Author Archives: Tracy
Summer Dress
Hi, well we are back from Florida so I thought I would show you the Summer Dress I made to take with us, I only managed to get it finished just before we left, I suppose you could say it is a self drafted frankenpattern.
I had a idea of what I wanted, and although the dress didn’t end up quite as expected it sort of evolved over the couple of weeks I worked on it.
I wanted a floaty boho type of dress, I also had just the fabric in mind.
As soon as the fabric arrived the end of last summer I realised that it would need at least the skirt lining so luckily I had already bought some white lawn to go under it.
Originally I was just going to cut the strips for the skirt straight of grain each one twice as long as the previous, then I checked out the pattern peices in this pattern
and discovered that they were curved. I’m not sure if it would have made much difference to the final dress, but I used the pattern peices I had, carefully shortening them, so now I had the skirt how was I going to sort the top, I tried draping and sort of got the look I wanted but, then couldn’t work out how to reproduce the effect.
I did actually get as far as this
before deciding I didn’t have time to mess around with the pattern. So I went back to this, which is a trial for the top of a different dress, I knew that the fit was fine it was just that the ‘band’ wasn’t long enough, I did cheat a bit, I cut it in half and cut across the centre of the top where I thought it should come.
I also wanted wider shoulders and a different neckline, I had a dress I had quickly made up from a Lutterloh pattern, which was totally the wrong size, but I liked the neckline so I superimposed the Lutterloh pattern on to the other pattern and cut out the top half of the bodice freehand.
this is not something that I would recommend, especially if you decide the line the dress after putting it together..lol.
I had the neckline and the length but not much else.
I did have an issue with he arm holes but a lot of pinning and patience got them looking smooth.
the dress does look fantastic, but the downside is I won’t be able to duplicate it perfectly.
The last Florida post is coming up soon.
Florida 2017 – post six
Tuesday we were supposed to go back to Universal but as Simon was still feeling off, we decided to leave it until Wednesday so we decided to go back to the Premium Outlet Mall and go to Disney Springs for a look around, we did some more shopping mainly gifts from the big Disney shop at Disney Springs
Dinnner was at Red Lobster
Wednesday we decideded not to take advantage of the early access and had our usual breakfast at Denny’s before going over to Universal.
We rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, because we go in the Single rider line we only waited about 10 mins, we also rode Spider-Man, Transformers, MIB (I worked out how to get a high score:-) apparently you need to be the first person in the car to press the red button when told to do so) I was going to ride The Hulk but by that time I was feeling a bit queasy and after Simon being out for two days I wasn’t going to risk it.
We also rode Kong again, apparently the people loading the ride still hadn’t worked out that there were only 5 seats not 6 on the back two rows, luckily we were on the 3rd row from the back so I got my own seat. I can understand the appeal of the 3D rides what I can’t understand is why the Harry Potter ride works so well without 3D glasses when the Kong ride which is a lot newer feels that it has to have 3D glasses which are very annoying when you need to wear them over your own glasses.
We arrived at Marvel superhero Island just as some of the Marvel Super Heroes arrived….
Dinner was the Cheese Cake Factory, more Cheesecake to go…
Florida 2017 – post 5
Sunday we started off at Hollywood Studios we thought that we would get gifts and have another walk round
Then in the afternoon we went to Epcot, Starship Staring Mickey Thomas was playing as part of the Garden Rocks Festival so we sat and watched them.
We went to the Nine Dragons for dinner which was very nice, we had a chicken dish and and ice-cream this was done just before going to Frozen Ever after. This is new ride, it used some of the new projection technology, you get taken along in a boat and see Olaf and Anna, you see Elsa and she does Let it Go which sends the boat speeding backwards.
Monday, we went to Animal Kingdom and rode Expedition Everest, which is a rollercoaster, partially in the dark and some going backwards, Simon, after trying to decide whether or not to go on it, went on it. He come off feeling rather sick, and unfortunately it only got worse. So after sitting around for about an hour we decided to go back to the Villa, Simon couldn’t cool down which was also not helping.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the Villa, Simon was still feeling iffy the following day so I think he must have been suffering from something else not just motion Sickness.
Florida 2017 post 4
Thursday was May 4th so we decided to do all things Star Wars which of course meant Hollywood Studios, since knocking the backlot down there hasn’t been as much to look at, while we wait for Toy Story land and Star Wars land. We did Star Tours and watched a short video on what Star Wars meant to the people now making the films. Listening to these people makes me realise that the Star Wars is now in the hands of people who watched and loved the movies so much that it shaped who they wanted to be and what they wanted to do with their lives.
We met friends from home for dinner which was at Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano, we were taken to our table by what looked like the oldest waitress in the park. I recommend the restaurant the food was very good and reasonable. After dinner we went to see Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular this is fireworks, music and video clips from the films, the video is projected onto the Chinese Theater (great movie ride) and surrounding buildings.
Friday we were back in the Magic Kingdom and watched the parade and Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire, this is on the stage infront of the Castle, and involves Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy, apparently they have been across the Walt Disney lands looking for new friends, who each come out and do a song, Tiana and Naveen are first then Tangled’s Flynn Rider and Rupunzel, with a couple of their ruffians, and to top it off we have the ‘special guests’ from Arendelle Olaf, Elsa and Anna. Elsa of course does Let It Go.
Then they all come out and reprise the opening song.
Cheese Cake Factory for dinner, which looks nothing like the Cheese Cake Factory on The Big Bang Theory, it looks better and has much more interesting food, Simon had Fried Catfish which he said was delicious and I had Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo which was also delicious. We took Cheesecake to go.
Saturday we had put aside for Shopping we went to the Primium Outlets, Simon went into the Adidas shop looking for shorts, but couldn’t find any he liked, but in the Nike shop he found exactly what he was looking for. We went to the Fossil shop where I limited myself to one handbag 😦 . We also went to the the Northface shop which had 50% off the already discounted prices, Gap and UGG. I’m not sure if they always have a sale on or just when we go over there.
More Soon….
Florida 2017 post three
Tuesday was Animal Kingdom we had a quick breakfast at Denny’s so we could get to our first fastpass which was Kilimanjaro Safaris, it was raining again as we got out of the car so straight into ponchos, which are far easier to get into if you start off dry 🙂
By the time we had got from the car to the park it had stopped raining but the humidity had gone right up, ‘just like a real rainforest – probably’ 🙂
The same as last year Animal Kingdom was fantastic we did Kilimanjaro safari again, Kali River Rapids and we also stayed to watch the Rivers of Light which is the new late night show. We saw the Gorillas and Colobus Monkeys.
We had dinner at the park Flametree Bar-b-que place.
The new light show was very colourful and relied on projections onto spray of waters it showed animals jumping from one stream to to another.
Universal
We had an early start on the Wednesday we had early access Park Ticket to Universal which meant we could get in at 8am, we didn’t actually get to the the park until 8:30 but it still meant we could get onto the Harry Potter – Forbbiden Journey ride, which Simon adores. We went on it twice in quick succession. Then after travelling on the train to King’s Cross we went to the leaky Cauldron for a rather expensive greasy breakfast.
After breakfast we looked around Diagon Alley then went on the Men in Black ride which was great fun, we also went on the minions ride, shrek 4d, transformers and Spider-Man.
More soon….
Florida 2017 post two
We have had a busy couple of days, we are currently on our third car, the first car passenger side mirror had an accident, so we had to change it, then a couple of miles down the road from picking it up the second car flagged up a problem with the traction control/four wheel drive so the nice Virgin rep lady arranged for us to get another one delivered to the magic kingdom instead of having to go back to the airport.
The nice Virgin rep lady has also arranged fo us to change Villas, instead of being at Highlands Reserve (which always makes me think of expensive whiskey) we are back in Providence where we have stayed the last two years. Which means good water pressure, fast internet and no plastic plants.
Monday after picking up the third car we went to Epcot, the ‘Topary’ is amazing, the Flower and Garden Festival is running again this year and they have moved the characters about since last year. We also had fast passes for spaceship earth and Soarin’, Spaceship Earth is in the big ‘golf ball’ at the entrance to Epcot, to be honest it isn’t something I would want to do again, it smelt funny and I assume it was just concentrating on communication as it starts off with cavemen working as a team and cave paintings, then papyrus and printing presses, it was narrated by Dame Judy Dench who as usual is easy to listen to .
Soarin’ was whole different thing it was a simulator ride, you get strapped onto a bench seat and it lifts you up then projected onto the screen in front of you is the various places around the world, it is very clever, because every time it changes scenes it sends something towards you to make you blink. The two problems with it is, we were in the second row so it is slightly off putting to have row of legs just in your eyeline, and because the screen is curved and we were sitting to one edge everything was curved, I would imagine that if you are in the front row and in the middle the illusion would be perfect.
While we were walking through the World Showcase it started raining, just after we left United Kingdom it started coming down quite hard, Simon had bought out ponchos so we were kept relatively dry.
While we were in the United Kingdom we had a glass of lager, one that I hadn’t heard of Samuel Smith pure brewed organic lager it was very nice, we had a walk round the Twinings Tea shop they had some great teapots and other tea related stuff.
Then into France where we had some delicious Ice-Cream and some Macarons which were alright but not a lot of flavour, the texture was amazing with the crisp outer shell and a soft gooey center.
While walking around Epcot we received an Email from the Virgin rep lady to say she had a new Villa for us to look at, so after leaving Epcot we stopped off at the current villa and packed our stuff up, because the new villa was in Providence we were confident that we would approve.
The new Villa is about 10 Villas away from where we were last year, the only problem with it is that it is the floor plan is reversed from the one we had last year which slightly freaks out Simon.
We went to Wendy’s for dinner which is a fast food restaurant.
Challenge for March
The four challenges for March are:-
Number 1 A dress out of this fabric
I think it is going to be the same as this one
Number 2 make some fitting adjustment on this pattern
Number 3 is another dress basic bodice and a box pleat circle skirt, similar to this one out of either 
or this one
I’m not sure if the pink it too light for this but we will see.
I’m also in the middle of making a Plantain for Liz, but that isn’t part of my challenge for this month.
UPDATE:
This post didn’t get published when it should have so here is the update
Numbers 1 and 2 got done but not finished in March due to the building work and training course, number 3 didn’t even get looked at. 😦 I did however finish Liz’s Plaintain T-shirt which she is very happy with.
Florida 2017 post one
Hi, as this is the third year running we’ve gone to Florida for our big holiday of the year, you probably won’t get one post per day, phew, you are probably thinking.
The flight was bumpy but uneventful, first time out of the North Terminal at Gatwick and I must say compared to the South Terminal it was looking a little tired and on a lot of different levels and stairs not slopes, what were you thinking, North Terminal Architect?
Getting out of MCO took longer than expected due to refurbishment, it seemed that no sooner had you got to the end of one queue you joined another.
The villa is in Highlands Reserve and to be honest after the two Villas at Providence, it was a bit of a let down, if this had been our first Florida Villa it would have been, this is all right, pity about the slow internet, but Providence has spoilt us. It didn’t help that when we got here they were still cleaning it even though we were later than expected, it looks like it is someone’s home. (Alison you are right – white all the way) it is very off putting to be confronted by other peoples taste in crockery and plastic plants.
Enough about that lets get on to the good stuff.
Magic Kingdom:- not a lot can be said that hasn’t been said before but we had fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which might be my favourite, and Spash Mountain close second. We also had Seven Dwarves Minetrain but that was for later.
After Splash Mountain we came back to the Villa for an hour before going to Red Lobster – yum and going back to Magic Kingdom, this year we are determined to do all the late night stuff starting with Wishes, which is the 9pm firework display, 9pm might not sound late but Florida is 5 hours behind the UK so from our point of view it is at 2am.
Seven dwarves mine train
Some general photos of the park
Tomorrow land looks really good at night even though it looks like it stepped out of the Jetsons
After wishes they project stories on to the Castle.
More later
Deer and Doe – 5 plaintains
This is a quick post to tell you about the three Plaintains I made just before coming away.
They took about 3 hours from cutting out to finishing, I did most of the work on my overlocker which speeds up construction immensely.
The first two were fabric from Olympia the third from eBay.
As I promised here are another two
The top fabric is from Primark, I bought two of the largest size T-Shirts and cut them up, the design isn’t printed on grain, so I had to make the decision of did I want it on grain or the lines straight, I went for the lines, It doesn’t hang quite right but that is better than looking at it with wonky lines 🙂 Bottom fabric is from eBay.
I overlocked the shoulders, inserted the neckband as per the instructions, I might go back to doing it the other way. Inserted the sleeves, pins are my friends for this on the overlocker as there is a very good chance of holes if the fabic isn’t totally level. Then up the sideseams and under arms. Over to the sewing machine for the twin needle hems and one row of stitching to hold the neck band in place.
Back soon….
March – where did you go?
March sort of ran away from me and now it is April 😦
unfortunately a combination of training course (getting up 2 hours earlier) and having work done on the house has removed most of my stitching time for March and looks to be taking over April as well.
I have a couple of part way projects I can show you but nothing finished.
The first project is view 2
I think this is the first time I have ever done all views of a pattern, this is going to have a better fit, fingers crossed than the other two versions, these I took extra fabric from the side seams this time I have shrunk the pattern and done a small bust adjustment.
The top half of the pattern is one size too big but the waist and hips are perfect, so I turned to my trusty printer and scanned the front and back bodice pieces then I printed them out at 95%, you can just see on the bottom of the two photos how much I lost, it was about 1/4 inch all round. Then for the SBA there were a few things I needed to do
the first thing I had to do was reinstate the 5/8 seam allowance, then decide where I was going to move the bust dart to on the side.
I closed up the underbust dart and moved it to the side
added a piece of paper to the now side dart.
I then cut up from where the original dart had been to bust point then across to the arm hole, and swung that piece over 1/2 inch, taping the top part down
you can see from the above photo that the centre seam part which hasn’t been changed is now longer than the side seem which has been changed, so you slice across from the middle and shift the centre piece up until it matches the side piece, because the chest is smaller than expected for the pattern there is too much fabric going over the bust and this removes it.
The last step is to move the side dart back to the under bust, slice up the middle of the added paper and the area where the underbust dart was and close up the side dart creating a new smaller dart, add a piece of paper under this to fill in the new dart.
as you can see by the drawn in seam allowance (pencil) this dart is far smaller than the original, all that left to do is to make up a bodice and check the fit.
for a full length bodice it is better to add a skirt to check this, but as all I needed to do was to check the fit around the bust I left it at this.
more hopefully soon
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 
