Catching Up: Part 2 - Wedding Blues

Just before our Hallowe'en party, my lovely friend Liz sent a desperate plea for help in the Wedding Guest Dress department.

We've all been there ... what the FREAKING HELL do you wear to somebody's wedding in unfamiliar territory -- especially when that wedding is miles away? (btw, in Liz's case, it was my hometown of Cape Town *sob*) She had raided every shop she could think of to no avail, a universally bad sign as, trust me, this girl has shopping mojo. And a 20% M&S discount, but that's another story.

So. Of COURSE I agreed to help her! Yay!!!!!! :)

(disregard the fact that this was my 2nd gig sewing for someone else, and therefore the only the 2nd time I would actually be expected to both finish the garment and not finish it poorly).

We went through my Burda & Knipmode collection & settled on Burda 10/2009-115, which was meant to be made up in heavy winter fabric, with a lining. The clever girl had narrowed our choice of styles by helpfully bringing a reference garment with her; also v useful for for comparative fit ... thank god. See below.

Seeing as the reference garment was a lovely floral summer dress and she was going to Cape Town for the wedding (!) we collectively pooh-poohed the heavy winter fabrics and Liz went off to buy a cotton/elastane blend, an invisible zip & thread. Like I said, the girl got skillz: two shops & one slightly frazzled phone call ('what kind of zip was it?') later, she had herself the ingredients to a dress.

Short version? I waited 'til the Monday after the party to start cutting, but all-in-all the dress took 3 nights: one night of construction, one night of fitting and one night of alterations ... plus one VERY frantic morning to finish off. The pattern is, honestly, not the easiest to interpret - Burda's instructions were sparse (as always) and by omitting the lining I created loads of problems for myself. HOWEVER. All of those problems were solved by liberal application of lovely lace trim. Huzzah!

What is with Burda patterns?
I hacked off nearly half a foot on the side seams during the fitting.

Ohohoh. And. Please, let's not forget one CRITICAL resource: Colette Patterns' invisible zipper insertion tutorial. I would have totally died without that info.

(Note to the lady with the big opinions about ironing the zipper teeth in the comments section of that tute: ironing them works. Not ironing them doesn't. Nuff said. :P)

Liberal application of lace. 

 Liz wore the dress a few days ago, and I'm most relieved that she looked very happy in it. Idiot that I am, I was so swept up in applying lace trim that I completely forgot to make the accompanying self-fabric belt ... it's on my list of things to do this weekend, I swear!

Looking at the pictures now, I can see the mistakes that another fitting session and a few more days' sewing would have fixed, BUT I'm really chuffed with the results. Considering this is only garment number 9. Shh,  don't tell Liz. 

Look at the happy smiles and ignore the mistakes. IGNORE THEM. 

And why is this post called 'Wedding Blues'? Well, apart from lovely Liz being in my lovely hometown while I had to be in stinky work doing stinky routine things, I mistakenly convinced myself that Liz had chosen not to wear the dress after all ... this is what comes from looking at people's Facebook pictures while in a bad mood. Dumbass that I am, I didn't remember that the wedding hadn't even taken place yet and that the pictures I was looking at were of a completely different wedding.
So, I proceeded to stomp around for several hours while poor Rob tried to placate me. When Liz sent a message several days later saying that she was wearing the dress, well ... I felt like a total twonk.

Lessons learned: BurdaStyle patterns come out BIG, Facebook-stalking never leads to anything good, and invisible zippers should be ironed prior to insertion. :)

Finished! The "A-Hunting We Will Go" Waistcoat

In November 2009, my lovely friend, Shelley, asked me to make a winter waistcoat for her. I very enthusiastically agreed and used the request as a great opportunity to head to Walthamstow High Street for the first time ever. (Of course, I hefted back armloads of fabric and notions, but 'that's another story...')

Anyhoo: fabric, check. Lining, check Buttons, check. Thread, check. ('Passport, check! Camera, check! Traveller’s cheques, check!')

Fast forward to March 2010 when Shelley & I go to the V & A Museum for some birthday oogling and I spot the perfect pattern in BurdaStyle 4/2010 (#135).

BurdaStyle 4/2010 #135

Fast forward to ... ummmmm ... September 2010 when Shelley organised a pamper day at another friend's house and I actually get around to tracing the aforementioned pattern on the kitchen floor.

Tracing & looking like an egit
(Shelley actually took this pic!)

Due to the intense guilt of the 10-month long delay, I got my shizz together and sewed. Like, a lot. I lined, I interfaced, I made welt pockets (and then covered the shoddily-made welt pockets with lovely chocolate brown velvet ribbon). Aaaaaaaaaaand then I got stuck, pending a fitting.

Fast forward to July 2011, the morning after Rob's birthday party, when I grabbed the semi-waistcoat and manhandled poor Shelley into the various layers. Minor adjustments aside, we were onto a winner!!

Final fast forward: to Sunday. After unpicking side seams & shoulder seams & side seams again (in an attempt to figure out how THE HELL you're supposed to freaking freaking freeeeeaaaaaking well turn the bastard thing right sides out), it was finally finished. And it actually looked pretty decent. I wasn't sure what to expect after all this time, so it was such a relief so see Shells happy with the end result!!



Happy Shelley!!



A-Hunting We Shall Go ...
so named as our friend Jason reckoned she looked like a "real English lady".
(This said to the vegetarian, wearing a waistcoat made by a vegan - LOL!)

 

Check out that lining ... and that facing!!!



Velvety chocolate pockets and lovely wooden-y buttons

Holy cow. I just noticed that I actually lined up the pattern, too! How the HELL did I do that??? Bahahahahahaa .... Yay!!

kthxbye

PS. Oh, one more thing. Back in May/June 2009, Shells & I spotted some felt brooches in Brick Lane Market that I reckoned I could 'make that for a fraction of the price'.

I, ahem, also didn't manage to deliver this item until Sunday. The fact that I made it from scraps (bottle green gabardine, waistcoat lining, waistcoat fabric & green felt PLUS a button I inherited from an amazing seamstress in Antwerp) in under an hour makes this all the more embarrassing.

Icky picture, pretty flower brooch thingy

Burda Style 7/2011 - O. M. G.

Just bought my copy of the July 201¹Burda in Schiphol Airport and ... I might be in trouble.

I'm only on Page 1¹and already want to sew everything. Ev. Ery. Thing.

As Himself will be attending a huge gig in Milton Keynes tomorrow, which involves an overnight stay, I'll have heaps of time to sew.

PS: Stupid ShoZu wouldn't post this for days after I wrote it last Friday. Himself went to sew Death Cab, Biffy Clyro and the Foos on Saturday and I didn't get as much done as I wanted. Oh well.

joy in the sewing room!

finally. finally finally finally.


Darlings, I sewed bust darts. I pressed those darts. I basted interfacing and I cut button panels.

Now I know this doesn't sound like much, but I am thoroughly chuffed. Personal victory over procrastination, check!

Not that I'm one to get distracted or anything, but ...

... The lovely Burda 107 is a little bit on the back burner (and yes, I have mostly back burners and very few front ones) while I attend the Fashion Antidote's Pattern Alteration class this afternoon.

I have SO many books about doing pattern adjustments, and have read SO many blogs on the subject ... but I clearly just perform better when I'm working in the right atmosphere/environment/whatever. As the sewing room progresses from 'mess' to 'usable', this will hopefully shift the balance of burners from back to front! :)

Anyhoo. Himself & I are attending a wedding in late July and I am determined to bloody well make my dress myself. The bride & groom have gone to great lengths to make their wedding different -- and, while this is pretty regular feature in most wedding planning mindsets, I think they're doing a damned fine job. The wedding has a festival theme, and will be a 3-day camping trip on an organic farm in Dorset (I think??). So, not exactly a 'kitten heels & fascinator' kinda day!!

During Karen's recent Fabulous Fabric Fandango (AKA Goldhawk Road shopping trip), I found the PERFECT fabric ... and then immediately settled on one of the 6 potential patterns I'd taken along for inspiration with some great moral support from fellow shoppers/sewists/bloggers! So, it's V2961 in Skull & Roses cotton print (£4/meter), with black cotton for the contrast halter (£1.25/meter).

YAYYYYY! Now. Need to go tidy up the leftover buttons lying on my sewing room floor so that at least one of the button tins is organised (more on button tins & other miscellaneous sewing inheritances in a later post, promise!) and I can actually get to the stuff needed for this afternoon's class!

Yes. It's been mostly like this since we moved in over a month ago. Three guesses as to how much sewing has been done??? Argh. 

PS. Oh, my giddy aunt!! Karen linked to my blog in her post about the Fabric Fandango above. Goodness. My first blog mention ... *whispers* I think I might faint. 

Burda 107 05/2011

So, what happened was that I drove straight to Antwerp from Brussels and got stuck into work the minute I walked into my hotel room.  And then forgot to move my hire car ... so when, two hours later, I rushed out the door in a blind panic, I had no intention of ending up in the local haberdashery, buying the May edition of Burda. It honestly was a complete mistake! Really!

(OK, I fib. I did check whether there was a Veritas near my hotel ... and felt very dumb for not realising it was less than a 10-minute walk(!) ... but then I did remember the car and decided it was a 2-birds-one-stone situation).



<>

Isn't it just gorgeous???



So, ANYWAY. I bought Burda May 2011 (which I was dangerously close to missing, as it turns out the June edition is just about to be released) and had a quick flick through. At which point I also bought (more) tracing paper and (another) tape measure so that I could trace the lovely PINK 107 while on my lonesome in my hotel room.

I really will have to fight hard with myself NOT to go out and buy exactly this lovely hot pink fabric to make an exact replica of the dress. :)

So ... depending on how moody I'm feeling tomorrow, I'll take some body measurements and retrace the pattern in my size. And then I might just get down to doing an FBA. Holy crap!