You Beauty

Photo courtesy - You Sew Girl

Introducing - the brand new You Sew Girl Beauty Case Pattern.

 
I'm very lucky to have my very own earlier version of this pattern.

Photo courtesy - You Sew Girl

It's currently at the printers, and fingers crossed, it'll be ready by the end of the week!

I've made it available for pre-order so that you can be first in line to get your copy.

PS - here's another lovely version by Carmel

Houston - we have a problem

I spent about 4 hours yesterday afternoon making my first ever skirt from a pattern. But that was not the only exciting thing, it was even more exciting because I was making something just for me.

After sewing the pleats back to front, I unpicked them and re-sewed them the right way.

Can you see the problem?

I managed to find an op-shopped zip in the stash that fitted perfectly. The sewing might not be very pretty, but it's functional.

Can you see the problem?

The finished skirt in all its glory with bias binding edge (because I thought that it would be prettier than a plain hem).

Can you see the problem?

I tried the skirt on at the end....

Hmmmm, now that really is a problem?

Shorts.....or longs?

Now that the weather is getting warmer, I thought I should try to graduate from making kids pants, and attempt to make some shorts instead, using the mens Rip Curl shirt that I found at the oppy last week.

Nice overlocked seams.......as you can probably tell, I made these on Tuesday (before I broke my bloody overlocker)!

Anyhow, somewhere amongst the 100th time I've had to clean up the craft supplies for a house inspection, I've managed to lose the pattern that I bought for shorts. But never fear, I decided to make my own instead. Using the vintage size 2 pants pattern, I sized it down to what I thought should be size 1, and then made the legs at the length that I thought would be perfect for shorts.

In theory, this method should have worked. They looked like shorts when I laid them on the outdoor table to take a photo.

It was then time to take them over to Nico's house for a test fitting........

So, are they shorts or longs?

The Great Pants Challenge!

OK the poll is now closed and the result is .......................... triumph yah!

After not having enough corduroy fabric for the pants, I went searching through the stash to see what else I could find........and ended up with this camo print cotton drill. I made the pants according to the pattern which was a Size 2. I had to read the instructions about fifty times to see what to do next because I've never used a clothing pattern in my life....I usually just make it up as I go along. I'm actually quite amazed at how well they turned out (although I didn't like the 5/8 inch seam allowance...I think that's too much).

Here's Moo Moo trying them on.....they're way too big because he's only 17 months old!

I really liked the design of the pants so I decided to make a smaller version. I wasn't sure how to do this properly so I just made it up. I had some patternmaking paper in my cupboard that Corrie gave me, so I traced the original pattern onto the new paper but I used the seam allowance line as the cut out line and then made the torso section and the leg length shorter.

I had some denim in the stash so I used that to make this smaller pair. I added the star for a bit of extra bling....I wanted to put the star on one of the bum cheeks but Mr CurlyPops said that it would look silly, so then I suggested the knee but with Moo Moo's clumsiness, he'd wear away the felt, so it ended up on the front. Note to self - embellish before sewing pants together to make life easier! I encountered a problem with these ones because I didn't fold under the bottom seams twice....

So of course, they frayed in the wash!

The only quick solution I could find was to pop down to Spotlight and grab some iron on hemming tape.

......and here's Moo Moo modelling for the finale of The Great Pants Challenge!

Silly Gilly Winner & The Great Pants Challenge

I know I promised that I wouldn't enter any more giveaways, but I just couldn't resist entering the giveaway on Gillians Silly Gilly blog for this vintage pants pattern from 1974 (the year I was born).....

......and I won again!!! Thanks so much Gillian, the pattern is so cool! I've been so lucky since I began blogging in January....it's hard to believe that it was only six months ago.


I've never ever tried to make any type of clothing before so I'm issuing myself with 'The Great Pants Challenge' (and publishing it here to make me do it). The challenge is that I must attempt to make a pair of pants using this pattern within the next 7 days. I will report back with my triumph or tragedy by next Tuesday....... as a little extra, I'm adding a little webpoll on my sidebar for 'The Great Pants Challenge'......click either 'Triumph' or 'Tragedy' to vote....... do you think I can do it?

Edit: My Web Poll wasn't working properly so I'm testing out a new Web Poll widget instead!