Jenny, I love you still!

I didn't think it was possible, but I'm even more in love with the Jenny pattern! I made another skirt, this time with a couple of alterations on the last version.

The black version I've made is a little big so I stitched this one up with a 2cm seam allowance on the side seams (rather than 1.5cm) and now the fit is perfect. I also kept the skirt the length from the original pattern, rather than the lengthened version from last time. This has given a more flattering length, but has also meant that the slit in the back is approaching a little indecent so I am planning on stitching the centre back seam down a little more to make it a bit more modest!

I wore it to work today and it was SO comfy (and is also why it's so creased in the photo, although not too bad after 13 hours of wearing, most of which was sitting down). I have concluded that I'm a huge fan of these high waisted skirts. Once you have one on it just doesn't go anywhere (assuming it fits of course). It doesn't ride up, it doesn't fall down, it doesn't even twist that much , it's great!!

The fabric I got was (I think) a double weave cotton from the fabric store, which means it's the really nice textured grey on the outside, but is plain black on the inside. It's pretty neat for the skirt as it's that bit thicker while still having the advantages of being a cotton, but also it kind of gives it the appearance of being lined if the inside of the skirt is visible at any point.

So in summary, a great success even more so than the first one... I just need to kick the desire to make fifty more of these, as I don't need a wardrobe full of (almost) the same skirt... although I think I'd like to do one more in an interesting colour and with something added for some interest, be it on the waistband or the skirt. For example, I really like Gertie's "Emma" version of the Jenny.

Wardrobe Project

As I mentioned, as part of my Sewing club I have joined the BurdaStyle Wardrobe Project. I took a printout of my wardrobe plan along to the last meet of sewing club but am yet to share it with you on here.

As I mentioned in my "Looking Ahead to 2010" post, this year I wanted to sew with more of a plan and expand my winter wardrobe - so this fits into that perfectly.

Without further ado, here's my current plan (although it is subject to change):

Winter 2010 Wardrobe Plan

Esprit Dress - I started this a while back and have completed a muslin, made the necessary alterations and even have bought some lovely black fabric from Tessuti, I just need to get started on it and it hopefully won't be too complicated (fingers crossed!)

Sencha Blouse - As I mentioned, I now have this pattern in my grubby little hands, and plan/hope to buy this fabric to make it with. I'll need to read up about working with slippery material before I make it though, as that's something I've never done before.

Emily Shirt - I made a muslin for this last year in some black poplin and have some gorgeous white on white stripe Italian shirting I got on sale at Clegs ready and waiting to be cut into. (I'll be making the version with the normal sleeves)
Vogue Trousers - I've had this pattern for a while (ever since I saw EmilyKate's gorgeous pair from this pattern and I bought it at the $5 sale at Clegs). I'm not sure what fabric/colour I'll be making these in yet but I think I'll make view A. I plan to make a muslin before buying fabric.

Jenny Skirt - I'm not completely decided on this one, I know I want a Skirt but I'm not entirely convinced this skirt will be all that flattering on me... so I may substitute this for a different pattern.

Hikaru Jacket - I hope to make the Hikaru jacket as a middle weight jacket, which I desperately need for this Winter - I have a few warm coats and some thin jackets but nothing at that mid-warmth level that's vital for Melbourne winter. I don't have any fabric in mind for it yet, I don't really want to make it black but other than that I'm not sure.

So there you have it, my plan. I'm not totally sure that they all fit together perfectly, but I'm sure it'll be fine, especially when i take into account the clothes I already have and can mix with these items. As I make items I'll make sure they fit in with the other ones and make any choices/changes accordingly.

Wicked Week

I haven't done much sewing this week as my mum visited for a couple of days. Yesterday was great fun, we went to the Ian potter gallery, and for lunch in fed square. Then in the evening we went to see "Wicked"; we managed to get some FANTASTIC tickets just by going to the box office during the day. Our seats were in the 9th row from the front, smack bang in the middle.

The show was amazing, the story fantastic, and the costumes stunning! While the costumes for the main characters were amazing (and can be easily googled), I found the costumes for the chorus characters much better. Particularly the students at 'Shiz University'. They had uniforms, but each of them was slightly different, with all sorts of fantastic diagonal lines and non-symmetrical parts. I can't find any example picture online, so if anyone knows of any pictures of the non-main characters, please tell me!

Anyway, when out in the city with my mum yesterday we solved the quilt backing problem (woohoo!). My parents had kindly looked in the spotlight near them (in Perth) and found the navy I'd used before, but sadly there wasn't enough left. However my mum came up with the great suggestion that I could buy a flannelette sheet set and use the flat sheet as the quilt back, and then I'd have a matching fitted sheet and pillowcases and it wouldn't be too expensive.

So, off we trooped to Target and were pleased to discover that flannelette sheet sets were 30% off! After looking at them all for a while and ruling most of them out I finally settled on a set, picture below. It also matches one of my current sets of bed sheets really well (in colour and the leafy theme) which is fortunate. I washed them yesterday, ready for me to speed through with the sewing and hopefully get it finished very soon!


Lastly, this evening was the second burdastyle sewing club, kindly hosted by Tessuti! It was much like the last one where we spent most of the time going round the circle showing what we'd made, and asking opinions and questions and troubleshooting current and future projects. Lots of fun! The things people have been making are all so stunning! So inspiring and envy inducing!

Before I left I had the chance to buy some buttons for my pyjamas I have in the works, some thread clippers, and some white fabric with black stripes (in the bargainous $10 corner!) to make the emily blouse.

Sleeping & Stitching

Despite spending a large amount of this weekend sleeping, it has been a productive one (not that sleeping is bad, sleeping is definitely good!). In addition to cleaning and vacuuming my bedroom, the living room and corridor I did some sewing yesterday trying to fashion a top out of the leftovers from my most recent pyjama bottoms (which was going really well, I'd managed to squeeze all the pieces I needed onto the fabric... and then I cut one of the pieces backwards, causing a slight change in plan, but more about that another time.

Today I set up my sewing machine on the coffee table, put on some classic chick flicks (Love Actually, Bridget Jones' Diary and Bridget Jones' Diary 2) and approached the piecing of my quilt in a slightly different way.

The other day I reorganised my pieces to be in pinned piles separated by sheets of paper in a lunchbox, as suggested here by Aneela over at comfortstiching. I can't believe I hadn't thought to do it before, and it's made the piecing SO much easier to keep track of everything.

Anyway, I decided to stitch all of the white strips onto my pieces (see pic below), and next time I'll cut them all, then iron them all, then stitch it all together. The fact that doing it row by row was taking me almost an hour a row was getting me down, and this way doesn't feel as long as I'm doing so many strips at once! The logic might not work, but that's how it seems.

Even though my sewing was marginally interrupted by homemade pizza and then an excursion for churros by the end of the evening I have finished sewing the white stripes onto all my remaining strips, oh and re-fallen in love with Colin Firth (in all three films!). Definitely a productive time!

Below is a picture of the 8 strips I've sewn together so far, I'm still on the fence about whether I like the design I've picked or not. Not that it matters as I'm too far in to change my mind now! My favourite part of the quilt (and my last one) is that all the fabric has a memory attached to it, so it's nice to look through it and remember the different projects each one was a left over from.


In other news, I tried on my JJ with my Laura dress this weekend, and if I'm not greatly mistaken I think they go together very well. I've only actually worn the Laura once, as the fabric I picked was a bit heavy, and that combined with the shape (and possibly length) of the skirt makes me feel all frumpy. However, with the JJ it is a bit better, so while we're having this cold snap I may whip out this outfit.

Finished(?) JJ

Thursday night was spent at my sewing machine finishing my JJ, which I then wore to work yesterday Overall I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out, and am intending on using the pattern to make some more shirts in the future.

However there is one thing about it that I'm not sure about; the placement of the ruffles. The two centre ruffles on each side are much closer together than the second is to the third... and I'm not sure about that. However, having canvassed opinions from my friends at work I still don't know what I want to do about it, as everyone had a different opinion. The way I see it my options are:
a) Leave it as it is, a couple of people said they liked how it wasn't completely equal
b) Unstitch the middle ruffle and move it to be in the centre of the other ruffles.
c) Remove the outer ruffle from the seam and restitch it closer to the two other ruffles.
d) Remove the outer ruffle completely.
At the moment I'm leaning towards option a as then I can declare the shirt finished... but I dunno. I might wear it a few more times and then decide.

Other than the qualms I have about the ruffles I am now a complete fan of this pattern though! It was really comfy to wear all day (even under my lab coat, or rugby shirt), and I can actually move my arms around this time, unlike when I wear the first shirt I made. Best of all, the pattern is totally free!

(The photo isn't quite the finished product; incase you hadn't noticed it's missing the buttons, which it now does have)

Queens Birthday productivity

It was the queens birthday long weekend this weekend. I wish every weekend were a long weekend as then I'd have so much more time for sewing! Day one is for resting, day two for errands and day three for sewing!

This weekend, in addition to making an enormous mess in the living room, I pottered around doing a few things, including two more strips on my quilt (8 down, 14 to go!), a fabric bag using this tutorial and everything except the buttons and sleeves for a JJ shirt (see the photos above and below) You'd think by now I'd have learnt to buy the buttons when I buy the fabric, but nooooo, I didn't, so a trip to a shop to buy some will be needed before I can finish (and wear) the shirt.