A random post - and a dress

Things have been rather frantic around here, hence the lack of blogging - I can't seem to find enough hours in the day to do half the things I want to do - never mind the rest.....I'm hoping things will calm down once I have all my decorating done and I can get back to focussing my 'me' time on proper things like sewing clothes!!

The decorating is going well, but it is slow. Not helped by having little helpers...

one of my little helpers

My little helpers are slightly bigger than the one pictured above but are, when everything is taken into account, probably slightly less helpful than him!

The other reason for the lack of sewing progress at the moment is that I am between sewing places. For the last 6 months or so I have been sewing in our bedroom as the room I previously used was full of furniture and toys awaiting the new extension. We now have the extension on the ground floor, where my new room is to be, but it is, as yet, unfurnished. I have been making curtains on a table in the middle of the room but the rest of my sewing stuff is in various piles around the house awaiting the delivery of my new cupboarding. This should arrive this week and then everything can be found a home and hopefully proper sewing can recommence.

sewing box being guarded by my new spirit level - a birthday present!

Whilst there has not been much practical progress on the sewing front I have been doing some trouser fitting research. In addition to following Sunni's really good posts on fitting I have also been perusing the books I have to see if I can glean any useful information. The crux of the matter seems to be the crotch and derrière - it would appear that if you can get that area to fit comfortably and properly then other alterations flow relatively easily. The essential measurements it would therefore appear are the crotch depth - show in image one below - and the crotch length - shown in image two. (Both images are from 'The Perfect Fit - a practical guide to adjusting patterns for a professional finish' published by Apple).                

The Crotch Depth

The crotch length

Right, I am now off to slip into a black tights and leotard combo...but before I do I thought I would leave you with a couple of  images of a dress I made just before Christmas - there will be more pictures to come that are somewhat better but if I wait until I have everything edited and perfect it will be March before I post again - so in the interest of not falling off the planet completely - here you go...

Do you remember I posted this picture?

This was the front cover of French Elle dated 19 November 2010 and it featured a Louis Vuitton dress in old pink wool/cotton jersey. For some reason I kept being drawn back to the image of this dress - the colour, the simplicity.... And then, on one of my pre- christmas fabric buying trips I spotted the perfect double knit.

The pattern was part self drafted and part adapted from the basic dress pattern in Sew - U stretch - I took the basic bodice from that pattern and added a panel down the front and a panel round the waist, self drafted the sleeves for the ungathered, three quarter look and added a bias cut swirly skirt. I also added a side invisible zipper. The belt I am wearing is a fabric belt I bought from Jigsaw earlier this year (unfortunately I didn't have a vintage leather Hérmes belt as worn by the Elle model!)

The front bodice and sleeves

the skirt swirls

Have a lovely weekend!