Row, row, row your boat...

And we continue rowing our DIY boat into the vast sea of sewing :P and most of the time we are just lying in the boat staring lazily into the sky and dreaming away... WASTING precious time! But we are in the boat none the less and we dream (which is the most important thing).

This is the second attempt trying to make a boat neck or bateau neck or Sabrina neckline. The fabric was bought from an exhibition in Chitrakala Parishad, Bangalore. The neck embroidery is done using old silk threads. These deserve a post of their own!! The design stitches are the standard in-built ones for the sewing machine we have. This design almost caused a mental break down because the threads kept snapping every now and then (especially the wicked pink ^$@^&!). In spite of adjusting the thread tension this kept happening and we think that was because of the old threads. Lesson learnt: Use new threads!

The embroidery doesn't really stand out because the threads and the stitches are too fine and are lost in the patterned fabric. Lesson learnt: Coordinate design, threads and the pattern of fabric.

A better idea might be to make this dress in black with gold piping at the neck and a thick pink and red hand embroidery around it!!! Can't wait to make that one!!!!

But this kurta turned out better than the last one we made. Will post the pictures of the first boat neck dress tomorrow.

A 'Langa' for Avni

After a looooong break... we are back and we are back with a small and pretty gift for a little friend 'Avni'!

The skirt (langa in Kannada) fabric was bought from Ramchandrapuram and has been part of our stash for more than a year now. The blouse is made out of silk cotton.

The dress was made in a short time and we couldn't experiment much with the detailing. All we did was add the ties at the shoulder and patch a motif from the skirt fabric onto the front of the blouse. But thankfully the simplicity of the blouse compliments the heavy brocade of the skirt material.

We louve, loouve, and just looouve the rich and glorious pinks and magentas.... and we adore the golds in the brocade. This is one of our all time favorite dresses! Hopefully we should be able to post a picture of the dress with our tiny model! :)

Proudly Primary

I tend to get sucked into complexity. I tend to ignore what comes naturally. Somehow the primary colors never seem to be my initial choice! And this dress changed all that.

This is the first dress I embroidered for my daughter. And this was the first one she truly appreciated! I did not trace the design. It just grew. As you can guess this design draws a bit from Mexican embroidery. What I loved most about this dress is its vibrancy and simplicity. There is hardly anything complex. Its a simple dress in basic colors.

The polka dot cotton fabric is from a Jayanagar 4th Block, Bangalore shop.The red fabric is super thin cotton from my stash of leftover fabric. The threads are from Anchor.

Design Specifications of a 5 year old

She is not an easy customer! You can't please her easily! She has specific ideas... and she won't budge! My daughter is one true critic.

Its difficult making clothes for her. This is what she likes "shiny, glittery, bling-bling, sleeveless/spaghetti straps, flowy and floral prints!" And oh yes, "PINK"!

But I still keep trying! This is a satin dress I made for her. The violet fabric is from Shrirampura, Bangalore and the peach fabric is from the old stash. The real challenge here was sewing those flowers to the dress. Next time I am definitely using something more lighter than satin for those flowers.

As evident from the picture, she wasn't too thrilled with the dress and finally it was gifted to my niece. She too showed her appreciation for the dress by unintentionally smearing some cake frosting onto it! :) Kids! What can I say!

The Applique

Found the photo in my archives. It was the first time I had tried the applique technique.

This turned out pretty decent despite having an old singer machine that refused to co-operate! Also, this was one of the few projects that I completed in less than 2 hours!!!! (This happens once in a blue moon!! seriously.)

I had cut the design of the butterfly and stitched it with the zigzag stitch using silk embroidery thread.

The polka dot fabric was from 'Dandi-Bandi' (Also called Shrirampura or Ramchandrapura... this is near Sujata talkies near Rajajinagar. Its also called Chindi market!) The plaid fabric was from Shivajinagar. It was leftover from another dress.