Planning my Sureau...

After reviewing my gifts, prizes and pre-Christmas purchases I have decided that one of my next projects needs to be the Deer and Doe Sureau dress. I love the casual look of it and i've not yet approached a dress with a button stand before. After my sleeve issue with my festive Mortmain, this gives me another opportunity to try a sleeved dress - a toile will be in order! 

Because the dress has a slouchy look to it, I have been thinking carefully about my fabric choices. Before Christmas I picked up some lovely samples from a shop in Sham Shui Po. I had decided to look at some viscose, polyester and rayon fabrics. The shop is Tai Wah Textile Company on Wong Chuk Street. I was drawn in by their brightly coloured prints and I wasn't surprised how easy it was to find some totally delicious fabrics. 

At the moment, my number one choice is this delightful navy duck printed fabric. It's 100% rayon and has a nice weight and drape to it - potentially perfect for the Sureau! The sample price is just $33HKD per yard, which I think is a total bargain. I know I need about 2.5 yards to make the Sureau, so buying 5 yards (minimum) shouldn't be an issue. 

                                         Other samples that I picked up at the same time are this card of fun, spotty rayons. The navy of this is also very nice and could potentially make a nice Sureau, but as I have other spotty fabrics in my stash, it might be a bit inappropriate to buy this one too. This one is only $37HKD per yard, so might be a consideration for the future.                                 

                                     

I'm going to aim to order this fabric tomorrow as I am planning a visit to Sham Shui Po this weekend (school errands!). Hopefully the delightful ducks are in stock. 

Watch this space for my Sureau progress!

My prize haul...Thank you Gather!

I've gradually been gathering up my prize haul from my festive competition win. Before the Christmas break I was sent voucher codes for The Village Haberdashery (25 GBP) and Guthrie and Ghani (30 GBP). I was eager to start shopping! Knowing that I was visiting the UK over Christmas meant that I saved a bit of money on delivery, so I got plenty for my money. I decided to buy the fabric below from The Village Haberdashery. The fabric on the left is an Alison Glass handcrafted cotton fabric (available here in graphite). The fabric on the right is a hand painted effect viscose. Both fabrics are really lovely and I made sure that I got 3 metres of each so that I can make a dress from each if I so choose. I'm sure you'll agree that they are stunning?!

From Ghani and Guthrie I decided to buy patterns (see here for their extensive range). I have coveted both the Sew over it! Betty dress - a stunning little 50's style number and the By hand Anna dress - a very versatile dress that can be made short or long for a while. I love the packaging of both and it is such a treat to have a physical pattern, instead of printing a PDF. 

After picking up my lovely fabric and patterns from the UK, I returned to Hong Kong anticipating the arrival of my other prizes. After a long, jet lagged day at work, I managed to make it to the Post Office. I was super excited to open the package and reveal these beautiful Gather patterns (thank you ladies!) and also a surprise prize, which was The secrets of sewing lingerie book! I wasn't expecting this, so I was very happy. I have never approached underwear as a me made item, but now it's certainly an option. It's a beautifully put together book, with great photographs and clear instruction. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it!

I now have a massive 'to sew' list and can't wait to get started!

Christmas sewing gifts!

So, the big day has been and gone and i've travelled more than 20,000km over the festive period. I'm back in Hong Kong reviewing my lovely Christmas gifts and finally getting the chance to blog. After putting in a few speculative hints, I am now the proud owner of both the Christine Haynes 'Emery' pattern and the Deer and Doe 'Sureau' pattern. These are two that I wanted to get in printed format and International delivery is never favourable. I'm very excited to make both of them! I certainly think a toile will be in order for both as they feature sleeves (a problem I came across in my festive Mortmain). I'm now on the search for some suitable, lovely fabric (I have a few ideas already - to follow). 

In addition to the patterns, I also received two smashing books! The Famous Frocks - Little Black Dress book and Gertie sews vintage casual. Both were on my amazon wish list (good job I helpfully emailed it to my husband!)and will be put to use as soon as possible. I love the style of Gertie's writing and it's great how she instructs you on how to adapt and create your patterns from the basics. The Famous Frocks book is just a classic to add to my library and will give me some super inspiration for when I start being more creative with my pattern cutting. Both books come with the pattern pieces inside, so my making list is growing at an exponential rate! 

More blogs to follow soon, featuring makes from my Christmas gifts and more! 

I hope you all had a fabulous, creative Christmas!

My first Megan dress...

After my victory of yesterday (still very excited!), I have found time to day to share my first attempt at the Megan dress by Tilly and the Buttons. This dress is from her 'Love at first stitch' book and is a fairly straight forward make. I decided to use some lovely balloon fabric that I bought from modes4u.com to make it, so it has a celebration theme - Hence the photograph with the Christmas tree again! 

The main skills that this dress teaches you is an invisible zip fastening (which I use on most of my makes, so not a learnt skill here), inserting sleeves (quite straight forward on this dress actually) and an open ended dart (a new one on me, but very easy - just don't sew into a point). The open ended dart is designed to give a softer look to the shaping than a traditional dart. Tilly gives great guidance on doing this in her instructions, so no problems there! I decided to add lining to the bodice pieces to avoid using a facing. This worked well and was joined in at the armholes when the sleeve was added.  

In regards to the finished article, it's certainly well made. I'm please with my pattern matching, zip and sleeves - three things that can be dodgy! However, i'm not convinced that this shape of dress suits me. I managed to fit the dress at the back neck as this was gaping, so the size is correct, I think it is just the silhouette that i'm unhappy with. I think my curves are just too prominent! I certainly think that i'm more of a Lilou girl (see here) and should stick with this shape as much as possible. Next task is to do a pattern hack involving the shape of the Lilou and the sleeves of the Megan; wish me luck! 

P.S. Ignore my disgruntled face, It's just an unfortunate photograph!

Fashionary - a review...

One of the new additions to my sewing mission is a 'Fashionary'. This great little red book is now always in my bag for whenever I feel inspired. The front of the book features lots of information about different styles of garments, fabrics and industry shows. The content would be great for newcomers to garment design and manufacture as it opens your mind to new ideas. It has certainly acted as a refresher for me. 

The rest of the book features pages of outlines to design onto. The figures are made up of red dots, so they are not obvious when you draw onto them. Although i'm quite used to drawing fashion drawings, having outlines gives me more freedom to be creative. I'm no longer thinking about the shape of the figure, i'm purely thinking about the garments. 

I bought my Fashionary from the new Page One in Harbour City. It comes in several different cover designs and is well worth buying if you like designing and making your own clothes.