Christening Dress - adding the glamour

My fabulous niece (ish) was getting Christened, and I volunteered to make a christening dress. I then quickly re-volunteered to bling up any pre-made dress that the mum wanted to give me! Went for cute rather than sparkle, but added in some home made broaches, one for big sister as well.

Green Jacket

The back of my refashioned green jacket. I left the bottom edges the same so it looks a bit full at the edges at the moment. Will go well with my new jeans when they get made!

I'm signing up to Me-Made-May 2012

I've just pledged - 'I, Gillian sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavor to wear four home sewn or refashioned items each week for the duration of May 2012' . Tomorrow it will be the green and black checked jacket I refashioned on the weekend. I have taken some construction photos, but got distracted by two hours of trying to get my over-locker to work! Eventually re threaded it with four different colours and went back to factory settings. Finally rechecked my seam width and put it back to what I noted it was before I tried my rolled hem - and it started working again. Then both the needles broke. So I decided to leave it for another day. Put a heavier duty needle in and its working great now. Don't have the heart to change the threads back to the same colour just now so will only overlock the insides. I saw this great tutorial last night on how to add a kick pleat to a straight skirt, so am going to try it out on some winter material I bought on sale last year. www.afashionablestitch.com

The 'it's only taken me 6 months to complete' top

I have been trying to get rid of those annoying things in life - the little niggles. So I set aside two days,and finally finished this top for my friend. This is what happens when you say, "I'll make you a top as a thank you"

and then agree to copy a top - without having actually seen the top in question. So first I had to learn to copy a garment via a night school course. Then figure out the sewing order, how to sew raglan sleeves, shirring elastic and rolled hems. Okay, if you look closely you can see I didn't actually roll the hems, I just overlocked them and sewed them on my normal sewing machine. I just wanted to get it done at this point as we were now at the end of summer... I quite liked the end result and it will be flattering, but it was a bugger to sew. Also finished off a couple of baby outfits for friends that are pregnant now just in case I get busy when it comes time to celebrating the new arrivals.

I've found my inspiration for the lounge

 Unfortunately it is s only available from cittadesign.co.nz as aprons or tea towels. So I'm thinking cushions and canvas stretched print? Lots of colours to use as a jumping off point, and will go with the blue denim cushions I've made for the couch.

Unfortunately, when I went to pick up the tea towel I ordered I realised that the bird figure was way to huge and would not fit on the front of the cushion. Also, husband thought I was joking when I sent the link through to him - not a good sign. So back to the drawing board for design inspiration - a delayed process as I gave up fabric buying for lent...

The Coat

I've almost finished my first coat. Well, I'd finished it enough I thought to wear for my weekend away down South, but when I popped on the plane I realised that I had not sewn in the sleeve lining. So a quick stop at a friends house and a few stitches later I was done. Except that when I was wearing it I found out the pockets would have been handy, and the reason there was a belt strap sewn onto the outside of the coat was so that the belt had some thing to hang from when I undid it! But I think I will change it to buttons anyway. Now to add a photo of said coat!

unpicking

hello
I made a red and white checked half apron last week, and gathered the top before attaching a the ribbon ties. Unfortunatly when I went to wear it this week, with the gathers it was a wee bit too small at the top to be of much use in keeping my clothes clean!. So out came the unpicker again, and I've now taken off the ribbon. Will wash it first, and then make it into a butchers type apron.
This would have been a hassle but I already had the unpicker out as I have been making my first dress in a wee while. It was rather tight fitting when I tried it on mid making, so redid one of side seams smaller, and then made sure I sewed the other one as close as I could. just need to be able to get the ironing board out to press the dress before I can do much more sewing, and I need children asleep for that.