Rooibos Dress

This is the Rooibos dress from Colette Patterns. I finished it in time to wear on Thanksgiving. I used a wool herringbone grey wool and a puce colored silk charmeuse for the facings, pockets, and the piping. I made my own piping, by taking the stitching out of some old piping taking the cord and using the old fabric as a model to cut the charmeuse. Then I used a zipper foot to get close to the cord and made the piping.

I also used my new serger and serged all the pieces after I cut them out. I'm so glad I did this, It makes sewing it together a dream! I will definitely do this again. The only problem is that the little triangle markings that are cut out get serged away. So I have to think about a better way of marking the pieces. I did a side lapped zipper, and hand picked the lapped side.

Overall I think this dress came out OK, its a little big in the bodice even though I mad a muslin. Maybe I should have made the smaller size and done a full bust adjustment.



And for my next trick...

I'm making a Thanksgiving dress.  Another Colette pattern. I think I need to be admitted into Colette patterns anonymous, because I'm an addict. This time I am making Rooibos out of herringbone wool and silk charmeuse. I am also going to attempt to make a lapped zipper on the side like Gertie blogged about. I made my own piping out of the puce color charmeuse. It is my first time working with piping, isn't that shocking? Hopefully, I will finish by tomorrow so I can look fabulous eating my turkey.

Sew U Home Stretch

I have been playing with my new serger.  My serger came with instructional DVDs but I also wanted to learn more so I turned to the book Sew U Home Stretch by Built By Wendy. It comes with three basic patterns and ways you can tweak them to make other things. I was feeling very adventerous and made my first t shirt.

I used a rayon/poly knit from Fabricland, and the Built by Wendy t-shirt pattern from the book. I cut a scoop in the neckline added the four inch drapy collar and 11 inch sleeves. It came together very quickly, and I think it looks at least as good as something from Old Navy. (I'm twisting in the picture). I need more basics like this for winter so I will sure to make more. Serging looks scary but it's fun.

Quantoid Hat

 I made another hat, this one is for the boyfriend. It is the Quantoid Hat from the Fall 2010 issue of Knitscene. I'm not sure what a quantoid is but I like this hat. I made the bigger size but I used a DK weight yarn instead of a worsted. I used Koigu Kersti, in two different shades of grey.

I shortened it quite a bit. Instead of the 8 row repeat I cut it down to 6 rows, and then I cut out the 4 row repeat in the crown shaping. It came out perfectly, the extra rows would have made the hat way too long. This is the perfect hat for boys, and fun to make. It's not just a monotonous ribbed hat, the color work and the varied vertical stripes make it interesting to make. I whipped this one up in three days, in between finishing sewing my Lady Grey.

Lady Grey Coat

This has been my biggest project ever! My Grey Lady coat is finished and I love it. I feel so accomplished and it's all thanks to Gertie and her wonderfull sew-along! I can tackle any sewing project now that I have done a coat, at least thats what I feel like right now. If you would like to see the rest of my post on Lady Grey, you can see them here. My pictures in this post were taken by the fabulous VerbenaKnits, Thanks Lindsay!

Lady Grey Supplies

My coat is done! Hooray! I will post my fabulous pictures lady today. Meanwhile, this is everything I used to make my Lady Grey coat. Sewing is much more involved than knitting, I think this picture proves it.

What I used:

Grey Lady pattern from Colette Patterns

Pattern weights

marking supplies

seam ripper

tweezers

pins

3 kinds of scissors

dritz button cover kit

2 plain inside buttons

purple ribbon

twill tape

4 yds heavy weight muslin fabric

2 yds weft interfacing

1/4 yd silk organza (with a lot left over) dyed to match outer coat

4 1/2 yds Magenta Wool Crepe (it was a Tahari remnant)

3 yds rayon lining fabric

2 yds cotton flannel for interlining

5+yds of hair canvas

2 sleeve heads

Magenta silk thread

Magenta cotton thread

purple cotton thread

beeswax

iron

spray bottle

tailor's ham (This one is from The Cupcake Goddess)

Oh yeah and a sewing machine!

I think that is it. Phew! Today I am going to attempt to play with my new serger. Wish me luck.

Lady Grey Hem

Has anyone else been having trouble hemming this coat? I have been fretting over it for a while. I would be a lot farther right now if this hem wasn't scaring me so much. Going the 2 inches all the way around wasn't working at all, it was all sorts of uneven and making me very nervous. I was getting discouraged and then looked to the floor and it was my muslin. Oh yeah, I can use that! So I quickly measured a 2 inch hem every inch all the way around and cut. Then i put my muslin (actually it's half a muslin by now) through the sleeve like a vest and I had an easy way to mark my hem.

You can see that my dress form has a hem measurement device but when I tried to use it, it PULLED MY FABRIC! The horror! I feel so betrayed. I don't know what to do to fix it, it's made out of sharp plastic. I finshed my hem using Gertie's excellent advice as always.

Grey Lady Lining

I have finished the lining! I'm a little behind but I'm close to the finish line. I have to remember not to rush things, because sewing turns out better when you take your time. I decided to interline the coat with cotton fleece because my outer fabric and my lining are thin fabrics. Interlining is fabric you sew to the inside of your coat to make you toasty warm. I cut my interlining pieces to match my lining and sewed them together, close to the seams, then i trimmed the excess. It was easy to sew the lining together after adding the interfacing because it made it a more substantial fabric than the flimsy rayon. I included all the lining pieces, except for the facing because they will overlap when I wear the coat and I don't wanna look too bulky.

You can see my back pleat above, Gertie explained it in an easy to follow post. I also interlined the sleeves, which isn't always recommended, but I had enough room in the sleeve and the sleeves are wide so I wanted the extra warmth there.