A Pink Gingham Shirtwaister - My first make of 2016

After having a particularly horrible Christmas day (resulting in my Husband and I cutting his parents from our life for the foreseeable future) I really lost my motivation to sew or to do anything really. We mostly spent days on the couch watching "Once upon a time". I did however go to my local Spotlight on boxing day morning with my future sis-in-law and buy a few goodies, including Pink Gingham for a shirtwaister dress. I was originally going to use some pink gingham I had in my stash, but I only had about 2m of it, so even with using white cotton for some contrast, it would still have been quite a stretch

The idea for the Shirt Dress Sewing circle came about when the lovely Lyric of Sew Lyrically Vintage posted this delightful dress in the Those Darn Sew and Sews facebook group, and a bunch of ladies decided it would be a great idea to have an informal sew-along group for Shirt-waister style dresses, as they are a great vintage style wardrobe staple. While the person who began the facebook group chose to go with the reprint pattern Simplicity 1459, it is up to each individual participant to choose what pattern they want to use.

I did a bit of Pinterest-ing and found a few pieces for inspiration, looking especially for designs using contrasting pieces of white:

Even though I purchased the Simplicity pattern on boxing day, I just didn't love to look of it for this project, as I wanted a very traditional Shirtwaister dress. I do have a vintage pattern that I had used before, but I graded the pattern up straight onto the fabric, so I would have to grade it up all over again, and I remember struggling a bit with sewing the design of the collar. However, I did have a suitable pattern that I had used recently for my Frenchie costume. The collar sews up easily, and all I have to do is add bodice darts and a full gathered skirt.

Even though I now had extra fabric, I decided I still liked the idea of using come contrasting bits of white for visual interest, which also meant I could make the skirt extra full. After I cut out the bodice and sleeve pieces from the gingham, I measured how much was left and worked out I could manage 4 widths of fabric for my skirt (instead of the usual 2 or 3) if I used a panel of white.

Even though I had been planning this dress for sometime, I was in a serious slump after Christmas due to some family drama, which left me with absolutely zero motivation to do anything. I really tried pushing myself to get into it, and yet it still took me well over a week just to get all the pieces cut out. On January 4th, I finally found the energy to get a start on the sewing and overlocking, and before I knew it, it was after midnight. But I had almost a whole bodice, minus the collar and facings, so I was feeling much better.

The results at the end of my first evening of sewing of 2016

The next day I got back into it and sewed the pockets and the skirt to the bodice, then began work on the collar and facings. Once the collar and facings were done, I pressed and sewed the hem.

I had chosen out 2 options for buttons, but once I pinned them to the fabric, I realised the clear ones were too off-white for the fabric and just look dirty. So although the pink ones were a bit smaller than I'd prefer, when I pinned them on, they looked pretty good, so I went with them.

I had 12 pink buttons in total, so on the third day of sewing, I measured along the front and decided to place them at 3 inch intervals. I marked where the buttonholes needed to go and began stitching them up using the method I outlined during the Sun Frock Sew-Along.

You can just see my faint pencil marks for the buttonholes

Once the buttonholes were done, I used them to mark the locations of the buttons and lazily stitched them on using the zig zag stitch on my machine.

Then I tried and mostly failed to take a selfie, showing the fullness of the skirt. So I got my Husband to take a few snaps for me before we went out shopping.

As you can see, the skirt is super full

And it's got pockets!

I still want to make a matching belt for this dress, but I seem to have misplaced the roll of stuff I use to make bets from, so that will have to wait. As it is, I am super happy with my first dress for 2016, it has come out wonderfully, if I do say so myself. I think it will be getting a lot of wear in the year to come.

I think the unofficial deadline for the Sew-Along is the end of February, but as this is an informal sew-along, you can still join in if you want to, even if you don't plan to finish on time. Just ask to join the facebook group here. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else's creations turn out!

Dixie

A look back at my 2015

While 2015 hasn't been quite as eventful as 2014, it has still been a pretty good year for me. If you've been reading my blog for some time, you already know what has been happening, but I'll recap here anyways.

I started 2015's sewing off nice and early with a skirt made from Fabric from a Secret Santa and a shirt made from fabric from a friend's stash only a few days into the year. You can read more about the outfit here.

Later in January My Husband and I celebrated our 6 month wedding anniversary by spending the day at Luna Park Sydney. It was raining most of the day, but that just meant there were less kids there to have to deal with. We took a picnic lunch of fruit, cheese and wine, and had a fabulous day.

Frock 7852 on the left

I graded up and scanned in my first PDF Pattern! Still available for free, the pattern is for a dress bodice from 1951 in sizes 36" bust and 44" bust.

I made a Columbia costume to wear to a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Regal Cinema, which has seen quite a lot of wear through out the year.

I made this gorgeous pleated creation for Kurri Nostalgia Festival. Little did I know, this wouldn't be my most time consuming pleated project this year.

I Finally made a pair of well fitting pants I was proud of (that unfortunately don't fit right now)

I participated in the Sew Retro Rose Capelet Sew-Along

There was a big storm that flooded most of my town

I made a costume and dressed up as a nun for a Blues Brother showing at the Regal Cinema

I participated in Me-Made-May, and managed to get through the month wearing almost all me-made clothes, without repeating too many outfits. It showed me a few holes I have to fill, that mostly being separates, outerwear and pyjamas.

I guest posted over at Sew Retro Rose with a super easy Crochet Snood pattern

I made a costume and dressed up as Zoot for a showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Regal Cinema

I made a Crazy Star Wars Cosplay for a Friend

I made a Beauty School Dropout costume (Frenchie from Grease) had a bunch of teeth pulled out of my mouth, then still went on to win best dressed at the Regal Cinema only hours after being under general anesthetic at the dentist.

I finally got up the courage to sew myself a version of the infamous white dress from "the Seven Year Itch". If I never pleat fabric ever again it will still be too soon. I still haven't managed to get decent photos of this dress, so hopefully that is something you will get to see in 2016. I am stupidly proud of how this dress turned out, as I tried to make it as close to the original as I could. You can read about it's construction here, which I highly recommend if you are considering making this dress yourself.

I went on my first Cruise (and also my second cruise later)

I hosted my very own Sew-Along with a pattern I graded to many sizes and scanned in to make my second ever PDF pattern (which is available for sale for US$2 since the end of the Sew-Along)

My Boy got sick, and was very clingy and clumsy while on his medication (but he is all better now) which made it very difficult to get anything done

I dressed up as a Christmas Elf, after making the dress using velvet remnants and my Sun Frock Sew-Along pattern

I attended the Inaugural Pinup Picnic in the Park in Newcastle

I participated in 2 vintage secret santas, 1 through Sew Retro Rose and 1 through Chronically Vintage. I sent off my parcels to America and QLD, and received some awesome stuff in return. I have already worn the brooch and necklace from the Sew Retro Rose parcel, and I am just trying to decide on a fabric to make a dress from the pattern from the Chronically Vintage Parcel. After a particularly trying Christmas day, these were a great pick-me-up.

We've now begun the New Year, and while I haven't been very productive since Christmas (about all I have managed is finally seeing "The Dressmaker") I have big plans for this year! I don't have a list of specific goals for my blog for 2016, but rather I just want to keep it going the way it has been, with more patterns, tutorials and Sew-alongs. Although I already have a very long list of things I'd like to sew this year.

The goals I set for myself last year were:

1. To Participate lots of sew-alongs.

I only managed the Capelet Sew-Along with Sew Retro Rose and my own Sew-Along. I had hoped to participate in Vintage on Tap's Apron Sew-Along, but unfortunately didn't find the time to.

2. I want to host my own sew-along, most likely with a free pattern to make it easily accessible to all.

Yep, did it!

3. I'd like to do a give away.
Didn't quite manage this one, although I do have another pattern I am partway through grading up, to give to all my Sew-Along participants. Although I guess I did give the Sew-Along pattern away for free to begin with, as well as my first PDF pattern offering.

4. Work out how to digitize/pdf some of my self drafted patterns to share with everyone. 

While I haven't tried my hand at properly digitizing yet, I did manage to scan in and PDF 2 patterns, that while they were not self-drafted, they were graded up by me.

5. Write up a few informative sewing tutorials.

I kinda managed this one. I did write a knitting and 2 crochet tutorials, as well as a drawstring bag sewing tutorial. I do however have a few in the works for 2016!

6. Collaborate with another blog
I guest Posted over on Sew Retro Rose with an easy Crochet Snood tutorial

So thanks for reminiscing with me, now bring on a great 2016!

Dixie

Sun Frock Sew-Along Round up!

Now that everyone has had a chance to sew up their frocks, I am very pleased to show you all the results!

First finished (before me even) was the delightful Vicki from Rayon Dreams in a cheesecake world who is also the lady behind the wonderful Those Darn Sew and Sews facebook group. She made this version out of a very cute arrow print fabric and chose to opt for a zipper closure in back for this first dress, then make a second one with the button option. You can read about the arrow print dress on her blog here.

For Vicki's second frock she went with a lovely floral fabric that was very reminiscent of the prints found on vintage feedsacks

Second speediest to finish was the lovely Dee, who had us all going crazy over her beautiful self covered buttons.

Dee also chose to make a second frock out of a cheerful Christmas print cotton, as her Christmas dress for this year (and who doesn't love a good Christmas dress?)

As the deadline loomed closer, more and more frocks were getting sewn up, and we saw progress photos of quite a few in our sew-along facebook group. It was quite exciting to see all the different colour/print combos being used, all over the world, from my humble little graded pattern.

The rest of the frocks, in no particular order:

Bianca from Vintage on Tap made a divine version in a muted pink satin which she blogged about here

And she even attempted bound button holes! Didn't they turn out fab?

Andrea made a picture perfect frock using a lovely floral fabric with contrast piping detail.

Leila didn't think she would get any wear out of a sun frock as it is winter where she lives, so she used the skirt and pocket pattern pieces to make this luxurious velvet skirt.

Kacy of Miss Kacy Sews made a gorgeous version in a aqua/teal polka dot fabric! She decided to take hers in a bit as she prefers her dresses a bit more figure hugging.

Jenna really showed off and altered hers to have buttons all the way down one side. To make this even more impressive, this was her first time sewing a dress!

Kate from Vintage in a Modern World, braved the cold Canada weather and snapped these photos of her lovely floral frock. Everything except the trim came from her stash, so it's a double win!

Paula made this cute version with a lovely ric rac accent near the hemline that had us all swooning.

Kristy-Rae made hers using a vintage sheet, and even had enough left over for her daughter to make herself a crop top as well!

Sarah rocked this cool colour combination, that has me looking at the yellow fabrics in my stash in a whole new way.

Alyssa changed her skirt pieces to make the most of this stunning Hawaiian border print fabric she was lucky enough to be given by her Aunt

Elinor went for block colours with her dress and finished up with this fierce purple creation.

Triselda accomplished many firsts with this pattern, it was her first go at sewing a dress, first buttonholes and first vintage pattern. She used a thrifted floral Vintage sheet for fabric and vintage lace for the trim, which has resulted in this absolutely charming dress

Wenche is in Norway and says it's too dark and cold to wear her dress out for pictures, but here it is on her mannequin. Made from an adorable red printed cotton, I just love that she used polka dot fabric for the piping! Plus she even used piping int he straps.

Maxine got her photo done in the nick of time. She straightened the edge of the trim (eliminating those tricky scallops) and used a tie made of a tube of the same fabric to bring in the waist for this cute look.

A bunch of girls involved in the sew-along have now decided to have an informal shirtwaister sew-along, the group for which can be found here if you wish to join. I am hoping to have time to sew a pink and white gingham for myself in the new year

And now that the Sew-Along has officially ended, I'm sorry to say I will not be sending out the pattern for free anymore. But never fear, I have listed it in my Etsy Shop for a measly US$2! So if you have been waiting to see everyone else's creations before getting the pattern for yourself, you can find it here

Also, as a reward to all those who finished their dress before the extended deadline of December 14th, I am halfway through grading up and scanning in another pattern for them all to have for free. This time one that is a bit more seasonally appropriate for my friends in colder climates, even if it would be too warm to wear here this time of year. When the PDF is finished I will also have it listed on Etsy, also for the low low price of US$2! Due to how busy this time of year can be, I may not get the pattern completed until after Christmas.

And now I really must get back to sewing Christmas presents and attempting to clean the house up ready for having visitors over.

Dixie