47 pairs of warm Pyjamas!

Sung to the tune of 47 Ginger Headed Sailors! Which is a very silly song Bertie Wooster sings in the famous TV series. Video clip below.

ANYWAY, local charity Foster Hope put a call out for winter pyjamas for children being placed in foster care. Any excuse for some selfless sewing, the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network members jump to it!
Laura and I staged a flannel raid at the local Voldemart, which was the cheapest option for good quality flannel, and bought as much as we could on our budget of donated coupons and cash. I reckoned we were going to get 25 pairs out which seemed pretty impressive!

These are all but one of the fabrics we bought. It was tricky as we wanted to get gender neutral options, but they were few and far between, whereas some of the girlier ones were on super special, so we probably ended up with more pretty ones than plain. Oh well. (the plain flannel was rubbish quality compared with the prints - what is that all about?) We (Made Marion Craft) contributed the only two flannels I had in stock - the grey with pink butterflies and the second from right top row.
On Thursday I put three loads of flannel through the wash, and dried it and pressed them dry over the next couple of nights. All 40+m of it.
I actually thought I had killed my iron at one point, and bought a new one, but it was the plug. BUT I love my new Tefal iron so all good!
ANYWAY, on Sunday a group of us gathered together to cut out, eat scones and laugh.

Left to right, Laura, Kirsten and Me. Gemma was taking the pic. Aly had been and gone with a stack to sew. I swear I did more than just eat scones ;-)

And I guess I've given the game away - we managed to get 47 pairs of pyjama bottoms out of our haul! Now we have to solve the tops problem. Knit tops, warm enough for winter with good coverage. Sourcing enough knit fabric of the right type and weight is going to be interesting!

Happy Days!

Oh the Liberty!

The Fabric Store has Liberty fabrics! So gorgeous. I have dipped into the sweatshirting for winter dresses - no I've not made any up, you will be the first to see when I do.
I have also been JONESING for a print called Alma for years.

This is the cool colourway - I prefer the black backgrounded version with warmer tones.
Anyway they have it in Tana Lawn, for $42m NZ. I have been to visit, felt it, held it up to myself, put it down and walked out at least twice.
I think this is a Thing. A Thing where one wants the unattainable, but when it IS attainable, it loses some of its allure.
Don't get me wrong, I ADORE this fabric. But in truth, I have three gorgeous lawns at home for next Summer's MaxiDress crop already. Really beautiful, Arts and Crafts inspired fabrics with poppies and things. And so, spending $134 on a dress length of Yet Another Fabric just became too hard.
You see, I am really, really keen on reducing my wardrobe down to the smallest number of workable items to have a glorious, Me Made, vibrant, self-expressively dressed life. I don't have the space for clothes I don't wear any more, not in my wardrobe rack, drawers, under my bed or in my heart.
The idea of a Few Good Things is playing more and more on my mind.

When I worked in an office for other people, buying fabric was a sanity valve. I had the money, I needed the creative outlet and I accumulated a lot. LOT. But now, I am self-employed, and I earn around a third of what I used to. Yup, for six days work too. But in those six days I can dress how I want to, not how other people think I ought to. So, the clothes I now make I love and wear and wear and wear.

Here's another thing - yesterday I officiated at my Uncle's funeral. It is something I do from time to time for people. We had a fantastic day of crying, laughing and bonding with family I've not seen for a long time. But of course how one dresses as a funeral celebrant is quite different to in the shop, or for on stage. I have to really reexamine my wardrobe for combinations that are formal, sombre and unflowing enough. I did a great job, I feel, and even put on some makeup - that's a trick these days - how does one put on makeup without eyelashes, glitter, contouring???
So, here I am, some alternate form of myself. Still a Me I can relate to, but not one of the more frequently seen Mes. And when I do cull my wardrobe (does anyone need 13 red thru purple merino tops?) I will need to let this Me have some options also. Possibly even whip up some more clothes for her.

Food for thought.

I actually made another Actual dress!!

Good grief this is becoming a habit! But I think I have a new obsession - winter dresses. Cosy, warm, long, knit dresses.
This one is another Khaliah Ali pattern but this time from McCalls; M2078. While the McCalls range of her designs stops at size 24, I checked the sizing and this was just fine for me.

However it is not in me to leave well alone. The bodice front and centre skirt panel are all as one, which seems like a waste of fabric to me. Also, I wanted to add some flare to the front and back skirt panels. While the line drawing implies that they have flare, they are dead straight.
So, I cut the long skinny bits off, slashed and spread them, and off I went. I also wanted to do something more interesting with the neckline than just face it. So I draped a little tie collar that culminates at that lower corner. And here it is!

 On the back deck of our weekend base in Martinborough where we taught some classes this weekend.
The inky purple is a mostly merino (plus a little nylon) sweatshirting so it has a fluffy inside. The side panels are a glorious, digitally printed border viscose knit from Tessuti Fabrics. I think it was about $45m. Yup. And breathe!

 Because the viscose knit was pretty thin for winter, I underlined it with another purple merino. The two layers are sewn into the skirt as one, however not across the bottom.

The little tie collar is made from an offcut of the print. It has three pieces, so shoulder seams.
I am wearing a red V neck merino under it which slightly confuses the visuals, but again the sun is "all fur coat and no knickers" still.
I'm so in love with this dress - I literally stood in front of the dryer jumping up and down and willing it to get dry enough to wear on Thursday morning before having to give up and wear my other dress. Which I also love. But not quite as much. But don't tell it I am playing favourites.
I reckon I have a couple more dresses in me before I feel sufficiently dressed for the winter.
But for the rest of this week I am on costume duty. Coming up with a Constance version of this:

Indeed....

Winter Warmers: Footies

With due apologies to those suffering in Northern Hemisphere heat waves, it's freaking cold down under and my feet are suffering. So, I decided to make some "footies" out of merino. I bought a 5 pack of these foot cover things from a big box store and they are too big, and not as cotton as they say they are, and I feel I could do better.

The commercial ones. No they don't change colour on my feet, I was wearing odd ones!

Anyway, I bought some merino, although I could easily make these from offcuts or even an old merino top, I just don't have any here at work. And I made a pattern. It looks like this:

It's really easy to draw your own. the one tricky bit is how stretchy your fabric is - mine is typical one way stretch and that goes around the foot so this is what I did:
Draw a rectangle. The long side is the length of your foot minus 2cm. The width is the half of 75-80% of the measurement around the widest part of your foot - mine is 25cm so I made may pattern 10cm. (I have huge feet so don't be alarmed if your numbers seem much smaller - they are!)
Next, I measured the back of my heel from the ground to how high I wanted it to be plus a bit more, it came to 8cm. Mark that on one short end of your rectangle.
Now draw a curved line that goes down a bit then up at a bit past half way - like mine.
That's it! Put a Fold arrow on the long straight side as a reminder, and cut two out of your fabric.

 My merino has a backing on it which is lighter, so easier to see in photos. That's why I chose it, besides it is raspberry pink so YAY!

Now sew the short sides together like this - you could overlock but I"ve just done two rows of zigzag on top of each other.

Turn it so the seam is centred like this, and mark a curve at the same end - this is for your toes.

Sew and then trim your marked curve.

I cut a piece of fold over picot elastic slightly shorter than the curved top edge of my footie, and mark the centre with a pin. Pin this onto the spot where the seam is and attach the elastic, stretching as you go, with a zigzag. I find in these little jobs I don't have to pin, and the fabric stays in the fold over fairly well.

This is what I ended up with. 

Now fold the short end like this and sew through both layers including the elastic.

Squash the heel so the seam is centred like this, and sew across the triangle like shown. Not too much, just a little bit to get rid of a point at the bottom of your heel.

Snip the wee triangle off like this. And that is IT! Turn it right side out and:

Voila! One footie! No seams on the sole to be irritating either. And here they are on my undainty feet:

They are SO much nicer than the bought ones. Top Tip: wear these over tights, pantihose or knee highs and they are far warmer, and the under layer stops them slipping down at all. Perfect for inside boots too if you want a warm boost without socks showing!
And all for less than $1. :)

Last thing - here is a compare between mine and the bought one. The bought ones are far too long for me, but the fabric is two way stretch and mine isn't. If you try this with a two way, make is smaller - you could easily try it on once the elastic is on and pin the heel.