Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Summer sewing for me...

Christmas day dress 
Although I have been a little absent from my blog I have been doing some sewing this past month, only a little though :-) The above dress is what I whipped up on Christmas eve at the very last minute. I have a tradition with myself to make a new dress to wear each Christmas. This year though I was so busy sewing Christmas gifts etc... that I did not think I had the time to make myself something new to wear and it wasn't until the afternoon of Christmas eve that I decided to bite the bullet and try and get a dress completed to wear that next day, after all I had the pattern, fabric and thread ready to go so I had no excuse. After cutting  out all the pattern pieces I proceeded to sew like a mad woman and by 6pm I had it all put together enough to have a try on to ensure a good fit. Unfortunately it was way too big so I ran over to my neighbor who just happens to be a dressmaker (the kind who doesn't need a pattern and can make something from a photo). She kindly re-pinned all my seams and a couple of hours later it was all finished apart from the hem which I did the following morning. I'm so glad I made the effort to make this dress as it fits like a glove and I love wearing it.

Summer top version 2 
I also made up another top like the one I made here before Christmas except this one has the elasticised gathered sleeves. It goes perfectly with a pink skirt I already have and the fabric just happens to be the same as my Christmas dress except in a different colourway.

String quilt ready for quilting
And this is what I have been working on today. Finally pin basting my string quilt ready to start machine quilting it tomorrow. I am not totally sure how I'm going to quilt it but hopefully inspiration will strike once I sit down at my machine. Although as I'm typing up this post it has occured to me that some hand quilting in perle cotton would look quite pretty in those white frames. What do you think? Suggestions most welcome!

6 comments:

XUE said...

I love how much I find we have in common, by the posts that I read here every now & then ! I make last minute things like this too & get all frazzled up :)
Love the dress, love the blouse & generally love whatever you do. And I have a similiar quilt in the making as well. Need to move over to NZ, to be your neighbour & your neighbour's neighbour too!

Ariane said...

I love your dress and top. I really wish I could sew clothing for myself. I will try to make an effort this year to learn a bit more.

Leslie said...

the dress and top are so pretty. what fun!!! i love the look of your string quilt. it is going to be amazign

Katy Cameron said...

Pretty dress and top, sure you looked fab on Christmas day :o) The perle quilting sounds fab!

Unknown said...

You're so lucky to have a dressmaker neighbour. I'd love that. Your dress and blouse are both pretty Catherine, and they will keep you nice and cool in the summer! Sweet fabric choice too.

Karen said...

Great dressmaking Catherine. How handy is that having a neighbour that is a dressmaker!
You could leave the sashings unquilted so they pop. But i like the idea of some colourful quilting. It looks like a beauty of a quilt top.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...