March 6, 2010 of 365 : pile of grey ’scraps’ from johanna for my hexagon project

The English Paper Pieced hexagon project that I’m working on is using all shades of grey with splashes of orangey red. I have quite a few greys in my collection, but I was hoping to have only one or two hexagons of each fabric. I have estimated that I’ll need over 225 hexagons to make my pillow, so that’s a heck of a lot of grey. I asked Johanna if she might open up her vault of fabric (over 20 years of collecting) and snip a few small pieces for me. She generously handed over an incredible stack of delicious grey pieces from her huge collection and each piece is a real gem. (I actually do mentally envision Johanna’s insane fabric collection as a huge vault full of fabric. She seems to have a neverending stash of amazing prints.)

Stylish Dress Book
ISBN 9784579111855

I’m not sure how, but I noticed yesterday that I never did a post about the mother of all Japanese Dress Books – Stylish Dress Book. It is probably a bit redundant at this point, as most of you have the book, know each page by heart and have seen quite a few of these patterns posted here and elsewhere. Nonetheless, I feel my little dress book resource would be incomplete without this.

To date, I have made seven of the patterns in the book myself. I have helped other people make most of the others in the class I teach. Where some of the books I have contain just a couple standout patterns, this book has a great variety of styles that are very appealing. I can still pull this dog-eared book out and pore over every page with great interest.

I really like the layout of the Stylish Dress Book series. The technical drawings and instruction pages are well laid out and very clear. The pattern sheets are printed in one colour, which can be very overwhelming to look at. I have seen books that do multicolour printing for the pattern pages and it makes extracting the pattern a bit easier, especially when you’re first starting out. This is a small detail that would not deter me from buying this book, but I just mention it as a note of comparison.

Looking through the book, I see that I still have not made dress ‘S’. I need to pick a fabric and get on it. I’m deciding between this, this, this or a lovely plain indigo black cotton/inox (steel) blend. Thoughts?

I really wanted to try a project out with Anna Maria Horner’s new cotton voile. When you feel it, you can hardly believe how silky smooth it is. Voile is a very lightweight fabric that is slightly sheer and has great drape. I had never sewn with it before, so I was unsure of how tricky it would be to handle.

I chose to use a tried and loved pattern from Stylish Dress Book. Style “B”, is a favourite. I’ve seen it made up in various different fabrics and on different people and the result is always really cute.

I’d like to make a note here about drafting out this pattern, that I didn’t mention in the post about my first style “B” top in nani IRO. When tracing out the pattern pieces for the sleeve you’ll notice that the two sleeve pieces (top of the sleeve & gathered bottom of the sleeve) are printed beside each other on the pattern sheet. When you trace the bottom of the sleeve, you may notice that it is the same width as the top of the sleeve. In order to create the gathering and fullness in the bottom sleeve piece, you need to split that pattern piece down the centre and spread it apart by 10cm. This is something that you can easily miss, because the only notation for this is found on the huge pattern sheet and is well, in Japanese.

Sewing with the voile was no problem. Even making bias trim was easy to manage. For any pattern that has a ‘flowy’ style, this fabric would look amazing the way it falls and drapes. This is why it is a great fabric to use for many of the Japanese Dress Book patterns, as it can make that extra fullness of some of the styles look more elegant. For sure, the best part is how it feels. Wearing this fabric will just put you in a blissful mood.

This particular print is called, ‘Colouring Garden‘ and the colour is ‘Berry’. I really appreciate how Anna Maria Horner has taken prints from her ‘Good Folks’ collection and recoloured and reprinted them in flannel and now voile. It’s exciting to have new fabrications to choose from.

p.s. I just ordered a copy of Stylish Dress Book 3!!! from Pomadour on etsy. Thank you Marilou for the special alert!

I’ve had my eye on this dress pattern for a while. It’s my favourite from this book. I really like the yoke with the little split down the centre of it. The open sleeve is also pretty cute.

I made few alterations to this pattern. The first was to take a couple inches off the sides of the dress. I could tell from the picture that all the gathering would just create too much volume for me. The next thing I did was to add pockets into the side seams. Finally. I don’t know why I’ve been avoiding taking this extra step with my dresses, it’s so nice to have pockets! I simply took another dress I have that has pockets I love, traced the pocket piece and measured how far down they were placed. So easy. I also added a little contrasting bias strip between the yoke and the body of the dress and faced the hem of the sleeves since they are so exposed. I learned these bits of detailing when I made the Oliver & S Tea Party Dress and I’ve been wanting to use it again. The metallic floral print was also used for the pocket pieces. These extra details didn’t take that long to do and really make the dress extra sweet.

The fabric is really what this dress is all about though. It is called “Wild Horses” (of course) by Alexander Henry. It looks like it belongs on the side of an 80s airbrushed van and for some reason I love it so much. It was one of those fabrics that when I saw it, I could hardly believe how great it was and then I selfishly bought a bolt because I knew I had to make a dress from it.

I’ve been wearing it with these amazing purple tights I bought in Paris. Perhaps the whole thing is a bit much together, but it makes me pretty happy.

It’s been a few weeks since the Intro to Hand Work class finished and I miss it. I really enjoyed the freedom of sewing without a sewing machine. It meant that the class group was able to sit around the large table, chatting and working away at the same time. It also meant I was able work on my project when I was on transit or sitting in bed late at night.

We basted our final sawtooth star blocks with a layer of batting and a muslin backing, just like a mini quilt. I kept my quilting design very simple, echoing the shape of the patchwork lines. It’s cool to see the hand quilting pattern from the reverse side. I used both a round quilting hoop and a square Q-Snap frame when doing this project. I like having the flexibility to switch between the circular and square frame as I choose.

Hand quilting is amazing. I just love the way the it looks. When I see it, I unrealistically want every quilt I make to be hand quilted. The slightly uneven quality of the stitches is so charming.

Turning this one block into a pillow was so incredibly satisfying because the entire project was completed within just one month. It seems a big feat, compared to the ongoing quilt projects I have that are a year or more in the making.

I chose to use the turquoise powerlines on grey print from Repeat for the back of the pillow. It couldn’t be more perfect. I love everything about this graphic pillow. I’m so proud of it!

I’m pondering my next hand piecing/quilting project and think it’s about time I did an English Paper Pieced pillow. I created this gallery with some of my inspirations.

I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to show you my new homemade underwear. I have been collecting pretty elastic trims from Mokuba in anticipation of creating a new collection of cute undies for myself. These two pairs were made using the same patterns we use in the Underwear class. They are the most comfortable underwear I own. Not only because the fit is amazing but because this organic knit bamboo is so soft and lovely.

Making these two pairs hardly depleted my trim stash, so next up I want to knock off some undies I already own and create my own patterns. Next Monday I hope to schedule in a whole day just devoted to this project.

Amy of Angry Chicken is all about making her own underwear too, so I’m not the only one!

More and more I love doing hand work. There is something so peaceful and thoughtful about it. The first Intro to Hand Work class started on Saturday. I was eager to finish my homework, so I completed my sawtooth block by Sunday night. Since I didn’t need my machine, I did most of the work sitting in bed watching tv online and listening to podcasts. It feels so luxurious to sew this way!

Over time, I’m sure my stitching may become more even, perhaps more tiny but I think I’m doing okay to start.

I decided to feature the pink vintage feedsack fabric that I bought at Quilt Market in October. The dark grey contrasting fabric is a Japanese import that we just received. I’m hoping to throw in some aqua Tula Pink hexagons, but I don’t feel ready to commit to my border fabrics just yet.

I bought a small vintage tin on ebay today to hold my hand quilting ‘kit’. I want everything to be kept together and portable, so I can work ‘on-the-go’. Our teacher, Carolanne, has two tins that sit one in the other on her lap while she rides the streetcar and does her hand piecing.

BTW. My favourite pins right now are these slim white glass head pins. (last photo) They are nice to handle and easily slide through all fabrics, especially finer ones like Liberty Tana Lawns.

365 : folksy flannel pjs

My first completed project of this year was a mandatory pair of Folksy Flannel pajama pants. I definitely need more flannel in my life. I used the Amy Butler lounge pant pattern for the third time, taking the original wide leg in by just over an inch. I’m not ashamed to say that over my mini break I wore them all day long.

I’d been planning to remake Dress ‘V’, from Stylish Dress Book 2 as a shorter tunic for some time. My first version was my shibori dress, which is a very summer-inspired dress. This black and white tunic reminds me of snowy winter.

The main fabric is by Anna Griffin and shows a delicately stippled print. I love how different the print reads from close up and from far away. The contrasting black placket fabric is from the My Folklore collection, which I have used over and over and over again in my projects. The fabric covered buttons are made from the same black My Folklore fabric. I actually find it incredibly hard to pair two different printed fabrics together. I like things to be quite ‘plain’, but I have been working to challenge myself to overcome this. Doing patchwork has definitely helped me to accept (& love!) seeing two prints side by side.

p.s. I really love the sleeve on this dress – perfect length and amount of gathering around the cuff.

p.s.s. I’ve been updating My Crafty List of Things to Do, as I daydream about all the things I wish I had time to make right now!

p.s.s.s. I’ve got FOUR giveaways planned before Christmas, starting tomorrow!

I was tagged by Constança to show my desk, which also happens to be my dining room table. At the end of each night (or so) I clear the table off until my next sewing session. This is probably best, because I would have one of those desks that was full of piles and overly messy.

I took these photos over the course of a weekend, so you can see me jump from project to project.

Photo 1 : Working on a plaid cotton quilt top for a Christmas gift, eating Coconut Liberte Yogourt and drinking hot chocolate
Photo 2 : Drafting a shoo-fly block for another new quilt using my French General jelly roll
Photo 3 : Adding the Mokuba trim to my new blue tunic
Photo 4 : Checking out flickr with my new Shinzi Katoh agenda and drinking hot chocolate (drinking hot chocolate seems to be mandatory when working, I am drinking some right now)

I’m usually the worst person to tag for these things, but I was determined to get my act together for this one. The three people whose desks I’d like to see are – Lauren, Ayalah & Rosalyn. You are meant to show your desk/working space as it is, without any editing or styling and then tag three more people. If anyone else out there wants to play along, just post a link here to a photo of your desk. (the messier the better!)

I hope you have a lovely weekend, friends. I’m making great progress with my holiday gift making. I won’t be able to tell you about a lot of it until after Christmas, but I’ve got a few projects that should be ’safe’ to share with you.