Anna Rose – a dress from By Hand London. My first Anna…

Posted on July 27, 2013 by sewbusylizzy

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“Hello Anna. I know we’ve only known each other for 48 hours but can we be BFFs?”

My Anna ‘Rose’ dress from By Hand London. My new BFF.

Hello Anna from By Hand London. Without a doubt this is my favourite dress pattern EVER. I made the first and then made two more in 24 hours. Yup, obsessed. It’s almost worthy of a tattoo – however I’m not into ink on me so I’m just going to make more dresses – hey, it still involves needles…

Anna is seriously easy to make – even with the French seams. She’s a sewing push over (I mean that in the nicest way). It’s been popping up on blogs – Handmade by Jane, the Virtual Princess & the Pea, My Oh Sew Vintage Life and Kim-ing. All the makes I’ve seen have been the midi length – I couldn’t help myself – I went all the way on my first date with Anna – maxi length!.

I call this dress my Anna Rose. She’s my pretty girly Anna.

The front bodice features pleats instead of darts. This may be the cause of my new love affair. I love how it fits at the waist and the pleats create a soft ‘bewb’ ledge. The kimono sleeves (or ‘the sleeves you have when you are not having sleeves’) gives dainty coverage without requiring you to actually ‘set in’ sleeves (yes, major sewing win).

Anna Rose – a girly girly dress

In short, Anna is a sexy girly dress – without being tight, short or overtly sexy. It’s subtle (OK except for when my legs are hanging out everywhere – who are you my mother?). It’s magic. I think it’s pretty much perfect *sigh* it’s love. *blush*

Anna Rose – whoops there are my legs!! No so ladylike – don’t tell Mum.

I was going to blog all three at once. Then I realised I had something to say about each of my Annas and it would turn into a marathon wordy post – and I would have to cut back on the pictures. We all love a pretty dress… am I right?

Can you believe this is winter – today was glorious, even the water was lovely! Yes, I do live in paradise (some days)

This is actually my favourite version of Anna. I’ll be interested to see which you prefer after my third Anna post. Anna Rose is not perfect construction-wise but I feel swoon-worthy and girly as hell. I haven’t made a maxi dress and this pattern has definitely re-ignited my love of them. I used to be a maxi-wearing tragic – loved them and basically hid my legs in them for years.

I didn’t make a muslin… I basically never do… yes, I’m wild and crazy like that. I just assume everything is drafted for me because 1) I’m an unrealistic optimist at heart & 2) I’m a fairly bog standard build (unless I ‘m sewing Colette).

It fits perfectly except it’s a little big across my shoulders. I always considered this my SUB problem (scrawny upper back). However after Taracat’s post about her Cambilex dress (go check it out – super cool pattern mash-up) – I think I have a SS problem (scrawny shoulder). In the meantime I’ve simply popped in some back neck darts which works perfectly. I’m going to figure out how to modify the back pattern piece and rotate this fullness to the back waist dart. Watch this space.

Anna Rose – the back

I had this rayon fabric in my stash – I got it to make a shirtdress then realised it would be too soft for a structured shirtdress. So it sat and sat and sat in my stash. I even considered giving it away and I didn’t really like it. THANK GOODNESS I DIDN’T. Note to self: there is nothing wrong with stashing – nothing.

I adore this, I love the romantic roses, the soft colours and. I was worried about wearing that creamy colour near my face so I opted for the slash neck. Since the neckline was racy, I decided to pair it with the thigh slit. I love the old-fashioned feel of the fabric with the sexy neckline and thigh slit. It’s demure but unexpectedly sexy at the same time.

A little bit of peek-a-boo – note the facing has rolled out slightly… I just figure I’ll distract people with my legs. LOL.

I machine stitched the thigh slit and the armhole hems. I wish I hadn’t and I’m going to go back and hand stitch these parts and unpick the machine stitching. If you are working with rayon, it’s really worth hand stitching these things. It keeps the dress line soft and flowing. I should have known better the same thing happened with my Vogue 1247 top (I’m a slow learner *shrugs*).

The neckline facing does tend to roll out a little. I did top stitch it but I think the fabric is just too soft to stay in place. I’m just relying on my legs to distract people from my head area. I tried something else with Anna 3 neckline.

Here’s a tip: cut every single notch on those skirt panels!!!! The skirt has seven pieces. It’s simple to put together but the key is THE NOTCHES. Cut those babies out, it makes figuring out which panel goes where very simple. Without them, you will be CRYING. Crying and howling ‘why didn’t I listen to Lizzy??‘ (I would pay cold hard cash to hear my kids say that some days…).

If you have a directional print you will need much much more fabric. The skirt panels lie ‘this way and that way’ on the fabric. Just sayin’!

French seam it – especially with the thigh slit. In a soft fabric the skirt blows around and you don’t want people lookin’ at your sloppy seam finishes – no amount of leg will make up for fraying fabric or overlocked seams – it’s just not pretty.. Just sayin’

Anna Rose – I know, there is a stupid amount of images in this post. Sorry – can’t help myself *blush*

The gorgeous girls from By Hand London sent me this pattern – thank you! Clearly I more than like this pattern – and not just because it was gifted to me – it is truly awesome. I am OFFICIALLY BESOTTED. It’s not another pretty dress. It’s a beautiful versatile dress – my second and third are completely different again.

Enough. GO BUY THIS PATTERN.

And if you already have it – GO SEW IT. NOW.

And if you are still not convinced – I’ll be back tomorrow with Anna 2…

Pattern: Anna from By Hand London (Aussies can get it from Sew Squirrel)
Fabric: Rayon from Spotlight.

Anna Rose – when Anna the maxi becomes Anna the mini – running down a sand dune!

And a shout-out to the adorable Roisin of Dolly Clackett. She’s made an amazing dress from some fabric I gifted her. I’m so proud of her – I think we should make her a honorory Australian. Plus it’s a mash-up of Elisalex! Her blog post cheered me up immensely this week 🙂 it’s amazing how kindness to others can light up your own life. MWAH. I am blessed to have so many amazing people in my life.

Someone on Pattern Review wanted to see the line drawings – here they are!

BY HAND LONDON Silk Sari Victoria Blazer

Posted on July 6, 2013 by sewbusylizzy

The Sari Edition – By Hand London Victoria Blazer

By Hand London have done it again, created a beautiful yet simple pattern which is taking the blogging world by storm! THE VICTORIA BLAZER. Plus they are doing a Sewalong – fear jackets no more!

Yes, it’s popped up at House of Pinheiro, Sew Dixie Lou, Dolly Clackett, The Virtual Princess & the Pea, A Stitching Odyssey and none other than Oonaballoona of Kalkatroona.

By Hand Victoria Blazer - The Sari Edition back view

By Hand Victoria Blazer – back view – oops excuse the little oopsie crease in the hem!

The thing I am coming to love most about the By Hand London patterns is they have these amazing cuts, great drafting and the patterns lend themselves to so many interpretations. I fear I may be a junkie for these patterns. I really adore their design aesthetic… as they describe themselves: By Hand London is an independent sewing pattern label for women who love to dress up, stand out and customise their own wardrobe. The designs themselves are an up-to-date take on classic silhouettes and so act as a canvas for your unique look. Creating patterns inspired by and named after the stylish ladies we know and admire, By Hand London is all about championing individual style and celebrating strong femininity.

What’s not to love about that! And they have just celebrated their first birthday. Happy birthday girls – looking forward to your second year!

I made the cropped version in the smallest size – it’s slightly shorter than it should be as I didn’t realise how badly silk dupioni can fray!!! I picked up the black silk from The Fabric Store in Sydney the morning after the Sydney June Meet-up High Tea. It was in the remanents bin – score!

The lining is a vintage silk sari that I found on ebay. The collar and cuffs are cut from the gilded edge of the sari. I pieced the collar and cuffs so the reverse is a matching pink linen (leftovers from my Tessuti jacket) to provide a little more body to the pieces as the sari is old and oh so soft & fine. The sari is gorgeous – if you are thinking about experimenting with these, the vintage ones can be a little stained and worn in places – however they are 5m long so you can cut around the ‘issue’ areas. Damage to mine was minor and for the princely sum of $20 (including delivery) I think it’s good value for 5 metres of silk!

By Hand Victoria Blazer – the Sari Edition & lining!

By hand Victoria Blazer – the Sari Edition, the cuffs

By Hand Victoria Blazer – the Sari Edition, the collar

By Hand London – the sari lining.

You might notice that I have only attached the collar band and not the lower lapels. I did attach the lower lapels but because the gild edges are prone to curling a little, they didn’t sit perfectly and looked a little wonky – that sort of thing bothers me tremendously. I knew that when I wore it I would be forever fiddling with them – and there is nothing worse than a girl tugging at her clothes – if you want to look effortless and stylish, constantly tugging and pulling at your clothes is not going to achieve that. So I took the lower lapels off. I’m much happier with the jacket with just the collar band.

I took three lots of pictures trying to get some nice ones… it’s tricky in winter, it is dark early and photographing black was not easy! So I ended up trying it with jeans, a black singlet, a white singlet and a black dress! At least it is versatile!

I hear there is another pattern just around the corner from the By Hand London girls – I can’t wait to try it!!! So far it’s been three out of three for these girls. A trifecta of sewing joy!

By Hand Victoria Blazer, the Sari Edition with white singlet and black skinny jeans!

By Hand Victoria Blazer the Sari Edition with black singlet and skinny jeans!

By Hand Victoria Blazer – the Sari edition with a black slinky dress

It’s an easy make. Really easy. I did have to gather the sleeve heads ever so slightly as the silk dupioni was not very forgiving going into the armhole, just a tiny bit of gathering pulled it in perfectly. I might have been having a Doh! moment (which I am prone to) but the instructions did not seem to mention how to finish the lining armhole edges. I just turned them under and slipstitched them to the seam allowance of the armholes, like I did with the Elisalotte.

Next time around I would also line the sleeves. It would be easy to modify the pattern ever so slightly to accommodate the lining going over the armhole without pulling – plus the cuffs is a nice neat French seam so I think it will work beautifully.

It’s quite a boxy shape in the silk dupioni but I like it as an evening jacket, it’s got great structure. I can’t wait to make this in a fabric with some more drape, perhaps a ponti or wool…

Woo hoo – I’ve squeezed THREE Indie Patterns into The Curious Kiwi & Modern Modern Vintage Upcake’s Indie Pattern Month, my Tofinos, my Cambie and my Victoria Blazer! And four if you count my Icecream Marion cardigan – ok it’s knitting… but you know I think I can claim it 🙂

Pattern: sent to me By Hand London girls (thank you!!!!), I wasn’t paid and all opinions are my own – this pattern rocks as much as Elisalex & Charlotte. Fabulous fabulous.

If you are in Australia you can order this from Sew Squirrel.

Fabric: Black Silk Dupioni (The Fabric Store) & Sari Silk (eBay).

SEWING SURPRISES SWOP (and maybe a new Cambie…)

Posted on June 30, 2013 by sewbusylizzy

I’ve been amazed at how frantic life has been since my return from holidays. I should have posted this when I got home – however it was so sweet and lovely I wanted to take lovely pictures… thank you Sparkly Super Nova for organising this! On the upside this post has been lost in the tidal wave of posts following a swop!

Sewing Surprises from Musings of a Seamstress

First up – check out these lovely hair bows that Sarah sent to me for my girls. I know – soooo cute. You can buy these from Sarah Etsy’s shop which will help fund her adoption project – please take some time to read about it here…

Bows for Adoption – my girls love these!

She also sent me this necklace which is just perfection. I love love love love it. I know – green with envy? I’m not sure where Sarah got this but it’s perfect and I love it. Even the chain is beautiful and dainty.

Sewing Surprises Swop – necklace

And watcha wearing with that Lizzy?

Sewaholic Cambie – Little Skulls. Note to self: iron dress before photos next time Lizzy!

ummmmmm, it might be Cambie No.4…. OK stop laughing. Cambie 1, Cambie 2 & Cambie 3 are all much loved members of my dress family and they wanted a little sister. She’s a bit naughtier than the others… if you look closely…

Skulls Sewaholic Cambie

I love the sweetness of the Sewaholic Cambie shape combined with the quirky little aqua skulls. When I started knitting the cardigan I had an immediate vision the Little Skulls Cambie with it.

There really isn’t much I can’t tell you about Cambie that I haven’t already. It’s a lovely shape, well drafted and by far the easiest full lined dress I’ve made so far.

ICECREAM MARION

Sewaholic Cambie – Little Skulls with Icecream Marion

Cute cardie… did you make that too? Yes I did! I’ve been a bit ‘knit obsessed’ this year. this delightful little monster is Marion by Andi Satterlund. It’s a new release and I just HAD to knit it as soon as I saw it. I adore the cables and I really wanted a longer sleeved cardigan as I wear my Whole Wheat cardigan a lot – cream goes with just about everything. When this cream Malabrigo arrived from yarn.com I was a little disappointed with the colour. Fortunately as soon as I started to knit it up, I fell in love. The colour reminds me of icecream and hence I call this cardigan my Icecream Marion.

It’s perfection with Cambie as it finishes right on the waistband… and Tasia of Sewaholic fame is in fact also knitting this, I spied her over on Ravelry with Marion WIP.

Marion by Andi Satterlund – available on Ravelry

I love the buttons, they are coconut shell. The shop only had one card of four buttons and the pattern said I needed five. Then I read the pattern (I know, novel idea) and I only needed four for the smaller size. If I knit this again (and I’m tempted to in red) I will just do three button holes.

At the Historical Cemetery

It just seemed perfect to photograph this dress in our Historical Cemetery. It is no longer used as a cemetery but it is where the free settlers were buried in the early days of European settlement in Port Macquarie, the graves are scattered randomly through beautiful grass and trees, it’s quite serene (this from a girl that freaks out at the idea of serenity). It’s now a beautiful park at the end of our main street.

Dress: Sewaholic Cambie (purchased from Sew Squirrel)
Cardigan: Marion by Andi Satterlund from Ravelry. Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted from yarn.com

I’ve been fearsomely tired this weekend with a crashing headache for two days. Not great pictures but hopefully I’m not looking so drained for my By Hand London Victoria Blazer – which is not far off being finished!!

And my hair is HORRID. Off to get that fixed this Tuesday!

AND! I went to the recent Sydney meet-up organised by Kristy of Lower Your Press Foot – you can check out all the pictures here at Little Betty’s blog… I felt like I cheated but my 1950 vintage lace dress just seemed the perfect choice for High Tea!

The Sydney Meet-up outfit – 1950s lace…

SoSleepyLizzy – Sewaholic Tofino Pants

Posted on June 27, 2013 by sewbusylizzy

Oh look SewBusyLizzy – she’s awake!

Agreed. I’m a notoriously busy person. If I’m awake I’m working, exercising, reading, writing, knitting, driving ‘mum’s taxi’, cleaning (not so much…), cooking, talking, laughing,making exceptionally bad jokes, tweeting, facebooking, blogging… and of course sewing!

Every now and then I sleep. Yes really, I DO sleep. Sometimes.

I confess I do sometimes wake up & if I can’t sleep I check Twitter & Facebook… Clearly I find it very hard to ‘stop’. If I’m conscious, my brain starts whirring. I can’t handle yoga, mood lighting & candles horrify me, and don’t even start me on rainforest / whale-singing relaxing tapes.

Since I started sewing my brain has been happily whirring with colours, patterns, design ideas – which has been infinitely more happy to endure than work stress & other stuff. Sewing doesn’t make me sick with anxiety, if my brain is going to be busy – well sewing ain’t such a bad thing to be thinking about, yes?. These days my brain is blissfully happy with creative ideas in spare moments. No brainer right? Sew more people!

So when Karen from Did You Make That? launched the 2013 Pyjama Party I decided perhaps a little more sleeping was in order.

And we all know I like… (OK LOVE) Sewaholic patterns so it was necessary I join in! I jumped online and ordered my Tofinos from Sew Squirrel.

Ta da! Tofino pants!

Sewaholic Tofino Pants

These are black voile Swiss dot with pale pink piping. I opted to use a double-sided satin ribbon for the waist sash rather then fabric and I think it’s rather cute. I wanted something a little ‘fancy’, ‘evening wear’, ‘tuxedo’ style.

Paired them with my favorite old concert tshirt – (Chris Isaak, I still love you MWAH).

I had planned to sew a top to go with the pants but my old Chris Isaak tshirt seemed perfect. Can you believe this was sold as a one size fits all?? I guess if it didn’t fit, you could just use it to wipe drool from your chin while watching Chris Isaak perform… (Lizzy enough of the celebrity crush….! ENOUGH).

What can I say? It’s another well-drafted pattern by Tasia. It’s easy to sew. Goes together quickly. It’s got simple yet effective design features… mock fly front, piping to make your pins seem longer, little details to make your PJ bots more than just ‘daks’.

I like the impact of the pink and the black, it’s kinda girly, dressy, masculine all at the same time.

Me being a dork (this happens with all too frequently)

I did think about turning up the cuffs and hemming with more piping. HOWEVER! That piping makes stumpy pins look longer. So no external piped cuffs for me. Elle MacPhearson move over. SewBusyLizzy is in da house.

Sewaholic Tofino Pants – lotsa piping

I have a deep loathing of tracksuit pants – even if they are warm… however I’m seriously tempted to make these in fleece… somebody stop me!

Me likely. Tofino THUMBS UP. Thank you Tasia MWAH!

I know BEST.SLIPPERS.EVER. Sheepskin from NZ. Love

BTW. I’ve nearly finished Cambie no.4 & Cambie no.5 is in progress…

BTW2. My Abakhan fabrics 15 Pound Aussie project is also nearly completed. It’s cool! Watch this space!

BTW3. My By Hand London Victoria Blazer is also in progress (yes I’m a stitcher with ADHD at the moment) and its looking WICKED. Silk dupioni, vintage sari… patience people!

Thanks Karen!

Tripped up by the trip – the first 7 days…

Posted on May 26, 2013 by sewbusylizzy

One thing I often get asked is: ‘how do you find time to do everything?’. Right now I’m wondering that myself.

Settling back into ‘life’ has been more challenging than I thought. My travelling life for three weeks was a whirlwind of planes, trains, places and faces. The last three weeks back at home has been a whirlwind of school fete, dance eisteddfod, dentist visits and oh… work…

The First Week

My April/May travels took me to London, Paris and Madrid. Was it great? Yes. Did I buy much? Yes – I’m sure I could have got more – except the thought of dragging it home stopped me many times!

I arrived in London (via Dubai in a huge A380 plane) on Saturday 13 April after 26 hours of flying (trip was much longer if you count the trip to the Sydney airport from home and into the city). It was COLD! I didn’t have much time to acclimatise as 7.30am Monday morning I was on a train to Paris.

Paris!

I was in Paris for just three days – I had some work to do while I was there.

I arrive Monday lunchtime and had a little wander around Paris in the afternoon. I then had dinner with my husband’s cousin who has lived in Paris for 12 years now. We had a lovely night and it was such a great opportunity to get to know her better. Thank you Emma xox

I did manage to squash in some shopping with Barbara of Stitching up Paris. Barbara is a Kiwi (New Zealander) who has lived in Paris for 25 years. She’s a stitcher/knitter and knows all the places to take you in Paris – ALL OF THEM. she took me to lots and then left me with a list of more! Did I buy lots of fabric? No, not a scrap. Why? I knew Goldhawk Road was in my near future, courtesy of the Mega London Blogger’s Meet-up so I decided to focus on yarn and trims. I did visit the famous Montmartre fabric shops but if you want stories of fabric decadence then you better head to Roisin or Kim’s corner of the blogsphere.

Here are some of the things I got…

: Trim from Shindo

: Deer & Doe patterns

: One of the most beautiful yarn and fabric stores I’ve seen

Barbara was fantastic, she was suggested to me by Busy Lizzie in Brissy. Thanks Lizzie! Paris and Parisians have slightly different shopping customs to Australia and also the language barrier was significant for me as a complete non-French speaker (it wasn’t compulsory at school – and I’m ok with that, this is the only time I’ve had to call on my v.limited French) – Barbara looked after all that for me!

I’m a bit of a second-hand clothes and charity/thrift/op shop nut. When Barbara discovered this over a cup of coffee, she took me along to one of best second-hand clothing charity shops in Paris where I found this Tara Jarmon jacket. I’m completely in love with it. I love it’s military styling, the silk patches, the rough stitching, the naïve embroidery, the zip gathered patch pockets. I’m definitely be going to make a jacket inspired by this piece in my future…

I love this idea of this jacket and it's a great weight for I like. I'm sure I will create a jacket inspired by this one day.

I love this jacket, it’s unique and fits perfectly.

My little room in Paris

I stayed with a lovely and generous French lady Agnes, a place which I discovered via Airbnb. She was so helpful and I felt like I’d found myself a new aunt by the time I left! I think I enjoy her company as much as I enjoyed Paris itself.

After my work-related appointment on Wednesday morning (more on that later) I hopped on a train to London and was back mid evening. Friday I spent at home and in downtown Brixton – where you can get the most AMAZING burgers at Honest Burgers in the Brixton Market. Then I went to the theatre on Friday – squee! I love theatre and this was a real treat – it was The Audience and starred Helen Mirren.Via Twitter, I had ‘bumped’ into Claire-Louise Hardie, a professional theatrical costumier and sewing consultant to The Great British Sewing Bee. I tweeted the fact I work in a theatre and shortly after she got in touch and asked if I would like to see The Audience while I was in London. Yes please! She organised seats for myself and a friend at a fabulous price and we sat right under the nose of Helen Mirren, smack bang in the middle of the front row.

Claire-Louise Hardie & me outside the theatre: I’m not dressed very flash as I was cold and rather too tired to get fancy this night!

I met-up with Claire-Louise pre-show and had a little backstage tour and got to see the costumes, wigs, meet some of the cast and some of the costumes up close. This is a stellar show and a must-see. Apart from the legendary Helen Mirren and fabulous cast, the costumes are fascinating. A huge proportion of Helen Mirren’s costume/wig changes happen on stage (including wigs), she moves seamlessly from age to age and era to era – the trickery of dressing and undressing Ms Mirren on stage is genius. All I can say is Ms Hardie is quite brilliant – oh and she’s lovely. If you are thinking about sewing lessons, then this is the girl for you, she runs a sewing studio called the Thrifty Stitcher and has small group sewing classes in North London. I don’t have the opportunity to do these sorts of things where I live – but if I were you and lived in London what a fabulous way to improve your skills – with an expert AND in a working studio. Yes please!

I confess the first week was exhausting and I was slightly mad to attempt to do so much in such a short period after the mammoth flight from Down Under – but you live and learn!

The next day I was dragging a mammoth case (thank you Abakhan Fabrics!) across London to the V&A to meet up with Rachel of House of Pinheiro and another 50 or so bloggers… but that’s another blog post about the next 7 days…

And I have some blogger gifts to show you – just got to take pictures!

MORE SEWBUSYLIZZY NEWS…

I have projects to share including a jumper, cowl and a soon-to-be-completed First Communion dress… soon…

and I’m mid-fabric search for this project…

By Hand London Victoria Blazer

And many many thanks for all your kind comments on my Elisalotte dress. It’s been facebooked, tweeted and popped up all over the web. It’s given me a real buzz!

Sew Busy Lizzy

she sews by the seashore…

Category Archives: Sewing Projects