Frock Stars

Next up was the Mackenzie Frocks Stars competition.
"Your mission is to take one of our icky old frocks & give it a new lease of life in whatever way you can! Unleash your creativity & cut it, dye it, adorn it or completely reshape it - in fact ANYTHING you can to make it gorgeous again!"

I collected a frock - not my first choice - and had a think. My frock was black brushed cotton, with with sprigs of multi coloured flowers (red, white, khaki-ish green and purple). Having been reading Marisa's blog New Dress a Day I knew that something reasonable could come out of this! It was clearly a handmade dress, and had an interesting row of buttons with loop closures. My first thought was to make a jacket to keep the interesting buttons, then came across the Nadine jacket on BurdaStyle - a plan was beginning to form...

During Husband's birthday weekend away to Christchurch, I dragged dragged him to a fabric shop I had been told about, called Bolt of Cloth. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but very quickly found a bright 'tomato-y' red fabric that would go with the red flowers on the dress. Having bought the red fabric and obtained some samples of other fabrics for possible future projects, I then had to tackle the dress. I had decided to use the Nadine pattern as a basis for my jacket, and wanted to use the red fabric as a statement. I used the collar, sleeve ruffles and and peplum from the Nadine and cut them out of the red. I cut the dress horizontally just below the last button and set about attaching the extra pieces, leaving the collar to last (this was the trickiest bit).

Having done all this I found the piece I had left was just big enough to make a skirt. I used the Burdastyle Kasia skirt for inspiration and again used the red fabric to highlight the hip yoke section.


The entries were judged on Wednesday 28th July (I think) and who knows what people thought of my creation. The Fashion Parade t00k place on Saturday evening and and I will be modelling my outfit. This is not usually 'my thing' as I am not keen on people watching me, but I will have to tell myself that people are looking at the clothes rather than me and get on with it! I forgot to take pictures of the finished clothes so will post something after the Parade.

Fabric Flowers

The Primary school here has an annual Garden Walk as a fund-raiser. This is held in spring, which, in these parts, is November time. There are a number of gardens in the area, all open for viewing for one day. Last year the tickets had a fabric flower with them, to be worn at the gardens to show that you had a ticket. These are the two we got last year:

Having offered to help and admitting my sewing tendencies, I was asked to look into a different style of fabric flower for the tickets, with the proviso that it had to be simple! There followed a happy morning researching the internet, checking out a few of the many how-to's out there and having a go at making a few. I wanted to keep the gathered look, but was open to ideas. I found a few that I liked, and had a play:

The clear winner was this one, getting the vote of approval from Husband and Garden Walk committee:

I used the instructions on here on Little Birdie Secrets.

Busy, busy and lazy days

Well, new blog and only one post so far. I have been sewing and baking, ski-ing and lazing. I have become immersed in the world of sewing blogs and have spent most of my 'free' time reading other people's blogs, marvelling at the creativity of others, and becoming a bit overwhelmed by what I feel I should write about.

Since my first post I have:

• made a bag
• researched simple fabric flowers for primary school project
  
• refashioned a dress for the Mackenzie Frock Stars competition
• done lots of baking to keep the troops going whilst doing
• lots of ski-ing
• bought some material for me and for the project for the primary school
• picked up some samples of material for potential future sewing projects
  

First off - the bag:

This was made out of the same material as my Curtain Skirt (see previous post). I have shown both sides of the bag as the pattern is different for each. I have used the free Estelle pattern from the Burdastyle website. I found this very easy to put together, although it took me a few days, as I was fitting it in around other things. It is lined with a toning 100% polyester lining material:
I added some extra top stitching to the band around the bag and also to the handle straps. I think this bag turned out well and I have had several compliments about it. My youngest daughter is convinced that it is hers and at best I can share it with her!

Rather than make this a hugely long post, I shall tackle the fabric flowers in my next post.