Belted : Vogue 9133

What a difference a belt makes!

Remember this one? I finally got around to take the scraps and make a belt for it. I knew it would make a difference but I didn't expect the dress would become more comfortable to wear!

I am such a procrastinator, it took me a year to make what I made in a half hour before lunch on the counter top! Now I like it so much, I am going to make little belt loops!

In other news, I've been making slow progress on the Burda 7517 dress. I am showing the lovely young ladies next door how to follow a pattern but, I can't really say I am teaching them how to sew as it would be a misnomer, there is very little sewing being done here, lots of unpicking and recutting very shifty material and starching and said dress NOT looking like the envelope and general headaches caused by working with a pattern with no dots and marks. I don't know that they'll learn anything from this experience except patience. I should have made a cotton skirt!

Is there a tutorial for marking a Burda pattern properly? I could use one if I am to use their patterns again. You girls and boys get such lovely results out of them and all I have so far is a raging headache!

Queued : Chloe Vogue 2074

I have had this pattern forever, and I'd pretty much given up on ever making it, due to a complete failure on finding the right fabric and general lack of a social life where one would wear such a pretty dress until yesterday, when I saw this polyester voile in the bargain bin at the local Myrtille.

I didn't know how much I needed, so I took whatever was left of it, about double the yardage, but who cared? It was €1,50 a meter! Don't hold your breath, I will not make it right away, but it'll be ready for the Christmas-New-Year party season, when, no doubt I'll be overdressed once again.

Winner(s)

It's about time!

Pattern Junkie and I laughed out loud when we read Marylin's comment. So the bronzer and teeth whitening nightmare is being sent her way.

She is not the only one who won something. Last week, BurdaStyle had a twitter Selvege giveway and I won!

I am sure I will love it as I have checked their site many times for inspiration and all I have seen is some kind of beautiful. Check it out!

  

Sewing For two : The Pertegaz Hybrid

Rocking in LA, Giles Peterson spinning tunes.

You know you've been sewing a long time when you start to refashion stuff you've made.

These skirts were made for the trip to Japan that my sister and I never made. Ten years went by, lots of wear, wash, a tear and the tight, stretch cotton, 4 pannel generic Butterick patterned skirts started showing underwear lines due to new fat deposits on the waist, gravity, flab and assorted age related occurences. They could no longer be worn as they were.

I don't mind the age, but I do mind ill fitting clothes on me. Other people can do whatever they want, I won't judge, it's way too time consuming! As a consequence of trying to fit so many garments, you end up caring very much about curving outward bulging stuff for yourself. 

Enter inspiring Pertegaz' Vogue Couturier 2567. Can you see me coming? Yep! I "Pertegazed" the skirts.

And got to look at this amazing pattern piece. Not scratch my head puzzling, but certainly interesting construction-wise. 

I lowered the waist, made a new waistband for comfort and drew this piece, which drapes the a-line a lot better than if I had used a straight on the grain strip of fabric as I intended, made the zipper invisible and got two really fun summery skirts.

Lets see how many more years we get out of these!