Well, aren’t I a lucky girl recently? First of all, I won interfacing and a metal seam gauge from Pam’s giveaway at Off the Cuff!
I’ve won Pro-Sheer Elegance and Pro-Woven Shirt Crisp interfacings, to be precise. Coincidentally, both kinds were the few I didn’t buy on my interfacing binge a few month ago! So now I’ve got an even greater biodiversity in my interfacing bag…
Then, hot on the heels of winning that – I may have lost Karen’s draw, but I ended up winning a copy of the novel “Laura’s Handmade Life” from craftycrafty.tv, too! A novel where the heroine bounces back from life crises through sewing? Yes, I think I’ll enjoy this… So now I’ve got three books in my reading queue, aahh!
And it was time again for another Google Adsense payout, so I thought this time I’d spend your hard-earned funds on something a great majority of you will want to see: the new DKNY Vogue pattern (1259), and 3m of this gorgeous mushroom-coloured viscose/cotton/lycra from Tia Knight aka “In Fashion Fabrics” on ebay. It’s ridiculously soft, lightweight, and drapey and just perfect for the gajillion gathers on this pattern, so when both arrived within a day of each other late last week, I set to work!
(As a side note, I went out on my lunch hour on Friday to grab matching thread and staytape. How great is it that I’ve got a shop like Beyond Fabrics within 5 minutes’ walk of my office??)
My first task was to trace the enormous pattern pieces, which took me a good hour, even though I can trace the average pattern in about 15 minutes. That should give you some idea of the size of pattern piece and number of markings included here, but the fact that two pieces must be taped together (so four parts to make to pieces) made it even worse!
No table was big enough to contain the single-layer fabric cutting layout (seriously, no two pieces are cut twice, and nothing is on a fold, either), so I had to clear the saloon, push the chairs and tables away, hoover up the cat fur, and lay everything out on the floor. On every single piece, I had to ensuring every single pin didn’t catch on the carpet, which was a challenge in itself.
The fabric took up the entire saloon floor, so I had no choice but to walk all over my fabric in my socks until I cleared a path in pattern pieces. Luckily everything shook out after I was done!
(And yes, the above are all the pieces for the top and skirt! Try and get your head round how that adds up to the tech drawing!)
But then I had another obstacle to deal with when I had to hold a certain fluffy tail out of the way to ensure I didn’t go and cut it!
He was too cute to move though. Yes, I am a big softy.
I then transferred all the million small circles, big circles, squares, and notches (all in tailor’s tacks except for the latter) onto the fabric, and even got so far as to construct about 10-15 steps in the instructions before my brain melted and I had to do some serious draping on Susan to figure out how the crap it all went together… I’ll leave the main rundown (and how I’d improve these instructions) for the finished garment post, but let’s just say that this pattern is marked as “Advanced” for a reason. And remember, I enjoy 3D pattern puzzles!
But before I actually started on the above, I finally up and made the La Mia Boutique pleated skirt in some aqua cotton sateen, like I’ve been talking about for months! So you’ll get to see this first…
There was also another project I whipped up on Saturday morning, but it’s a gift and the recipient has been known to read the site, so you’ll have to stay tuned for that…