Sunday 22 January 2017

Some of the Best of 2016, well, actually the ones with photographic evidence

I've been writing imaginary posts this year, but have now realised that I will never catch up with the past few months of sewing, with actual posts on the blog, so here are some snippets from last year before I run out of January, in the hopes that I will write more detailed posts about other projects and take photos with my camera, rather than my phone.

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Burda Style 09-2014, #115
This is the hoodie tunic  that I made after my beach dress. I did indeed wear it to a lot of Junior 3 soccer games, and found it a most versatile and practical garment. I have plans for another version next winter. This one is made from a lovely shot cotton in red/blue, and has the same phone worthy pockets as my beach dress, but this time my zippered welt pockets are much improved.

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Burda Style 01-2016-101
In the same uber casual vibe, this hooded garment, sort of a poncho crossed with a sweatshirt, was originally intended for myself, for lounging purposes. It's made from a thin polar fleece, and I extended the cuffs, feeling that a polar fleece overgarment should have full length sleeves rather than 3/4.
 Somehow this top leapt into the bag of a certain daughter whilst she was home one weekend, and migrated to Brisbane, where it remains to this day. It aroused such covetousness in the other daughter that a wearing rota was developed. It became known as the "cuddle top" and whoever has the nastiest assignment or exam coming up is allowed to wear it whilst studying. According to the agreement, it can also be worn for other circumstances -those that also require chocolate and a long telephone conversation with one's mother. I found this develpment very pleasing, it's clearly a much worn garment, but somehow I failed to make another version for the wearing rota before winter finished. Maybe this year I'll get around to making another version or two, so that I can keep one at my house.

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This last garment is of a different ilk. My elder daughter and I collaberated on it, for her 4th year ball at University, and the sewing and planning was great fun, but unfortunately, the photographs leave a lot to be desired. This may be due to most of the construction taking place in the evening over a few weekends, but may also be due to the dress not quite being finished when she left for Brisbane on the weekend before the ball.
This is a dress in 3 (or maybe 5) sections. There is a black silk shantung bodice, pleated vertically and draped to fit, a black silk shantung cummerbund, pleated horizontally, worn over 3 skirts. The overlayer is an ombre silk chiffon wrap skirt,  grey to black, with the ombre shading vertically. Under this is a wrap skirt layer of a soft silver coloured poly chiffon, with lace motifs machine appliqued to the chiffon ( I learnt that hand appliquing lace motifs to silk chiffon is an extremely time consuming and fraught project from an earlier attempt). Under this is a long 6 gore petticoat, made from cotton batiste in a pale pink.
My daughter envisioned the dress, ironed a lot of pleats and cut out a lot of motifs. She sewed the cummerbund. She and my younger daughter also hemmed the two outerlayer skirts just before the ball. 
I also sewed two mini travel wardrobes for two work trips to Melbourne (July and October), and for a trip to Sri Lanka, which may have included some fabric shopping. I have very good intentions of posting more about these later.......

12 comments:

Summer Flies said...

Happy New Year Karen. Lovely to hear from you again. I love the ball gown... it sounds like a lot of work but it looks amazing. Looking forward to future posts but it is such a drag when time is short to document all things particularly with good photos.

katherine h said...

Hello there! Happy to hear that you are still sewing. Looks like you made some great garments last year, and I'm sure way more than we'll ever get to see. I like the ones you were able to showcase. Happy sewing in 2017!

fabric epiphanies said...

I did wonder where you had disappeared to! It is good to see you have been productive in your absence. The ball gown looks lovely and it is nice that it is a team project. I do love team projects with my daughter but sadly now she doesn't live at home, they don't happen very often.

Janine said...

Great to see another blog post from you. Blogging is always the first thing to go in my life when things get too busy . Love your shot cotton jacket and how you ever sewed an evening dress by long distance is a miracle !

SewRuthie said...

Loving the things you have posted and great that you can share them with us :-)
Your girls have grown up in to beautiful young women.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous to see a post from you in my feed! You make such great garments and these are no exception.

Vicki said...

Nice to see you post! Great practical coat and the dress is amazing.

Sharon said...

Happy New Year and so wonderful to see you.

Your daughters dress is stunning and so much work went into it. Your shot cotton jacket sounds like it was the right garment for all those soccer games and the "cuddle top" made me smile.

Paola said...

Welcome back! As ever, the formal dress is a show-stopper.

Lyndle said...

Lovely to see you back. Happy New Year! Your daughters are very lucky to have you sew for them. Happy sewing!

poppykettle said...

The cuddle top! Hilarious and so sweet. It looks comfy!
The dress you made for your daughter is a stunning - suits her beautifully!

Carolyn said...

Happy new year! It's so nice to hear from you again; it's been ages. Such a lovely range of clothes... I LOVE the hoodie of course! and I think you need to make two more of those cuddle jumpers, one for you and another so that your two girls don't have to share! Your daughter looks absolutely stunning in that divine ball gown. I'm reallylooking forward to seeing your swaps too :)