Ceylon a la Zo

Well, we got there. Just. This girl was started before Christmas, interrupted by Elisalex and then a number of sewing, unpicking, sewing, lots of hand sewing, and button making later, just before the stroke of midnight last Saturday, she was done and dusted! Finally.

This lady just didn’t want to come together. I was sewing things on backwards and upside down, which resulted in a lot of unpicking of both stitching and overlocking. On the plus side, I am now an expert at unpicking overlocking. If I haven’t already blocked it from my memory…

I had a special guest photographer for my Ceylon, thanks lady! These photos were taken in St Kilda, and although we snuck off into an alley, unfortunately we still attracted a little audience. What a let down for them when they realised it’s just little old me lol.

If you know the lovely Ceylon at all, you’ll have noticed that my sleeves are different. Not the short puffy sleeves as per pattern, rather some neat little caps. I used the sleeves from Victory Patterns’ Ava. No, I haven’t actually made Ava yet, I just used her for her sleeves 😉

I didn’t make too many other changes really, added length to the hem (nothing new there) and added some darts in the front waist panels for a closer fit.

Actually, there was one change that I made to the whole construction approach. The instructions tell you to apply and top stitch your pieces together, rather than the usual, “good sides together”. For my sanity, and for neatness, I stuck with “good sides together”. As far as I can tell it didn’t make any difference.

The fabric is an absolute delight to wear. It’s a Japanese cotton from Tessuti called Black Hanataba. It’s so light and comfy, and I have some left… so there may be a very similar looking top somewhere in my future. 

I felt this dress required covered buttons, so taught myself how to make them – yep, 16 of the buggers! Then I had to sew them all on!! I think it was worth the effort though.

And of course 16 buttons required 16 button holes, 5.75 cms apart. LUCKILY, my machine was being friendly so this did not result in an ugly tantrum.

I blind stitched the hem by hand. I also did the back neckline facing so that it won’t flap around. I actually find hand sewing quite relaxing – anyone else? I think I watched about five episodes of The West Wing while doing all the hand sewing, button making and button hole cutting.

That’s it! Oh yeah, how funny’s this pic?! Unplanned, wind came and lifted my skirt and it was all caught on camera hahaha.

I just remembered. Another user generated problem with this dress! Lets just say the inside hem looks interesting – the front panels have a 5cm allowance, and the back a 2 cm allowance. I’ll leave you to ponder why. Because I really don’t know how it happened lol!

What are you guys sewing right now? Right now! Well maybe after reading this 😉

Z xx

Jeans ahoy!

I’ve wanted to try out making some jeans for a little while now, but after seeing Poppykettle’s delightful Turquoise Terror Jeans, I knew they had to be moved up the list of ‘to do’ projects.

My inspiration lies with Sass and Bide‘s Rabbit Boy jeans – I had a pair quite some years ago now, and I LOVED them and wore them to death! Literally. To. Death. They were stitched up a few times, but eventually they left this world. You can see a good pic of the Rabbit Boy style on missea, about halfway down the page.

I’m basing my pattern on V8774 (pic below) which I traced off today. Step one, ‘tracing’, complete.

I’m using the below denim from Darn Cheap Fabrics – eventually (sorry about the dodgy photo). I wouldn’t hold your breath on these ones though folks. I still have to finalize that darn Beignet, then I imagine there’ll be a bit of drafting and testing before I even get to cut these bad girls out.

I’ve also started pondering a Ceylon. What do you think about this Blue Fitzgerald Liberty Tana Lawn for it? Like?

Or how about this Japanese Cotton from Tessuti?

So that’s what’s going to be coming up and across my sewing table in the near future (well hopefully it’ll be near!).

On a different note, I spent the weekend back at my mum’s place, and got to have some serious play time with the gorgeous puppies (family too lol). Check them out.

This is Oscar, a scatty Jack Russell…

Here’s Alice, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and very cuddly and floppy (and pretty!)…

I also got to meet some new additions to my Godfather’s household;

Sam, a black Labradoodle pup who I’m sure is on some kind of amphetamines,

And Sam’s little brother, Fred who likes to chew jewellery and pull hair

And while we’re talking doggies, here’s a pic of my Grandparents’ pug, Jazz, who recently passed on to the land of doggy heaven 😦

So if you didn’t already pick, I am somewhat of a ‘dog’ person, and really miss having one around the house. But it is now very exciting when I do get to play 🙂

What did you get up to this weekend? Much sewing time?