Thursday, July 9, 2015

Sandie

Ahoy hoy readers! I hope you've all been well? 

I have some rather exciting news! I bought a car! A red Fiat 500 to be exact, to be named Fiammetta the Fiat. She's very cute and little and doesn't have much grunt but that's ok, I'm still on my learners so I'm not allowed over 80km/h anyway. I can't drive it on my own without an instructor yet so for most of the time I just sit in it and listen to music and visit it in the garage and do funny things like that. Did you do that when you bought your first car? 

Hopefully I'll have my provisional license sometime next year so I can go on opp shopping trips and be able to bring home all those large heavy items I usually pass by with a heavy heart. 

Any way - it's time for me to post up a new dress! 


Sandie - as named after Sandie Shaw is a lovely little number, sewn up from a baroque printed rayon I found at Spotlight last year. I used view 1 of Simplicity 9861 from 1972 to sew this up. I also really like view 2 so I'll have to sew that also one day.  


I have to apologise for the funny oversaturation of these photos - I had bought a new computer and my new one couldn't support my old photoshop license so I was using some freeware to edit the photos and I had no idea what I was doing! Anyway I hope you can forgive me?


The front has a row of very small box pleats from the empire bust line down to the waist and then opens to the hem. 

I did actually keep my chapstick inside one of the pleats when I wore this to work because I didn't include pockets. Clever yes? 




For the collar I used a small amount of silk lycra that I grabbed out of the remnant bin at The Fabric Store. It was fluid and soft enough to match the rayon so I didn't interface it.

It does flop around a bit when I wear it, but that's ok! 


But it otherwise produced a very crisp neat collar! 



The cuffs of the bishop sleeves are simply gathered with elastic. It was nice to do something so simple for once - especially because before making this dress, I made about 3 garments with button cuffs and plackets, so I was getting a bit tired of all the fiddling that sort of cuff needs. I'm still not very neat at it, but I'm getting there 


It's far too cold at the moment to wear this dress! So excluding the 2 times I wore it in Autumn, she'll have to wait till spring to be seen again (along with my legs)

It's so bloody cold, I keep wearing the same sort of clothing every day I am a little to scared to get up from the couch away from the heater to the sewing machine. I don't know how I would ever handle England or Europe in winter! I know 11 degree winters sound tropical in comparison to some of you, but when you're used to 40 degree summers, you're bound to become a withering little human ball when it's that cold. Central heating isn't common here! 

Anyway, I'm going to go put on all the woollen items I own and have a big mug of Lindt hot chocolate. Yummy!

Till next time!

Cat xo 

10 comments:

  1. Such a great pattern! That collar is amazing - great work.
    We're in the throes of summer heat right now here and I am dreaming of that dress in view 2!

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  2. I don't know how you ever cope in 40 degree summer heat - it was31 degrees here in the UK for one day last week and it nearly killed me. Terrible energy-sapping humid heat which didn't even end in a cracking thunderstorm (I love a good storm.) If it gets up to 11 degrees here in winter (though it can be only 11 degrees at any time of the year, including summer) then the central heating is switched off to save on the energy bills. Love the dresses you make, you're very talented.

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  3. That is some fabulous fabric! And looks great in this dress. I really must familiarise myself with a proper photo-editing platform. I use the editor that came with my pretty special camera, but fear my shots are always over-saturated. Don't even know what to do with that! And a Fiat! My fave car ever. Enjoy it :)

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  4. Such a pretty dress, I especially love the shape of the collar!
    Congrats on the car! A Fiat 500 in yellow is my dream car, but I doubt I'll ever get one as I'll be giving up my car soon!

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  5. This is such a great dress, I immediately went off to Etsy to buy the exact same pattern!
    I am living in Switzerland, where we have pretty cold winters and luckily quite mild summers most of the time (I would die in 40 degrees), I would totally wear this dress on a cold winter day: with a (preferably woollen) long sleeved tshirt under it and with woollen tights (I always buy one size bigger than needed, as it is warmer and cozier) - then you are even fine for zero degrees weather! :-)

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  6. A perfect match of pattern and fabric! This is going to be a spring time smash :D And yay for Fiats! Such fun cars to drive :D

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  7. Congrats on the new car! I love your dress too, so cute and I love the fabric choice. I hope you warm up soon! x

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  8. Gorgeous little Sandie! What a great frock, fab print and a cute collar. And congrats on your first car! xxx

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  9. Eeek! Fiat 500s are my favourite. I watch the Italian Job endlessly just to squeal at them.
    That dress is a beauty. I adore the groovy collar and fabulous print.
    I bet that temperature is a shock to the system after your long, hot Summers. We've had some mad weather lately. Its the height of summer her and I travelled home today in a fake fur coat. xxx

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  10. Hey Catherine! I just found your lovely blog via Meet Me At Mikes. Wow, you made that dress? How talented you are...it's gorgeous. You bought a car, that is really exciting. I have never owned a car, and I'm almost 31! In fact I only got my P plates last year...took me 14 years as a learner to get around to it. I wish you more luck that I had when you go for your test...I wrote a story on my blog about going for my test and failing a number of times, you can read it here if you want: http://www.nanjingnian.com/on-failure-fathers-and-facing-your-fears/ Hope you have a nice weekend :) Isabel

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