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Christmas Clothes

Well Christmas (2008) has come and gone, it is already April '09 and I really should update on what I'd done with the fabric mentioned in This Post.

First off, for the kid, I chose this set of coordinates


and made this dress (which is a Mark II)

front back


During the process of making it, I had actually taken quite detailed photos with the intention of writing a tutorial, complete with a free pattern and everything.

HOWEVER...

the outcome (Mark I) needed so many modifications that the photos are quite useless after the fact. Anyway, I will still post the free pattern once I figure out how to convert it to a pdf, and how to get it hosted somewhere.

The neckline, armholes and hem (of Mark II) were all finished with a decorative scallop-stitch instead of the usual facings and hemming. Of course, this was because I made a mess of the original design, which had bias binding around the neck and armholes. The openings were too small, alas, and so I cut the bindings away to make larger openings. The rest of the dress was finished at this point, and I had no desire to unpick anything to add facings and thus, the decorative edging came into being. Why didn't I just re-attach the binding? I thought the original made the dress look rubbish. So in hindsight, the mistake was fortuitous after all. Bah.


This was how it looked like with binding, before testing it on the child, dang it!


What do you think?

Next up, is the shirt for the hubby.

Should have taken a photo of him wearing it but decided that nothing can make a picture of a man's shirt exciting so here it is in all its boring-ness.


The only thing I want to talk about this shirt is that I had to squeeze every last centimetre of fabric out of the yardage to make this, which explains the colour of the inner yoke, obviously made out of plain black cotton. And because Henry just HAD to have a pocket, I pieced together scraps (I mean inch-wide bits of scrap) to make one.


If you click on this picture, you will be able to see where the flower pattern on the pocket doesn't match. But hey, he got his pocket.

And finally, my dress.


Made out of the faux marimekko print (yellow poppies, yay!) with a high waistband in a contrasting fabric.

I pondered whether to add that or not but decided that it would break the monotony of the poppies print. I'm glad I did but wish I had paid more attention to the pattern placement of the accent fabric.

Since all three garments were done in the 5 days before Christmas - 5 days before making a 3-baggage, 4-hour car ride to Singapore for Christmas - I can pat myself on the back and not sweat the boo-boos too much :)

Hope you all had a GRAND CHRISTMAS!

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Comments

  1. Your dress is GORGEOUS! I really like it! Today I went out and spent $49 on clothes for me at Hanna Andersson because I knew I would NEVER get round to sewing myself any clothes. Good thing got outlet mall or else I will go broke. Laughed when I read your bit about husband wanting pocket on shirt. Men are funny that way. They aren't crazy about cuts and prints and cleanness of lines so much as functionality. Anyway I reiterate what I earlier said: you are amazing to sew all that (from scratch, I bet) in 5 days, including unpicking! I kowtow!

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  2. Your dress is gorgeous! Also the one for your daughter. I laughed when I saw teh shirt for your husband. Many years ago I attempted a shirt for my husband and he hated it. He never said so of course, but he did not like plum paisley at all! He wore it once or twice and then it sadly disappeared...Great sewing!

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