Birthday Hippo Dress

I'm a little belated in posting this, since I made this dress for the Big Bub's birthday in December! Eh eh, tardy as usual.

The Big Bub has been completely head-over-heels crazy about hippos since she was given a security blanket in the shape of one, when she was a wee thing. They're inseparable now, Hippo and she. He's even more precious to her than Mummy or Papa are!

I looked for ages for cute hippo fabric for the dress until I came across this Japanese linen. Not knowing what colour she would like, I bought half yards of pink, yellow and blue. Only the blue has been made up so far, though :)

I traced this off one of her existing dresses, adding a bit of ease to the sides because I was lazy to sew in a zipper. Come on, it's a lined dress (since I was afraid the linen would be scratchy) and I didn't want to deal with zipping up two layers! I think it was rather too much ease though, since quite baggy around the sides. But oh well, I guess she'll just be able to wear it for longer.

I made it in a drop-waist style, just because I thought it'd be cute. She wore it on her birthday weekend and was pleased as pleased. So I'm happy my efforts were appreciated! One little step to getting my girls to appreciate handmade (an uphill task considering the pervasive consumerist culture and easy availability of cheap stuff in these parts!).

Fabric:

1/2 yard of hippo print japanese linen. 1/2 yard of fine-wale corduroy, 3/4 metre of velvet ribbon, 2 vintage red buttons, 1/2 yard acetate lining, all from the stash. I have a serious problem with the size of my stash.

Little knot top

I fell in love with this fabric while poking around at Spotlight (my fave big-store haunt) for grommets. For some reason it was on the quilting clearance table for $6/metre. I can't imagine why such PRETTY fabric should have to go on clearance. Anyway, all the better for me :):) I snatched it up and out came the credit card. In my haste, I forgot about the grommets. Bleah.

This fabric takes honours as one of the few pieces I actually cut into within a week after purchase. It certainly wasn't a hasty decision - oh no! I thought about what I wanted to make a fair bit (a week's worth of travel time, shower time and dream time surely counts) but couldn't come up with anything better than a very simple top, because of the gorgeous pattern I wanted to showcase, and because there was only a metre of it.

Or maybe there's just a problem with my imagination.

The pattern was loosely on the top half of a shift dress pattern I already use. I had a grand time fitting and fitting the back darts to give it a bit of shape. I have quite a swayback, but I managed to make it fit quite well at the back (even Mr Tropical agreed!) so I'm proud of myself.

I also had to fit the back straps (on myself, since I haven't a dressform) with my bra on, to make sure they covered up the bra straps. That wasn't very difficult though.

I had to figure out the knotted-neck-hole thing myself. I was ambitious and wanted to line it and all with contrasting melon fabric, which turned out to be a bit too much for my low skillz - it doesn't sit flat, though it was a thin cotton fabric strip that I cut on the bias. But oh well, I think it looks okay.

I did take pics of the whole process so if anyone is interested in making a similar one (less the contrast strip, since mine turned out sucky) and wants to see my clunky inelegant method, let me know and I'll post.

I've worn this on a few casual outings already and really like it very much. My little bub loves pulling at the ribbon too :)


Fabric:

1 metre of mid-weight quilting cotton 'Happy Owl Petals' in melon from Spotlight. Originally $14.95/m, I got this at 30% off = $10.50. This is actually an ok-ish price to pay for cotton in these parts. Very slightly pricey, but I made an exception because I couldn't resist its cuteness! 

On a run with the shorts

Since the first pair fit pretty well and went together so fast, I was greedy and sewed up another pair :)

Really, I was completely powerless to resist the pull of that fabric. I mean, look at all those HORSES! I'm a huge sucker for 'subtle' prints. I love it whenthe garment is a solid colour or nondescript print from a distance, but when you get up close, ooh look! pink umbrellas in a storm! little men with hats! eyeballs!

It really makes my day when the person I've been talking to all of the last 20 minutes suddenly stops mid-sentence and goes, "Oh my! *gape* Are those small grenades you've got on your dress?"

Ha. I'm such a nerd.

Or maybe I should just stop living around blind people.

I was looking through my scrap bag for a contrasting-yet-matching piece to make the back pocket and button trim, and came across this nice scallop-y piece that reminded me of grassy plains.Just for the challenge, I made it puffy - this is my first try at a bit of quilting. The batting looked kinda thick at the start though, so I ripped it in two and only used a half thickness. I kinda regret being chicken now - I think that pocket could do with a leetle more puff!

The other thing I love about this pair is the vintage zip :) I got a bunch of them from some good-hearted eco soul who was ripping them out of old garments destined for the landfill. There, my good deed for the day :)

A curious thing I noticed is how my two pairs of shorts sit differently. The first pair is a really fine, soft corduroy, so it falls straight down. This pair is a mid-weight quilting cotton, a little stiffer and crisper than the corduroy, which make my bot look way perkier. I don't know if I like the look or not. And I haven't any idea what sort of sewing thing to do about it! Take in the sides? It'll become too tight. Taper the legs? I wouldn't be able to walk. Right?

Any ideas?

Fabric:

1 1/2 yard of mid-weight quilting cotton from Etsy, courtesy of a really nice Canadian lady. The pattern actually gets by fine with just 1 yard, but of course I needed that extra 1/2 yard just so I could be stupid and cut out a piece or two with the horses facing upside down.

Oh and if you would excuse the graffiti on my left arm. It's not a tattoo. I just couldn't find any paper when I was writing out my grocery list.

Super belated 2011 wrap-up

Late to the party as usual, but here is the wrapup of my very first year in sewing.

16 garments to my name... (and look how Mr Tropical's photographing-people-skill has improved over the year :D )

Also some other little craft-type things (not shown).

Oh, and one UFO. A huge orange blousey thing that I made two months post-baby - what a bad idea. It's sack-like and totally unwearable at present. And way too embarassing for a picture!

Two dresses made it to the Burdastyle.com front page, and one to their Best of 201 1 (woo-hoo!). One doll made it on Craftgawker.



And my sewing resolutions for 2012? A rather long list, though perhaps not particularly embitious:
1. Break out my new serger.

My sweet parents gave it to me on my birthday (I'm a Halloween baby) after I asked for one. I really do want to see myself using it, but at the moment all those needles and wheels scare the hell out of me!


2. Sew one thing from knit or stretchy fabric.

I'm SCARED of the things. All that stretch, all that movement. How will I cut it? Hem it? Won't it get swallowed up by my machine. Maybe if I get my serger figured out, it'll fall into place.


3. Join a sewing contest.

Just for the kicks :) because it looks like it'll be so much fun!


4. Join a sew-along.

Caveats: It must be something I want to make, and it must happen at a time when the other bits of my life aren't crazy. Hmm, that's a hard one...


5. Not take my sewing too seriously, or spend toooo much time at the machine.

Because sewing is my hobby, and that means I should have a ball of a time doing it. That means no sewing anything that isn't fun (unless it's a favour for family). No crying, no pulled hair, and no zombie nights over sewing. And because this is supposed to make me a happier person, no point in driving Mr Tropical up the wall with it - he's already telling me he doesn't see much more than the back of my head some nights!

2011 - my sewing year

These are truly tumultuous times. There’ve been some pretty major changes in the last few years – becoming a Mrs. and starting graduate studies in 2007, and having two little girls in 2008 and 2010.

And I'll always remember 2011 as the year I started sewing properly. The year I made the leap from crafty/homey-type projects to real garments. That I wore out of the house! to work! to outings!

And people told me they loved them. This possibly means more to me out here, living in a shy Asian culture where you don't make social/personal comments unless you know the guy pretty well, than if I were living in a nice open stranger-friendly culture like the US or UK has.

So here's me thinking to myself, I am DA BOMB! I make clothes that fit! I can wear clothes again!

I. AM. SO. HOOKED.

It wasn't so long ago when I didn't care which grubby T-shirt I wore with which grubby pair of baggy jeans (hello, uni days!). And my boring, mass-market days are not long left behind (this went with the whole scientific-academia environment I grew up and eventually worked in). I've always been around people who give you the suspicious eye if you're in any colour other than black, grey or brown, and if you wear a Dress, will ask if you've got a wedding to attend!

Starting graduate studies meant I worked in a lab, and fashion-wise, that meant freedom from the monochromatic trousers/skirt stereotype. Lab rats can be as weird and wild as they come. Not me though - I just went back to T-shirts/jeans (though admittedly I'd learnt a thing or two about fit by then).

Then I got married, and needed to look a bit better so as to accompany Mr Tropical out in the evenings.

Cue babies.

Cue loss of awesome hourglass figure.

*ouch*

And you have the real reason why I thought about getting into this sewing thing. Because with the likes of MNG, Zara, Topshop and H&M, why'd anyone even bother to sew these days?

Except that those mountains of clothing no longer fit either my body or my budget. I can't carry off a mini-skirt these days. Or skinny jeans. Or thin jersey anything. And I can't plonk down all my spare cash on beautifully tailored separates, however much I want to!

It was a bad time. For a year or so after the first baby, shopping actually made me depressed. I'd try on oodles of things and the only ones I was happy to wear were the ones I couldn't buy. I was surviving on five nice leftover early-maternity outfits, and improvisations with maxi skirts and men's shirts!

I found Burdastyle in late 2010 while preggers again (I think I was referred from Etsy, on which I ran two crafty shops), and as they say, the rest is history.

I dug out my dusty old sewing machine and made my first garment, a cheery but awfully shapeless cotton smock that I still wear around the house (the bright orange armhole binding is its only saving grace).

It was a moderate success, so I invested in some more fabric and patterns. And waited breathlessly for the return of some semblance of a figure so I could start sewing dresses.

I made my first very shapeless shift in early 2011, and have come a little way since. So far, I have 16 garments to my name, mostly very simple shift dresses, tops and shorts. But some of them have been very well received (see Press), which is absolutely gratifying :)

I've accumulated quite a stash of patterns, about half of which are vintage (and cost pennies! woo!). I'm also quite the fan of downloadable patterns. And I'm just starting to learn how to customize patterns by changing or adding things, or by using features from a few different patterns in one garment.

I also have a small-but-growing library. Next on the wish-list: Pattern Magic 1 and 2, and a nice McQueen picture-book.

I'm too embarrassed to photograph my fabric stash, because the pile I've acquired in one year is HUMUNGOUS. It fills up 50% of one floor-to-ceiling unit of shelving. Oops!

I'm having such a ball of a time here, I even have half a mind to make 2012 the year I forego conventional clothes shopping. What do you think? Will I make it?

Oh yah, I have legs

I am so past the whole short-shorts-and-high-heels thing. No-one can pull that look off without looking skanky (yes, I'm in a catty mood).

I really want some shorts, though. My bubs are at the zoo-and-outdoor-walks age and I'm tramping around outside way too often. That's always a hot and moist exercise in these parts, and my mood isn't made better by my usual denim knee-length bermudas.

I need shorts.

As usual my rushed shopping jaunts left me severely depressed. Enough already with all those crack-y, cheek-y shorts! You fast-fashion bosses too cheap to give me an extra couple of inches of fabric for my 39.99?

So off I went in search for a pattern. And found this, #111 in my copy of the Burda mag 6/2011.

Yes, it's really basic. Nothing fancy, nothing too difficult. It did fit perfectly, though! And it went together like a dream. A week of free time, including drafting and sewing the scallops, and appliqueing the flower on - which for me is lightning speed. Here are the results:

I love the skirty-ness!

The scalloped hem!

The high waist! (I'm surprised it even works on my tum!)

The scalloping went ok, except I cut too close to the seams in some parts, before flipping out. There are a couple of frays at scallop-points already, so these shorts mightn't last too long *cries*
And because the fabric is thin, and I folded in the hem, you can see this ugly 'layer' on the front side, where the hem comes up to.
I also made a huge bunched-up mess in the scalloping on one of the inside leg seams. It doesn't show of course, but boy does it ever chafe my thigh. Bleh.

More close-ups, just because I'm happy:

The back pocket is a piece of sari silk I bought off Etsy a long time ago. The colours matched almost perfectly. Decided against two back pockets, so as not to look too busy around the derriere.

And I used the remaining bit of silk for an applique. I was anal as usual, so I both slip-stitched as well as top-stitched. Behold my abysmal top-stitching skills!

Oh yah, this was my first attempt at inserting an invisible zipper, and thanks to three or four Youtube vids and print tutorials, it turned out perfect. The first time! I'm so not afraid of invisible zippers anymore.

Overall, I'm really quite pleased with them. Although it's been so long since I wore going-out shorts as short as these, that I have to get used to showing my legs again!


Interesting fact: Ironically for Hubs and I labouring in the sunny garden shooting and shooting pics, the older bub got the best shot of all. She picked up the camera to play with, and I was racing across the grass to 'rescue' it when she clicked the button.


Adjustments:
I cut out a 38 (to make sure it fitted over my abnormally large tum), and instead of tapering it to a 36 at the bottom like I usually do, decided to go for the 'skirty' look instead. And I shortened the hem by an inch.


Fabric:
1 yard of really soft wine-coloured fine-wale corduroy. I snatched it up from the remnant table at Spotlight - only $3!

My dolly on Craftgawker!

Oh my oh my!

Woke up this morning to find my little dolly featured on Craftgawker.com, together with all the other cool kids!

#26965

Score one for The Tropical Sewist!
(as you've guessed, I'm still new enough to this whole she-bang for stuff like this to be really exciting)

Old post here and pattern from Alison Berry.