McCalls 7969 in Minerva Exclusive Blazing Bouquet Viscose Challis Fabric

Ah the popular McCalls 7969.  We finally got the chance to create it after watching so many other fabulous makers create their version of it. Here are the details of our version 

Fabric: Minerva Exclusive Blazing Bouquet Viscose Challis Fabric

As Minerva Makers (link), we were looking forward to creating something with this vibrant Blazing Bouquet design that is exclusive to Minvera. For this dress, we chose the viscose challis base cloth.

Viscose is a fibre that is derived from wood pulp, making it a natural fabric that is more breathable than cotton.

Find out more about the fabric here.

Pattern: McCalls 7969

Sewing pattern cover of McCalls 7969

McCalls 7969 is a very loose-fitting dress that easily pulls over the head. We made view A, which is the view without any ruffles on the sleeve or hem. Given the fabric is so bright and colourful, we didn’t think it needed the extra ruffles.

You can find the pattern on the Minerva site here.

Finished M7969

For this fabric we would highly recommend making sure you have sharp needle in your sewing machine as the threads of the material can pull and cause damage to the print if it gets caught on a blunt needle. This dress will serve as a casual home dress for us.

Photo Credits

Photographer: James Christie Media
Pattern: McCall’s 7969
Fabric:  Minerva Exclusive Blazing Bouquet Viscose Challis Fabric

Christmas Outfits for 2022

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

If you have been following along with your makes over the past few years you will know but this family tradition. If this is a new project for you we are excited to welcome you to our family Christmas! One of our favourite family traditions is that every year we make matching Christmas outfits.

Christmas outfits is something we’ve been doing in our family since our Nan made Christmas shirts and dresses for our Grandad and parents before we were born! You can see last year’s red Liberty outfits here and see the historical collection here. This get pulled out every year as every December you will see us wearing the outfits from previous years.

We continued the tradition of family Christmas outfits continued this year. This year we were all home together in North East Victoria for the first time in a long time. We celebrated this with a green backed echidna print by Jocelyn Proust.

Lauren in Vogue 1723 and Fergus

Lauren made the cotton into Vogue 1723 and put elastic around the sleeve hem instead of using the sleeve stay for a more casual look

We have made this dress before but in more formal fabric for Lauren’s Myer Millinery Award entry and Erin silk fabric from @injalakarts for the Cup Eve celebration but in cotton. It is such a comfortable cut especially for that big Christmas lunch and the cotton sits so well in the dramatic sleeve and neck tie.

Fergus practised this posing and sitting very patiently for his photo his year. If you missed his efforts last year check out our blog post. Let’s just say there was a lot less handsome puppy face and a lot more fluffy happy tail. With his sit more solid than ever thank you to the team at ProDog training Fergus wore a Two Sewing Sisters original dog bow tie pattern that included a D ring for his lead and quick-release buckle.

Robyn in McCalls 7542 and David McCalls 6044

For Dad’s shirt, we used McCalls 6044 which features a shaped body, curved hem, collar with stand and front placket detail for the buttons.

This year Mum chose to create her Christmas dress this year using McCalls 7542 bodice and attached a box pleat skirt with pockets. We have made a few versions of hacking this McCalls pattern into a dress, the first was this blue checked number, check it out here.

James in McCalls 6044 and Erin in Schultzapparel Senna

James chose his go-to collared shirt pattern McCalls 6044 which is a popular shirt pattern in our make set at the moment.

Erin made a variation of the Schultzapparel Senna. We were part of the pattern testing team for this Schultz pattern, you can see this make here. For this Christmas version, we straightened the waist seam and created a tiered skirt but kept all of the great features of the bodice which include a fastening-free finish with very clever ties.

Photography Notes of Christmas Outfits

Photographer: James Christie
Dress Fabric: Jocelyn Proust green background with echidna with Santa hat Christmas fabric
Patterns:
James – McCall’s 6044
Erin – Schultzapparel Senna with tiered skirt
David – McCalls M6044
Robyn – McCalls 7542 with pleated skirt
Lauren – Vogue 1723
Fergus – Two Sewing Sisters drafted doggy bowtie

Christmas Outfits of 2020

The tradition of family Christmas outfits continued this year. We took to the beach in Apollo Bay in our matching Christmas print to celebrate together. We hope you had a safe and happy festive period with your loved ones.

Jocelyn Proust Christmas Wombats

This year we went for a modern Australian print by Jocelyn Proust. The cute Australiana print features grey wombats in red Christmas hats on a pale blue background.

We found the fabric at a Boxing Day sale last year (with luckily enough fabric left on the roll!). The blue background and Australiana print were perfect, as it was different from the traditional red themed fabric from previous years. We didn’t plan what patterns we were going to make when we purchased the fabric but still managed to fit our five garments out of 12.5 metres.

Lauren and Erin

This year we made two of our favourite patterns we discovered in 2020. Lauren was inspired by the ruffled version of the Flora Dress we had made recently and it was a great sleeveless option for a warm Australian Christmas Day. Erin made a dress version of the Schultz Apparel Ottilia Top adding a gathered skirt to the originally waisted top.

Robyn and David

For Dad’s shirt, we used McCalls 6044. We have recently changed the men’s shirt pattern we used for Dad, and we are really happy with the change. This pattern has more shape through the body, curved hem and front placket detail.

Earlier in the year, we made Mum and blue Kingfisher version of Vogue 1511 with the long sleeves. As it is one of her favourite dresses to wear, we decided to use the pattern to make a short sleeve version fit for summer.

James and Erin

James dove into the matching family Christmas outfits and took on the challenge of making his own shirt! This is his third garment having only made 2 pairs of pyjama shorts before tackling his first collared McCalls 6044 shirt.

Photography Notes of Christmas Outfits

Photographer: James Christie
Dress Fabric: Christmas Wombats by Jocelyn Proust
Patterns:
Erin – Schultz Apparel Ottilia Top hacked into a dress
Lauren – By Hand London Flora Dress
Robyn – Vogue 1511
David and James – McCalls 6044
Headbands: Lauren J Ritchie Millinery

Operation Tiny House NYE – Sewing Resolutions

We celebrated the end of 2019 and welcome 2020 with New Year Celebrations at a Tiny House Escape with our dear friend Kate, also known as Stitches and Sutures! We stay in a lovely tiny house that was situation in Carrickalinga in South Australia. With bushfires threatening so many parts of Australia we were wishing everyone a safe start to 2020.

We wore matching outfits made out of Abstract Multicoloured Digital Printed Cotton Linen Fabric that is 112 cm from Spotlight – you can find the fabric here.

Operation Tiny House NYE
Matching outfits for our New Year’s Celebration
Operation Tiny House NYE
Watching the sunset on 2019 from our Tiny House

Erin’s Outfit

Operation Tiny House NYE - Mccalls 7862
Erin in Mccalls 7862
Operation Tiny House NYE - Mccalls 7862
Sleeve Detail
Shaped hem of Mccalls 7862

Kate’s Outfit

Operation Tiny House NYE
Earrings from Timber and Cotton
Operation Tiny House NYE
#modellyfe

Lauren’s Outfit

Operation Tiny House NYE
Pocket detail of Butterick 678
Operation Tiny House NYE
Earrings to match

2020 Sewing Resolutions

Last year we set ourselves some sewing resolutions- some we were able to complete, others that made it back on the list for this year. See last year’s sewing resolutions here. Our sewing resolutions for 2020 are:

Lauren’s Sewing Resolutions

  • Make a wool coat – this was part of last years resolution but didn’t happen so is here again for 2020
  • Fix 5 projects that I currently don’t like wearing because something isn’t right or it isn’t wearable
  • Make pale blue and black striped crepe flint pants – these have been on my to make list for yonks so it is a must for this year.
  • Only make from the stash. Instead of fabric shopping assume that we have a fabric that will be suitable, shop our stash and only purchase fabric for garments on the exception list. The exception list includes:
    • Oaks Day Millinery Award dress
    • One piece of fabric from overseas travels

Erin’s Sewing Resolutions

  • Make a suit – this was part of last years resolution but didn’t happen so is here again for 2020
  • Make 15 work appropriate garments in fabric from the stash
  • Finish everything before midnight the night before it needs to be worn

Kate’s Sewing Resolutions

  • Make 3 sets of lingerie
  • Make a coat – step one of picking a pattern is complete now to find some fabric!
  • Use 10 pieces from my stash before buying more
Operation Tiny House NYE

Royal Ascot 2018

The outfit for Royal Ascot all start with the shoes!  Irregular Choice shoes to be exact, and aren’t they amazing!?   

The dress was made from McCall’s 7279 with a circle skirt added for a softer line to match the delicate lavender lace sourced from Spotlight in Melbourne. Construction involved tacking the lace to the matching poplin backing before stitching the darts of the bodice.

  The details of the make included black piping around the cream Peterpan collar and turned up cuffs

The finished look for Royal Ascot was paired with a black Review belt to highlight the piping and worn with a Lauren J Ritchie Lenox Boater.