Rooibos Rescue

I made this  Colette Rooibos when I started sewing, along with my other one here:

I was sewing along with the Sew Weekly challenges. They weren’t quite the first dresses I’d made, but they were pretty amateurish. On the blue one I completely cocked up the piping at the neckline (my first attempt at piping) and ended up chopping it off along with the collar and bodging a join at the front.  And there are a lot of other faults. I hadn’t yet figured out that you are given grainline markings for a reason. Pressing seemed like an unnecessary interruption to the fun stuff, and I didn’t see the need for extra steps like adding interfacing.  I do like looking back at these early efforts to see how far I’ve come.
Despite the errors I do like these dresses.  Rooibos is a fantastic pattern and I keep meaning to make it again.  I thought I would wear the blue and white one the most but I found that while I wear the grey one at least once a fortnight in the winter I have only worn the blue one a couple times. I think the fabric and colours are just that little bit less forgiving than the other one, because the faults seem much more obvious.  However I put a lot of effort into it and didn’t want to bin it and it was way too badly made to pass on to a charity shop, so it remained scrunched up in a bag in the bottom of my wardrobe for the last year.

MMM13 me realise that I need more separates, particularly skirts, ideally with pockets. It also motivated me to go through my me mades and look at the ones that I don’t wear, to try and decide which could be rescued and which were beyond help. I decided to cut off the bodice of my blue rooibos and try it as a skirt. Originally I intended to keep the curved waistband but it soon became clear that it wasn’t going to work.  The wonky grainlines and lack of interfacing, meant that in the end I decided it would make more sense just to fold it inside as a facing then top stitch to keep it in place. I swapped the long zip for a short one, and voila, a new skirt!

No dancing I’m afraid, I had approximately 30 seconds to do these photos before I had to be out of the house. You do get a big cheesey grin though.  And weird under boob gathering on my cardi. No idea what’s going on there.

I have already worn this skirt twice, once to work and I’m wearing it again today for the school run and general pottering.  That is as many times as I wore it as a dress in two years, so I think it’s a keeper.

On a different note – anyone else going to Claire and Marie’s  Birmingham Meet Up tomorrow? I am so excited!  What’s on your shopping list? I am on a mission for swimsuit fabric and elastic, pants elastic, something totally frivolous for sundresses and some buttons and bias binding for a couple of projects I have in mind.  I will probably forget what I am there for and come back with loads more lovely random stuff, but even if I don’t get anything it’s worth the journey to hang out with everyone and chat.
Hopefully see you all there!

Brighton Belladone – my new favourite dress from my new favourite pattern maker

I have a new favourite pattern company. I suspected I was falling for Deer and Doe when I was making my Reglisse. Everything was so straight forward and I loved the results. I bought Belladone at the same time – well if you have to pay postage you may as well buy more to save, if that makes sense?  Anyway, after seeing Sonja from Ginger Makes’ lace Belladone I knew I had done the right thing in getting this pattern and it rocketed to the top of my ‘to make’ queue.

It was not until the Brighton meet up and swap  however that I found the right fabric.  I almost didn’t pick this floral cotton that Zora brought.  It didn’t immediately jump out at me but the seeds of an idea began to grow in my tiny brain and at the last minute Zora and  Stevie convinced me to take it. I’m so glad I did, thank you both.  I chucked it straight in the wash when I got home. With the label still on, which disintegrated and left little brown fibres all over everything so it all had to be washed again – duh.

The pattern was a little daunting at first, mainly because there were so many pieces. However the instructions are so clear that it came together really easily. Like my Reglisse I cut a 36 at the shoulders and upper back grading to a 38 everywhere else.  I think I could have possibly gone down a size at the shoulders and back but it still fits brilliantly. This dress is drafted for a C cup, which means no faffing around with FBAs (not that I usually bother, but I know I should) and it fits almost perfectly straight out of the packet.  I did add a couple of inches to the length after my Reglisse turned out so short. This is just a personal preference and I’m glad I did.  It now comes to just below my knees and I am only 5ft 2 inches tall.  Oh, and I couldn’t be bothered with skirt facings so I just did a narrow machined hem.
Time for some pics:

No, I have not finally mastered the invisible zip. The instructions call for basting the back together before you insert the zip. I did this and was pleased to find that the fabric had enough stretch to enable me to get into it with minimal wriggling, so I stitched it up without adding the zip.

I am not completely happy with the binding at the neck and I could have done with pinching out maybe an inch from the front neckline as well as narrowing the shoulders but it doesn’t bother me enough to stop me loving this dress.

Speaking of binding, let me tell you how not to approach the bias binding on a project like this.  I made my own binding from a bit of the dark blue shiney stuff I got from Claire at the swap.  It took me a while to decide whether the background on this print was very dark blue or black and I’m still not sure but I’m glad I went with the blue.  Anyway after cutting the strips and stitching them together I could not for the life of me find my bias binding maker so I had to make do without. Then after I had added the binding to the neck I decided that it also needed binding on the back pieces to make the cut out section stand out. The correct time to add binding to these pieces is right at the beginning, after making darts but before stitching anything together. It is not a good idea to decide to add it after the whole bodice has been stitched together and the bias binding has been put around the neckline. I was not about to take it all apart again so I added the binding on the back pieces afterwards, but before adding the skirt pieces.  I have just about managed to make it look tidy but there was some very creative swearing involved.

It was all totally worth it though. I think the pink floral would have been a bit too girly for me without the contrasting binding. Now it feels just right.  And all the materials I used were either from the swap or stuff I already had, so I’m counting it as a freebie.  I can’t explain how much I love this dress.  I love the fit, the cut out at the back, the ease with which it goes together, the fabric and all the compliments I have had while wearing it. And I loved sewing and wearing both the Deer and Doe patterns I have made so far.  I also have Bleuet and I am seriously tempted by the Chardon skirt after seeing Scruffy Badgers’ here  and here.  Luckily it just so happens that The Curious Kiwi and  Kat at Modern Vintage Cupcakes have designated June Indie Patterns Month.  Pop over and sign up to join in the fun if you are planning on sewing anything from an independent pattern designer this month. It think it might be the excuse I need to get a couple more Deer and Doe patterns.

Anyway, as I had so much fun doing my last photos, I think it’s time for a dance.  This time I have mostly been listening to Transvision Vamp :

Me Made May – So how did I do?

Not bad actually.  I won’t pretend I’m not relieved it’s over but I’m pretty proud of myself.  I have learnt a lot about what I actually wear and what I need, I made some items that are getting worn a lot already and in terms of wearing me made items I actually  managed to do better than I pledged to do.  My original pledge was as follows:

‘I, Jo, of The Amazing Adventures of Taracat, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavour to wear at least one self made garment each day for the duration of May 2013, but I am allowing myself one day a week off if I need it.’

I only had one day in May when I wasn’t wearing something that I’d made, or two if you don’t count the shop bought shirt that I’d dyed blue. I also managed to get a photograph every day I wore me made except one, when I cheated and used a picture of me in my Beach Hut Laurel that I took the previous month. Getting photos was a pain in the arse and cost me a fortune in bribes to my daughter but I’m glad I did it.

Rather than doing daily or weekly posts I set up a new page, here. So how does it break down?

What I wore: 

Spotty Tiramisu   x3
Stripey Laurel    x3
Blue Lekala skirt    x2
Nautical Cambie    x2
Blue maxi dress    x2
Dixie DIY summer concert tee   x2
Mathilde no 1   x2
Marguerite Mathilde   x2
Leopard pencil skirt    x2
Floral Tiramisu    x1
Lace print Tiramisu    x1
Dragons and Koi print dress   x1
Beach hut Laurel   x1
New floral dress   x1
Stripey cotton shirt   x1
Blue faces t shirt   x1
Deckchair Elisalex  x1
Burdastyle Jenny skirt x1
Rooibos  x1

Most worn patterns:

Tiramisu  x5
Mathilde x4
Laurel  x4

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What I’ve learnt:

• I already wear dresses to work most days but at weekends the weather in this country does not want to cooperate most of the time. I need to make tops, skirts and (dare I say it?) trousers that will work when running around with kids, messing about on the beach, etc…
• I also need more me made knit maxi dresses for the rare occasions when the sun does shine. When they fit properly and provide enough coverage they are the most practical garment for my lifestyle when I am not at work and it is sunny.
• I need better bras. This is one of the revelations of taking crappy photos every day. when you take picture for a blog post you take loads and pick the ones that show you and the clothes the best. Yes, I know it’s supposed to be about the garments, but I’m sure I’m not the only person that tries to avoid posting the really hideously unflattering pictures of myself, even if they are the ones where the dress looks nicest.  It has been difficult to admit to myself but these hastily grabbed shots this month are probably a truer snapshot of what I look like in real life. And my norks need help. Shop bought bras just don’t seem up to the job, and trust me I have tried everything from high street to high end, with a variety of fittings.  I am therefore going to try my hand at making a bra. Not necessarily straight away, I think I may need to work up to it. Shall we say before Christmas?
• I still need to work on fitting, and I am much pickier than I used to be. I can now see all the faults in garments that I was really proud of when I made them. However I think a lot of them can be rescued, and when I was wearing garments that I made only a year ago my main thought was how far I’ve come since then.  I’m getting definitely getting there.

I am actually amazed that I didn’t find it more difficult, even though I did end up sewing myself a couple of things out of desperation for something new – my as yet unblogged Dixie DIY summer concert tee and my stripey Laurel top.  I have found out a lot about what I wear, what I need and what I really don’t need.  I have also found myself automatically looking at my me made things first when I am picking out what to wear in the mornings. That’s got to be a good thing, hasn’t it.  Anyway, a big thank you is due to Zoe.  This month has been one of the most valuable sewing related experiences ever.

May Stashbusting Tiramisu No. 3

Yes, it’s another Tiramisu. Number three, in fact. One and two were the first garments I blogged about after restarting this blog back in January and I think I raved about them then.  I love this pattern so much.  Despite them being less than perfect (my errors, nothing to do with the pattern) they have ended up being some of the most worn garments in my wardrobe. Me Made May confirmed this for me, and May is also knits month in Emily and Cindy’s Stash Busting Challenge, so to keep me going in the final days of the month I decided to make another.  I have had this lacey print knit fabric, some kind of cotton I think? in my stash since last year. It’s fairly thick and feels good quality and quite substantial with a nice weighty drape. I originally got it on Ebay but I can’t find a link. You can see the print better here:

The background colour is cream rather than white, which I  think makes it a little more flattering. Anyway it was the obvious choice for a Tiramisu.   I think I mentioned before that the sizing on this pattern is not the conventional sizing, based as it is on your high bust and cup size. This is genius. As before I cut a 30 D and it fits perfectly.

I used ready made stretch bias binding from Minerva Crafts, which saved me some time. All in all, after cutting it out it took about two hours to make, if that.  No major issues putting it together either, so quite a boring post I’m afraid.  So to make up for it you get to see me dance to Violent Femmes:

Wait for it……I’m working up to it – look, pockets!

No, I’m not picking my skirt out my butt, I’m dancing…

Tune!   And I may even remove my hands from my pockets in a minute. They are snuggly though….And off we go!  You can’t beat a bit of 80′s Alternative Rock

I wore this dress last week and it does everything it is supposed to. I was comfortable all day and was able to dress it up with heels to meet friends and down with boots for a walk on the beach. As soon as I get over my self imposed pattern and fabric buying ban I’m buying Pavlova and Hummingbird.  And have you seen the upcoming Red Velvet?   I need….

Thank you……

I have a couple of things to say thank you for, and I should have done it sooner.  I’m sorry, May is probably my busiest time at work and I’ve been neglecting everything else.  Bad blogger.  Anyway, check this out:

How adorable is this?!  The picture really doesn’t do it justice.  It reads – Sewing fills my days. Not to mention the living room, bedroom and closets.  I think the message is something we can all relate to, (my husband just nodded his head sadly when I showed him),  and it has taken pride of place above my sewing table. It came courtesy of Cindy at Cation Designs and Emily at EmSewCrazy.  I have been taking part in their Stashbusting Sewalong.  Each month we get a theme to sew along to using items from out stash, and April’s was ‘vibrant colour‘.  Then at the end of the month we upload a picture of what we managed to make. Last month we also got to vote for our favourite.  I used fabric from my stash to make my Goldfish Laurel and I won!  They wrote a really lovely message on the back:

So sweet! And they also included this ribbon, below:Again the picture doesn’t come close to showing how lovely it is, or the vibrant colours. Expect to see it incorporated into one of my makes soon.   And do head over to their blogs, have a look and join in, it’s really got me motivated to tackle my seemingly ever growing stash.

I also need to thank Emmie at My Oh Sew Vintage Life, who has nominated me for a Liebster award. Her blog is fantastic and I am so happy and flattered to be nominated by her- someone out there reads my drivel!  Emmie is also an excellent shopping companion, we teamed up on the London Meet up to raid Goldhawk road, and she has made some gorgeous dresses – I love her Scottie Dog Elisalex.   She says it is just a tester!

I have nicked her explanation of what the Liebster Award is as she does it so well -  It is an award for blogger with less than 200 followers that enables them to get to know other bloggers, as well as promote their blog to get more followers.
To accept the award there are a few rules to follow:
Each blogger should answer the 11 questions the tagger has set for you.

• Choose 11 new bloggers (with less than 200 followers) to pass the award on to and link them in your post.
• Create 11 new questions for the chosen bloggers.
• Comment on their page to tell them about the award.
• Each blogger should post eleven random facts about themselves.
• No Tag Backs!!!

As I received this award last month from Katy at Sleek Silhouette I am going to cheat a little bit and refer back to my post I did at the time, here, and the bloggers I nominated then. I know this is a bit lazy but pretty much all my favourite bloggers have either received this award recently or have way too many followers.

Emmie asked some fabulous questions, so here they are with my answers:

• Whats your most favouritest thing you’ve ever made?   It changes all the time, but at the moment it is the dress that I have nearly finished, using fabric I got in the Brighton swap. All will be revealed soon.
• Favourite chocolate?  Difficult one. Actually I’m more of a savory snacker. If you’d said favourite crisps I would really have struggled. Or favourite takeaway.  I used to have a bad Mint Aero habit and I love Green and Blacks dark spiced chilli chocolate. However I think my all time favourite would be Thornton’s Viennese Truffles.
• What super-power would you possess? An amazing multi-faceted power that would enable me to cure cancer, bring about world peace and then when I’d done the important stuff I’d also have the ability to stop time until I had finished what I needed to do, then restart it. There are just not enough hours in the day.
• What item of clothing is forever sitting at the bottom of your wash basket?  Socks. I never have enough socks. Not very glamorous, sorry.
• Favourite Perfume?  I used to wear Armani Code until about a year ago, when I bought a bottle of Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic in the Duty Free by accident.  Now I wear it all the time and panic if I am running low.
• If you won the Lottery, what would be the first thing you would do? Actually I won the lottery the other day. Ten pounds. I bought two pints of lager and a bag of bacon fries. If I won the biggie though ….Scream. Then head to the estate agents and get them to find me a big house on the beach with a guest wing, a couple of studies and a huge sewing room. I dream of having a sewing room.
• Favourite Skirt Length? Either just below the knee or maxi, depending on my mood and whether I’ve shaved my legs.
• Favourite shoes? I have a great pair of mustard coloured suede Mary Janes from Clarks, with quite a high heel (for me) in a wide fit so I can wear them all day. And a lovely pair of red patent heels with little bows that I got from Primark about five years ago and are still going strong.  And I loved the leopard print heels I wore the day I got married but I must have been too high to notice how tight they were because the next time I wore them I ended up walking home in agony in bare feet.  I think I am still searching for my perfect shoes. However good they make me look, if they’re not comfortable I won’t wear them.
• What is your dream job? I still want to set up a gin distillery making my own brand of Seamstress Gin. I would also love to make a living writing crime fiction.  Pre-children I probably read a novel a day and wrote loads. Last year I completed NaNoWriMo and now have a completed first draft of a novel.  That’s the easy bit. It needs redrafting, probably about fifteen times before it will be ready to send out. Writing, more than anything else I have done is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.  I did get to the stage a few years ago where I was getting helpful comments and encouragement from publishers and agents rather than just straight rejection letters, for a previous novel that I wrote. Then I got promoted at work and realised I was going to have to spend a bit more time on the job that paid the bills rather than the one that was unlikely ever to, so it all got put on hold.  One day though….
• What would be your dream day? I am going to sound awful for saying this, but it involves time to myself. Husband and children would all go off happily to do something away from the house. I know some people may raise their eyebrows at that but I get so little time to myself and sometimes I physically crave a few hours away from everyone.  I would have pancakes for breakfast, then spend the morning sewing or writing or even reading. Then lunch at Birdies,  followed more sewing or writing or reading. The family then comes home for a family dinner, after which I’ll put the girls in the bath, read them stories then put them to bed. I’ll have a long soak in the bath and get ready while my husband lets the babysitter in then we can both head out to a pub with decent live music and proper Mojitos.  Of course if I had longer than a day I would be heading off somewhere on a plane.

And finally eleven random facts about me:

• I have excellent navigational skills and even managed to find my way around Texas without GPS.  However I can’t find the remote to the dvd player or the cup of tea that I put down two minutes ago.
• I wear coloured contact lenses. I need them to see and coloured ones are easier to find when I drop them, but I am also vain.
• I have size three feet.
• I used to have a six pack.
• I also used to do competitive (ish) kick-boxing, hence the six pack. After having two children I don’t think I will ever see my stomach muscles again, but I can still do a roundhouse after a couple of drinks.
• My husband says that my most annoying habit is balancing knives on things in the kitchen
• I am very good at clay pigeon shooting.
• I have two pet tarantulas – a Mexican red knee called Juanita and and Chilean Rose called Dave.
• In one of my former careers I spent quite a lot of time dissecting brains.
• My husband and I got engaged six weeks after meeting. We then took ten years to get married, and didn’t tell anyone until after we’d done it.

Deckchair Elisalex – Stripe matching and an uncharacteristic attack of perfectionism.

I’ve been meaning to write about my third Elisalex, the dress I wore for the London meet up, for ages.  I wasn’t going to make a new dress for the day. I was exhausted, recovering from flu and nursing a very spotty grumpy child through chicken pox. I think I was on autopilot when I took this deckchair striped fabric, originally intended for new kitchen curtains, from my stash and began to cut. A few hours later, sewing in twenty minute bursts while the youngest dozed in front of Dora the Explorer and Doc McStuffins and it was all done bar the hemming and stitching the lining down.  I hung it on my wardrobe door before I went to bed.
Job done.

Only it wasn’t.  I failed to match the darts in the bodice with the pleats in the skirt, but that didn’t bother me too much. Also, as you can see I didn’t quite get the stripes matching on the princess seams.

Of course I didn’t, the stripes are straight and it is a curved seam. But who was going to notice a little thing like that? However lying awake after being woken up several times by the screamy itchy child all I could see was those stripes not matching.  Usually I would ignore it. It was good enough and who was going to be staring that closely anyway? However in my sleep deprived irritable state I just couldn’t let it go. So I hatched a plan.

I decided to recut the side panels from some fabric I had left over. However there was no way I was going to unpick the top stitching, lining and side panels of a virtually finished dress. Now with hindsight I realise that this would have actually been the easier option. Anyway, I got the original photocopied pattern pieces that I used and marked the position where I wanted the stripes to be on to them. Using this as a guide I then cut the front side pieces.

As I had already found out, you can’t get straight stripes to match up on a princess seam. Or if you can then I haven’t figured out how.  However when I held them up to the dress I realised that all I needed to do was make a tiny dart in each one, maybe 3mm, making sure it was at the edge of a stripe so it wouldn’t show as much.

I did this with each piece then attacked them with a steamy iron until they were flat. Held them up against the dress and Huzzaah! Matching stripes!

Now this is the point where I should have just unpicked the lining and the original front side pieces and put in my new pieces. But no, where is the fun in that.  I decided to hand sew my new matching pieces on top.

I have no idea if I have done this properly. I’m ashamed to admit that I wouldn’t know a slip stitch from a whip stitch, but it seemed to go okay and the stitches don’t show. I’m pretty sure I was delusional with tiredness by this point, but the action of stitching the pieces on was kind of hypnotic, and before long I had finished the dress and was able to snatch a couple of hours of much needed sleep.  So here it is – front:
Back:

I promise the zip doesn’t look that dodgy in real life, I think it’s my hands on my hips pulling on it.

Checking my shoes. Realising I need to hoover. Or get the husband to do it.

And some leaning. You need leaning in photos for that authentic early 90s Grattan catalogue look.

I don’t know whether it was worth the hassle or not. I’ve received loads of compliments for this dress. Whether I would have if I hadn’t fixed the dodgy stripes – I don’t know?  I do love it though and have worn it several times since London.  It is formal enough for work as long as I wear a jacket or a cardigan, and can also be dressed down for weekends. Now I just need to remember to always hand wash it in cold water. Stupidly I also forgot to pre-wash it and I know that this fabric shrinks loads when machine washed. Duh…

Escape to civilization- more meet up awesomeness.

This weekend we went camping. I like the outdoors. I love nature. However I also like my home comforts. Central heating, a hot bath, decent gin and tonic and I’m happy.  But it does do us good to rough it every once in a while and get back to nature, connect with the real world away from TV, phones, internet (do I sound convincing yet?).

I admit it took me a while to get into the swing of it. It’d been a hellish week at work and I had things to sew. Out in the woods I had no sewing machine, no access to my fabric. Plus no internet or phone due to crappy iphone battery life. I am obviously a sad technology addict because at first this made me jumpy.  And I chose this weekend to wean myself off my secret cigarette habit and back on to the nicotine gum.  However it’s pretty hard not to relax when you are surrounded by scenes like this:

It was lovely walking through the woods in the late evening sun and the look on my girl’s faces when two badgers crossed the path about two metres in front of us made me realise that we had done the right thing in getting away for a few days.  A few Desperados and a couple of cans of Kronenburg around the camp fire after they went to bed and I did start to get into it.

Freezing my arse off all night in the thinnest sleeping bag ever took the shine off the whole experience a little bit.  However I soon perked up.  The sun was shining and I’d had a large coffee, and by an amazing coincidence our campsite was just up the road from Brighton, where on that very day another sewing meet up was planned! And I just so happened to have with me a bag of fabric and patterns to swap.

We drove into Brighton where I ditched the family and walked up to the station to meet Claire, (Sew, incidentally) our amazing and highly efficient organiser, and Zora (Read all about it).

I think this is the only decent photo I got, Zora and Claire and the Brighton Pavillion.

We were a bit early so got a chance to browse some of the stalls and fabric shops on the way to All Bar One where we met up with Zoe , Stevie,  Jo and Rehanon. (Which reminds me – isn’t this  the hottest she hulk ever?)  This was a much smaller group than my first meet up in London, but while I loved being part of our massive mob in London it was also really nice to be able to sit with a smaller group and chat.  And once again I was totally blown away by how lovely, interesting and totally inspirational sewists are.  We had a delicious lunch then on to the swap. I have shamelessly stolen the picture below from Zora because I was chatting so much I forgot to take any,  so do head over to her blog here to see her other great pics.

I am ashamed to say that once again I left with way more than I brought.

Clockwise from top left: blue, pink and red cotton(?) from Zoe – after seeing Marie’s gorgeous floral Miette I’m wondering if there is enough here for one?
Floral cotton from Zora – Belladone? or I’ve just downloaded the new Billie Jean dress from Blue Ginger Doll? The purple, green black and white knit was also from Zora, and has been snapped up by my oldest daughter. Purple and green are her favourite colours and I think we’re going to make her a dress together.
Oldest child has also bagsied the purple knit which came from Stevie,  It didn’t originally grab me but it’s grown on me and now I’m thinking that I may want to use it myself so I may end up being evil mummy and keeping it. Or maybe we can both use it, there’s quite a lot there.
The pink and cream polka dot also came from Stevie, and again it’s a grower. I have a few ideas for this. It may end up as a Mathilde.
There are 4 metres of the dark blue that I got from Claire! It is sort of cottonish and shiney and I’m thinking this may be the perfect opportunity to try one of my vintage patterns that calls for way more fabric than I usually have.
Finally the black, also from Claire is woolly woven, slightly rough to the feel and will be perfect for work – a skirt or maybe another laurel.
I also got a little chalk marker thing with all sorts of extra features from Claire that I haven’t even had a chance to look at properly.

And I didn’t even make it to the shops! The family had spent all their money on the Pier and were itching to get back to nature so I said goodbye and headed back. Despite that I feel totally spoilt by my haul.  A big thank you to Claire for organising and to everyone for your amazing company.  I already have my train ticket for the Birmingham meet up.   Come along!