60s dress in progress: before tweaks

My darling dress is almost finished, and I can tell I am going to wear it to death when Spring finally arrives to England: it is so soft and comfy. The floral corduroy is laaaavely to wear.
I learned a lot with this pattern as it isnt the easiest one to sew: lots of curves and symetry, as both panels surrounding the central yoke have to perfectly match each other in size and shape. I did bang my head against a wall a few times and am still malking final adjustments.
I also realised the neckline needed to be open and seriously lowered so that will be my task today: I always read patterns too quickly and made view A instead of  view B, ie the view that calls for a mao collar. 
Tweaks have already been numerous due to my weird body shape (!) , in no particular order: a round bum, a skinny back, a soft mummy-who-loves-cake-and-hates-exercise tummy, a small neck and narrow straight shoulders make for a lot of redrafting.
I also took the waist in a bit to give it a curvier silouette and to emphasize hips as the way the dress fell was a bit too straight for my taste: I like both ease and a bit of fit in a garment.
I am also about to enter another sewing contest: the Colette Laurel sewalong.
Well that only makes 3 projects in one go what with the 40s dress for Sew for Victory and the Mathilde blouse sewalong! A glutton for punishment, me? possibly!
xxx Love and smackers
Lo

Liberty Paisley/denim skirt preview

A few Ipod photos of my latest make: the Paisley or denim skirt with Liberty 60s paisley pockets.
Better photographs are coming soon taken with a Canon, a tripod, ect!
Now if the weather could improve as well as the light in Northern uk that would help us greatly too!
The liberty fabric used is called Burton and is totally 60s with its gorgeous navy, turquoise and electric blue paisley patterns.
I will probably tweak this design a bit before putting it on sale on Etsy: I would like it to be lower on the hips and in a thicker softer denim fabric, real comfy.
This skirt is very comfortable anyway, yet the denim fabric is quite thin ans slightly stiff, a skirt for spring as that kind of denim is light and will keep you cool.
 I wore it with electric blue tights found in H&m and a green Lodden liberty scalloped collar, done from a 60s pattern of course. Now I loooove scallops but they are damn hard to make, and this item isnt quite 100% perfect yet as you may notice: the end of the scallops are not exactly curved.
 but hey it was my first time, guys. dont throw stones at the scallops virgin! It will be on sale when it is PERFECT. Love and 60s kissing x Lo

(the side zipper isnt finished, which explains why the skirt looks a tad wonky. People: it is NOT wonky in real life!)

my first mini mini skirt...

Here is my first sewn mini skirt, made from a 60s vintage pattern shown  in my last post.

ma premiere mini jupe faite main, tres courte mais plutot innocente dans ce tissu non?

I love it!
It is quite short but hey being obsessed with all things 60s, I love a short skirt, and I think the pink and black floral print makes it kind of innocent looking, especially worn with flats.

 It is rather simple to make and I am planning on selling similar ones in Liberty fabric on my Etsy shop!
Once I am 100% happy with the finish, of course. I will probably make them in 3 lengths: micro, mini and above the knee.
What I learned:
-how to line a skirt
-how to sew a zipper with a proper zipper foot
-how to make darts work in shaping the skirt
what I must improve:
-invisible zippers should be invisible!
-lining shouldnt be sewn the wrong way around. ha ha!
-learn to seew straight and dont rush things or you end up with a 'beak' at the back. Ha.

assez simple a realiser, dapres un patron 60s, je compte en vendre en tissu Liberty sur mon shop Etsy! en 3 longueurs silvousplait: micro, mini et dessus du genou.

I am also working on this colorful psychedelic thing for Spring, yes, quite loud!, its not an easy print, I know how it verges on bad taste 70s but i love it! I can picture myself wearing it in the sun, over leggings or jeans or bare legs, sleeveless with cute matching sandals...in 6 months time. It's a lovely and soft japanese cotton lawn found on ebay.

Petit projet pour le printemps: robe en tissu et dapres patron japonais, au haut asymetrique. jadore les couleurs vives et psychedeliques!


I found the pattern in my beloved japanese 'I am pretty dresses' book:

where you dont get patterns, but measurements for you to cut your own fabric. which can be very very fiddly and time consuming actually! Especially when you are an over enthusiastic beginner like me...prone to rushing things.

 I am still perfecting the fit and cant wait to add dark pink flower-shape buttons to attach the side of the asymetric bodice.
 Which length skirt do you wear most ? Funny how skirts were so much shorter in the 60s and no one seemed to bat an eyelid.
Are you afraid of  bold patterns ?

Vous aussi vous osez, les mini jupes 60s?!
xxx

Refashion1: giant scarf into a dress

 I found a giant lightweight scarf in a charity shop in these brilliant psychedelic colors and decided to turn it into the Tessuti Gaby dress, and hey presto I wore it to death on holiday in the sun recently, its super comfortable and has just the right comfortable fit, yet is quite 60s.

 The back: I simply folded the giant square and made a seam in the middle of the back, as well as on the sides. I didnt have a lot of fabric to play with, and just enough to make tiny sleeves: I gathered them with elastic as there was a glitch in the way I printed the pattern and they were too puffy before gathering.
I put interfacing and pink bias around the collar as the fabric wasnt easy to play with and quite light.
Sorry about the light-less photos, the sun sets at 3.30pm in Northern England !

I love my new summer dress. I will probably make it in Liberty fabric or corduroy for the winter x