Great interview! I always enjoy reading these - thanks ladies for sharing this with us :)

Denise - would this class help at all? http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/sewingclasses/index.pl#477 $60, Starts on: Mar 29th. Skills Required: Passion for learning! Absolute beginners will benefit from this class. No prior experience is needed.

Ah, your sheets look fab! Imade my own a while back - but there still not quite right (may have to take inspiration from yours LOL - love the "No longer in stash" tick-box - v. good idea!). :)

Ah, that's great news! Are you going to start sewing stuff for her already?

Mena - do both (rescue the old dress, and copy it). There's no need to take the dress apart to make a pattern, as there's a couple of great books out there that show you how to copy RTW garments, or vintage favourites without damaging them. There's 'Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit: Using the Rub-Off Technique to Re-create and Redesign your Favorite Fashions' by Steffani Lincecum. It's highly recommended in a review by Beth at SunnyGal Studio http://sunnygalstudio.blogspot.com/2011/06/patternmaking-copy-favorite-blouse.html. Then there's 'Patterns from Finished Clothes: Re-Creating the Clothes You Love by Tracy Doyle', used copies are going on Amazon for under $4.00 USD!

Lisa... you look amazing (not that you look terrible or anything before.... oh, you know what I mean LOL!) :) I hope you made notes of what he told you to be able to do it at home, 'cos you're gonna get addicted to lookin' that good!

Lisa - sounds like fun! I am weird! I am an all or nothing girl (usually nothing except my SPF moisturiser & trusty lipbalm). When it's an "all" day I take 45-60mins to apply my slap onto my chops (I know a v. long time, but I like to make sure everything is purrfect) - but then most folks at my office don't recognise me (or take 2nd look in surprise) so I must be doing it right when I do wear makeup hehe. S'funny 'cos I do love the full on effect (I can do "faux-natural" or full-on glamour puss) and I have a vast array of tools & products, but I guess I'm too lazy most days to bother to get up an hour earlier to put it on. P.S. I am oriental (well 50%) too! BTW MAC foundations are fab for my skintone ;)

I can't see the line-drawing for the McCall's pattern in your picture above :( (But I can see it when I click on the link you've given to the McCall's site.)) Re: straps I'd maybe use some lightweight rigilene boning along the princess seams at the front via channels of fabric stitched inside of a lining layer. And, I'd also alter the pattern on the back to turn the darted back-bodice into separate pieces... in order to add boning to the back. That way the bodice would not fall down at the neckline to expose "frontage" LOL! Plus, you could always make the straps detachable - with little hooks on the ends and loops inside of the neckline à la many RTW strapless dresses you see in the shops :)

Coooolll! Looks like it was a lot of fun :)

Thanks Mena! I love finding new blogs to read :) Mine is http://sew-incidentally.com/ (I do hope this doesn't appear twice - I've had some problems logging in LOL!)

Thanks Mena! I love finding new blogs to read :) Mine is http://sew-incidentally.com/

What a fab idea! Seeing as the old notions manufacturers of yester-year no longer seem to make these kits - then your putting together your own ones for sale seems a brilliant solution for all us sewists :)

I like the bust details & waist shaping on you :) I agree the bust needs to be lowered a bit by the 1" you yourself reckon it'll need. Will you take the 1" height off of the waist panel at the same time too, or will you lower the waist section down (and take the 1" off of the top of the skirt pieces) to balance it all out? P.S. That's the weirdest place I've seen to put a zipper (not that I'm an expert LOL!). Oh, and your shoulder width looks to be spot on already to me. And, if you change the zipper to the side will you still be able to get your head in/out of the neck opening okay (just a thought)? Re: hem length I think shorter would suit you better. At it's current length it is veering towards the style of a tea-dress (or rather a tea-dress where someone decided to save on fabric & loose a whole bunch of the fullness from the skirt portion). Claire :) P.S. Did you get my mega long email ok re: your survey earlier this week :)?

Us girls know what you mean hun :) And I'm looking forward to seeing your dress muslin!

I like Rayon (it's mainly called Viscose here in the UK). It irons/presses well - but any skirts I've worn in it tend to get terribly creased from sitting around in it at work. So, therefore I prefer it as a blend with cotton - however I suppose that would make it less likely to share properties with silk if mixed with the coarser fibres of cotton I guess? :) Claire

Yup, shipping/postage is a big factor for me when I purchase online too. However, I am sometimes wary of "FREE" shipping - as the shop might have worked out an average/typical shipping cost and applied it against each individual item's price... I'd rather see the item priced separately without shipping included (or hidden within the item's price). The idea of free-shipping is good in my eyes when you buy say something heavy-ish to mail, like say x10 cones of serger thread - because a one-off postage cost of say £3.00 GBP for domestic shipping would be very economical to the buyer (but less so to the seller). But, if all you wanted was x1 packet of needles then they'd actually cost [for UK Royal Mail first-class] say only £0.75GBP to send domestically in a regular paper envelope, and having to pay an artificially inflated price that includes a [hidden] standardized shipping fee would feel odd to me. (NB: Those made-up costs I've given are for UK of course not taking into account cost for the envelope/bubblewrap or the wages costs in terms of admin., or employee time/salary etc.) I always think highly of those online stores that have worked out the shipping costs based on each individual stock-item's size & weight - the real fancy online stores automatically add-up a pretty accurate shipping total when you purchase several differently sized/weighted items. I then feel I'm getting good value for my money :)

I forgot to add something to my answer for Q5. What's been the hardest sewing notion/supply to find, and did you find it?. A while back I was trying to find a mini-trundle wheel (a small circular wheel for measuring around curves), I thought it'd be really handy during pattern making :) I've dropped you an email about it (it was too long to post here LOL!)

Added my answers to your Survey Sunni!

Thank you that link works great :)

How stylish (Shantung silk?) and practical too! I made myself a wrist-pincushion before Christmas with an elasticated band, but it keeps slipping around (grrrr!), but I have some D-rings lurking in my stash so I may just borrow your strap idea and alter mine soon :)!

Great tutorial Sunni! I think this is one for me to practice sometime on fabric scraps in front of unday afternoon TV :)

Sunni your blouse is adorable! The colour is fab on you too :) Re: the buttonholes could they be done on a machine using a stabliser of some sort (verses hand finishing) too (I've never worked with silk and I am curious!)?

Great new name Sunni! I wonder if there's a tool or site you could use to build yourself a shopping survey to ascertain what tools/notions fashions-sewers find difficult to source? It could be a good way to find out products for your store :)

Hi Sunni! I've just awarded you a 'Stylish Blogger Award' Clairex

Gosh - that's exciting news :)! Good luck Sunni!