Teal blue wool bouclé "Melba" cropped jacket

Started in 2013, this self-drafted jacket, called the "Melba" (because it's based on my memory of a wildly expensive jacket seen in Melbourne) was made up to the point of deciding whether to make Spanish Snap buttonholes, or machine keyhole buttonholes. After languished for seven years, I'm over it and just want it gone. Machine buttonholes it is.

The fabric is a heavy wool bouclé originally from The Fabric Warehouse.

Maybe if I'd finished it in 2013 I'd wear it, but I really can't see myself in it now, so it will go to Ziggurat in a few months, when they are taking winter stock.

Take 4 - the pants edition

Pinstriped pants and matching cat!

During a de-stash last year, (which saw me sell 4 boxes of fabric no longer "sparking joy" at Fabric-a-Brac) I came across three trouser length pieces of lightweight wool - one black, one navy, and one brown with blue pinstripe, each $3 at the Sallies some years earlier, and 5 metres of $5 per metre "fire-damaged" grey wool/cashmere from Pete's Emporium.  (A good wash and line-dry in the wind shortly after purchase got rid of a faint damp/smoky odour).

Desperately needing to replace my black work pants after 6 years of wear, I grabbed my favourite self-made trouser pattern, and promptly cut all four fabrics, plus lining to the knee for each. 

Then they languished for months, until my sewing bee a few weeks ago.

Since returning to work this year, they've all been worn at least once, and will be fabulous when the seasons turn towards the cooler months again.

Each a welcome addition to my wardrobe.

Purple plaid jacket mash-up

Five years ago, I received a wonderful suprise gift from my aunt. She was having a clean-out, and gave me two lengths of wool fabric – enough grey camelhair to make a coat, and a lovely piece of wool plaid, predominantly purple in colour.

At the time I was working in a very exposed south-facing office with floor to ceiling windows. It permanently cold as it saw no direct sunlight—ever. I made the most of every bit of the plaid fabric shortly after receiving it by making it into a dress. It was like being wrapped in a cosy blanket, and was on high rotation during the following winters.

My work moved into its current office early last year. Now the temperature is at a pleasant level, I no longer need to wear the dress. However, as with most other countries in the world, in winter, layering is de rigueur.

Since the fabric was still in excellent condition, I decided to unpicked and recut it into a jacket. I liked the velvet inlaid collar from Simplicity 3146, but unfortunately couldn't use the rest of this pattern because there wasn't enough width for the kimono sleeves. Instead, I turned to Simplicity 3120 (circa 1959) for the body and sleeves. However, there was absolutely no way of matching the check across the body to the sleeves, no matter how hard I tried. Disappointed, and though the jacket was near completion, it became a UFO, hiding in the back of my closet.

Fast-forward to last months TMS challenge when Bracken mentioned she also had unfinished jackets and coats hanging around. We challenged each other to complete one of them in time for November's Amnesty Day. Out of the closet it came.

It was actually very close to being finished, just the sleeve linings need attaching and buttons and buttonholes. But after trying it on, I decided to also re-position the side bust darts and add a velvet cuff – the sleeves were just a touch too short for me.

While I'm happy to be finished with it, I have to to be honest and say I like it but don't love it. The fit is still not quite right, and I don't at all like the velvet cuffs – but they're ok rolled up. Still, it will get worn next winter, I'm sure.

Flying purple people eaters

A little over a year ago, I blogged about a pile of UFOs in my stash. I'm happy to say that apart from No 1 - the wool "Melba" jacket, I've now completed all of them, and even better, haven't added to the pile. Did having photographic evidence of my 'crime' motivate me into action?

The latest to be completed is No 3, "Perfect Purple Pants". They're really the second toilé in my quest to make the perfect fitting pants. They were cut in November 2014 straight after completing the first draft (so, so bad!), but have since languished unmade for 2 1/2 years. Vintage Simplicity 3082 was the starting point - why, I don't know, I have heaps of better fitting patterns. Maybe I wanted to look as rockin' in my pants as the women with the beehive on the envelope? I envision hers are gold brocade - awesome!

Clearly, I've lowered the high waist down to the natural waistline. I also added back pockets and simplified the ankle split (see insets), and made many, many fitting tweaks. The fabric is stretch cotton sateen, bought in a Spotlight sale. Wouldn't be my first choice colour-wise, but it was cheap, and the pants will be fine for India (with a butt-covering shirt, of course!).

I'm pretty happy with the resulting fit. There are still a few drag lines around the knees but I think I've found a fix for those, so we'll see in if it works on toilé No 3.

It's not you, it's me - floral skirt fail

It started life as a 50's inspired frock.

But it wasn't working for me.

"Maybe lose the bodice and make it a skirt", I thought.

But it still it's still not right.

Sigh.

The problem was the dress was something I would have worn a decade ago, (and why I had difficulty finishing it in 2011) but the skirt regressed it even further - back to the clothes I made for myself in high school. 

No, just—no.

Finished, it will be heading to charity soon.

It's been so long - winter floral shirt

Yet another UFO I can tick off the list, and now that it's finally finish, got to say I love it. It was too mature for my tastes at the time I started making this, but now 10 or so years later, it's perfect.

All it need was to lose the big '70's collar and cuffs. The other changes I made were to topstitch pretty much the entire garment, and swapped out  the nasty plastic buttons I was orginally going to use with some lovely Romanian glass buttons found in Taupo's Oakleaf Antiques a few years ago. Absolutely worth stopping here if you're travelling along State Highway 1 as they have the most fabulous collection of glass buttons bought over from the actual factory where they were made in Romania when it closed down. Be careful if you're on a budget though - those little buttons quickly add up when you can't leave any of the lovelies behind!

The pattern was traced out of an old Burda magazine, and the fabric is lite-weight wool, with a floral barkcloth-style print. I think it may have come from The Fabric Warehouse, but I can't really say for sure after all this time.

Looking forward to wearing this once the weather cools down.

Hello Sailor! frock – vintage Simplicity 3120

Technically, I wouldn't quite classify this as a UFO, as it was only cut out (and fused) last November. But I knew if I didn't get it made this summer, it was in danger of becoming a UFO. And it was so worth finishing - it's my new favourite frock.

I used vintage Simplicity 3120 (©1959) for the neckline, updating it by cutting it straight through with no waist seam, and leaving out all shaping other than the bust darts. I used the sleeve pattern from New Look 6754 (view C), added pockets in the side seams and a tie belt and belt loops to clinch in the waist.

The pure cotton fabric was a Fabric-a-Brac purchase, quite a lucky score because I couldn't get to that particular event until near the end, so everyone else must have past over it for some reason or other. Meant to be mine!

Don't the buttons work fabulously with the fabric? There have been four of them in my stash for a while, not entirely sure where they came from, maybe the Hospice shop in Petone? Or Kilbirnie?

All in all, a really nice new easy breezy frock.

Frangipani vintage Vogue 5434 mash-up

Haere Mai - welcome to 2016.

India was awesome - absolutely in love with the south. Kochi, the Kerala Backwaters and Mamallapuram have been added to Udaipur in Rajasthan, and of course Navsari and Surat in Gujarat (shopping - oh the shopping!) as places I'll visit again.

Back home, there's a well-timed challenge over at The Monthly Stitch - The "UFO Showdown". I confess to numerous UFOs, so there's a pile I'm determined to tackle this month. Scroll down if you'd like a sneak-peek.

Waitangi weekend saw me tackled the first. You'll remember the Frangipani frock was a toilé for the red silk dress I wore to a wedding earlier this year. That dress was a huge success, which prompted me to finish this one.

I unpicked and recut the bodice using Style 1751 again. Dilemma thought, a perfectly colour-matched zip was a wee bit too short. "Make a feature out of a flaw" I could hear my tutor Jeannie Gander saying. So I placed the zip as per usual into the lower back seam opening, hen recut the back facings with extensions and finished the closure with a button and fabric loop at the neck. and finished the closure with a button and fabric loop at the neck. It slips it over my head without being unbuttoned, so no weird yoga moves required to get it done up.

The finished frock is my new favourite!

Onto the remaining UFO's I'd like to tackle this month. These are by no means all of them, just the ones I think I can complete, and would like to see completed, in a month. In no particular order:

1. Self-drafted "Melba" Jacket. Started in 2013. Made up to the point where I was deciding whether to make Spanish Snap buttonholes, or just do regular keyhole buttonholes by machine at the end.

2. Vintage inspired frock with full skirt (flower embroidery at hem) and cute pockets. Started in 2011. Abandoned after the ridiculous looking collar was unpicked.

3. Perfect Purple Pants. Second draft in my quest to make the perfect fitting pants (the first attempt so bad they were never blogged about - they're now odd looking capri pants worn only with 'outie' shirts). Cut in November 2014.

4. 70's inspired floral shirt. Can't actually remember how long ago this was started, sometime between moving back to Wellington in 2005 and my first blog in 2009. Yep, a while. Once again, think I had collar issues. Still, you have to try these things to figure out whether you like them or not.

5. The newbie. Ambitiously cut this dress out about 3 weeks before leaving for India - wasn't going to happen! The teaser was a newly acquired vintage pattern working perfectly with a stashed fabric - how often does that happen?

Wish me luck!

Viva Las Vegas top - Simplicity 3790

Years ago, I spent a few memorable days in Las Vegas with the girls. Of course, outlet mall shopping was on the agenda, but unuse to the pace and heat, I started to wilt after a couple of hours. The solution was to change out of jeans into a newly purchased bright and breezy sundress. However, a new problem soon developed - as the fabric was super stretchy, the shoestring straps kept on stretching to the point of indecency! By the end of the day the straps were a tangled mess of knots tied in an effort to prevent a complete wardrobe malfunction.

Back in New Zealand, the straps unpicked from the dress, a piece of blue lycra from the scrap bag found to make new ones, it was all tied together ........ and became a UFO for several years.

Enter my wardrobe gap of work-appropriate tops. Looking at the fabric again, I decided I would get more wear out of it if it was a top. Choosing Simplicity 3790 (view F, sleeves view E) from my recent St Vinnies haul, I laid it out to cut, then realised the pattern doesn't have a back yoke, only one in the front. Because the yoke would be in the contrasting blue lycra, I wanted it to continue around the body, so whipped up my own back yoke pattern. I also cut contrasting strips of blue for the sleeve hems, and left as much of the original sundress length as possible.

The result is a lovely floaty tunic, casual yet smart enough for work, which has now been worn more times than when it was a sundress!

Donna Karan – U.O.Me 1 reel of topstitching thread – black. Thank you.

Boy, oh boy, oh boy! V1324 from the Donna Karan collection for Vogue. What can I say?

Because the first garment I made for an actual human (not a doll) was a skirt; because I've been sewing a very long time, and have literally made hundreds over the (gulp!) decades, I thought if there's any garment I can make without a toilé, its a skirt. WRONG!

I wish I was wise enough to check online reviews of imminent projects before launching gung ho into them.  If I'd read this or this or even this I'd have been weary. But I didn't. And ended up with this:

What the...? I'm sorry, Donna, if you're going to offer up your designs to the masses (especially at Vogue Designer premium prices), you need to toilé them on real women. 6ft tall models are the exception, not the median.

So, after unpicking row after row after row of black topstitching and wacking in enough safety pins to rival Liz Hurley, I had this:

To remove the poocheness, I've dropped the entire front by 2cm, curving the front seams back into the original seam allowance at the point where the two seams meet. Plus the darts have been eliminated entirely as they became unnecessary. Chalk marks denote the finished stitching lines. While I was at it I ripped out the zip and dropped the centre back by 1.5cm - have a slight sway back which usually doesn't need adjustments but this pattern seemed to emphasis it. Also, all seam allowances below the hips were decreased from 1.5cm to 1cm so I can actually walk in the skirt.

But it didn't end there! Trying it on after all those adjustments, I spied the hem dipping down in the front. Fortunately, last week I picked up a chalk puff hem marker for $10 from the Sallies, and 5 minutes later was loping a massive 3cm off the front hem, sloping back to nothing at side back seams.

Finally, one year later, I have this:

Luckily, I like it. May even make it again in denim. (This time it's made in Italian worsted wool, but because I've lightened the pix so the details are more visible, unfortunately it look washed out.)

UFO over and out.