Backstory: I am a 2nd year Uni student studying Design for Theatre and Television (costume design). At my Uni, there is an area that is sort of isolated called TV Land, made up of my course, the actors and the TV Production students. It's almost the end of the University year here in Australia, and at the end of each year, the lovely ladies and gents of TV Land gather together for the Oskars - our version of the Oscars, with lots of booze, food and of course awards. I've been nominated this year (for 2 categories! woohoo!), so I needed a fab dress to wear.

I rifled through my (considerable) collection of vintage patterns, and decided upon a simple but classy 1960s empire waisted dress, with a deep v neckline.



Of course I opened the pattern packet and discovered that all of the pieces for the dress that I wanted to make were missing. I had to draft the bodice pattern, and although I'm pretty good with a sewing machine, I'm a complete noob when it comes to drafting. Thank the almighty cheese that it fits!



Close Up:



(Looking squinty and vaguely pregnant here.)

I'm planning on doing my hair in a sleek french roll with a diamante pin (go the fake diamonds!), and long shoulder duster diamante earrings. I'm so excited! Here's hoping that if I get an award I don't end up tripping over the skirt and ending up on my face. That'd be fun.

UPDATE:

I have an in action photo - it's not the best, but sadly no one thought to take a full length photo of me on the night (what is with people, anyway? )



This is me and my buddy Aleatta (who won best dressed, and no surprises there - you can't see it, but she was actually wearing a hoop skirt under her dress!).

[Fairy Floss]

I keep missing Fiber Friday lately, but I actually have something to show this week:


Fairy Floss (2 ply, 100% merino)

and

http://static.flickr.com/118/274594704_e4984afccd_o.jpg


Dirty Rainbow (2 ply, merino, sari silk, alpaca, rayon thread)

I actually finished these earlier this week, but oh well - I'm a big, fat cheater!

Also, I dyed up and spun this roving:



This is for the Handspun/Handcrafted swap, and I dyed it with my new Wilton's food colouring gels. Boy is it bright! It's still on the bobbin, but the colours HAVE quieted down somewhat (thankfully). This yarn is gonna rock my world when it's done

Anyway, enough about me! What did you guys spin up this week?

What better thing to do on a Sunday afternoon than spin coily yarn? This is only the second time I've spun coils, and I'm so pleased with myself! I had a bit of a battle pulling some of them through my orifice (oh my god that sounds so wrong), but uh, yeah.

Anyway, here's the yarn:





This is 100% merino, plied with a gold coloured rayon thread. Sorry about the photos - the colours aren't QUITE right, but it's dark outside and I had to take photos right away!

On to the next skein....

[Dusky Sunset]

knitwit - I feel so pleased with myself that I inspired someone else - especially to make such awesome yarn. Spinners of the world unite! Hehehe...

darlingbud - awesome stuff! I especially love Eaxter Egg Hunt. Totally groovy

I've got a couple of yarns here hot off the bobbin. Check 'em out:



Dusky Sunset (Click image for larger version.)

http://static.flickr.com/79/218958232_fde72f95e2.jpg?v=0

I am so very pleased with myself because of this yarn. I dyed the roving in four areas going from dusty blue, rose, orange and then pale yellow, spun it up in that order and plied it with a gold coloured rayon thread. When it's knit up (I envision it as a scarf or something of that sort), it will look like the sky during sunset. Yay me!




Taffy (Click image for larger version.)

http://static.flickr.com/88/218958234_85544d8140.jpg?v=0
This yarn was more of an experiment than anything else - I dyed a whole bunch of lengths of roving in different solid colours, and then selected four of the bits of roving (purple, lime green, aqua and pinky-orange) and spun them together randomly. I then plied the singles together - this yarn is SO chunky and squishy. I think it's awesome

Both yarns are 100% merino, hand dyed by myself with kool aid.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a kilogram of white merino roving, in preperation for the shop that I am in the process of setting up. Anyway, this weekend I finally got around to dying the lot, and have started spinning it up. There is one bunch of roving that I'm not entirely certain about, though, and I need some opinions...

But first, some blatant fiber porn:





(The top bunch are all approx 100g lots that I dyed in multiple colours, and the bottom bunch are smaller batches that I dyed in solid colours.)


Now on to the fiber that's concerning me:



The effect I wanted with this was bright crimson contrasted with electric aqua, with spots of dark blue. Sadly, it ended up a bit more of a muddle of slightly muted tones. I'm not sure how I should spin this up. I know I want it to be somewhere between a worsted/heavy worsted 2 ply. I spun up, plied and knit 2 samples, one spinning from the fold and one spun from long strips. Here's how they looked (click any of the photos for larger views):





(Left: From the fold. Right: strips.)


This is the first one knit up (from the fold):




The second one (strips):



Thoughts, opnions, cries of horror at my apparent colour blindness?

Thanks to the peeps who said they liked my dress

To Faerietail:  I LOVE the purple- what a gorgeous shade!  And how you wrapped it- I'm still trying to figure out how to add that panel to cover the boobs- when you say you added it "over" the waistline, do you mean that you layered it over the waistline when you did the seam?  Did that question even make sense...??      

Ok, what I did is I made a strip of fabric that was high enough that, when folded in half widthwise, went from the waistband to over my bra back, and long enough to entirely wrap around to the front. I stitched the straps on to the front of the waistband, and then stitched the bra band over the straps and all the way around the waistband:








I hope that makes sense! Here's a picture of the back with me wearing the dress:

I made one! This one is a quick mock up (and by quick I mean unbearably tedious, as I had to sew it by hand due to my machine currently being in a different city... anyhoo!). I found 2 meters of this purple stretchy polyester at an Op Shop (I swear it's authentic 70s jump suit fabric) and decided to do a practice version before doing a nice version (I bought some great dark brown stretch suiting stuff). Anyway, here's the dress!



I added a panel all the way around above the waistband so that it covers my bra and back. Anyway, I'll shut up now. Everyone has made awesome dresses!

[Fuscia Silk 1]

misshawklet, those are both gorgeous! I love the purple/cream one, it looks so perfect and buttery.

I finished spinning up some merino that I mixed together with tussah silk when I was drafting it. I decided to ply it with a strand of laceweight silk, but I don't know how I feel about it:


Fuscia Silk 1 (Click for larger picture.)

http://static.flickr.com/78/200768662_7f9e46d883_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/59/200768661_baaf893d31_m.jpg

What do you reckon? I dunno...


Anyway, with the rest of the single, I just plied it back on itself and I really like it.


Fuscia Silk 2 (Click for larger picture.)

http://static.flickr.com/61/200768660_0c0c4b8688_o.jpg

[Dusk]

I figured I'd get started early on Fiber Friday (I know it's still Thursday to most of you Northern Hemisphere folks) with my most recent spinning adventure:


Dusk (Merino)

I had a lot of trouble plying this yarn for some reason. I'm really not perfectly happy with the plying, although I'm sure it'll look nice once its knit up.

Anyway, what did you guys get up to this week?

I just want to add a little addendum here to demonstrate that this also works brilliantly for turning uncarded fleece in to roving!

Alpaca fleece (uncarded):




Alpaca roving:




Yarn and Swatch:






Thanks so much for posting these instructions! I'm excited to try using this method to blend fibers as well. I feel considerably more cheerful about not owning a drum carder now