Tablecloth Tunic Dress

I am in love with this tunic dress. Made out of one of the dress patterns from Built By Wendy Dresses (You get three basic sewing patterns with the book for three dress types), this is my version of the tunic dress. I love how comfortable the fit is and how well it fits my body type. And off course I love the Anna Maria Horner fabric named tablecloth. I chose a bright orange for the 'border' of the tunic but wasn't sure if it was too loud at first but when I was trying on the unfinished dress I fell in love with the vibrant colour. I also took extra care to place the orange design of the main fabric in the centre of the dress and love how it turned out. Sides of the dress were finished with french hem.

Wendy Mullin's book provided some tips on how to design the tunic but all other pattern drawing besides the basic shift pattern really depended on ME!!!!! It was kinda intimidating at first but I think the effort was worthwhile and a pretty good experience.  I can now make a few more of these dresses with variations on my own. How liberating is that!

However, I found the sewing instructions from the book rather vague for this dress and often had to figure out what the next step should be. I also had to unpick the bottom 'border' as the front and back didn't match in terms of width and looked funny. I'm happy with it after re-measurement and re-sewing it. In fact I'm so happy with it that I shall be wearing the dress out this weekend.

Dress Inspired!

I'm feeling inspired by the dresses at Harvey Faircloth and just gotta share some photos.

I'm half way through my Built by Wendy Tunic dress (I am so loving the fabric combination and can't wait to finish the project).

Weekend Toy Bag

I just completed this toy bag for my son. He is always bringing toys (cars, trains, dinosaurs, sharks etc) out and always forgetting them so I told him I will make him a bag for toys. When we went fabric shopping in Osaka, he excitedly chose the quilted Disney's cars fabric for the flap. I attached a bright yellow bias to the flap, made the rest of the bag out of a red home decor fabric from Ikea and used velcro for attachment. The tutorial which is a dream to follow is from the mmmcrafts blog. This bag can be completed in a couple of hours. Have fun!

The First Project

This is the first dress I have ever made. It was my project while learning how to sew just before my princess was born. At 15 months, she is finally able to fit into the dress and I can't describe how proud and delighted I was when she wore it for a day of fun at the Botanic Gardens with the grandparents.  The fit was good and I love the ruffle sleeves. I will probably make another for her in a bigger size later.

Fabric Buying in Osaka

I've not been able to sew recently as I was busy planning and packing for a family vacation in Japan.  We came back on Saturday and I've been busy unpacking. I couldn't resist sharing the lovely fabric I bought while in Osaka and I have Jacqui from Blooming in Japan to thank for giving absolutely superb directions to the fabric store located at the Ebisubashi shopping street! I had my two kids with me and it was not easy for serious fabric shopping but in 5 minutes, I managed to select the four Japanese fabric shown in the photo above. I love the prints and the price even more. The four metres of fabric cost 2,800 Yen which is around US$7 per metre! That's probably half the price of what I'll get on etsy excluding shipping!

I returned to the shop on my last day in Japan and bought more. After all, with the baby food and crackers eaten up, I now have more luggage space for fabric:)

So I ended up with some hello kitty and disney's cars quilted material and even an echino print!

This is the first time I bought fabric while on holiday and that made me an absolutely happy woman!