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.

#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!

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.

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!

SewBrum meet up

Last Saturday I went to Birmingham for a sewing meet-up organised by Charlotte of English girl at home.  This was the first time I'd participated in one of these events and I really enjoyed it.

Fabric shopping in Birmingham city centre had been arranged for the morning, however having been there recently I decided to give this a miss and went instead to The Cotton Patch which was only a couple of miles down the road from the afternoon part of the meet-up at Guthrie and Ghani and was somewhere I'd never visited before.  It's a shop aimed at quilters rather than dressmakers, but that didn't stop me!  I bought three dress lengths of  fabric which the sales assistant cut using a rotary cutter and self healing mat rather than scissors.  Oh my goodness.  So quick!!  I was won over and bought a cutter and mat to take home with me - this will save me quite a bit of time when I have my marathon cutting out sessions I think.  I also bought a flexible ruler and a measuring gauge whilst I was in gadget-buying mode. 

Rotary cutter, self-healing mat, flexible ruler and a measuring gauge

The three fabrics I picked out were a lovely sunflower print, a helenium print and a leafy batik print.  The first two can wait until next year to be sewn up because they're a bit too summery for me to think of sewing with them now, but the third one - on the right in the picture below - I intend to make up quite soon.  I love this combination of colours and I'm looking forward to turning this into a dress.

Sunflowers, heleniums and leafy looking print

I had a very enjoyable time browsing around The Cotton Patch, there was a tempting selection of fabrics in there, the staff were friendly and I imagine if I were a quilter it would probably be able to supply everything I need.  But I'm not, nor ever likely to be.

Then it was time to go to Moseley for the meet-up.  Guthrie & Ghani is a lovely shop and I had time to have a browse around before everyone started to arrive from their city centre shopping. There were lots of people - some of whom I'd met before, some who I recognised from their blogs but most were new faces and I spent a very enjoyable time sitting drinking tea and chatting to several of them - I even discovered that I share a birthday with one of them!  It was lovely to be in a room full of people who were so enthusiastic about sewing.

There was tea (which was very welcome) and cakes and a raffle with some great prizes, and after that a pattern and fabric swap.  I took three pieces of fabric and one pattern with me and came home with one piece of fabric and three patterns (must remember to add them to my pattern page - now done).  I was so engrossed in the chatting - and a little bit of shopping - that I completely failed to take any photos of the day at all.  However, Charlotte has already blogged about the day and others who were less forgetful with their cameras than I was have too.

This is the fabric which I got in the swap - there's about three quarters of a metre which is enough for me to make a straight skirt.  It's a stretchy cotton and I really like the colours and vintagey look of the print.

These are the patterns - I'll almost certainly lengthen the skirt pattern on the left, the dress pattern in the middle I've hummed and ha'd about buying before so I think it was meant to come home with me, and the artwork on the vintage pattern on the right caught my eye.

Finally this is the fabric I bought - a Japanese double gauze which was a bit spendy but I'd seen it online and coveted it and it was even more beautiful in reality.  This photo doesn't do it justice - the background colour is a beautiful deep teal.  I love it.

All too soon it was time to go - I could happily have stayed longer and chatted to more people the time seemed to go so fast.  Roll on the next meet-up!

Spots before my eyes

Still in catch-up mode, there are three polka dot dresses in this post, one of which I actually made last year and realise I haven't got around to blogging about it.  The other two I made this summer.

So, I'll start with the one that's been unblogged for the longest.  The pattern I used is Butterick 5603, one of their retro reprints.  It started life with a contrast bodice - white polka dots on green - which took me ages to cut out because the fabric had so many flaws in it.  I'm not sure that they would have been immediately obvious to anyone else, but I could see them and therefore had to cut around them.  Once I'd made up the skirt and attached it to the bodice I decided I didn't like the overall look and so cut out another bodice in the same fabric as the skirt.  Now, about the fabric... it was cheap; a polycotton which I bought on Goldhawk Road because I liked the idea of a dress with green polka dots on it.  However, after sewing it up I realised that polycotton polka dots were not for me.  The fabric frayed quite badly and is very thin, so not only is the bodice lined, the skirt is too.  This meant that there were several layers of fabric at the side seams - albeit thin layers.  And that, together with having to remake the bodice because I didn't like the first version, meant that by the time I'd finished sewing it, I was glad to see the back of it.

Butterick 5603 Green polka dot dress

I've only worn this a couple of times since I made it, which is a shame because it is a pretty dress.  I will make up this pattern again because I really like the skirt, but I'll use the bateau neckline V-back version of the bodice next time - I didn't really enjoy sewing this cross-over version.

The next two dresses were much happier sewing experiences.  The first one is made from some cotton I got in Fabricland because I absolutely loved the colour and which was a pleasure to sew with.  I can't remember where I came across this pattern (Simplicity 3774) because it is out of print - probably on someone's blog, although I can't remember whose.  But it is one of several patterns I've bought in my quest to find the perfect pattern to make something similar to the Vanity Project tea dress that I blogged about here.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out and will be making more from this pattern, it was a good buy and an easy sew.

Teal polka dot Simplicity 3774

And the third dress for this post is a Butterick 5748, another retro reprint.  I absolutely love this pattern, this is the third one I've made, although only the second with the full circle skirt that comes with the pattern.  I cut this a size smaller than the first two I made which I had to fiddle about with to improve the fit.  The fabric is a lovely cotton which I bought from Minerva last summer.  The only downer about making this dress was that there was a lot of fabric in the skirt, and the skirt was fully lined, and I made this in July when it was really rather hot by English standards.  Having a lot of fabric piled on my lap while I was sewing wasn't the most comfortable of experiences, but clearly it wasn't bad enough to put me off  because I made another two dresses this summer with fully lined skirts... which will be for another blog post.

Butterick 5748 Blue polka dot dress