Compagnie-M Louisa Dress

This is the Louisa Dress by Compagnie-M, which I made for my god-daughter's second birthday. 

I downloaded the PDF - the instructions were really clear, and I didn't make any adjustments. It was my first go at piping, and at lining, which really tested my patience! I could NOT work it out for a while, but once I got it, it came together fine. 

I used old Liberty fabrics that had been in my mum's stash and are now in mine. I thought that this would be really quick to sew up, being so small. But the smallness actually made it harder in many ways. Setting in the sleeves, sewing round the neckline and dealing with the lining all felt difficult to me because of the small scale. 

Although I think the pattern is really beautiful (the versions on Pinterest are gorgeous), and I hope the dress gets wear, the experience hasn't made me want to sew more children's clothes. It has felt like a lot of work for something that will be grown out of fairly sharpish. I found myself being a bit lazy with seam finishing and pressing, because I kept thinking "oh well she won't be able to wear it for THAT long", which is obviously a bad attitude... we'll see, but it's back to grown up sewing for me, for now! 

(Though I do want to print my own fabrics at some point, in which case I might re-embrace children's dress patterns!)

Three dresses!

I'm back with three new dresses to show! I've been slightly hampered from blogging about them earlier - I haven't wanted to take photos outside my flat out of embarrassment! Lame - but here are some from inside, where the light isn't as good but gives the idea.

First was a Nettie hack. I copied Sallie's lovely idea, and used the bodice of the Nettie dress (with Washi Dress cap sleeves) down to my natural waist. Then I used the By Hand London circle skirt app to draft a half-circle skirt to attach from there. I still haven't hemmed it as I'm too filled with dread, but that is something I must do in front of the TV one evening soon.

It's made from a weird synthetic jersey from Goldhawk Road, but I love the colour and it's very comfortable, with good recovery too.

Emboldened by this, I had a go at another Nettie, with better quality fabric from The Organic Textile Company (I pretty much want everything they're selling.)

I was really happy with this, until I washed it and shrunk it... it feels seriously tight now, even though I'd gone up a size on the Nettie from my actual size. Also I'd lengthened the pattern by 2", and it's gotten shorter too. Still wearable, but maybe more of an evening-with-cardigan dress now! I added the sleeves and binding from Gertie's book - I'm really on a cap sleeve roll!

And last dress is another Darling Ranges, which makes three - my first TNT pattern! Exciting! But I'll stop there for now, as I want to get out of my teeny comfort zone and try some new challenges! Only changes I made were lengthening the dress by 2" and using the Washi Dress cap sleeves again.

The fabric is Nani Iro double gauze from Ray Stitch... It's beautiful fabric, and takes the shape of the dress really nicely, although it does bunch itself up a bit (as evidenced by back photo...) It's also another lesson to me in the fact that just because I find a fabric pretty, doesn't mean it does anything for me. Cream fabric with red spots pretty much nails this aspect of dressmaking for me... so much to learn.

Pretty on its own!

Paley paleo lady.

Bunchy back.

Pockets make this dress brill.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!

March Sew Over It Show Off competition!

Hurrah! I won the March So Over It competition - 2 metres from their beautiful fabric shop! I loved the course at Sew Over It with Julie, and can't wait to make something new!

Thank you Alex!

Two pairs of strides and a curtain shirt

A little bit of soothing sewing for a hungover Sunday post!

First up is a second pair of Hudson Pants. My first pair is the most worn item that I've made, and my mum was keen for a pair herself. She chose this lovely "Shroom" fabric from Fabric Godmother. I didn't make any changes to the pattern apart from leaving out the twill tape I'd bought as drawstring and leaving off the ankle cuffs. O let Mum's ankles be unconfined, Shroom trousers!

They look great on her, and Mum says they're very comfortable (though she didn't want to pose for lots of pics - not the absolute veteran har har I am at this). We are planning her next pair, with an extra 2" in length to compensate for the no cuff look.

Shroom with a view.

Meanwhile the Cigarette Pants course at Sew Over It in Islington has just finished. I loved the class, and Julie was a wonderful and fun teacher - I always learn new things in these evening classes, from better ways to cut patterns, to making a fly front zip.

I'm going for a sort of Marcel Marceau thing here.

They're a nice green wool fabric, which is amazingly unitchy, thank goodness.

Weird side view.

 Weirder back view.

 I was happy with these as a practical success, but I'm not sure they're super flattering on me. I foresee little trouser sewing in my immediate future - there are so many tempting tops and dresses to make; trousers feel like too much faff!

The last bit is a pattern I've been trying to draft myself, based on a beloved old Jaeger shirt. I had a go at it once before when I'd just started sewing. It didn't look great on me, but happily found a home with Mum.

I made some adjustments to this pattern, taking in about 6cm at the sides, lengthening the arms, and making a 1cm adjustment at the shoulders so that the neckline didn't gape (does anyone know what this particular problem is called? I'm finding that I'm having to do it on most bodices.) 

I sewed this guy up while watching the Great British Sewing Bee on repeat - bliss!

Not tucked in - it's a bit tight round the bottom, so works less well this way I think...

Sadly the whole thing looks like a weird 70s curtain refashion. Not much about it is appealing - it kind of works open, as a jacket... but also not really. The fabric seemed so pretty until it became this chap - and the off-white buttons add a certain je ne sais pourquoi to the whole thing that tips it into downright depressing... never mind, I learned from it - maybe the main thing being to wait to draft my own patterns until I'm a lot more experienced!

Fabric Design competition shortlist!

My fairies fabric design has made the shortlist of the By Hand London fabric design competition! By Hand London are a really super indie pattern company who are now printing their own fabrics too. Their Anna Dress is one of my favourite patterns I've made so far. 

There is a vote on their blog now - the pattern with the most votes by this Friday, 13th February will be the winner! And then their fabric will get printed - too super!

If you have time and the inclination, it would be lovely if you could go to the 

By Hand London blog

to vote. 

Thank you! 

Two Darling Ranges Dresses

I love Megan Nielsen's pattern for the Darling Ranges dress - I'm really liking button front dresses and blouses, and now that I have a new sewing machine with a one-step buttonhole stitch, it's a breeze as well. I liked the slightly old fashioned look of the Darling Ranges, and figured it might suit me and be a useful day dress. But my first attempt was fairly hopeless and frustrating - I messed up the neckline somehow, perhaps partly it being my first go at self made bias binding - I don't know. Either way I got furious with it, and left it unfinished and hanging up by my desk, where it could think about what it had done.

Deciding to tackle it again marked the first time I really bothered unstitching long lines of sewing, which felt like crossing a mental barrier for me. I'm trying to slow down with my sewing, and take time to get things right or correct things that go horribly wrong. And Megan Nielsen's detailed sewalong on her website really helped to break down the bias binding steps, so that the next attempt worked far better. 

The first dress is in a shirting cotton from Goldhawk Road, which I think was about £5 a metre, so I didn't feel too scared about using it. I had to make a couple of adjustments, taking 1cm off the shoulders and putting a small dart in the back - my first alterations! 

I transferred the changes to my paper pattern, and made up a toile of the bodice to check I'd got it right before making the second dress in a more expensive shirting from The Cloth House on Berwick Street. I also added 2" to the hem, as I'm all about the knee-length skirt these days.

These buttons are handmade ceramic chaps from my button box - I think made by my grandmother. I tried to grade the colours as they went down, which I think was more or less successful! 

I'm learning, slowly, how different fabric looks once it's in finished form to what you imagine when it's on the bolt. I loved this shirting, which is quite rich in colour and textured like soft elephant skin - but made into this dress I think it just looks like denim or chambray. Which I love, but isn't the look I was going for. Learning learning! I'm starting a short trouser course at Sew Over It this week, so I'll share the results of that if all goes well!

Thank you Els for the photos!

Fabric pattern

By Hand London is running a competition until tomorrow midnight, to design a fabric pattern for their new pattern line. The theme is Once Upon a Dream - it's pretty dreamy to combine illustration and fabric! I think this went too kiddy really - might be nice for a child's shirt or dress? And I was trying to make it adult, darn it! I was thinking of toile colours and patterns... anyway, here it is. Wish me luck!