Latest wedding guest dress

Hello sewers! 

I'm here to show a dress I made for a friend's wedding yesterday, and then ended up not wearing in favour of my leopard dress, because it felt better when I tried it on yesterday! Sigh, best laid plans... 

Anyway, I'm really happy with this project! It is the tweaked pattern from my last dress, a copy of an & Other Stories number. I took a 1" wedge out of the back bodice, as suggested by super Julie at Sew Over It, and that solved the excess fabric around the bum and back issue. I didn't make any other changes except I had bought enough fabric to make it the length I wanted this time. I'm really happy with the fit now - it's pretty relaxed, but I think the nice shape stops it looking too frumpy.

The fabric is a silk noil from Classic Textiles on Goldhawk Road, and was £6 a metre. It's probably not the best quality stuff, but it's not see-through which was my biggest fear about it. I'll see how it holds up to washing. It had some grub on it too, now I think about it - it isn't the greatest. 

But it was perfect for this idea, which was painted dots on cream! I cut the fabric pieces out and then painted them with Speedball ink and a brush - all in all I reckon painting didn't take much longer than an hour or so (the dots may have become more slapdash as I went along!) The result is a lot like a Nani Iro that I bought when I first started sewing, but a LOT cheaper!

The pockets are my favourite feature about it. I think having failed to wear this to the wedding yesterday, it's going to have to be a slightly dressy casual dress instead! I'm sure it will manage.

Happy Sunday, sewers!

Cottoning on

Hello sewers!

It's started to warm up a little in London, which has meant it's time for some summer sewing! When I saw Katie's jumpsuit on Instagram I had an immediate desire to replicate it, and have rather unoriginally done so, almost down to the letter. I followed her tip to Indianstores on Etsy and bought a few different fabrics, both of which I've used here.

This is the Butterick 6312 pattern, made up in a size S thanks to Katie's observation of it running large. It should have been a quick and easy sew, but took me ages due to being my hopeless with putting the pockets in, and various other nonsense. But it came out fine in the end.

I used the reverse side of the dotted fabric to make it look a bit less pajama-y. But I dunno, it's a pretty silly thing once on, not nearly as nice as Katie's I don't think! Never mind, good jumpsuit-sewing practise!

My next thing to share is this dress, a wearable toile made from 2 metres of another Indianstores hand-blocked cotton. I bought this dress from & Other Stories a couple of weeks ago for a wedding:

It's made from lovely bright orange crepe. I really love its shape, so I made a pattern from tracing round it, and this is my first toile. The picture below is before hemming and closer to how it'll end up - actually I only had enough fabric to cut the front to the right length, and then it all had to be shortened. But next time this is the length I want, which I think make a much more interesting shape.

And after cutting and hemming:

For a first go I'm really thrilled with it, especially as I had to do a bit of origami with the pockets. I'd like them to stick out a bit more than they do here, but I think a stiffer fabric could have that effect anyway.

The top is a very simple shape with big kimono-style cut on sleeves. It's interfaced round the front and down the back, which is open and fastens at the top with a button or two (safety pin for now!) Then the skirt has an invisible zip at the back. 

You can see here that there is some excess fabric round the bottom of the back which I was puzzling over, but Julie who is teaching the Vintage Shirt Dress class that I'm taking at Sew Over It spotted that if I removed a 1" wedge from the length of the back bodice that'll be an easy fix. I felt very grateful as this wouldn't have occurred to me!

Unbelted!

I have some nice silk noil fabric in mind I've seen in Classic Textiles on Goldhawk Road, which I'm going to print on and hope that the next version will be ready for my friend's wedding in a week's time!

Until soon!

Culottes again

Hello sewers!

I am here to show off my second pair of Butterick B6178 culottes. I've finally unpicked the baboon bum zip from the last pair, and they are just waiting for an invisible zip and then will hopefully get some wear this summer. In the meantime I made these guys, with some adjustments. 

This is checked white denim, another buy from Fabworks - this time a birthday voucher from my super friend Hattie! Adjustments I made were to raise the waist rise by 1", while also tapering the waist in by about 3/4" on the front and back side seams. What I hadn't realised was that the combination of the higher and smaller waist would mean they hit me right in the middle of my breathing-bit of my stomach (medical terminology), and were way too tight. 

I also had to buy a 9" zip rather than the stipulated 7" to get into them. I unpicked and sewed the seams with a 3/8" seam instead... so next time perhaps I'll lower the waist again, but keep them smaller.

I kind of like these guys... the fabric perhaps is a little stiff for the culottes. And obviously, a super impractical colour. I made them with a wedding in mind, but I think they are too modern casual clown for that. 

Until next time!

Animal House

Hello sewers!

I've been trying to participate in Me Made May this year - so far so good, I've managed 5 out of 7 days a week in something I've made. And it's had the effect I've read others mention of making me see the gaps in my wardrobe. This dress is a result!

Not that my wardrobe exactly had an obviously leopard-print-midi-dress-shaped hole in it, but now it's here I can't believe I went so long without it! This is a Closet Case Files Nettie bodice, with cap sleeves from a top in Gertie's book and with a quarter circle skirt, made using the extremely handy By Hand London circle skirt app. 

I measured where my waist is on the bodice, and then cut the pattern there and added elastic round the waist to hold the skirt up. I also sized up the bodice to a 14 - this super fabric from Fabworks (a bargainous £5 a metre - I think mine was Animal 6, but they have a whole section of animal print, yaaay!) is actually pretty unstretchy for a jersey, and my first size 12 version was a squeeze.

I have left the neckline unfinished, as I quite like the shape it is now, and I'm nervous of bowing it out with binding... I'll see how I go. I'm also putting off hemming the skirt as I think that'll be a fairly heinous job, but I'll get round to it sooner or later!

I wore it out last night and it was very comfortable and I love it! I've made another in grey which I'll blog soon - hurrah for cotton jersey!

Stripy Anna/Elisalex/Darling Ranges mush again!

Hello! I'm just back from the Bologna Book Fair for work, and then a few jolly days in Lucca. There was a film festival on, some of which was zombie-themed (my worst!) but excellently fun. 

This is a dress I made for a wedding just before I went. It's the same pattern mash-up as the last one, so I've nothing more to add about it really. I can see from the pics that I think I made the skirt a little short, so I'll lengthen it for any further versions!

The cotton was on sale from Miss Matatabi, and I love it - I bought some in the same cream with red stripes, which I'm hoping will make an excellent skirt. 

 I've started making dress drawings, so that I don't forget plans, and also they're helping me work out pattern placement a bit. It's nice to look back and see how close things stayed to the idea. Here's the last blue dress, which I wasn't so keen on.

And here were some plans for the wedding guest dress. I decided against the red buttons and Fimo belt, but apart from that it's the same!

And here's the dress with an escort. Isn't he a sharp fella?

Anna/Elisalex/Darling Ranges mush

Hello sewers! Do any other Nancy Mitford fans out there hear Uncle Matthew saying "damned sewers" whenever they read that? 

Here I am again with yet another blue chambray dress... this bodice started out as an Anna hack - here are my first and second versions. The neckline wasn't working that well with the facings I'd drafted: the points were un-crisp and more curved that pointed. Then somewhere in blogland I read about making a placket using Megan Nielsen's neckline drafting from the Darling Ranges dress (which was one of my earliest sewing projects). 

So I tacked that onto the centre front of my Anna hack, and I'm much happier with the neckline now - it's an excellent way to bind a neckline, and I generally prefer bias binding to facing anyway, as my facing tends to get a bit bunched up, try as I might. The skirt is the Elisalex, with a bit of dart moving to match the bodice, and 2 1/4" added to the front to make the button placket. And I shortened the skirt quite a bit.

The fabric is from Classic Textiles on Goldhawk Road, and the buttons from Shepherds Bush Market. I had to add a hook and eye on the torso as it was all kinds of gaping; perhaps I could widen the pattern a little there for the next time - which there will be.

I did have pause about using the Elisalex skirt, as although I love the shape, I wondered if the more casual look of a button-through might look weird with the dressier tulip shape. 

And perhaps it does! But I like it! Is it fancy?? Is it casual??? WHO KNOWS???!?

Simplicity 1880 AGAIN

Hello! I hope you are having good Easter weekends. I've spent the past two days sewing, and I'm actually feeling like I might have ODed a bit - I was having weird dreams last night about plackets (really) and feeling a bit antsy and rushed, so I'm going to give it a rest for a bit! 

This frenzy is a result of having three weddings and an 80th birthday party coming up soon, and wanting fun homemade things to wear to all - I may have to accept this will not be possible, and I may have to resort to *gasp* old ready-to-wear...

Anyway, enter another Simplicity 1880. And I promise I won't keep saying this - but I really don't like the finished dress! Sad really, as it turned out how I imagined, complete with with a Premo (a polymer clay like Fimo but I think less brittle) belt buckle and matching brooch, love-themed for the first wedding!

I've not much more to say about this pattern after my last two. The fabric was a striped chambray from Miss Matatabi, and lack of fabric meant improvising with some piecing on the front and back skirt, making the v-shapes which I was happy with. I'm not sure where the dress goes wrong for me - I think perhaps I hemmed it too short, and something about the pinstripe looks a bit formal. All in all, a bit blah... 

This is before hemming... rats! Now I see the pics near each other, seems obvious that the longer length was better... CURSES! Live and learn... or, as I prefer to do, live and NOT learn!

But on a positive note --->

I was really happy with my belt buckle and brooch vision! I can see myself wearing the brooch a lot, and I made some more shapes to paint up in the future. I'm going through a brooch stage at the moment!

This is the white Premo after it's been in the oven for an hour. Then a few layers of acrylic paint and a couple of coats of clear nail varnish (haven't yet found a satisfactory gloss water-based varnish yet... any steers would be most welcome!) and it looks super, I think!

Hearts and smooches. Happy Easter all!