Category: Victory patterns

Three Sisters print

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A good friend of mine takes great landscape photos so he supplied me with a beautiful photo of the Three Sisters (Blue Mountains in New South Wales) now used on this digital print fabric using Contrado.co.uk Using digital prints is addictive.

Choosing the fabric
When I was trawling through the fabrics available from Contrado, I chose this soft French crepe fabric to compliment the clouds around the landscape although I didn’t have a garment in mind. I wasn’t worried about what I would make from this fabric. I just knew this was too good an opportunity to be hamstrung by the next step of creating this into a garment.

Grace of Badmomgoodmom sent me a link to this post and I’m so glad she did. Grace is very knowledgeable about a lot of things so I was very grateful for her note.

Figuring out what to make
Once this fabric arrived in the post, I checked out the dimensions and handled it for feel, drape and if it crushed easily. It does crush but it’s so soft, flowy and irons perfectly.

I use time to reflect on my projects so I put this fabric aside and then I pattern stashed dived and came up with three patterns options – a semi-fitted sleeveless top, a flowy top and a flowy dress.

The flowy top is what I decided to use. It’s Victory Patterns Simone pattern from a few years ago and I picked up this pattern from a destash we did at Port Macquarie that Sewbusylizzie ran 2 years ago.

The ‘How-to’
The panel is 50cm long so I had to decide on what I would use to balance this print to be in the right place for me.

With all the inspiring lace skirts that were being made at Susan Khalje’s Sydney course, I found a lace remnant in my stash and a firm knit fabric to balance into this print.

The reviews for this pattern showed the front opening is quite low and on me, it felt uncomfortable so I raised it by 5cm.

This fabric is really soft, has a bit of stretch and is still a firm weave so it was easy to sew. I’ve used french seams on the sides.

Below is the work appropriate version Three Sisters digital print using Butterick 5608 using the third panel I ordered. The rest of this blouse uses a cream coloured rayon remnant for the sleeves and back.

Butterick 5608

With the heat and humidity we’ve had this Summer, I’m getting used to wearing flowy tops on weekend. I still need to wear shaped clothes so I think I can safely pair this with skinny jeans, or a fitted skirt or shorts.

Is that it?
I have one more digital printed fabric that I’ve made through Contrado UK that I’ll show you in a couple of weeks time. 

Now you’ve seen two out of three fabrics I’ve designed through Contrado and I feel this has been a great design journey.

Day and night dress challenge

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Today is my turn to show you what you could try if you’re considering entering Elizabeth’s Day and night dress challenge. There are so many of us that are showcasing examples to inspire you.
Yesterday I hope you saw Elizabeth of Elizabeth Made This and Brittany of Brittany J Jones

Ok so I may have made more than I should have. But it’s Summer here in Australia and I did have a week’s break hence my showcasing two patterns for this challenge.

You’ve already seen my original challenge day night dress, using Victory Patterns Nicola dress.

The fit of this dress is great.

I usually have to make a sway back adjustment but this wasn’t required for this dress.

Making the night version was a dream make.

See what I mean about the fit of this style?

The skirt is fully lined but it doesn’t stick to you so it’s easy to wear in hot humid weather.

If sewing zippers is your strong point, this dress uses buttons or snaps as the closure. And if you’re weight keeps changing, simply reposition the snaps/buttons.

This was such an easy dress to make, even with the huge bold floral fabric (John Kaldor) supplied to me by Minerva Crafts UK. If you live in Australia or New Zealand, I have a duplicate kit of the floral dress to giveaway on my Minerva Crafts blog post.

As I had time off, I decided to crack open this Burda Young pattern as another Day and night dress challenge idea. This pattern has been in my stash for a while and I bought it for a Summer party dress.

However I had to work out the bra component so I could wear this dress with confidence. 

I have made a one-shoulder dress before and it had a lot of inbuilt support. I used a bra kit I bought online last year from Susan of Measuretwicecutonce 

There’s nothing really showy with this dress but I wanted to feel comfortable in it, so I also delved into making a bra that would work for this dress. 

Because of the print, the three circles run between my shoulders.

This pattern has no shaping at the back so this pattern is great to wear in the Summer.

We went to the beach during the week and I realised that a simpler bra style would work too. I wore this simple grey bra underneath this day dress. I drew the smallest size shaping from the dress and used 2-way stretch lycra and elastic.

The purple bra worked really well under this night dress.

Here’s a closer view of the front straps. This is more refined for the evening dress.

Here’s what the back of the bra looks like. The straps are slim and sit nicely.

The alterations for this dress were: 
– shortening the hem on this dress, 
– lowered the armholes by 3cm
– added darts at the back for shaping on the evening dress only.

This fabric has a snake texture but breaths well. Being black, it’s now a new ‘little black dress’ LBD.

I suppose this is what happens when you have a ‘staycation’ and your sewing room is available to whip up anything, anytime. 

Stay tuned this week with 

Tuesday, Jan 10th: Je’Tua of Robertswife, Meg of Cookin’ and Craftin’, Melanie of Its Melanie Darling
Wednesday, Jan 11th:  Linda of Elle Gee Makes, Tee of Maggie Elaine
Thursday, Jan 12th: Bianca of Thanks I Made Them, Daniela of On the Cutting Floor
Friday, Jan 13th:  Melissa of Mahlicadesigns, Rachel of Sew Redy, Renata of Runnningnstyle, Sonja of Sewing ala Carte

Saturday, Jan 14th: Doja of Elewa blog, Judith of Judith Dee’s World, Tanya of Mrs. Hughes

Everyone’s worked really hard behind the scenes to inspire you to make your own challenge dresses. Go for it!

Don’t forget to enter your day and night looks into the community challenge for a chance to win prizes from these wonderful sponsors:


You can enter your projects here.  Only projects that are entered through the linkup will be eligible for voting.
The linkup is available from Sunday, January 8th until Saturday, January 28th.  

Voting will be available on the entry page from January 29th-February 4th.  After all of the sponsors have been notified, the winners will be announced.

A bright start

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It’s 2017 and I’ve welcomed the New Year with this bright floral Nicola dress by Victory patterns from Minerva Crafts UK.

I’ve been wanting to use this John Kaldor fabric for a while so I decided to pair this together with Nicola, hence a bright 2017 start.

blue/coral colourway

This is certainly a large floral and you know I love a John Kaldor when it’s available. This blue/coral print is reorderable ie, it’s always available as is the purple/orange version.

Purple/orange colourway

I chose the blue colourway to go with blue shoes or a blue jacket. To be honest, I just wanted see how this huge floral print would work on me. I’m so glad Minerva Crafts keeps these prints in stock.

This black floral version was the test dress.

I decided to use the size 10 for bust and waist but size 8 for the hips.


Pattern alterations
After the test version, I kept:

  • forward shoulder adjustment
  • shortened skirt
  • adjusted neckline to curve more.
  • shortened the bust darts by 2cm (gravity)
No sway back adjustment required

What I loved the best
No zipper required
Sleeve detailing
Summer styling
Lined skirt

Here’s a closer look at the sleeve finish.
The skirt is fully lined and I wore this dress on a humid night without feeling the heat.

The skirt follows your shape but doesn’t cling so I felt cool.

What I didn’t like
Not applicable.

I decided to use snaps, a hook eye and a button as the closures making this pattern very simple to make.

This John Kaldor floral print is my day wear version. 


Above is the black evening version I made for the Day and Night dress challenge.

You can see here where I tweaked the sleeves a bit

This month’s giveaway for Australian and New Zealand sewing peeps is the floral dress kit from Minerva Crafts UK.

You get this John Kaldor fabric, lining, thread, buttons, Victory Patterns Nicola dress pattern and enough Vliesaline H180 to interface your dress.

Leave a comment on the Minerva Crafts post for this month’s make and I’ll draw the winner out on Thursday 12 January.

Red dress

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3 days before Christmas (the little red dress project) this red dress came about.

I could be about to twirl in this photo.

All of this fabric was in my stash and instinctively I cut out Victory Patterns Nicola made it again but fully lined this version. I’ll review the pattern soon.

Love the fit with this pattern.

This fabric is see-through and scratchy so it needed to be lined. Trust me on that.

Merry Christmas and I hope you all enjoy the break with the people you want to be with.

“That’s a wrap.”

Spotto

~ velosews ~ 10 Comments

Spotted fabric lives in my stash. A recent hunt in my stash made me realise there were spots here and there. Navy spots made their way onto my Chloe dress by Victory Patterns. These spots are small and the fabric is light weight. So good to wear in summer.

Well I found another navy spot fabric. I’m sure this was from Pitt Trading. The spots are larger and the fabric is more firmer and light weight. The solution – trousers for summer.

This spots below is my second test trousers for McCalls 5397.

I had to check the fit of this pattern and the fly front I added. The centre back zip wasn’t working for me. Not that it was uncomfortable. I’m not used to a centre back zip on trousers.

This fabric holds its own because it’s very firm and because it’s dark it won’t show creases.

So while the pattern shows slim-fitted trousers, they do have room in the leg, but the leg line is straight.

My ‘white shirt’ is Vogue 8815. The top feels a bit short but it looks ok in these photos so I’ll hang fire on adding an additional longer peplum.
 
November posts
I have a stack of post about everything that’s happened this month. I’ll get these posted once I have a chance to regroup. This has been an inspiring month in lots of ways!

Chloe by Victory patterns

~ velosews ~ 23 Comments

With our meeting with Kristiann Boos of Victory patterns looming, I decided to sew Chloe version 2, with sleeves. 

 

Melbourne weather being a changeable affair, I needed to make this up in a classic fabric – navy with white polka dots in cotton. I can wear any shoes with this fabric.

The lace used for the sleeves is a remnant so I was very careful to cut out plenty so you can see the flowers on both sleeves. Acetate bias was used as were some largish shiny white buttons.

Adjustments
Roll shoulder, sway back, check pocket depth, check hem length and lastly check the dart point.

 Thanks to my niece for taking these pics of her Aunty wearing Chloe.

The littlest niece was making faces to make me laugh. It worked. They are smart girls.
Minerva Crafts has a huge range of fabric with dots of all shapes and colours. I used dots in the search field and I’m still looking through their huge range of dot fabrics, buttons, bows….

Victory – Melbourne November meetup

~ velosews ~ 4 Comments

Kristiann from Victory Patterns is visiting Australia in November and when she mentioned this trip, I asked if there was a possibility for a meetup and it’s happening on Sunday 24 November.

Does that make a trip to Melbourne for the weekend more worthwhile now? Click here to let us know if you’re joining in. TJ has done the detailed planning for this meet up.

That’s the same weekend as the Saturday Bendigo gallery visit (FIDM fashion collection). Yoshimi the flying squirrel picked the right weekend to travel from Japan to visit Melbourne. Have you seen Yoshimi’s latest outfit? It’s very refined.

TJ has developed a full itinerary for Sunday (and Saturday if you’re interested). There’s fabric shopping included with a visit to the National Gallery Victoria and the Melbourne Museum of course.

It’s going to be busy weekend full of fashion and fabric. As Stewie(The family guy) says… Victory is mine.

I’m hoping to make Chloe for our meetup.


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