Ruffles Me Made May '13

This will be my first year participating in Me Made May, run by the lovely blogger So, Zo...What do you know? 
Last year I had only just started my blog, so I had not had the chance of discovering such fun blog related challenges yet! This year however, I am jumping right in, and here is my pledge below!

 'I, Katie, from Ruffles Gazebo, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. 
I endeavor to wear one piece of Ruffles made clothing each day for the duration of May 2013'


I made a lot of hats during my first in costume that just passed. I do believe they will be helpful in this challenge hehe

Can't wait to see everyone's progress and success!!

Bunnies & Buttons

 If only they arrived 4 days earlier, than I could have worn them to the Lolita Easter Egg hunt that was organised for Easter Sunday here.

Irregular Choice's 'Flopsy' Bunny rabbit wedges heels!

These babies have been hand painted and were released a couple weeks ago on the website.

I may have bought them in the first 2 hours....

Investment really, as I think most of them have sold out already....I can only imagine how much they will be on ebay later.

Pretty box to go with the pretty pretty shoes!

Unfortunately, even within the first two hours, my shoes were still the second batch to be posted out. Maybe if i'd ordered an hr earlier i would have gotten them for Easter....OHHHH and how they would have matched the dress I made!

 I like how much detail irregular choice puts into everything, it really makes their shoes a bit above the rest, and makes them feel so special and exciting! I can seriously spend a lot of time on their website!

The only issue is, both pairs of Irregular choice I have, arent the comfiest shoes. They just feel....I dont know...heavy and very hard. They don't rub or anything, but especially since both the pairs I have include a feature heel, they are odd to wear because they are so heavy at the back. My other pair have a resin heel!

Num num num

On a completely different note, (only related because they rhyme)
There is an amazing button shop here in Adelaide! with over 350 000 buttons inside!
It is also the only place I have ever found to sell real Petersham/Grograin ribbon in real life and not on the internet!!!

Once again my lovely friend Ben Davies took the below (and the above) pictures.

He bought me a cute little sewing related button which I then turned into a broach!

Its a great shop, it is expensive....but there is no way you would find the great service and these buttons online!

Exhibit A

ALSO

Im holidays next week. Hopefully means so more updating.

Misson for the near future. Make. Blog. Better.

The 'Firsts' Dress Post

First place, first dress in a new home, first complete dress made in Adelaide, first dress for the first day of being back at school, first dress in a very long time where I have chosen to make a whole toile to begin with!

FIRST FRIEND TO VISIT ME IN ADELAIDE AND TAKE SOME PHOTOS FOR ME (YAY)=^_^=

I made this dress by drafting a simple shift dress by combining my blouse block, and my skirt block. I moved the darts into the side seam and created a curved french dart which I liked from another pattern I had.

I made a full mock up of it and you can see in the pictures below that I made a fair few changes!

I took in a bit of excess through the center front, shaped the darts a bit more, took some excess out above the bust, and pivitted some of the neckline out as well.

I don't really know if you can tell from the picture below...but the sleeve around my (huge) bicep was too tight

I used the below alteration to make it fit :)

Unfortunately, I did not re fit the sleeve....and when I went to make my first version of this dress, it was too tight. This dress also needed lining as well....as I think it is some wool/acetate blend? I got it from the fabric shop when it was on sale, and it is really gorgeous and fits perfectly, but the first time I wore it the restricted arms annoyed me so much that I cut them up....and now I have to un-pick them all together and put tiny half sleeves on!

I wanted to have this as a shift block essentially, so I really made an effort to get this one right. 

The night before my first day at he Adelaide College of the Arts doing my Costume I  decided it meant i needed to make a new dress. I bought fabric a couple days earlier...but didn't anticipate making it so soon.

I matched the stripes from the dart down, and did my best to match them at the sleeves also. 

I decided to do a hand picked zipper also.....whiiiiiich I feel is maybe not suited to side seems so much as it is back seams. I have done one on a dress which just needs to be lined, and it's at the CB and it looks damn awesome. Thoughts?

To me this is old news now, but it's still the first 100% completed garment I have made since moving to Adelaide, and now the first dress post I've done since moving here!

When I finally get around to finishing those sleeves, ill do another post! The dresses both look so different, I can already tell I like this pattern ^_^

My friend Ben who visited me from Canberra came and stayed for a few days not too long ago, he is a lovely Canberra photographer, and we had some few adventures where he took some lovely photos, and I will share a post which features those very shortly! 

So thank you to Ben for these lovely dress pictures : )