An Amazingly Hideous Christmas Shirt

So Christmas is well and truely over... and I haven't posted in months....BUT WHAT THE HELL!!! Here's a post!

Who would have thought Christmas fabric can actually be quite expensive?!?!? Ridiculous! $25 a meter? Really?.....Do people make serious things from this fabric to warrant the price? Because honestly, I could never make something out of Christmas fabric that wasn't mostly a joke...

Like this shirt for example! 

I made this for a friend for his work Christmas party ...we couldn't find any online that would have arrived on time, as they would have to come from the US, and that mostly only Christmas jumpers were available...and it is very much summer here.   

I bought two fabrics, the main shirt fabric which is green, and the contrast picture fabric, which all came as one piece like quilting fabric with lost of different pictures. That was the expensive one....I orginally would have liked to make it all from that one, but I actually really like how it turned out, less intense, and a little bit more summery for our Aussie Christmas. 

Personally my favorite part are the reindeer.

 

I asked my friend his size in his most bought brand of clohting, went online and looked up the measurements for his size on their website, and just used the block we had at TAFE for his size.

Super easy.

The only thing I did was make it short sleeve for the Northern Territory summer.

Does anyone else find that domestic button hole functions, ALWAYS....ALWAYS at least screws up once, more likely twice? I have a decent expensive(ish) machine...and still every time I go to do a buttonhole I worry...

And my other favorite part....THE SINGLE CHRISTMAS TREE BUTTON!

 All the other buttons were just a nice little light wood buttons

  

Anywho! That is all. Just a silly Christmas shirt.

Hope y'all had a fine Chrissie and a darn dandy New Year!

Xoxo Ruffles

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 : )

Ruffles Made Wedding Dress - Our Big Day Part II

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter for me this year means....work....every day of the long weekend...except for today! So I can finally share with you some lovely pictures from a very fun wedding I attended last year....as the dressmaker! 

Glenn Hawke Photography

So this is a post pretty much highlighting my biggest sewing achievment to date..... 

The first wedding dress that I have ever made. The longest sewing project I have ever embarked on, the most tiring, stressful, and the one with the largest commitment, the most patients and skill....and the most rewarding :-)

Below is a link to the first blog post in this two part series, just giving an overview of the process and construction: Our Big Day - Ruffles Made Wedding Dress Part I

The wedding was last year in November at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. 

I met Samantha at the Sebel Playford Adelaide to dress her before the ceremony. 

Dressing the bride! Brace yourself as I

Glenn Hawke Photography

You can also read the post about the dress I made to the wedding Burdastyle Vintage Dress 05/2012 and the matching fascinator a super quick sneaky peak

Glenn Hawke Photography

Glenn Hawke Photography

Dressmaker and Bride!

Glenn Hawke Photography

Really hard in a slippery dress!

In between the ceremony and the reception we played old style games in another area of the gardens!

Finished front lace work and sleeves

Sweetheart lace close up

Closure with buttons, over the top of corset layer, and with a continuous lace strip over one side fastened with  clear press studs

Ruffles label, and inside label of the names and dates of the bride and groom

inside details

Full dress shot (not very good...) including three pick-ups on the skirt for the reception

 Cheers to everyone for reading!

Enjoy your weekends and Happy Easter!