Jenny Skirt - Yes or No?

As I mentioned, I'm considering making the Jenny skirt as part of my wardrobe plan. However I'm not entirely sure if it will suit me. As far as I can tell from the ones others have made, the skirt comes in at the bottom... I'm worried that it would turn out to be super unflattering. Any opinions?

My first pair of trousers!

Yesterday I made up a muslin for the Vogue V2907 Pattern that is part of my Wardrobe Project. I'm very proud of myself; they're the first pair of trousers that I've ever made! (Pyjama bottoms don't count!) I did the fly front with a random zip I found, and included the front pockets, but didn't bother with the welt pockets on the back (I'm not sure that I'm going to include them at all).

I've altered the back trouser pieces and back yoke so that the trousers fit my rather large sticky-outey bum, and have cut those pieces out again. I was hoping to be able to show you the finished muslin this evening but i have learnt a vital lesson today - increase your stitch length on muslins!!! I didn't and because of that it's taking me FOREVER to unpick the seams of the trousers so I can resew them with the new backs.

Hopefully i'll be able to finish the muslin tomorrow evening.

Modern Quilt Guild

You may or may not have seen around, but there are a whole heap of Modern Quilt Guilds popping up all over the world. They started in October 2009 and there are now 50 different clubs around the world, including one in Melbourne!

If it interests you why don't you take a peek at the list to see if there's one near you, and if not you could even start one!

Genome Quilt Thoughts

It's been a while since I shared thoughts on my planned genome quilt so I thought I'd update you with where I am with it at the moment; I am deep in the land of indecision.

I went to Amitie again a while back and bought some more pale fabric, bringing my collection for this project to the following:

However, while I was at Amitie, the lovely lady who was serving me pointed out that it would make sense to make up a few HST blocks with the fabrics I have, and then when I go shopping for more fabric I can just bring those blocks, rather than all of the fabric I've bought so far (which is what I have been doing).

Now that is a very sensible idea! However implementing it forces me to make the decision on the size block I'm going to use much earlier than I had anticipated. I had initially thought of 2" blocks, but am worried that the sheer volume of the task would be too daunting for me to complete... To put the numbers into context, this is how many blocks I'd need (ish) at each size:

- 1950 2" blocks

- 429 3" blocks

Here's what the sequence I'm thinking of using would look like with 2" blocks.

What do you think? Should I stick with 2" blocks like I initially thought or increase the size to 3"? (I think bigger than that and you'd loose the integrity of the design).

Also, I currently have less than a third of the total fabric that I will need... and that's if I use all of each cut for the quilt top and forget about the idea of using the same fabrics for a pieced back... maybe i should have bought bigger cuts!! (or should in the future)

Denim picnic blanket top

The other evening I stitched together the denim quilt top I planned the layout of last week. I chain pieced the squares and it came together remarkably quickly - much quicker than my couch quilt last year which took days and days and days; I highly recommend chain piecing!!

Now I need to decide about backing fabric. I'd like to use something at least a bit waterproof, like you get on the back of bought ones, but I don't have the first idea where I'd get that kind of fabric. Any ideas?

In also tossing up whether to put wadding in the middle or just have the two outside layers. I don't know if having the wadding would make it too bulky.

Plenty of blues...

As I mentioned before, I've been collecting old jeans from friends and cutting them into 6 inch squares. I have now got more than enough for my planned picnic blanket. Here's what (some of) the squares look like laid out.

I think this should make it a good size, I figure I'll start sewing it together and then see how it looks.

Does anyone have any insight on good picnic blanket sizes?

Baby Girl Quilt...

I just realised that I forgot to share pictures of the finished baby girl quilt.

the front

the back

one of the blocks & the quilting

The binding is a plain dark brown that I bought at the same time as the rest of the fabrics. I had a go at attaching the binding completely by machine for the first time. I followed the binding tutorial on red pepper quilts and it worked beautifully. So quick! I'm definitely doing this for most of my quilts in the future!

The quilt is in the process of being delivered at the moment. Hopefully the intended recipients will like it.

Finally some dress progress...

This weekend just gone I stitched up the esprit dress that's been in the works for a while.

I had made the alterations indicated necessary by my muslin:

- A sway back adjustment

- I pinched about 1.5cm out of the top of the centre back seam, tapering that down to about the waist.

- I added about 1.5cm to the side seams of the skirt from a little above the hips downwards

- I pinched out some of the excess fabric around the top of the front princess seams.

I hadn't included seam allowances on my pattern pieces so it took a VERY long time to mark seam allowances onto the fabric and cut out the pieces. However, once that was done it came together very quickly.

I still need to hem it and I have to work out the best way to finish the arm holes (probably just with biased binding), but it's almost there. I think a couple of buttons are needed for this dress too; to hold the pockets closed as they're a bit gapey at the moment.

Also, something I hadn't noticed on the muslin (as I didn't include the pockets so didn't really think about it) is that the pockets are probably a little lower than they should be. It's not a disaster - I can still reach the bottom of the pockets while I'm wearing the dress, but if I were to use this pattern again I'd move the pockets up about 1-2 inches, as where they sit at the moment they proportions aren't quite right. You live, you learn, right?

What's up next? A break from wardrobe project garments, The Madeline Mini Bloomers from Colette patterns in some blue gingham from my stash.

Sencha Progress...

I apologise for neglecting to update you with my progress, but I did (almost) complete my goal for last weekend, to make the blue practice sencha blouse.

Sadly it's not completely finished as I don't have any buttons for the blouse yet. Sadly some not so nice weather in Melbourne this weekend has deterred me from venturing out very far, so no new buttons for me yet.

It was interesting working with slippery fabric for the first time. I was very careful with the cutting and the pinning (using FAR more pins than necessary I'm sure.