Factory Dress: My Merchant and Mills obsession

This is my 4th Factory Dress make from Merchant and Mills. Now we're in Autumn I'm making my newly tweeked version in a vintage wool gaberdine that looks slightly denimy but has a really drapey feel.

Fabric: vintage wool gaberdine (twill weave) from House of Cloth. Was sitting in stash for 3 years.
Pattern: Factory Dress from Merchant and Mills. Tweeked to suit me.
Size: 14. A size larger than my summer versions so I can wear a longsleeve merino undershirt in winter.

Over the 3 other versions I've tweeked the design to suit my style and body. These are the major ones:

- First dress in grey chambray was a size 14, I made it my knee length by shortening hem by 5cm. Second adjustment on this was shortening the sleeve length by 5cm as it made me look less dowdy.
While the size was comfortable and didn't look overly large, there seemed to be room in the armhole are to go down a size.

-Second dress in a very light weight 4oz denim in size 12. Same 5cm hem length reduction and sleeve length reduction. Very comfortable still and looked a better size for me.

-Third dress used a prebought length on red linen from Tessuti Fabrics in Melbourne. Linen was 150cm wide and I had only bought 1.5m. Being desperate to use it for the factory dress, I figured with some very careful cutting I would just make it. The main changes here are:
    - pockets cut from a replacement fabric
    - sleeve cut very short, I had now removed 11cm from the length.
    - collar cut in 2 pieces instead of one, it meant I had an extra seam on the outer edge of the collar and lost 1cm from each edge (2cm overall off the width of the cut collar)
    - ended up being extremely happy with the proprtions of the shorter length of the sleeve and narrower collar.

Changes overview:
By shortening the collar and sleeve I think it makes a quite voluminous dress that has the danger of making its wearer look a little dowdy into a much sleeker line. By almost miniaturising these parts around the face and arms it allows the dress to flow. This is particualry important for a dress that needs to be made from sturdier fabrics due it its "factory" origins.  

And yes, I plan to make another winter version, probably in another suiting weight wool, preferably dark blue.

Tennis dress obsession

I seem to have a tennis dress obsession. I don't actually like playing tennis (too much sport at high school on hot hot tennis courts). But every time I see a vintage sewing pattern pattern my lingering obsession takes over.

Here are a selection of tennis dress patterns I own. More on this Pinterest board.

Simplicity #5059 Tennis dress and short shorts or Mini dress 1972

Style #3046 Unlined Jacket, tennis dress, skirt and shorts 1980

Style #3572 Tennis Dress in Two lengths and shorts 1972

Sewing challenge

I decided I'd stretch my home sewing a little this year and am entering the Tessuti 2016 In Season Silk Sewing Competition 

The In Season Two fabric really appealled to me, it's an Autumny digitally printed silk crepe de chine. Apart from the fabric, the only constraints are that the garment needs to suit the fabric and suit me. I haven't sewn silk into a garment before now, so I've spent the last 6 weeks thinking my idea inside and out, making at least 2 toiles and am now ready to sew it up.

As I've become completely obsessed with looks from the early 1970's I'm basing my design on ideas from Vintage Vogue Pattern books from 1970-1974.

The garment is a collared blouse and long culottes both in the In Season Two fabric. The culottes have a faced waist and invisble zip at back. They are based on a sloper I've made for myself in a Craftsy class Patternmaking basics with Suzy Furrer.

The blouse is a mix between a vintage McCalls 1966 pattern and a bodice sloper I worked on in a patternmaking class with Brazen Hussy Cathy Boerema.

Things I'm paying special attention to (but not necessarily obsessing over given I've a week to cut and finish my garment)
- grain lines
- darts
- seams
- pressing

My friend Tim at Usethings made me a wooded "clapper" with some super hard hardwood

lots of handsewing to control the silk

controlling the silk while cutting was really important, I have a few of these large washers which helps.

French seams for all the main straight seams

self cover buttons

I left a week at the end to make it, and it took every spare moment of the whole week.

between the last post and the next post

Alot has happened in the last 3 years.

Boys have grown taller and stronger and sassier. I've gotten better at sewing our clothes. My stash has grown in size disproportionate to my output. My house has a slab and concrete walls underneath it. The chooks have a fence so I can grow plants again. Several new fruit trees have been planted. My crafty friends and I have a craft night on Wednesdays, so I now have a social life.

Sewing

I've been sewing underpants

And endless pyjamas

I'm addicted to sewing jackets

A few dresses. one of which got (un)equal 1st Prize at the 150th Castlemaine Agricultural Show 2015

A suede vest the ended up too big for me, not sure how I'm going to make that one work. It did get 1st prize at the show though.


I went out dancing a little bit and whipped up some dancing clothes


We made a few toys



Chris and I made a tent and we all went camping


Rolph and I made a school backpack


The boys wanted cloaks for winter

Quilting

I finally finished a hand patched, hand quilted sampler quilt that was started in a class in another city in another life 17 years ago. Excitingly, this won overall best quilt at the same Castlemaine Show.

Knitting

A couple of things have been knitted. 2 Boys vests that are hardly ever worn then got eaten by annoying bugs in their drawers over summer.

Some lovely colourwork in a vest that ended up too bulky for me.


A couple of very cute vests for my youngest


All of these are on Ravelry, you can see if you are there too.

Sewing block be gone

I'm very embarrassed to say that until a few months ago I had a major block in my brain when it came to sewing clothes. Now, I sew for a living ; bags, covers, tarps, shades you name it. Just Not Clothes.
Now thankfully due to a unique mix of determination, embarrassment, online classes (craftsy), real in person classes (Julie Red Projects), a passion for fabric and obsession with vintage patterns, I can loudly and proudly say that I got over a major issue in my life without the help of any mental professional.
I'll start to document my successes and probable failures here as it is taking up all my current domestic time.
Knitting is still happening with at least one project on the go at a time.

Hoodie from a 1980's pattern. Very small fit, this is a size 7 on my 4yr old

had to add a lining, made from an old soft singlet and stitched lines

Chooks and the shack

For years "chooks and the shack" was the welcome message on my mobile phone (back in the day when we turned them off)

2 years ago we moved into "the shack", and a month ago we welcomed "the chooks" onto our little plot.

4 x 10week old Australorp chickens now live with us, currently learning how to scratch up the ground. They will hopefully be laying their first eggs on Christmas morning. I'll accept this first laying up to mine and R's birthday in early January.

6 weeks old

scratching where they are supposed to be scratching

Stash Sorting