Dressmaking and skirt making

I've been sewing...sewing practical things! It's very rare for me to wear patterned skirts but when I saw this button fabric it was the incentive I needed to make the wrap skirt I'd been meaning to make for ages.  This is the pattern I used.

I made a couple of alterations, not least adding 19 cm to the length! Who would know from the pattern that it was a mini skirt? The other alteration I made was to move both ties to the left hand side of the skirt rather wrapping it around the back and I think this makes it look a lot tidier.

The skirt was easy to make and easy to wear, so I  bought some more fabric and made another one only this time I adjusted the pattern so that the skirt sat on the waist rather than below it as the pattern intended. 

I thought the higher waist would be more flattering but it doesn't seem to have made a lot of difference.

Buttons, needles and threads... it's obvious why I might be attracted to these patterns but snails? I think this pattern was probably intended for children but I made it up into a dress using this pattern

This is an easy pattern but couldn't help making a few changes to  this too. Firstly, I stitched up the opening at the back as I could get it on over my head without it and inspired by the lovely sleeveless tops Gill made, I added some home made bias binding to the neck and sleeve edges. This was my first attempt at making my own bias binding and although it took longer to do I think it was worth the extra effort.

Besides 2 new skirts and a new dress, I have also gained a new sewing machine and I'm thrilled with it!  I bought it from the charity Workaid when I was at Missenden Abbey.

I've wanted one of these machines for ages because....well because I the look of them but it never seemed quite the thing to buy online.  So now I have one and I have supported a well good cause too.

Does it work? It certainly does but I don't think I'll be using it to make my next skirt, I think I'll just sit and admire it.

Merry Christmas Everyone

As I child I always had a red dress for Christmas and on the spur of the moment I decided that I would make a red dress for this Christmas. It helped that I had some red fabric in my stash.

As I only started on Saturday evening it had to be quick to make and I used Vogue pattern no 8786. I had bought this pattern to make the cap sleeve version in the summer but I never quite found the time to make it but given the time of year and the fact that I had enough fabric, I decided to make the long sleeved version.

This was a categorised as 'Very Easy' and not only was it easy but it was also quick to make, especially as the fabric I used didn't fray. As the fabric was stretchy, I made it into a slip-on dress and sewed up the back seam rather than leaving an opening at the neck and this made it even quicker to make. I also extended the sleeves to make them full length. Two pattern alterations, I'm almost a fashion designer, surely? I wish!

Whether your Christmas preparations include anything textiley, I hope they are going to plan, that if you are travelling you have a safe journey and that you have a very happy Christmas.

Breakdown Printed Blouse

In a previous post I showed my breakdown printed cloth and here is what I made with it. Hands up those who thought I wouldn't do anything with it? Even I feel my own hand twitching to go up at this point! I was hoping to make a simple dress, simple because it would be easier to achieve but also because simple would mean less seams and darts to break up the pattern. 

 

 

The pattern I chose to use was Butterick 5211, the one illustrated in purple below.

I had enough to make the dress if I had the pattern going horizontally but I really wanted the pattern to remain vertical but this would have made the dress too short. I wasn't overly concerned about this as I thought it would make a good tunic. But after I had made it up, I tucked it in and I left it loose and I tied it with a belt and came to the conclusion that it looked better as a blouse.

 

I am quite pleased with it and it looks better on with real arms going through the sleeves than it does on the dummy and there are some interesting patterns on the off-cuts that I could do something  else with. Now who thinks I'll soon be showing what I have done with the off-cuts? My hand is firmly down now.

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.....

Printed skirt

Just to prove it wasn't a one-off when I made the cushions, I have used my printed printed fabric to make something else useful and this time I made a skirt from this KWIK SEW Pattern.

Each summer I get skirt envy when I see people in pretty floral skirts but whenever I try them on they never seem to look quite right on me. So I thought I would make a skirt with a more geometric design to see if this would be more 'me'. It's a wrap around skirt and I used the same techniques as I used for my Gridlock  piece except I over printed with turquoise grids. To create the contrast edge around the skirt, I overprinted the edging fabric with solid turquoise. However, as you can see from the photograph the contrast between the fabrics is small. So much so that I'm wondering whether I should over dye the whole skirt with turquoise.

If you were thinking that it's a bit late to be making a summer skirt, you'd be wrong, rather I'm ahead of schedule for next year! Still not sure whether a patterned skirt is me but maybe I just need time to get used to it.