Pattern Review: OOP Mccall 9295 dress

This is an out of print McCall's pattern from 1998. It was one of those those 90's simple, clean line style knit dresses. I like simple and easy to sew and I like sewing with knit so I snapped it up right away.

I chose to make the halter long dress. It was super easy and fast to make! I made it with some black stretch velvet that I found at the cheapy bin in my local fabric store. I had just enough to make the dress. I lowered the neckline a little (so that it doesn't look like the dress was choking me), did my usual short waist adjustment and shorten the hem a little. I added a shelf bra inside the dress but I still need to wear a strapless bra for the dress to look okay. I had to shorten the straps a lot to fit my frame. The back is a little low for my taste but at least it didn't show my bra. It wasn't supposed to have a back slit but I added a high back slit so that I could walk and dance.

I do like this dress. It was super comfortable to wear. I usually try not to wear long dresses because I'm short and broad. But this one seemed okay. I wore it to an office X'mas party and some gala. It may not be the super party dress of the decade but sometimes one just can't go wrong with a simple black velvet halter gown!

Odd Ensemble Refashion Part 1: Nun dress to Party dress

I bought this odd ensemble from a thrift store a couple of months ago. I can see why no one was interested in it. It's like someone in the design department just gave up and had the manufacturer tacked 2 completely separate dresses together at the shoulders and under the arms. It was only a few dollars and I thought what a bargain for 2 good size separate cotton knit dresses in colours that I like!

I took apart the 2 dresses (just a few threads) and started working on the black dress first. My hubby saw me wearing it and asked me if it was a nun's dress. I knew that the dress was crying out to go to a party! LOL!

First I chopped off the dress at above the knee. It was already looking a lot better. Next I changed the mock neck into a boat neck. I sewed a piece of clear elastic at the neckline with a zig-zag stitch to prevent it from stretching further. I also reduce the back width by 3cm.

I couldn't decide how to embellish the dress. I wanted to use what I already have in my stash instead of buying some new trims. So I decided to move the year back to 2011 and try to embellish the neckline with......safety pins! I actually don't have enough safety pins so the neckline looks a bit sad and sparse. I guess I have to buy some more safety pins after all. I figured that the safety pin embellishment is not too permanent - if I decide to change the neckline later I can easily do that.

So what do you think? Too DIY looking? Too 2011 all over again? Or passable as a party dress?

Yummy Persian grilled chicken recipe....and a Persian recipe website

I have always loved Persian food - ever since my good friend brought me to her mom's house for an authentic Persian feast almost 20 years ago. I've been trying to find a good Persian restaurant in town and I was also googling for easy Persian recipes. I think I've found the blog for me: Tumeric and Saffron by Azita. I have only made 1 of her recipes so far and wow! I was running out of ideas what to make each week with chicken for my family and I found her recipes. I had a quick look at what I had in my fridge and decided to make her Persian grilled saffron chicken (Joojeh Kabab) recipe. It was soooooooooo delicious! Since then it has been in regular rotation in our family meals. Her food pictures are also really gorgeous which makes it even more enticing to try her other recipes!

If you like Persian food or just want to look for new recipes for your chicken, go visit her blog and have a look!

(source: Tumeric & Saffron)

Pattern review: OOP Butterick 6076 dress

This is an older OOP pattern from 1999. I am cleaning out my closets so I'm rediscovering a number of older self-made clothing. This is a Cynthia Rowley pattern with a strapless dress in 2 lengths and a beautiful knee length coat. I like the dress pattern so much that I made it twice!

The dress is strapless with boning on the sides. I like the simplicity of the dress as well as how easy and quick it was to sew together. Usually I don't do strapless because I have very broad shoulders/back and upper chest for my height and size and a strapless dress would highlight this. But this dress pattern somehow didn't emphasize my weird shape as much as I thought.

 I made the first dress in a hot pink cotton dupioni look fabric that I bought on sale at John Lewis Watford years ago. I used size 12 which was actually too tight for me. I did my usual short waist adjustment and shortened the hem slightly.

A couple of years later I had to go to a wedding so I made another one in a green poly taffeta. The taffeta has less give than the previous fabric so I added about 2cm to each side seam around the bust area so that I could zip it up. I got so many compliments at that wedding that no one believed I made it myself! (I guess I should have ironed it before taking this picture).

This is a very easy and quick dress to make and I highly recommend this pattern if you already have this in your stash. I'm glad I rediscovered this dress because I think I'll make another one in a floral cotton for this summer, just in case there is some sort of celebration coming up! LOL!

2nd batch: Very practical use of fabric scraps and an old baby change pad

I have made another batch of sanitary pads using an old organic cotton change pad and cotton flannel fabric scraps. This batch works really well! I made them really quickly again so the sewing is not perfect. Nonetheless they performed their function really well.

I'm really happy to have refashioned this very soft but hard to upcycle change pad. I don't think another mom would want to use a used change pad for her baby because there might have been a big poop mess on it at one point (which didn't happen to this pad). And I just don't like the thought of adding more disposable sanitary pads to the landfill every month. So this solution works for me. These cloth pads are so soft and doesn't make that plastic-y sound if I move the wrong way!

I change the shape of the wings for this batch. I find these batwings work better and the pads don't move as much as the last batch. I was able to make 10 pads from this one change pad. And here are the not-so-pretty refashioned project pictures:

Pattern review: Mccall 5671 dresses

Now back to clothing for the beach vacation this summer. Knit dresses definitely travel well and are easy to wear and care for. I used the Mccall 5671 pattern in my pattern stash and these yellow print and red floral cheapy bin polyester knit from my stash as well. I used a size 12 because for knits, size 12 usually fits me better (size 14 for woven).

The construction was super simple. The dresses came together really quickly. I made my usual short waist adjustment and shortened the hem. That was it! The bust actually fits without any tweaking which surprised me. That's why I love sewing with knits. If it was a pattern for woven material I would have to do an FBA. With knits - no worries! I didn't cut on the bias for the lower dress portion because with a drapey knit, I felt there was  no need. Also, I wanted the yellow print to be vertical on the yellow dress.

I highly recommend this pattern for the dress part. I have not tried the other pieces so I can't speak for them. I do think I will make more knit dresses with this pattern again!

NOTE: the red poly knit was clinging to my legs a bit because of the static in the winter. I should have no problems with static in the summer.

Pictures: Very practical use of Fabric Scraps

** Warning: NOT pretty sewing project pictures!!**

Last month I talked about a very practical use of the fabric scraps I had been saving (see this post). And now here are the pictures! They were leftover fabric from the pajamas I made for my son - too small for any garments except may be bits of a quilt. I used 2 to 3 layers of 100% cotton batting (also small scraps) between 2 scraps of 100% cotton flannel and then I just serged the entire sandwich together. Then I added snaps at the end of the wings. You can see that I made those pads really quickly and crudely. I figured that no one would see them (except on this blog - Oh No! LOL!) so they don't have to be pretty. They had been tested already and were very comfortable. Next I want to make some waterproof ones by refashioning my kids' old organic cotton change pad. That pad is really soft and thick so probably best for night time use.

Refashion: Men's Jeans to Party loot bags

We are having a small party at home for my son's birthday this year. I have invited some of his friends and I have prepared little gifts for their loot bags. I thought, as part of my Stash Busting effort, why not make the loot bags myself with my existing stash? After 2.5 hours and some broken sewing machine needles (sewing too fast with thick denim on thick denim), I managed to transform 2 pairs of men's jeans that were given to me, into 6 little loot bags for the party. I still have lots of the jeans material left for other projects. I didn't buy any materials to make the loot bags -  all the fabric, ribbons, threads, bag template, etc are from my stash. I'm so happy to be reducing my stash this way!

From these men's jeans:

Using this plastic canvas as a bag template:

To these loot bags:

2nd Hand Clothes and Shoes....and a long rant!

I am a big fan of Zoe of the blog 'So, Zo.....what do you know?'. She is a very talented sewist/refashionista and has lots of measured thoughts that I can completely relate to. She recently posted about her purchases of 2nd hand shoes (see here), which made me thing of how I consume as well.

I love sewing, thrifting, and refashioning for myself, my family and my house. I haven't shopped for brand new clothes and shoes for a long time (just a couple of slip ups) and this year, I have pledged not to buy 2nd hand clothes/shoes unless I/my family actually need them. It hasn't been difficult at all; it's not like there was a period when I was craving to shop at the malls. I just adapted to it naturally.

My hubby and my kids don't know or care that they wear home-made/home-refashioned/2nd hand clothes. My kids love the 2nd hand books and toys I got them. They don't bug us to buy new things for them when we go to the malls because we rarely buy anything in front of them (except groceries). I use homemade olive oil/coconut oil/beeswax cream for our family's skin care (see here for recipe). And I started washing my hair only with water (no shampoo/conditioner/gel/spray/etc) after reading about it on Meggipeg's blog (her hair is gorgeous!).

I don't think of myself as an early adapter of any trends. I rarely talk about my sewing/refashioning/thrifting/homemade creams because my family, friends and acquaintances don't react kindly to it. They often think of me as some cheapo-crazy-treehugger-radical. Or they think I was disapproving their consumption habits when I talk enthusiastically about something I made. I made the mistake of talking about the 'magic' of using a water/apple cider/olive oil mixture to detangle my toddler's tangly hair and just had the other mom roll her eyes at me (she was endorsing this tiny bottle of $40 all natural ingredients detangler for her kids).  I just wish that I could find another suburban mom like me in my town (somewhere within 10 km!! LOL!) who shares my passion of sewing/crafting/thrifting/making your own skin care and hair care products, and the curiosity for alternative ways to make a less-toxic life for ourselves and our kids. Perhaps I need to start a local mom group myself?

I think we living in the west think buying something will solve any of our issue/need/want. I'm trying to break away from that. When I go walking in the malls for exercise with my toddler (it's snowy and windy outside 6 months of the year), I actually love going into the higher end stores and look at the underworkings of the jackets, dresses and pants in case I want to copy them (yea the sales assistants were rolling their eyes at me - LOL)! And I like looking at the windows at H&M and Forever 21 to see how they put their outfits together.  I take pictures so that I can put together something similar from my closet. I don't feel bad going to shopping centres at all.

Sorry about the rant! Sometimes it feels a bit lonely just doing all these 'wacky' projects by myself and no one to share this with face to face. When I go to the local thrift store or the fabric store, I'm surrounded by seniors and the rare student. So if you also like sewing/crafting/thrifting/making your own creams, give me a holler!

Encore Pattern Review: New Look 6779 dress with sleeves

This is an encore pattern review for New Look 6779. Last time I made this sleeveless denim dress. This time I have made the same dress (size 12 again) with pockets and short sleeves with a hefty weight red linen. I have always wanted a red linen dress like Pippa Middleton (see below) and I have some stash red linen lying around, so I just made it quickly.

 (source: Instyle)

I think my choice of fabric is really not suitable for this dress. It's a pullover dress so it really needs some lightweight, drapey flowy material to look good. The heavy slightly stiff linen just didn't do this pattern justice. In the end, I ended up having to take out 4cm from the centre back because the dress was looking like a big stiff tent on me. On top of that the neckline would only stay flat if I don't move. As soon as I start walking it's moving all over the place and showing my bra straps. The sleeves and the chest area pull a bit (you can see the drag lines in the picture). Since I took out so much material from the centre back, I guess I should have done an FBA.

I tried to weigh the neckline down with 2 heavy metal buttons on each side of the neckline (like Pippa's dress). It works to a certain extend; but certainly not good enough.

I think I'll still wear this dress out for a test run when it's warmer outside to see if I would look foolish. I do like the look of the dress. Too bad the fabric was too stiff and heavy. I haven't given up on this pattern yet. I will try a flowy fabric next time.

Pattern Review: New Look 6734 Rashguard

My kids both wear rashguards when they go to the beach - mainly because they hate having sunscreen reapplied every so often. So I thought rashguards could provide some protection from the sun even if the sunscreen was gradually wearing off their skin. And it doesn't hurt that they both look really sporty and cute in the rashguards too!

I'm pretty bad at applying sunscreen on myself so I thought why not make a rashguard for me too? I dug through my pattern stash and found New Look 6734. I also dug out some red and black remnant swimwear fabric (nylon with 20% spandex) that I used for the self-made red swimsuit and the black swimsuit. Voila! Out come this kinda-wearable muslin of a rashguard.

The pattern pieces seemed straightforward enough. I think I only read the instructions once and didn't look at it again (may be I should have looked at it again!). I shortened the sleeves and made my usual short waist adjustment and then added 3cm to the bottom hem. It came together fairly quickly except that the neckline wouldn't stay flat. So I took apart the neckline piece, cut off 5cm from it and resewed it hoping that it would fix the neckline but the collar was still standing up. You can see that in the photo. I pressed and steamed the neckline and it became a bit flatter. But after test-wearing it in the shower the collar stood up again. I'm not sure how I can fix it with the existing neckline pattern piece. I think I probably have to redraft a curved neckline to apply to this top in order for it to stay flat. Oh well! I'm still going to wear it this summer. I have too many other sewing projects in the pipeline so I won't play with the collar of this top for a while. At least I know I can colour coordinate this top with both my black and red swimsuits!

My hubby saw this and said I looked very broad and butch in this top. What does he know about fashion anyways? :-)

Confession of a Knit-a-holic: Another Sweater Refashion

Yes admit it. I'm a Knit-a-holic. I love sewing knit fabrics, I love refashioning knits and I love wearing knits. It's warm and comfortable to wear. It's forgiving to sew even if the fit is not perfect. I can run, kneel down, wrestle with kids, etc, all while wearing knits. It can sewn or refashioned into something casual or more dressy. What's not to love?

Spring is approaching fast so I decided to refashion something for Spring from my refashioning stash. This is an XL men's cotton argyle sweater I thrifted a while back. It has a nice smooth hand and I like the pattern. But it was huge on me.

Using a more fitted sweater of mine as a template, and shortened sleeves, I cut and sewn up a new fitted argyle mini dress for spring. It's a bit short but with leggings and tall leather boots it should look okay. Yay! A new-ish spring sweater dress for 2013!