Denim skirt

I'd been wanting a denim skirt for ages and tbh if I'd been able to find one in a shop that ticked all the right boxes (not stretch denim, longer length - I was flexible about style - and that actually fitted) I'd have bought one.  I find now that I don't enjoy clothes shopping in shops if I have a particular purchase in mind.  If I look at my few shop bought purchases over the last few years (other than things like tights) they have tended to be things I've either seen online that other people have bought, or that I've walked past in a shop and thought WOW (coats mainly...)

So, anyway, back to this skirt.  Since I already had the fabric to hand (I had won 2m of denim in the SewBrum raffle three years ago) I decided to make one using a vintage pattern which had a skirt option

and actually cut the fabric out in May last year.  I don't remember now why I didn't get it finished at that point - possibly because it's quite heavy denim and I thought I probably wouldn't wear it during warm weather.

However, with denim-skirt-wearing weather approaching this year I decided it was high time to sew it up.  It came together easily, I've worn it a lot and since made another one.

Right, that's quite enough blogging for one weekend!  I've caught up all my projects up until the end of August, so three months done, three more to go...

Chocolate Rose Petals top

This is knitted from a vintage pattern which I bought from Lucy's Etsy pattern shop.  There are a few which she has knitted on her Instagram account, and she's written about it on her blog here.

Pattern is called 'Greta'

I used two skeins of Skein Queen Lustrous BFL Heavy Lace for this in colourways Chocolate Roses and Rose Petals (hence the name of the top) and 3mm needles.

This was lovely yarn to knit with and a bit of a leap of faith that the top would fit (it did) since it's quite skinny yarn.  I modified the neckline as I'm not a fan of high 1940s necklines with buttons, I'd rather just knit the neckband in the round and have it large enough to be able to pull over my head than have to faff about with buttons.

The top is very light (and stretchy) and yet still warm, and I have some 4-ply pale pink wool which I bought from a destash that I intend to knit up as a cardigan to go with this - hopefully next Spring.

 

Birds in Paradise dress

I bought this fabric four years ago from Ditto in Brighton, so it was high time I turned it into a dress.  I used the bodice from Simplicity 2444 which I've modified - lowered the neckline and brought the shoulders in - and the straight skirt from NewLook 6824.  I only had 2m of fabric and this took all of it.

I finished this at the beginning of August and wore it quite a bit before summer disappeared.

Harebell cardigan

I started knitting this in March, but didn't finish it until the end of July, and that was really just to get the thing finished, not because I was wanting to wear it.  March / April is an ideal time of year for a pale blue woolly cardi, July in a heatwave definitely isn't!  Consequently I haven't worn this yet, but I will next Spring.

I didn't use a pattern, other than my standard 'recipe' for 4-ply cardigans - waistline ribbing and body up to the armholes in one piece, fake side seams, split for fronts and back and work them separately, short-row seamed shoulders, knitted on button and neck bands, one-row buttonholes and top down sleeves.  The stitch pattern on the fronts is called Harebell (who'd've thought it?) and I forget which of my stitch dictionaries it came from. 

The buttons are vintage and came from The Swagman's Daughter - a veritable Aladdin's Cave.

Now waiting for Spring for this to get worn!

Africa Mwamba maxi

This is made from an Alexander Henry fabric, which, although it has 2012 on the selvedge, screams 1960s to me.  It's too thick to make a floaty dress - it's quilting cotton - but just right for a maxi.  I had 2.75m and this used all of it; unfortunately there wasn't enough for pockets.

I used the bodice of Simplicity 2886 which I modified, although I can't remember now exactly what I did. I know I traced the pattern and have probably written the alterations on the traced pattern pieces, but they are not to hand at the moment so, from memory, definitely put in a back seam, lowered the back neckline and rounded off the front, probably brought the shoulders in and altered the armholes.  There were no problems fitting the skirt (Simplicity 1801) to the bodice as it's gathered.

Back view

Just writing this up now has made me think it is perhaps time to revisit my Mad Men Box Set, because it reminds me of this Pucci dress which January Jones wore (can't remember which series offhand though).

Image from clothesonfilm.com via Google image search

Summer Sunflowers dress

This dress is the last of the Bettys for this year, with a New Look 6824 pleated skirt.  When I first made up this pattern I cut about 4" off the skirt pattern pieces, and for this dress I reattached them.  Whilst I still like knee-length dresses, quite a few of the ones I've made recently have been this mid-calf length - possibly influenced by the vintage patterns I have, most of which have very long skirts (although also usually with a generous hem allowance).

The fabric is quilting cotton which I bought from The Cotton Patch in Birmingham four years ago en-route to the SewBrum meet up that year.  Not really much else to say about this other than I added Emery pockets, it took 2.5m of fabric, and I'm really pleased with it!

#OAL2018 dresses x 3

This year, in the two-month time frame for the #OAL2018 challenge (June & July), I made three dresses, all from fabric which I'd had in my stash for a while.

The first dress was made with 2m of floral cotton which I bought in Fabricland.  This was my second iteration of modifying the SewOverIt Betty bodice, this time I moved the bust darts down by 1" (in addition to the changes made on the Daisy dress).

The skirt is from NewLook 6824 which, despite it Betty Draper wannabe styling and the dresses looking too big for the model, is actually a pattern I've used quite a bit (well the skirts anyway).

 
Dress no 2 is the same bodice / skirt combo as for my Daisy dress (SOI Betty / vintage Simplicity 3749), although this time in addition to previous bodice modifications I lowered the waist darts and moved the bust darts up a bit and I'm now done with the alterations.  Since I had enough fabric for pockets, I nabbed the pocket pieces from Christine Haynes' Emery pattern.

Finally, dress no 3 is a Simplicity 1801 maxi.

I modified the bodice of this - I took the shoulders in by half an inch at the armhole edge and tapered them at the back.  I didn't alter the front pieces, just increased the gathering into the yoke.  I redrew the v-neck to be 2" higher, however, once it was sewn up it was a bit gapey, so I increased the centre seam allowance by half an inch at the top, and tapered it down for 2".  It was a bit of a faff doing all this as I recall, but worth it - I love this fabric, which I bought on Goldhawk Road several years ago.

And those are the three dresses which I made for this year's outfit-a-long challenge and all of them got worn quite a bit this summer.  Slowly making inroads into my blogging backlog!

#OAL2018 Pink Cardigan

Now for some knitting.  I'd had this cardigan pattern for a while and decided that now (well, back in June) was the time to knit it.  I don't think I'm often influenced by the colours used by pattern companies to illustrate their designs when I decide which wool to use, except perhaps for the Penelope cardigan, but I'm pretty sure I'd had this wool in my stash since before I bought the pattern, so maybe the pattern just gave me an idea of how it might look when knitted up.

Hayfield 960

I didn't actually follow the pattern directions really, just the stitch pattern.  And now I come to think of it, I don't think the pattern directions provided for the fronts to be mirrored, so I offset one side so that they would be.  My tension didn't match, I knitted the body in one piece up to the armholes, did fake side seams, lowered the front neckline, did short row shoulders, a plain back, and plain, top down sleeves.  The buttonband and neckband are picked up and knitted on. 

Shown with an rtw dress which I bought in Paris in May

The buttons I think I bought locally.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it's a very happy colour.

Green 30s inspired dress

This dress came about because someone I follow on Instagram posted a fabulous dress which had been made for her.

Screencap from Instagram - right hand photo is the inspo dress - Miss Lemon from an early Poirot episode

In my online quest to find the fabric used (which I subsequently did, and bought some although I haven't made it up yet) I came across the fabric for this dress.

Unfortunately it is not a current print and the shop only had 1.75m of it, so I was limited as to the style of dress I could make.  Undeterred though, I thought I'd be able to get a sleeveless straight-skirted dress out of it, which I did.

This is the Betty bodice and straight skirt from NewLook 6824, which didn't fit together at the waist, so I added in an extra dart on each back piece of the skirt to resolve this.  No photo of that though.  If I ever take one in the future I'll upload it.

I'm really happy with this dress - I love the print.

Lemons dress

The next dress I made was for the #OAL2018 challenge, but I've decided that I'll write that one up with the two others I did for the challenge, so on to this one.

I first saw this fabric when it started popping up on my instagram feed last year - dressmakers I follow made some gorgeous dresses with it.  It didn't take me long to decide to buy some, but unfortunately by then the navy colourway had sold out and it was only available with a black background, which I didn't want.  And so I thought that was that.  Until this year when I decided to check the Etsy seller who had it last year, just to see..., and she had it back in stock so I snapped up 3m.

I used the SOI Betty bodice and the skirt from a vintage Butterick pattern, 2248, which I first used for this dress.

I traced and slightly changed the skirt pattern pieces so that they would fit on one width of the fabric (56" wide).  I still had to fiddle about with the pleats a bit to fit the bodice.  After I'd finished it and worn it a few times I decided to add side seam pockets as I didn't use all the fabric and I do prefer my dresses to have pockets!  This was much more of a faff than if I'd put them in when I was actually making it, but worth doing though - I'm glad they are there now.

Here is the dress with a petticoat underneath to pouf out the skirt.

I absolutely love this dress, I think navy, yellow and white is a great combination and the fabric is lovely.

Teal Daisy dress

Well, summer has well and truly gone now and it's high time I caught up on here!

We actually had a proper, hot, summer this year which was wonderful.  As I write this it's grey and raining outside, but given that it's late November I guess that's to be expected.  Doesn't make it any easier to bear though.  I hate grey, damp, dark days.  Anyway, I don't want to dwell on that now - I have too many posts to catch up on to go off on a rant at the moment.

Firstly, some sewing - this dress I finished in early June.

I decided to use the bodice of SewOverIt Betty.  However, the first time I made this pattern (here) I found the bodice wasn't a great fit, and that, combined with the fact that I've decided that circle skirts aren't really great for my lifestyle, means that dress has now gone to the charity shop, which is a shame, becaused I loved the fabric.

So for this one the alterations I made were to lower the armholes by half an inch and redraw the shoulder straps to bring them further in to the centre back, also by half an inch.  It now fits much better, but is still not quite right.

The skirt is from a vintage pattern, Simplicity 3749 - I had to adjust the centre back and side front skirt pleats to fit the bodice waistline, but this is not a difficult change to make.

I used all of the 2.2m I had of this fabric which I bought in Barry's in Birmingham during the 2015 SewBrum meet up and I'm really pleased with how it turned out - I love this colour.