Winter capsule wardrobe - purple dress

Well its definitely happening this year with my winter capsule wardrobe, which is good because its getting much colder now, so I feel I am really achieving something with all these new clothes.

Wearable clothes too which is a bonus since not all my makes can really be worn to work😀.


This is the Burda Long Sleeve Fitted Ruched Dress 02/2015 #124 which I made a version of a while back here as part of a Monthly Stitch challenge:
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2016/11/71the-november-monthly-stitch-challenge.html

 One thig I love love love about this dress is the very long sleeves. I find lots of patterns finish a bit too short so I end up having to lengthen them but this pattern is just perfect. Long down to the top of the hand.

This is yet again the same cheapo crepe polyester used for my other Winter Capsule Wardrobe makes. I have a kind of "collection" feel to all these items now it seems. This is a good winter fabric cos its very warm so I can lose the cardigan at leats at the beginning of winter.

 Thanks for visiting

Bracken

Hair - Adventures into changing your image

So a few weeks ago now I went Chilli Red - as in hair-wise. Great idea for winter thinks me. I have even made a new capsule wardrobe to compliment my new look - well a few things are left to sew up but the idea is there.

Then as time goes by I have got a bit bored and STILL do not recognise Me in the mirror. Though that is not really the problem. I am out of work and I really think my chilli red hair which is argueably more "normal" than my usual rose blonde colour, is putting off possible employers.

I just feel like interviews have not been going well at all so I decided the red colour has to go. Its also time I make a decision because my roots need a touch up. If I add more dye tho it will probably be harder to remove because right now I have only the one layer of red on my original pale blonde hair.



Now throughout my life I have pretty regularly changed hair colour. I started to dye my hair at age 13 and never stopped. I have often gone from dark to blonde and to do this I always use peroxide. But it seriously damages your hair. Last year I had a big chunk break off and had a bit of hair that was far shorter than the rest for several months till it grew out and I had difficulty tieing it back to hide my short bit. So ideally I would like not to wreck my otherwise reasonable condition hair.  I came accross an internet article about colour remover ( I still am amazed at the internet!) and that this does not damage your hair. Well what an idea!

I have no idea how long this product has been available but when I was a twenty something I was told by a hair dresser that the only way was bleach ( peroxide) so since then I have stuck with that. Thus dye remover, for me, is a new idea.

So I did some research and ended up with this product bought from Superdrug but its available all over the place. I just like to collect points from Superdrug and it gets deliverd so I do not have to physically go to the store and then find out that actually no they do not stock it locally whereas if I just buy online it turns up and I get the job done hassle free and with less time and fuel wasteage.

So I bought two packs of this stuff:


It stinks like eggs - contains sulphur I think which apparently shrinks the dye particles so they simply wash out and just look at my test strip:

My hair was still only half dry when I took the selfies but you can still see the difference.


Now obviously you should cut off a bit of hair for this but I generally do not even bother with any prior tests. In this case the product is unknown so instead of a skin test + test strip I just tried it on a small bit of (attached) hair. Please everyone do not go off and do this yourself because its bad practice and I am not suggesting anyone anywhere should do what I have done. Its very silly. Luckilly I had no adverse reactions and what a dramatic result.

45 minutes later I have removed all the red dye and am a kind of orangey blonde. Possibly closest commercial dye is light honey blonde or golden blonde. You are advised to use an ash coloured toner but I actually like my new colour so have left it alone and intend to try to use a close colour to this next time I need to do my roots. 

So a couple of days later I did the rest of my hair. I only used one pack but found afterwards I had missed a few bits. I was intending to leave the missed ( still red) bits a few more days because its always better to leave things a while after dying. Also I quite liked the low lighted look. Anyway then I got an interview so had to do some touch ups to remove the rest of the red. This worked fine. I have yet to find out if I got the job.

Definitely feels like Me again tho!

So, should you, like me decide to do something a bit stupid and dye your hair a colour you decide is just not you thats a much better way to remove the dye than using peroxide.

I am so impressed by this stuff I just have to tell the world.

Hope this will help someone

Bracken

L-O-L-A Lola Dress - Indie Pattern Month entry week one

This is the very first time I have entered an Indie Pattern Month contest. The pattern was bought as part of  pattern bundle in IPM 2017 and not even stuck together until this week. Its the Oki Style Lola pattern ( hence my title) and is described on the Oki website as the "deformed dress" presumably because of the very unusual sleeves.

I always fancied making this but never got round to it. As it turns out its a relatively straight forward design - basically a raglan with front darts. Mind you I have changed a couple of things to make it work with what materials I have available.

 I omitted the back zip. Reasons for this are my fabric is stretchy. I used the same fabric previously to make black work trousers and they do have zips but I rarely bother to undo them because I do not need them to get the garments on and off - and I am lazy! This dress is made from the left over bits from the trousers. I had just enough fabric as it turns out. The fabric is a stretch woven of unknown fibre content.

My pattern changes are:

1. I added a ribbed neck like a Tshirt neck - because it seems to work
2. My cuffs ( Manchettes) are also ribbed and do not fasten with a button as the pattern suggests. I simply did not need to make them opening. I cut about an inch off the cuff length to make them work without buttons.
3. I removed about 1 inch from the centre back and inserted a strip of faux leather because I like the back feature but had decided to omit the zip so I get a similar overall look this way.
4. The sleeve arm holes are edged with faux black leather to match the centre back strip rather than bias.

There is a relatively deep hem because otherwise this would have been a bit longer than I prefer to wear. Overlocked and twin needle stitched to allow for the fabric to stretch. 

I have no idea what the fabric fibre is.

 

 Unfortunately the cuffs and neck edge are a bit (very!) creased but I happen to have already discoved this fabric melts easily so these were no pressed. Hopefully once this gets washed they will lose the creases.

 So my end result is a LBD and I love it.  I wish I had made this at the start of summer instead of the start of winter because this is office worthy and the arm holes will probably make it very cool and comfortable for the hot weather.


 
The funniest bit about this is from the front its a very basic boring black dress but from the back its far more interesting with its deformed sleeves and the centre back decoration.
 

Thanks for visiting

Bracken

Black Asymetric neck dress - Winter Capsule Wardrobe

I finally got round to buying sensible wearable (as in black)  fabric back at the start of this year. Having invested in loads of black bodycon type fabric I decided then I have too big a fabric stash but I do not want to throw anything away so here is the first sensible dress for my winter wardrobe made from a kind of wrinkly stretch fabric which was very popular in bodycon dresses in the 80s and 90s. I love my red dress made from Burda Style 12/2014 #121, and decided this would be a good fabric for a new version of this dress.

This asymetric cowl neck is a very wearable design because it is not actually off the shoulders so its easy to wear this at work. 

 The one problem is I decided to give this dress "sweatshirt" type wide hems. I think this was a mistake so I have cut a second identical dress which is going to have normal narrow Tshirt type hems instead.

It will not be a problem having two of these dresses because I really love the design and the fabric so its a bonus. I have yet to wear this out anywhere but am looking forward to wearing it for work. It is quite a warm fabric as well so ideal for winter in the office.

Have you tried this design? If yes what fabric did you use to make this?

Bracken

My quick skull skirt

I made this very quick skirt ( not part of my capsule wardrobe!) from a small piece of fabric left over from this top a week ago but did not have a photo of me wearing it so here is the photo:

 Wishing you happy sewing,

Bracken

My winter capsule wardrobe so far - 2 tops and a three-way skirt

So far for my winter capsule wardrobe I have two new tops which I wrote about in my last post here
:
https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2018/09/two-tops-for-my-winter-capsule.html

I had not photos of me wearing them yet then so here are the pictures:

New Look 6230

Both are made from synthetic polyester crepe but I used the reverse of the fabric to make it more "modern" since I have cometo the conclusion I hate polyester crepe. These should be nice and warm though by the feel of them and the reverse is more of a heavy mesh/ body con type of fabric which is very similar to lots of stuff you see clothing made from in outdoors shops so I am very happy with the end result and will use the rest of this fabric up in this way.

The wide lace on the front of this top is stretch lace off ebay. I was not very happy when I bought this since it was sold as 5m but came in two lengths which the description never said. Still I found a use in the end.

The narrow lace is also from ebay but I bought it about 3 years ago now and have used in on various other items. I could do with finding a job lot of this in fact since am finally running out of it.

Burda Style Lydia

 

The purple top is the Lydia T shirt from Burda Style.

But my best item so far for this is my three way skirt made from the same Burda Style pattern as this lilac gingham frill skirt:

I had to hand baste most of this and the waistband is a bit hit and miss and fastens with snaps but I am pretty much pleased with the end result. Not sure how long it will last or how it is going to wear being as I used the reverse of the fabric for all panels but I love it.

 Its got front and back zips.

To stop the zips from puckering I interfaced along each zip on one side of the fabric only since I am hoping the lining side will stay unpuckered as well.It seems to have worked.

 Then repeated basting for the second side to give a lining. So lots of hand basting. Lots of checking everything lines up etc.

The end results I have three looks in one skirt as well as slightly unzipped:

 

Look one: Black and red

Look two: Purple and red


 And Look 3 a purlpe zippy skirt:

So I really feel like I am getting somewhere now and still have a pile to sew up.

 Winter is looking fun

Bracken