Simplicity 2372 - Bargainista Fashionista Contest entry

A recent contest on Pattern Review is the Bargainista Fashionista contest, where you find a designer (or not) look you like and make your own inspired-by look.

I'm not a huge follower of fashion, but thought the concept sounded fun, so went for a bit of a Google image surf to find something that took my fancy.
The criteria for my search was it had to be an item I would not generally be able to purchase at designer prices, and just for fun I decided it should be a New Zealand designer.

I eventually settled on a Trelise Cooper design - the Madcat Charm dress - regular retail $659.

My first challenge was to find fabric. You would think a simple monochrome fabric, preferably floral, wouldn't be too difficult to find. After a bit of a search, and even a desparate look at online fabric sources, I changed tack and settled on a white and wine floral cotton twill I found on the Spotlight clearance table!

For the dress, I used the dress from Simplicity 2372. It had the loose silhouette of the original, with a little bit of waist shaping. I added a full bust and full butt adjustment, and then sewed it together in no time flat. This is a lovely pattern, and I believe I will be making it again in the future.

Next challenge was colouring the flowers - I had been given some fabric paints which worked well, but were slow going. I didn't have quite enough co-ordinating colours though, and I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the glitter flowers.
A trip to Made on Marion, and the lovely ladies had me all sorted out -  Martha Stewart does a craft paint range that includes glitter paint and can be used on fabric. I was away!!

The painting took two weeks of evenings and weekends to do, but I'm really pleased with how it has come out.

If you would like to read my review and contest entry, you can find it here.

Hot Patterns Fast and Fabulous La Strada Tee

In my on-going love affair with Hot Patterns, and trying out their knit tops, I made the La Strada tee, from their Fast ad Fabulous range.

As my previous attempts at Hot Pattern knits had come out too big, I went down another size.
Unfortunately, I used a much more stable knit this time. It fit really nicely through the shoulders, bust and waist, but was a bit tight through the hips!   *head thump*

The benefactor of this sewing mis-fit was my sister. It seems to fit her as per the pattern illustration, so this counts as a win, even if I am still not adding any new tops to my wardrobe.

I will be making this again in the next size up, as I do like the style.

Style Arc Cozy Cardi

I found some really lovely sweater knit at the last Fabric Warehouse sale, and decided it would be perfect for a new cardigan. It is double faced, with 'knitted' hearts on the front face and charcoal grey on the reverse.

I had a couple of different cardigan pattern options in my stash, but decided to try the Style Arc Cozy Cardi as it had been marinatinng for a while.

It sewed up nicely, with all notches and pattern pieces matching up, and the fabric was lovely to work with.
Unfortunately, it didn't look all that lovely on me! It was a bit too shapeless and a bit too long on me.

As I finished it just before I was due to visit my Mum for her birthday, I took it with me for her to try on. She of course loved it, and it looked much nicer on her.
She has been showing EVERYONE her lovely new cardi, and seems to think I lined it to make it look pretty on the insides.

Jalie 2567 - Bathrobe

On a  recent shopping trip where small people came too, we returned home with some Pokemon fleece.

So that it didn't lurk in stash for longer than was necessary, I decided that it should become a bathrobe. I used Jalie 2567, which I had on hand.

Despite D. only having just turned 4, I decided to make a size 5 so there would be plenty of room for growing (and to use as much of the fleece as possible!!)

I duly traced out the pattern and cut the fabric, but am still left with about 60cm of 150cm wide fleece! The shop must have been doing very generous cuts, as I do tend to find the Jalie fabric requirements to be very accurate.

This sewed up quickly and without fuss, as have all the Jalie pattern I have tried.

D. is very happy with his new bathrobe, and has been wearing it round the house since it was finished!