Bits and Pieces

Ok, so to take a brief break from reading material, I thought I should update you with what I’ve been up to in the sewing room…

Bridesmaids dresses


I had the first fitting of P’s muslin, and there are surprisingly little changes to be made – raising the neckline and armscye, pulling up the waistband by a centimetre, and that’s about it.

So I’m doing a second version of the bodice for her to try on this weekend, and then I unpick the skirt off that muslin and attach it to G’s bodice (the skirt is enormous and I didn’t have enough knit muslin for two!) and have her first fitting while I get down and dirty with the waistband pleating. I’m anticipating the pleating to be the most time-consuming part of both the dresses… (Earlier post about the dresses and colours here)

A spring dress


I finished a nice Springy version of BurdaStyle’s Heidi dress yesterday (finally!).

It was just waiting for a hem for nearly a week, which is a long time for me. It’s nice timing as Spring (or maybe even Summer!) arrived this weekend and it was gorgeous outside on deck with the barbecue going and everyone hopping from boat to boat. I’m hoping to do a photoshoot tonight now that we’ve got daylight for longer in the evenings…

Ok, so to take a brief break from reading material, I thought I should update you with what I’ve been up to in the sewing room…

Bridesmaids dresses

I had the first fitting of P’s muslin, and there are surprisingly little changes to be made – raising the neckline and armscye, pulling up the waistband by a centimetre, and that’s about it.

So I’m doing a second version of the bodice for her to try on this weekend, and then I unpick the skirt off that muslin and attach it to G’s bodice (the skirt is enormous and I didn’t have enough knit muslin for two!) and have her first fitting while I get down and dirty with the waistband pleating. I’m anticipating the pleating to be the most time-consuming part of both the dresses… (Earlier post about the dresses and colours here)

A spring dress

I finished a nice Springy version of BurdaStyle’s Heidi dress yesterday (finally!).

It was just waiting for a hem for nearly a week, which is a long time for me. It’s nice timing as Spring (or maybe even Summer!) arrived this weekend and it was gorgeous outside on deck with the barbecue going and everyone hopping from boat to boat. I’m hoping to do a photoshoot tonight now that we’ve got daylight for longer in the evenings…

Pattern drafting

I’ve been so inspired by the Metric Pattern Cutting book that I got to work this weekend. First step was to retake all of my measurements (not great seeing I’ve gained a lot of inches, err, centimeters, whereas I was feeling pretty good about only putting on a few kilograms while sick and running was off-limits. Boo. At least I know where I’m starting from for the wedding now!), then I followed the instructions and created a bodice and a skirt block, then based one one of my sketches, I made two muslins of a skirt design I’d been playing with. I also spent a few hours sketching up in the wheelhouse in the sunshine and gathered a bunch of clippings together into a dedicated “fashion design” leather book so I can just flip through it when I get the creative urge.

I think I’ve got a bit more work to do on the skirt (the front and the back seem like they belong to two different styles – I think I’m trying to do too much at once!) but I am very very pleased to say I’ve got a fun something for you all later this week. It’s something I did over a year ago and then got stuck and put aside, until BurdaStyle’s David posted this gem last week. Huurrrrrraaaaaaaah!

The table

We had a bit of furniture swapping on the boat this week, moving James’s desk up into the main saloon since he’s doing a lot of work from home these days, and moving “the craft table” down into the hold (now sitting where our bedroom will eventually be when it’s built). Before I was having to do my fabric cutting and layout on that table in around his work stuff and a large accumulation of things at one side (thankfully we have another table where we eat!), but now the table is ALL MINE!

The only problem is that after several hours of drafting on Saturday, my back was absolutely killing me from bending over. So James whipped up a few risers for me yesterday using scrap wood we had lying around, so the table is now at my elbow level (as recommended by OSHA standards) when standing and is a dream to cut and draft on! He’s gotten so good at woodworking over the last 3 years we’ve had the boat – it’s really sturdy and even braced to prevent movement when we tilt at low tide. I’m so proud of him!

The only problem with this setup is that it’s only good while the weather is warm, so I’ll be back up in the saloon once I start to see my breath down there (there’s no heating down in that part until the renovations properly begin and we run the new heating lines down).

Colour forecast

Ok this is just a funny observation… Since our temporary wardrobe is about 40 feet away from our temporary bedroom, I usually just neatly stack my clothes in the bedroom at night and once a week or so take them back down to the wardrobe to hang them up again.

Only last week I realised I had worn almost exclusively blue and green in the past week! It’s a good thing our weather’s warming up so I can sneak in some warm colours again!

(All but one of these is FehrTrade, too. Can you recognise them?)

Leave a Reply