Lorenzo Jungle Dress

This is the Lorenzo Jungle Dress, a casual winter/trans-seasonal dress.  The fabric is a Liberty Lantana called Lorenzo from The Fabric Store. It's 80% cotton and 20% wool, so it's a similar weight to a flannelette but nicer feel and quality.

My initial thought for this fabric was to make a pinafore. But the fabric is very colourful and the print pretty kitschy so I was concerned it might be a bit too childish made into a pinafore. I flicked through my patterns to see what else I had that might work for the fabric and saw the dress on the cover of Stylish Dress Book (pattern E in the book) and thought it could work. I couldn't decide between the two so posted both options on Instagram asking for opinions, and the stylish dress book pattern narrowly won out.

I have made this before in a wool a number of years ago and retired it from my wardrobe earlier this year. So I knew it was something I could make easily, and knew the changes I'd want to make sewing it up a second time. Given how loose and full the dress is I decided to lengthen the hem and also narrow the pieces. The front is pleated and the lower back of the dress is gathered, so it was easy to reduce the bulk by placing the pieces over the fold line so that they were smaller. I also cut the pieces straight up the sides as the weight of this material didn't need anything extra.

This dress is an incredibly easy make. There are very few pieces, one for the front, two for the back, sleeves and patch pockets. The sleeves are cut a little narrow and do not have much in the way of fullness and the sleeve cap. Combined with the loose trapeze shape this can mean that the dress rises up when lifting up your arms, another reason why I lengthened the hem. For the hem I added around 10cm so that I would have enough extra fabric there to do some trial and error on deciding the right length.

In the end I think this dress struck a good balance in using the kitschy fabric but not turning out too childish. It's a fun print, and while it's probably designed with childrenswear in mind, I love a great print and don't think there's any problem with adults wearing something bright. This definitely isn't work wear, but I think it will find a good place in my wardrobe.

Muriel's Chicken Frill Sundress

I'd originally planned this dress as part of Mena of Make This Look's Summer of the Pinafore (northern hemisphere summer) challenge on Instagram. I posted a picture of it almost finished (the facings hadn't been stitched down) and had planned to put it on the blog within a week of that. I finished this dress at the beginning of the month, but it's taken me four weeks to put it up on the blog. I took some photos a couple of weeks ago but when I downloaded them onto my computer the were blurry and the light was terrible. So I had to find a bit of time to do a take 2 and start again. And apparently I like looking to my right in photos.

The fabric is one I picked up at a Sydney Spoolettes fabric swap about 18 months ago, which was the first spoolettes event I went to and I think the first fabric swap. I loved the quirky retro oval-shaped chickens on it, so I had to pick it up. The sewing pattern has the name Muriel written on the envelope, hence the name for the dress. I found the pattern at a vintage fair about 10 years ago, and this is the second time I've used it.

The pattern is a 1948 McCall pattern, number 7904. The original pattern actually has two lines of gathered ruffles, at the princess seam which I kept but shortened slightly, and around the armscye. I decided to leave that ruffle off because it would have looked a bit too costumey. I also did in seam pockets instead of the giant patch pockets of the pattern. The skirt is shortened from a couple of inches below the knee to just above to make it a bit more modern and wearable.

Because I have used the pattern before it was fairly easy to sew up. I even managed to pattern match the chickens down the front of the dress. However when I made it before I'd made the second version, which has short puffy sleeves rather than ruffles. I did a bit of playing around with exactly how I wanted the shoulder ruffle to be. The instructions were to simply gather the ruffle, but I wasn't sure it would look right, especially given the envelope illustration shows them sticking up to chin height which would probably look ridiculous. In the end I decided to freehand pleat them, so they don't stick up high but they aren't sharply pressed either. They're fun, rather than obnoxious.

This make is also vintage, so is part of my vintage pledge for the year, which had been to create a capsule wardrobe. Whether it ends up being an actual capsule wardrobe or I just make a number of different types of vintage clothing pieces remains to be seen. And the fabric ended up being such a large piece that I was able to take the 1 metre remnant to the latest Spoolettes fabric swap on Sunday for it to be used by another Sydney sewist!

Leopard Bow Blouse

And another blouse.

The pattern is from the Japanese pattern book Les Couleurs Francaises. I'd post a link, but can't find anything other than a handful of blog posts. Which is unfortunate, because it's quite a nice pattern book. It's mother-daughter patterns, with lots of matching or similar styles. They're all fairly safely classic and feminine, so they're unlikely to become too obviously dated. It's worth picking up if you ever see it.

Now about the fabric. I do like my kitsch animal fabrics. I'm not particularly excited by standard animal print fabrics, but fabrics with animals on them? Those are great, and I've made clothes from quite a few animal fabrics. So how could I not buy this leopard fabric?

The fabric is a poly with a nice drape. I bought it on a trip to Cabramatta with the Sydney Spoolettes. I think it cost $5 for a metre, which is actually mid-price range for Cabra. The number of fabric stores there make it well worth a visit. The quality of fabrics is variable, but given you can get things as cheap as $2 a metre that isn't surprising. And most of the fabric is pretty good quality.

 As I said the pattern is from the Japanese sewing book Les Couleurs Francaises. It's pattern W, a tunic style pussy bow blouse with elbow length sleeves and front and back yokes. It's one of the patterns that made me buy the book about five years ago, but this is the first time I've made it. In the book they've made it with a broderie-edged cotton, and I'd always thought I'd do something similar. But a fabric printed with a member of the feline family is obviously the perfect choice for a pussy bow blouse.

Being poly the fabric is easy to care for and doesn't seem to crease. However it can fray, so as usual I did French seams to give it a cleaner finish. I also stitched down the yoke seams, both to keep it neat and flat and to highlight the yoke. I didn't have much of the off-white thread I used as topstitching left so all the inside stitching was done in white At first I worried that the topstitching thread might still be a bit too white, but in the end it doesn't stand out much, just enough to accentuate the seam but not so much that you look at the line.

 The pattern was a very straightforward make. Although it has both yokes and ties, it doesn't have anything that's difficult to do. It's loose fitting, so there's no buttons or zippers to worry about. Setting sleeves always requires patience, and a bit of attention is required to get both the keyhole neckline neat - both having the yoke pieces just overlap and stitching the tie to the neckline - but it isn't hard to do. It's probably a good pattern for someone who knows all the basics and either wants to try out Japanese patterns for the first time or just wants to slightly challenge their skills.

 In the pattern book this top is worn untucked, but in most of the photos I've worn it tucked. I think it works better for this fabric, and as a blouse to wear at work I think tucked in is neater too. Although it possibly could stand to be an inch longer, or I could wear it with higher waisted trousers or skirt. But overall, I'm really happy with this blouse and think it will get lots of wear.

Bettine the Elephant

My friend Erin found this fabric at the Mission Australia warehouse near her place, which has apparently a lot of fabric. There's a small op shop that's open all the time, but the warehouse is only open a few times a year. Luckily my friend happened to hear about it on the radio back on their March open day and went along. She sent me a picture of this elephant fabric and asked if I wanted it. Stupid question, of course I wanted it, who wouldn't?

The fabric looks great, with its silhouetted elephants and mottled white/grey/black background, but it's not exactly the best quality. It's some sort of poly crepe, so won't be breathable enough for high summer in Sydney when it gets to 70%+ humidity and 30+ degrees. But for nice days when the temperature is mid-high 20s and a bit drier, it should be comfortable. It's also tightly woven which means it only lets a bit of light through but isn't see through. That freed it up to a broader range of possible uses and patterns.
Enter the Bettine Dress.

Tilly and the Buttons' new Bettine Dress was released on my birthday, which was obviously a sign that I had to make it. Its semi-drapey style which made it a good fit for the elephant fabric. The pattern is also simple enough that it lets the print be the focus, which I really wanted for this fabric. And the dress has GIANT pockets! Pockets are left off far too many women's patterns, and sometimes when they're included they are added in a way that makes them bulky and generally look bad. Not with the Bettine! It probably helps that the fabric I used is very light, but the pocket and skirt sit really well.

 I'm often not a fan of elasticated waists. If they don't sit at the right spot I find them uncomfortable, they can cause the fabric to bunch up weirdly, and I find they can look a bit lazy. Luckily nonse of these issues was a problem with the Bettine. The blousy top means it hangs slightly over the elastic which makes it look nicer, and it's also just a really comfortable dress. So maybe I'll be less averse of elasticated waists in the future.

I decided to do the optional sleeve tabs just so that I could use these vintage elephant buttons. They're from the 1950s, plastic, and I found them years ago at a vintage fair for a couple of dollars. They sat in one of my boxes of buttons for years, just waiting for an elephant print fabric to be matched with. See, sometimes picking up weird pieces of kitsch really pays off as you end up with the perfect finishing touches.

The tabs themselves were probably the most annoying part of making the Bettine, because I couldn't get them quite even. Because this fabric is very much cheap quality it was a bit awkward to pin and cut out. For the main pattern pieces that doesn't matter because any unevennes can be hidden in the seams, but for little pieces like cuffs, a few millimetres off shows up with one side of the tab being wider than the other. But it's only noticeable if you look really close, so I can live with it.

It was a very easy pattern to sew, and is really comfortable to wear. I already have another fabric in my stash that I'm considering for a Bettine, so I guess I'm a fan. 

Floranimal Skirt

Animal prints seem to be pretty popular at the moment. So do florals. But I have something better: floral animals! This fabric has elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses and gorillas printed on it, all made out of pretty little flowers because of course they are. I'm a sucker for kitschy fabrics so obviously when I saw this one it had to be bought. It's from Spotlight, and it's some sort of painted/coated cotton, from memory. I think it's actually meant to be a furnishing or curtain fabric - the weight of it and the kind of waxy-feeling coating on it makes me pretty sure it wasn't meant for clothes. Oh well, it makes a great skirt so who cares what the fabric was 'meant' for?

I actually found the fabric a year or more ago, but hadn't gotten around to do anything with it. It wasn't event because I didn't know what to make, I always knew it was going to be an a-line skirt with pockets, but there was always something else I wanted to make first, so this kept getting pushed back. But as the weather is cooling down I wanted a more solid weight skirt to wear, so out came this fabric.

The skirt is self drafted, given it's just a basic a-line. It's slightly high waisted, with the waistband sitting just above the belly button. The stiffness of the fabric means it keeps its shape rather than settling softly as a more flowy fabric would. I think it also gives the skirt a fun feel.

I should have gotten around to making this skirt earlier - it's one of those very easy to do projects that are completed almost before they're started, which is always nice. And it's just a really fun fabric and an easy to wear skirt. I'm pretty sure this will get a lot of wear over the next six months. Actually, it'll probably become an all-year skirt rather than just the cool weather skirt it was originally planned to be.