Mystery Fabric from Japanese Fabric Pack - "Tabigi 1960"

This is a close-up of a fabric remnant that I got in a Japanese Fabric Pack from a Made in Japan store. Who or what is Tabigi?? I looked it up on the internet, and found it is a Japanese manufacturer, a species of tree or plant and a place in America! You can see on the front of the train the date 1960. To further add to the mystery, this fabric is printed right way up on one panel, and then upside down:

The fabric from these packs is from vintage Kimonos and Obis and can include a range of fabric types and dying techniques such as Shibori, Kasuri and Yuzen. Don't expect pristine pieces of fabric all the same size from these packs. Some of them have yellowish age marks on them and most of them have been cut straight from a garment, so you will get some with original hems still intact. I actually love this because I can see some of the construction techniques. One of the pieces had gorgeous small hand stitching running along the cuff hem. These fabric packs are a fabric-aholic's dream.

This looks like a picture of Mount Fuji:

The children on this Tabigi fabric look like they are hiking. The little boy in the middle of this picture looks like he is wearing a traditional Japanese hat.

Even the bag the fabric came in is cute, with very Westernised paintings of Japanese ladies:

And here is the fabric pack in all it's packaged-up glory:

Finally, here is a picture of the whole "Tabigi" panel. I am thinking I could make a cushion from this fabric so that I preserve the whole panel, or it would be wonderful made into a vintage doll's outfit. I could just keep the fabric intact and not use it, but then I will never see it if it is shut up in a drawer, and I am not a museum so I should not feel obliged to act as a curator. What do you think I should make out of it?

I am working on my messenger style bag this weekend, and hope to have it finished soon as my current "black-hole" bag is driving me nuts.

My other news is that I have started a distance course in basic dressmaking and pattern drafting. It looks like there is a bit of work to do in the course, but I am still going to try and fit in some garments that I want to make for summer. There are some set garments that need to be made for the course, but I am not sure what they are yet as I have not received my course materials yet. I have never taken a sewing course and thought it was time to learn a bit more and get a certificate in the process.

Happy sewing everyone!

Fabric Free February Pledge

I am pledging to not buy any fabric in February 2012 as I have soooo much of the stuff. So you might ask, why have I chosen to show you a picture of fabric in this post? Well it is still January, and I have not been to Mary's shop in ages, so I thought I had better go before February. So I did, and this pic shows the results; 2 gorgeous floral print fabrics perfect for 1950's fashion doll dresses.

One of my fabric buying buddies at work just laughed at me when I said I was going to buy less fabric this year. And one of my sewing club friends is going to buy less this year as the coat cabinet she uses to store her fabrics in has never seen a coat!

Have a look at that nifty 9mm or 3/8 inch bias binding maker I got at Mary's as well. Very useful for making the narrow bias binding called for in this 20 inch 1950's fashion doll clothing pattern.

That cute green swimsuit and cape in the top right hand corner calls for loads of bias binding.

So wish me luck in keeping to my Fabric Free February pledge. I know I can do it!

Wardrobe Planning & a New Use for My Fabric/Pattern Stash

Here is my cat Ragamuffin who has thought up a clever use for my fabric and pattern stash. She is sitting on top of some pants patterns that I pulled out to look at and some recent fabric purchases; you can just make out the word sale on one of the bags. I was ironing up the sleeve hems on my green watercolour fabric top, and when I turned around to go over to the sewing machine, there she was. It will not be a permanent sleeping spot for her, I can assure you (and her) of that.

At my sewing club recently, one of the members said that she is sewing in just the colour mauve for the next 12 months. What a clever idea! Even if she sewed mauve clothes for six months and then did a matching colour for the next 6 months, she could not fail to have things that went with each other. She brought in a brightly coloured tshirt dress in predominantly mauve print with several complementary colours. She had also made a dress in a solid mauve colour. What a great idea, and something to ponder for my wardrobe sewing.

I have finished the watercolour fabric top, and might have pictures for you tomorrow. How satisfying it is to finish something that works out well. Next up is my attempt at pants making. Yikes! I would prefer to be making the Liberty fabric up, but I need some summer pants in natural cool fibres.

Watercolour Flowers Chiffon Fabric

I have been looking at this fabric every time I went to Spotlight over the last 3 or so months, and finally gave in and bought some. It is polyester chiffon and is made in Australia. Here are some close ups of some of the flowers:

I am thinking of making this peasant style top without the centre front seam as I can easily get it over my head without this closure. I have made this top before in views B and A, but I will go with B I think so I can get the maximum effect from the fabric.

And here is view B made up in a light weight cotton:

I checked my copy of More Fabric Savvy by Sandra Betzina on tips for sewing chiffon, and I don't think it is going to be easy. I will just have to test it out on a scrap and hope it sews up okay with the right needle. I think I will start work on a black jacket that I want to make in cotton sateen first, so I will hopefully have pics of that to show you soon. I am planning on doing a toile to get the fit right. I am actually cleaning up my sewing room at the moment, which had got into a terrible mess with all of my paper work for the course I did at the start of the year. It had become a dumping ground for everything, and I was using my small sewing machine in the lounge room to do all my sewing.

Busy

There has been a lot going on at Lizzie's lately, but not much sewing of dolls or otherwise. I have almost finished pruning my roses, which had managed to produce this wind blown lot of buds and flowers mid winter.

I have been taking up the sleeve hems on 2 ready ready to wear jackets that I bought during the winter sales. And I managed to finish my train the trainer certificate, and pass!

There is always time for a little shopping though, and Tessuti kindly obliged by having a sale. I bought some linens, chocolate coloured boiled wool and some wool and cashmere suiting.

Spotlight has the most divine cotton that has a kind of satin finish. It was not on sale, but the quality was beautiful, so I bought some to make shirts. I also picked up some cotton Liberty voile fabric in the most divine patterns. This photo probably does not do it justice. The Liberty fabric is on the left.

Back in the 1990's (I think) I made this shirt out of liberty fabric. It is huge on me now, but I am thinking of doing a bit of a makeover on it such as taking out the shoulder pads (yes shoulder pads) and putting some casing at the mid-back for some elastic.

The print is not a subtle design at all:

Do you think these flowers are poppies or some kind of thistle?

And of course sale time fever would not be complete without the half price pattern sale. Now I have a whole lot more patterns to fuss over with fitting issues. Do I really want to do that?? I have heard that the Wild Ginger software produces really well fitting clothes, but I can't get an idea of all the designs available just by looking on their website. I think they have a design feature in the package, but I don't know if I would be any good at that. You can buy a module for just coats and jackets, so perhaps I will try that first. Once I finish my Ella doll, I will tackle another jacket using one of my paper patterns and see how I go with that. I will probably do one of my liberty tops first though, so I have that ready for when the weather starts to warm up.

Dolls! Finished Outfit for Dianne's Original Ponytail Swirl Barbie

Modelling by my reproduction ponytail swirl Barbie

Here are the photos of the outfit that I have just made for my friend Dianne's original Ponytail Swirl Barbie that she had as a child. She still has the box, but not the clothes.

Close up of jacket

A day out in Paris!

I used patterns from the time when these Barbie dolls were made.

On the weekend, I was in the patchwork fabric store Drapers of Mt Macedon, and was lucky enough to meet the designer of the Ric Rac label, Jodie Carleton. Jodie was taking a workshop, and I wish I could have stayed. Wow, my first meeting with a real life designer! If you are out Gisborne way (which is in Victoria) any time soon, make a trip to the Drapers of Mt Macedon store as it is an Aladdin's cave of fabric delights.

Now I just have to think about my next project, and getting ready for my Blog Anniversary Competition coming up in July. Stay tuned...

Finally, but not in the least bit less important, I have a new follower this week; a talented knitter from France, Isabelle. I am a hopeless knitter, so I really appreciate what she does.

Always Time to Buy Fabric

I was in the city on my lunch break recently, and found the Tessuti fabric store by accident. I think if you are a fabricaholic, fabric comes to you.

I purchased enough of this Japanese cotton fabric (my heart goes out to those people at the moment) to make a short boxy jacket, but as it is very busy (that's a 50 cent Australian coin in the above photo), I am thinking more along these lines:



 I have this vest pattern already and it is Kwik Sew 3619. They also show this version on their website, without the ties, made in one fabric and with button closures:



I think I am going to be able to sew over the Easter break, or sooner if I can spend a couple of afternoons working on my certificate course for work and get that out of the way. That's the plan anyway...

Decisions, Decisions.

Butterick 5253, I am making view D

This week, I somehow managed to sign myself up for a choir and start my certificate IV qualification for work, and decide what to sew next.

After I finished the dolls, I knew I wanted to make something for myself, but just couldn't decide. Would I start one of the patterns that I had bought recently on sale? I just couldn't make up my mind, and as we are nearing the end of Summer, I had to decide whether to sew for this season or the next.

My slow sewing speed was the decider, and I have finally gone with Butterick 5253, view D.

This is the fabric I am planning to make it up in, although if the muslin turns out badly on me, I will not go ahead with this pattern. The fabric is a kind of crushed cord look that I bought from Lincraft 3 or so years ago. It is a great feeling to do a bit of stash bustin and and have a go at making this one up.

Don't Let Me Loose When It's Sale Time

Butterick 5467

Two of the big chain stores had 1/2 price pattern sales over the weekend. I came out with 6 patterns and 2 metres of linen mix fabric. Oh dear.

I am thinking of making Butterick jacket 5467 in the three quarter sleeve option in this linen print.

These were my other purchases:



Butterick 5223



Butterick 5496

I am thinking of using some of the polyester gabardine suiting fabric that I have in my stash (I made New Look 6619 out of some of it) in this pattern from McCalls:

I really like the tie belt with this one, but being short waisted, I might have to skip this idea.





5668



And finally, McCalls 5860. I have some pinwale corduroy in some beautiful prints that would look really good in this style.

Then to compound the problem, my copy of Vogue Patterns magazine arrived last week, and as usual they have a buy one get one free offer for subscribers. I have not made my selections yet but will do so soon.

Unfortunately, finding the time to sew these lovely patterns is going to be in short supply as I am starting a certificate IV qualification for my work shortly. This will slow down my sewing output down for the next four or so months. I might slip in a bit of sewing over that time, but I will have to see how I go.

Do you notice a common theme with these selections? There are mostly jackets. I still have a lack of jackets of all kinds in my wardrobe, so I think I am going to have to sneak some time away from my studies to do some sewing.

More Fabric and New Look 6619 Progress

I have been very restrained with my fabric purchases this year. This might be due to the fact that I was running out of storage space for any more. But when I saw this wool crepe and wool gabardine on sale at Cleggs last week for $10.00 a meter, I snapped it up. They had an Italian version, but I could not see a lot of difference. I guess I will only know what quality it is when I make it up and start wearing it.

And then I saw this gorgeous print which is like a very light weight linen. I bought the co-ordinating plain print with the idea to make a skirt. These two fabrics were on sale, but not as heavily reduced in price as the wool fabric.

The idea is to make this jacket out of the print fabric. It has a draw string tie at the waist.

So, as usual, lots of ideas, but my sewing output is going at a snails pace. Lots of social activities meant little sewing this week, but I have resolved the fit issues on the front part of the jacket I am making, New Look 6619. I used the technique in Fit for Real People by Palmer and Alto. Problem is, I forgot to slant the bust dart upwards, but it is a small shallow dart and I don't think it will matter too much. You might be able to make out in the photo below how I have enlarged the front:

Increasing the bust area meant that I also had to increase the length. I read over on Pattern Review that his pattern can be a little tight in the arm hole, and found it was the case for me, so I had to increase for that too. I want to insert a very small shoulder pad as I like to use them in my jackets as I think they sit better. Problem is I had to increase the pattern piece for the sleeve, lining, fronts, back and front facing. Phew!

At this stage I plan to use a piece of very pale pink for the lining which will look good against the brown gabardine.

Well, at least I have made a start with the sewing and should make great progress now that I hope I have resolved most of the fitting issues on the calico and the paper pattern.

Trials of a Short Person, New Look 6619 Jacket & Watercolour Fabric

There won't be much 'real' sewing going on around here for the next couple of weeks. Apart from the fact that I will be working one extra day at work next week, I have a whole lot of adjustments to do to some clothes I bought recently. Not only do the pants and jeans hems need taking up, but I have to shorten the shirt with the white cuffs and the other top needs the length adjusted by cutting off the band. I will either cut off a couple of inches of the length and re-attach the band or leave it off altogether.

It is a lot of work doing this kind of thing, but I bought almost all of these clothes at very reduced prices, so I suppose it is worth it.

Next up is some stretch cotton sateen that I will call the 'watercolour fabric'. As that is the medium I paint in, this fabric really called to me. Being a short person, and the fact that I love prints and colour, I had to really think hard about whether or not to purchase this. To make things worse, I bought it by mail order from Knitwit. I only had a tiny swatch to go on too. I had a discussion with some of my work colleagues about buying such a 'busy' pattern, and the fact that it will go out of fashion some time soon. The consensus was to go for it. I think I would like to make a longer jacket out of it.

Finally, here is the fabric I have picked out to make my New Look 6619 jacket out of. It is looking a bit creased isn't it. It is a polyester (I think) gabardine which I got at a ridiculously cheap sale price from Spotlight, so if it does not work out, it is not a great loss.

So as usual, I have a lot of sewing to do. Until next time.