to spend some time this year learning how to make pretty bras that are worthy of peeping at!

The fabric is a beautiful teal milled linen from The Fabric Store (this shade is called Blue Lagoon), I've already used this fabric for several other projects, and I love the look and feel of it and how easy it is to work with (I’m soon going to have a wardrobe full of this linen in every shade!)

I had a major freak out halfway through making where I became convinced that I didn’t actually like it at all. Fortunately all those fears disappeared when I put it on - I LOVE this dress. It’s so simple yet elegant and I’ve worn it a handful of times already.   

It was actually my first time sewing a vogue pattern - I mostly use indie designer patterns and it really highlighted for me the differences between them and ‘Big 4’ patterns. Firstly it was really expensive ($25!) and also quite hard to find - I had to DRIVE around to SHOPS (say what?!) - no simple internet download for this one.  

I also found the instructions very different, much less detailed and there were no helpful video tutorials or explanations of techniques.  While it wasn't hard to work out what to do, I did spend a lot of time hoping that I was doing it correctly, and not feeling very confident.  It’s made me realise just what a wonderful thing indie designers have done for sewing. I am essentially self taught in my sewing and all of it has come from buying sewing patterns which teach me new techniques, they don’t require you to know those techniques, they teach them! How great is that?! Thank you to all you wonderful designers out there, without you I probably would have given up on sewing before I’d ever even really started to learn!

One of the reasons that it's taken me so long to get around to blogging this dress is that I find taking photos really difficult.  I just feel so self-conscious and awkward in front of the camera and it shows in the photos which look awful and that in turn feeds back into a terrible loop of looking and feeling bad about myself! 

One of my resolutions for this year is to learn to feel more comfortable in front of the camera.  One of best ways seems to be to just have a little fun with it and get a bit silly.  I'm going to leave you with this gem because it just cracks me up so bad! Enjoy!

Drape Drape 2 - Asymmetrical Scoop Neck Tee: Pattern Review

I've been flouncing around the house today in my favourite new me-made.  I am completely in love with this Asymmetrical Scoop Neck Tee from Drape Drape 2.  Despite having borrowed the original Drape Drape book from my friend about a year ago, I hadn't got around to making anything from it yet so this was the first of Hisako Sato's pattern's that I have actually worked with.  If I'm honest I had flicked through the first book and felt a little bit intimidated by (what appeared to be) some very fiddly patterns and hadn't managed to find the time, or the enthusiasm, to tackle any of them.  

BUT.  Then I saw a picture of this tee on Instagram and impulsively bought Drape Drape 2 purely so that I could make one.  I'm really glad I did.  It was the perfect first pattern to start with.  Ridiculously simple (It's just a single pattern piece) but with some really lovely details.  I love the way the fabric drapes at the waist and I particularly like the shape of the fitted sleeve on the right side.  The left sleeve is loose and the shoulder has a lapped seam which just looks really nice.  The neckline is lovely, if a little wide - certainly not ideal for grovelling around on the floor picking up toys / shoes / bits of banana. Unless, of course, you happen to be wearing a particularly lovely (handmade?) bra that you want to show off.  But let's face it, if you're grovelling around on the floor cleaning up discarded bits of old banana no one's really going to fancy you anyway, even if you are flashing your pretty undies at them. Probably best to just save this tee for a civilised evening with friends once the kids are in bed.

One more thing I should mention about this book is the sizing.  I know it's a Japanese pattern book, but still, I can't pretend my ego wasn't slightly dented by the fact that I was measuring as a size XL when I usually wear a small or medium!  I can't help but wonder how many people have bought the book and then discovered that nothing much will fit them.... Of course you'd probably all have the sense to check things like that, rather than just buying a book of patterns on a mere whim like I did...

Still, there are at least 3 other patterns in this book that I'm dying to try and on the whole I like Drape Drape 2 much more than Drape Drape 1 - there seem to be many more wearable items in it, although to be honest several of them would still be pretty obscenely revealing if wore them like the models in the book do (i.e. without anything underneath). I think layering is going to be key...  But that's a problem for another day and in the meantime I'm going to continue crushing on my new tee and flouncing around the house.  

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