My beautiful dress

I know Mum has already written a post about my lacy dress, but I thought I should do one from my point of view.

Every winter my fire brigade has a formal Annual Dinner, always a fun night at which we recap the year that was and awards are presented etc. Me being me, I flatly refuse to wear the same outfit two years in a row-I KNOW no one but me will remember, but that's not the point. Besides, there's photos! Anyway, the past two years I've gone floor-length black numbers (one of which was a one shouldered skintight wowzer that Dad said I looked like a "1940's movie star" in, last years was a Zara dress that fitted so perfectly in the shop and made me look so tiny I couldn't leave it behind), so this year I decided to go a) colourful and b) short. I drew up a few designs of what I'd like, decided that it'd be too hard to find fabric and lace for and went shopping instead. In Bardot, I found almost the exact dress I wanted...except it didn't fit my boobs - no surprise there - and was far too expensive for my poor uni-student budget (just as a sidebar, I also found a super cute dress that I think will have to be Mum's next project). So I took photos in the mirror and showed Mum. This apparently cleared up a lot of questions about my designs...apparently I'm a worse artist than I thought. Whoops. Anyway, the day of the dinner I came home to find It waiting for me, calling my name and begging me to wear It. And wear It I did, with pride, feeling like the luckiest girl ever to have a Mum who can create such pretties just for me. All night I had to keep looking at it, and when I was standing up I kept twirling the skirt. 

It is GORGEOUS. A fine tuned, tailored, 'me' version of a dress I found in the shop. I knew it was meant to be when we went to Spotlight and found the perfect fabric AND perfect lace with no hassle. And, even better, it cost nearly half of what the ill-fitting dress in the shop would have cost me.

After many, many fittings of a toile (which is now going to be turned into a summer top, originally I thought the fabric was ugly and so 90's, but Mum has promised to pretty it up) to get the bodess fitting perfectly, a pattern was made by my clever mummy.This is doubly cool, because now we have the pattern for a top that suits and fits my shape. The skirt also proved troublesome, as somehow a size 12 skirt ended up being about a size 6 once the pleats were put in (my waist/bum is size 10, so in theory it should have fitted, in practice was another story). But, again, my clever Mummy fixed it and all worked. 

The main problem we had was fittings. As I'm not home often between uni, work, netball, karate and fire brigade, it was a trick to co-ordinate my flying visits to get clean clothes on between things and Mum's urge to sew. In the end, after the toile was done, Mum just did stuff to what she thought would fit and made me try it on, pinned in any changes then she could alter as she pleased when I wasn't there. She even managed to get the lace top almost just right without me being there (the shoulders need to be taken up about an inch). 

It is the prettiest dress, and I can't WAIT to have an excuse to wear it again! :)

Happy me in my BEAUTIFUL dress.

Miri's Lacy Dress

The Dress (sorry about the horrible photo quality, it was nearly midnight, taken on her phone). 

Having chosen the pattern (Simplicity 4070) and agreed on modifications, off we went to Spotlight, where we were able to buy fabric in comparative harmony.  Miriam chose a cerise faille for the main part of the dress, and black chantilly lace for the top of the bodice.  I had some black taffeta suitable for lining already, so with a  zipper and some thread we paid the princely sum of $34.

First of all I washed the fabric.

I made a toile of the bodice so I could get that fitted correctly, which only took about 15 fittings, unpicking, unpinning, summoning – “Miriam, don’t go too far away, you have to be here when I want you!” (That’s often an issue – she wants fitted dresses but isn’t around for them to be fitted at the time I want to sew).  When I was happy with the fit of the toile I unpicked it and recut the pattern pieces using the adjusted toile as a guide.  Two points:

• It’s better to make something too big than too small – you can always take it in, recutting is a much bigger job and wasteful.
• The purpose of a toile is just to get the fit right, so it usually isn’t made in fabric anybody would want to wear.  However, I hate to waste the effort so if possible, I also make it up into a garment.  In this case, I used some cotton from my scrap bag, which I thought was quite a pretty floral but Miri just said “Yuck, its pastelly and so ‘90’s!”  Well, she’s wrong – its ‘’80’s, and I think I can change her mind, - I have a design for a summer top in my head.

The back of the dress (photo was taken by her very tall boyfriend, hence the angle...)

I interfaced the bodice lining with a soft iron on woven fabric, not Vilene which is sometimes too stiff.  I just wanted a bit of body, although in retrospect I perhaps should have put boning in the bodice.  I was depending on the interfacing, the close fit and the lace upper bodice to hold the bodice up wrinkle-free.  A last minute fitting availability problem arose and the lacey bit turned out to be a little big – OK, but not tight enough to support the bodice properly (or cover the bits of bra best not seen).  Fixing it will be easy, I just have to take it up at the shoulders and redo the neck and armhole edges, which are only overlocked.  The other challenge was getting correct placement of the lace scalloping, which was harder than I thought.  I used another pattern for the neckline, I wanted something rounder – although the picture on the front of  Simplicity 4070 shows a round neck, the pattern neckline is actually shallower and wider than I wanted.

I mistakenly assumed that the skirt would fit OK.  I cut it size 14 on the principle of it’s easier to take things in, but in fact even size 14 was too small, and Miri is usually size 10-12ish in the hips.  The pattern is supposed to have lovely big, loose pleats but when I pinned them, the waist would have fitted a 10 year old, so I had to gather instead.  I could have recut the skirt (using the existing pieces) lower down which would have made the piece shorter and wider but I was running out of time and patience.  The lining, which was a skirt without pleats was also a bit tight.  Anyway, I’ve put a note in the pattern envelope so that if I make that dress again, I’ll be reminded that I need to allow extra width for the skirt.

I guess it’s easy to focus on flaws, but I was disappointed that she had to wear it with the bodice not 100%, and I do think the pleats would have looked nicer.  Otherwise it was a good result – I didn’t even have that much trouble getting the invisible zip in, I only had to unpick it about twice! (Not my best thing). 

Uni kid problems

It's pretty basic, and an age old problem...
What the hell does one wear to uni!!!???


I've recently moved from Swinburne Lilydale to Deakin. The contrasts between the two institutions and campuses are profound. At Lilydale, being a country campus full of country kids, it was perfectly acceptable to wear trakkies-once I even saw a girl in pajama pants, but that was taking it a bit far. Even though it was acceptable, it still took me nearly all of first semester to bring myself to wear my 'good' trakkies (black, light floaty fabric, the comfiest pants I own, other than my jammies). I felt like I'd achieved something by wearing as close to trakkies as I was gonna get. Unfortunately it was the same day I saw pajama pants girl...she won in the comfort stakes. The standard dress code at Swinny was jeans or leggings, a comfy knitted jumper and ballet flats or high tops. There was the occasional hipster who dressed to stand out, but they were rare.
Moving to Deakin was a big change. Luckily for me I had a friend who took me there the week before classes started and I got to scope it out. Let's just say I won't be wearing trakkies there! Being a bigger, more diverse and more urban campus, the standard of dress is much higher. Now, I actually have to think about what I'm going to wear (being the new girl, I'm not super keen on being stared at for not dressing 'properly'). Whilst I'm wandering around between class (and by 'wandering around" of course I actually mean doing homework and studying), I watch people. Make careful notes of what majority of people are wearing, try to guess what faculty they're in based on how they're dressed (it's pretty easy, the sports kids wear skins and runners, arts kids wear, uuumm...well, I think they dress with their eyes closed), and see how far one can push the boundaries.
However, whilst this shift to an urban campus could have been a bad thing for my (dismal) wardrobe, it's also a good thing. Being about four times the size and population, diversity is more accepted. Sadly for me this means more hipsters, happily it means I can dress in what I'd wear for coffee with the girls and get away with it.


My observations from uni so far:
- Elastic sided suede boots are IN. Big time.
- Some people have decided that since they saw *insert celebrity here* wearing a crimped faux fur vest, they can. They are wrong, it looks dumb and like they're trying too hard.
- Apparently sky high heels are ok. Personally, I prefer a maximum of two or three inches for daytime wear, but hey! short girls gotta to what they can.
- Where does everyone get their jeans!? I want more than one pair in different colours too!
- Layers are great in a Melbourne winter. It's a hard skill to master, but an essential one. My standard layering is singlet+knitted jumper+jacket+scarf (with jeans and converse).
- Ponchos...I think I want one but I'm not sure. I stole one of my friends' the other day and used it as a blanket whilst I was flopped on a couch in the library. This is the main reason I want one, so I always have a snuggly blanket with me.
- As one heads into third and fourth year of ones degree, one is encouraged to dress as one would in ones professional field. This means there's a contingent wearing dressier clothes, mixed with current uni fashions. This impresses me, because it's be really hard for someone doing, say...Law to dress professionally and semi-casually at the same time.


Here's to hoping my poor, sad wardrobe can withhold my assault over the next couple of years!


M xo

So I haven't done any sewing this week, despite my best intentions (I'm not counting the pink thread I hand sewed in the tops of my new black socks so they didn't get mixed up with other people's) BUT I do have something to share - my discovery of radicchio! Ho, hum you say. Well, it was new to me, and very tasty.
For those one or two who like me have never eaten it, it is a beautiful maroonish coloured vegetable, looking  cabbagey/lettucey.  Apparently it is used in Italian salads, but I chopped it and cooked it on the stove just until the leaves wilted,  with some olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper.  I think a bit of lemon or balsamic vinegar would be good too, but next time I cook it I will use sorrel leaves, they are just coming back from winter dormancy and will give just a hint of lemon flavour.  Anyway, it was delicious, with just a little bite of bitterness.  Highly recommended!

Miriam wants a new dress for a dinner she is attending next month, so we are going to the Spotlight sale on Sunday (tomorrow is taken up with the last day of netball).  She knows the style she wants, now we have to agree on the fabric.

Mother Sew, Daughter Wear

A few people got new trousers this week, and one of the several unfortunate aspects of life as a short person (in our case a whole family of them) is the need to take up trouser hems. I have 5 pairs = 10 legs to do, and so far I've only done the washing, measuring and unpicking/cutting parts, I've yet to do the edge tidying and stitching. It's not that pants hemming is a difficult job, it doesn't take much effort when you get down to it - it's just the getting down to it can be a challenge.

Pants must always be washed (unless they are dry clean only) before you start.  It is very discouraging to make the cut and do the hems only to find that the pants have shrunk in the wash, leaving them just that annoyingly little bit short. Actually, pants sometimes continue to shrink in the legs over time - I'm certain that is why they get shorter, not that a person's bottom is taking up more room at the top end!  If you can, make the hem a bit wider than the original, then if you need to redo the hem you have something to work with.

Try the new pants on, making sure you are wearing the shoes you plan to wear with them so that you can mark the legs in the correct places -  its better if you can get somebody else to help. Have a look at the amount of excess fabric to decide whether you need to unpick or cut off.  Alternatively, lay out a pair of pants you know to be the correct length over the top of the new pants and use them as a guide.  Be careful that you have the crotches of the two pairs of pants together, if you find the body lengths are too different you are best off trying the new pants on. You don't even need a sewing machine if you are a good hand sewer.

The Occasion Outfits: My Year 12 Graduation Dress

The Three Sisters (My fabulous dress and I are in the middle, Maddy on the left, Steph on the right).

The other big occasion that I designed for and Mum created was my year 12 valedictory dinner. It was formal dress code, and by the time it came around (it was at the opposite end of the year to formal), I decided to go in a complete different direction. As my (middle) sister put it: "you look like a Stepford Wife". I went a bit (a lot?) 50's when designing this. I'd wanted a dress this style for years, and this was my chance.   

Maddy (the middle sister) & I.
My dress had a tule petticoat that I made to make it foof  out a bit, in true 50's style. I wanted more foof, but I ran out of tule. It doesn't look too foofed in this photo, but once i got moving in it it did :)

Since it was made, I've lost a fair bit of weight, and a couple of weeks ago I had to wear it again for another formal event. This was the most recent formal dress I'd bought/had made, and therefore was closest to fitting me (all my other dresses hang off me in really unflattering ways now). Even so, we still had to re-fit it. Due to the style, it had to have a couple of inches taken in at the waist-a nipped-waist dress couldn't have a poorly fitting midsection. So I removed the zip from the back, and mum very cleverly took it in in the necessary places using the area around the zip (it's quite a bulky fabric so we couldn't do it at the side seams). It fitted perfectly again. I love this dress, A LOT, and I want many more like it. But foofier.

The Occasion Outfits: My Year 12 Formal Dress

Whenever we have a special occasion, Mum makes our outfit. I say outfit because my oldest sister wore a sparkly vest and pants to her grade 6 graduation. Grade 6 and year 12 graduations, a deb dress, and year 12 formal dresses are the BIG occasions that we've had specially designed, mum-made dresses for. Here's some of mine:

My year 12 formal dress: I designed it months in advance, mum made it the week before my formal and was doing the sequining the day of, sitting in the car while I was getting my hair and make up done. I felt like a princess in the final result. The satin was amazing, it was like a waterfall when I walked (I took extra dramatic steps that night, just to show off the movement in it), it was floor length, even in my giant heels I was wearing, and, most imporantly, NO ONE was wearing anything like it, and I had heaps of compliments on it, and the girls in my year marveled when I told them of its origins :)

The Back: the cross panel was hiding my bra strap, but was sequined to make up for it :)

The Front: Was a mash-up of a few patterns, due to my tricky shape to tailor to. The sequining went right around, front to back

The (amazing, floor length, waterfall) Skirt: Was actually just 4 panels.  Simple yet effective.

The Back Again: the sequining made it even more fantastic.