Sewing Bee - in the making?



Even before the Sewing Bee came to our screens, I have fancied making myself some clothes. In preparation I have bought several patterns and even some fabric but as most of the fabric was for winter clothes and time has moved on, I now need to buy some summer fabric, which is easier said than done these days. One of the things that puts me off making clothes is the risk that I'll make something only to find that it doesn't fit me. So having thought about it for some time, I have taken the plunge and bought a dressmaker's dummy.

 

 

Ironically, the first thing I fancy making is quite loose fitting but that will have to wait until I finished a couple of the textile projects I have on the go.

 

The advertising blurb says that you can also use it to hang tomorrow's clothes on it before going to bed. I can't see me doing that! But it has been used to model a bra, when my sister-in-law came over from France to do the Moonwalk. It was the least I could do to dye her bra pink. As you can see it came out a good deep colour.

 

I normally dye natural fabrics rather than synthetic fabrics but spurred on by my successful bra dyeing, I bought this dress from Marks & Spencer. 

Now white doesn't do much for me but as I liked the shape of the dress, I thought I would buy it and dye it. A bit risky I admit. I looked in my box of acid dyes and decided to dye it aubergine. Although it took the dye, it came out a little pale, so I'll be dyeing it again just as soon as I can get my hands on some more aubergine dye.

When my dressmakers dummy was first assembled, I looked at it and convinced myself that  I had bought the wrong size. Surely I'm not that big? With some difficulty and lots of help, I have adjusted the dummy to my size as best I can and it appears that I am (unfortunately) that size. It's been interesting and a little challenging changing the size of the dummy to fit my various measurements. Either the dummy's a funny shape or I am...mmmm.....