SEWN: OPPORTUNE BLUES

I am definitely a summer person.

A cold-blooded (not like a murderer, as in reptilian. Actually... that sounds bad too. Gah!), warm weather yearner.

A person for whom cold weather is to be grouchily, and very ungracefully, tolerated, until the darling buds of spring deign to rear their pretty heads again.

Whilst my naturally white as the driven snow skin might trick you into believing otherwise, I am a lover of the sun (but always slathered in SPF50. Sun safety and all that).

As soon as Spring started to show its warm rosy little head in Sydney a month ago I started to obsessively scheme warm weather making. Are you motivated to make by specific seasons? My desire to sew is nowhere near as great in the colder months.

So how very opportune that I was walking past a local opp shop one day and just happened to stumble across the motherlode of all vintage frock pattern motherlodes??

And that's not all of them! All in my size! All of them!! From the era that makes my heart sing!! The angels sang and I snapped those babies up quicker than I could growl come anyway near me and this amazing basket of patterns and risk certain injury.

I adore Style patterns. No other pattern range draws me to their designs quite like Style patterns - at least those of the 70's. But, like most Big 4 patterns I have significant problems with ease and the need for copious adjustments (unlike my beloved Japanese patterns). I usually pick size 12 to try and hover somewhere between my bust and hips measurements which vary at least a size either side. But this bundle included some Size 10's. Including this one, my absolute favourite...

View 2. Oh view 2, how much I love thee. It could be the stripes. I didn't do stripes. Maybe next time.

With the loose skirt my hips could happily be accommodated. I did toile the bodice to make sure the fit wasn't too horrendous and lo and behold it fit pretty much perfectly!

Now fabric... can there be any doubt? I am a lover of indigo denim. A big fat sucker for indigo denim. If I could wear nothing else for the rest of my livelong days I'd be a pig in mud.

Happily I had a piece of mid-weight indigo denim in my stash purchased long ago for another make where I wrongly estimated yardage needs. Happy days!

I'm actually amazed and delighted that the fit is pretty much spot on sewn exactly as drafted. A definite first for me!

For next time (oh yes I'm fairly sure there will be a next time), however, I will move the dart point down a little as it definitely sits too high on my bust (didn't detect that at the toile stage). I think I have also hoiked the bodice higher than average as I don't like a deep V neck on me. Bony chest, so attractive.

With some judiciously placed topstitching I had just the right denim jeans type feel I was after. After polling IG I decided to sew the front straps down with blue thread (against all advice) as I didn't want to overdo the jeans look. I'm really happy with it as it's largely camouflaged and a clean finish.

I also had in my stash this amazing piece of crochet, also sourced years ago from an opp shop. As soon as I stumbled upon it again in a stash dive, I realised it was almost perfectly sized for a large patch pocket. And wow, how amazing it looked against the indigo denim.

The topstitching extended to straps and pockets. I even carefully topstitched down the denim of the crochet covered pocket as I'm not sure how long I'll keep the crochet on and wanted the option of taking it off.

I do notice that there is a very small amount of gaping at centre back. I have got a hook and eye above the zipper, but it's also likely that I needed to nip it in slightly at the side-seams. I just didn't want it to be too constrictive, but then you get that annoying slight gape, especially with crossed straps.

It's quite a different look for me. I am a lover of minis. But I was so inspired by the gorgeous midi-length frocks Lisa of Tessuti and Rachel of Boo Dogg and Me were churning out, I had to have one for my very own. And the length is awesome! I can bend down to deal with a small child and not flash my knickers! Win! Why didn't anyone tell me??

I also used my new-to-me Singer 201P (same as 201K) to sew this frock and that baby sewed through layers of denim like it was tissue paper. 

And because any blog post would be incomplete without posing yet again in my one and only photo location, here's a last shot. I wouldn't want you to think I was going to start getting all clever with finding new locations of anything.