Sew Brum meet up

Goodness, this was nearly a month ago - how time flies!  I had a great day out - I'd booked my train ticket months ago so got a very good deal on the price and knitting time on the train to boot.  I did get a bit confused by the very posh refurb of New Street station in Birmingham, but fortunately managed to find my way to the meet-up cafe - there were already lots of people there and it was lovely to meet other sewing peeps in person - some who I follow on instagram and some who I'd never come across before but now do.

We started off in the city, with some folk going to the rag market and others (including me) going to Barry's and then the Fancy Silk Store.  By the time I was done there it was time to head off to Moseley on the bus so I didn't go to the rag market at all - another time!

Fabric shopping in Barry's

My purchases from Barry's - pink/red tartan wool, graphic stretchy print and two florals

Several of us sat at the back of the bus and there was chatting and general admiring of each others clothing and purchases which was fun.  The two fabrics above on the left will become skirts, and the two floral prints are for dresses.

Once in Moseley we stopped off at the Farmers' Market and bought food to eat for lunch and then headed to Guthrie & Ghani.  This is a lovely shop and Lauren (the owner and finalist in the first series of GBSB) was delightful and remained calm and serene despite so many of us.

All the other things

I'm dipping my toe into the sewing with knits pool - one of the ladies in the shop was wearing a top which she'd made from some mustard coloured sweatshirt material and it looked fab.  So I bought some in the same colour, and also in turquoise and finally succumbed and bought the Coco pattern (all in picture above).  I've seen so many of these popping up on the internet and I think it will be a good introduction - I like its simple lines.  I've already pre-washed and dried the fabric and am very pleased that it didn't shrink much at all.  I also bought some buttons and got a gorgeous goody bag in the softest baby needlecord.

Some of the raffle prizes

Along with yummy refreshments, there was a pattern and fabric swap in the upstairs room of the shop - I took several pieces of fabric and came away with four patterns - two vintage and two current ones.

I also won some fabric in the raffle - 2m of denim which I think is going to end up being a skirt, or maybe two.  I don't have a denim skirt and I've half-heartedly looked for one on rare excursions to clothes shops over the past couple of years and haven't found one that I liked, so I think perhaps a Kelly or maybe a New Look 4-gore a-line one (in the separates section of my pattern stash page).  Or maybe both because it's 60" wide so there might be enough for two skirts.

All in all it was a great day, I really enjoyed it - thank you so much to Charlotte of English Girl at Home for organising it.

Up, up and away (with the birds)

I really didn't intend for there to be such a delay in posting about these dresses but unfortunately malfunctioning technology intervened!  Anyway... problem one resolved, problem two trundles on, but at least I can now download my photos.  Now, on with today's dresses.

I've seen a few made with this hot air balloons fabric popping up in the blogosphere, and this is the colourway I liked best, so when I saw it at Ally Pally last year I had to get some.  I was running out of cash by the time I spotted it, so bought 1.5 metres with the plan of pairing it up with some plain fabric.  I don't remember now whether I already had the yellow cotton in my stash or whether I bought it after the balloons fabric, it came from the Fancy Silk Store in Birmingham and I'm not entirely convinced that it is 100% cotton.  Doesn't matter though because I love the colour.  Since the balloon fabric has rather a large pattern repeat I decided to do a gathered skirt and not worry about pattern matching.  Same skirt as for my Dotty Anna actually, two widths (58") of fabric with one cut up the middle for the zip at the back.  Although I think this one is a little bit shorter.  Why I felt the need to make such a summery dress in December I don't know, I haven't actually worn it yet, but once the weather warms up a bit it's going to get quite a bit of wear I think.  The pattern is of course Elisalex.

Up, up and away Elisalex

Dress number two is another variation on Elisalex, made with some fabric I bought in Ikea a few years ago with no plan in mind, I just liked the look of it.  I probably thought I'd make a cushion cover because I only bought one metre.  Because of this I cut the skirt narrower, it goes from 14 at the waist, to 6 at the sides and back out to 14 at the base (pretty much in a straight line actually).  I worked out the cutting line with the highly technical method of putting on my Flamingolex dress, grabbing some pins, pinning the sides to take out some of the width and deciding 'yep, that'll work'.  I can't remember exactly what I did next because I made this a while ago and didn't take any notes, but I now have a paper skirt pattern in this new outline which I can use again.

Birdielex

This dress originally had short sleeves which I had to fiddle around with because by mistake I cut out two the same rather than a left and a right, but eventually I got a left sleeve and a right sleeve, attached them and tried the dress on.  Disaster.  Well that's an exaggeration really, but I can't think of a more appropriate word at the moment!  And it looks wrong whether I spell it with one 'g' or two.  The sleeves pulled the shoulders down and the armholes were a bit snug - it's furnishing fabric so that may have something to do with it, but I was so disappointed after all the time it had taken me to cut the sleeves and put them in.  So I unpicked the sleeve seam, took them out and oversewed the bodice and lining together at the armhole and it's now a sleeveless dress.  The black bodice fabric is a plain cotton from Fabricland.

Birdielex