Grey & yellow floral dress

This might be my last bit of sewing for the year, as I really need to get on with Christmas knitting.  I would have started sooner, but I cut one of my fingers last weekend - not badly, but enough to snag wool as I'm knitting whether or not I put a plaster on it - didn't affect sewing (or anything else) fortunately, but does mean I'm behind my own self imposed schedule...

Anyway... this dress.  I bought the fabric three years ago from Fabric Godmother and it's a viscose / linen mix, so has a lovely drape to it.  I think I was probably drawn to the faded-style colours, which is a departure for me as I'm usually drawn to either brighter, or more saturated colours, and it was another dress length which languished a bit while I hummed and ha-ed what to make with it.

I bought 2m, and, since it was 60" wide I was able to get a Betty bodice and New Look 6824 pleated skirt out of it, but it took every last inch of the length.  

There are some subtle blues and greens in there, along with the various shades of grey, so I have a few cardigans which will go with it, although I think this one looks best.

Nani Iro dress

Another dress from fabric I bought in 2014 - this time from Guthrie & Ghani at the first Sew Brum meet up (and I'm pleased to say I have now sewn up all the fabric I bought then).  I absolutely love this tealy - green colour, and I think one of the reasons I took so long to sew it up is because I didn't want to mess up.  Initially I thought I'd make an Emery dress from it, but I'm glad I didn't now, because I prefer longer length skirts (except perhaps in midsummer) and also low backs (easier to zip up).

I bought 2.5m of this and used all of it - I only just squeaked it with no length to spare because there was printing along one selvedge about an 1" in, which I had to avoid.  The bodice is a Sew Over It Betty, and the skirt is from New Look 6824, with pockets from Simplicity 2444.  I can get these styles of dress sewn up pretty quickly now because I don't need to make any fit adjustments - did all that last year - and don't need to follow written instructions.  Also, no princess seams or sleeves to ease in.  The cutting out can take a bit of time though if I have to pattern match, or haven't got much yardage to spare, like with this one.

The fabric is a cotton double gauze which feels lovely but wasn't great to sew - it moved about a bit and isn't as tightly woven and stable as quilting cotton, poplin or lawn, so I'm not sure I'd buy again.  I am glad I bought this though, because the colours in it are just fabulous - well I think so anyway!  And I know it'll get lots of wear.  I also have a cardigan which matches it perfectly.  I made it six and a half years ago, so it predates this blog, but has featured here, and here - that was quite a nostalgic trip down memory lane to find those posts, and to realise how many of those dresses I have now passed on to free up wardrobe space.

Maple seed dress

I'm really pleased to have finally sewn this fabric into a dress - it's been in my stash for at least five years and I'm only ever going to wear it in the autumn, because of the print.

It's a Sew Over It Betty bodice with the skirt from New Look 6824 (the same combination as the first dress here, and these two dresses) and it didn't take long to sew, especially when I found a bodice lining which I had already sewn together earlier in the year from my me-made May dressmaking session.

Not really anything more to say about this except that, because the seeds are seven different colours, I have several cardigans which I can wear with it!

Anya dress - me-made May dress no 6

I bought this barkcloth three years ago so high time I turned it into a dress!  I love the background colour and the print, but it wasn't the easiest fabric to sew - it frayed quite a lot so all raw edges had to be overlocked, and it's quite loosely woven so unpicking had to be done carefully.  There is almost always unpicking involved when I sew...

I actually started sewing it straight after this dress, but decided I needed a break from fraying fabric and put it to one side and made dresses 2, 3, 4 and 5.  The bodice is a modified Simplicity 2444 and the skirt is the straight version from New Look 6824.

Now that it's finished though I love it. 

Le tour Eiffel dresses 2 & 3

Well, I've now completed half of my me-made May challenge for this year with these two dresses.

I've had the fabric for both of these for some time - I bought the blue version in October 2014 and I've had the orange since at least August 2014, so I'm very pleased to have got them both made up as I love this print.  The orange one in particular is now one of my current top 10 favourite me-made dresses.  (The others are - not in any order, I don't have an absolute favourite, Happy Homemaker, Wing Song, Bobby dress, 50s print dress, Flamingolex, navy lemons, lime green roses, bluebird on the vine and Tropicanna.)

So, these two dresses - firstly the blue one.  This is a mash-up of the bodice from Butterick 5748 and the pleated skirt from New Look 6824.  I think this is the first combination of these two options (although I did make two dresses last year with the the straight skirt option from this pattern).  It came together pretty quickly, and there's not really any more I have to say about it!

Now, the orange one.  This is the bodice from Simplicity 2444 and the skirt from a vintage Simplicity pattern, 3749.  This is also a first combination of these two patterns and one I'll make again.  An easy sew and I'll almost certainly be taking this one to Paris with me next month.

I love orange and pink together, it's such a summery colour combination.

Multicoloured dress - me-made May dress no 1

This is the first dress to be finished this month.

I picked up this John Kaldor fabric from the swap table at last year's SewBrum event - I was drawn to it because I love the colours in it.  There were two metres and at 54" wide that was enough for a dress with a flared skirt and pockets - yay!  I'm not sure what the composition of the fabric is, I think it's got some cotton in it, but it didn't behave like 100% cotton, and it doesn't feel polycottonish, so maybe a viscose blend?

The bodice is a modified Simplicity 2444 (lowered the neckline front and back, and brought the shoulders in a bit) and the pleated skirt is from New Look 6824.

I had a bit of an overlocking mishap with this dress; normally I pink all my seams to finish them, but because this fabric frayed a bit I decided to overlock them.  I shouldn't sew when I'm tired because the cutter blade ran into one of the pockets when I was finishing the side seams.  Fortunately not very much by the time I saw what I'd done, but I decided it was best to put it to one side for the rest of the evening and take up my knitting instead.

The following morning I decided rather than try and mend it I'd cut another pocket as I had enough left over fabric.  So that's what I did, and promptly managed to replace the wrong (i.e. the undamaged) one.  Arrgghhh!  End result I replaced both pockets.  The rest of the overlocking went fine.

Now I just need the weather to warm up so that I can wear this - I don't think I'll be wearing it on days that don't need sunglasses!

Yellow roses dress

Now the weather has warmed up my sewing mojo has returned and I've got my machines out from hibernation to start dressmaking again.  We have had a fabulous warm Easter weekend this year and  I hope there is plenty more sunshine and warmth to come in the next few months.

So, this is my first dress of the year!

According to my Instagram feed I bought this fabric in Fabrics Galore in November 2014 and it's been sitting patiently waiting in my stash ever since.  Well no more, it's time to shine has come!

I presume from the selvedge that it was originally produced for John Lewis

My go-to pattern combo is a sleeveless bodice with either a pleated or straight skirt.  This year I intend to make definite inroads into the  printed cottons which I bought with these two styles of dress in mind, I pretty much live in them in the spring and summer, and they're my favourite style both to make and to wear.

Last year I passed on all the dresses I'd made with gathered and circle skirts.  This year I'll be reviewing my knee-length dresses as I prefer this longer length now.  I'm not sure I'll be parting with all my shorter dresses yet though...

So,this dress.  The bodice is a modified Sew Over It Betty which I've lined - I prefer lined bodices on the whole, and a New Look 6824 pleated skirt.  I've made this combo twice before here (shorter skirt length) and here.

Expect a couple more dresses to be along soon, I have this week off work and intend to spend quite a bit of it sewing!

50s print dress

I bought the fabric for this dress from Hammersmith Vintage Fair 3+ years ago and it's been sitting patiently waiting for me to make up my mind which pattern to use it for ever since.  I decided it was high time I stopped prevaricating, because I love the print and wanted to wear it.

So... it's another Simplicity 5510 / New Look 6824 combo.  It's also one of my #2018makenine challenge items.  I've actually only made three out of the nine this year - four if you count the Merlot cardigan (used the yarn, but not for its originally intended design).  Once again my enthusiasm exceeded the time available, but never mind, it did focus my mind on knitting and sewing from stash this year, which is largely what I've done.  I'll write more about this in my end-of-year round-up.

I love this dress and am very pleased I finally got around to sewing it!  And that's it now until after Christmas...

Viva Frida dress

A few weeks ago I went to the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the V&A museum in London.  I had three lots of Frida fabric in my stash, the one I used for this dress being the one I bought first and visiting the exhibition was the incentive I needed to get it made up (I really like it, like so much of my fabric stash there was no reason for it languishing, I'd just not got around to sewing it).

The pattern combo is the same as I used for the the bamboo batik dress here.  This version took 2.7m of fabric, because I did do a bit of pattern placement although I can't remember now exactly what that was!

Now I just need to get the two other Frida fabrics made up...

Bamboo batik dress

In a quest to find a 'go-to' pattern for autumn dresses I started with this mash up of the bodice from Simplicity 5510, a vintage pattern from 1964 which I had made back in the summer of 2015 (here), and the trusty pleated skirt from NewLook 6824.  This was back in September and I haven't yet moved on to an alternative!

I bought the fabric from The Cotton Patch in Birmingham en route to SewBrum 2015 and it's a lovely cotton in shades of yellow, purple and green on a black background.

I modified the bodice - moved the darts and changed the seam allowances - from my 2015 version, to get a better fit (I've since passed on that dress) and used the pocket pieces from Simplicity 2444.  This took all of the 2.5m which I had of this fabric, and because the print is small and busy I didn't bother with any kind of pattern placement other than lining up the centre fronts of the bodice and skirt.

Rather than turning up the hem twice I decided that since I've got an overlocker I should really make use of it so I overlocked the raw edge and then just turned it up once and machined it - much quicker.  I also didn't faff about for ages trying to get the sleeves in without any puckering.  I don't enjoy easing seams and since this is a dress for autumn / winter when I will almost certainly always be wearing a cardigan over it, no-one is going see this bit of short-cutting.

I'm pleased with how it's turned out, and the fact the bodice has facings rather than a full lining works in favour of it being a cooler season dress, because I need to wear a slip under it to stop the skirt from sticking to my tights.  A lined bodice as well might be a fabric layer too far in a centrally heated office!

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.

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!

Le tour Eiffel dress no 1

The second of my me-made May pledge dresses, this is the same pattern combo as the Tulips and St Ives dresses and, apart from the time it took to cut out, came together very quickly.  I really like this bodice/skirt combo, it's quick to sew up and doesn't take long to iron.  Much as I love big, pleated and circle skirts on dresses, this is an ideal work-wardrobe shape because of the quickness of the ironing!

This is another stashbusting dress which I wanted to get made in time to take with me to Paris and I got it finished with a couple of days to spare.  I had several people comment on it as I was wandering around - the sweetest one was a little girl, about 3 years old, who tugged at her mother's hand "maman, maman, regarde cette robe" with a big smile on her face.  I was very pleased to have got it made up!

This took more metreage than the Tulips dress because the fabric isn't as wide, and I think the next dress I make will be from a smaller print which I won't need to faff about with pattern matching...

I love the graphic of this design and have this fabric in two other colourways (hence this being no 1), which I hope won't take me as long to get made up as this did (I've had it for at least a couple of years I think).  Although I think I'll probably use a different pattern.

Tulips in Paris

This is the first of my me-made May pledge dresses which I made a couple of weekends ago.  I've had this fabric in my stash for a while and I wanted to get it made up and get some wear out of it before tulips are out of season for another year!

It's a mash up of the bodice from Butterick 5748 and the straight skirt from New Look 6824 and is the same bodice/skirt combo I used for the St Ives dress I made last summer.  The fabric was 58" wide and I only had 1.6m of it, I think it was an end of roll remnant, but that was enough fortunately.

The dress gets its name because I made it to take to Paris and the song 'Tulips in Amsterdam' kept going through my head as I was making it.

St Ives dress

I made this from three remnants which I bought a while ago (I seem to be saying that a lot recently!) from, I think, Fabrics Galore at either an Olympia or Ally Pally show.  It's furnishing fabric and each piece was 1m long, and cut halfway down the vertical length of the bolt, so I was a bit limited as to pattern choice, but figured I could work something out.  And this is it!

A Butterick 5748 bodice and the straight skirt from New Look 6824.  I had a bit of fiddling around to do to get the pleats in the front of the skirt and darts in the back to match up with the bodice darts, and also to make the skirt the same width as the bodice at the waist seam, but it all worked out in the end.

I hemmed it by hand - with thinner fabrics I usually machine sew hems, but I thought this fabric would be too bulky for a machined hem, and it's thicker than the pink polka dot fabric of the previous dress.  Even though it's a straight skirt, I seem to remember it still took quite a while to do, but hand hemming was definitely the right choice.  I love this dress, just a bit miffed that we had such a grotty summer this year and I didn't wear it much.  Here's hoping for better weather next year!

Me made May final round-up

Here's the final round up for this year's me made May.  I'm hoping that June will be warmer!

Day 22 - a vintage Laura Ashley dress and Cad cardigan, which I knitted back in 2011.

Vintage Laura Ashley dress and Cad cardigan

Day 23 - a Simplicity 1990 dress and an rtw cardigan.

Simplicity 1990 and rtw cardigan

Day 24 - Yes, it was just about warm enough to justify wearing my Flamingolex dress - hooray!  This is still one of my absolute favourite dresses. With an eye-searingly bright rtw cardigan.

Flamingolex dress and rtw cardigan

Day 25 - An Anthropologie dress which I adore, and Emelie cardigan which I knitted in early 2013.

Burgeoning hypericum dress and Norway Spruce toshsock Emelie

Day 26 - Bluebirds dress and an rtw cardigan.

Bluebirds dress and rtw cardigan

Day 27 - Up, up and away dress and rtw cardigan.

Up, up and away dress and rtw cardigan

Day 28 - Watermelons Anna dress and rtw cardigan.

Watermelons dress and rtw cardigan

Day 29 - Ocean Waves cardigan, finished in 2012, and polka dot Simplicity 3774 dress - I must make another of these very soon, I love this pattern!  This is the first time I've worn these two together and I'll do it more often - they really go well together.

Simplicity 3774 dress and Ocean Waves cardigan

Day 30 - Carmen Miranda dress and Gooseberry Fool cardigan, knitted in 2011.

Carmen Miranda dress and Goosebery Fool cardigan

Day 31 - Tropicanna Anna maxi dress - I love this, although because it's got a V-neck back as well as front I think I'm going to replace the front bodice with a bateau-neck because it slips off my shoulders rather too easily if I'm sitting down.  It's fine when I'm vertical, gravity keeps it in place!

Tropicanna dress

And that's it for this year's me made May.  19 handknitted cardigans and 22 me made dresses - three Annas & variations, three Elisalexes & variations, three Emerys, two Butterick 5748s, one New Look 6824, one Simplicity 1990, one Simplicity 3774, two Vogue 8789s, one Vogue 8728, two Cambies and three dresses which were mash-up combinations of two patterns (Elisalex/Emery, Butterick 5748/Simplicity 2444 and Elisalex/New Look 6824).  I've really enjoyed it and it's made deciding what to wear each day easy.  I took the outfit photos in batches, usually on Sundays, and once I'd seen the weather forecast for each day I'd look through the photos and pick something suitable.  It says something about how cold this month has been that so many me-made cardigans have featured - normally at this time of year I wouldn't be wearing wool!

And now I must do some housework!

Knitting and Sewing (and a few other) thoughts for 2015

I've decided that 2015 is going to be a frugal year in terms of spending money on 'things'.  I'm not going to buy any clothes at all, nor anything else unless it is a replacement for something which I already have which has broken irreparably, or worn out, and which actually needs to be replaced.  I'm hoping to end the year with fewer things and more space in my house!

This decision also means that I will be knitting and sewing entirely from stash - and that includes patterns as well as yarn and fabric.  I have more than enough to keep me going for at least a year (unless by some miracle I suddenly start knitting at the speed of light, or only sew multiple repeats of the same pattern - which I probably will, but I also want to branch out a bit as well).  This year I also want to tackle my box of clothes which need mending or altering - possibly alternating one new make with one recycled or renewed garment.

Recycled photo - the mending / alterations box is the one at the bottom (the top one mostly has leftovers in)

On the knitting front I intend to keep on knitting cardigans for me and jumpers and cardigans for my grandson.  I've just reread this post and hope some of the plans I blogged about will come to fruition but the reality is that there will always be other yarn/pattern combos that jump to the top of my knitting queue.

For sewing, there will be more dresses, and I'd like to use more of my vintage patterns for these, both the poufy-skirted ones and those with a more fitted silhouette.  There will, I'm sure, still be more versions of Emery, Elisalex, Anna, Butterick 5748 and New Look 6824 though - and mash-ups between them - because having made a few of them now they are quick to sew, I really like them and they will be easy to make up when I need a quick dress.  I also want to make some separates and maybe tackle sewing with knit fabrics - although I don't have any in my stash.  There is a grey and black Phase 8 dress in the alterations box though which may be my knit sewing guinea pig and become a top.

Another thing I'd like to do this year is trace more of my patterns so that I can cut the fabric in one layer rather than folded.  I can be very picky about pattern placement and lining up polka dots, and it's much easier with a single layer of fabric.

I also want to tackle buttonholes and master my overlocker - I've bought a craftsy class which I hope will help with this.  Finally I would also like to learn more about fit - I should actually read the books I've bought on this subject!

And that's it really, no concrete plans other than to make what I want, when I want and to go where my mojo takes me. 

In the land of grey (leaves) and pink (birds)

Two dresses here, one (the grey one) I actually made in November last year, but have only worn once because of an accident with the pinking shears.  It's a combination of two New Look patterns - 6824 skirt & 6723 bodice and why I decided on that particular combination I really can't remember now.

Grey leaves dress

As I was trimming the back seam I managed to snip the dress - arrrgghhhh!  I decided to fix it with some fusible interfacing - since I hadn't actually cut any of the fabric out of the dress I thought this would be a good way to glue it back together.  Actually, I thought it was a brilliant idea and felt quite smug that I'd thought of it.  And it worked.  No-one would know there had been an accident except me.

Unfortunately... once it had been washed in the machine the interfacing came partially unstuck and took some fabric with it and there was a definite hole in the dress so I put it to one side knowing that it would need a more substantial repair.  And it has stayed put aside for months.  I was really quite pissed off about it because I love this fabric, I bought it ages ago in Ikea and of course they don't sell it now.  I only bought one metre which is why the centre of the bodice is plain grey - there wasn't enough to make the whole dress out of it.  I have got a few offcuts left over and I think I'll have to make a feature patch to sew on top of the offending hole - I haven't thought of any other way of making an invisible repair.  If it had been a gatherered skirt I'd have unpicked it at the waist and just cut the back pieces narrower, but it isn't.  I've ignored it all summer but since it's now definitely grey dress weather I think I need to get creative - maybe I'll cut out one of the leaves and applique it on - the hole is at the top of the back vent so I'm hoping this will look OK.


The second dress is from some fabric that I bought at Ditto in Brighton in the summer.  I nearly bought it in a blue, but then spotted the pink and decided that I preferred that.  This dress is an Elisalex bodice with an Emery skirt although without the pockets because I didn't have enough fabric.  I love it, it's so summery - which means it's now been put away for the winter, but will make me smile when I unpack it next spring.

Pink birds dress

Curtain call

A few months ago I was browsing at the Frock Me vintage fair at Chelsea Town Hall when I spotted this fabric on a stall selling vintage haberdashery, fabrics and curtains.  I just love the colours in it and although it was made up as a curtain it was long and wide enough for me to cut the heading tape off and have enough fabric to make a dress.

And so it came home with me, was washed, dried and put to one side because summer came along and I didn't really fancy sewing with thick fabric.  However, there it was every time I opened the airing cupboard and I decided that actually I would make it up using a tried and tested combination of the By Hand London Elisalex bodice and a New Look 6824 pleated skirt.

It wasn't the nicest of sewing experiences though; being furnishing fabric it was quite loosely woven and therefore frayed like a be-atch.  Somehow I managed to sew the two back bodice pieces the wrong way round at the shoulder seams and discovered that not only did the fabric fray, it was also effing difficult to see the stitches when unpicking and I had to be careful with this otherwise the fabric would have pulled.  Having spent quite a bit of time with pattern placement at the cutting out stage I didn't have any fabric to spare so couldn't afford to mess up any of the pieces.  This meant that I had to be particularly mindful with sewing the rest of it, which of course slowed the process down!

Gorgeous green curtain dress

 The bodice is lined and I decided to underline the skirt with the same fabric - some dark grey lawn which I had in my stash and had intended to use for something else.  I usually use white lawn for lining, but this fabric needed something darker and the grey was all I had.  Normally I pink seams to finish them, but knew that wouldn't work for this fabric due to the fraying issue, so I overcast the bodice seams and finished the skirt seams and hem with bias binding, so all in all quite a lot of actual sewing.  It was very relaxing hand sewing the hem though.  I usually machine my hems, but knew that wouldn't work with thick underlined fabric - it would make the hem much too bulky so I spent a very pleasant evening with Monsieur Poirot and a needle and thread.  And then it was FINISHED!!!  And I love it.  Not ideal to be making dresses with fairly voluminous, lined skirts in the middle of summer though, and yet I chose to make four fully lined dresses this summer. Why?

I have quite a bit of blog catching-up to do so I hope to be posting more frequently until I'm all caught up.  And I don't think I'll be sewing with furnishing fabric again for a while.  Now I have some knitting to do.  Toodle pip.