pan, peter pan. [for keara]

following a request from the faraway land of canada, i have put together a tutorial (that makes me sound like i know what i'm doing) on how to make a peter pan collar. you can add it to a dress or a shirt, easy as. just to show how to do it, i tacked it onto the peach dress i made a little while ago.

go for it:

1. trace the neckline of your dress.

2. on half of the trace, sketch the outline of half of your collar. you can make it any shape you want- just remember a seam allowance (at least a centimetre)

3. cut four.

4. on the other side of your neckline trace, cut a band about 4cm wide. this will be your facing.

5. stitch the halves of the collar together, right sides in. notch the fabric along the curve, then turn and press.

6. pin, right sides out, both sides of the collar onto the neckline of the dress/shirt. baste. (make sure the two sides of the collar meet at the centre front- find this by folding your dress in half with side seams together)

7. place facing on top of the collar, right sides in, and stitch. you need to pin it on upside down- it will look kind of like a frowny mouth on top of the smiley collar (if that makes no sense, disregard, and just make sure the length of the facing matches up with the length of the neckline. if not, flip the facing over. you'll see the frowny mouth.)

8. turn facing in. it won't like this- notch the facing as much as you need to until it sits properly. press.

9. fold under edges of facing so they trap all the loose ends, and hand stitch it down underneath the collar.

10. go out, wear it, receive compliments, etc.

back!

how long it has been! clothes (or the making of them) have taken a back seat during uni/exams (including the missing of one)/end of exams/laziness etc. but this is what i have been working on for the past few days.

(aforesaid laziness has led me to take pictures on photobooth; hence the a) bad quality and b) unasked for look into my bedroom)

the dress is made off the same pattern i used for the orange one of a couple of months ago, but with a collar and little capped sleeves added. the fabric is a dusky pink silk blend, i think (following up on my decision that i ought to wear more pink clothes). my mum descibed it as "very '50s Chanel"... though i doubt very much that Chanel would make anything that is so poorly finished on the inside, and has a visible hemline.

oh well.

writin' essays

is good for creativity. unfortunately not the academic type. so i ripped off an ugly-ish dress i already own and made it again in pretty fabric.

it was actually super easy, i just put the paper on the dress and (somewhat haphazardly) traced the lines and the darts. added in seam allowance (looking back i definitely should have added more, the dress is a little constricting) and just sewed.

(my sister takes photos, "do something with your arms!")

the fabric is this lovely cotton/linen... stuff... from the Fabric Store in Fitzroy, it it permanently crumpled and i am terrified it is going to shrink into unwearability when i wash it, but it's a pretty az colour.

jumper plus

...because it was kind of boring before. lace came from my grandma; beads from diva.

for my deer friends

more laminator art! it is seriously so easy, just draw and cut and laminate. then some handy work with pliers and you have a pretty necklace. e-z.

jump jump

i had a whole bunch of material left over from el cape, so i made myself a lovely soft jumper that i am wearing now and it is oh-so-comfy.

how-to pix coming soon.

cape II

so this is cape numero dos, which i made for my sister for her birthday. it's a lovely blue sweater kind of material, it feels so nice!

and i know, she's in her school uniform, but it looked kind of cute. like she was about to go and skip through the woods to school.

and aptly, i guess, the cord is made from the lanyard of my old girl guides whistle.