Marble magic

Finished up some stuff this morning. These are Jalisa's winter PJs. The top pair I dyed - an experiment gone wrong, so I am glad they are just for bed.
Hooded tracksuit made from french terry and some marble dyed jersey. I mucked up the placement of the pocket (should have been 2cm higher) so it looks out of proportion. Jalisa was not keen on wearing this for a photo, but hopefully she will warm up to it soon. I don't want her to get too picky about her clothes just yet.

Diary cover made from some more marble dyed fabric. I have also been working on some secret sewing (for the Snailblazer swap).

Doggy duds

I used a Robert Kaufman dog print on drill and Ottobre 2/2003 #5 to make these pants. You can't see all the details (panel seams, topstitching, bellows pockets, faux fly) but they make the pants. Still a little long for Scotty, but hopefully he will get lots of use out of them.

Boring, fluffy, last minute

I find it difficult to think of exciting titles...

I snatched a little sewing time Tuesday night and yesterday when the kids were occupying themselves. The tee is the curved raglan sleeved one from Ottobre. I am thinking of adding some marbling in shades of blue and maybe yellow (red comes out pink). The cropped jacket is #5 from Ottobre 1/07. I think I will let Jalisa wear it so I can decide whether it needs a closure or not. I would have like a darker pink ribbing, but I could not find one anywhere. The pink feathers are left over from the coat I made last year (do you remember the houndstooth coat I made for the show).
Since I was seeing Mum, I thought I better get around to making her Mother's Day gift...I had really been putting on making up a pattern for the photo album cover I had decided to make. After being unsucessful in finding a suitable fabric that I thought my Mum would like (that I had enough of) I decided to think of something else to make. Since Mum is travelling to England later on in the year, I thought of maing her some bright luggage tags, to help her identify her suitcases. I found a pattern here .

The pattern is pretty wide, so if I made them again, I would reduce the width. I also have decided to add Mum's details (if she wants) on some white cotton with a permenant pen rather that sew on the plastic pocket like the pattern stated. I also added a snap so that they can be put onto the suitcase with ease. Mum was really delighted at the present and said they were so much better than the pieces of fabric they used to tie around their luggage.

Raglan jackets and dyeing

Wayne was keen on buying Jalisa a warm jacket to wear to the show. I thought I had better get my act together and make her one, as I have the pattern, fabric and the goal to make one.

I used the Raglan jacket from Kwik Sew for Toddlers with the hoodie. The outer fabric is a blue/green feather's knit. The lining is some cotton jersey that I dyed violet. To make the lining, a just cut out the same pattern, but cut at the fold-in line. Not the correct way of doing it but it worked out fine.
This is some of the marble dyeing that I have been experimenting with. The instructions are from Dharma trading but my interest was piqued after reading a thread at Sewing Mamas. I still have a lot of practice to do to get it looking - I still need to get my work space worked out efficiently - but it is addictive. I whipped up this tracksuit yesterday. Same KSFT pattern that I usually use, in a size 3.

Show entries

These are my entries for the show. It category is actually called Cotton Creations and thus garments made for the different classes (daywear, eveningwear, creative, fanasty classes) are to be made from predominately cotton fabric.
This dress is based around pattern #101 from Burda 12/04, with my own adaptions. Firstly, I raised the centre front seam. I added a full skirt rather than the panelled/gored Burda version – as I thought this would save me a lot of time and possibly fabric. I have used a pink cotton sateen with a black and white cotton sateen for the hem band.

I originally bought some mini pom pom trim to add to Jalisa’s clothing, but I thought it could work on this dress. I found it a little tricky sewing onto the curved seams – I think it would be much easier sewing to a fabric on the grain. The outfit went together fairly easily. I had forgotten how easy dresses can be. If I had had more time, I would have added some more detail to the skirt, some type of trim, but I was a little pressed for time.

This outfit has been my most challenging (sewing) task in a long time. The jacket is fully lined, has set-in ¾ sleeves and there are bands at the end of the sleeves and at the back hem. There is also a front band that stretches from the hem up the centre front, with a 90 degree inward cornered seam. The knee length pencil skirt has a shaped waistband and a front band for the buttons.

I have used mother of pearl shell buttons – which were a bargain buy from Ebay. The patterns are #105 and # 118 from Burda 2/05. In the close up you can see my dyeing mistakes, but I have come to accept the freckles and know what to do next time.

Thanks for looking.