a marvel-lous moneta

Haha, see what I did there? This is the dress I made for my birthday at the beginning of the month. If you can't wear a dress emblazoned with superheroes on your birthday, then when can you?!

Anyone remember those online quizzes on Zimbio which were all the rage a few years ago? My family took the "Which Marvel Superhero Are You?" quiz and Mum and I both got the Hulk, Dad got Captain America and my brothers got Thor and Loki. Although it was a silly quiz, the results were weirdly apt for each person. Haha!

The dress is yet another Colette Patterns Moneta dress, but this time with a roll collar and longer length sleeves. As the Marvel fabric is quite "out there" I made the sleeves and collar in a plain, contrasting black. I really like the result and it gives the dress a totally different feel to my two previous Monetas.

Unlike my second Moneta dress, I actually followed the collar instructions which say to attach it with the seam allowance sitting underneath the collar on the "right" side. I was worried this would prevent the collar from sitting flat so I understitched the neckline to tack the seam allowance down. I also sewed a short, red zig zag stitch on the inside of the back neckline, hidden under the collar from the correct side, so I can easily tell the front from the back.

My only fitting adjustment with this dress was grading back down to a size medium for the width of the shoulders as I came to the conclusion that although my shoulders are broad, grading up really wasn't necessary on my previous Moneta dresses. The armholes definitely sit better across my upper chest on this dress.

My only (minor) gripe with this dress is that the sleeves are unusually baggy in the upper arm, which is weird considering my upper arms are anything but small. I guess it'll come in handy for when I burst into a Hulk rage and need expansion room for my ripped muscles, haha! It's not worth re sewing but I altered the sleeve pattern for the next Moneta. (Oh yes, there is already a fourth...)

And that's it really, not much else to say about my dress except it's comfy, elegantly shaped and makes me feel like a total bad ass. Perfect combination, really!

 HULK SMASH!

millionaire's shortbread cake and a duff for dad

October has been rather busy and cake filled for my family. My birthday is at the beginning of the month, swiftly followed by my friend/future sister-in-law then my Dad a couple of weeks later. As a chocolate fiend I knew my friend's cake needed to be decadent so I took inspiration from a millionaire's shortbread cake I found on Jane's Patisserie blog.

 

Considering my family were still working through my large birthday cake I didn't think it was wise to bake a monster triple layer cake. Instead I adapted the cake to be smaller by using a standard 4 egg victoria sponge recipe baked in two 8" cake tins and swapped the caster sugar for soft light brown sugar. I also made my own caramel and millionaire's shortbread pieces as I felt like being fancy.

I don't know what it is about me and caramel but it's always a bit of a disaster. Every time without fail I burn the first batch. EVERY TIME. Also, it's always lumpy. Recipes say that if the caramel hardens and goes a bit lumpy after adding the cream just to put the pan back over the heat until it melts. Mine doesn't want to melt, even if I practically reboil it. Should I fully reboil it or will it go further wrong and burn? Should I warm the cream up first so it's less of a hot/cold reaction when adding it to the sugar? Tips or suggestions welcome!

The millionaire's shortbread, however, was an absolute triumph. Man, that stuff is addictive to eat. In fact it was the best thing about this cake. I don't know why, but the cake itself was a bit underwhelming. Perhaps I slightly overbaked the sponge, the chocolate icing was too thick, or maybe I'm just not that big a fan of cakes without a jam or curd filling or a fruit element as they're too sweet (gasp!) and lack contrast. It could be a combination or just personal preference.

It's a shame this cake didn't quite hit the spot for me, especially considering how cool it looked and the effort I put into making it, but I can highly recommend the millionaire's shortbread. You can find the recipe for it in my archives here. I only make it once every few years for fear of eating it all and becoming morbidly obese!

For Dad's birthday I baked a duff (clootie pudding) as it's his favourite along with a tray of buns/fairy cakes for my nephews as they're not fussed with boiled fruit pudding. I think this duff turned out better than the last one I made a couple of years ago (you can find the post and recipe here) as I kept a closer eye on the water level in the pot. Dad has had a really tough year health wise so he fully deserved a celebratory duff with a mahoosive exploding candle.

After a week's break I'm just about ready to start thinking about cakes and baking again. Roll on Hallowe'en!

my birthday - a pink house and knitting stuff

It was my birthday at the beginning of month and I took the whole week off work to enjoy it. Annoyingly I immediately caught a cold and consequently spent most of it feeling rubbish but that didn't stop me from having a nice day and eating cake.

Speaking of cake, how ridiculously cute is my birthday cake?! Mum's cakey creations never disappoint. This year she built my dream house: pink and quirky complete with flowers, a clothes line and a cat. One day, perhaps...? Haha.

Poor Mum felt a bit disappointed with her handiwork as it wasn't as neat as she had envisioned, but personally I still love it. Structural problems and all!

I was perhaps slightly greedy overambitious when cutting a gable end sized portion to eat, but my opinion regarding birthday cake consumption is go big or go home! Sadly I disappointed myself by not managing to eat the whole slice after a large family dinner, but I ate over half. I was also delighted that the Great British Bake Off *and* a documentary on the history of Barbies were on tv on my birthday.... it's like the tv gods catered specifically for me.

There was also a knitting theme to my birthday presents this year. I had been not so subtly dropping hints about wanting a ball winder and swift so was delighted that's what Mum and Dad gave me. I spent the whole of the following day winding ALLLLLLLL THE WOOOOOOL. Even old skeins from Mum's stash weren't safe from me.

 Living the dream!

I genuinely cannot express how much fun I had that afternoon. Winding yarn cakes and eating birthday cake is pretty much the best way to spend a day. It was blissful.

I also received some knitting patterns and books ranging from the beautiful "Yokes" collection by Kate Davies to the hilariously bizarre "Knitted Cats" by Joy Gammon. No surprises for guessing which one my sister in law found in a charity shop!

And after feeling inspired by my recent foray into sock knitting (that's another blog post coming eventually) my Mum knitted a pair of socks as a belated birthday present. They're so long, cosy and incredibly funky. Needless to say I love them. I like that they're not matching yet still "related." Would you believe that this is the first pair of socks my Mum has knitted since she was about 15? You wouldn't know it.

My Granny used to knit socks for me every winter and I had forgotten the joys of wearing squishy, handmade socks. They're a real treat for your feet. My Mum and I now have a lot of sock knitting plans for the next couple of months!

two moneta dresses - floral and polkadot

After the storming success of my Kitschy Koo Lady Skater dresses I decided to try another jersey dress pattern which dominates the online sewing community: Colette Patterns' Moneta Dress. I initially hesitated whether to order this pattern, thinking it was perhaps too similar to the Lady Skater, but came to the conclusion that there are enough differences to justify purchasing both. Lady Skater has a scoop neckline with neckband and a flared skirt, whereas Moneta has a high neckline with scoop back, collar options and a gathered skirt.

For my first version I kept it simple and went with the plain neckline and short sleeves. The fabric is a gorgeous medium weight floral jersey I ordered online from My Fabrics. I originally bought 1.5m of it with the intention of making a long sleeve top, but as soon as it arrived it demanded to become a dress.

Size wise I'm more or less a small on Colette's measurement chart. However after looking at the finished garment measurements I cut a medium, grading up to large for shoulder width and between a medium and large for the waist. My reasoning for this was that I didn't want lots of negative ease around the waist as I prefer my dresses to skim rather than cling. I also always fear that if I actually fit to my waist then the resulting dress may not fit over my big shoulders! After a quick compare with my Lady Skater pattern pieces I saw that I didn't need to lengthen the bodice but I did add 1 inch of length to the skirt.

Other changes I made whilst sewing were adding stretchy, fusible seam tape to stabilise the neckline, using elastic to stabilise the shoulders and sewing a small, looped ribbon onto the inside of the back neckline so I can easily tell the front from the back. Although not an alteration as such I also followed Abigail's tip of adding more marks to the elastic for more control when gathering the waistline. I highly recommend her post if, like me, you've never sewn with elastic before as it removed any fear I had about working with it.

The dress ended up a bit roomy, but I always think it's better to be cautious and cut bigger for a first attempt at a pattern. Although I didn't bother unpicking the skirt to take in the waist, I did take a wedge of excess fabric out from the ribcage area to give the bodice a more flattering shape.

I really like this dress and have worn it a lot. The style, floral pattern and colours all feel very "me." I've actually read that some people aren't keen on the low back and high neckline of the Moneta and prefer to wear it the other way round. This baffles me as I love the neckline! I find the style very elegant to wear.

For my second Moneta, I added a fun tie collar. This is one of the variations which can be downloaded for free on Colette Patterns' website. I don't know why there aren't that many tie collar Moneta dresses out in the wild (from what I can see anyway) as I think it's the cutest thing ever! Combined with the polkadot fabric it gives the dress a 1950s vintage feel which I absolutely love.

The mustard polka dot jersey is from Girl Charlee UK and part of their Bolt range. It's on the expensive side but I managed to snap some up over a Bank Holiday weekend when they had 20% off. That made it much more affordable! It's very soft and snuggly however I found it a little bit see through so I self lined the bodice. I didn't bother for the skirt as it wasn't necessary with the gathers.

In terms of construction, I deviated from instructions and sandwiched the collar between the two bodice layers so all raw edges are enclosed, grading the seams to reduce bulk, and understitching to keep everything in place. I then treated the bodice and lining layers as one for sewing everything else. I think it made a tidy enough finish.

In terms of fit I graded back down to a size medium at the waist and transferred the bodice changes I made on my first version of scooping out about 3/8" from the underarm to the waist. It makes a more concave shape to the side seam, similar to the Lady Skater bodice shape actually, which seems to work better for my shape. I'm happier with the smaller waist on this one too, although I definitely stretched it out slightly when trying the bodice on before adding the skirt. I guess I got too excited about seeing what the collar looked like on me!

All in all, I absolutely adore this dress and think the collar is the best thing ever. Look at it with the scoop back. Ughh, love it.

I had no idea a mustard polka dot dress was missing from my life but it clearly has been as I have enjoyed wearing it so much. I didn't think another pattern could overtake the Lady Skater dress in terms of love but Colette Patterns' Moneta has certainly won a special place in my wardrobe.

Stay tuned for more Moneta goodness. I have my Birthday Moneta to share and another one in the pipeline. It's safe to say I have been properly bitten by the sewing-with-jersey bug this year!