Circle Dress - My first proper dress

Hi All,

I made this dress in January but have been so lazy to buy some buttons and then again lazy to sew them . So finally here it is of what I can call a proper dress. Sleeves are really really hard for me. I made one earlier and learnt some lessons. I've been making bits and pieces really and not a proper dress. I think this does qualify for a dress :)
It has a tie back,  low waist, neck bow, puff sleeves, circle skirt which didn't work out very well. :( The bodice and skirt pieces didn't match up while pinning, the skirt was much much larger than the bodice - it must have got stretched out or my calculations must have been wrong. So I cut the skirt at the seams and reduced the waist measurement by taking in at the sides.
The plaid doesn't match up at the sleeves as you can see. Will need to work on that next time.

Happy holi to you all. Enjoy your colours and have a safe one.
Preethi.

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Nirma Skirt for my daughter - with video

UPDATE -
FREE PATTERN :  Nirma skirt free pattern



Hi All, Hope you are having a great week. I'm endlessly making this skirt. I made one for my daughter's friend. I had to make one for my daughter. How can I not? :)  Also, a colleague of mine has been asking to make one for his daughter. I was planning on making the phus phus skirt but have now changed my mind to make the Nirma skirt. See the video below how it twirls. The fabric I used was jeans material and still look how it twirls. Next I'm making something of rayon. It will be great I know for sure.



I have to share these pics with you all. I cannot imagine that if such thick fabric can look so good then options are endless and with summer coming I'm already imagining this skirt flying away showing off the bloomers - I have to learn to make them though :).

I've put many more in flickr.
Have a super weekend!!

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Status report 11 Mar

Hello people, yesterday was my status report day. Sorry for the delay.
So what did I do last week. Not much in terms of sewing. :( but have made good progress on the blog. :)
1. I sew nirma skirt for my daughter. Soon will be sharing the pics.
2. I'm making a pattern for the nirma skirt but I'm really struggling with laying of the pattern. Lot of maths involved there. There are so many options but I'm unable to draw out all the options.  Still trying. So that's in progress
3. I cannot do inches for the phus phus skirt or poltam skirt. Giving up on this one although planned. You read why cm or inches here.
4. I added social media buttons on all images. I'm loving them.
5. I've started to get quite some traffic these days. About 500 pageviews a day. it also went more than 1000 page views on a day last week. I'm really excited. I really really really hope it continues. Thank you so much.

Enjoy your week!
Preethi.

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Iron poltam skirt

Hello Ladies,

How are you all. Happy women's day to you all. Hope you all got some wishes and gifts?

Today's post is really not worth a post. I'm just going to show you how to iron the poltam skirt.
There are 2 ways.
1. Iron the pleats all parallel to one another. I did this on the poltam skirt I gave as a gift. This gives a more schoolish look I think.

 2. Iron them at angles. They start with a pleat and then diminish as they reach half way the skirt. I really like this look.

I've been working on my new favorite skirt - called it nirma skirt. I've made another one and it looks so good.
Have a nice weekend.

Thanks,
Preethi.

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Status Report 05 Mar

Hi Friends,

My status report:
1. The images on the I made,  How to and what is used to appear elongated on the phone. Corrected this by removing the length attribute.
2. The calculation sheets for poltam skirt online calculator and phus phus skirt online calculator had to be cleaned up as there were lot of unwanted calculations. Did that.
3. Sew a Nirma skirt for my daughter's friend. I'll tell you why I'm calling it nirma later :)
4. Got flickr images working to embed them into the pages just like poltam skirt flickr and phus phus skirt flickr
5. Completed the poltam skirt with full tutorial and sew 2.

Here is screen shot:

You can see the full February report here at plan vs progress
Hope you week is going well.
Thanks,
Preethi.

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Gher skirt for my daughter's friend

Hi All,

UPDATE - For full instructions to make a Nirma skirt please go to NIRMA SKIRT FREE PATTERN.

I made this skirt for my daughter's friend. I was deliberating to make either a poltam skirt or a phus phus skirt and finally ended up making a altogether different one. This is for a 3 1/2 yr old. I put it on for my daughter who is nearing 2. Its of course long but swings so well. I just love it.
The gathering I used is my favorite gathering method for perfect gathers. Gher means flare in Hindi (Indian language) if you were wondering what is gher.
I think the top part of the skirt could be a bit longer though and please don't notice the black thread I used for the hem :) ran out of white thread.

It's a corduroy polka dots and the corduroy is really fine. Same kind of fabric I made the inverted pleat tunic, dungaree and the circle skirt which I had a tough time fixing the twisted elastic which I blogged as well how I finally did.

Learning: I used a trimming and got it wrong the first time. I wanted to baste the trimming onto the top part of skirt before attaching the bottom part but after I basted and pinned the top and bottom the trimming went on the inside of the skirt. The facing of the trimming while basting is very important. The second time around I was turning the skirt inside out and pinning it a thousand times before basting it.

To put in the elastic I didn't use the method I used for poltam skirt or phus phus skirt. I tried a different method here. I pinned the elastic to the fabric at several places. While pulling the elastic I sew on top of the elastic. This is easy but could go wrong. But yes it produces perfectly evened out elastic just like poltam skirt or phus phus skirt and you don't need the middle and top sewing to be done. :)

I'm already planning a few more skirts in this style :)

-Preethi

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Phus Phus dressing up - part 2

Hi All, Hope you had a lovely weekend.
I'm totally loving the phus phus skirt. Its a bit odd - I make it and I say I'm loving it. But the skirt is so comfortable for my girl and at the same time it looks so good I can't help it. The clothes that are comfortable don't look that good and if they look good they are pulling at odd places that she will refuse to wear.
Here are some more photos I took of my little girl. I'm not or shall I say not yet comfortable to post her pics and the pics go around pinterest everywhere. I had posted part 1 of phus phus skirt dressing up is here.

I bought these shoes from mothercare and have used it to death. I've now bought the blue version as well. I love Jamie Oliver and now I love Jools. :)

Have a lovely week.
Preethi.

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