Winter Vogue Wedding Guests

We had the honour of being invited to our dear friends Max and Cassidy’s Wedding in New York! This called for new dresses, a winter black tie wedding in New York isn’t something we have hanging around in our closest.  This was a wonderful opportunity to tackle more advanced Vogue Patterns!  Off we headed to the fabric stores to find some inspiration for some wonderful fabric and patterns. 

Erin in Vogue 1520

We couldn’t think of anything more fitting for a winter wedding than a full-length velvet dress!

We’ve seen Vogue 1520 by @badgleymischka in the pattern books for a while, but never had the opportunity until now to make it!

The pattern only has 5 pattern pieces for the outside layer, each a really unique shape given the side gathering! We sewed about 70% of the dress just on the four-thread overlocker and completed gathering stitches and hems on a domestic sewing machine.

We deviated from the pattern in two ways:
1. added gathering around the wrist (by extending the sleeve piece and using the same method of the side waist of the dress) instead of the lace feature.
2. removed the train to allow for maximum dance floor moves but kept the shaping at the back

Lauren Vogue 1908

A winter black tie wedding in New York was an excellent opportunity to tackle Vogue 1908 in a challenging fabric

This pattern is a wrap-style dress with a button-bodice closure and a wrap skirt. We loved this pattern for the self-covered button and collar feature, even though the self-covered buttons were challenging in the metallic georgette!

This fabric was tricky to work with and looking at the photos afterwards could use a popper on the left side seam to help hold the wrap strap into place. If you would like to follow along with the construction of this dress check out our Instagram Highlight here.

Credits

Photographer: James Christie Media
Pattern: Vogue 1520 and Vogue 1908 

The dapper cameraman himself

Must visit Fabric Stores in South Australia!

As a sewist, no holiday is complete without visiting the local Fabric Stores! 

On our recent road trip around South Australia, including the Barossa, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and Adelaide, we visited some amazing fabric stores we wanted to share with you!

We visited South Australia on our Operation Tiny House New Years’ Eve for the 2019-2020 New Year’s Eve (see our matching outfits from our New Year’s Eve Trip here), so we had a couple of favourites to visit again and some new ones to try!

Fabric Stores in Adelaide

DK Fabrics

Address: 105 Port Road Hindmarsh SA 5007
Website:  www.dkfabric.com.au
Facebook: DK Fabrics 

DK Fabrics is a wonderland of fabrics! From dance fabrics to evening wear to cotton – it has such a diverse range of fabrics.

If you are looking for a bargain, there are some discounted fabrics for about $3.00. In contrast, if you are looking for more expensive fabrics like lace, sequins or satin, DK Fabric’s also has you covered.

This store has become a favourite to visit every time we come to South Australia!

The Fabric Store

Address: 101/145 Franklin St, Adelaide SA 5000
Website: www.wearethefabricstore.com
Facebook: The Fabric Store (Adelaide)
Instagram: @wearethefabricstore

The Fabric Store has become a favourite store no matter what city you visit in Australia or New Zealand – and Adelaide is no exception!

With a wonderful range of Liberty Fabrics, Linen and allsorted special occasions and headstock fabrics, it is hard to walk out of the Fabric Store empty handed! 

Ferrier Fashion Fabrics

Address: 374 Fullarton Rd, Fullarton SA 5063
Website: www.ferrierfashionfabrics.com
Facebook: @FerrierFashionFabrics
Instagram: @ferrierfashionfabrics

Ferrier Fashion Fabrics reminds us of the fabric stores we used to visit with our Nan as children. It feels like you are walking into a treasure trove of a carefully picked collection of fabrics in a family-owned business.

This fabric store is filled with great quality and beautiful fabrics, whether you are looking for premium daywear, knit fabric or evening fabrics. 

Tricia’s Discount Fabrics

Address: 11-13 Price Street, Melrose Park
Website: www.triciasdiscountfabric.com
Facebook: Tricia’s Discount Fabric

Tricia’s Discount Fabrics is a wonderful land for those sewists who use lots of quilting or dance fabrics – it is literally a warehouse stacked full of options!

Fabric Stores in South Australia (outside of Adelaide)

Jenny’s Sewing Centre

Address: 64 Murray Street, Angaston, SA, Australia 5353
Website:  www.jennyssewingcentre.websyte.com.au
Facebook: Jenny’s Sewing Centre

Jenny’s Sewing Centre was such a joy to visit! The store has recently celebrated its 45th Anniversary – how amazing! 

The store has an extensive range of quality quilting cotton fabrics as well as a very good range of fabrics for sewing garments. 

Fleurs of Stirling

Address: 8 Mount Barker Rd, Stirling SA 5152
Instagram: @fleursofstirling

While Fleurs of Stirling has a limited range of fabrics, they are a great stop for those threads and buttons you need. 

When we stopped her on our trip, we picked up some wonderful striped cotton for $5 a metre and some knitting books for future projects. 

Favourite Fabrics

Visiting all of these wonderful fabric stores, we couldn’t leave empty-handed! Here are our favourite three fabrics we purchased.

HELLO you beautiful shiny fabric.

There is some eye-catching about this fabric. It falls somewhere in between gold and rose gold fabric.  

It is a sketchy knit fabric that has a wonderful drape – perfect for a birthday party dress! 

Purchased from Ferrier Fashion Fabrics. 
Cost per metre: $32.00
Fabric: 70% nylon, 27% metallic, 3% elastane
Available on their website here.

 

This cotton is not your average striped fabric – it has a strong red, navy and tiny tan stripe.

For those who have been following our sewing journey for a while, you’ll know we love matching outfits – this is fabric will be an outfit later in the year, so keep a look out!

Purchased from DK Fabrics

Cost per metre: $6.00

If this fabric doesn’t say festive Christmas, what does?

With Christmas fast approaching, it is never too soon to get organised – we have a lot of sewing projects to finish between now and Christmas, but this fabric is on the list!

Purchased from DK Fabrics

Cost per metre: $10.00

Colour in Thirds: Tessuti Competition

The Colour in Thirds Competition by Tessuti competition lets your creativity run wild, making literally whatever garment you like from a specified fabric. 

“Entry guidelines are super simple. Sew whatever style you want. Sew something that’s sympathetic to the fabric. Sew an original design or use a pattern. You can use one, both or a combination of all three competition fabrics.” – Tessuti Fabric Sewing Blog

The fabric was a Japanese polyester crepe de chine available – as the competition suggests – in three colours. With an open design brief, a fabric we were unfamiliar with, and two colours to play with – it was time to get creative!

What do see our past entries in the Tessuti Sewing Competitions?
See our Skylines entry here.

Photos taken by Ben and James Christie.

Khaki 

While we were trying on Pinstripe Asymmetric Dress at Cue Clothing Australia last month we fell in love with the ruched effect through ties. The
crepe de chine had the perfect balance between weight and flow of fabric required for these pull up sleeves and skirt to work their magic!

View our Pinterest Board of inspiration here.

Indigo

Vogue 1413
(Out of print)

The first thing we noticed when we picked up this fabric, was how well it would drape and float in ruffles… enter the inspiration – Vogue 1413.

This ruffled top pattern we hunted down once we realised it was going out of date from the last one left in Victoria… one phone order from Spotlight Tarragon later and it has been sitting in the collection waiting for its moment to shine. Using this pattern as the base, we added a skirt, extra ruffles and went to town on the Baby Locker overlocker to finish off the metres (and metres) of hems!

View our Pinterest Board of inspiration here.

 

  

 

Baby lock, overlocker and sewing machine

Thank you for running another interesting and creative competition Tessuti!

We look forward to the next challenge!

Lauren & Erin
Two Sewing Sisters

LIV: 14th Victorian Legal Awards

3.jpgErin was nominated for ‘Law Student of the Year’, as part of the LIV: 14th Victorian Legal Awards. So naturally a new dress was in order!

The dress is a combination of the bodice of Gertie’s Charm Patterns Lamour Dress and the skirt of Vintage Vogue Pattern V1172 made from Spotlight fabric.

This dress must have been lucky, as the night ended with award in hand!

Erin pictured here with the Deakin Law School Dean, Professor Jenni Lightowlers.  A wonderful evening at the LIV: 14th Victorian Legal Awards!

The process of dress creation below…

First step, cutting out:

Second step, construction:

Third step, testing up the skirt:

Detail of bodice (Gertie’s Charm Patterns Lamour Dress):

35430780_10216372727381166_4244455276553437184_n.jpg

For a little extra touch – we added zippers in the pockets which allows for all of your belonging to go in your pockets, no bag needed!

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Dressmaker of the Year Awards Finalist 2018

We are thrilled have been selected as a finalist in Dressmaker of the Year Awards, hosted by Make It Today – Dressmaker Magazine. The dress was part of the occcassion category for our pale blue silk evening gown. The dress was originally designed for Erin to wear to the 2017 Deakin Law Society Ball hosted at Crown Pelladium.

Lauren J Ritchie - Front

The design was sketched up after some serious sessions on Pinterest to bring together the elements. The bodice was drafted ourselves with toiles made to ensure final fitting before cutting the blue pale dupion purchased from Clegs (now sadly closed but stock acquired by Rathdowne Fabrics).

Lauren J Ritchie - Design

Lauren J Ritchie - Bodice pattern
Constructed in two main parts – a straight strapless dress with an over skirt, the hem of the over skirt is adorned with a combination of vintage lace, existing and hand made flowers each hand sewn onto the skirt.

The belt was made by Buttonmania and bag purchased from Maude Studio with earrings from Little Core.

Lauren J Ritchie - Front side

Congratulations to the finalists in all categories in the Dressmaker of the Year Awards for 2018. You can view their entries here.

Avid Skyline

Having finished the entry for the Tessuti Skyline Competition there was around a meter of fabric left… what to make… what to make?  With the rumor of Spring in the London air the opportunity to try the Avid Seamstress Drop Shoulder came to mind.

The first PDF sewing pattern experience was a great one!  With the comfort of printing on A4 paper at home, a sticky tape session and a quick cut later without the pressure of having to head back to the store if decided it needed to be a different size and the delicate nature of the tissue.

Pattern placement was key, along the same lines of the dress entry it was important to make a design feature with inspiration from the Up your Sewing Game podcast by Love to Sew Podcast the inside was hand finished vs a machine top stitch.

Some small alterations to the pattern were made to extend the bias neck to become part of the loop for the button and small side split with the step to the already shaped hem.

Ready for a casual Sunday looked styled with jeans and with canvas sneakers it could also be tucked into a waisted skirt of pants for a more formal look.  Already planning the next version of this top so stay tuned.

1920’s Jazz Ball

Tickets to the 100 years of jazz in the UK festival feat the Puppini Sisters with the dress code of “Waistcoats, flapper dresses, top hats, pinstripes, fascinators are all highly encouraged” and the comment “Don’t worry about feeling over dressed, people will be coming in all sorts of wow!” called for a new dress for the occasion.  

Turning to Pinterest for some inspiration searching out images of Downtown Abbey, Miss Phryne Fisher and the Great Gatsby the key features started to form – see the Pinterest board here. Inspired by the draped and handkerchief hems the fabric was ordered with a feature to be made of two beaded motifs with one on the hip and the other for a hair clip.

Working with no pattern meant mapping out approximate measurements and self fittings to gather the drape into the best position.  Edges were finished with the baby lock action on the overlocker due to the large length of edge added with front feature and back draped chiffon.

Set for a night in the historic Troxy Art Deco themed ballroom the night was danced away in a tribute to an era gone by.