What I made in 2025

 So... I made four skirts all to the same design - two lengths of fabric cut straight and seamed, with the top folded over and elastic threaded through, and of course pockets.  Two are gingham, one is Liberty Tana Lawn and one is quilting cotton - all fabrics from stash.

I also made three dresses - all Tessuti Felicias in linen in chartreuse, orange and a check one which is much more blue than it appears in the photo.  The orange linen I bought in Paris, the chartreuse linen I bought on Etsy a while ago and the check is Faro linen from Merchant & Mills.

I finished one cardigan which I'd started knitting in December 2023 from a pattern I'd bought in April 2018.  I bought it because I loved the design on the sleeves, but they turned out to be a real faff to knit in the round on 9" circs, and nigh impossible to unpick any mistakes and correct them easily, so I gave up and just knitted stocking stitch sleeves instead.  Yarn is 100% lace wool from Wollmeise.

The photo is lying, the sleeves are the same length as each other 😉. 

I don't think I'll be knitting any more round necked cardigans, I think v-necks are more useful.

In the works, a cardigan based on this pattern which I made a few years ago, with the wool from this jumper which I unravelled, steamed and reskeined because I just didn't wear it.  However, this version is in stocking stitch only - theoretically for quickness but it's actually taking me ages to knit because I haven't been prioritising it.

Four more dresses on repeat

Here are four dresses which I've made last month and this - they are all repeats of patterns I've made before.

In order of me making them the first is an Anna Allen Demeter, made with some viscose / linen mix fabric which I bought from Fabric Godmother at the Stitch Festival in London earlier this year.  Nothing much to say about it really, it's quick and easy to sew and wear, although I've put it away for the autumn because it doesn't scream summer to me.  (Unless we were having a serious heatwave in which case I think the terracotta / ochre colours in it would work fine.)

The next finish was another linen Mattea which I've also put away for autumn wear.

Then came a third version of Willow made from two metres of Tana Lawn from stash.  I recut the front and back necklines and front armholes, but it still isn't an ideal fit.  It's better than the first two I made, but I think I need to compare the bodice pieces with other patterns that fit better and recut again.  Not a job for now, I'd rather be sewing other things, but maybe next year.

And finally a Tessuti Felicia - I first made this pattern four years ago.  This is made from seersucker gingham which I bought recently from Abakhan intending to make an ME2016 with it.  However, I then bought a cardigan which is a perfect colour match and would definitely not go over the ME2016's sleeves, so I decided to make it up in this pattern instead (and now have nearly a metre of left over fabric).

I'd already cut out the bodice pieces before I decided to try on the yellow one I'd made back in 2020 when I weighed more than I do now (lockdown baking 😉) and made the decision to cut the bodice a size smaller.  However, the neckline and shoulders had to stay a size M because the size S cutting lines weren't inside the size M ones.  Changing the armholes, side seams and bust darts was straightforward though. 

I'm really pleased with how this has turned out and will be making some more Felicias, although I think I'll probably bind the neckline and armholes rather than face them.

Cinnamon Daisy Willow dresses

 I came across this pattern on Instagram a few weeks ago, I think it just came up in my 'explore' tab, I don't think anyone I follow has made one...  Anyway, I thought it was a very pretty design and decided I'd like to make it.

I made the first version last month and it was a toile really, to see how the sizing and fitting worked.  I used some gingham which I'd had left over from making this dress, cut a size H and it took 2.2m.  It was a straightforward sew and the only thing I changed was to cut the back bodice in one piece.

Fast forward a few weeks and I've finished version no. 2.

For this one I've lowered the centre front neckline by 2" and graded it to the shoulders - the neckline on the brown gingham version was a bit too high for my liking.  I sized down - this is a size G - and it's a better fit, although I think I still need to do some adjustments to the front armholes.  The fabric is a cotton lawn which I bought from Ditto in Brighton several years ago.  I used all of the 2 metres that I had, although if it had been 60" wide rather than 55", it would have needed 1.7m.  Something to keep in mind for future versions.

Purple gingham vintage Simplicity 5921

This dress is a wearable toile - I'm going to make another version of this with shorter skirt, deeper frill and long sleeves (possibly more than one version...), but I wanted to get the yoke and armhole fit right before making one with sleeves.  I bought this gingham in John Lewis originally intending to made a shirtdress with it but never did, so it's turned into this.

This pattern was published in 1983, but there are several similar contemporary patterns - what goes around comes around!

Gingham Hannah

My next dress is a Hannah, from By Hand London.  I liked this when they first issued it, but at that time they had stopped producing paper patterns and it was only available as a pdf.  Fast forward to this year when they made a paper version - yay!

This is made from cotton gingham from Minerva, which I bought last year.

The bodice should really cross the other way, but that is my fault for misreading the pattern instructions.  I also made the waist ties with a narrower hem than the pattern gives, so they are a bit wider.

I really like this and will definitely make it again, although possible a bit longer.

Peppermint / Elbe Bardon dresses

Here is another pattern which had caught my eye on Instagram and so far I've made four of them.  The first I made in May with some quilting cotton that I bought years ago and never made up because I kept changing my mind about which pattern to use.  So I finally made a decision and it became this.  The lower tier is a bit narrower than the pattern piece, because of the width of the fabric.

The next one, which I started in late May and finished in early June, was made with Coco linen from Merchant & Mills.

Bardon number three, which I made in July, was from some red cotton gingham which I bought years ago in John Lewis with no clear plan - I think it was an end of roll and reduced, I only had 1.7m, which is not a length I would have bought by choice.  Because of that I used different pockets (from a purple Simplicity gingham dress which I made in July - I'll link to it once I've written about it) - the ones which come with the pattern are quite generous.  As it was, one of the pocket pieces is made from two pieces of fabric sewn together!  The front skirt piece is also slightly narrower than the back, because of the not-really-enough length of the fabric.  For this one I modified the armholes to the next size down (although I can't now remember whether this was just for the front or the back bodice as well...), which gives a better fit.

And the last one so far is this one, which I made in August, in a lovely salmon double gauze which I bought from Fabric Godmother this summer.

The skirt pieces (tier 1) are per the pattern, but the next one down and the bottom frill I cut to use up all the fabric length.  Again, I used smaller pockets (the same ones as for the red gingham version).

And here's the pattern, which unfortunately is only available as a pdf, so I pieced the bodice together and traced it, but helpfully the dimensions are given for the skirt sections so I just used the measurements and cut them out of dot and cross paper.  (I hate piecing together A4 pdfs.)

Love it!

Brown gingham dress

Having done no knitting or sewing over the summer, I started sewing this dress over the bank holiday weekend and finished it yesterday afternoon.  I came across this pattern while noodling around Instagram and seeing a version which someone else had made and deciding that I wanted to sew it too.

 

The fabric is cotton gingham from Fabworks and it was lovely to sew with.  I cut out the medium size and made a couple of changes - the sleeves are from view B / C / D but lengthened by 6" and with the edge binding from view A.  While I like the look of these voluminous sleeves I know that I would end up catching them on something, so decided on a compromise and am pleased with how they've turned out.  The second change I made was to the length.  I wanted a slightly below mid-calf finished length so used the maxi skirt piece but shortened it by 10+" and then did a 4" hem.  I also added pockets in the side seams of the skirt - I used pattern pieces from the Felicia dress because those are what I happened to have to hand. 

I'll probably make another version of this because I like how it's turned out, and maybe cut the skirt pieces full length and then do some pin tucks to end up with a wearable length.

This dress will be great in summer when all you want is a loose cover-up, but I'll also wear it in winter with a polo-neck jumper underneath and boots, so it'll get plenty of wear.

Check these out

Well, so much for getting a couple more posts in before Christmas.  Time just ran away from me but there is now a lull in the festivities between now and New Year, so time to catch up with the blogging.

I really like gingham but the fabric that I have sewn with so far hasn’t been great, so I’ve realised that actually I really like cotton gingham, and there doesn’t seem to be nearly as much of that around as the polyester & cotton gingham that the next three dresses are made from.

The first one is Vogue 8727 made with ⅛” gingham from Fabricland.  I bought this pattern mainly because I thought it would be a good starting point for recreating the shape of the Limb teadress which I blogged about last month.  I think with the NL6824 narrow skirt option and some self-drafted (should that be self-draughted? Hmm… not sure) cap sleeves it’ll work rather nicely.  This is a pattern which would have completely passed me by if I’d only considered the initial photograph, however, the line drawings showed that it had potential and so I bought it.  For its first outing I cut it according to the pattern and did view D in a size 14.  Which as I now know, turned out to be too big and so I had to do some fiddling around with the side seams to get it to fit.  Next time I’ll cut a size 12.



Vogue 8727



I love the shape of this dress and it can be dressed up (with a smart plain navy jacket) or down (on its own with some wacky jewellery) but is now put away for the winter since I don’t have enough wardrobe space to not have to pack away summer clothes in the winter and winter clothes in the summer.  As an aside, there was a thread on Ravelry which I came across whilst noodling about, asking how many dresses ravellers had.  So I did a quick count this evening – there are currently 26 rtw and 4 handmade dresses hanging in my wardrobe, so I reckon the total count (including summer dresses) is probably quite a bit higher.  I do love me a dress.  In fact I really like the one I’m wearing right now which I got in H&M a couple of weeks ago.  Let me see if I can get a link to it.  No, sorry, not on their website.  It’s black, sleeveless, just above the knee (probably half way up the thighs of a 5’ 10” model), fitted through the waist and bodice and with a flared skirt.  I may take a photo of it at some point, it’s a perfect go-anywhere LBD – I wore it out for lunch today and could just as easily wear it to work or for an evening out.

On to dresses two and three, both made in purple gingham fabric which I bought because 1. gingham and 2. purple.  However, these fabrics are truly unpleasant imo, they’re shiny, full of static and fray like be-atches.  So they have both become trial versions of patterns which I will be making up in better fabric later.  The 1” gingham is Simplicity 2444 (and yes, there is a seam down the bodice front, don’t ask me why I cut down the fold because I truly have no idea), and the ¼” is New Look 6567.


Simplicity 2444

New Look 6567

For both these dresses the sleeves feel a bit skimpily cut, so I might try them with the sleeves from Butterick 5813  which fit fine.  I don’t think I have weightlifters’ arms by any means, but they’re not stick thin either.  I’ll see how I get on, if it’s too much hassle I’ll probably stick to making sleeveless dresses, but as it’s winter I wanted some sleeves.  Or it could just be that the fabric has no give in it at all and cotton, with a bit of widthways stretch, will be fine.  The New Look dress is also surprisingly short.  So far, I’ve either hemmed dresses per the pattern instructions or chopped off between 5” and 7” of the length, but this pattern could do with being a bit longer – not much – just enough for the finished length to be at the cutting line, but it was a bit of a surprise when I tried it on.  It sewed up very quickly but once I put the sleeves in I found that they pulled the shoulders down, so when I make this up with ‘proper’ fabric I’ll probably cut either the square or the sweetheart neckline, because they have more fabric at the shoulders, and I might cut the back neckline a bit higher.

I have another gingham dress cut out waiting for me to sew it up which will also be a test version because it has several small flaws in it.  Not sure that anyone else would notice them, but I know they are there so it is a trial run for Simplicity 3673.  I’ve got some 1” gingham for the final version – I thought this pattern would be good for a version of the Peggy Olson check dress which has popped up on various blogs as part of Julia Bobbin’s Mad Men challenge – but that won’t get made up until next year.

Well that’s all for now, I hope to be back tomorrow.