Anna goes tropical

By now, pretty much the whole entire blogosphere has made the By Hand London Anna Dress. So yes, I am late to the party (or with this fabric should I be saying I’m late to the luau?), but I am still at the party! Woot!

I sewed along with the sewalong, but faltered at the last curve being late, late, late with photos.

Now she’s not a hard make, but if you’re not feeling confident, the sewalong had great tips and pics, making her even easier to sew up.

I made the maxi dress version with the boat neck, but got a little crazy and added a second split to the skirt. However craziness was dialled down when I reduced the height of the split – no-one needs to see that shiz.

I traced the pattern onto Swedish tracing paper in a 14 – it was way too big and I ended taking off about 6-7 cms off the side seams at the end. Make a toile people – it will save the unpicking!! And while I’m handing out hot tips – if you’re a tracer, GET AMONGST the Swedish tracing paper, it’s so much easier to work with than any other kind of paper.

I cut about 5cm off the hem, and my current hems are still huge! 8-10cms I reckon. I love that these BHL ladies design for us taller style people, this is the only pattern brand where I’ve ever had to shorten!

I overlocked most seams to finish them off, and hand blind stitched the splits and the skirt hem.

This lovely lady is made a tropical rayon from Spotlight that I nearly wet myself when I found amongst the fabric rolls because it was exactly what I was looking for for Anna – and I got the last 5 metres of it – HAH!

If you’re gonna get all technical like, the fit is probably not perfecto. For example, the waist seam is hitting me too high, but c’est la vie, I’ll fix it next time. On the other hand, my invisible zip insertion is divine – even if I do so say myself. What’s even more interesting is that I can’t remember the last time I actually hung out with an invisible zip. Needless to say, I was happy.

I can’t wait for some more Anna appropriate weather. However, I did wear her last week with boots and jacket, and I think she worked those boots 😉

Come at me – what are you working on right now?

Z xx

Finished: Dove T, and a Christmas giveaway!

Christmas is so close dear readers, I can smell the turkey and taste the wine as I write.

How are your gift makes going? Some people, like Karen, were smart enough not to go down the path of gift makes, I unfortunately was not one of those smart people. So now I find myself scrambling to finish… Can’t share pictures yet for fear of ruining that lovely ‘surprise’ affect – but they’ll come.

Anyhoo, on to my finished Dove T! I’m so happy with this top, I hope you guys like it too 🙂

You may recall the toile of this garment, I look at the finished top and in the words of Fatboy Slim, I think, you’ve come a long way baby!

So with no further ado, here she is, my tribal rayon Dove T! (Omigosh I love Rayon!)

About my Dove T

She was made out of a Rayon from Spotlight. I love this fabric. Aussies – have you noticed that Spotlight has really picked up its game recently?

Can’t half tell from the pictures I’d been wearing it all day right?

You may recall the fitting issues I was prattling on about with the toile. Everything was addressed by slashing the sleeve vertically down the centre and adding 1.5cm in width. It’s not perfect, but teamed with the liquid like rayon, it’s much more comfortable now.

In the end I didn’t make any changes for ‘modesty’. For work, I just threw on a singlet underneath ( as above ) and for play, well it lets in a nice breeze on a hot day – and what’s wrong with that my friends?!

I reckon it almost took me more time to lay this out and cut than to actually sew it up. I was playing with only 1.5 metres worth and was being preeeety picky about pattern placement (surprise surprise). My stoopid hands are covering up where the patterns meet stunningly at the side seams in these pics though. 😉

I added 8cm to the hem length, and you can see that I used bias binding rather than a facing around the neckline. Not much more to say really… except…

Do you want to get your hands on this pattern?!

I hear the crowds roar – “yes we do!”. Well I have good news for you. Thanks to the delightful Hannah of Sinbad and Sailor, one of you lucky people can get a free free free Dove T pattern of your very own! An extra bit of Christmas cheer me thinks.

“How do I enter?”  I hear you ask. It’s a logical question. Just leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time on Christmas Day (25 December 2012), not forgetting that we live in the future here, and answer this question:

What inspires you to sew your own clothes rather than buy them? 

Please make sure you include an email address/some method of contact in your comment too – I need to know how to stalk get in touch if you’re the winner. Then, Hannah and I will choose our favourite answer – I can feel the power rush going straight to my head 😉 – and the winner will be announced on the blog in the days after Christmas. That said, it is the crazy crazy Christmas season, so if we’re a little bit late, please forgive us and know that it’s all happening behind the scenes. 

That’s it my lovely sewing friends.

My best wishes to you and yours over the holiday season and into 2013. Please stay safe, be jolly and enjoy it.

Z xx