Miró Spoonflower skirt and Desmond Roll Top Backpack!

Hello sewers! 

Earlier this year I spent a weekend with some friends living in Mallorca. We had a morning at the Fundació Miró Mallorca - it turned out to be my favourite kind of gallery/museum, based in the artist's home and with a sense of what it was like when he and his wife Pilar lived there. It was an artist's idyll - his studio in particular.

I made a picture with my own Miró cat hard at work.

I've been wanting to have a go at designing my own fabric for a while, having been really inspired by Katie, Katie and Emily, and many of the other lovely designs by sewing bloggers. I knew I wanted a really big abstract print, so with Miró in mind I had a look for a likely painting, and made a repeat pattern in Photoshop based on this one below.

Joan Miró Spanish Dancer, 1926.

My Photoshop design.

I ordered a metre of Spoonflower organic cotton jersey with some kind of skirt planned. I used the bottom half of the Nettie Dress pattern and added a black band with 2" elastic for the waist. I didn't bother to hem the bottom - this was a pretty quick sew but I just wanted something to show off the print. And it came out like this!

The top is the Nettie Dress top, sewed quite a while ago and happily a good match! Recently I went with my friends Ella and Eve to see the Van Gogh at the Tate Britain, and this wall on the stairs seemed the ideal backdrop for some blog pics!

Looking at the photos I worried about the absolute baboon-bum effect of the pattern placement - Ella assured me it's fine IRL, but actually I don't much mind either way. 

I'm looking EXTRA pleased here because I also get to show off my best make ever - my Desmond Roll Top Backpack! 

I love it very much! I wear it every single day, and having it with me gives me a lot of pleasure. The pattern was a treat to use - really well set out and with excellent instructions. I got the fabric and notions from The Cloth House and from Kleins - it didn't end up at all being a cheap project, but I really love it and it feels like it's going to last me - so I'm glad I made the investment in good fabric and notions.

A million backpack photos! So much bliss!

Red bums and red backpacks all the waaaay!

Reeta hack - FOURTH GO ROUND!!

Hello May sewers! 

I'm here to show my FOURTH Reeta dress! It is kind of weird that I keep sewing this dress given that, as I've said three times before, it keeps not suiting me... until now?! I just had a feeling that somehow this dress could be what I wanted - and I think this is more or less it.

I was inspired by Katie's no-collar look for this dress, and indeed I massively prefer it on me like this. This is some viscose-poly type I picked up at A-One Fabrics on Goldhawk Road for a bargainous £4 per metre. It feels really nice and sewed up well - the lovely red shell buttons are from Textile Garden.

The changes I made were:

- running the back bodice/skirt and the back placket together to make one piece

- and therefore needing a facing for the back neckline

- making the sleeves batwing and cut-on

-forgoing the drawstring and case and instead making a self-tie with two belt loops in the side seams

And voila! It looks a right old wrinkly mess in these pics (*ahem, the DRESS*) which is no shade to Shelley's excellent photo skills. But I think the dress itself looks nice in real life - I actually like it a lot! 

 GASP!! A Reeta I like!!! Fourth time lucky! 

Tiger that came to t-shirt

Hello April sewers! Not April showers ha ha.

I've been sewing up a bit of a storm - now that the weather is properly Spring-like, I've started thinking of summer clothes. Particularly t-shirts. I've made five Deer & Doe Plantain shirts now, and with some tweaks, I'm really happy with the fit.

I found this lovely speckled Robert Kaufman jersey at the Village Haberdashery, and bought three metres (two white one grey) - it's really not cheap at about £22 a metre, but it has the loveliest feeling, and out of three metres I got four t-shirts, which works out at £16 per shirt - well worth it for their quality. This one was made with the last bits, hence the colour blocking, but I'm happy with how it came out.

I bought three metres of this tiger print viscose a while back (annoyingly I can't remember from where) - I had it in mind for a dress but I'm much happier with these trousers. They're woven Hudsons - sized up two sizes from my normal jersey fit, and with the waist raised 3 inches. Actually if I make them again I think I'll raise them another 2. Also I widened and shortened them a bit at the bottom.

My chum and preferred blog photographer Shelley is back in the studio, so I'm back to fun alley photos for a while, hooray! Easy breezy summer trews!

Jersey Girl

Hello January sewers!

I'm here with not the most exciting sew, but things I reckon I'll get a lot of wear out of.

This is a skirt from a dress, and a Plantain t-shirt. I made the dress a couple of years ago, and enjoyed it for a while but haven't been using it lately. I figured I'd like it more as a skirt, and I do! I unstitched it from the bodice and added a waistband with a 1.5" elastic inside. I've been wanting more skirts than dresses these days, especially midi-numbers, so I think I'll get a lot of use out of this guy.

Matching headband - classy!

The t-shirt is the Deer and Doe Plantain. I'd love to have a go-to t-shirt pattern. With some tweaking, I reckon this could be it - I think next time I'll raise the neckline a little. My changes for this were to shorten the sleeves a little (rock \m/) and the bodice - I'll put the bodice back next time though as this is a little short. The fabric is a nice jersey from the Organic Textile Company but I'd prefer it a little drapier. 

Until soon!