Red hot sigma frock

My husband once shamefully admitted that Chris De Burgh's song Lady in Red leaves him a little teary. 

Well this is Papercut's Sigma frock, fully lined I might add, in a delicious wool crepe that I splurged on at the beginning of winter when I was actually excited about rugging up against the chilly weather ahead. Now I'm all about summer sewing - almost finished another Sallie jumpsuit in a tie-dyed viscose knit, but I absolutely love this pattern, a definite go-to for me. Wouldn't go so far as to say it makes me cry, but hey, never say never...

Besides, I've been wanting a red wool-crepe winter dress ever since I tried an ill-fitting version on at Kuwaii years and years ago. Same old story for me - huge at the top, too tight at the hips. I couldn't sew back then, so I just left the change room feeling like a weirdly shaped freak who needed to cut the carbs and go paleo or something. I know better now, of course. Not only can I make my own, even more lovely version. I possess the secret knowledge of sewers: measurements are nothing more than a series of numbers. Hallelujah!

Jumping off the sewing cliff

My nine year old and I are obsessed with Project Runway. OBSESSED. We have been hanging out for months waiting for Season 14 and after seeing episode one, I have a feeling 2015 is not going to disappoint. Right now we're on team Ashley. Or maybe team Merline. Still haven't decided yet but what I love about both these ladies is that they are not afraid to rock a good print.

This is Merline:

Seriously stylin'

And this is Ashley:

Watermelon skirt! Won't you be mine?

Checking out what the designers are wearing every week is almost more fun than seeing the creations they come up with. They're real people, only super stylish, and most of them do not look like models. Hooray! I'm kind of bored of looking at ridiculously tall skinny people for fashion inspiration. Enough already.

Which brings me to my Flutter tunic by Papercut Patterns.

Too short? What can you do?

It's a sweet, easy to sew pattern, but the floaty, fluttery sleeves make it something special. I love Papercut Patterns but I always feel like I'm taking a bit of a gamble sewing up their designs. Hello, there is no way I even remotely resemble the models they choose to showcase their pattern collections. It makes me feel like I'm jumping off some kind of sewing-related fashion cliff - will I land in a pit full of pins or onto some nice soft cashmere coating?

I think this half works. Being a pear shaped lass, I generally look better in waist-defining pieces, but sometimes a girl just want to shakes things up a little. This particular pattern only requires about 1.3 metres so it's a good one if you want to splurge on some special cloth, like this beautiful silk print I scored from The Fabric Store. Not that I need any more fabric right now, but I kind of wish I'd bought more of it when I had the chance.

Restraint, Winnie, restraint...

A tale of two quilts

Very unflattering back photo - but check out the exposed zipper!

Some years ago my Mother In Law gave my husband a quilted jacket that swamped even his 6'3 frame. Sometimes we'd wear it around the house because it was so darn big and warm, but in spite if its' cosiness we called it the 'Ugly jacket' because it made whoever was wearing it feel hideous. That's the power of clothes for you. Clothing is about far more than the practicalities of retaining body heat or preventing sunburn. Clothes impact our emotions and our mood and in the end my husband decided that the cosiness of the Ugly jacket did not win out over the feeling of sheer hideousness its wearer experienced whenever the thing touched his/her back. In the end my husband chucked the Ugly Jacket in the bin, deciding that it would be cruel to donate it to the op-shop. The cycle of feeling like a walking mattress had to be broken. Now.

So here I am in a quilted garment that makes me feel great. It was inspired by this seriously expensive quilted frock I spotted at Kuwaii. I began searching high and low for a navy quilted stretch fabric and discovered this one-off piece on Etsy. It's polyester so I must admit that it does get a little whiffy by the end of the day, but it is so cute and comfy that I am prepared to ignore increases in body odour. Not sure how others feel about this fact though...

I used two different patterns to create this stretchy sensation. The bodice is from Papercut's Sigma dress and the skirt is Gertie's pencil skirt from her first book 'Gertie's new book for better sewing.' They fit together perfectly and even the darts matched up. Bonus! I decided it would be fun to pop an exposed zipper on the back. I've never done one before but it's pretty easy. If you need help I followed the instructions on the Threads magazine website - I prefer step by step written instructions to YouTube tutorials and these ones are clear and easy to follow. Anyone got any favourite sewing tutorials they'd like to share?

Eye'm back

There's no doubt about it. This is one creepy cut of fabric. And by creepy, I mean AWESOME. Every girl needs an eye print frock in her wardrobe, am I right?

So anyways, I was in Tessuti looking for some silk to make an Asaka kimono. Winter was well and truly coming and when it's freezing and dreary I believe it's best to be in denial and construct inappropriate clothing. Which is when I saw this eye fabric on the bolt and thought, OMG. I love that fabric. OMG, it is $100 a metre. So I didn't buy any because I am a disciplined fabric shopper. But I couldn't stop thinking about it. And then the new collection by Papercut patterns came out and I happened to see the YoYo dress and well...what can I say? If sewing heaven exists, this match was made there.

Construction was straight forward. I didn't make any changes to the pattern and simply cut a small, grading to a medium for the skirt. My overlocker worked overtime, though. This was one fray-hungry fabric and I ended up serging all the edges first just to prevent it from disintegrating right before my eyes like the HEALTHY tofu chocolate pie I just ate without realising. Whoops.

The skivvy I am wearing underneath is also by Papercut patterns. It's the Rise and Fall Turtleneck and a great quick sew. I used a cotton jersey from Rathdowne Remnants for this one and have made quite a few since then. Some people might say you can buy basic layering pieces so cheap why bother making them? But seriously, this top takes less than an hour and you can control the fabric quality and fit in a way you can't when slopping through the depressingly loveless garments at H&M.

Overall rating? Success!